Translator: Flowingcloud Editor: Arocks141
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Theater 4: Horror Actress’s Friend From the Old Days!? – Scene 4
Western-styled building lounge.
Tsugumi is reminded of Juria’s expression.
A Western mansion deep in the mountains. We left the sunroom and changed our location to the living room with the large fireplace. The rain was getting heavier and heavier, but one way or another, everyone’s fathers and mothers arrived.
“Calm down, Satsuki-san. Juria-chan wasn’t in her normal state.”
“This has nothing to do with you, Yuugao-san. This is our family business.”
The large man with the beard and Mimi-chan’s father, Tetsu-san, was trying to calm Sara-chan—Satsuki-san down. When I apologized for bumping into him, he smiled at me cheerfully and said, “I’m glad you’re not hurt. I could see why Mimi-chan grew up to be such a good girl.”
Maho-san (Rin-chan’s mother) had just arrived and tilted her head in confusion, not understanding what was going on, and my mom, who was leaning close to me without saying a word, patted my head and listened to Koharu-san’s report.
The mood was tense. Probably since no one could find the words to say anything, everyone kept their mouth shut. It seems like my mom is going to remain as a spectator for now though.
“Haa, good grief.”
In the midst of all this, Maho-san sighed, having heard what had happened from Koharu-san along with my mom.
“Satsuki.”
“—What is it?”
Stubborn words. The stinging words were thrown out and her shoulders trembled. Satsuki-san looked away, clearly uncomfortable.
“Rin, Tsugumi-chan, and Mimi-chan. All of them were hurt, confused, and worried that their friend suddenly ran away crying.”
“So, why are you pointing this out? I do get that I was in the wrong. But—”
“But what? —Listen up, Satsuki. This isn’t about Juria-chan. You caused these children to be hurt. Take responsibility for yourself.”
“—”
For some reason, she looks so cool… Maho-san told her straight up flatly, and she must have a temperament that clearly defines things as black-and-white. Maybe due to being acquainted with Satsuki-san for a long time, but her tone of voice was not polite. Even so, she is a very strong person who can say the words that might be disliked by others.
Rin-chan, who had been dejected, looked up slowly with Mimi-chan. In front of them, they could see Maho holding her head high, her arms folded, and standing straight up.
“Well then, does anyone have anything they want to ask Satsuki? She’ll answer anything right now.”
“Wait, Maho, I’m—”
“What? You’re not going to?”
“You’re… not wrong.”
She’s strong. Maho quickly looked at us. Rin-chan and Mimi-chan couldn’t come up with any words, but they still opened their mouths, wanting to say something, but they only looked down in frustration. Thus, as the last person alive, I spoke up as the representative.
“Juria-chan is…”
“What?”
Juria-chan. Bright, family-orientated, a person I considered a friend.
“A kind girl who always draws everyone together, better than anyone else at cleaning up, and always tries her best when acting. Why is Juria-chan a “bad girl”? Juria-chan isn’t a bad girl, is she?”
Inside me was neither anger nor pity. I would be lying if I felt none of that, but more importantly, the question was firmly rooted, clinging deeply in my heart.
“She’s just a lonely, smiling, kind girl who’s fine with just being with her mom. Why? Why is Juria-chan a bad girl?”
Please tell me, Sara-chan. Tell me about your life. What happened after the last time we met in my previous life? What happened during the 30 years that had passed in my previous life and this life? I addressed Satsuki-san with my feelings packed inside my words. They were packed with my desire for those feelings to somehow reach the Sara-chan inside Satsuki-san.
Silence. There was no response. Satsuki-san’s eyes widened in shock, fell on her knees, and hugged her shoulder in a helpless manner—her gaze fell as it oozed with regret.
“The villain role isn’t something she should be doing.”
“…(Villain)?”
The words blurred out as if they were being squeezed and disappeared. Although other people could not hear it, my high-spec body heard her words precisely.
“From when I can remember, I have been telling her: Do not play the villain. If you play a villain, the next time, the time after that, and forever, they will only let you be a villain. At the end, they would even arbitrarily assume that your very personality was like a villain’s, and talk behind your back.”
Maho exposed her feelings and said, “Satsuki…” in a daze.
