*THE NEXT DAY*
*SCHOOL IDOL CLUBROOM - NIJIGASAKI HIGH SCHOOL - ODAIBA - TOKYO*
AKI: "Girls! Setsuna's finished her manga!"
AYUMU: "Whoa! Let me see!"
KASUMI: "Hey, I wanna read it first!"
YU: "Me! Me! Me!"
SETSUNA: "C-Calm down, now; it's not going to fly away or anything."
...
LANZHU: "You're a master at this, Setsuna! Lanzhu absolutely loves this manga!"
MIA: "It's pretty cool! I never saw comic books like this back in the States."
SHIORIKO: "You have the natural talent to be a manga artist, Setsuna."
SETSUNA: "Aw, stop, you're making me blush!
I could only finish it because you all told me you wanted to read it.
You all gave me the extra energy to keep going with the supplies you sent.
I think it was all worth it if you enjoyed it even a bit!"
KASUMI: "Setsunaaa! Next time 'round, write one with Senpai and me as the main characters, pleeease!"
AYUMU: "Could I ask you to draw one about when your assistant Aki and I were kids, too?"
LANZHU: "Lanzhu wants to be in a manga too! Turn her into a superhero!"
YU: "Can you put me in it too?"
AKI: "You sure are getting a lot of requests, huh, Setsuna?"
SETSUNA: "Yes. And I want to fulfill all of them! But uh... Let's tone back the self-insert stuff, okay?"
AKI: "Very well, I'll leave you girls to do that."
Meanwhile, it'll give me time to prepare the work for today's practice since I'll be taking a trip with Kasumi later.
I don't want Yu to think I'm irresponsible.
...
SHIZUKU: "Senpai?"
AKI: "Hey there, Shizuku. You just missed Setsuna; she's finished her manga."
SHIZUKU: "She has? How nice. I'm proud of her."
AKI: "Have you calmed down since we last spoke?"
SHIZUKU: "Yes..."
AKI: "I've heard how worried Theater Club has been about you, how you ran out of the rehearsal yesterday.."
SHIZUKU: "I'm sorry. I can't bring myself to face them."
AKI: "You still think it's your fault that Midori gave up the monodrama?"
SHIZUKU: "I don't just think it's my fault... I know it is."
AKI: "Based on what you've told me about her, she doesn't sound like someone who would give up on a performance that easily."
SHIZUKU: "Well... That's true, but this time may be different."
AKI: "Sure, you think that. Which is why I swallowed my pride and asked her myself about it."
SHIZUKU: "Huh?! ...What did she say?"
AKI: "She laughed. She said, 'So that flyer was Shizuku's idea, huh?'
When she said the performance wasn't something meant for an audience, it seems it was because she made it as a means for some self-reflection."
SHIZUKU: "Self-reflection?"
AKI: "Mhm. Remember how she said a lot of theater troupes scouted her? She said she was worried about whether she could join one and perform for them properly.
She said that she had always been performing however she wanted and didn't really get why people praised her. She is happy to be appreciated, but...she's wondering if she would do well in a theater company because she's only ever followed her own rules. So that's why she tried thinking it over with a performance."
SHIZUKU: "President Midori was worried? So she performed a monodrama to help her answer her own questions?"
AKI: "That appears to be the case. She wanted to do some soul-searching and figure out if she could perform for someone else and if she wanted to do that at all.
What's more, she said seeing you perform made her think about those questions."
SHIZUKU: "What?! Me?"
AKI: "You manage to naturally combine performing how you want with performing so that others enjoy it.
That means you're performing both for yourself and for others. It's amazing.
Lastly, she said that she respects you from the bottom of her heart."
SHIZUKU: "It can't be... I've admired Midori for such a long time! I was so moved when I came to Nijigasaki and saw her perform."
AKI: "The two of you were fans of each other all along. Isn't that something?"
SHIZUKU: "Do you think I can look at it that way? ...I'm going to see her right now!
Thank you very much!"
All's well that ends well.
Now, back to my work.