Inou-Battle wa Nichijou-kei no Naka de - Volume 8 - Chapter 8

Scene 8. Romeo and Juliet

The day of the cultural festival had finally arrived. The event was scheduled to open at nine in the morning, and right on the dot, a crowd of visitors made their way into Senkou High to enjoy the attractions all of our classes and clubs had prepared for them. The sports clubs had set up food stalls out front, bands started performing in the gym the second the event began, and I got the feeling that on the whole, a lot more people had shown up than last year. The efforts of the student council and the festival organizational committee seemed to have paid off.

The fifth-floor music room the literary club was occupying was no exception to the hustle and bustle. We’d only just opened our doors, yet a smattering of visitors had already begun to trickle in to see our setup. Some of them were reading the literary magazines we’d put on display on the desks, and others were looking at the set pieces we had on the stage. Some of them were also holding pamphlets for the play, which we’d left in a pile outside the room. I’d been worried about what we’d do if nobody showed up at all, so seeing people actually come in and take an interest was a relief...though the one person we wanted to turn up most of all still had yet to make an appearance.

“I see Chifuyu has yet to arrive,” said Sayumi. We were in a prep room that was connected to the music room, which we’d turned into an impromptu staff area for our performance. Our first showing was scheduled to begin in thirty minutes.

“Wh-What’re we gonna do?” Hatoko muttered anxiously. “We’re supposed to start any minute now!”

“She’s not gonna show up. Not after how angry we made her,” said Tomoyo.

“No...there’s still time,” I said. “Chifuyu will show up. I’m positive!”

I was insistent, acting as if I were trying my hardest to drive away the doubts that might have still lingered among us, but the mood in the music preparation room remained as heavy as ever. Our performance was drawing closer and closer, minute by minute, and it felt like we were being driven more and more into a corner...or, at least, that’s the impression we were doing our best to portray.

“Y-Yeah, that’s right!” said Hatoko. “I just know Chifuyu’s going to make it in time! Isn’t she, Juu?”

“Right? All we can do is believe in her,” I agreed. “Don’t you think, Sayumi?”

“Indeed. Let’s have faith in Chifuyu, shall we, Tomoyo?”

“It’s our only choice. Chifuyu’s the only person who could possibly be our Juliet, after all. Right, Hatoko?”

We were just going around in circles at that point. Our expressions were strained and sweat was dripping down our foreheads as we did our damnedest to not look in one specific direction. The four of us were keeping our eyes stubbornly turned away from that certain part of the room, and the cause of this strange behavior also happened to be the reason we were all so uncomfortable. The explanation behind all of it was exceedingly simple...

...it was because Chifuyu had, in fact, already arrived.

“...”

Yup. I can feel her staring at me, I swear. I couldn’t turn around, though—none of us could. We had to act like none of us noticed her, no matter what. Chifuyu was clearly under the impression that nobody had realized she was hiding in the prep room, but, like, honestly...it was so obvious. She’d been shuffling, skulking, and sneaking about the chamber, entirely convinced that she was pulling the wool over our eyes as she moved from one “hiding place” to the next.

She obviously thought she was totally concealed, but to be brutally frank, she wasn’t. Like, not at all. At the present moment, she’d wrapped herself up in a curtain, totally oblivious to the fact that it wasn’t long enough to cover her feet. Chifuyu, it seemed, was really bad at hiding, and it was up to the four of us to pick up the slack in her place. As to how we’d ended up in this mildly infuriating situation...well, we’ll have to turn the clock back by about thirty minutes or so to lend context to that.

Kuki had shown up to visit us just moments after the cultural festival opened its doors. She’d explained that she’d walked here with Chifuyu and the rest of their friends, but she had claimed to need to use the restroom in order to slip away to come see us and secretly spill the beans on Chifuyu’s master plan.

“Chii’s planning on waiting until the very last second, then revealing herself in the nick of time. She wants to surprise all of you,” Kuki explained.

Essentially, Chifuyu’s goal was to make us think she wouldn’t show up: we’d start to panic and probably consider bringing in an understudy, but of course we’d decide that nobody but Chifuyu could be our Juliet and ultimately choose to believe in her and wait it out; then the time for the play to begin would arrive, and Chifuyu still wouldn’t have shown herself, but we’d decide to start the performance anyway, keeping faith that she’d be there in time for Juliet’s entrance; then, when the time finally came and we had all but given up hope, Chifuyu would take to the stage at long last and surprise everyone.

“I’m really sorry about this. I told her how many problems she’d be causing, and I tried to stop her, but Chii just wouldn’t listen to me. I’m so sorry, honestly! She doesn’t mean anything bad by it, I swear! Please don’t hold it against her,” Kuki said, looking truly regretful about how things had turned out. “And, umm... This is really hard for me to ask, but...would you please pretend to be surprised? She’s really confident that you won’t find her, but knowing Chii, I bet you’ll see her right away. I’m guessing she’ll hide behind the curtain—she thinks nobody could ever find her back there. So, well...even if you do find her, please pretend not to notice. I’d really appreciate it!”