“I am the same. The same thing happened to me. The people I believed in left me. My father ran away from me, the villain. That person… even my husband, he believed I was a strong person since I played the villain and went to another woman, leaving Juria behind. Understand? Hey, do you understand? —I can’t have her saying that being the villian, being the bad girl is fun!!”
The words were like a cry. Words of complaint. Words that were crying. The image of little Sara-chan from those days overlapped with her hoarse voice. It was a heartbreaking cry that seemed to echo from the depths of her heart.
Maho-san was amazed by her attitude. This must have been the first time that Satsuki-san had exposed herself in this manner. I, myself, looked at her, unable to find the right words.
I wondered what I could do for Satsuki-san, who was strongly embracing herself. How could I be there for her? I could not somehow shake off these feelings. After all—after all, Juria-chan is—
“Tsugumi.”
“Mommy?”
As I was about to speak up, my mother gently stopped me. She smiled softly and held me by the shoulders, straightened her back elegantly, then looked at Satsuki-san.
“Tsugumi likes frogs, snakes, and ravens.”
“Huh? M-Mommy?”
“She prefers light soups more than rich ones, prefers fish over meat, likes old plays and dramas, and is full of curiosity, but she’s not very good at operating electronic devices.”
My mom gently warded off my flustered attempts to stop disgraceful shaming. I wonder why, but I don’t feel like I can win at all.
“Maho-sama, how about Rin-chan?”
“Eh, ah, ahh. I don’t know about which animals Rin likes or hates, but recently, she was influenced by your girl and has come to like ravens. As for food, she likes raw food, such as raw vegetables and sashimi. She’s curious about new things, like the entry-level salary for a child actor and so-and-so.”
“Tetsu-sama, how about Mimi-chan?”
“-Sama… You’re making me embarrassed… Mimi likes bears, whether they’re pandas or polar bears. Also, she likes whipped cream, cream stew, and pretty much anything with cream. She’s not physically strong, but she’s surprisingly aggressive when it comes to her favorite things.”
“Well then.”
There was a short pause. Mom smiled and thanked Maho-san and Tetsu-san for answering her questions while they were confused, then looked back again at Satsuki-san.
“Satsuki-sama, what does Juria-chan like?”
“What do you mean, she—ah.”
Satsuki-san was lost for words and my mom did not press any further. Instead, she looked at the three children, which included me.
“Mimi-chan, what is Juria-chan’s favorite animal?”
“Ah, umm, she likes dogs. She said Dobermans were cute.”
“I see. Thank you, Mimi-chan.”
Mimi-chan responded, “No, not at all,” and waved her hands for no apparent reason.
“Rin-chan, do you perhaps know what Juria-chan likes and hates?”
“…Juria-chan likes horror games and movies. But, she says books are no good because they make her sleepy. She claims, “I’ll eat anything!” but she leaves brocolis at the edge of her plate.”
“Ah, that so. Thank you.”
“No, um, you’re welcome.”
As expected, Rin-chan could not recover from her confusion and merely nodded.
“Tsugumi, do you perhaps know what Juria-chan wants to do and what she wants?” 1
“Umm… Juria-chan really likes acting. She also likes watching movies, especially her mom’s acting.”
“My… acting?”
“She also said that she really likes her mother’s debut work, and yeah, that’s right—she loves her mom. She said she doesn’t have to go to expensive restaurants and just wants to eat her mom’s home cooking.”
I recalled the sight of Juria-chan’s face from the side when she exposed her feelings. Now, I feel like I could understand Juria-chan better. Juria-chan must have been lonely and it must have been hard for her. However, she had to put up with a lot more than that, and she had become accustomed to holding it in.
“Satsuki-sama. I still have much to do for Tsugumi in regards to being a parent. Even so, I do not believe I want to stop meeting face to face.”
“…”
“Why don’t you try talking to Juria-chan face to face once again?”
“…I’m a hopeless parent, aren’t I?”
“No, it is still too early to judge whether you are good or bad. After all, being a parent, no matter who it may be, is a job that never ends.”
Satsuki-san covered her eyes at my mom’s words. Maho-san approached Satsuki-san and softly hugged her shoulder.
“Madam.”
“What is it, Koharu?”
“We have found Juria-sama. We are preparing the emergency mat—”
The sounds leaked from the radio.
