Horror Actress – Theater 3: Opening

Translator: Flowingcloud  Editor: Arocks141

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Theater 3: Genius Beauty’s Acting Showdown With Best Friend’s Papa!? – Opening

 

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Lowell Residence (Morning)
With documents lined up on her desk, Tsugumi frowns and groans while her gaze falls upon the multiple school pamphlets.

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When you hear the word “school”, what image usually comes to mind? In my previous life, I was a high school graduate. I studied to be an actor while attending night school, and by the time I graduated, I was ready to play the role of an evil spirit. When I was in middle school, I was greedy to make a living and studied hard to enter a public or national high school to make my grandparents comfortable. Well then, what about elementary school? I remember going to school in fear that the school lunch money I had stuffed in a brown envelope would turn into alcohol money. However, I do remember going to school even when I had a fever because I didn’t want to miss out on my precious source of nutrition: school lunch and milk. ¹

Fortunately, I was a child who was good at guessing one’s true colors, so it was a relief that I was not bullied, but I heard that there were bullies in the other grades. For better or worse, it was the starting point of my social life.

“Honestly, I would like for you to attend Kamohama Central Private Academy, but I heard that the Rindou Affiliated Private Elementary School has a class for celebrities. If you really have to take a day off, then I would feel more at ease if you attend this one. What do you think?”

“Of course, you can tell me if there are any other places you want to attend, Tsugumi.”

Spread out in front of me were gorgeous and eye-catching school brochures. The question was: “Which elementary school do you want to take exams for?” However, unfortunately, my brain could not catch up. Within the elementary schools that you have to take exams for, they’re mostly high ranking schools, right?

In the first place, what does an entrance exam usually entail? Study? My knowledge is a bit lopsided.

“You can take your time thinking about it, okay?”

“No, I’m okay!”

In my previous life, school was just a checkpoint to survive. In this life, it was time to move on. I won’t be punished for striving to make friends. Above all, it’s great that acting activities do not reduce your unofficial score. ²

“I want to go to Rindou Elementary!”

“Hehe, okay, I understand.”

“Well then, let’s go tour the school at once. Haruna.”

“Already on it.”

Haruna, the servant who had been waiting for me, replied with a perfect bow. I’m slowly getting used to it, but this one phrase—“Already on it”—contains the phrases: “I’ve already made an appointment”, “I’ve already arranged for a car”, “I’ve already made preparations for the outing”, and “I’ve already adjusted your schedule”. She’s too capable.

“Well then, Tsugumi-sama, this lowly servant shall assist you.”

“Ah, yes. I’ll be in your care, Koharu-san.”

Mikado Haruna-san’s daughter, Koharu-san, my personal servant-cum-manager, is helping me with my preparations. It’s almost the beginning of spring and the sun is making it warmer, but the breeze is still chilly. It’s hard to find a lot of things to wear when that happens.

In that sense, my previous life was easy. I was so used to both cold and hot weather since I was a child, so I didn’t mind wearing light clothes.

“What kind of clothing would you like to wear?”

“Does that school have uniforms?”

“Yes.”

“I think I’ll wear pants then.”

I’m going to have to wear skirts every day, even if I like it or not after all. When I told her that, Koharu-san quickly prepared short pants, high socks, suspenders, and a shirt. After she put my hair up and I put on a hat, I looked like a boyish girl.

I put a jacket on and it increased my boyishness. My legs were not cold thanks to the knee socks. This kind of appearance looks better when you’re young, so it’s a privilege for just now.

“You look lovely, Tsugumi-sama. You look very lovely.”

“Thanks?”

Why twice?

I racked my brains at the question while I continued to prepare for my outing. Koharu-san, surprisingly, seemed to like cute things.

 

We boarded the usual limousine driven by Makabe-san, and today, my mother gave me a lecture on how to use my smartphone in the car. I was told that Lane has something called a “stamp”, and that you can buy them with a special currency. It’s called “gold” or something, and no matter how I look at it, there’s five digits here. Is this normal? I’ll ask Rin-chan. ³

We drove towards the center of the city, passing through a quiet residential area. Apparently, the school is located in Minato, up the hill from Shirokane-Takanawa, and we could see the Tokyo Tower as we drove. I guess it was still the symbol of Tokyo even 20 years later. ⁴

“We can see it now, Tsugumi.”

My mother’s voice made me look out the car window. I had always had the image of a rich person’s school to look like a castle or palace, but Rindou Elementary looked more like a modern, sci-fi chic school. It wasn’t a college building nor was it an elementary school building sort of compromise… but are you sure this isn’t a high-rise building?

