They all pushed me!

Kitagawa Rumi nodded in agreement and took over the topic from Arima Kana and Kurokawa Akane:

"From this perspective, WorkShop cannot be considered a complete failure. At least my brother did create a successful case from it, and that is my sister."

Hoshino Ai, who was taught almost from scratch by Kitagawa Ryo to become an actor, did not disappoint him. It was after that Kitagawa Ryo finally found the most suitable partner in the field of drama.

"So my sister has always been my brother's favorite heroine."

Kitagawa Rumi looked at Ai who was sitting in the first row of the audience, and suddenly she vaguely remembered that a long time ago, when she was still a child, she had sat next to Kindaichi Toshiro like this, sitting in the front row of the audience and watching a rehearsal of the play "Oedipus Rex" starring Kitagawa Ryo and Hoshino Ai.

Although times have changed and the two's positions seem to have reversed, what she has to do now is actually the same as what Hoshino Ai did back then, that is, to show her presence next to actor Kitagawa Ryo, instead of being swallowed up by the other's exclusive atmosphere and aura, leaving no impression on the audience.

As Kitagawa Rumi's thoughts flew into her memories, the leading actors around her also quieted down, each digesting the information in the words just spoken, until MEM啾 next to her suddenly took two steps forward. She took a few deep breaths and looked a little nervous, as it was her character's turn to appear.

For fear of ruining the mood that MEM had worked so hard to build up, her friends and relatives nearby, including Kitagawa Rumi, Kurokawa Akane and Arima Kana, all tacitly agreed not to say anything to cheer her up, but just encouraged her with their eyes.

If Arima Kana just now was just experiencing a stage play for the first time, then MEM啾 was truly experiencing her first time as an actor, and was even unique in the entire cast. After all, even those actors who played minor roles basically had at least half a year of acting experience, and MEM啾 naturally heard the discussions among them after they went off the stage.

But frankly speaking, MEM啾 is not as nervous as others imagine. After all, if we only discuss her mental quality, she has performed countless live shows in her nearly five years of idol career, and her performance at the highest stage like Tokyo Dome in front of more than 50,000 live audiences is always among the best among all the performers. Not to mention the current main stage rehearsal, even the scale of the formal performance would not be a big scene that would make her feel nervous.

As for whether she would be suppressed by Kitagawa Ryo... In fact, MEM啾 had never thought about it, because her performance on the same stage with the other party was limited to this short two-minute transition. Just as Kitagawa Ryo had said to her during a previous rehearsal, her role and her personal stage were in the future, so there was no need to rush and she could just act with a relaxed attitude.

With this mindset, MEM啾 finished all his scenes in the first show steadily, returned to the backstage with a relaxed look on his face, clapped his hands with a smile, accepted the "thank you for your hard work" from others, and stood next to Kitagawa Rumi again.

After they honestly expressed their inner thoughts last time, her relationship with Rumi was not actually affected at all. On the contrary, they got along better in some aspects. Also, because of that statement which was the same as mine, they both developed the habit of observing Kurokawa Akane whenever they had time, and they had the fun of seeing when the other would show his or her true colors.

Because he was thinking of using most of his energy and time to prepare for the future "Tokyo BLADE" live-action movie project, and most of the leading roles had been taken, Kurokawa Akane played only a role with no scenes in this stage play. After casually leaving the scene, he returned to the backstage, where he was whispering about something with Kana Arima beside him.

"be prepared."

Kitagawa Rumi had just withdrawn her gaze when Himekawa Daiki beside her calmly reminded her. On the other side, Kamoshida Sakuya also eagerly pressed the sword at his waist.

All the forewords about the prologue and the first chapter have come to an end.

The enemy of the second chapter, the Shibuya Group, is about to appear. This is Kitagawa Rumi's first scene in this stage play. Her two opponents are LALALAI Theater's signature actor Daiki Himekawa and the new generation actor Sakuya Kamoshida who has stood out in the 2.5-dimensional stage play project in the past two years. Both of them play her subordinates.

