Kaoru greeted her with a friendly smile.
Akane felt her heart drop with a thud and almost tried to hide behind the mother standing beside her.
She wasn’t ready yet.
She didn’t even know when that [sincerity] would end, but in any case, she wasn’t ready.
She could hear a voice in her head shouting that this was wrong, but her body moved on its own, trying to duck behind her mother.
But—
"……"
[Ruby] was looking this way with sparkling eyes.
Curiosity and interest, and—
starlight.
"Ah."
Akane’s brilliant eyes caught Ruby’s starlit gaze, and she shone all the brighter.
The twins were said to be one year younger than her.
That was one of the things she had learned while searching Kaoru Kamiki’s profile.
Standing in front of the younger sibling she had wanted so badly, Akane felt embarrassed for hiding, and in the end she hesitantly lifted her head.
Kaoru Kamiki’s blue eyes were looking at her with a smile.
At this point, Akane resolved not to repeat the mistakes of her childhood.
"Hah—hup!"
She let go of the collar of her mother’s clothes, which she had been clutching pitifully, and bowed politely to greet him.
"P-pleased to meet you! Kamiki senpai! I-I’m Kurokawa Akane! Hic!"
"Hahaha!"
Her flushed face and trembling eyes made Kaoru laugh, as if he were looking at a daughter. Then he gently patted Akane’s head and said,
"Nice to meet you, Akane. Do you remember meeting me when you were little?"
"Ah… uh… y-yes…"
Her idol had patted her head. Her heart pounded so hard at this dreamlike reality that Akane’s face turned bright red.
Her tiny voice grew even smaller, almost impossible to hear, so Riko smiled and spoke on Akane’s behalf.
"Hohoho~ Akane always talked about wanting to see you again, Kamiki. She even has every DVD of your theater troupe performances."
"M-Mom—!"
Akane squeezed her eyes shut in embarrassment, mortified that her mother would say something so openly, and Kaoru smiled.
"Thank you, Akane. I hope my acting has been helpful to you."
"Y-yes, v-very, very much—really, so much! I’ve always been in your care, senpai! Thank you!"
"……"
Ruby, who had been quietly watching, narrowed her eyes and looked back and forth between Kaoru and Akane.
So this was it…!
It was a meeting between a star and a fan, with more than a ten-year age gap, but Kaoru was being far too kind, and the girl called Akane was being far too shy.
Of course, that shyness didn’t mean romantic shyness.
Just looking at those trembling eyes as she met the idol she admired, Ruby didn’t even need to guess what Akane was feeling.
"Of course I get why she’d freeze up in front of Papa. It’s Papa, after all, isn’t it?"
From the looks of it, Akane had only made eye contact with Kaoru once since meeting him, and after that she kept looking away, her face turning red, bowing over and over in flustered confusion.
On the way over here, Kaoru had explained that Akane’s parents had won the fan meeting at the time of Papa’s first fan event, and that they were the fans he had met back then.
But still! Even if she was a special fan to Kaoru, to Ruby she was just a mother and daughter she was meeting for the first time!
And—!
The person standing next to Kaoru right now was none other than [Hoshino Ruby]! Herself!
"Papa belongs to Mama. Right now, he belongs to Ruby!"
Anyway! This was this, and that was that.
Ruby, who had been curious and interested when she first met Akane, changed her original plan of investigating the new friend and decided to first rein in this overfriendly papa.
"Hm~ Papa. Ruby wants to greet Kurokawa senpai too~!"
"Ah, hahaha."
As Ruby pouted beside him, Kaoru gently stroked his daughter’s hair and quietly apologized, "Sorry."
"Kurokawa-san. Akane. This is my daughter, [Hoshino Ruby]. She’s one grade below Akane, so she’s a fourth grader. Say hello, Ruby."
"Hello~! I’m Hoshino Ruby! Please be nice to me~★"
"Wow~ H-hello. I’m Kurokawa Akane. I look forward to spending the day with you…"
To assert a little dominance, Ruby greeted her with the killer signature pose she had learned from Ai, and Akane’s eyes sparkled as she gave a small clap.
Her wavering pupils and subtly pursed lips made it obvious how much Akane’s heart was being shaken by Ruby’s confident display.
"……"
Clap clap
"……"
At Akane’s weak, awkward applause, Ruby slowly lowered her V sign and quietly hid behind Kaoru.
Dominance or whatever…
The road to becoming the [ultimate idol], following Mama, was long and hard.
"……"
"……"
And so Ruby and Akane’s awkward first meeting came to an end.
-
"I never once thought of you as my father. You’re nothing but the demon who murdered my mother…"
President Toshiro watched Aqua’s performance with a sharp gaze, analyzing and observing every detail without missing a thing.
