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avidbeader · 6 years ago

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Okay, it’s been a roller coaster of a week for the Sheith community as we dealt with the “leaks”, so I’m going to toss something out here to help make it better. Sorry I can’t share a complete chapter of “Skydancer” or “The Quintessential Bond” or “The Icarists” yet, but I promise, I’m trying to peck away at those with what tiny bit of time I have.

This is a story that should probably end up around four chapters. I started it in June, stress-writing during the runup to Season 6. Current chapter is rated T for a couple of swear words but will probably stray into M territory in Chapter 3. Title is tentative but this has been thoroughly beta’ed by the wonderful @latart. I guess I’ll try and get it on AO3 in the next few days.

Give Me a Sign

Chapter 1 - Graduation

Shiro felt the satin at his shoulders slide to one side yet again and growled in frustration. As he reached to try and straighten it for the umpteenth time, Matt laughed and batted his hand away.

“Here, let me.” Shiro stood still as Matt unzipped the robe a little and looped the hood under his necktie. “Step one, check. Now, step two. Pidge! Need a safety pin!”

A tiny woman, with hair the exact same honey-brown as Matt, eeled through the growing crowd of faculty and reached into the pocket created by her elongated sleeve. She produced a pack of safety pins and stepped into Shiro’s personal space after removing one and thrusting the pack into Matt’s hand.

“Hold still. And don’t forget it’s in here after the ceremony or you’ll rip both your hood and your tie.”

Shiro’s eyebrows rose and he replied dryly, “Yes, ma’am.” He stayed still as her fingers worked quickly at his throat, pinning the hood dead center underneath his tie. Then she pushed at him to turn around. Matt grinned as she adjusted the hang of his hood, turning the point out to show both colors against the black.

Matt returned the safety pins. “Pidge, meet Takashi Shirogane, our new physics teacher. Shiro, this is Katie Holt, comp sciences department chair and my sister.”

Shiro brightened and held out a hand. “Nice to finally meet you. Matt’s mentioned you a few times. Have I seen you at the faculty meetings?”

She shook hands, not seeming to notice the glove covering his prosthesis, and nodded. “Yeah, probably. Nice to meet you, too. Matt told me about your boot camp reviews for the AP exams. If you’ve got some kind of outline that can be adapted to other subjects, I’d love to see it.”

Shiro nodded. “Yeah, I modified it from something the AP Stats teacher did at my previous school.”

“Excellent!” She shot him two thumbs-up and was about to go on, but a cry of “Pidge! Got your safety pins?” from the other side of the crowd made her roll her eyes before taking off.

Shiro chuckled and Matt clapped him on the shoulder. “I swear, you’ll eventually meet everyone here.”

“Really? Because every time I turn around, it looks like you’ve added another dozen faces.”

Matt shrugged. “Yeah, it’s a big faculty, but it’s a big school. We’ve been above two thousand students for five years now.”

Shiro shook his head. His last school, before the accident and prolonged recovery, had been in a smaller town and had a total of about five hundred kids. The graduating class alone here at Glenn High was bigger than that. But being able to step into a job as soon as the doctors cleared him—in the fourth quarter, no less—had been a godsend.

“Have you heard from Ms. Caplan lately?” Shiro asked after the teacher he’d replaced.

“Not for a couple of weeks. She didn’t try to find a job yet; still dealing with the family stuff.”

Shiro gave a tight, sympathetic smile, then jumped slightly as a voice sounded over a bullhorn. “All right, faculty! Two lines, evenly divided! Line leaders, go between the rows of seats and loop around to the front one! Start when the band shifts to the processional!”

Shiro followed Matt, who snagged his sister’s arm as she was passing and pulled her into line in front of him. As the teachers shifted into two groups, Shiro spotted the bullhorn in the hand of a woman in a vibrant pink sundress. For a moment he wondered why she wasn’t in regalia if she were a teacher, then realized as she plunged through the doors into the lobby with the seniors that she’d dressed for visibility against the navy, gold-trimmed robes the students wore. Now she was shouting instructions through the bullhorn at the students, scolding them for getting out of their designated lines.

Matt nodded in her direction. “Have you met Ms. Altea yet? Theater teacher. Always in charge of graduation.”

