“Congratulations. You both got leading roles in Cosmic Tales of the Paradise Whale.” Two weeks later, Suzune and Karin were called into the office. They met with Miama in the meeting room together, where they received this information. While it wasn’t that unusual to be told these results face-to-face, it was rare to have another person with you. There was a moment of silence. “YEEEEEESSSSS!” Karin clenched both fists and threw them up toward the ceiling in a show of pure joy. She had finally passed her first audition. Despite all the initial offers she received, and after going on as many auditions as any other member of the agency, she had yet to land a single role. Consequently, even Suzune had heard whispers that Karin had only been hired due to her popularity and had no actual talent. Mami Gamikawa had even gone so far as to say this quite openly, to the point that Yuika had scolded her in a mild, roundabout way. Gamikawa hadn’t seemed to realize her complaints could also be taken as criticism of the agency, even when Yuika had attempted to point this out as part of her gentle words of warning. As for Gamikawa herself, she once again hadn’t landed a single regular role this season. Suzune didn’t feel sorry for her in the least. Animated shows are made by a team of people working together, so it was important to maintain a positive environment in the workplace. Suzune knew that all the etiquette and greetings were an important part of maintaining that, even if they might seem excessive from an outsider’s perspective. Right now, Gamikawa wasn’t respecting those rules. She was bringing tension and negativity to the office. And those feelings seeped into her auditions and poisoned the impression she made, to the point that they contributed to her failing to land any parts. Gamikawa hadn’t always been like this, at least according to Yuika. Her acting used to be well-received, and even if she rarely played main characters, she always had a few recurring roles each season. But that changed along with her attitude when she’d stopped passing auditions. It was an opportunity to learn from someone else’s mistakes, Suzune thought. This wasn’t just someone else’s problem—it could happen to anyone, even Suzune herself. Though she still didn’t see herself taking on singing and dancing gigs, maybe she should reconsider the photobook offers she’d been receiving for a few years now. Karin, on the other hand, shone as only her oshi could. Her smile never wavered in the face of criticism or rumors. Even when the two went out to drink, she didn’t utter a single complaint. In fact, when Suzune had gone into a rage about how the producers had no eye for talent, Karin had only chided her. But now, all that was finally over. A brand-new voice actress, landing a main character as her very first role…of course, there were probably other factors involved besides just Karin’s acting chops, but that was quite often the case. Her fame was just one of her many hard-earned abilities. “You did it, Karin-chan.” “So did you!” They high-fived each other with both hands. Even now that Karin knew she was a fan, Suzune was still calling her “Karin-chan.” Her oshi had personally requested she refrain from using “-sama,” after all. “And there’s more. I called you here together because you two have another offer on the table.” Suzune perked up. Miama only used such roundabout language when there was good news. “You’ve been asked to do a radio show together!” A radio show! Excitement crackled up Suzune’s spine like lightning, giving her goosebumps all over. She loved anime radio jobs—they were a chance for fans to get to know people who were normally just behind the scenes. Thus far, Suzune had only gotten occasional offers for radio shows related to anime. However, some of her voice acting seniors had radio shows that bore their own name, a few of which had even been running for over a decade. She’d dreamed of doing something like that herself one day. “It’ll be about two cours, starting before the show begins airing and ending around the last episode. If it’s well-received, it might lead to an offer for your own personal radio show, so be sure to give it all you’ve got.” Suzune and Karin exchanged glances, then exclaimed “Yes, ma’am!” so loudly, it must have echoed throughout the office. Cosmic Tales of the Paradise Whale was an adaptation of a science fiction manga. The anime industry was in a transition period these days. The isekai boom had passed its peak, and everyone was searching for the next big gold mine. This resulted in a wide range of shows, from anime-original stories to science fiction, youth dramas, and romance. While the manga was a cult favorite on social media and such, it wasn’t wildly