They all pushed me!

"This Cosplayer named Meiya has produced many Tokyo BLADE Cosplay photos before, and the degree of restoration is also very high. It can be seen that she has put a lot of effort from making the costumes to the actual shooting, but——"

"It's the erotic kind."

Kitagawa Rumi, who was two years older than her in sexual experience, put the word for her quite straightforwardly, holding up a finger and repeating it:

"Squeaky Scabbard Princess!"

"Ahhhhhhhhhh-"

Seeing Samejima Abiko showing signs of losing control of her emotions again, Kitagawa Ryo quickly covered the mouth of the culprit lying on his back:

"Alright, alright, Ruby, go back and get ready. We're waiting to see your performance in the second half."

"Yeah, brother and Abhiko, don't worry, I'll go back first."

Kitagawa Rumi smiled confidently, then waved goodbye to the two of them, and walked back to MEM啾 and others under the gaze of others.

I have to say, in this case where Kitagawa Ryo is the audition judge, she is really a candidate who would not be suspected if she just approached him to chat. After all, the identity of brother and sister is really too useful in this kind of situation.

"Hey, Brother Beichuan, Brother Beichuan."

After finally calming down Samejima Abiko who was pissed off again by Kitagawa Rumi, Kitagawa Ryo raised his head and heard the voice of Kamoshida Sakuya, who was waving at him enthusiastically, as if he wanted to say something private.

In fact, the auditions for male actors had mostly ended in the morning. He and Daiki Himekawa were the most popular choices and got the two roles they wanted, "Toku" and "Toki" in the Shibuya Group respectively, so there was no need to be shy when calling him at this time.

"What's wrong?"

Kitagawa Ryo followed the other party's wave and walked to a secluded corner of the corridor. He had actually known Kamoshida Sakuya for some time and had a clear understanding of his character. Although he was an absolute scumbag, he was not a bad person. Especially his concentration and purity in acting, which made him, as an actor, quite admired.

"That's the person just now, Meiya, do you know her, Beichuan brother?"

As soon as he came closer, Kamoshida Sakuya put his arm around his shoulders affectionately. Although he lowered his voice deliberately, his nonchalant tone was still the same:

"This is a very troublesome woman. How should I put it? Should I say that she has a personality that is obsessed with exhibitionism? Whenever something happens, she will post updates on her personal account, especially when something unpleasant happens. Almost every time, she will post it on Twitter, and then let her fans attack her. This has happened several times before."

After seeing Beichuan Liang's skeptical look, he also added:

"Brother Beichuan only hangs out in the ACG world occasionally, so I don't know if it's normal, but I've been here for a long time. If you don't believe me, you can ask other people."

"You mean, she'll hang up what happened today?"

In response to Kitagawa Ryo's question, Kamoshida Sakuya nodded firmly:

"Anyway, from what I know about her, she will definitely do that. After all, she is the only one who was scolded so harshly by Teacher Samejima Abiko. It's very embarrassing."

As he spoke, Kamoshida Sakuya pinched his throat and pretended to understand everything:

"The planning of the stage play of Tokyo BLADE is really bad. People looked down upon me because I am a model with no acting experience in this field. I like Tokyo BLADE so much and I put a lot of effort into every cosplay. I guess it can be considered as a promotion for the original work. And the author's attitude is so bad that I can't believe it. He said this and that, and it's like he didn't even look at the actors who had already decided on the roles..."

“Oh, by the way, I have to add at the end, ‘I’m a little frustrated, so I’ll take a break from Cosplay activities for a while.’ Anyway, it’s pretty much the same, I’ll definitely post something similar.”

Amused by Kamoshida Sakuya's lifelike imitation, Kitagawa Ryo couldn't help shaking his head, reaching out and patting the other's shoulder, and casually said:

"Thank you for your reminder, but it's okay. If the other party really wants to post a status like this, then let her do it. Although I don't think she will do it."

"Huh? Why?"

"Because this isn't some large-scale cosplay event. Isn't she here to audition for the role of 'Scabbard Princess'? As long as she watches the second half this afternoon, she won't be able to complain about the actress being chosen... After all, she's not the only one here, and she'll end up humiliating herself."

Kamoshida Sakuya nodded upon hearing this and gave him a hearty smile:

"So that's the case, then I'm relieved."

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After finishing the conversation with Kamoshida Sakuya, there was not much time left for the halftime break. Kitagawa Ryo poured himself a cup of tea and drank it, then walked straight back to the practice room that was currently being used for auditions, quietly waiting for the second half of the audition to officially begin.