Yeah...okay. How should I put this? ...Yeah, what else can I say except: “What are you, her mom?!”

Kuki’s overprotective maternal instincts had been running on overdrive that day, it seemed. The surprise Chifuyu was planning was as creative as it was risky, and normally, there was no way we would’ve been willing to play along with it without protest...but the circumstances being what they were, we’d agreed with Kuki’s request immediately. Chifuyu hadn’t filled her in on her motives, apparently, but we knew exactly where this was coming from. We knew why Chifuyu didn’t want to show herself until she absolutely had to.

In any case...thank goodness, honestly. The fact that Chifuyu did intend to play her part in the play was such incredible news that it was almost enough to move us to tears, but for the time being, we couldn’t let that relief show. No, we had to do our best to pretend to be in a blind panic.

“I believe in Chifuyu. She’ll make it in time. I just know it!” I said, working as much frustration and anxiety into my tone as possible as I pointedly did not look at the curtain. Sayumi, Tomoyo, and Hatoko all tried to do the same, looking as worried as they could. But then...

“Achoo!”

...a truly precious little sneeze rang out from behind the curtain. A deathly silence fell over the prep room, and the blood drained from our faces.

“...A-Achoo! Achfwoogh! Damnations! Oh, why must this room be so dusty?!”

“O-Oh, nooo, are you okay, Juu?! Here, have a tissue!”

“H-Hey, Andou, don’t sneeze out of nowhere like that! You really freaked me out!”

“You should also be sure to cover your mouth when you sneeze, incidentally.”

All four of us leaped into action to cover up Chifuyu’s mistake, and through a brilliant show of teamwork, we somehow managed to—

“Achoo! Achoo!”

Oh my god, three times?! Chifuyu’s the sort of person who doesn’t just sneeze once, I guess! “Fwahaugh! Achfichoom! Ficshoom! Fiction! This story is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to real persons, places, or events is purely coincidental...is what we should say when the play’s over, don’t you guys think?!” I wailed.

“N-Nice idea, Andou! Yeah, let’s do that! Somebody might try to sue us or something if we don’t!” Tomoyo shouted back.

O-Oh, god, that was so forced. It’s getting harder and harder to back you up here, Chifuyu. If you don’t stop sneezing now, you’re gonna put us in a really tough position! My best guess was that the corner of the room behind the curtain was lousy with dust. We had to find some way to prompt Chifuyu to relocate, or there was a very real possibility that we’d never escape the sneeze-induced hell we’d landed ourselves in.

I shot Sayumi a look, and she nodded back at me. “There are a few things I’d like to discuss regarding the script,” she said. “Would everyone gather up around me?”

At our president’s instructions, we took up our scripts and faced the room’s far wall. The facing-the-wall part was a matter of necessity—we had to stand like that if we wanted to give Chifuyu the chance to relocate, and so it was that we became an association of strange weirdos who would inexplicably hold a heated conversation with a wall.

Thankfully, I soon heard a set of little footsteps pattering around behind us. Chifuyu, it seemed, was on the move. I let out a sigh of relief, knowing that we’d be free from the threat of a sudden sneeze throwing everything into chaos again. Yeah, giving her the chance to move somewhere less dusty was definitely the right—

Crash!

“...”

Gaaaaaah! She tripped over something!

“Ahhh! Ahh, ahh, ahh, ahhh! Ahh, ah, ee, oo, eh, oh, ah, oh!”

“Ooooh, you’re doing vocal warm-ups, Hatoko?! Nice idea! I like that attitude!”

“Yes, indeed! Let’s all join her, shall we?! We can do one last set of exercises together before our first performance!”

And so, we became an association of bizarre, disturbing freaks who did vocal exercises while facing a wall. Chifuyu did manage to find a new hiding place eventually, but she still managed to make several other screwups afterward that had us falling over ourselves to keep her cover plausibly intact.

“W-Well, then, I believe it’s about time for us to change into our costumes,” said Sayumi, who looked exhausted. The rest of us nodded in listless agreement, and since the girls’ costumes took longer to put on, I stepped out of the preparation room to let them get changed first.

I let out a bedraggled sigh as I headed into the main music room. I was seriously worn out. It turned out that pretending not to see someone who was very visible was downright draining. It sort of felt like I’d already pushed my willpower and endurance to their limits before the performance had even begun, but I was in no position to whine about it. Chifuyu still hadn’t forgiven me, after all, and if I wanted her to do so, I had to prove my sincerity up on the stage. I had to show her that I truly believed she deserved the role of Juliet, and I had to do it through my acting alone.

First, however, I had to step out to relieve myself...