successful in the easy-to-understand terms of sales and circulation numbers. But Suzune thought it was good for the industry for even lesser-known works to get anime adaptations, and as an actress, she enjoyed the challenge of working in a variety of genres. The story followed an interstellar spacecraft known as the “Paradise Whale,” which was transporting a group of high school students in cryosleep for a school trip. An accident left most of them dead; the sole survivors were a high school girl genius and a classmate whose head she somehow managed to preserve. Together, they traveled the stars. Suzune’s role was Dr. Brenda S. Miyuki, the high school girl and brilliant mad scientist. Karin was playing Haruka Amami, the girl who was left with only a head. Both characters were designer babies with no parents (as all humans were in this world). The goal of their journey was to find a laboratory that was supposed to be located somewhere in a giant spaceship the size of a continent, where they could restore Haruka’s body. But in a world where everything was automated, that information had long since been lost, and they constantly ran into unexpected difficulties. Each time, Dr. Miyuki attached Haruka’s head to a different body that only her friend could move. While the story was science fiction with a hint of comedy, the pair were a popular yuri ship among many readers. The nature of the relationship between Dr. Miyuki and Haruka Amami, who had no choice but to depend on her for help most of the time (since she was only a head), simply hit different. When Suzune got the audition and read the manga for the first time, she wished she’d known about it sooner. The idea that she was going to act in such a series with her favorite idol of all time brought her to the height of happiness. The manga was still being serialized, with five volumes out thus far. Since it wasn’t finished yet, the anime adaptation would probably only cover partway through the girls’ journey. But if it got popular enough, they might get a second season and even a third. The anime radio show was meant to help it reach that goal. Still, there was very little information Suzune and Karin could share before the anime began airing, leaving them with little to do but “Casual Chat” segments about their personal lives and a “Fan Mail” segment that depended on letters being sent in from the listeners. Since Suzune and Karin both had experience on radio shows, that was no problem. They’d even gotten a much sought-after veteran writer to work on their scripts. The only surprise was that they weren’t going to record video footage. Suzune thought it was a major waste to have the beautiful Karin involved and not show her flawless face on camera, but apparently, there were extenuating circumstances. Each weekly episode would be thirty minutes long, and they planned to record two episodes at a time. Every few episodes, they would have a live broadcast. To warm up for this, there was a planned “episode zero” livestream, which (unlike the rest of the episodes) would also include video. However, this “episode zero” was really just a special event to reveal the anime adaptation. In addition to the two of them, it would also include the director, the editor of the manga, and a freelance announcer to serve as moderator. Suzune was glad someone else would be in charge of the proceedings. She was certainly capable of moderating if she had to—she’d done it before, and all you really had to do was follow the script—but it was much less pressure if someone else was handling it for you. An important part of moderating was to cover for the director and manga editor. Even people in those positions who were good at talking tended to go off-topic, and it was a moderator’s job to tactfully guide them in the right direction. That said, it could be difficult to navigate that when you were an actor trying to keep a director in check, given that your positions of power were usually reversed. And so, as the big day approached for episode zero of “PaRadio,” the special announcement of the Cosmic Tales of the Paradise Whale anime adaptation, Suzune felt nothing but excitement. On second thought, I’m feeling a lot of things right now… It was nearly time for their segment, and Suzune had no idea what to do with the tangle of emotions inside her. During the prep meeting two hours before the livestream began, when the writer Shakaishi had handed over the script and Suzune had read it for the first time, she’d felt her body temperature climbing rapidly. After revealing basic information about the anime, introducing the cast, and explaining the original manga’s story and setting, there was a series of variety show-like segments. One of them was titled “The