After a while, as if remembering something, Kitagawa Ryo opened his eyes again, and took two steps forward to the side of Kichijoji Raiko, who came here as an assistant with Samejima Abiko today. He had met her several times before. As an assistant chosen by Abiko and having a pleasant relationship with her for several years, her personality and comic skills were naturally impeccable. The "Today's A Little Sweeter" that he had been the main writer for a short time was also one of the most popular girls' comics in the market, and it should soon enter the one-stop industry chain of animation and live-action adaptations.

"When I go up to act with someone later, please hold Abiko, Ms. Kichijoji. If necessary, you can also cover her mouth and hold her arms."

Although it sounded like a joke or teasing, Kichijoji Raiko, who had worked closely with Samejima Abiko as a comic assistant for several years and had gradually become close to her in private, also knew Samejima Abiko's character very well, so she nodded in agreement:

"Don't worry, Kitagawa-kun. I will definitely take good care of Abiko when the time comes..."

After explaining these matters, as the actors and judges returned and took their seats one after another, the second half of the first day of the "Tokyo BLADE" stage play project auditions officially began.

Samejima Abiko has restrained herself a lot compared to before, but she was replaced by Kitagawa Ryo who was taking his time. The audition method has also changed from a one-man show to a rival show, but under his aggressive and oppressive gaze, many of the auditioning actors even stuttered their lines, and their performance was not as good as the one in the morning, so far no one has passed the first round of review.

Unlike the supporting roles, the most important roles in this stage play project were selected with almost the rigor of a movie. If we have to make an analogy, this is only the first round of auditions.

"There's Magana."

When this name was pronounced by Toshiro Kindaichi, the originally dejected atmosphere in the room suddenly became cheerful. Many dejected actors raised their heads at the same time and fixed their eyes on the back of Kana Arima who stood up and walked forward.

"I'm Kana Arima from Kitagawa Ryo's personal agency."

Beichuan Liang watched her bow slightly to the surroundings politely.

Arimagana actually has no experience in performing in stage plays. She debuted as a child star in film and television, and has not taken on any work in this area in her acting career so far.

But when she stood in the center of the stage, everyone looked at her at once. The dense gazes fell on her like spotlights, and every line of sight was focused there.

Honestly, Arima Kanai was used to this kind of situation.

She slowly raised her head in the direction of Beichuan Liang.

A long time ago, the person who took her to the center of such a stage, turned all the scorching spotlights towards her, and told her that she could perform to her heart's content and shine as brightly as the sun on the retinas of all the audience was Kitagawa Ryo.

With her back to the audience but facing Kitagawa Ryo, Arima Kana raised the corners of her mouth and showed him an extremely brilliant smile, even making Kitagawa Ryo, who had already entered into the role, dazed for a moment.

So, you see, from the beginning it was -

"The role I'm auditioning for is 'Scabbard Princess'."

It was you who asked me to play the leading female role.

Chapter 9: About Her

"Although I can clearly feel that Kana's acting is much better than everyone else's, there's always an indescribable sense of disharmony... Does Akane feel the same way?"

Some time after Magana's audition officially began in the center of the venue, Kitagawa Rumi, who was still in the audience, pulled the sleeve of Kurokawa Akane beside her and whispered in her ear.

"It's probably because of the character setting. The character of Shoji has long hair in the original work. If it weren't for Kana's superb acting skills, the hairstyle alone would subconsciously make people feel that the play is out of place. I actually always felt that Kana was more suitable for the role of Jianyi, and the trend on the Internet is basically the same."

Kurokawa Akane also whispered in her friend's ear in a voice as thin as a mosquito, and after thinking for a while, she added her thoughts:

"The reason why Kana wanted the role of Shoji is essentially because Shoji is the heroine of this stage play. If the adaptation this time is the fourth part of the original work, the Tenkabu chapter, she will definitely be willing to audition for Kengi, the heroine who has the most scenes in this chapter."

At this point, Kurokawa Akane paused for a moment and turned his gaze to the eye-catching scene between Arimaka and Kitagawa Ryo:

"Although Kana has co-starred with Ryo in a lot of popular TV series since her debut as a child star, the two have never played the leading male or female lead in Spider, Shoplifters, or Tomorrow and Pests in the past two years. When Ryo was the leading male lead, Kana was a supporting role. In the well-known works where Kana played the leading role, Ryo either did not participate at all or played a supporting role."

"Even the relatively similar "Tomorrow" and "Pests", whether from the perspective of publicity or the specific distribution of plot roles, Kana and I are definitely the two female protagonists."