Breathing, vocal delivery, immersion, emotion, expression—he focused every nerve on evaluating and judging Aqua’s acting as both the head of the [Rararai Theater Troupe] and a veteran director, taking in every element required of an [actor].
"Lies…. There’s no way my mother would have been swayed by a demon like you. You only used her as a tool to satisfy your filthy desires…!"
Aqua’s blue eyes, so much like his father’s, shone as his blond hair swayed and he breathed life into the emotions.
He took a fictional being that existed only on the page and, just as his father had taught him, called it forth as something that truly existed in reality.
That, he had been told, was the basic mindset an [actor] had to possess in order to convey [stories] to the audience.
But—
Even if his father spared no effort in teaching him everything he knew, guiding him right at his side for the sake of his beloved son—
he had never thought he would surpass his father. That would be nothing more than greed, a refusal to accept reality.
"I’ll make you pay back the terrible suffering my mother went through… I’ll drag the fame and honor you built all the way down to the filthy bottom."
So Aqua changed his mind and decided that he would never bring shame to his father’s name.
With the experience of an [adult] from his past life—someone who had lived in society and learned how reality worked—
he would understand his place, and instead of trying to surpass his great father, he would take him as an [admire] and walk his own path.
That was also why, unlike Ruby, who was walking toward her dream of becoming an [idol], he had declined TV drama roles and chosen the [Rararai Theater Troupe].
That was the first resolve [Aquamarine Hoshino] had made as an [actor].
"……"
As the pathos in the emotions brought out through Aqua’s meticulous analysis began to grow clearer—
President Toshiro’s gaze sharpened, and he narrowed his eyes as a strange light flashed within them.
"Like father, like son."
Nodding, he quietly folded his arms and let out a breath.
His father, Kaoru Kamiki, was a genius actor who would never again appear in the Japanese entertainment industry, or in the [Rararai Theater Troupe], even if a hundred years passed.
His mother, [Ai Hoshino], was a once-in-a-lifetime star born to become an [idol] itself, possessing irresistible charm and a special aura that captivated the human heart.
It was only natural that attention would gather around their children, Aqua and Ruby.
Compared to the youngest child, Ame, the twins had a symbolic power and recognition that could not even be compared, and naturally public expectations and interest in their talent had no choice but to soar.
And so, of course, the twins were doomed to become compared against the most perfect talents of all: their parents, who stood at the very top of the entertainment world.
When he first heard they were going to try their hand at entertainment—
President Toshiro felt pity for the twins, who had become the protagonists of such a cruel fate.
They would always be overshadowed by their parents’ immense light, buried beneath their enormous shadow, and even if they fully entered the entertainment industry, they would surely never be free from comparison to their parents for the rest of their lives.
That would follow them like a tag.
At the very least, there was no way clever Aqua didn’t know that.
Wanting this young boy not to collapse under the weight of it all, he had personally stepped in to teach him acting.
And yet, at this very moment, President Toshiro couldn’t help but think his worries might have been nothing more than needless concern.
Aqua’s acting.
It was still faint and incomplete, but for an instant, Aqua and Kaoru’s images had overlapped.
"A young eagle starting to beat its wings so it can soar across the vast sky. A young eagle is still an eagle, after all."
Nodding once more, President Toshiro stood from his chair and handed Aqua a bottle of water, patting him on the shoulder as he finished his performance and slowly caught his breath.
"That was good acting. Keep remembering that feeling from just now and sharpen it. That’ll be your guide. I won’t give you separate feedback, since I don’t want to contaminate the sensations and emotions you felt."
"...Thank you."
He must have inherited that oddly adult side from his father, too.
Ruby took after her mother, approaching people easily and acting cute without hesitation, but this son of his was so stiff…
President Toshiro gave a quiet chuckle and sat back down in his chair.
"Aqua."
"Yes?"
"You know that even an [actor] performing has a [partner], right?"
"Yes. I know."
Aqua nodded, his blue eyes sparkling.
President Toshiro interlaced his fingers, leaned his upper body forward, and rested his elbows on his thighs as he continued.
"There are quite a few good acting partners in the [Rararai Theater Troupe], too.
Your father is a separate matter, since it’s harder to find someone whose acting doesn’t mesh with him. But among the members you know, there are partners who have been working together for a long time.
[Acting] is like the relationship between a pitcher and a catcher. Actors know the moment they throw and receive the ball whether the person in front of them is the best possible match or not.
They coordinate with each other, maximize each other’s strengths, and from there build up more experience and technique.
It’s not just a simple business partnership. It’s a mutually beneficial relationship that exchanges the most important thing in acting."
President Toshiro met Aqua’s blue eyes and said,
"I don’t think it’s too early. You need a [partner] like that too.
Even the youngest troupe member is more than ten years older than you, and after your father, we haven’t taken in any teenage prospects.
