Chapter 2: Cultural Festival With Eina (8) |
It was the day of the festival. I did some preparations for the club and then headed to the classroom.
The classroom was a tumult of noise as people bustled about doing makeup, preparing costumes, and coordinating lighting equipment.
I searched for the President, wanting to go over things one more time, but I couldn’t find her.
“Is the President still with the student council?” I asked Sakai.
He made an unusually serious face as he answered.
“She still hasn’t come to school. I asked the student council too, but they haven’t seen her either.”
I made a mixed noise of shock and doubt.
“Hasn’t she contacted you?” He asked me.
“Nah, I don’t have her number…”
And then:
“President! You’re a bit late!”
A girl cried out from the door. I looked to see the President slowly entering the room. But she only gave the girl a glance and didn’t answer.
No, she did, her mouth moved.
However, her voice didn’t reach me. I had a bad feeling about this.
“President, are you okay?”
“I’m okay.”
She approached and I could faintly hear her voice.
But it wasn’t her usual clear soprano, her voice was hoarse, and if I hadn’t seen her speak, I wouldn’t have known whose voice it was.
Her eyes were swollen and her cheeks were flushed. She obviously had a fever. Even the way she walked looked more like she was being dragged along.
“You’re obviously not.”
“Sorry, I didn’t sleep last night and I’m tired. It looks like I caught a cold as well,” she confessed.
“You didn’t sleep, why?”
“I got nervous when I was thinking about the performance today.”
“So you get nervous too…”
“Did you think I was a robot or something?”
She frowned in displeasure, puffing out her cheeks,
“No, just because you’re always so at ease addressing everyone during assemblies and such.”
“That’s because I’m always trying my best,” she managed to get out, before breaking into a hacking cough.
What should I do? It didn’t seem like she couldn’t speak, but acting with that voice would be quite difficult.
“We’ll have to use a substitute. Is there anyone…” the moment I began to speak, the girls all looked away, “Oi, this is an emergency.”
“Obviously none of us want to,” one of the girls stepped forward as a representative, “one of us stand in for the President? Everyone’s coming to see her, aren’t they? If one of us went out they’d go like ‘what’s with this ham’ or something like that, no way.”
“That’s right! They’d shout at us for wasting their time if some other girl came out!”
Sakai added.
Immediately afterwards, he was dragged away by the girls.
“Then we’ll have to have you do it, but it’s too tough with that voice.”
“Hey, literature club, can you contact Eina-san?” The President asked hoarsely.
“Today’s a Saturday, so I should be able to.”
“Would you?”
I called Eina, just as she asked.
《Hello, Eina here.》
“Eina-san?”
《…Who is it?》
“It’s the President,” I told her.
《Ehh!?》 She let out a confused noise. 《What happened to your voice!?》
“I caught a cold. And so, I have a request…”
《If I can do anything to help, let me know!》
The President’s expression seemed to ease as if Eina’s words put her at ease.
And then:
“Thank you. Then would you do the voice for the lead role?”
She said with a calm expression.
《Ehh?》
“Huh?”
We said in unison.
“Wait a minute, when you say just the voice, you mean have her do it by phone?”
“That’s what I mean.”
“Won’t she obviously get found out?”
“That’s fine. What about, the protagonist was injured, and mute, so the demon uses magic so we can hear her?”
《I don’t think it would seem unnatural that way…》
If the original author said so, then that would work within the fiction.
“Thank you. Then we’ll have the narrator say that later.”
《Right, wait, that’s not the problem! I can’t act!》
“I told you when we were in the park with literature club, didn’t I? ‘You try practising too.’”
《You did, but I’m no good at all…》
“No, you can do it. Or more accurately, no one but you can do it. The protagonist is you, right? You don’t need to act, just say the words.”
《But… I might end up speaking in a monotone…》
“That’s fine. She’s lacking in feelings and suffering. I know that you can do it,” the President said, before she started to choke.
“Eina, you can hear how she is, will you do it?”
《Okay, I’ll do my best!》
“And we’re ready. Right, you look cool, Yagi-kun.”
The girl in charge of costumes and makeup slapped my shoulder.
“…Thanks.”
“Are you nervous?”
“I seriously am.”
“Geez, use the President as an example.”
I took a sidelong glance at her.
She was already dressed up as a shabby girl and looked ephemeral, as if she might disappear at any moment.
Even dressed up in such torn up clothes, she was still charming.
She was there quietly, with her eyes on the script, going over her last checks.
“Eina, it’s almost time, are you ready?”
I spoke to my phone where it had been placed by the sound system.
《I am! Leave it to me!》
She returned energetically with a voice containing no hint of nervousness.
I can’t be the only one nervous.
I let out a long sigh and straightened myself.
“Right, we’re starting!” Came the class representative’s yell as the President ran on stage from the wings.
A cheer greeted her onto the stage.
Eina’s line echoed throughout the hall.
《It’s painful, so painful. Maybe it would be easier if I was dead…》
Even though her voice was going through a sound system, it was still beautiful.
It was a perfectly clear, lovely soprano that was nice on the ears.
And then I headed onto the stage.
The classroom had been remodelled into a hall and was filled to capacity and I was overwhelmed by the greater number of spectators than I had expected.
“Young lady, might I ask of you a simple favour? Would you lend me your hand? My leg has been injured and I cannot stand.”
I was then on the stage for the rest of the play.
Throughout the first and second trials, the President and I, along with Eina, played our parts… with no major mistakes.
And then, finally, it was the third trial.
“I am on your side. Always and forever.”
As I spoke my line, I handed over the dagger prop to the girl, to the President.
The President’s mouth opened.