Cast Tackles Scenes from the Manga!” Instead of just recording voiceovers, they were going to be physically acting out scenes from the original manga to the best of their abilities. That in itself wasn’t the problem. Suzune liked theater. Even if she hadn’t done much of that kind of acting recently, she still wanted to stand on the stage again someday. No, the problem was the specific scenes. “Now then, on to the next segment!” Yamamoto, the moderator, shouted the announcement with relish, and Suzune stiffened. “We’re going to have our two main cast members pull a piece of paper out of this box and reenact whatever famous scene from the original manga is written on it!” Yamamoto shook the black box, paper audibly rustling inside. It was full of folded-up instruction sheets. And all of the famous scenes that had been chosen…were yuri-like scenes between Dr. Miyuki and Haruka Amami. “Who was it, huh? Who came up with this crazy idea? Because whoever it is…thank you, I owe you my life!” There was a ripple of laughter from the staff. While there was no live audience, a tablet on the table displayed the livestream, with comments appearing in real time. > omg, are we gonna get THAT scene? > how are they gonna deal with her just being a head? > lolololololol > let’s see some yuri action! > YURI TIEM! Lines of text flooded in, filling up the screen one after another. They were right. The scenes to be reenacted were all intimate ones that gave off vaguely yuri vibes. And since the two characters weren’t canonically in a relationship in the manga, that meant this could definitely be considered “yuri bait.” “All right, here we go!” Yamamoto read the piece of paper from the box. “First up! A scene from volume two! Dr. Miyuki puts Haruka-chan on her lap and brushes out her tangled hair after a reckless plan gone awry! Well then, let’s get ready!” At the announcer’s prompting, Suzune and Karin walked around the table to come to the front. An assistant quickly handed Karin a green poncho. She pulled it on over her head so that it covered her from the neck down like a full-body cape. Since they were standing in front of a greenscreen, only Karin’s head would show up on camera, the rest of her body blending into a composited background they couldn’t see. A chair was brought out, and Suzune sat on it. She set her legs wide apart so that Karin could kneel between them, facing away from her. Since they were being filmed from the side, on-screen it would theoretically look like Karin’s disembodied head was indeed sitting on Suzune’s lap. It wasn’t perfect, though, because the image hiding her body would look different from the floor. “Okay, whenever you’re ready!” At this, Suzune took a deep breath and summoned up Dr. Miyuki. “…Oh dear, what a mess. I suppose you can’t even brush your hair on your own?” “Of course not, I’m just a head!” This pattern, with Dr. Miyuki messing around and Haruka complaining, was a staple of the series’s comedy. As Suzune pressed her knees a bit tightly against Karin’s shoulders to ensure that it would look like she was just a head, she scooped up Karin’s silky hair with her left hand and gently ran the brush through it. The light lent a slight blue tint to Karin’s spotlessly gorgeous hair. It was so smooth, it felt like she was brushing the air. With each stroke, she felt a strange tenderness bubbling up inside her. Maybe I do have a little bit of mommy energy—I mean, motherly instincts, Suzune thought. It wasn’t often that you got a top-down look at somebody’s head. Karin’s hair whorl was more or less at the top of her head. It was faint, but lovely. “You really are awfully needy, aren’t you…” “Yes! Because I’m a head!” Another round of laughter. Suzune felt like she could do this forever; it was not unlike petting a cat. But Yamamoto mercilessly announced the end. “Perfect, thank you very much!” At Suzune’s feet, Karin let out a long breath. She must have been nervous, too, especially with this being her first time appearing as a voice actress. Suzune handed off the brush to the staff member who came flying onto the set. Looking at the monitor, she was relieved to see that the live comments were largely positive. “Well, we’re short on time, so let’s go straight to the next one!” Suzune stood next to Karin, who was still wearing the poncho, and they watched Yamamoto pull the second piece of paper from the box. It was a very surreal image when she glanced at their appearance on the monitor. Karin was cute even just from the neck up, but the image of her disembodied head was still a little unsettling. Maybe it was too closely linked to the concept of death, since it was currently impossible to survive in such a state. “All right! Now we’re talking! Volume one! The