“Oh? If it isn’t Andou.”

...and I happened to bump into Sagami right in front of the restrooms.

“Sagami, you’re alone? Where’s your girlfriend?”

“In the little girls’ room. Hence why I’m on standby, for now,” Sagami explained.

“Hmm,” I vaguely grunted.

“And how about you?” he asked. “How’s the play shaping up? Sounds like you had a few wrenches thrown into the works—did you sort those out? You should know that I’ve been very excited to see Chifuyu’s Juliet. I hope I’m not going to be disappointed?”

“No worries there,” I said. I stood tall and declared it with all the confidence I could, mostly to boost my own morale. “We’ll put on the best production of Romeo and Juliet you’ll ever see!”

By the time 10 a.m. rolled around—the time our play was scheduled to start—the chairs we’d set out to serve as our audience’s seating had filled up nicely. I saw plenty of familiar faces among the crowd. The front row was full of kids who I assumed were Chifuyu’s friends—something about them just screamed “elementary schoolers,” and Kuki was sitting in the middle of their formation, setting up a tripod-mounted video camera. She had the sort of fiery enthusiasm burning in her eyes that you’d expect from a mother recording her kid’s very first school play. I spotted Sagami sitting with some girl I’d never seen before toward the back of the crowd, as well. Hmm. She’s pretty cute, I guess.

“Cut that out, Andou! They’re gonna see you!” Tomoyo whispered. The two of us were offstage, but our “offstage area” was nothing more than a couple dividers we’d set up to hide away the sides of the room. I was peeking out at the audience between those screens when Tomoyo gave me a poke and told me to stop.

“What? C’mon, aren’t you curious? We’re getting a pretty good crowd, looks like,” I whispered back.

“D-Don’t tell me that! You’re gonna make me nervous...”

We’d gotten changed, and all of our preparations were in place. Hatoko and I were dressed like European nobility, Tomoyo had her nun’s habit on, and all of us were on standby in the wings while we waited for our cues. Sayumi, who would be narrating, stepped up to the microphone we’d set up on the side of the stage. On the opposite side, I could just make out a corner of Juliet’s dress peeking out from behind a pile of props. That, of course, had to be Chifuyu. We’d made sure to leave her costume in a conspicuous place after we’d finished changing, and it seemed she’d managed to find it and change into it on her own.

“The time has come for our performance to begin. We hope you enjoy the literary club’s rendition of Romeo and Juliet,” Sayumi said, then she paused for a beat before shifting into a solemn, dignified tone when she launched into the opening narration. “Our tale is set in the fourteenth century, in the Italian city of Verona. There the noble houses waged an endless feud, divided between those who swore loyalty to the emperor, and those who aligned themselves with the pope. Within all that discord, Romeo, the sole son of House Montague...”

It was time. We’d finally begun. It would’ve been hard to describe the play we were about to put on as well staged, to be totally honest, even if you were trying to be nice. Our set was handmade, and it really showed. We didn’t have proper curtains, a spotlight, or enough room to work with. Our whole cast and crew put together was five people strong, performing for an audience of slightly less than twenty. It was a spur of the moment play thrown together in a month for a school festival, nothing more and nothing less.

And yet...that’s what made it so special for us. That’s what made me so dedicated to ensuring it would be special—for myself, and for the girl whose feelings I’d so terribly hurt. Making her the greatest Juliet the world had ever seen was the only apology I’d managed to come up with, so I’d do it, whatever it took.

The narration came to a close. It was time for Romeo to take to the stage, and I stepped forth, my resolve unwavering.

Now—let us begin the end of the beginning!

☆

Our play kicked off without a hitch. Andou and Hatoko’s scene—the scene with Romeo and Rosaline—wrapped up, and my monologue as Sister Laurence finished soon after. We’d just made it through the scene where Romeo sneaks into the Capulets’ estate to attend their ball, and as soon as it was over, I flipped the lightswitch. We’d closed all the window curtains in advance, so shutting off the lights plunged the music room into semidarkness.

Andou and Hatoko quickly shuffled their way off the stage. “Phew! Okay, gotta hurry,” Hatoko said as she went off to change out of the dress that had served as her costume and into a black tracksuit. Rosaline didn’t have any scenes past the end of the party, so Hatoko would be helping out backstage for the rest of the play, and she needed to dress inconspicuously to do so.

“So, Chifuyu didn’t come out, huh?” I whispered.

“Yeah,” Andou weakly replied.

Juliet was supposed to make her first appearance during the ball. Her presence in the scene wasn’t major, to be fair—she’s onstage for a moment, dancing off in a corner, and she doesn’t have any lines. The whole point was that Romeo falls for her at first sight, so the goal was to make it come across as the most fleeting of glimpses...but in the end, Chifuyu hadn’t shown up at all. Andou managed to ad-lib his way out of it, fortunately, and the audience hadn’t seemed to realize anything was off, but we certainly had.