Just as Kitagawa Rumi was gradually adjusting her spirit to the best state, and reaching out her hand to high-five Kitagawa Ryo who was walking backstage after finishing the first act of the performance, and preparing to accept the other party's encouragement, she suddenly heard extremely warm applause from the audience, which made Kitagawa Ryo on the stage stop and turn around.

Samejima Abiko was almost like an army of one person, summoning up a momentum of an order of magnitude, and she jumped up from her seat without being able to control her emotions at all:

"That's amazing, Ryo! When I was drawing it, I didn't expect that I could act so well!"

"Ryo is awesome! He's exactly the hero I imagined—"

Kitagawa Rumi, who was no longer "innocent" after the MEM啾 incident, twitched the corners of her mouth imperceptibly.

It seems that not only are there too many sword rituals, but the original author... also seems to be ready to take part in it himself.

Chapter 23: I remembered something interesting

The plot of the second act officially begins with the appearance of Daiki Himekawa and Sakuya Kamoshida. The characters played by them, Tougi and Kano, are both important figures of the Shibuya Group. This time they came to report to the group's leader, Sayahime, that the Shinjuku Group led by BLADE is approaching their territory aggressively.

It has to be said that as the LALALAI troupe after the Kitagawa Ryo and Hoshino Ai era, Himekawa Daiki, who is known as the troupe's signature actor together with Kurokawa Akane, does have extremely high talent and ability. It can be said that it is the second super high-level character card that Kindaichi Toshiro has drawn from the orphanage card pool after Kitagawa Ryo. Although Kindaichi Toshiro himself always says strange things like "the children in the orphanage who have some personality flaws are often good seedlings for actors, because they are always carefully observing and imitating everything around them", his attitude towards both Kitagawa Ryo and Himekawa Daiki is impeccable, which is also an important reason why the two have been willing to stay in the LALALAI troupe so far.

Sakuya Kamoshida is also an actor who has been very active and well-received in 2.5-dimensional stage play projects in the past two years. Just as Kitagawa Ryo once said to Rumi, although this person is usually frivolous like a playboy, he still possesses the purity of an actor. That's why when she saw his acting skills in a co-performance with Kitagawa Ryo two years ago, she was immediately impressed by him. Since then, she has been keen to get close to him, participate in the audition of every 2.5-dimensional stage play he starred in, and constantly want to learn and improve her acting skills.

Ai had of course heard about some of the things between Kamoshida Sakuya and her husband. After seeing the other party appear, she asked Kindaichi Toshiro beside her with great interest:

"Is this the Kamoshida who was pestering Ryo? He is really good at it."

As a senior whose career is almost the same age as the two actors on stage, she is naturally qualified to make such casual comments, so Kindaichi Toshiro was not surprised and nodded and replied:

"That's him. As for being persistent, that's normal. After all, if you really want to talk about it, more than half of the actors in the entire LALALAI troupe have gone through this. Love should know it best."

Although now when mentioning 2.5-dimensional stage play projects, everyone including fans, audiences, producers and original authors will involuntarily think of the name LALALAI Theater, but more than ten years ago LALALAI was actually a traditional drama troupe like other troupes in Tokyo, and the plays they performed were all traditional works by Sophocles and Shakespeare.

At that time, when the concept of 2.5 dimensions had not yet been systematically proposed, the LALALAI troupe occasionally contracted this type of stage play to make money. The focus of the media and the audience was actually on Kitagawa Ryo, because Kitagawa Ryo was the most outstanding among all the actors at that time, and was the best at interpreting this type of subject matter. When other live-action projects were all criticized by fans and the original works were destroyed, he could easily receive unanimous praise from the original author and fans of the original work.

It was also because of this that when Toshiro Kindaichi foresightedly began to adapt to the trend of the times and began to promote the transformation of the troupe, and the planning of 2.5-dimensional stage plays began to become an important business part of the troupe, Kitagawa Ryo became the model and living dictionary that all the actors in the troupe "persistently" learned, and finally successfully completed the transformation, successfully changing the industry and the public's perception from "Kitagawa Ryo is very good at this type of planning" to "LALALAI is particularly good at this aspect, there will be no problem handing it over to them."

"Uncle Min's words are true."

