Back at home, Sora found Yuu waiting for him at the front door.
“I—I wasn’t waiting because I was worried about you or anything. I just wanted to go out moonbathing for a little bit.”
“And you chose the front door of someone else’s house to do it at?”
Sora didn’t remember asking Yuu for an explanation. But then he gave an answer to a question Yuu didn’t ask, either.
“I’m going to be taking Kaede’s place in the play.”
Yuu’s eyes shot open. “You? Onstage?”
“Yeah.”
“Even after you said you never wanted to do something so conspicuous?”
“I’ve already been conspicuous lately. This won’t make much more of a difference.”
“Sure, it will.” Yuu greeted Sora’s casual smile with serious concern. “Is this you getting dragged into something that wound up making you stand out, or is this you volunteering to go into the spotlight? Because there’s a huge difference between the two.”
“…”
“Do you want to be the protagonist?”
“No,” Sora replied, lightly shaking his head and smiling. The emotions seemed ready to take him once more. “But if it’s for Kaede’s sake, I’ll be one anyway.”
✦ ✦ ✦
The next day, Sora officially joined the drama club.
“Um, once again, I’m Sora Hashima, year two. I’m still a beginner at acting, but I’ll do my best.”
Kaede had already informed everyone at the club that she couldn’t make the competition and asked Sora Hashima to take her place. They all welcomed him as an official member. Yuu, who constantly stuck with him as a rule, didn’t join him in the club—“I don’t have any duty to go that far,” as she put it.
“Yuma…we don’t have much time, so be as tough with me as you need to.” Sora bowed deeply to Yuma, who seemed emotionally overwhelmed himself.
“I never thought I’d become your acting coach, Sora. But all right. I’m not going to go easy on you, so I hope you’re ready.”
…He wasn’t kidding, as it turned out. The way he taught Sora was incomparably harsher than how he treated the rest of the drama club. And not just in the after-school sessions, either—they recorded their morning rehearsals and lunch-break practice runs as well, so Yuma could watch them and list up everything Sora did wrong. There was no rest after school as well, with Sora working out for stamina, training his voice, and doing everything else he could manage alone.
At this rate, he wasn’t going to be able to hold out until the competition, so he slept through class to build up his strength. He didn’t know it, but whenever a teacher tried to wake him up, the students would all shout, “Don’t destroy this beautiful, angelic sleeping face!” so he actually got a lot of quality sleep in.
Sora felt every bit like the protagonist of some guts-and-glory sports manga. The days were tougher than anything he had experienced before, but he never thought once about throwing in the towel.
After two weeks of this, Sora the amateur had somehow grown to the point that he wasn’t inferior to the rest of the cast.
“You did a really good job, Sora. At this rate, you’ll be just fine tomorrow.”
Yuma smiled at Sora during the final dress rehearsal, the day before the big show at the competition.
“Thank you very much, sir. I’m still nowhere near the standard of Kaede, but I’ll do my best not to disappoint her.”
In the two weeks since Kaede was hospitalized, she hadn’t been back to school once. The drama club was sending her rehearsal videos on the group chat, keeping each other updated on the latest, but she never got to see Sora onstage in person. It would apparently be a while before she was discharged, so they didn’t even know if she could attend the show tomorrow.
…If she can’t even see it, what did I go through all this effort for…?
Just when Sora felt a dark wave of foreboding in his mind, he received a message—just for him, not via the drama-club group chat.
I got permission to be outside for two hours tomorrow! I’m totally gonna be there, so keep up the good work!
✦ ✦ ✦
The moment he saw those words, the dark fog seemed to lift from his heart, the life springing back to his body after the exhausting rehearsal. Then Sora finally understood how strong his feelings were. He’d be willing to do anything for this girl. This was exactly what he had seen depicted so many times before in so many stories—something he read, watched, and listened to over and over.
✦ ✦ ✦
…So this is love?
✦ ✦ ✦
If it was, the world was just mercilessly cruel. His first love—the first story that he was the protagonist of—was irrevocably fated to end in tragedy.
✦ ✦ ✦
The next day, at a community hall in town, the middle-school drama competition began.
As Sora’s school’s turn came closer and closer, just when the staff told everyone in the green room to get ready, Kaede sent a message to the whole drama club.
I’m finally here! I’m so glad I made it on time!
I’ll be watching you in the wheelchair way in the back! Good luck!
✦ ✦ ✦
Everyone cheered.
“Okay,” the vice president said, “let’s give the president the best show we’ve got.” He, along with the rest of the cast and crew, formed a circle.
“Well, Hashima, give the order.”
Sora panicked. “What? Me?! The newest guy here?”
“You wrote it, you contributed to direction and sets, you brought a coach in, and now you’re the lead actor. You’re clearly the boss of this project.”
The rest of the club nodded their agreement.
“It’s not like I’m the only lead actor,” Sora pointed out, still looking ill at ease. “But, okay… ‘Look out, world! We’re the protagonists now!’”
He said the first thing that came to mind, and the rest of the gang shouted, “Yeah!!” in response.
✦ ✦ ✦
Here was The Boundless Challengers, written by Sora Hashima.
One day, five apprentice wizards attending class at a magic academy inadvertently awaken a demon sealed in the school basement. In exchange for releasing him, the demon promises to grant any wish. The group’s opinions are split—one student wants power, another knowledge, another fortune; the fourth wishes to serve the demon, while the fifth wishes for nothing and looks for a way to banish the demon once more.
If this were a standard morality play, the fifth student would doubtlessly be the main protagonist. But all five students have solid reasons in their backstory for the wishes they make, and the one seeking to banish the demon doesn’t necessarily have just motives, either. They occasionally squabble over issues caused by the demon, and they occasionally work together to solve them—but in time, all five have values they refuse to give up on, leading to an intense battle to the death. For a middle school play, it was a complex, mature story, and honestly, the structure and themes could’ve used some polishing. An impartial observer would get the impression that the ideas behind the tale were too big for the author’s talents to handle.
Regardless, Sora was taking Kaede Mitahora’s role. His name was Sieg, the student who volunteers to serve the demon in order to exact revenge for his murdered lover. He faces off against the other students, and by the end, he falls completely in love with the demon, who takes on the form of a beautiful woman. His acting skill was maybe a little off compared to the rest of the cast, but he had the looks of a fantasy hero already, and Sieg’s backstory matched remarkably well with the troubles Sora had in his own heart. Every move he made seemed to have the touch of a seasoned actor.