{ Onstage } Various! A3 x reader

Chapter 2

The lights of the theater started to dim, with the red curtains covering the stage rising up. "Let's see what the damage is." I said under my breath. The curtains fully rise, and I saw a good look of the set. The set seemed okay, mediocre at best. There was cardboards that were painted to be bushes and fake windows that had classrooms painted inside them. But the thing that caught my eye was the person standing on the center of the stage.

It was a boy who seemed to be in his teens and was wearing a costume that was a school uniform which seemed to be to big on him. The boy had dark pink hair and had gradient colors eyes of lavender and bright pink. For some reason...I was so attracted to him, but I couldn't tell if it was in a romantic or platonic way.

"Hey! My name's Romeo Karuta!" The pink haired boy said to the (very small) audience, a chipper tone in his voice. "It's my first year in high school, and I have a crush on this beautiful girl in my class!" The pink haired boy said again. He sounded so unattractive...yep, there goes my interest in him. "Oh no! I'm going to be late to for a school!" The pink haired boy exclaimed in shock, looking down at his wrist as if it had a watch, "Guess I better get going now!"

I probably shouldn't be so hard on the guy, as he is the newest member. But where were the other members, who, you know, have experience and can actually act. Wait...don't tell me it's a..."Hey, wait up Romeo!" A voice called from the back. I soon felt a breeze go past me and there on stage was a parrot perched on the pink haired boy's shoulder. I should have know... "it's a one man show..." I said under my breath, being quickly hushed by Izumi.

The play could have been described as a filler arc in an anime. Romeo mainly just talked with the parrot and tried to crack jokes at a attempt at comedy (which failed horribly). But I have the give credit, the guy playing Romeo have it his all. It reminded me back when Me and Izumi were younger. Izumi was playing the lead in her school's play of Cinderella, and she flubbed the entire thing. This was back when our father was still around, so I still liked theater.

Now that I think about it, the show was a major cringe fest. But I still loved it as a kid, cheering on my big sister as she messed up her lines. It's been so long since I enjoyed an actual play. As the play finished, I heard clapping coming from Izumi. Of course she would like it. I slowly joined in, wanting to show that despite the fact it was just as fun as seeing a puppy having a stroke, it had year and I respected that.

"Finally...Demolition time." The Yakuza said, getting up from his seat. Me and Izumi turned to face him, the actor on stage also noticing what he said. "Seriously?! Only a monster would say that after seeing how hard he worked!" Izumi said to the Yakuza. The yakuza looked at her and asked "How hard he worked?". Izumi nodded and answered him "Absolutely! He he got up there and acted his butt off."

The Yakuza only scoffed and said back "Do you think this is a school play? Where kids get to show off that they could memorize lines? This is a business! These are professionals being payed to entertain!". While I do have to agree that the actor out his heart into his performance, even if it was lousy, but the Yakuza made a good point. Did the poor dude really expect to make it in the business with that acting?

I noticed that Izumi was taken back at what the yakuza said, and tried to make a argue that yeah, he's not that good, but if he keeps trying, he might get better. The yakuza only said that in the real world, trying hard wouldn't work. God...brutal much? "The troupe is being shut down, end of discussion." The yakuza said, walking away from us. I turned back to face the actor and saw that he left the stage and was now in the middle of the staircase.

"Wait! Please!" The actor cried out, causing the yakuza to face him. "So...we really won't have this place anymore?" The actor asked, the yakuza nodding, confirming that it was correct. "B-But I only just joined yesterday!" The actor protested. "No shit Sherlock." I thought, "Even a blind monkey would have guessed that was your first show"

"Please don't tear this place down!" The actor begged, but the yakuza only walked away, leaving the room. "Ouch..." I said softly, watching as the Yakuza closed the door behind him. "That's it..." The actor said in disbelief, looking down. Why...why did I feel so bad? He should have expected that it wasn't going to be all sunshine and rainbows....but my heart only ached in sadness. Me and Izumi switched as the actor left the room as well, probably trying again to change the Yakuza's mind.

I took the letter out of my pocket and looked down at my father's name that was written on it. "I still hate you..." I whispered, leaving the room myself. "Hey, y/n? Where are you going?" Izumi called out, following me out. As I entered the front of the building, I saw that Matsukawa there, along with the actor and the yakuza. "Hey!" I said to the bow tie wearing man, grabbing his attention. "Are you by any chance Isuke Matsukawa?" I asked, showing him  the letter, "Because someone by that name sent my father this."

Matsukawa nodded as he soon asked me, "Wait...are you-" "Yeah, I'm Yukio's youngest daughter. The lady with me is my sister, Izumi." I said, trying to cut to the chase. "the name's y/n and I'm here to tell you that Yukio's dead.". "WHAT!" Matsukawa yelled, but Izumi managed to calm him down. "He's not dead!" Izumi said, hitting the back of my head, "He's went missing eight years ago and we haven't gotten a word from him ever since."

Matsukawa looked down and said to us "Oh...I'm sorry to hear that...". "Don't be...bastard left us on his own consent." I said, mumbling the last bit. The Yakuza sighed and muttered "You continue to reach and yet you still have nothing.". "You don't have to be so rude about it!" Izumi said at the Yakuza, "Who knows there might be another way to fix this!". The yakuza than explained to us the history of the theatre company.

In the company's prime, it had seasonal troupes to perform year round. And as it's name suggest, each of the troupes were named after the seasons. They were able to bring in revenue, and with the state the company is in, needs to desperately have them in order to stay afloat. "A troupe of pros could handle it," the yakuza said, turning around to look at the pink haired actor, "But all we have here is some dabbler we joined yesterday."

The Yakuza order the driver of the backhoe to destroy the sign. As the backhoe's loader was about to rip off the "MANKAI" on the sign. Damn, he's really going to do it... I than heard Izumi scream, causing the backhoe's loader to stop. "What?!" The yakuza yelled at her, a annoyed tone in his voice. "I just remembered something! I haven't thought about this forever, but the truth is that our dad left us the company in case something ever happened to him!" Izumi said.

"Dad never sai-" Izumi covered my mouth In a attempt to shut me up. Our father obviously never did that, but in order to save this dying troupe, Izumi had to lie. To bad she couldn't act to save her life. But for some reason, everyone believed her. "You said that we needed to form four sub troupes, if I'm not mistaken?" "Well, yes." "That's perfectly fine, I just need to recruit some new company members!"

"How many?" The yakuza asked, Izumi and answering him with "about two!". The yakuza raised an eyebrow and eventually sighed. "You have to about sundown, otherwise demolition is at dusk." T-that actually worked! Man, luck was on Izumi's side.
As the Yakuza sent us off, Izumi, Matsukawa, and the actor eventually left to Veludo way's square, dragging me along with them. "y/n was it? My name's Sakuya Sakuma and I hope we can become friends!" The actor name Sakuya said to me, a smile on his face.

Sorry buddy, but I don't feel the same way...