“Well then, come over here, my angel.”

“Yeah!”

My father and mother took me by the hand and we walked into the school building. It seems like Koharu-san took care of the formalites. Everything went so smoothly. I guess you can’t be a rich school if it wasn’t.

I changed into slippers and waited in what looked like a reception room, then an elegant woman entered the room. She was probably in her mid fifties. Her back was straight up and pleasant.

“Thank you very much for coming all the way here today. My name is Rindou Akiko, the president of Rindou Affiliated.”

Rindou-san introduced herself, followed by my parents. Then, the president explained the school to us. It was the so-called the school’s so-called “escalator system”, but one can drop out if they don’t meet a certain academic ability, and about the credit system, which allows students to freely choose besides the compulsory subjects, meeting the necessary amount of credits, and other conversations geared towards parents.

Then, the performing arts. Their university has many departments focusing on entertainment and arts, and it seems like people in the entertainment industry sometimes enter the university after their debut.

“Tsugumi-chan, what would you like to study?” the president asked me with a smile at the end.

“Mmm, I want to become an actress!”

“Ara ara, you properly thought about this, how admirable.”

“As expected of my angel.”

“Hehe, Tsugumi, you answered her questions perfectly. Good job.”

“Ehehehe.”

Mmmmm, crap, my parents were stroking me and I was making strange noises. What’s wrong with you, Tsugumi? Get yourself together. If I continue like this, becoming a horror actress would be a dream within a dream.

“In addition to club activities, the school also offers an after-school program that allows students to take specialized courses. We’re on spring break, so there are no regular classes, but we do have some specialized lectures open to those interested, so why don’t you take a look at our theater course?”

“I see. What do you think, Tsugumi?”

“I want to take a look!”

“Okay, you’ve been a good girl. Well then, Principal, may I ask you to show us?”

Thus, we headed for the theater-exclusive-use auditorium. They were doing right now was basic acting practice geared towards middle school students, and being lectured on dialogues (an antonym for monolog, refers to dialogue in a scene).

“Come to think of it—the student’s families are here today, but are the children alright with that?”

‘Is it alright to be here with other people here?’ was the question. Of course, it was fine, but was it okay to visit? When I tilted my head waiting for an answer, the president answered with a smile.

“No, these are children who will be entering the elementary school section in the spring. A certain older brother from the middle school section is attending our theater class, so he happened to come with his friends to observe.”

“I see…”

Hmm? I have a hint of deja vu. Well, whatever.

After timidly going through the luxurious hallway, we went up to the mezzanine floor in the lecture hall with a high ceiling. I was told that the lighting and sound equipment were installed on the mezzanine floor so that the equipment could be used as a simple practice stage. I was out of character and excited as the facilities seemed to be many times better than I had imagined.

“It looks like a student is performing right now.”

The dean said and my father picked me up so that I could have a better view. The view from the handrail was scary, as if what was under my feet would collapse under me. If it hadn’t been for my father’s big hands and my mother’s smile, I would have backed off reflectively. This physiological fear was drowned out by the scene in front of me.

 

“You shall not go, my lord.”

“Hold off your hands.”

“Be ruled; you shall not go.”

 

The boy with the script in his hand grabbed the hand of the boy who also had a script in his hand. The boy who had been grabbed looked at him with an icy stare and shook off his hand faster than he could feel his trembling.

 

“My fate cries out,
And makes each petty artery in this body
As hardy as the Nemean lion’s nerve.
Still am I call’d. Unhand me, gentlemen.
By heaven, I’ll make a ghost of him that lets me!
I say, away! Go on; I’ll follow thee.” ⁵

 

Cold eyes. However, there was a simmering rage and fury behind his eyes. The other actor could not say another word and backed off as if recoiling from his words.

“Hamlet, huh? We went to see it at the theater when you were little. Tsugumi, do you remember?”

“—After this, the king swears to take his revenge.”

“Good job, Tsugumi. You remembered, didn’t you?”

“Y-Yeah.”

No, I did not. To be honest, I can only vaguely remember what I saw in this life. What I do remember is what I saw in my previous life. I cut back on my living expenses to see the masterpiece. I even felt like I could see the shabby back of my younger self in the audience, completely overwhelmed by the theater.

I didn’t even know what the dress code was, and I had to ask a costume designer for a classy suit to wear. Even though I was living a life where I was worried about tomorrow’s meal, I was living in a haze of passion. I watched it on the rattling VHS until it wore out, and put all my energy into the recording, into the acting.