However, I couldn’t hear Eina’s voice.
Silence fell over the hall.
I glanced into the wings, and our classmates were panicking.
The audience didn’t seem to have realised anything was wrong yet.
What’s wrong, Eina? Why aren’t you saying anything…?
I went to speak but suddenly gave up. I shouldn’t think of Eina’s feelings, I should think of the character on the stage’s feelings.
What would the girl be thinking?
She’d be happy wouldn’t she? At feeling his love.
And then it came together. She was so happy she couldn’t get her feelings out.
So…
“I… am on your side.”
No sooner had I repeated the line, tears welled from the President’s eyes. Those tears might have been an illusion I was under. It was as if Eina was in front of me, standing with me on the stage.
I felt sorry for the President saying it like that, but I saw the President as Eina.
《I can’t think of a life without you. I want to be with you.》 Eina gave her line in response to mine.
Now we were heading straight for the happy end.
“Man, that was brilliant.”
Once the play had ended, Sakai came bounding in from the wings.
“Really?”
“Yeah, the audience were really into it. Also here, the recording.”
Sakai handed over an SD card.
“Thanks, you’re a saviour.”
Sakai had recorded the play on his phone. He was a reporter for the newspaper club, so he had to watch it himself, so I had him record it at the same time.
“Oh yeah, why’d you not get Eina-chan to come? It would have been better in person, wouldn’t it?” Sakai asked. He was probably asking such a leading question because he wanted to know who she was.
“Who knows.”
“As tight-lipped as ever, huh. You’re not going to let anything slip.”
“Of course not.”
Even if I would, I don’t know anything about her.
“I’m going to the literature club for a while,” I said and left Sakai behind.
I rushed towards the clubroom to shake off the heart-rending loneliness.
On the way, I sent the recording to Eina.
After a while, I got a reply.
Eina: That was amazing, I’m so impressed! It’s incredible to see something I wrote on stage! I’m a bit embarrassed my voice is in there too though…
Shuu: Was it not how you imagined?
Eina: It was exactly like I imagined it! No, it was even better! Since…
Shuu: Since?
Eina: I saw your face like this.
That’s right, this was the first time she’d seen my face.
Shuu: Did I ruin your impression?
Eina: Not at all! It was sort of… exactly like I thought… It was just like you!
At that Eina-like comment, I felt my heart warm.
＊
It was the last day of the festival.
Our school had an after-festival, limited to current students. They used a stage in the gym, had a volunteer band and a pro-wrestling show in the hall.
I wasn’t the type to go and party, so I was sipping a drink in the corner of the hall, absently watching the festivities. There were many others doing the same, so I didn’t feel alienated.
“Literature club.” Someone clapped me on the shoulder, it was the President.
“Is this okay, aren’t the student council managing this?”
“It’s not like I do all of the work,” she replied as loudly as she could. The band was booming through the hall, so I felt kind of sorry for her.
I gestured outside with a glance and she nodded. We left the gym and went behind the hall.
The night wind was pleasant.
“I’m really sorry,” the President started as we walked, “I should have paid better attention to my health.”
“Don’t worry about it, you were busy. Besides, you managed to do the play even in that condition, you’re amazing.”
The President had ended up performing twice, the morning before and that afternoon. On the second time, her voice had gotten much better so she had spoken her lines herself.
“I-I am…?”
“Yeah. You didn’t bother anyone, and even Eina seemed like she had fun.”
It was unfair to the President, but I was glad to be able to participate in the cultural festival with Eina, and she was happy for it too. It was a lucky break for us. Of course, I wouldn’t say that to the President, I couldn’t tell her that her getting a cold she had to struggle through was a ‘good’ thing, and it would have been rude to her acting too. But I really did want to let her know that she hadn’t caused any trouble.
“Thank you for your amazing acting, you really did well,” I said, and she looked away, her face slightly red.
“That goes from me too. Will you give my thanks to Eina too? I’ll be going now!”
The President ran off as if hiding her face.
She is cute sometimes, I thought.
I didn’t go back into the hall and instead stood in the night wind for a while.
Intermission 2 — Preparations to go to the Ball
Being able to be part of the play was like a dream.
And I’d be acting with Shuu…
Of course, I wasn’t acting on my own, but I think being able to break through the five years between us was the most important thing. Luckily, my cousin, aunt and uncle were all out on the Saturday. They were back the next day, but it seemed like the President had recovered by then.
Now then. It was Monday now. It was time to execute the mission I should have carried out on Saturday.
I took my cousin’s Wi-Fi hotspot.
My phone had no contract, so I couldn’t really connect to the internet outside and because of that, I couldn’t go out with Shuu-san. Just going somewhere there was free Wi-Fi would be boring so I borrowed the hotspot.
I didn’t steal it, I was just borrowing it. Let me just explain, even though she went in tears to her mother to get her to take out the contract, she barely used it.
You might think that I should ask to borrow it, but she’d never let me, if anything she’d definitely not let me because I asked.
I left for home a little early that day. Onee-chan was with her club and my aunt and uncle were at work. It was fine.
I’d used it before when I went to meet Shuu-san at C Station and I’d borrowed it quietly then and hadn’t been found out. I’m sure I won’t this time either.
I got home and sneaked into her room still with my bag on.
She had a pretty curtain, a cute desk, lots of stuffed toys, idol posters…
Her room had everything mine didn’t. I gave those things a sidelong glance as I put my head into the wardrobe.
The hotspot was thrown into the chaos within a paper bag.
I don’t need a pretty room.
If I had Shuu-san, I could live. Everything would be fine.
I hid the hotspot and charger in my pocket and left the room.
This was my pumpkin carriage.