Koharu-san looked unusually flustered.
A place where they need a mat urgently.
As the pieces of information came together, a place suddenly popped into my mind.
“No way, the roof!”
I slipped out of my mom’s hands and ran. If I sharpened my awareness, I knew immediately which direction the servants were heading and from which direction they were coming from.
“Tsugumi! This is bad. Satsuki-sama, not you too!”
I heard my mother’s voice from behind me. I shook off all the distractions and ran up the stairs. The passageway on the third floor of the mansion. I looked out the window as I ran down the corridor to the rear of the building, I saw a small silhouette in front of the railing of what seems to be a rooftop terrace in the rain.
“I won’t lose her anymore!”
I ran, ran, and ran, weaving in and out between the servants.
“Please wait, Tsugumi-sama!”
The servants were naturally, well-trained people. Therefore, a child was nothing special for them. They stood in a row like a wall in the direction I wanted to go.
But—But, I’m sorry. If I can’t pass, I’ll just have to make an opening. This was one of the skills I once learned with willpower when I was a street performer in my previous life.
“Aaah!”
“Tsugumi-sama!?”
As I pretended to falter, as if bumping into a wall that did not exist out of nowhere, the servants were surprised and bent down. Using that opportunity, I burst through the gap that opened up and ran, shaking off the servants.
One of the (maybe) seven mysteries of Kirio Tsugumi—Pantomime. 2
“Sorry!”
“Wha—eh, huh!?”
I ran.
While I ran, I looked back through my memories.
When I heard Satsuki-san’s thoughts earlier, I had one thought.
Satsuki-san’s feelings that she lost by becoming an actress. Juria-chan’s wishes that had been warped by her becoming an actress. But, were they really only losing things?
At least, I was able to meet Juria-chan because I aspired to be an actor. I am here right now because I was happy to be an actor.
That’s right.
Acting—Actors are supposed to move one’s heart.
In my previous life, I was not raised in a standard happy household. I had an alcoholic father who acted violently, and a mother who gradually alienated herself from our family. We were poor and I was always curled up in the corner of my room.
Even so, I was touched by the gentle hands of my parents just once. A small CRT television. The channel was changed and it happened to be broadcasting an old horror movie. For some reason, everyone’s hours matched up, and the three of us were shoulder to shoulder, glued to the television. Just about everything in that movie was old, but the flickering light of the naked light bulbs, the creaking tatami mats, the shaking of the duct-taped windows, the shaking of my parents’ sweaty arms that trembled whenever they touched each other.
“Woah!”
“Eek, don’t scream.”
“Y-You’re not the one to say that.”
“You too… eek!”
“…Hahaha.”
“Hahahaha.”
How could I have forgotten those two treasured hours of that day, when my disconnected family, my frightened parents with me in between cuddled together in fear due to a single movie?
I thought to myself that day. Even fear can unite everyone’s feelings. Strong emotions can move a person’s heart and create a bond.
(That’s right, that’s why I—)
I didn’t want to be a horror actress.
I wanted to be an actress who could move people’s hearts and create bonds through acting.
(Even fear, even evil can move a person’s heart.)
That’s why horror was my first performance.
That’s why I don’t want to lose horror as my friend.
“Juria-chan!”
I ran up the stairs and rushed out onto the rooftop.
“…Tsugumi?”
In the pouring rain, Juria-chan stood there expressionless. She was so fragile that she seemed to disappear as a dew at the edge of the rooftop, which was hazy from the strong rain.
“Let’s go back. Juria-chan.”
I held out my hand.
I merely vowed strongly in my heart that I would never take away my hand—I confronted Juria-chan.
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: Bro, did you just call Tsugumi without HOnoRiFicS? Jokes aside, this just shows how shocked Satsuki is and how she’s barely able to keep herself together.
Arocks141: First off, it’s a sis not a bro, bro. Secondly, yeah, on all charges, the jury finds Satsuki (Sara) guilty and sentences her to reduced story appearances. Signed Jury members: Arocks141, The Mourning One, The Forgotten One. - Flowingcloud: Not referring to the actual British pantomime, but a mime artist.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mime_artist
I swear if either of them get hurt I’ll kill that f-ing woman