Ai smiled and nodded in response, turning her gaze back to Himekawa Daiki on the stage:

"But this is also Liang's original intention. He is also the one who hopes that the younger generations in the troupe can grow quickly. He wants to create the best work together with everyone."

At this point, Ai Zi Zi shook his head helplessly:

"Although I knew Liang was a complete acting fanatic from the time we got married, and I also knew his expectations of me, I am just a half-baked actor, there is nothing I can do about it."

"Eh? Why do you say she's half-baked? If love is half-baked, there wouldn't be many real actresses in this country."

After hearing Ai's speech, Samejima Abiko, who was sitting on the other side of her, turned her head in surprise and asked subconsciously. After all, although Ai has not appeared in many dramas in recent years, each of them is a masterpiece with great popularity and reputation. She is definitely not a half-baked actor.

"I'm not talking about my acting skills or popularity. I say I'm a mediocre person mainly because of the roles and the subject matter. To use the words of the industry, I'm the type of person with a very narrow acting range."

Ai held her chin and explained softly that she had explained this matter to Beichuan Ryo on the set of "Tomorrow" a few years ago. At that time, Beichuan Ryo was still very enthusiastic about discussing with her the script he had written for the first time, but he got a rather willful answer from her.

"I can only play roles that are in a CP relationship with Ryo or a CP-like relationship with him. In the script, apart from the plot related to Ryo and my character, I don't care about anything else that happens. It's more like playing a role in a parallel world with the person I like than acting. That's why I can be said to be a half-baked actor. I can't compare with Kana and Akane at all."

"As for the reason——"

Ai lazily lay back, burying her whole body in the soft and comfortable cushions. She looked at Himekawa Daiki and Kamoshida Sakuya, who had finished their conversation on the stage and were about to push open the door to enter the room to meet Meiji, and said the second half of the sentence with a smile:

"Maybe it's because I fell in love with Liang completely first, and then I became a so-called actor."

As she spoke, Ai also showed a look of anticipation, lowered her voice slightly, and smiled as she looked at Kitagawa Rumi who was about to appear on the stage:

"That's why I felt from the beginning that Ruby would definitely be able to play the role of Sheath Princess, and I never doubted whether she could play the role well."

"Because Ruby and I are the same, we are both half-baked actors who fall in love with someone completely first and then think about learning acting."

"So, as long as you get a suitable role like this, as long as you think about being on the same scene with Ryo and playing the role of the one he loves... Ruby will become the most suitable actress."

-------------------------------------

"So, Lady Scabbard, this is what happened."

As the sword demon played by Daiki Himekawa respectfully raised his head after reporting everything, the curtain-like stage equipment used to conceal the person behind the scenes was slowly pulled open under the adjustment of the backstage staff. With the weapon across her legs, the full appearance of the sword princess who was sitting there gradually appeared in front of the audience.

Kitagawa Ryo, who was standing backstage, was biting on a straw and drinking mineral water to replenish his energy, while also shifting his gaze over there. Frankly speaking, judging from her appearance in this scene, Arima Kana basically has no chance of getting the role of Shoji, as her body is indeed a bit too small. Given that Himekawa Daiki and Kamoshida Sakuya, who were standing in the audience's audience's audience, are both very tall, the aura of the role of Shoji at first sight really depends on the actor's body shape and skeleton conditions.

After excluding Kana Arima, the sixteen-year-old Akane Kurokawa actually has no advantage in terms of physical conditions. Kitagawa Rumi, who is almost twenty years old, has already reached maturity in height and body shape. It can be said that she can easily support the mixed ancient and modern style of Shoji.

To be honest, this kind of costume with complicated style and diverse colors, which is designed in ancient style, is very demanding on the actor's figure. In his many years of acting career, Beichuan Liang has seen more than once in other costume drama sets that actors with skinny figures were completely unable to support this kind of figure, and were finally teased by the audience and nicknamed "Makeup Mantis".

As for Rumi's figure... Kitagawa Ryo has a lot to say about it. She is the type who, like Ai, will never let her child go hungry in the future. And because she has been practicing dancing, she is even better in height and proportions.