Shiro shook his head. Pidge leaned around Matt and grinned. “Yep, always and forever. A couple of English teachers tried to take it over a few years ago and it was the sloppiest ceremony we’d had in years. The principal went to Allura and almost begged on his knees for her to come back. She did, but only after she’d leveraged him for doing a fall musical as well as a spring one every year.”

Shiro laughed. He’d only been here for two months and already knew that Glenn prided itself on its arts programs. And the soccer, track, and swim teams. And the fact they offered five languages. And traditionally having the highest average of AP scores in the district.

He was fairly confident that he hadn’t done any damage to the students in the enviro and physics classes he’d taken over. He had simply started on his boot camp review, supplementing the few areas where he noticed weaknesses in the students’ knowledge, and the scores from the practice exams pointed to a robust passing rate. Certainly most of the students had come in from the tests feeling good. The hardest part had been getting used to the fact that everyone here called the environmental science class “APES” instead of “Enviro”.

The music shifted, jerking Shiro out of his thoughts, and he followed Matt out to the rows of faculty seats.

********************

Shiro was dealing with culture shock, yet again. The graduation ceremony was held in the basketball arena of an area university. This was the third ceremony of the day to take place here; the district had nine separate high schools and seven of them were so big that not even the football stands on their campuses would hold all the friends and relatives of the graduating classes. It was so very different from his old school, where they had used the auditorium, or even the small private school he had attended, with the ceremony and reception in a nearby hotel. He looked around as he stood in line in front of his seat, between Matt and a vaguely familiar face from the career and tech department, a large guy who had expressed interest in Shiro’s prosthesis from an engineering standpoint.

Pidge leaned over Matt again as they waited for the students to enter. “You are very, very lucky. This place only got air conditioning a year ago.”

Shiro blinked at that and Matt nodded. “Yeah, it was fucking miserable if the weather was typical June. Last year I think almost all of us cried when we entered the building, we were so relieved.”

The seniors began filing in, following the junior marshals in their white shirts or dresses with gold sashes. Like the faculty, they came in from both sides and did a rather impressive pattern of alternating rows. Even with the very efficient method, it still took ten minutes for the section to fill. Shiro nodded and smiled at a few of the students from his classes, and a couple of seniors actually broke line to fist-bump the teacher beside him, one murmuring, “I made it, Mr. Garrett!”

“Yes, you did, Luis. Knew you could.”

As Mr. Mayfield, the principal, instructed everyone to remain standing for the anthem, Shiro noticed a young man moving to one corner of the stage. He was dressed to the nines in a navy suit, except the jacket seemed to hang one size too large for him.

Then he began moving his arms and Shiro understood. Glenn was the magnet school for the deaf/hard-of-hearing population and the young man was the interpreter. His hands and arms moved continuously through the anthem as he mouthed the words.

Shiro found himself watching the interpreter with growing amusement. He was getting into it, his expression constantly reflecting his thoughts on what he was doing. He showed delight at the jokes the salutatorian included in the welcome, looked overly stern as the senior class president introduced the administration and school board members. Then the student chorus began singing “Seasons of Love” and the interpreter was this close to just dancing across the stage as he signed the lyrics and lip-synced along.

As the seniors who were part of the chorus separated from the other students and filed into the empty rows that had been held for them, Shiro noticed the interpreter change places with another young man who had been seated nearby. The second interpreter was striking, with longish dark hair. His suit was deep burgundy, with a blue-and-gold striped tie to represent the school colors, and his jacket was also a little large to give him greater freedom of movement.

His style was more subdued. He signed precisely and his face showed appreciation for the combination of jokes and serious thoughts that the valedictorian shared, but he was clearly trying to keep general attention on the speaker more than himself. As the interpreter continued with the closing remarks from the student body president and the principal’s warning to the audience not to create noise during the reading of the graduates’ names, Shiro grew more appreciative of his features and began wondering what color eyes he had.