“She didn’t... But, y’know, we kinda saw that coming, didn’t we?” Andou added.

“You think she’s really going for it, then?”

“Yeah. I bet that Chifuyu will make her entrance in the next scene.”

As Andou and I whispered to each other, Hatoko, now dressed in the all-black garb of a stagehand, passed by us and headed onto the still dark set. While Sayumi read the narration, Hatoko rapidly and silently swapped in the various props that would set the scene. Last but not least, she pulled the black sheet off our stage’s largest feature, way in the back: our handmade balcony.

The next scene would be the iconic sequence in the Capulets’ garden where Romeo and Juliet reunite—also known as the “Romeo, Romeo” scene. It was far and away the most famous sequence in the play, and it wouldn’t work on a fundamental level without our Juliet’s presence. If Chifuyu was aiming for the most impactful moment possible to reveal herself, it would have to be now.

“...Unable to hold back the passion brewing within him, Romeo set out to see Juliet once more, sneaking past the Capulets’ guards and making his way into their estate,” Sayumi narrated. At the moment she finished, I flicked the lights back on, and Andou—Romeo—took to the stage once more.

“Phew... It seems I’ve made it inside. So this is the Capulets’ garden,” he said as he glanced around. A moment later, a look of agonized longing came across his face. “Oh, Juliet! What I would do to hear your voice just once more!”

Romeo had fallen hard, and now his feelings for his new beloved were consuming him...and with that, it was finally time. Juliet’s first line came next. She would poke her head out over the balcony’s rail and declare her love for Romeo. This had to be the moment where Chifuyu would finally make her grand entrance...

“...”

...but she didn’t. A full ten seconds passed with no sign of her.

No way... B-But...why?! I thought as another ten seconds ticked by with no change. That made twenty seconds of total stillness and silence onstage, and that meant that we officially had a problem. Andou was trying hard to keep a straight face, but I could see the tension in his expression as plain as day. He’d reached a hand upward in his throes of lovestruck agony, and he was still holding it up there, frozen solid with no clue what to do next. There was so much cold sweat dripping down his brow, I actually felt sorry for the guy.

As the silence stretched on, the audience began to stir. Our spectators looked baffled, but trust me, we were more baffled than any of them. Wh-Why? What’s going on? Was Chifuyu not aiming for this scene after all? Another ten seconds passed by, and then...

“...Ugh! It couldn’t be—the estate’s guards?! Are they onto me?! I was so sure I gave them the slip!”

Sayumi barely hesitated for a moment before adapting to Andou’s improvised plot twist. “What’s this? It seems Romeo’s plan has gone awry, and the Capulets’ guards have thwarted his attempted infiltration!”

“Heh! Have it your way, then. You shall taste the steel of my beloved blade, Catastrophe!”

Andou and Sayumi worked together to ad-lib their way out of the awkward halt the play had come to. It seemed they were planning on buying time by inserting a battle with the estate’s guards, which wasn’t a bad idea, but it also wouldn’t help much at all unless we could do something with the time they were buying for us. The balcony scene just couldn’t happen without Juliet present.

“What are you doing, Chifuyu?” I muttered under my breath. She was still over on the other side of the stage, no mistaking it—I could even still see a bit of her costume poking out from the pile of props. Why else would she be there if not to wait for her cue? “So why isn’t she coming out...?”

I was as confused as I’d ever been before, but Hatoko, who was right beside me, seemed to come to a realization. “O-Oh, no,” she whispered as the blood drained from her face. “You don’t think...she fell asleep, do you?”

I blinked. “Huh?”

“W-Well, think about it! If she really is over there, but isn’t coming out on her own...that’s the only explanation that makes sense, isn’t it? I’ve been watching that bit of her costume, and it hasn’t moved at all this whole time...”

“...”

Whaaaaaaaaaaaat?! Are you kidding me?! Asleep?! Chifuyu, are you actually asleep?! Now?! At the single worst possible moment?!

It was incredibly hard to believe...but at the same time, entirely plausible. If we were talking about anyone else, I would’ve ruled it out in a heartbeat, but, well, this was Chifuyu. Plus, I mean... Okay, this might come out wrong, but, like... I had a feeling that she’d been pretty worn out recently, I guess? I mean, all of that had happened just three days ago! She definitely hadn’t had the time to sort out her feelings yet, and I could easily imagine her having been way too worried and anxious to sleep at all the night before. That’s not even starting on how she’d had to get up early to find a hiding place then stay perfectly still and silent between finishing changing and her cue to come out onstage. Between all of that, she must’ve been so stressed and exhausted that I almost couldn’t blame her for nodding off...almost.

“Now, of all times? Really, Chifuyu?!” I hissed.