Just like his first lesson on love was to examine the other person's physical condition, the actor's own physical condition will always be the actor's best and most convenient tool.

"BLADE?"

Kitagawa Rumi slowly opened her eyes, reached out to take the photo handed over by Himekawa Daiki, and stood up abruptly the next second. Her originally calm tone suddenly became much more intense:

"Where is he now?"

With the help of the timely stage sound effects and the breeze created by the stage equipment, Kitagawa Rumi's long hair naturally spread behind her after she stood up, expanding the space for her body a little more. The sword that was previously across her thigh was now held in her hand. She felt full of oppression and asked again in a condescending manner:

"Well, where did you see this man?"

"I also got into a fight with a guy called Toku, just outside of Shibuya, and I saw him there."

Just as Kamoshida Sakuya opened his mouth, he encountered another sound effect of whistling wind on the stage, which subtly overlapped with the first half of the lines. After all, it was only the first main stage rehearsal, and the actors all needed to adapt, but this accidental little mistake still made Kamoshida frown secretly, considering whether to say it again.

"The outer area of ​​Shibuya? Are they here to see me?"

But what was somewhat unexpected to Kamoshida Sakuya was that Kitagawa Rumi also noticed this small mistake, and immediately improvised a line of explanation that was not in the script, and her eyes naturally looked into the distance, perfectly completing the confluence with the subsequent script and lines:

"...I want to go see him."

"If Lady Shaoji wants to go, please take me with you."

The sword demon played by Daiki Himekawa took a step forward, and although he leaned slightly, his tone was quite firm.

"I'll go alone."

But in the next second, Shaoji's sword was across his slightly lowered neck:

"This is a matter between him and me."

When seeing this scene, Samejima Abiko's eyes lit up. Due to the storyboard, this scene in the comics only had two scenes: the sword demon asking to follow and the sword princess putting the sword across his neck. However, Kitagawa Rumi almost perfectly connected the two with the fastest movements.

She saw it clearly. The moment Himekawa Daiki's lines came out, Kitagawa Rumi's left thumb had already gently pushed the blade in her hand upwards a little, and her right hand pulled it out completely with smooth motion. After a crisp sound, the blade was already lying there neatly.

The plot on the stage continued to develop, and it was about the first meeting between Shoji and BLADE, which was also the part that Samejima Abiko assigned to Kurokawa Akane during the audition stage. Kitagawa Rumi handled this all-literary plot without any action elements with ease. As Ai said, when she was acting opposite Kitagawa Ryo, she was even more active than when she appeared on the stage. Her various micro-expressions and small movements were almost subconscious, leaving a very deep impression on people.

This was also the effect that Kitagawa Ryo wanted. The better Rumi performed, the more devoted and excited he became. Just like what he had said to Gotanda Yasushi before, acting was always something that made him happy. Compared to the performance in the first act, Kitagawa Ryo was undoubtedly more focused and enjoying it now. Every subtle expression and movement was full of emotions, and every gesture was filled with a huge amount of information. Samejima Abiko in the audience couldn't help but open her eyes wide and cover her mouth tightly with both hands, for fear that any sound would interrupt the rhythm on the stage.

After finishing this scene, Daiki Himekawa, who was watching the two people's performance backstage, nodded secretly, remembering what Rumi had said during a previous extra practice, about how much the expressions of other actors meant to her. Kitagawa Ryo's excitement about acting further boosted Rumi's momentum, forming a completely virtuous circle.

What follows is the scene where the two meet for the second time. This was the scene that Kitagawa Rumi was assigned to during the audition stage, but for Ai, it was the first time she had seen it.

When Ai saw Kitagawa Rumi's character, Shoji, smacking her lips and saying 'Kengi, is that so? Go away and let Blade come out to see me', while eagerly reaching out to grasp the door handle and hesitantly twisting it, she suddenly couldn't help but raise the corners of her mouth, revealing the most uncontrollable smile she had ever seen, which made Kindaichi Toshiro look at her sideways.

"what happened?"

"nothing--"

Ai smiled and shook her head, raised her right hand and brushed her lips with her fingertips:

"It just reminded me of some interesting past events."