And then Mr. Wimbledon-Smythe, department chair of social studies, began reading the names as students crossed the stage to shake hands with the superintendent and collect their diplomas from the principal. Shiro’s eyes widened when he realized just how fast the man was going. After the first few names, the only noise coming from the audience was the quickest of whoops or claps, because families realized that they might miss the reading of their student’s name. Both interpreters were standing now, taking turns finger-spelling each name. Shiro watched, racking his brain for the ASL alphabet that he learned once as a child for fun, and saw that they were spelling first initials and surnames only.

In a shockingly short time, the superintendent directed the students to turn the tassels on their caps to the left, the students screamed and tossed caps into the air to celebrate, and the recessional began. Shiro followed Matt out and the theater teacher directed them to stay in line, creating a funnel to the exits where families would be coming to find their children. The tech teacher turned to him, grinning openly.

“Okay, Allura just beat her record. Five hundred fifty-seven graduates and we’re done in fifty-eight minutes!”

Shiro laughed. “I can’t believe I’m going to get home in time to watch the game from tipoff.”

“Yeah? Warriors or Sixers?”

“Sixers, I guess. I grew up following the Bulls, so I don’t have a dog in the fight, but the Warriors have enough championships.”

“I hear you. I grew up in Houston. Oh, I think we met but just the once. Hunk Garrett, electrical and mechanical engineering.” “Takashi Shirogane, but call me Shiro. Sciences.”

Their conversation was cut off as the first students emerged from the basketball court and many of the faculty began applauding. Allura was in the middle, without the bullhorn but shouting, “Go, go, GO!” as she encouraged the students outside. As they filed out, many students traded high-fives or ran over to hug a favorite teacher. Shiro was surprised by one young man who exuberantly hugged every single teacher in his line, but played along.

Once the last students were out, Matt and Pidge led Shiro through a side door that let them slip around the growing crowds of family and friends and toward the bus that had been arranged from the school so the faculty wouldn’t have to fight for parking. Pidge unzipped her robe, revealing a loose, light green dress, and unpinned her hood.

Shiro worked his own pin free and handed it back to her. “Thanks for that.”

“No problem. What time are you coming in tomorrow?”

“Nine or ten. I still have a lot of science equipment to inventory and stow.”

She nodded. “I have to go through the laptop carts, make sure everything’s cleared from testing and such. And I still haven’t emptied my desk yet.”

“Emptied your desk?”

“Yep,” Matt replied. “You’ll need to clean out your desk and label all the furniture with your room number. When they do the floors, they just throw everything in the halls. They work so fast you can’t trust them. Get as much as you can into the closets, the big bookcases, or file cabinets. They don’t move those.”

Shiro groaned. “Okay, maybe I’m coming in at eight.”

Pidge straightened, seeing the bus driver headed their way. “Don’t forget, luncheon in the cafeteria at noon. The PTA got Sal’s Catering to do the food, so it should be a nice spread.”

Shiro nodded in response, noticing the two interpreters headed for the reserved parking area. They seemed to be in a heated discussion and finally the first interpreter threw up his hands and got into a car. The second interpreter headed for a motorcycle, trading the burgundy jacket for a leather one from a side compartment and pulling out a helmet.

Shiro hadn’t realized he was staring until Matt elbowed him. “See something you like?”

“You don’t know me well enough to ask that,” Shiro retorted.

Pidge snickered as Matt grinned and answered, “Yeah, I think I do.”

********************

Once again, Shiro found himself comparing his previous school to this one and being impressed. Instead of a basic pizza delivery, the luncheon was a full meal, including two entrees, sides and salads, with everything clearly labeled for a variety of dietary restrictions. There was a raffle with over twenty different gift cards as prizes. Mr. Mayfield quickly but enthusiastically ran through a list of recognitions, and Shiro stood when called upon as one of the faculty members who had joined mid-year.

Pidge grabbed Shiro’s elbow as the meal broke up. “Did you get your room finished yet?”

“Almost, I still have to get a couple more things onto shelves and defrost the mini-fridge in there.”

“Have you covered your shelves yet?”

“Covered them?”

“Yeah, the cleaning crew tends to splash wax on everything. Plus the band kids use some of the rooms for section practice in the summer and you don’t want them messing with anything visible.”

“Um, okay. What do I use? Newspaper?”

She shook her head and called out, “Keith! Hey, Keith!”

