I had the vague thought that I didn’t recognize the ceiling.
I rubbed my eyes and grabbed my phone next to my pillow to check the time. It was eight.
“Oh, crap!”
I jumped out of bed, terrified I’d be late for school, but I came to a complete stop when I realized this wasn’t my room. This wasn’t anything like a girl’s room. The walls, bed, and everything else were a calming beige color.
I tottered over to the window and confirmed that I definitely wasn’t on the fifth floor of anything. The beautiful face looking back at me belonged to none other than a certain somebody’s friend’s little sister, Kohinata Iroha. I stuck up a peace sign next to my sleepy face. It was a pointless thing to do, but it did give my brain a couple seconds to get in gear and bring my memory up to speed.
All righty. It was a weekday, but I was skipping school (plus I left early yesterday) so that I could come experience the shooting of a Hollywood movie with Mizuki-san. My friend Sasara had encouraged me to come; it was a unique opportunity to see a professional film set up close.
“Bon morning, Iroha-chan. Already are you ready— Oh, you are busy. Did I interrupt?”
“Hyaah! M-Mizuki-san?!” I pulled my hand away from my face, but it was too late. She totally saw me posing in front of my reflection! That’s totally embarrassing!
I completely forgot about this, but I’d shared a hotel room with Mizuki-san last night. It was (apparently) a fifty-square-meter suite. It was really spacious; almost too much for just the two of us.
At first, Mizuki-san had said something about “sneaking me to a hotel room to grow our love,” and I kind of freaked out, ready to get away fast, but then the room turned out to be huge, and her intentions turned out to be having a fun, lively chat before bed. So that was a relief.
The way she misused Japanese (and I didn’t know if she was just ditzy or mistaken) could be super terrifying at times. I knew she was a nice person at heart, though.
Mizuki-san snuck up on me again this morning. Like, she was too casual, especially in the way she suddenly appeared behind me without a sound, as if she’d maxed out her stealth stat.
“I-I wasn’t doing anything!” I said.
“Non. Look in the mirror, make it practice, it’s an actress’s obligation. It’s important. I will praise you.”
“Oh, uh. Aha ha ha! Th-Thank you?” I asked as she stroked my head approvingly.
I literally had no clue what I was getting rewarded for. I didn’t know Mizuki-san very well, but I did wonder how much closer we’d have to get for me to start properly understanding her. It was like her true self went deeper than the Mariana Trench, and it was impossible to see the bottom.
You know, if someone asked me to play Tsukinomori Mizuki as a role, I was sure I’d just tell them it was never gonna happen, without a second thought.
But that was only if someone asked me now. I was determined to be able to play her at some point. That was why I was here, after all.
After stroking my head a little longer, Mizuki-san gave me a little push and said it was time to get going. The morning shoot was about to start.
I quickly gulped down the jelly drink I bought yesterday, made sure I was presentable, then dashed out of the room just a few minutes after Mizuki-san.
We were heading for a corner of Gion. A group of apprentice geisha in zori sandals shuffled as they led us down a retro, stone-paved road, lined on both sides by the kind of wooden buildings I’d only ever seen in period dramas. At the end of the road was a five-storied pagoda. It was like the traditional Kyoto equivalent of the Sky Tree or Tokyo Tower in the capital.
Right... I was in Kyoto! I was actually in Kyoto!
It really hit home I was there when I saw just how modern the area around the station was. It was a huge relief to feel that way at all.
As I stood smack dab in the middle of that super traditional part of town, I heard...
“This way!”
“The lighting team’s delayed!”
...perfect native-sounding English, sticking out like a loud, sore thumb.
Part of the road was restricted to the public, and there were members of the Hollywood film crew running this way and that. I couldn’t understand what they were saying, but they wore serious expressions. It was enough to make me nervous, even though I wasn’t in the cast.
It looked like they weren’t able to block off public access completely; there were a few ordinary people walking past nearby. Lots of them had gathered to watch too, so it can’t have been every day there was an obvious film shoot in the city. There was a traditional dessert place nearby, where customers were watching from the benches out in front. For example, one of them was a red-haired girl in a school uniform.
I figured she was a high schooler on a class trip. She was looking this way with eyes so droopy it looked like she was going to fall asleep any second, and she seemed to have as much energy in her body as a sloth.
“Hm?” Our eyes met. Though I would’ve thought she’d be more interested in the Hollywood movie crew, she was staring at me instead. “Wait... Aaah!” My yelp seemed to confirm to her I was who she thought I was, and she waved at me.