Meanwhile, up on the stage, Romeo’s impromptu battle scene continued to unfold. “What...?! How could this be?! There was another, ultimate guard pulling the strings of the Four Heavenly Guards this whole time, and now I have to fight him too?!” Andou shouted. I hadn’t even noticed that he’d gone off on a Four Heavenly Kings tangent, but apparently, he was already moving on to the secret bonus boss that commanded them.

“Horror of horrors,” said Sayumi. “Yet another powerful foe has appeared to thwart our hero, but surely, Romeo will emerge victorious. You can do it, Romeo. We believe in you, Romeo.” Her narration had devolved into the sort of material you’d hear at a shopping mall tokusatsu show for little kids, and it was becoming abundantly clear that neither of them could buy us all that much more time...especially Andou, whom I could hardly even bring myself to watch anymore.

“Hah! Hi-yah! Graaah!” Andou shouted as he shadow-fenced with a platoon of imaginary guards. His stage fighting was, in a word...unfortunate. At this rate, our play wouldn’t just be a farce, it’d be so off the rails it’d loop right back around to being a tragedy again. He tried to salvage the spectacle, and even threw in a cartwheel and some somersaults to spice up the choreography, but they were just...just awful. I actually winced so hard, I ended up closing my eyes entirely.

It felt like his slipshod performance had already lasted an eternity, and the audience had been deathly silent since the moment it began. They weren’t even laughing at him. They just stared, taking in our lead performer’s nonsensical, inexplicable pantomime with a cold disinterest in their eyes. I didn’t even know how to describe the atmosphere in the room. It was just...horrid.

“W-We have to do something, Tomoyo!” Hatoko frantically whispered. “Juu looks like he’s about to cry! Actually, he looks like he’s about to drop dead!”

In all fairness, I would’ve wanted to drop dead if I were in his position. In fact, I think I would’ve bit my tongue and ended it on the spot. “Yeah, we’re in it deep now,” I said. “If this keeps up much longer, the whole play’ll be ruined! And that’s if Andou’s spirit doesn’t break down before then, which I really think it might.”

“Wh-What’ll we do?!”

“Wake Chifuyu up, to start. That’s about all we can do.”

“But how are we supposed to...? Ah!” Hatoko exclaimed. It looked like she’d finally realized that I had an ace up my sleeve: the supernatural power to bend time to my will.

“I’ll be right back.”

Closed Clock!

In a split second—the world came to a halt. Everyone and everything aside from me froze in place, entirely motionless.

...Ah. I forgot to snap my fingers.

“No, no, not the time to worry about that crap!” I jabbed at myself. Then I stepped up onto the stage without making any attempt to be stealthy about it. Our audience wouldn’t see anything that happened while time was stopped, so I was in no rush. I simply strolled over to the other side, taking care not to bump into the backdrop, balcony, or Andou, who was frozen in a sort of hysterical between-poses state. I reached the pile of props and peered behind it, where I found...

“...I knew it,” I sighed.

There she was: Chifuyu, slumbering away with the most adorably innocent expression I’d ever seen plastered across her unconscious face. She’d skillfully crammed herself into the corner, still wearing her Juliet costume, and zonked right out.

“Oh, right. Didn’t she say something about getting into sleeping in cramped places lately?” I muttered to myself. I was glad that she was just asleep, really—part of me had been starting to worry she’d come down with a sudden illness. In any case, I made sure I was out of sight and deactivated my power, bringing the world back into motion...and making sure to actually snap my fingers this time.

“Chifuyu! Wake up, Chifuyu!” I whispered as I shook her by the shoulder.

Chifuyu’s eyelids slowly drifted open. “Mnhh...ah. Morning, Tomoyo,” she blearily muttered.

“Morning,” I replied. “Hey, do you know where you are right now?”

“Mhh...? Ah!” Chifuyu grunted, her eyes suddenly widening with shock. “Ahh... Th-The play...”

“It’s okay! Calm down, it’s fine. The play’s not over yet. Andou’s out there working his butt off to buy us time right now,” I said as I glanced over my shoulder at the stage, where our Romeo was indeed still engaged in his endless battle. “We’re on the scene where Romeo and Juliet reunite in the courtyard, and your line’s next. Think you can handle it?”

Chifuyu hesitated...then gave me a confident nod. “Yeah,” she said. She’d only just woken up, but there was a clear glimmer of tenacious strength in her eyes.

“And hey, Chifuyu?” I said. “I let you have the main heroine role this time around...but I’m not gonna give it up next time.”

We weren’t planning on staging another play after this one, of course. For all I knew, we’d never even have a chance to fight over a leading role again. That wasn’t really what I was talking about, though, and I had a feeling that Chifuyu would understand the actual point I was getting at perfectly well.