Shiro froze as the dark-haired interpreter from graduation turned and headed over. And Shiro found the answer to his question: he had blue eyes that shaded toward gray in a way that made them look almost violet.

“Keith, do you think Ms. Parham still has any old bulletin-board paper?”

He nodded. “Looked like it when I checked in with her this morning. Why?”

“Shiro here needs some for his shelves. Can you show him to her room?” She grinned mischievously, looking very like her brother for a minute.

Keith looked at Shiro, slightly nonplussed, and Pidge rolled her eyes. “Shiro, this is Keith Kogane, our ASL teacher. Shiro’s our new science teacher.”

Keith rolled his eyes in return, mocking her, before holding out a hand to shake. “Yeah, I heard Mayfield say so. Sure, follow me.”

Keith led him to a hall of the sprawling main building he had not seen before. As they walked, Shiro noticed that students had painted a lot of the ceiling tiles. The theme was Spanish: flags for different countries, logos for popular brands or soccer teams. Keith stopped at one open door and tapped on it. “Sarah? You still have spare bulletin-board paper?”

The woman in the room held up one hand as she finished counting a stack of textbooks and wrote a number down. “I do. Didn’t you already cover your shelves?”

“I did, but Shiro here could use some.”

She flapped a hand in invitation and they stepped inside. Shiro looked at the long swaths of colored paper taped across her shelves. Most pieces showed a life-sized outline of a body with colorful clothing labeled in Spanish.

“Sarah’s chair of world languages and we love her forever. She always does these big group projects and then saves them for the end of the year for just this purpose.”

“I thought you loved me because I throw a temper tantrum every spring to try and get you more ASL classes.”

“That too. Maybe next year they’ll listen.”

Each carrying a few loosely-rolled sheets of paper, they started toward Shiro’s room. Keith began rambling, “My position is currently funded through the EC department, not world languages, so they’ll only pay for enough classes to support the DHH kids. It’s always a feeding frenzy when the rest of the students try for the extra spaces. Sarah knows we could support a full slate of classes, and I really want to be in the classroom full time, but we haven’t been able to convince Central Office to spend the money yet. So I teach half the time and do classroom interpretation and student support the rest of the time.”

“How about your buddy?”

“Buddy?” Keith looked mystified.

“The other interpreter yesterday.”

“Oh! That’s Lance. Lance McClain. He’s one of the support staff for DHH.”

“He...gets into his work, I take it?”

Keith scowled as Shiro led him into his classroom. “He doesn’t pull that crap when he’s doing classroom interpretation, at least.”

“So his style is frowned upon?”

Keith sighed, unrolling the sheets of paper on a lab table. “It depends. There’s studies showing that interpreters tend to adjust how they work depending on their audiences. We tend to mouth what we’re communicating more when we have hearing people in the audience, for example. But when Lance gets in front of a large crowd like that...it’s like he’s performing. And that’s not our job. We’re there to assist communication, not put on a show.”

Shiro nodded, thinking about how easily distracted he had been from the remarks being made in favor of watching Lance’s expressions. “I see what you mean.”

Keith stayed to lend a hand as Shiro covered his shelves and insisted on helping carry the defrosted mini-fridge to his car. “Trust me, the football coaches actively search the school for any fridge not behind a locked door and co-opt it for their Gatorade supply. And then they don’t put them back. Keep it at your place. I’m pretty sure it was Mr. West’s before it was Ms. Caplan’s, so she won’t want it shipped to her.”

They walked back in. Shiro planned to take one more look at his room, check in with the department chair, and go home and binge some Netflix, but he was reluctant to part from Keith. As he tried to think of something to ask, debating between coffee or a drink, the office admin’s voice came over the PA system.

“Any teachers in the building, if you are available the counselors need help stuffing report cards for mailing. Please report to student services if you can help.”

Keith glanced at him. “Want to?”

“Sure.”

********************

One of the counselors set them up with stacks of report cards, transcripts, and pre-addressed envelopes, with envelope glue and a box to hold sealed envelopes. Shiro and Keith shared a table and began working through the sophomores, M-R. Keith had obviously helped out like this before and had a system, creasing folds with his thumbnail and swiping glue on the envelopes in two efficient strokes. Shiro did his best to copy him.

