Translator: Flowingcloud Editor: Arocks141
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Theater 3: Genius Beauty’s Acting Showdown With Best Friend’s Papa!? – Scene 4
Yoruhata Residence (Day)
Tsugumi watches the film “The Dragon’s Tomb” side by side with Rin and Mimi. Tsugumi reminisces about those times while watching over her scared little friends.
The words “The Dragon’s Tomb” written in blood appeared on the screen. The film began with a scene where Tatsu, a yakuza, shoots and kills his brother who has just been released from prison, in front of a tomb. Tatsu is manipulated by an evil spirit to kill his friends, and as he runs away, a woman’s footprints consisting of blood continue to follow behind him… This is the scene many people have seen in the promo. 1
“Eh, um, he’s already dead…”
I held back the urge of having a wry smile appear at the sound of Rin’s voice as she muttered, overcome with surprise. It’ll be intense from here on… Yeah, well, this is also considered studying.
Then, the scene after this is a recollection. Kabura Sousaburo, the elder brother of the person who died at the beginning of the film, kills Kabura’s (yes, his own) ex-wife, Itsuko—played by Kirio Tsugumi—in order to stay with his mistress, Minori. Therefore, Minori breaks down when Itsuko appears in her dreams every night, and evil falls upon Minori’s daughter, Rumiko. That was because the one Rumiko was bullying at school is actually Ai-chan, an elementary school student who used to be Itsuko’s penpal.
That’s right, this bullying scene and the scene where Rumiko is later killed by Itsuko are the scenes in which Rumiko, performed by Kasaba Sara, received a great deal of recognition.
“Awawa, A-Ai-chan met Rumiko, Tsugumi-chan…”
The screen showed Rumiko questioning Ai on the stairs.
“Look who it is, Gomiko-chan.” 2
“…That’s not my name.”
“Are you talking back? You think you’re great now, don’t you?”
Rumiko approached Ai with a sneer as she looked down on her. At most, she comes off as a haughty girl. However, when Ai glared back at her without fear, Rumiko’s attitude visibly changed.
“Why is someone like you getting close to Muraoka-kun? Don’t tell me perhaps you mistaken yourself as someone special? Don’t make me laugh. Someone like you is just a trash can that no one wants to deal with. Don’t get cocky when you’re just a bitch. Cry, cry, cry, cry, cry, cry, cry, cry!!”
Madness. The face of malice from her everyday life revealing itself. The intense performance she gave. Ai was frightened and frozen in fear by it, and Rumiko saw that with a warped smile.
“That’s right. Someone like you should have never been born.”
“Eh?”
Ai fluttered about in the air from the staircase. Ai created a red pool at the bottom of the stairs. Seeing this, Rumiko pointed her finger and laughed, then turned on her heel and walked away, as if bored.
“Eh? Eh? Eh? S-She died?”
Mimi-chan muttered in a stifled voice. However, this is the place where Itsuko possesses her and helps Ai. Kindness shown by an evil spirit, sort of. This scene had divided opinions.
“Mimi, Mimi, it looks like she survived.”
“Oh… T-That’s good.”
Rumiko almost killed Ai, then comes the climax. The scene is the one I’ve mentioned—the scene at the beginning of the story where their group, led by Tatsu the junior brother, go to celebrate the release of Kabura Sousaburo from prison. Tatsu wipes his eyes with his thumb, happy that his brother has been released from prison. But in fact, Tatsu was having an affair with Minori, so he gave her a wink, one that only Minori would understand.
Then, when Minori sees Tatsu off, a trail of blood appears behind her. Here, Itsuko groans, which the viewer notices, but Minori does not notice.
“■■■u■”
“■a■a■■”
“i■uuu■”
A hoarse voice. The sounds of scraping. The sound of something being ground, kneaded, and crushed. Rin-chan and Mim-chani noticeably sprung up. Umm, I’m kind of sorry…
Then, here is the scene where the directors adopted some ideas while I argued with him about how this wasn’t good and how that wasn’t good. The evil spirit approaches Minori, disappearing and appearing, moving and changing its position in time matching the flickering light bulbs.