Somewhere deep down, I think I’d been taking her lightly. Just like Andou and the others, at some point along the way, I’d started viewing her as not being on our level without even realizing it. I’d given her special treatment because she was an elementary schooler, and I hadn’t taken her seriously for the same reason. And, of course, I’d taken it for granted that a high schooler like Andou would never seriously fall for a little girl like her. I’d underestimated her in every way, and that, it seemed, had been a mistake.

“I won’t give up either,” said Chifuyu with her head held high and a fearless smile across her face. I couldn’t see her as anything other than a genuinely cute, pretty, and charming girl. Charming enough to surmount the age barrier and make someone fall for her on the spot, even.

“Well? Get out there, Juliet,” I said, then I gave her back a push, ushering my rival in arms onto the stage.

☆

Ch-Ch-Ch-Chifuyuuuuuuuuu! You made it! You finally, finally got up onstage! Do you have any idea how late you are and how hard I’ve been working to cover for you out here?! I thought the shame and awkwardness was going to straight up kill me! Biting my tongue off and drowning in my own blood would’ve been a thousand times better than subjecting myself to this misery, but I held on! I believed in you, and oh, thank god, I was right! You actually made it! Thank you, Chifuyuuuuuu!

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, I was free from the miserable hell I’d been trapped in. I very nearly broke down in tears of relief on the spot, but I resisted the urge and spun to look up at Chifuyu on the balcony instead. She was already one hundred percent in character, her expression carrying a sense of melancholy, but an ever so faint blush staining her cheeks. It was the face of a maiden in love if I’d ever seen one, and I had to admit that she cut a strikingly lovely figure. Sure, her costume was handmade, and her balcony had been cobbled together out of desks and cardboard. The whole stage was a half-baked shame thrown together from whatever we could get our hands on, in fact, but Chifuyu alone was the real deal.

The audience let out a collective gasp of wonder as Juliet made her long-awaited entrance. Everyone was captivated by her striking visage, and up in the front row, Kuki had pulled out a digital camera and was snapping picture after picture, even though she was already getting the whole thing on video. Finally, Chifuyu raised a hand to the sky above, as if grasping in vain for a lifeline to rid her of her anguish.

“O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?”

I was stunned. Everyone was. Chifuyu’s performance stole the whole audience’s breath away—especially those who knew how she acted in her day-to-day life. Chifuyu, who almost never broke out of her usual slow, droning monotone, was now speaking from her core, perfectly clearly and with impeccable enunciation. That single line alone was enough to tell everyone present just how much work she’d put in over this past month, and also just how much that work had paid off. A deep, heartfelt sense of relief came over me at the thought that all her effort hadn’t been wasted after all, and I felt a flame begin to blaze within my chest as I waited for her next line...and waited. And waited.

“...”

Taking an awfully long time on that second line, aren’t we? As the silence dragged on, the audience began to stir once more. Chifuyu was still just standing there with a look of hesitation and bafflement on her face, hand raised overhead, not moving a muscle. I gasped as a thought struck me: Don’t tell me she’s so nervous she forgot her lines?!

We’d screwed up, big time. It would’ve been so easy to conceal a copy of the script in the balcony, but we hadn’t bothered. Chifuyu had done so well with her memorization during our rehearsals that we hadn’t even considered the possibility that she’d blank on her lines during the real deal.

What do we do now? I was starting to freak out and started shooting the rest of our members glances, hoping somebody would be able to work out a contingency, but then it hit me: Chifuyu hadn’t forgotten her lines after all. She waited for a moment longer, took a quick breath, then spoke on as all traces of hesitation and doubt vanished from her face.

“O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?” she repeated...and then, she continued. “Wherefore art thou Romeo, and wherefore am I Juliet?”

Suddenly, I was slammed with a mixture of astonishment and utter confusion. Chifuyu had, of all things, started ad-libbing.

“Wherefore must I be so young, and you so much my elder? Wherefore must I be a child, and you an adult? Wherefore must children and grown-ups not be bound by love?”

Chifuyu spoke on. She was going completely off-script, but nobody made the slightest effort to intervene. The audience had no way of knowing, of course, and we sure as heck couldn’t stop her. We couldn’t do anything, really. Everyone present simply turned their ears to the girl on the balcony, taking in her every word with rapt attention.

“Oh, Romeo, please—cast aside your station, abandon the values expected of you! Fear not the scorn of those around you, and hold me close, with all your strength! Leave your assumptions and prejudices behind, see me for the woman I am, and pledge your love to me! Look upon me, not the child you believe me to be! Do this, and I swear that I shall love you in return!”

If we were playing this scene out the way it was supposed to go, it would’ve involved Juliet lamenting the fact that her family and her love were at odds with one another. Having fallen for the son of the Montagues, her house’s sworn foes, she would rack her mind for a solution to her conflict, but she would ultimately be unable to restrain her love for Romeo. With no outlet for those feelings, she would turn to the sky above and deliver a moving soliloquy.