As they found their rhythm, they began chatting. Shiro learned that Keith had been riding motorcycles since he was eight years old, had a second-degree black belt in aikido, and lived alone with a pair of cats. He began learning sign language in his teens after a young cousin suffered hearing loss through meningitis. Shiro shared his own love of cats, his taste for the latest Netflix shows, and his dreams of being an astronaut until he exceeded the height limit in college. They compared other places they had taught: Shiro in a small town between their location and the coast, and Keith at the western campus of the state’s school for the deaf.

“I like it much better here. It’s counter-intuitive, but I love teaching ASL to a mixed population. The hearing kids are usually the ones who drive the ASL club and do outreach, because to them it’s more like a cool secret code than learning a language. And it’s just nice to be in a major metro area; I had to drive almost an hour south if I wanted anything that wasn’t a burger chain, pizza, or a mom-and-pop diner.”

Shiro nodded vigorously. “We had one non-Taco Bell Mexican restaurant in our town. That was it. No Indian, no Thai, no Greek...nothing.”

“Ooh, I haven’t had Indian in a while. I think the best one is Rasal’s, over on Western Boulevard. Have you been yet?”

Shiro shook his head.

“Want to go?”

Shiro froze, nearly dropping the bottle of glue, and felt his face grow hot. “I...um, sure. Yes. Absolutely.”

Keith nodded and fished his phone from his pocket. He unlocked it and opened a new contact before sliding it across to Shiro. “Drop your info in there. Would Friday work?”

Shiro tapped in his name and number. “Yeah, that’ll be great.” He slid the phone back, then playfully touched his fingers to his lips and brought his hand down in the sign for “thank you”, one of the few that he remembered.

Keith smiled and responded with his own gesture, spreading his fingers slightly and touching his thumb to his chest, then spelled S-H-I-R-O, his fingers almost flying.

Shiro felt a sudden urge to shove the table between them aside and pounce on him.

Keith’s near-violet eyes danced but his own cheeks were turning pink. He cleared his throat and picked up the next report card in his pile. “Race you? Loser buys?”

Shiro grinned. “You’re on.”

****************************************************************

Thanks for reading! Next chapter up...when I get it finished.

#voltron #sheith #avid writes #give me a sign by avidbeader #keep calm and sheith on

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spicyveggiesub · 2 years ago

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[ENG] Shoujo☆Kageki Revue Starlight -The STAGE Junior High- Regalia Blu-ray Booklet Messages

These messages from the Siegfeld Junior High were included in the lyrics booklet in the Regalia Blu-ray. The messages are long, so beware of that and take your time to read their thoughts about the play and the struggles they had to overcome. I recommend reading after you've seen the play!

Aoki Hina

Something I'm grateful for is that the Junior High has had many opportunities to speak with people who support us in person, and before the [first] Junior High stage play started, we received a lot of words of support, such as "I'm looking forward to it" and "Please do your best". However, at the time that we received such words, we hadn't received the script yet, so as much as I was happy that people were looking forward to it, it felt sort of irresponsible to reply "I'll do my best!" to something I hadn't even started yet.

I'm sure if I was someone who could act, sing, dance, and fight well then I wouldn't have been worried about anything, but I wasn't even sure what the play would be like or how much I was capable of, and I felt a vague sense of anxiety towards my first Revue. I didn't feel very good about responding "I'll do my best!" while everything felt so up in the air to me. I think I was a little afraid of not being able to meet the expectations of the people who were looking forward to it, since I was aware of how underdeveloped I was as an actor.

That's why being able to finish Regalia's run gave me all the more confidence. Everything I gained from the experience of this play is a valuable asset. Compared to before rehearsals begun, my way of thinking changed after I was able to finish the play, and I can really feel how much more I'm capable of now. Moments when I notice that I changed and grew without realizing it make me really happy, and the fact that I'm able to have a lot of those realizations is one of the things I love the most about the stage.

Of course, I don't mean that I'm satisfied with my current skill level, but I feel like from now on, when receiving support for the next play, I'll be able to reply "I'll do my best!" with confidence. These kinds of changes in my feelings make me really happy, personally.