Looking at Kurokawa Akane, who was unconsciously puffing out her chest with a little inexplicable pride while speaking, Kitagawa Rumi shook her head helplessly:

"They're competing even on something like this. As expected of Akane and Kana."

Kurokawa Akane did not respond to Rumi's complaint. She just hugged her knees, looked in the direction of Arima Kana, and muttered to herself thoughtfully:

"Actually, I've always felt that among the three of us, Kana is the one who is least interested in this audition, or in other words, the one with the lowest desire to win?"

As one of the most outstanding new generation actors who has been deeply engaged in experiential acting for ten years, Akane Kurokawa does not have any trace of Shoji in Kana Arima. This is not the result of the difference between experiential and expressionist acting. In fact, no matter which school it is, it is always the most basic step for an actor to understand the role first.

In the next moment, Kurokawa Akane suddenly sorted out Arima Kana's thoughts.

This audition was just her way of expressing her feelings to Kitagawa Ryo.

Arima Kane wants to work with him as the male and female lead, whether it is a stage play, a movie or a TV series, any form of media does not matter.

That's why she took the initiative to audition for the role of Shaoji, a role that was obviously not suitable for her. This was not because she was in competition with the other party, whose publicity was 90% true and 10% false.

She wasn't auditioning for the role of Shea-ji.

Instead, she was auditioning for the female lead role of Kitagawa Ryo.

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On the jury, Samejima Abiko also noticed something wrong with Arima Kana. Although she herself did not know much about acting, as the original author of "Tokyo BLADE", her understanding of her characters, especially main characters like Shoji, was quite accurate.

How is Magana doing?

He is full of emotions, his lines are fluent, and his movements and demeanor are managed perfectly. He also has a perfect understanding of each other in his acting with Kitagawa Ryo, and his ease makes people feel that the other person is enjoying the atmosphere of the moment.

But she just doesn’t look like Shaoji.

Although they were standing together with Kitagawa Ryo, who was dressed as BLADE, it just didn't feel like it was Shoji and BLADE communicating. The more they looked, the weirder it seemed. Samejima Abiko propped up her chin and looked around. When her eyes unconsciously moved to the manga assistant Kichijoji Raiko who was sitting next to her, she suddenly realized what was wrong and quietly reached out to bump her elbow:

"… Lai Zi, do you feel that?"

Samejima Abiko spoke in a low voice after careful consideration, which also made Kichijoji Raiko, who had been smiling and holding her chin while watching Kitagawa Ryo and Arima Kana in the field, turn around with some confusion:

"What's wrong?"

"Rather than saying these two are acting in Tokyo Blade, it feels more like they are acting in Just a Little Sweet Today..."

"Eh? Now that Abiko mentioned it, it seems a bit true - but Kana is indeed a very cute child who makes people's heart flutter. If there is a chance for a live-action adaptation in the future, I would also like Kana to play the heroine in my work. Kitagawa-kun is also very suitable."

After confirming that Arima Kana was not here for the role of Shoji, Samejima Abiko relaxed and turned her eyes away from her, helping Kichijoji Raiko to fantasize:

"The gears of fate have begun to turn - the second miracle of "It's a shame to escape but it's useful" seems to be about to be born."

As the most typical example of an original work being promoted by a TV series in recent years, the original author of the manga "It's Not My Fault That I'm Popular!", Tsunaya Umino, has been the envy of many of his peers after the live-action drama adapted from the manga became a huge hit. After all, even if you don't consider it from a commercial perspective and actual economic benefits, just being able to see the characters and stories that they created and loved being properly adapted and liked by the public is already a wish that many cartoonists have longed for but is out of reach.

"Don't joke around like that, Abi. I've just started my animation project, let alone a live-action one."

"I'm not kidding Lai Zi. In fact, if Lai Zi is willing, you can watch the TV series "A Little Sweeter Today" this time next year. Of course, if you can accept it being broadcast as a web series."

Because she spent a lot of time with Kitagawa Ryo in the past two years, even Samejima Abiko, who was immersed in painting, learned a lot of new information about the agency. Kitagawa Ryo's personal agency has been maintaining ultra-fast expansion and multi-field attempts in recent years, and among its various subsidiaries is an online TV station.

After all, with the rapid development of the Internet era and the further decline in the number of TV users, judging the popularity of a new drama often requires considering both the ratings and the online playback volume. Even the proportion of the latter has been increasing. Web dramas came into being in this context, and this is also the reason why Beichuan Liang established a wholly-owned online TV station dedicated to distribution.

"Online dramas...maybe they're a good option."