toothbrushing scene!” Suzune’s heart thudded. The viewers all oohed and aahed in the comments. Even though she was just a head, it was important for Haruka’s mental health for her to keep eating food, which also meant that her teeth would need to be brushed—and, of course, she couldn’t do that herself. In this scene, Dr. Miyuki brushed Haruka’s teeth for her for the first time. Suzune thought she felt a cold sweat dripping down her back. Unlike the previous scene, this one required a difficult balance of emotions. After all, they would be much closer physically than any two people would normally be in everyday life. That was the only way to make it work. Her heart was already warming up for a marathon sprint. “Well then, let’s see it!” The staff member handed Suzune a toothbrush, and she stood facing Karin. Karin was on the left, Suzune on the right. In the manga, the toothbrush was a wacky-looking tool, but for the sake of safety, they’d provided a regular one for this reenactment, since it was going into a real person’s mouth. BA-DUMP. BA-DUMP. Suzune could hear her every heartbeat, loud as a bass drum. She took a deep breath, taking care that it wasn’t loud enough to be heard on the mic. She pressed her left hand against Karin’s cheek to make it look like she was really holding up a head. Karin shivered ever so slightly. “…Come on, open your mouth. How am I supposed to brush your teeth if it’s closed?” “Mmgh…” Karin groaned with her mouth still shut. Then, putting on a look of resignation, she screwed her eyes shut and opened her mouth. “Open wider. I can’t see a thing like this.” “Dunlook.” Don’t look, she mumbled, then opened her mouth wider anyway. Trying to keep it that way, Suzune pressed Karin’s lower lip down with her thumb. It felt soft and supple, like a gummy candy, slightly slick due to her lipstick. Karin’s warm breath caressed Suzune’s thumb. She had never seen the inside of someone’s mouth so closely before. It was pinker than she expected, with a sort of glistening wetness. When Suzune put the brush in, Karin slid her tongue to one side. Suzune scrubbed gently so as not to hurt her gums. “Mmph!” Karin let out a little noise. This was part of the act. There was even a speech bubble in the manga. Suzune knew this, yet she still felt a jolt at the nape of her neck. This was too much. Way too much. She was afraid it was going to awaken something in her. Try as she might to tell herself to remain calm, there was a part of Suzune that twinged in protest. How could she possibly not get worked up with her oshi in such a state right before her eyes? Her stubborn insistence that they were just agency colleagues was threatening to throw itself right out the window. I have to finish this up fast, she thought, even as she continued brushing her oshi’s teeth. Her face felt hot. Saliva was building up in Karin’s mouth, making a swishing noise. Suzune prayed that it wasn’t getting picked up on the mic. “…There, all done.” After a thorough brushing, Suzune withdrew the toothbrush from Karin’s mouth. Karin swallowed the accumulated spit, her throat bobbing. Her cheeks were faintly red, and she moved her closed lips as if she was applying lipstick. Suzune kept gazing right at Karin, her hand still on the other girl’s cheek. Her skin felt warm. If this were an isekai anime, the spot where they were touching might burst into flame. “Great! Thank you verrry much!” Relieved by Yamamoto’s announcement, Suzune pulled her hand away. Karin cast her eyes downward for just a moment, her expression unreadable. “Right then, on to the next scene!” Suzune listened to the sound of the paper rustling around in the box, trying to reign in her runaway thoughts and feelings. Focus on the job! “Okay! Next up! Volume four, the ear-cleaning scene…!” And so, the yuri business went on. “That was sooo nerve-racking!” When they returned to the dressing room, Karin promptly flopped face-down across the table. Suzune smiled. It was a feeling she both understood now and remembered feeling even more keenly back in the day. During livestreams, there was always the fear of saying a taboo word or phrase, or touching on a topic that was banned by the company or video platform. There were more of them than ever these days, requiring extra thought before and even as you spoke, which could be exhausting. Some of these forbidden phrases could require you to issue a formal apology, or in the worst-case scenario, could even cost you the job. You had to be very careful. But still, livestreams were a lot of fun. They were as exhilarating as they were nerve-wracking. It felt like you were truly interacting with a live audience, especially when you could see the comments. “You did great.” Suzune offered her a mineral