Arc-3 Ep-38

 The mini-live appearances, which also served as public apologies for the opposite-sex scandal, continued one after another. Combined with my other work, the end of February turned into an incredibly busy stretch.

After school, I headed to the production office. The moment I arrived, the receptionist stopped me and told me that Niikura-san, the sub-manager in charge of the inner group Sistema Solare, wanted to see me.

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“…Good morning! It’s Kayanuma.”

“Good morning, Kayanuma-san. Niikura-san is at her desk.”

“Yes, thank you.”

I made my way to the management department where Niikura-san's desk was. An employee near the entrance confirmed that she was in. After thanking them, I walked over to her desk, where she was busy working on her laptop.

“Good morning, Niikura-san.”

“…Yes. Good morning, Mikuri-san.”

After working together for half a year, she'd naturally gone from calling me by my surname to using my first name. She still kept the “-san,” though, and hadn't progressed to calling me Mikuri-chan. Then again, some people always stuck with “-san,” so I didn't really mind.

“I heard at reception that you wanted to see me.”

“Yes. A new job has been officially confirmed.”

“A new job… Is it a drama?”

Since it had already been officially confirmed, there must've been preliminary discussions beforehand. That made it more likely to be an acting job than anything music-related.

“No, it’s a movie. The schedule is rather tight since there isn’t much time left before filming begins.”

“…When does filming start?”

“It’s scheduled to begin in mid-March.”

Mid-March, huh.

My middle school graduation ceremony was on Tuesday, March 7th. There wouldn't be any conflict between that and the high school entrance ceremony. Still, the time between the official confirmation and the start of filming was far too short.

“It’s so sudden…”

“…It was originally supposed to be finalized much earlier, but because of that incident, they decided to wait and see.”

“That… You mean that, right?”

She was referring to the opposite-sex scandal. If that hadn't happened, the role would've most likely been confirmed much earlier, giving everyone far more time to prepare.

“Yes. Since the impact of that turned out to be far smaller than expected, they decided to move forward with the original casting.”

“That’s good to hear.”

“It really is… If they'd changed the casting at this stage, it would've caused problems on every front.”

They would've had to find a replacement actor and postpone the start of filming. If that had happened, Fortissimo might even have been forced to pay financial penalties. In that case, the person responsible for the scandal could've ended up being saddled with an enormous compensation bill.

“By the way, what kind of movie is it?”

“Ah, I haven't told you yet. It's based on a manga… Here, this is the title. Do you recognize it?”

“…The title is Resident of the Girls’ Academy? …I'm sorry, I don't.”

Niikura-san turned her laptop toward me, displaying the cover of the first volume. The title read Resident of the Girls’ Academy 1, so there were probably several more volumes in the series.

“It's a popular series serialized in a girls' comic magazine, and it also has a solid male readership. Don't you read manga, Mikuri-san?”

“It's not that I don't read manga, but I mostly stick to shonen and seinen because of my older brothers' influence. We've got tons of tankobon at home.”

The truth was, I'd been a guy in my previous life, so I'd never really connected with girls' manga.

“I see. The series currently has nine volumes out. The film will adapt the story through volume four, so I'd recommend reading it beforehand.”

“Understood. I'll pick it up on my way home.”

“Yes, please do. …By the way, your role isn't the lead, but I think it'll become an important one.”

“An important one… 'will become'?”

The wording caught my attention. If it were already an important role, she could've simply said that. Instead, the phrase will become suggested it wasn't especially significant at the moment, but was expected to grow in importance later.

“Yes. Since the manga is still being serialized, that's just my prediction based on where I think the story is headed.”

“I see…”

“By the way, this manga falls under the occult and horror genre.”

“Eh!?”

Judging by the cover alone, I hadn't gotten that impression at all. The title did carry a vaguely unsettling vibe, though.

“A horror manga… Am I the one getting scared, or the one scaring everyone else?”

“…The latter. You're not playing a ghost or anything like that, but you'll understand the details once you've read it.”

“Understood. I'm not very good with scary things, though.”

Saying something like that would probably make me come across as more of a cute girl.

Of course, even with memories from my previous life, I'd probably still flinch at a jump scare. But I wasn't the type who'd end up too frightened to sleep or even go to the bathroom afterward.

After all, I myself was something of an occult phenomenon.

“There won't be any scenes that'll frighten you, Mikuri-san. You'll understand once you've read the manga.”

“That's reassuring.”

Honestly, I had no desire to see myself screaming or cowering in terror. Playing the one who frightened others might not be the most idol-like role either, but if I had to choose, I'd much rather be the one doing the scaring than the one being scared.

“The protagonist is the one who spends most of the story terrified. …Ah, and the lead role is scheduled to go to someone from Seven Satellite.”

“I see.”

“Yes. There are also several other members of Sistema Solare appearing in the film. Including you, five members are currently scheduled to be part of the cast.”

That was a surprisingly large number. At that rate, there was even a good chance Sistema Solare would end up performing the movie's theme song.