It took me a second to realize it because of how far away she was, but I knew this red-haired girl: it was Otoi-san. And now that I looked closer, I realized her uniform was the one from our school.
I rushed up to her and asked, “What are you doing here?!”
“’Sup, Kohinata. Thought it was you. Doesn’t it make less sense that you’re here?”
“You’re totally right!”
I mean, I was supposed to be in school. Otoi-san was supposed to be here, on her class trip.
But wait, if Otoi-san was here, did that mean Senpai might be nearby? My eyes started darting all over the place, looking for him.
“Aki’s not here.”
“Ack! A-Aw, c’mon! You’re making it sound like I got my hopes up that Senpai might be around here or something!”
“You’re really gonna try and play dumb with me? Eh, whatever.”
“Hnngh... I guess you’ve got a point...” Otoi-san already knew about my feelings for Senpai, after all. It was just annoying to have to admit it, or maybe it was just my delicate feminine instincts making me want to deny it. Stupid idiot.
Oh, by the way, that was directed at Senpai and not Otoi-san, so hopefully she wasn’t reading my thoughts right now, and if she were, she’d forgive me.
“Isn’t it weird that you’re here, Otoi-san?”
“How d’you figure?” Otoi-san cocked her head.
When I’d looked around, I hadn’t seen Senpai—and I hadn’t seen anyone else from our school either.
“Aren’t you supposed to go around in groups when you’re on the class trip? How come you’re out here eating desserts by yourself?”
“Today’s our free day. Everyone gets to pick individually where they wanna go.”
“And you decided to come eat dessert...”
Otoi-san was holding an ice cream glass filled with a matcha parfait. She picked up a big spoonful of green ice cream and fancy-looking mochi and fruits, and pushed it into her mouth, chewing blissfully while remaining expressionless. You couldn’t get much more touristy than that without a camera, some sunglasses, and maybe a Hawaiian shirt.
“Whaddabout you? Don’tcha have school? Can’t believe you’re skippin’.”
“It makes you sound a billion times less strict when you’re lecturing me with cream on your mouth.” I sighed, before launching into an explanation: that Mashiro-senpai’s mom, Mizuki-san, was a star overseas and was letting me come with her to Kyoto for her work, which was also why I was skipping school. I also explained that she’d figured out I was the voice actress for Koyagi, and that she seemed to be supportive of me.
“This mochi’s great.”
“Were you even listening?”
“Up till the part I realized you’d be just as annoying in Hollywood as y’are at home.”
“This is Kyoto, not Hollywood!”
“Look, the whole explanation thing is really boring. You tune out at those parts in anime too, right?”
“I do, but this isn’t an anime.”
As always, I was stuck pointing out the obvious to her.
Then, I spotted Mizuki-san approaching us. “Hey, Iroha-chan! You can’t go away like this!”
“Ah! Sorry! I’ll come back right away!”
“Is this your friend of school? Were you getting closer?” Mizuki-san glanced at Otoi-san.
I told her during our chat last night that the second-years were on their class trip right now. I did think that if we ran into Senpai he could fill her in on that, but I didn’t feel like leaving it to chance would be very efficient. As you can see, I take after him!
“I guess she’s my friend, yeah; she’s my senpai. She’s a sound engineer who helps out with the recording for Koyagi.”
“Oh, I see. She is a keyman. Important person. A shadow supporter. I can feel she is very talented.”
Otoi-san laughed. “You’re a blast, ma’am. Feels to me like you’re pretty talented yourself.”
“I don’t think you should point at her like that,” I said. “She’s an adult...”
Something felt a little strange about this. It was like Otoi-san didn’t really like Mizuki-san too much. Maybe it was just my imagination.
“Can I ask y’somethin’? To commemorate our meetin’ ’n’ all.”
She really wasn’t going to speak to Mizuki-san with any respect, was she?! I mean, I kind of didn’t expect anything different from Otoi-san of all people, but still!
“Oui. Ask me anything, please. I will ask any question without concealing. I am bare for you. I am worst at giving a lie, being false.”
“You’re an actress. Lying is basically your job,” Otoi-san pointed out. “’Nyway. Is it true you spotted Kohinata’s talent?”
“An actress’s quality is what an actress understands best. Do you have a room for doubt?”
“’N’ you said you wanted to cultivate Kohinata’s talent yourself, right?”
“I see she has no cultivating at home. She was very poor, and it’s a waste, so I took her over. It’s no more, and it’s no less than that.”
Otoi-san’s eyebrow jumped up. Otoi-san was rarely expressive, so it stood out; it sounded like something Mizuki-san had said made her really mad.