(Tweaked yesterday’s chapter just a bit!
Not that the original was poorly written, just felt it didn’t quite hit the effect I was going for!
So I changed a few things!
Anyone interested can go back and take a peek!)
Minami Yuji had no idea what Arima Kana was thinking.
After all, for a competent adult, comforting an eight-year-old girl was the simplest of things — like flipping a hand.
More importantly than that…
“Why hasn’t the audition started yet?”
Minami Yuji swept his eyes around the venue.
Almost everyone in his line of sight was either a koyaku or an agent from one agency or another.
Some of the koyaku had prepped early — eager to land a role, they’d even applied light makeup to their faces.
“It’s because some of them haven’t arrived yet.”
Arima Kana, having now collected her emotions, saw that Minami Yuji looked a touch curious and volunteered the information.
“There’s still more?”
Minami Yuji turned his head, more or less surprised.
This was actually the first audition he’d attended since becoming a koyaku — until now, he’d basically just played ‘Child A / Child B / Child C / Child D’ walk-on roles, so he didn’t have a clear sense of the typical scale of an audition like this.
Mainly because the audition venue was already nearly packed to bursting…
and Arima Kana was telling him there were still more people on the way?
Hearing Minami Yuji’s response, Arima Kana had originally been about to just explain it straight to him.
But then a thought struck her.
Ever since she’d first met Minami Yuji, the boy had pretty much always been the one holding the initiative.
That just wouldn’t do!
She’d been in the koyaku industry for three years; by that seniority alone, she was undeniably Minami Yuji’s ‘life-senpai.’
Where in this world was the ‘senpai’ who let themselves get pushed around by their junior?
So her pretty big eyes rolled mischievously to one side.
“Ahem…
Yuji.
If you ask me very nicely, and you call me ‘Kana,’ then this senpai of yours might just begrudgingly explain it for you.”
Arima Kana — making her first-ever attempt to seize the initiative in front of Minami Yuji!
Come on, come on!
Hurry up and ask me!
However—
“Is that so?
Then never mind.”
Minami Yuji rose to his feet without even half a second’s hesitation, so completely that the corner of Arima Kana’s mouth — which had just barely begun to curl up — froze in place, replaced by a thick wave of stunned disbelief.
“W-wait — wait!
Why?!”
Lips twitching, she grabbed onto Minami Yuji as he stood up.
Right?!
Why?!
She could clearly tell that Minami Yuji had been curious!
How could he just refuse to take a bite when the answer was being handed straight to his mouth?
“Because Arima looked extremely pleased with herself, and that honestly kind of pissed me off a little.”
Minami Yuji propped his chin on his hand expressionlessly, his black eyes locked on Arima Kana.
On any other day, Arima Kana would absolutely have shot back at that line without a second thought.
But for some reason—
Minami Yuji’s gaze settled on her.
Even she — billed as a ‘genius koyaku’ — couldn’t help shrinking her shoulders.
This guy in front of her was honestly something else!
He was clearly just a kid, the same as her, and yet he could always exude a pressure that not even adults could match!
She really had no choice.
“O-okay then, how about this!
You can just call me Kana!
Just call me a cute little ‘Kana-chan,’ once, and I’ll explain it to you, okay?”
Surely that would work, right?
She’d already made quite the concession!
However—
“Then ask me to.”
“Why is this turning out this way?!”
The reversal of offense and defense was happening so fast that Arima Kana was left almost dumbstruck.
At the end of the day, shouldn’t this guy in front of her be the one needing the favor?
Why was he speaking down to her with such a high-and-mighty attitude?!
Where on earth was he getting all that nerve from?
“Are you going to ask me to or not?
This is your last chance, by the way.”
Without even letting Arima Kana think it over, Minami Yuji landed another heavy blow without hesitation.
“Uuuu—”
Maybe Arima Kana really did come pre-loaded with some kind of loser-dog quality — she let out a small whimper, lowered her head, and looked for all the world like a defeated cockfighting rooster.
“Please.”
“Mm.
Good.
Kana — now you can explain, can’t you?”
“…” Hearing Minami Yuji’s words, the corners of Arima Kana’s mouth twitched.
She had completely achieved her goal, but somehow it felt as though she’d just lost.
Whatever, whatever!
Shaking her head vigorously to fling that little episode right out of her brain, Arima Kana raised a finger and began to explain it for Minami Yuji.
“Koyaku auditions and adult auditions really are different — and the biggest difference is the sheer number of koyaku.”
Indeed — Japan’s films, TV dramas, anime, and other entertainment products were divided into four seasonal slots: spring, summer, autumn, and winter.
And the number of works each slot could actually produce was rather limited.
Within that rather limited pool of works—
First, the major production companies financing the projects would scoop up a portion of the lead and supporting role opportunities for themselves.
Next, adult actors would take their slice.
What was left in the end was just a tiny palmful of opportunities — and that was what koyaku were qualified to compete over, and even that had to factor in the works that didn’t need a child actor at all.
So — too many monks, not enough porridge.
Works like She and He, with pure koyaku as the leads, were truly few and far between.
Most of the koyaku agencies wanted to come and grab a piece of the pie.
And that was exactly how today’s sea-of-people scene had come about.
“I see…”
Minami Yuji nodded.
He was quite well aware of just how brutal the koyaku industry was.
But even he hadn’t imagined that work opportunities in this field were squeezed this tightly.
No wonder, then, that the koyaku actors who actually stood at the very top of the pyramid amounted to only a small handful of people.
Right in the middle of Minami Yuji’s contemplation—
A wave of startled gasps suddenly rippled out from not too far away, drawing both his and Arima Kana’s gazes over.
A koyaku had walked in, dressed with a remarkably composed, mature elegance.
Unlike the typical baby-fat-cheeked koyaku, this girl had slender, willowy limbs and deep, profound eyes.
Jet-black long hair slipped down past her ears.
Her small, dainty face brought to mind, all too easily, the image of a princess clad in eighteen-layered court robes beneath the moonlight.
“It’s Sakurajima-senpai…” Because of the angle, Arima Kana had been the one to spot the figure walking in first, and she murmured the words.
Sakurajima Mai.
Even Arima Kana had to admit — this girl was a genius in the truest sense of the word.
There was a saying within the industry: once a koyaku turned ten, they began their downhill slide, and somewhere around thirteen or fourteen they’d quietly exit the business altogether.
But Sakurajima Mai was a complete exception.
She had entered the industry at six, and her very first work — the TV drama Kokonoe — pulled in soaring viewership numbers.
Now, at age ten, she was still at the very peak of her career, with no sign whatsoever of her popularity flagging.
Calling her a dazzling genius child star — even now — would be no exaggeration.
Arima Kana felt nervous.
Even before, Sakurajima Mai’s reputation within the industry had reliably outranked her own by a head — her caliber was that visible.
Not to mention that with Arima Kana’s own popularity now showing some decline, the gap was only more pronounced.
And as for why the other girl had shown up here—
She hardly needed to think about it: Sakurajima Mai was definitely here for one of the lead roles — ‘Junko’!
Which meant Sakurajima Mai was her competition.
Watching Arima Kana’s tension, Minami Yuji couldn’t help but shake his head.
Oh, great…
Show up for one audition, and right off the bat almost everyone here is a familiar face…
The concentration of 2D heroines in this room was already plenty high — please, no need to crank it up any further.