Chapter 24: Countdown to 321

The first main stage rehearsal was eventually completed with some hiccups, but both the stage director Toshiro Kindaichi and the actors showed somewhat dissatisfied expressions. During the break, the actors either gathered around Kitagawa Ryo and Toshiro Kindaichi to ask them about some specific details on the stage, or discussed with the staff behind the scenes about the timing of using some sound effects and equipment as well as their own real-time experiences, and they all showed great enthusiasm.

In this situation, Toshiro Kindaichi chose to strike while the iron was hot, and after rehearsing twice more and the actors were indeed exhausted, he announced the end of today's practice. He politely expressed his sincere gratitude to the actors and the staff behind the scenes who had been busy all day for their hard work. There was no other way, as he was under a lot of pressure as a stage director. It was originally a project with tight time and heavy tasks, and today was a rare opportunity when all the main actors could make time to get together, so naturally he had to find out the problems in one go.

"Oh! I'm so tired!"

In the backstage lounge, many actors were lying on the sofas and in the corners. Magana took a clean towel from the shelf next to him and wiped the sweat from his forehead while leaning against the soft sofa.

"The calorie consumption of this play is too high."

Behind her, MEM啾 and Kitagawa Rumi were not in much better condition. They leaned against each other's backs, stretched their legs and relaxed. Their hair was already soaked with sweat and a little damp. It felt like they had gone back to the devilish days a few years ago when they were still training their physical strength and fitness for their idol debut.

In fact, the physical strength of the two is not necessarily worse than that of Arimaka, but one of them is the heroine who is almost present for the entire two hours, and the other has more action scenes than other characters. In addition, MEM啾 also acted very hard, so they were all exhausted.

Kitagawa Rumi half-opened her eyes and scanned the room. It seemed that her brother and Kurokawa Akane, who had relatively few roles, were the only main actors. They still looked relaxed. Himekawa Daiki was already dreaming in the familiar corner. Kamoshida Sakuya no longer had the energy to pester her brother, and was sitting on the sofa rubbing his legs slowly. Shiranui Fulilu was not much better. She was the youngest in the cast, and now she was only fifteen years old. She also looked exhausted.

"Everyone performed very well today. I could clearly feel that they were improving with each performance. I was very happy watching them, right, Uncle Min?"

After a while, Ai, Kindaichi Toshiro and Samejima Abiko also walked into the lounge here together. They did not hesitate to praise them, clapped their hands twice and said a word of encouragement, then turned the conversation to Kindaichi Toshiro.

"Well, let's keep up this momentum until the premiere. This will be another successful work."

Kindaichi Toshiro nodded seriously. He still maintained a rather stern image in front of the members of the LALALAI troupe. On the contrary, Samejima Abiko next to him smiled particularly brightly and bowed slightly to all the actors in the room. She was completely excited and her expression was beyond words:

"Everyone's acting is so amazing. This is how I imagined the stage play of Tokyo BLADE to be. I really appreciate everyone's dedication and hard work. I hope everyone can continue to work hard in the second half of the rehearsal. I will definitely be there on the day of the performance."

After receiving a round of warm applause, Samejima Abiko took her leave first. She had been quite busy recently as she had added some promotional illustration work related to the stage play. She had been staying in the LALALAI troupe until now and had already delayed the progress that was scheduled to be completed today. She had to go back quickly to make up for this part, otherwise the biological clock that had been adjusted with great difficulty might be reversed again.

"Everyone has worked really hard today. I have made a reservation in advance at a nearby barbecue restaurant. If you want to go there to eat, drink and chat, you can come over and sign up. I will count the number of people and send it over there."

Just when everyone was getting ready to pack up and leave, Beichuan Ryo stood up with a smile and extended an invitation for team-building. This was something he had planned before coming today. After all, with such high-intensity rehearsals, proper relaxation and leisure are still very necessary, and actors from different circles sometimes really need such an occasion to open their hearts and talk to each other about their experiences.

To be honest, in this situation, Kitagawa Ryo's appeal was even higher than that of Kindaichi Toshiro, the actual troupe leader. Except for some actors who were unable to spare due to other work and schedules, most of the actors acted as if they had to go because they finally had the chance to have a meal with Kitagawa Ryo. They signed up for each other, shared a car, and went straight to the barbecue restaurant that Kitagawa Ryo had booked in advance.