I want you to gain more varied experience, grow by exchanging and sharing the other person’s acting and emotions.
This is my own selfish wish, too. Well, I can’t explain the details, but the [Rararai Theater Troupe] almost lost its generational line once before."
"……"
When Aqua stared at him intently, President Toshiro finally let out a low groan and rubbed the back of his neck.
Whenever he was in front of Kaoru, his usually taciturn way with words would unlock, but he still couldn’t understand why he acted the same way in front of the son as well.
"...Anyway, that’s how it’ll be."
"Yes."
Aqua smiled and nodded. The troupe head, who was on such close terms with his father, was going this far for his sake. There was no reason to dislike it.
Looking down at the scriptbook in his hands, Aqua quietly exhaled and felt anticipation for the new changes ahead.
-
"Dad! Dad! What are you doing lying there like that? Open your eyes, please!"
As soon as the cut sign fell, Akane cried tears and grabbed the hand of the supporting actor lying in the hospital bed, shouting as if in agony.
Her sobs were so pitiful and desperate that even the supporting actress playing the mother beside her was swept up by the emotion and became even more immersed in her own performance.
For a child actor in fifth grade, the performance was so dense and polished that it was hard to believe it was coming from someone so young.
"Wow…!"
Instead of going into the waiting room, Ruby watched Akane’s acting from Kaoru’s side and let out an admiring gasp, one starlit eye shining.
It was Ruby’s first time seeing Akane act, and she couldn’t help but be amazed at how skillfully Akane captured the emotional line and delivered the tears.
Ruby herself had received acting lessons directly from her father, so she knew that even if you memorized the script, being able to immediately immerse yourself in the emotion and burst into tears on set was an entirely different level of skill.
"Her personality is way, way nicer than that [lie], and her acting is amazing too?"
Ruby watched Akane’s performance with great interest, making her usual gesture of pinching her chin with her thumb and index finger.
"...Is her acting really that different from [lie]? Ugh—if it weren’t for that pepper exercise thing, she’d really be…!"
"Yeah. I guess I really do need to get closer to her."
"If I think of it as adding one more fan for Ruby in the future…"
"Wow—so detailed! How much script did she study before coming?"
"Uu… Akane unni’s acting is insane…"
Watching Ruby’s evaluation of Akane flip every second, and her expression flip right along with it, Kaoru gave a doting smile and patted Ruby’s head firmly.
"Ruby really is just like Ai."
Whenever she witnessed an interesting scene, that sparkling look in her eyes was exactly like Ai’s.
Kaoru quietly took in Akane’s performance with his blue eyes and gave a brief impression.
Akane… her acting style was as different from Kana’s as their hair color, but her skill was just as fierce, not even leaving room for a single sheet of paper.
Was this really the same little girl who had once shyly turned her head away in her mother’s arms?
Even as a child actor, Akane was perfectly analyzing the script and throwing herself completely into the character as she performed.
That level of immersion was impressive even by adult actor standards.
"Akane has her own unique style, just like Arima Kana. She’s not the kind of child actor who imitates others or gets fed a style and just follows it. But…"
After asking the director to let him check the script pages for today’s shoot in advance, Kaoru realized that Akane’s acting was the kind that plunged as deeply as possible into the given script and character, and into nothing beyond that.
In other words, if she were thrown into a performance with no script or character to rely on, how far could she go?
Arima Kana was born with the natural qualities of an entertainer. She had no hesitation in showing herself. She was the same type of performer as his wife and daughter.
Then what about Akane?
Kaoru’s blue eyes flashed with a sharp light.
As an [actor] himself, he found her interesting. Watching Akane deliver such astonishing acting with a method completely unlike Kana’s, President Toshiro came to mind on his own.
Wouldn’t a genius child actor like that, one who dissected every line with such meticulous analysis and observation, be exactly what the [Rararai Theater Troupe] needed?
"Cut!!! Good!"
At the director’s cut sign, Akane wiped away her tears and bowed deeply.
"Thank you!"
While Akane went to the waiting room with her mother to fix her makeup for a moment, Ruby’s shoot began.
"Papa! Hug Ruby tight so she can do her best!"
"Hahaha—of course. My daughter, Papa’s cheering for you!"
"Huaaang~★"
Ruby, having received Kaoru’s embrace, ran toward the camera with sparkling eyes.
She already had the entire script memorized in her head.
Just as Papa had said, good acting starts with knowing the script inside and out.
With starlit eyes just like Ai’s, her unique bright aura slowly began to shine.
As Ai had done, Ruby too showed off her own charm and aura as she looked straight into the camera watching her.
"Ready, action!"
At the director’s cue, Ruby smiled brightly and looked at the teddy bear placed as a prop, then said,
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