“■■■i”
‘
“I-Itsuko? H-How?!”
Minori spoke frightenedly after she noticed her.
—Rin-chan and Mimi-chan swallowed their saliva after hearing her.
“@#)($@$(**” 3
“Eek!”
An incomprehensible voice. A rain of blood poured down on Minori. Rin-chan and Mimi-chan were in tears.
The scene switched to where the camera shows bloody footprints while Rumiko held her knees in her room. Rumiko saw Ai being saved. She thought Ai was dead for sure, but she might have survived. When that thought came into mind, Minori might be scolded. This scene shows Rumiko’s strong feelings of avoiding being scolded rather than feelings of guilt.
“…”
The wooden door creaked open.
“Mom? Tatsu? Is dad home?”
There was no reply.
“Mom? What’s with you? You could at least give me a response.”
“…”
“Mom? Are you perhaps angry?”
“…”
“Geez! What is—Eek!”
Watching her once again, Sara-chan really acted that well. The door opens, revealing a sea of blood, and Sara-chan shows derangement true to her nature. She looks around in horror, and then her eyes meet with Itsuko, the evil spirit, floating just beyond her gaze.
The scene where Itsuko’s cloudy eyes filled the screen. Next to me, I heard Rin-chan’s and Mimi-chan’s feeble shriek.
“Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!?”
The camera moved from Rumiko’s neck then panned down. Rumiko’s body slowly rose. A muffled voice. Blood flowed down like a waterfall from under her feet into the corridor.
“■■■■i, ■■■■a.”
A voice that ought not to be sound.
Dissonance coming from a human throat that could not produce sound.
Soon, Rumiko’s struggling legs drooped weakly, occasionally jerking and twitching.
Blackout.
Rin-chan and Mimi-chan, who were in front of the screen, became white as a sheet, and the scene returned to Tatsu, after the beginning of the film. Here, a flashback occurs. Tatsu was actually in a relationship with Itsuko, but he left her for Minori. However, he kept seeing Itsuko, who was married to his older brother.
The scene in which he clings to Itsuko’s grave and begs for her forgiveness is quite touching, but Rin-chan and Mimi-chan’s eyes were cold.
“Forgive me, forgive me, Itsuko.”
Thus, Itsuko appears in front of Tatsu, and the confused man shoots her with a pistol. Then, Minori, Rumiko, and other people whom Itsuko cursed and killed are lying there as if they were killed by Tatsu… This was the scene where I was evaluated highly as a horror actress. Phew, how nostalgic.
“Why, why, why, why, why!!”
When Itsuko finally appeared, Itsuko made a gun shape with her hand and stuck it into her mouth. Then, as if manipulating Tatsu, he also performed the same action and stuck his gun into his mouth.
“Ughh, ughhh!! F-Forgi—eek!”
Gunfire.
The blood downpoured over Itsuko’s tomb wiggled and wriggled, then turned into the character “辰” (Tatsu). Then, Itsuko’s distorted laughter echoed and darkness fell.
“…”
“Awa, awawa, awawawa, awawawa, awawawa.”
On the screen, we were informed what happened later that day. It is the scene where Ai and her male classmate send a letter typed on a typewriter to their usual correspondent. She puts it in the mailbox and goes home.
The day after, Ai spends her daily life with a slight pain. Then, at midnight, the story closes out when a reply to her letter is mailed from empty space into her mailbox at her house.
“How was it?”
“W-W-Why hasn’t Tsugumi’s expression changed at all?????”
“I can’t…. I can’t…”
Rin-chan held my right hand tightly without letting go.
Mimi-chan clung to my left hand tightly without letting go.
Yup, this is what should happen when you watch a horror movie.
“It’s been a while since I’ve watched it, but it’s unthinkable that this is Kirio Tsugumi’s first time playing an evil spirit.”
“T-Tsugumi? Dad, Tsugumi didn’t appear in the movie.”