Chifuyu’s Juliet, however, wasn’t talking about her family and her love being incompatible. She was soliloquizing about the pain of falling for an older man. Her heartfelt plea came from the perspective of a girl whose love was forbidden by society, the gap between her age and that of her beloved too large to surmount.

“The only foe I see is the difference in our ages. You would be you, Romeo, even were you a child, and I would be me, even were I elder. A difference in our ages looms, yes—but what meaning is there in such a thing? Are we not ourselves, however much or however little time we’ve spent upon this earth? Do our feelings not remain true, no matter how long we’ve borne them?”

All that has form must someday cease to be. All worldly things are impermanent. All that prospers will someday decline. Panta rhei. Everything we know shifts and changes as time flows onward, and the heart of man is no less volatile. Like a popular anime that plunges from the height of acclaim to the depths of obscurity in just three years, and like Romeo’s feelings for Rosaline, so easily abandoned the moment he laid eyes on Juliet...people change. People’s feelings change. Nothing in this world is unchanging—not a thing.

Chifuyu, however, was rejecting reality’s fluid nature. She spoke of unchanging feelings—of everlasting love. It was a concept straight out of a fairy tale...and yet, her words felt all too real.

“O, Romeo, why must you fear the label of Lolicon?” Chifuyu continued. It was such an absurd line you’d think the audience would’ve cracked up at the sheer audacity of it all, but nobody so much as chuckled. Her words—and her charisma—carried the charm and sincerity to overwhelm a crowd ten thousand strong. “What meaning is there to a difference in age? Whether you were the same age as I, or whether you were old and decrepit, I would love you all the same. I beg of you, Romeo...overcome the barriers of age, reputation, and social standing. Surmount all obstacles, and grant me your love! The meaningless prejudices and biases you hold are not your flesh and blood—they are nothing to you, so cast them aside! Be rid of them, and take me in their place!”

“I take thee at thy word,” I said as I held a hand up toward Juliet. I let the irresistible, inexplicable, and fiery feelings that welled up within me take charge. “Call me but love, and I’ll be new baptized; henceforth I never will be Romeo!”

Up to that point, I had followed our script to the letter. From then on, however, I’d be reading from my own script: a script for me, personally, not for Romeo. I would play myself. I’d play the me that I wanted to be—the me who exemplified my idea of what was cool—and I’d play him with every fiber of my being...just like everyone the whole world over played their own personal characters.

Maybe that meant I’d be putting on a persona. Maybe that persona would be nothing more than a lie—a work of purest fiction. But even if that were the case, I knew that it would be genuine fiction. After all, what could possibly be more genuine than striving to become the person you want to be?

“Your joy is my joy, and your sorrow my own in kind. If such is your wish, I shall shoulder the sin of degeneracy, stain my name with the title of Lolicon, and do it with a smile!”

Such was my vow as Himeki Chifuyu’s knight—as Guiltia Sin Jurai. Such was the oath I had sworn to her long ago, and now swore anew.

As Chifuyu looked down at me from the balcony, a smile spread across her faintly flushed face. It was an expression that spoke of the joy of reuniting with the man she yearned for—and as for whether or not it was just part of her act...frankly, I couldn’t tell, and I couldn’t have cared less regardless. As long as she was smiling, I was as happy as I could possibly be.

“Romeo!”

“Juliet!”

With that, we stared deeply into each other’s eyes, expressing a deep, profound love with our gazes alone.

The play moved forward at a steady pace. Sayumi managed to skillfully narrate around Chifuyu’s digression from the script, covering up any continuity issues it brought about, and after the balcony scene drew to a close, we headed straight into the wedding scene, as officiated by Tomoyo’s Sister Laurence.

The very next day, however, Romeo killed Tybalt, a Capulet, to avenge the death of his best friend, and he was swiftly exiled from Verona. Laurence, seeing Juliet stricken with grief, came up with the “feigning death by poison” plan for her, and tried to communicate it to Romeo as well. Due to a bout of unfortunate happenstance, however, the letter detailing the plan never found its way to Romeo’s hands. Juliet fell into a deep, deathlike sleep, and the Capulets arranged her funeral. Upon hearing the news, Romeo rushed back to Verona, fell into despair upon seeing his beloved’s corpse, and poisoned himself, taking his own life.

“Ahaugh!” I coughed, acting as if I were hacking up a mouthful of blood, and collapsed on the spot. “Juli...et...” I muttered, my eyes drifting shut as I breathed my last in the same coffin as my beloved.

Mere moments later, Juliet began to rouse from her slumber. “Mnh...” she grunted as she sat up, awakening to a joyous future where she would cast off her social status and live with Romeo...or so she thought. Instead, all that greeted her was the cold, hard reality that her lover was dead.

“No! How can this be? Romeo... This is all my fault,” Chifuyu said as she propped me up, cradling my body to hers.