One thing I've often thought about after experiencing the play is that if I knew this would be my future, I would have wanted to learn dance or ballet when I was younger. Even now, I sometimes think of it in passing, even though I can't change it. For all of middle and high school, I wasn't part of any clubs, and I hadn't exercised for my whole life, and I realized that it was necessary if I wanted to shine more in my role. When I told this to my mom, she said, "Then you probably wouldn't have learned piano." My family wouldn't have been able to enrol me in that many lessons, so maybe if I chose dance or ballet, then I really wouldn't have learned piano, and in that case, I think it's good that this is how I am now. If I never studied music, then I wouldn't be here in the first place, and I don't think I would have sung opera at the beginning (lol).

I ended up talking about something kind of dark, but I like to think of my public self as someone who entertains others, so I'd be happy if you had fun or gained energy from watching the Junior High's activities. From now on, we'll have lots of opportunities to meet, so please come and see us if you'd like. I'll do my best for the second stage play too!

Matsuzawa Kanon

At the start of this past year full of discoveries, which has gone by in a flash, was the pep rally. I felt a mix of emotions, nervous and excited, wondering what could happen with these five people.

The five of us have completely different personalities. None of us are similar at all, enough that it made me think, "Can even we be this different?" But I think the fact that we're made up of people like that is what makes the Junior High so special. I never thought that we'd get to perform in a play where we're the leads. During this play, I think I was able to show you various sides of my face, such as my face as a part of the Junior High, my face as Shiro, and my face when I'm with all of you.

When I first received the script, I was so worried about whether I would be able to do it. We were able to stand on stage for the play Delight in February, but this time we're the ones taking the lead, so I was worried that we might destroy what our seniors have been building up all this time. However, even though I was worried, I was looking forward to it a hundred times more. With such a wonderful script, director, and cast, amazing music, stage fighting I get to try for the first time, dancing, and warm staff, I get to think more deeply about my role, test things out, and act to my heart's content. Whenever I thought about that, I was beside myself with excitement. Meanwhile, we had a prerehearsal a step in advance. I get really nervous in any situation, and I didn't want that to pose an obstacle to my acting, and it helped to decrease my anxiety a bit. We also played a minigame, which left a deep impression on me, and thanks to that as well, I was able to face the actual rehearsals without stiffening up. The director, Ichimura-san, taught us a lot. If we were stuck, we could discuss it with him; if we did something well, he praised us right away; and if we started to hold back a little, he could see it clearly. Every day, I ended up thinking that he could really see everything.

There were some things I started to see as I got the hang of things. Instead of just working nonstop, it's better to take a step back and start over, watch others act, absorb it and make use of that for yourself. I also realized that it's important to accept and enjoy praise when you're given it. It was really fun to make discoveries like that every day. When I went home with the members, we talked about a lot of things, and when there were just two of us, we had deep conversations, and I talked a lot with people outside of my members as well. All of that is what keeps me going. For some reason, time passed so quickly when I was in that rehearsal hall. I often went home when it was dark outside, so when I saw the bright evening sky for once, I smiled while looking at the sky without realizing it because I hadn't seen it in so long. For this play, I learned a great deal of genres, such as singing, dance, acting, and stage fighting, and I really feel like it's an amazing production. I was very moved when I actually performed on stage. It felt different from February. I remember being really happy when I was told that I was standing on stage confidently. I think I was able to channel all of the motivation and feelings I felt during rehearsals into the stage. It was a dense and extremely fun time. There wasn't even a single thing I'd call painful.

I was able to experience a ton of different things before the play. Events, handing out business cards, and livestreams; I believe all of it helped us get to where we are today. We can only walk forward because all of you are creating a path for us. I only hope that we'll be able to repay the kindness we've received from so many people through the stage and other methods. Please continue to support the Junior High in the future!

Fukagawa Ruka

The Junior High was announced in November 2021, and then through the seniors' stage play in February 2022, we were able to introduce ourselves as Stage Girls to all of you. Then, when I heard that we would be putting on a play with the Junior High as the leads in October, I was nothing but worried about whether we could create a play that wouldn't bring shame to Starlight and whether we would be accepted by all of you, the Stage Production Department.