“Ahh, no, you’ve got it mixed up. It’s a horror actress from back then. There aren’t any horror films Rin can watch at your age after all.”
“???”
That’s right. My blind spot was that they were designated as R15+. If that’s the case, it wouldn’t be surprising for them not to know. Ahh, but I could have made that scene scarier. I could have made the joints look like they were in the rigor mortis state. Also, the voice should have been more muffled. That was a scene I didn’t want to be put in the film even though that would have made the scene more realistic.
Sara-chan must have surely been more afraid—that’s right, Kasaba Sara-chan, the actor playing Rumiko. You could clearly see in the video. She’s older now and her makeup made it difficult to recognize her expression, but that was definitely Sara-chan. Asashiro Satsuki-san was Sara-chan.
“Uuh, i-is that voice synthesized?”
“Nope. It’s different—it seems.” 4
“Oh, Tsugumi, you’re well informed. Every bit of it seemed to have been done technique-only.”
Oh yes. When I first saw vocal percussion on TV in an electronics store in 1983, I thought to myself, “That’s it. This is going to expand my acting range.” So, I watched how street performers moved their mouths, and practiced while wiping off real blood vomit by gnawing into my oral cavity. I’m glad I didn’t hurt my throat.
That helped me to naturally expand my vocal technique. The way I did my voice later on was quite terrifying if I had to say so myself, and I believed I finished perfecting it in “Heartbeat”, the last movie I appeared in while I was alive.
“Tsugumi, Mimi.”
“?”
“Wh, what is it?”
“Stay over for the night.”
Trembling fingers.
Bloodshot eyes.
Blood coming from the lips.
“Umm, Rin’s father…” 5
“Haha, I don’t mind.”
I took out my smartphone, opened it with facial recognition. I opened it, then, errr.
“Tsugumi, flick it this way.”
Flick, tap, and ohhh, it appeared!
“Hello, Mommy?”
“Ara, what is it, Tsugumi?”
“Is it fine if I stay over at Rin-chan’s house tonight?”
“Oh my. Hehe, sure, that’s fine. Could you hand the phone over to Mr. Yoruhata?”
“Thank you, Mommy! Umm, my mother would…”
As I spoke, I handed the smartphone to Kazuma-san and he willingly accepted it. Kazuma-san looked cool casually talking with his hand on his waist. Rin-chan and the others who could easily operate these devices were also cool.
“Yes, yes, Haha, it’s alright.”
“…”
“Yes. Yes, of course.”
“…”
“Yes. Well then, I will contact you tomorrow morning.”
“…”
After having an adult conversation with my mother, Kazuma-san returned my smartphone to me. When I smiled at Rin-chan and Mimi-chan, who were still clinging to each other, those two smiled back like a flower blooming.
Occasionally, this sort of thing is… yeah, sort of fresh and nice.
Why did Sara-chan come to hate acting?
What on earth happened during the blank 20 years?
I had countless questions, but for now.
“Tsugumi, are you here?”
“Awawawawa, awawawawa.”
Let’s give my adorable little best friends a helping hand.
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 🙁
- Flowingcloud: We finally get more info about “The Dragon’s Tomb”! The title itself is a pun. Tatsu’s name is ‘辰’, which literally means the zodiac dragon. Thus, the “dragon’s tomb”. Get it?
- Flowingcloud: Decided to leave it as is. It’s common for Japanese female names to end in ‘ko’, so Rumiko calls Ai, gomi-ko. Gomi means trash. Basically, another mean way to call someone trash.
- Flowingcloud: It’s gibberish in the raws.
Arocks141: Yeah, utter gibberish. - Flowingcloud: Our girl was about to give herself away before the end of the first volume lol.
- Flowingcloud: If you’re confused, Rin’s the one that’s asking for them to stay over for the night.
Sounds like it would’ve been a pretty wild film to watch irl. Good work (past)Tsugumi.
Because of this light novel, I had a terrible desire to see a horror movie. Thanks for the translation
Awawawawa
Wth is away??