Kichijoji Raiko was also aware of the rapid rise of online dramas in the past two years. Compared to many people's stereotype that "online dramas are all shoddy", she did not have any prejudice. She nodded and kept Samejima Abiko's suggestion in mind.

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"You are still the same as before...you."

Although I had just seen Arimakana say this line on Samejima Abiko's phone two days ago, when I really met her face to face today, my mood seemed to be completely different.

In fact, from the moment Arima Kana showed him that overly bright smile as soon as she came on stage, Kitagawa Ryo knew that she had no intention of auditioning for the role of Shoji, a character with a more gloomy and even morbid temperament, but was simply taking this opportunity to enjoy the atmosphere of playing a couple with herself in front of the public.

It could be said that it was a blatant reminder and telling him.

Two years have passed.

She still likes him.

Chapter 10: Experience faction, attack!

After Arima Kana's audition, many other actors in the audience who didn't understand what was going on politely gave her a round of applause. She herself bowed slightly to the people around her without any psychological burden, and after a brief word of thanks, she returned to her seat in the audience, smiling with a relaxed look on her face.

However, when the name 'Akaone Kurokawa' was read out from Kindaichi Toshiro's mouth the next second, everyone's attention was focused on Akane Kurokawa who stood up from beside Kana Arima, because most of the actors in the room at this time were members of the LALALAI troupe. As she walked calmly towards the center of the venue, she could hear a lot of gentle cheers, and many people raised their arms to her in a cheering gesture.

For this generation of young LALALAI troupe members, Kitagawa Ryo's era is actually a bit far away, but Kurokawa Akane is someone they have truly witnessed all the way from her debut to her fame. As a child who has been in the troupe since she was a few years old, even the later rising Himekawa Daiki found it difficult to surpass her status in everyone's hearts, although this was also related to Himekawa's lazy nature.

And on the judges' panel, the moment Kurokawa Akane's name was called out, Samejima Abiko honestly shut up and immediately lost the desire to chat with Kichijoji Raiko anymore. Her bright eyes were filled with anticipation, so rich that it seemed about to overflow.

She and Kurokawa Akane have known each other for a long time and have a very good relationship. Over the past year or so, the other party has been able to discuss the characters and plots in "Tokyo BLADE" with her because of this relationship. In addition to the video materials she showed to Kitagawa Ryo two days ago, the two of them have had countless discussions about Shoji and even other major characters.

This is also the point that impressed Samejima Abiko the most, because when Kurokawa Akane discussed the role of Shoji with her, he also very seriously and meticulously discussed all her social relationships, including people she likes, people who like her, people she respects, people who respect her, and more than a dozen other characters. In Kurokawa Akane's original words, 'what kind of emotions other people pour into this character also has an important influence on the formation of the character's personality, because people are the sum of all social relationships'.

In fact, it was precisely because of this that when Samejima Abiko first evaluated the actors to play the role of Shoji two years ago, she was willing to rank the actress Kurokawa Akane, who resembled her in spirit, higher than Kitagawa Rumi, who only looked similar at the time.

Under the expectant gaze of Samejima Abiko, Kurokawa Akane walked up to them and introduced himself.

"I'm Akane Kurokawa from the LALALAI troupe. This time I'm auditioning for the role of Shoji. Please give me your guidance."

Unlike Kana Arima before, Akane Kurokawa chose LALALAI Theater as her prefix, which made Toshiro Kindaichi on the judges' panel slightly moved, and his tense facial expression softened a little.

Kurokawa Akane's self-introduction also made Kitagawa Ryo, who was facing her at the moment, slightly startled. Looking at the now graceful young girl in front of him, he suddenly thought of a drama award ceremony five or six years ago, when many media outlets unanimously titled the photo of him presenting the award to Kurokawa Akane "inheritance" and "taking over the baton".

They are both actors from the LALALAI troupe.

Kurokawa Akane stared at the pupils of Kitagawa Ryo, who was not far away from her. Although when they first met, the other party had habitually and naturally half-knelt down and spoke to her in a low voice, the distance between the two was perhaps like the height difference between them at that time, an insurmountable chasm visible to the naked eye.

In the annual routine physical examination she had just undergone a few days ago, her latest height data was fixed at 1.65 meters. She is definitely tall among her peers. Among her close friends, only Kitagawa Rumi is in this height range.

For Kurokawa Akane, in addition to her height, her hair, which has now almost reached her waist, is also a mark of growth and time left on her.

She didn't tie her hair up today, and her long black hair was casually draped over her shoulders.

This is the same hairstyle as the one worn by Sayahime in the Tokyo BLADE manga.

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