However, that feeling of wanting to meet expectations is what I set my heart on and I went into the production desperate to achieve it. Compared to when I stood on stage before, I was more nervous; there was more fighting, singing, and dancing; and there were a lot of things I was doing for the first time. I remember my head being full every day during the rehearsal period. This time around, I fought with a weapon for the first time. My boomerang is named "Wild chaser". When I looked it up, it seemed to mean a chaser of the wild, and I think it's a very Ryoko-like weapon. Since I can't throw it on stage, I wasn't sure how I was going to fight. After discussions with the staff as well, the boomerang that had a blade in Starira ended up as a weapon without a blade in the play, and I held and fought with it on stage.

Personally, I'm not great at expressing myself or putting emotion into my facial expressions or movements, and at one point I wanted to run away because I was frustrated by the difference in skill level between myself and the people around me, but even so, what made me want to stand on stage was the fact that the four other Junior High members and the seniors were there.

Hina-chan, who is a hard worker, a dependable leader, and rehearsed fight scenes with me every day after rehearsal. Kanon-chan, who is the easiest to talk to about my worries because we're the same age, and who managed to express Shiro's complex and restrained feelings well through trial and error. Kokoro-chan, who portrayed the strength at Minku's core, as even while she puts a smile on everyone's faces with her innocent demeanor, she faces her reason for standing on stage head on in spite of Kuina pushing her away time and time again. Yuria-chan, who expressed Kuina's frustration at realizing how far she is from her ideal upon meeting Stella, despite having put in hard work to become Frau Platin; and her complex feelings towards Minku.

And then Nomoto Hotaru-san who plays Yukishiro Akira, who supported the Junior High as Siegfeld's king. Ozaki Yuka-san who plays Otori Michiru, who watched over the Junior High and Minku warmly while supporting Akira from the shadows. Takeuchi Yume-san who plays Liu Mei Fan, who resolved to shoulder the responsibility of Siegfeld after the upperclassmen graduate. Along with Tono Hikaru-san who plays Yumeoji Shiori and Kudo Haruka-san who plays Tsuruhime Yachiyo, who only appeared once in the concert and after-talk sections this time, I'm looking forward to the day when we can stand on stage as all ten Siegfeld members from the bottom of my heart.

When that time comes, rather than being a junior who just gazes at the seniors' backs, I want to become an actor who can work together in friendly rivalry with them. Even though I'm inexperienced, please enjoy the brilliance you can feel from that gaze, those words, those movements, and that resolve, as many times as you'd like.

Please continue to support the Junior High as we aim to be noble students of Siegfeld, and continue to grow as Stage Girls with the resolve to stand and live on the stage!

Kuge Kokoro

The first time we met all of you in the Stage Production Department was the pep rally. On that day, it was the first time the Junior High met in person, and we were so stiff and polite that it was laughable, but now our dressing room is lively and all five of us are carefree. Hina-san is always straightforward and disciplined, and Yuria-san is the onee-san in charge of being the straight man, I guess~. Kanon-chan is always being silly somehow and is the most cheerful and energetic in the Junior High, and Ruka-chan is always going at her own pace and her smile is cute………………. I think when I heard that we would be putting on a play with the Junior High as the leads, my mind went blank and I just spaced out alone at home.

We stood on stage together for the first time in Delight, and because I practiced a lot during rehearsals, I felt a lot of pressure and worried about whether I would be able to see it through to the end. Meanwhile, rehearsals passed by in a flash, and maybe I was actually taking it pretty easy... Whenever we had time to rest, we all went to go find the snacks provided by catering! Although, now that I think about it, I think I was pretty awkward with the people I met for the first time... I was nervous when I met the director Ichimura-san in the first rehearsal, after the Junior High had finished prerehearsals ahead of everyone else. I'm the type of person who takes a while to open up to others, so I was pretty nervous and unsure while acting too, and I might have put emphasis in weird places. But Ichimura-san is just a really bright and enthusiastic person, so!! When introducting himself, he said "Please call me Keiji-san!" lol. I'm always nervous, so I ended up just calling him "Ichimura-san!". My next goal is to be able to call him without getting nervous. Ichimura-san told that stiff and awkward me, "First off, just do what you want to do and act freely," and from there I thought about what I wanted to do and I think I was able to get more comfortable. Even so, when something wasn't going well, he gave suggestions, and I received a lot of help from him while marveling at how many ideas he had.