Per the script as written, this is the part where Juliet would draw Romeo’s sword and thrust it into her own breast, taking her life and leading the story to its tragic outcome...but this was where our spin on the tale would finally be revealed: Juliet would kiss Romeo, miraculously reviving him. It was an embarrassingly contrived twist to throw into the play, but at the same time, it was a twist that Chifuyu had thought up all by herself, and a twist that I at least thought was fantastic.

“Romeo, please...wake up, I beg of you,” Chifuyu said. I was still playing dead, and she leaned in toward me, positioning her head in just the right way to pretend to kiss me without letting the audience see what was really going on—or at least, that was the plan.

I sat there, limp, eyes closed, waiting for the feigned kiss. The fact that I knew it wouldn’t be real didn’t stop it from being a little nerve racking...and that was the last thought that crossed my mind before, for a split second, my lips were sealed.

“Mmph?!”

Actually, scratch that. It wasn’t a split second at all. It wasn’t even a single second. For a full three seconds or so, Chifuyu kept her lips pressed to mine. I spent those three seconds completely befuddled, the softness of her lips blotting out every other thought that tried to cross my rapidly liquefying mind.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, Chifuyu reluctantly pulled away. I was still petrified from the shock of it all, and she took the chance to lean to my side and whisper, “I forgive you now,” into my ear. “So? Aren’t I an adult?” she added with a sly grin that the audience couldn’t see, which was only slightly contrasted by the blush spreading across her face...not that I could talk, considering I knew for a fact that my face was a vivid shade of scarlet.

Huh? Huuuh? Did...Did Chifuyu just kiss me? In front of a whole crowd of people? W-W-Wait, no, seriously... That was straight-up my first kiss, actually! O-Oh god, what’s even happening? My mind’s going blank! What was I supposed to do next? Do I have any lines, or were we wrapping things up with narration...?

“A-A-And, And s-so, with a...with a k-k-kiss, Juliet brought Romeo back to life,” said Sayumi. “The power of their love brought about a genuine miracle, and so moved were the Montagues and the Capulets, both houses decided...”

It seemed we were wrapping up with narration after all. As a sidenote, Chifuyu had kissed me from an angle that the audience wouldn’t be able to see—that being, of course, an angle that would obscure the vision of anyone in front of us. That, by logical extension, meant that anyone to the side of us—say, in the wings of the stage or by the mic stand—had been able to see the whole thing from start to finish. In other words, Tomoyo, Hatoko, and Sayumi had almost definitely witnessed it all, which probably explained why Sayumi was stuttering through her narration with a look of consternation on her visibly flushed face. Tomoyo and Hatoko were blushing as well, by the way.

“...Thus did Romeo and Juliet live happily ever after. The end,” Sayumi concluded. With that, all five of us made our way onto the stage, lined up, and took a bow on Sayumi’s signal. The audience gave us a round of applause, and in spite of everything, our play ended on a successful note.

We’d gone through all sorts of mistakes and mishaps, both during our rehearsal period and during the performance itself, but in the end, we’d pulled together to put on a real play. I couldn’t have been more pleased to see it, though I was a little less pleased to notice the red-faced, sidelong glares that the rest of the high schoolers in our crew were shooting me. For the time being, though, I decided to try to focus on the joy of wrapping up a proper performance instead.

Oh, that’s right—I almost forgot. There’s one last issue that I sorta let drop to the wayside unresolved: the question of our play’s title.

We’d debated at one point whether we wanted to append some sort of subtitle to Romeo and Juliet—“The New Testament,” for instance—or otherwise shake up the title to reflect the spin we’d put on the play. Everything that’d happened with Chifuyu had torn our attention away from the question, however, and it had sat unresolved until it was too late to make any real decisions. We’d put plain old Romeo and Juliet on our pamphlet and signboard by default in the end. It wasn’t exactly the most pressing issue to leave unresolved, and frankly I don’t think anyone cared that much when all was said and done. That being said, it did end up reaching a conclusion in a totally unexpected fashion, shortly after the end of our first showing.

We’d set up a signboard for the play in the hallway outside of the music room, and somebody had decided to graffiti it after our performance had wrapped up. A club’s setup getting defaced was the sort of thing that would normally send students running to the faculty...but when we saw what the culprit had written, we couldn’t help but crack up about it in spite of ourselves. It was just such a perfectly on-point expression of our play’s content that in the long run, we ended up adopting it as our official title. I was against it, for the record, but the girls came down in favor of the new title en masse, and I was ultimately overruled by majority vote.

Seriously, give me a break! I didn’t know who was responsible for the graffiti (Okay, no, it was definitely Sagami. I mean, who else would pull a stunt like that?), but whoever it was, they’d certainly come up with the most scathing alteration possible. Specifically, they’d crossed out the first word of the title and written a slightly altered version above it—a version starting with the letter “L.”

Yes, indeed. The final title of our play...was Lolio and Juliet.