water that was on the table. “Thank you.” Karin raised her head and accepted the bottle. She twisted off the cap, leaned back against the chair, and gulped the water down greedily. It was hard not to stare as her exposed throat worked with every swallow. Something about that sort of sight just made Karin feel more real, somehow. It rendered her human, not just an idol to be worshiped. “Aaah.” Karin let out a big breath and put the plastic bottle back on the table. Suzune sat diagonally across from her. “Were you really that nervous?” “Of course. When we did MC sections during concerts, we already knew exactly what we’d be talking about—there was hardly ever any ad-libbing. And sometimes, they asked us to do crazy things on variety shows, but if it crossed a line that you really weren’t okay with, they would edit it out for you. But that moderator really came at us, even though we were doing it all live!” Suzune laughed. “Well, Yamamoto’s famous in this line of work. But that’s what makes her so popular. And she has a good understanding of voice actors, so she won’t mess with you in any ways that would really cross a line.” “Uh-huh…” Karin still didn’t look convinced. “Is there anything that crosses the line for you, Suzune-san?” “Personally, I don’t do the ‘please do XYZ character for us’ thing.” “Really? Doesn’t that come up often, though?” “It does. But that’s the line for me. It seems like a gray area as far as usage rights, for one thing. Oh—but that doesn’t include if it’s an event or radio show for the series that character is from, of course. In that case, I’m not just appearing as Suzune Sengu, I’m also representing the character I play. So I’ll throw it in there even if no one asks me to do it.” “I see… Good to know.” Karin nodded. “So…how was the segment for you?” Suzune braced herself even as she asked. That was probably Karin’s first time doing “yuri business,” and it was a pretty intense level to start at. They would never have a man and a woman do that sort of thing. In a way, saying “It’s fine if it’s between people of the same gender” felt a bit like the management’s way of unconsciously rejecting people who were attracted to the same gender, people like Suzune. But those who accepted and affirmed her did so unconditionally, so she’d long since decided to call it even. “Oh…well, my heart was racing, that’s for sure.” “Do you want to turn down things like that in the future? If you tell Miama-san, she’ll take care of it for you, you know.” Karin slowly shook her head. “No, it’s all right. I don’t know how it would be with anyone else, but it didn’t bother me doing it with you, Suzune-san. If anything, I had fun.” “Are you sure? You’re not just saying that?” “Of course I’m sure!” Karin laughed aloud. “Why are you so worried about me? Come on, that was, like, totally insane! Oh, I mean insane in a good way, you know?” “Really?” “Really. I don’t think I’ve had anyone clean my ears since I was a little kid. I made sure to clean them first just in case—they were fine, right?” “Right. In fact, it was a little bit of a letdown. Doesn’t it feel satisfying when you pull out a really big chunk?” “Oh my god, what?! I don’t want people seeing my earwax! And I brushed my teeth super thoroughly, too, and took breath mints and everything!” “I could tell. It smelled very minty.” “Please don’t try to smell my breath!” Karin shrieked, turning bright red. Suzune laughed, feeling relieved. As long as Karin wasn’t uncomfortable with it, she could admit to herself that she’d enjoyed it immensely. It felt like she’d gotten to see another side of Karin Shotsuki as a flesh-and-blood human. “I’m so glad my first time was with you, Suzune-san.” Karin smiled at her. MARRY MEEEEE! An enormous wave of emotion surged up all at once, swallowing Suzune whole. She hoped she would always be the only person Karin did “yuri business” with. Like it or not, she felt that way with all her heart. She didn’t want to see Karin do things like that with any other voice actress. She wanted to prevent it, if at all possible. And if Karin said that she only wanted Suzune to do yuri business with her, too, then Suzune would gladly make a rule against fanservice flirting with anyone but Karin… But as soon as that thought went through her mind, she realized she was getting carried away. Calm yourself, Suzune! She wrestled her heart and mind back into submission. No good could come of bringing her fangirl feelings into her work. Yuri business was just part of an act. She couldn’t let herself get confused. And yet… “Ooh, gimme those snackies!” As her beloved oshi reached innocently for the dorayaki that had been left for them as refreshments, Suzune couldn’t help but gaze at her fondly.
Chapter 11
21 min read