Speaking of being helped, the Edel seniors and the three guests lent us a lot of their strength. I just got helped a lot, it seems...... lol. Especially for the Revue, they really whipped us into shape...!!

At first, the five of us were muttering "ugh, we can't fight while singing", and then Nomoto-san said "It's okay! If you keep doing it, you'll end up being able to do it!! (smile)" lol. I was rather involved with the three guests, and I felt like my head was going to deflate because of the different weapon sizes every day! When I looked back on it, I thought things like "Well~ This day was the giant scythe day..."

When a Revue rehearsal finished, everyone was lying on the floor or eating glass noodles. By the way, I was part of the glass noodles camp!! Before I realized it, those rehearsals were over, and then the 15 performances passed by in a flash. I think I went to the theater while fighting with my body that was getting heavier and heavier every day. It made me realize once again just how amazing the seniors' stamina is.

I'm totally changing the subject, but Minku actually didn't fight with Yukishiro-senpai even once. If there's an opportunity to, I'd like to fight with her a little bit~ Just being silly☆ I tend to end up talking randomly about this and that, but once again, I'm so happy that the five of us are together!! Every day is so fun!!

I'm a small star right now, but I'll work hard to become a big star one day!!

Hey, hey, ho!!!!!

Sato Yuria

My assignment to myself for this play was "escape from my self-importance". Kuina hates losing, and she's a girl who aims for the top and works harder than everyone else. Even when rehearsals are over, she practices alone.

When I think back on my student days, I think I resembled Kuina in a few ways......... During exam periods, I shut myself in the library to study. Even for baton twirling which I did for a long time, before a large team competition, I would practice by myself before group practice. The biggest thing I have in common with her is being able to work hard and persistently by myself. However, this trait that could be thought of as a strength became a huge obstacle for me this time around.

One day, the director Ichimura-san pointed this out to me. "Your acting is self-important, you can't respond to your partner's lines properly." Due to my single-mindedness and practicing by myself, I froze up when exchanging lines with my partner, and I could do nothing but try to overcome that part of myself.

I faced the exact same worries that Kuina experienced within the play. Just listen to your partner's lines and answer them with how you feel. Even if my brain understood these simple things, it was really, really hard to put into practice... Honestly, I found myself being unable to enjoy one of the greatest pleasures of theater; the feeling of being there.

"You're always so tense and practicing all by yourself… As you are now, it doesn't look like you enjoy standing on stage, Kuina."

"You always try to solve everything by yourself, and that's why your acting is so self-centered, too!"

These are lines that Minku says to Kuina, but they struck me so hard it hurt in those days.

And then, Minku's lines that I heard over and over again resonated with me in a good way on the first day of performances.

In a theater with an audience and a tense atmosphere, the two of us threw our lines back and forth. There were changes in facial expressions and differences in the sway of our emotions that I couldn't notice during rehearsals. This is what it's like to feel your partner through your heart, eyes, ears, and skin. I understood it for the very first time then. It's a very sensory experience, so it's difficult to describe how it changed with words, but I'm certain that it was the environment around me that pulled that realization out of me.

The countless words I received from the audience, my co-stars, and Ichimura-san. In that moment, I felt the truth of the statement that you can't make a stage by yourself, deep in my bones. Starting from that day, as the performances piled up, I started to enjoy the feeling of being there and acting there in the flesh. And in the important scenes where I was alone with Minku, I think the atmosphere of our exchanges changed every day.

In the final performance, I was saved by these words: "Since neither of us listened to the other's lines, our lines couldn't get through to each other. But it's different now. We're really performing together." They're lines from Minku to Kuina, but I felt like they were lines from Kokoro-chan, who helped me SO much with practice, to me. I hope that it's true (lol). I'm sure I'll stumble, freeze up, and hesitate many more times from now on, but I hope I can make progress day by day with this experience as a foundation.

Fun isn't all the stage is. But right now, the stage is fun!

(JP text)

#revue starlight #shoujo kageki revue starlight #interviews #regalia #siegfeld junior high

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