Then.

What about me now?

“Tsugumi?”

“Eh… ah.”

I heard a young voice from the side.

“It’s Tsugumi like I thought. Hello, Uncle, Aunty, Tsugumi!”

“Eh—Rin-chan?”

“You’re wearing some cool clothes today. You’re cooler than my brother!”

As the background image switched, I rewound my memory. She must have rushed to me, completely out of breath. Rin-chan was looking up at me from my father’s feet.

“Thank you for your politeness. Hello, Rin-chan.”

“Are you alone?”

“No! There’s Juria, Mimi, and my older brother below!”

Older brother below? I noticed when she mentioned it. Students looked up at us as the performance feedback ended. Among them, a boy with hair cuticles like an angel ring stood out.

He was Rin-chan’s older brother—the boy who had just had an acting competition with me the other day. I believe his name was Yoruhata Kou-kun.

“Tsugumi is also observing?”

“H-Hello…”

“Juria-chan, Mimi-chan.”

Slowly walking behind Rinchan were two of my acting colleagues: Asashiro Juria-chan and Yuugao Mimi-chan. Mimi-chan hid behind Juria-chan and looked at my parents timidly, but Juria-chan was bold and unafraid to ask me questions.

“Yeah, that’s right.”

“I see. Mimi, Rin and I have been attending here since spring.”

“Really!?”

We have the older brother in the middle school section and Rin-chan and the others are one grade above me. Isn’t this quite good?

“Ah, that’s right. Do you want to come to my house when you’re done?”

Rin suddenly said. Additionally, before I could react, Juria-chan smiled happily.

“Oh, that would be good! We’re playing games at Rin’s house today!”

“T-Tsugumi-chan, I might be able to handle it if you come.”

A game, a game, huh? I wondered if I would be able to learn how to play since I had mainly played tabletop games in my previous life. However, for the time being, I would need my parents’ permission. When I looked up at my father timidly, he nodded kindly and smiled at me.

“Then, we’ll head over after we finish the tour.”

“Really!? Yay! Thank you, Daddy and Mommy!”

“Hehe, we’ll pick you up when it’s about time to leave, so contact us, okay?”

“Okay!”

It seems like I’m going to be able to fulfill my promise from the other day. I was looking forward to the horror game, somewhat out of character.

In those days, this… heart-wrenching feeling had already disappeared.

If you are reading from a pirate or aggregator site, please read from the translator’s site: yado-inn (dot) com I have to put the link like this or else the bots will remove it, sorry 🙁

1. Flowingcloud: Schooling at night was more common in 80s Japan to let children work during the day (to gain social experience), then school at night. There were even laws that legalized this process, however, in modern times, many night classes and schools have been abolished. Additionally, if you’re not familiar, not everyone went to high school in that era. Many only graduated middle school and went straight to work. In a way, Tsugumi was hard working as she went to high school while studying acting instead of heading straight into acting.
2. Flowingcloud: A really Japanese-like (Asian-like) concept, well most Asian schools in general as well nowadays. There is this concept of “unofficial scores”, I would call it, and what it is does not exist in real life (to my understanding) nowadays, however, there seems to be this belief that you are given something almost similar to CCP social credits inside the school, and your evaluation goes up and down depending on your grades and activities. For example, you can get bad grades but have a good standing if you’re a star athlete. This concept is mostly unfounded in modern times, but perhaps did exist in the 80s when she grew up.
3. Flowingcloud: Tsugumi’s mom pulling out her wallet here lol. 10,000 coins is $139.99 USD, so no, five digits isn’t normal. Stamps cost roughly 50 or 100 coins.
4. Flowingcloud: Tokyo is split into 23 wards, the most commonly known ones being Shinjuku and Shibuya. Although not the economic center of Tokyo, the ward houses many big corporations, both international and domestic, as well as many residential neighborhoods. Tokyo Tower is also in Minato. Shirokane-Takanawa station is located there too. I believe I don’t have to link Tokyo Tower, do I?
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minato,_Tokyo
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirokane-takanawa_Station
5. Flowingcloud: Act 1, Scene 4 of Hamlet. There are varying translations of Hamlet in Japanese, so I couldn’t tell if this was a reinterpretation of the script by the performers in the story, or the author copy-pasted the translation from a different Japanese source from what I found, thus I kept the original Hamlet English text that I searched for almost 20 minutes.
   Arocks141: Bravo, Slavemaster (Cloud). You have attained the “return to origin” level of cultivation. Now you drive your own self as hard as you would your other slaves.