"Uncle Min is going too?"

Seeing Kindaichi Toshiro silently turning around and preparing to go upstairs, Kitagawa Ryo stepped forward, grabbed his arm, and invited him with a smile.

"With an old man like me around, you guys won't be able to relax, right? You young people should just enjoy yourself, and especially don't drink too much, because we still have the usual rehearsal tomorrow afternoon."

"There's no such thing as being open or not. To be honest, I'm afraid that Uncle Min will be too open and your image will collapse in front of everyone."

Kitagawa Ryo teased while pushing Kindaichi Toshiro's back and leading him out of the theater building. It was not like he had never drunk with the other person before. Even in his small circle that included Gotanda Yasushi, Saito Ichito, Mr. Izaki and Kindaichi Toshiro, who occasionally got together in the bar, if you really talk about drinking capacity, Kindaichi Toshiro is the best.

After all, Mr. Izaki is old and has been semi-retired in the past two years and has not touched alcohol much. Gotanda Yasushi always makes bold statements before drinking, but after two sips he becomes dizzy and starts talking nonsense. Compared to drinking, Saito Ichito prefers to brag about how many fish he has caught and how much weight he has caught today. Not to mention himself, he always just has a small drink and doesn't seem to be very keen on it.

Kitagawa Ryo was walking out with the reluctant Kindaichi Toshiro, and at the same time he turned back and asked Ai to bring along several juniors including Arima Kana and Kurokawa Akane. He and Ai had come here in separate cars today, and after randomly sharing a car, the group quickly arrived at a barbecue restaurant not too far from the LALALAI Theater.

Because it was finally confirmed that there were indeed a lot of people coming, the boss was quite generous in booking the whole place for them. After signing his shirt at their request, Kitagawa Ryo walked leisurely back to the seat that Ai had reserved for him and sat between Ai and Toshiro Kindaichi.

No one at their table ordered any wine. Although before they came, Kitagawa Ryo had joked with Kindaichi Toshiro not to be too relaxed, after all, as he said, everyone still had to come to rehearsal tomorrow, and not only the actors, but also him as a stage director.

Toshiro Kindaichi, who was most likely to order wine, chose to give up. The only two adults at the table, Ryo and Ai Kitagawa, were also not very interested in wine. Over the years, the two of them had basically no impression of wine, except for drinking a bottle of ice wine provided by the crew during the filming of "It's Not My Fault in My Heart" and the wedding wine at their wedding. As for the rest of the minors, they didn't need to worry about it at all and obediently ordered some drinks such as ginger ale and fruity sparkling water.

When Kitagawa Ryo sat down, he subconsciously tried to reach out for the barbecue tongs placed in the frame to turn the barbecued meat over, but his fingertips hit empty air. He raised his head and looked to the side. Except for Toshiro Kindaichi who had already started drinking tea as if it were wine and looked up at him in a "cute" way and looked at him with a slightly puzzled look, the girls around him had already picked up the barbecue tongs in their hands, and were staring at the beef tenderloin and other meats grilling on the charcoal fire with eagerness.

However, no matter how much attention was focused on the meat, it couldn't really speed up the cooking of the meat. The reason why Beichuan Liang called people out for the barbecue was mainly because people could communicate with each other while waiting. Therefore, he took the initiative to pick up the cup filled with drinks in front of him and gently clinked it with Ai beside him. After taking a sip, he took the initiative to bring up the topic:

"About today's rehearsal, first of all, some actions from Ruby and MEM..."

As soon as Beichuan Liang said this, Ai frowned slightly and nudged his arm with her elbow, then tilted her face to the side, supported her cheek, and said with a helpless pout:

"It's time to relax after get off work. Liang, you should put aside all the acting and work in your mind. Everyone at this table is familiar to you. Compared to these things, why don't you just talk about some casual things?"

As if to prove that what he said was correct, Ai turned his gaze to Kurokawa Akane who was sitting on the left side of him, and asked the one who liked to study the script the most: