Chapter 178
Day 4 of the recording schedule for "Apron boy＆Spoon Girl" and "5 Centimeters Away from You".
8:00 AM
A good day starts with morning exercise.
"...If I'm free tomorrow, I'll go back to the theater for rehearsal." Tsukioka Tsumugi sat by the wall of the practice room, flipping through the script in her hand while whispering to the person on the other end of the phone, "You know, I have a date today - I'll confirm again, starting from the first public, including all the plays to the tenth public... Is that right?"
"Yeah, OK, I get it - Yeah, I won't forget the performance song."
The production team did not allow them to confirm their choices privately after submitting them - so the atmosphere in the practice room this morning was unexpectedly dull. Although everyone was wearing headphones and seemed to be doing a good morning exercise, they clearly knew that the reason why everyone kept singing the wrong lyrics, stepping on the wrong beat, and making mistakes in dance steps was because of the unknown date today.
"…" End of the Last Cantata "." Tsukioka Tsumugi hung up the phone and turned her head to see the name of the script in the hands of Mikaze Aoi, who had not practiced singing and dancing today. "Is this the Faust-themed performance you mentioned on the first night?"
"We didn't plan to perform these performances originally." Mifuze Lan explained briefly, and added some additional information for Tsukioka Tsumugi, "But it seems that the complete schedule of the joint concert has been decided, and one part of the competition is mainly based on drama performances - there are only two theater companies, Mankai and GODza, so we were notified last night that the previous theater companies and series will be put on the stage again."
"Could it be... the Mangekyō Award?" Tsukioka's eyes widened in surprise, "If that's the case—"
"It's almost the same scale as the Holy Grail Concert that we knew about when we first joined." Mikaze Lan thought for a moment and closed the gray script in her hand, "But there has been no information or rumors about the Holy Grail Concert... I think the president and his team have reached a consensus to use this concert to see if they can equate the Holy Grail Concert with our joint concert."
"After all, what we knew from the beginning about the Holy Grail Concert is that it is the stage where the top idols will be decided."
After the morning exercise, the six returned to the room to change clothes, and then went to the restaurant to have breakfast. Everyone left the villa one after another and went to today's meeting place in different ways.
Track 1: AQUARIUM
The first person to arrive at the rendezvous was Tsukioka Tsumugi, who had a driver's license but hadn't driven since the end of her junior year training. The vehicle was provided by Animusphia Office, and it was said to have been made during the civil war among the members of the logistics department in order to compare each other's abilities, with excellent safety and driving performance.
Although Tsukioka Tsumugi was worried about the source of the vehicle, in the end, she was choked by two words from Fujimaru Ritsuka who provided the vehicle -
"After all, there are no traffic rules, no traffic lights, and no traffic police to enforce the law."
"But, strictly speaking... even if you knock down a vacant building, the car may not be damaged."
——After all, this is a competition between Tesla and Edison!!! Well, there is another car that is the work of Professor Babbage.
"Looks like I'm early..." Tsukioka pulled out a script from her bag, walked to a bench under the shade of a tree, sat down, and began to wait for her date to arrive. "By the way, let me confirm - 11 o'clock is the deadline, right? In other words, if no one comes by 11 o'clock, I will be left alone."
"Can I go in alone?"
"Sure." Replied Fujimaru Ritsuka, who was squatting behind the camera opposite.
As the guests were divided into teams, the three people who were in charge of the on-site filming team also redistributed their responsibilities - Roman moved the venue to the music hall. Rather than keeping an eye on the progress of the filming of the two people on the date, it was more important to keep an eye on the musicians on the scene to make sure they didn't do anything abnormal; Kirshtalia took over Roman's previous work content and kept an eye on the group that went to the cafe for a date.
For the moment, only Fujimaru Ritsuka doesn't have to worry about anything else. He just needs to focus on watching the couple in the aquarium and taking pictures of today's date.
"After all, I said there are no mandatory requirements, and there is no script here--" Fujimaru Ritsuka thought about it and explained it more clearly to Tsukioka Tsumugi, "If no one really comes, we won't send you to other places to create a Shura field or something. Besides, going in alone is also program material-although it looks pitiful to be alone in a love variety show."
"That's true." Tsukioka Tsumugi nodded in agreement, opened the script in her hand, and began to review the lines of the characters she had played in the past.
"Kirshtalia: Mikaze Lan, are you going to Shining Office this morning?"
While Tsukioka Tsumugi was waiting for her date to arrive, Fujimaru Ritsuka received a message from Kirshtalia.
"Fujimaru Ritsuka: There's a chance that she'll be late, but if it's Mikaze Ai... she should be here just in time. Please remind Emiya-senpai and the others. Mikaze Ai might go to their place and buy something to bring back as a date gift - act the restaurant clerk seriously."
"Kirshtalia: I understand."
On the other hand, the photographer and camera director following Mikaze were the few remaining veteran employees of Chaldea, not highly active Servants. They first followed Mikaze to the Shining Agency, where they watched him get the choreography of a song from his teammates, and then they took out three old scripts from the cabinet and stuffed them into their bag before heading to the aquarium for today's date.
Even when Meifenglan was running on the road, she was still talking on the phone with her teammates——
"I think the arrangement of 'Breath of Life' should be changed. This is a song in the play, and I think the focus should be on the performance of the character - OK, thank you, Camus. As for 'Torowa', if ST☆RISH is free, call Xiang to adjust it. Aren't we going to use the prop sword in 'THE WORLD IS MINE'? Ask the president if we can use 'Torowa' as well."
"...Okay, that's it for now."
On the way to the aquarium, Mikaze Lan even bought a crepe for her date from one of the restaurants opened today by the members of "Apron boy & Spoon Girl" - she said that bringing dessert gifts was the least likely to go wrong.
"Kirshtalia: Mikaze Ai has just passed by Shirou Emiya's mobile store. You should get ready."
"Fujimaru Ritsuka: Understood."
When it comes to adjusting to the seasonal changes, Fujimaru Ritsuka really did ask the gods to help create a complete seasonal cycle for the anomaly during this period of time, so that the climate on the date was truly that of the turn of spring and summer - approaching eleven o'clock, the temperature was rising higher and higher, and the sunlight became more dazzling. There was no shade from the trees where they set up the filming equipment, so Fujimaru Ritsuka could only wear a hat to avoid the sunlight.
——It is impossible to hold an umbrella. Although the conditions are met, for the sake of the program shooting effect as a souvenir, it is better to bear with it.
Although Tsukioka Tsukioka, who was sitting under the shade of the tree, did not get any sun exposure, she was obviously getting restless. Although she had been reading the script very seriously before, when it was almost eleven o'clock, Tsukioka Tsukioka, who still remembered that she was filming a romance variety show, had to get nervous.
——After Tsukioka Tsumugi changed the script to "Midnight Denizens", it stopped at the first page and never moved.
"Ah, one more minute." Ritsuka Fujimaru looked at the time that popped up on the Chaldea communicator and blinked.
10:59:00 AM
In the shot, Tsukioka Tsukioka also stood up and put his script back into his bag.
10:59:30 AM
There are still thirty seconds left until the meeting time for the date.
"Fujimaru Ritsuka: Here I come."
Mikaze Lan appeared at the corner of the street and walked towards the aquarium door.
10:59:50 AM
"Good morning, Mr. Tsukioka."
A crepe with ice cream and strawberry filling appeared in front of Tsukioka Tsumugi.
The sound accompanying the crepes was the most penetrating voice among the six people that impressed everyone during the past few days. It was also a clear and bright voice that was usually enough to impress everyone - but I'm afraid everyone's impression of this voice was that it was a venomous remark caused by that person speaking the truth.
——Instead of the gentle and sweet style that was perfect for a date and love in front of the aquarium today.
"I told you that he's a perfect fit for a romance here." Ritsuka Fujimaru, who was sitting behind the camera, sighed softly to Kirshtalia on the other end of the line.
"Well, I have to admit that your intuition has always been reliable." Kirshtalia leaned against the wall behind the cafe and sighed with a smile, "But do you know what he went back to Shining Office to do today?"
"...I guess he's confident that Tsukioka Tsumugi will choose the aquarium." Fujimaru Ritsuka flipped through the chat records in the work group and replied to Kirshtalia in a very subtle tone, "He went back to Shining Office to get the script - the script for the play that Shining Office submitted at the producer meeting to be performed at the Mangeki Awards."
"He guessed 100% that it was Tsukioka Tsumugi - Tsk, this is completely a targeted preparation."
10:59:55 AM
"My name is AI, MIKAZE AI."
Tsukioka Tsumabuchi subconsciously took the crepe and turned his head to look in the direction of the sound - aqua blue hair invaded his field of vision.
Then, a pair of bright aqua blue eyes looked at him with a gentle and affectionate smile.
——It’s like an unexpected surprise gift.
——He was even really prepared to be left alone.
——However, his date showed up in front of him just in time.
10:59:59 AM
"Would you like to spend the day with me, Mr. Tsukioka? Starting from this aquarium."
11:00:00 AM
"Of course - but can you call me Tsumugi, Mr. Ai?"
"Why?"
"Because that name is... a little embarrassing - so, I will also call you Blue 『AI』. Is that okay?"
"Well, of course you can... Tsumugi."