Prologue - Mankai Company/Chapter 3

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Prologue - Mankai Company

Izumi:	(Is this set build out of cardboard? It looks like an elementary school play. Maybe it's meant to be that way?)
Rookie Member:	Let's see, where was I supposed to stand again?
Izumi:	(Ah, here we go.)
Rookie Member:	...
Izumi:	(This is supposed to be his first play, and I can tell. He's stiff as a board up there. He must be tense.)
Rookie Member:	Hiya! I'm Romeo Kadota, high school freshman! I'm carrying a torch for a girl in my class, you see!
Rookie Member:	Poor me! Why oh why won't she give me the time of the day?
Rookie Member:	Here I am, head over heels for her! It's just not fair!
Izumi:	(Hoo boy. What an awkward delivery. Well, it's okay, he's new. I'm sure the others will carry the show...)
Rookie Member:	Oh gosh, look at the time! I gotta get to school!
Izumi:	(...There are others, right?)
???	Hey! Hold up, Romeo!
Izumi:	(Finally, someone else is taking the stage! I was getting worried there...)
Parrot:	You're goin' ta school, right? Take me with ya.
Izumi:	(...You have got to be kidding me.)
Izumi:	(Oh geez, this is... something. I guess it's got a kind of avant-garde flair? But I'm completely lost on the appeal.)
Furuichi:	Ugh.
Izumi:	(I get it. I want to sigh too. But can't he just be rude in his head like the rest of us?)
Rookie Member:	Okay, time to go see her!
Izumi:	(At least he doesn't seem too bothered by the fact that he's playing to a more-or-less empty house. In fact, he's loosening up by the minute.)
Izumi:	(He's so upbeat on stage, like he's just happy to be there at all.)
Rookie Member:	Thank you for watching!
Izumi:	(Wait, that was it?)
Furuichi:	What a trainwreck of a script.
Izumi:	I hate to admit it, but... yeah.
Izumi:	(The kid up on stage seems happy enough with it.)
Izumi:	(Honestly, it takes me back to my own first time performing.)
Izumi:	(I was having such a blast, it was over before I knew it.)
Izumi:	(His motivation is wasted on this place. He deserves a better role, in a better play.)
Furuichi:	Well, back to demolition.
Izumi:	What?! How can you be so cold right after seeing that heartfelt performance?
Furuichi:	What do you mean, heartfelt?
Izumi:	He's a little rough around the edges, sure, but he's got heart!
Furuichi:	There's plenty of school plays you could go to if you wanna see kids with heart way out of their depth.
Furuichi:	You think this is a school play? That we give out participation ribbons here?
Furuichi:	No. It's a place where pros get paid to entertain viewers.
Izumi:	Maybe, but still. I'm sure with some hard work, he could totally pull it off!
Furuichi:	Hard work doesn't amount to crap in this world
Izumi:	...
Stage Director:	Just let it go. ou don't have the talent to act. Nothing you do can change that, no matter how hard you work.
Furuichi:	Even you can tell, right? This place doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell of surviving here on Veludo Way.
Izumi:	Yes, Veludo Way is a place for the best of the best, and this place doesn't come anywhere close to that, but still!
Furuichi:	But still nothing. The troupe's getting shut down.
Rookie Member:	What? The troupe's going out of business?
Izumi:	Erk...
Rookie Member:	Sorry, I just happened to overhear you guys talking. I only joined this troupe yesterday!
Rookie Member:	I know I suck at acting, I love the stage! Please, you can't put us out of business!
Furuichi:	I can and I will.
Rookie Member:	But, come on!
Izumi:	Have you no heart?!
Furuichi:	I'm shutting down the troupe, and that's that.
Mopheaded Guy:	You'll do no such thing!
Rookie Member:	Manager...
Izumi:	(Wait, the mophead was the manager?!)
Manager:	I have to keep this troupe going, whatever it takes!
Furuichi:	Matsukawa, I've given you plenty of chances, and you've pissed every single one of them away. This isn't up for negotiation anymore.
Manager:	But, we could still get a following like back in the old days!
Furuichi:	No, you couldn't.
Izumi:	Did you have a following before?
Manager:	Oh yeah! Back when Yukio was here, we had sold-out shows and ticket lines going around the block!
Izumi:	Yukio? As in... Yukio Tachibana?!
Manager:	You know him?
Izumi:	He's my father.
Manager:	Wait, you're really Yukio's daughter?!
Izumi:	I actually came here to find the person who sent this letter to him.
Manager:	Oh, that was me!
Izumi:	So you're Isuke Matsukawa?
Manager:	That's right. Yukio couldn't make it?
Izumi:	Eight years ago, my dad went MIA and never came home again.
Manager:	... So that's what happened.
Izumi:	I came here to ask if you knew anything about it.
Manager:	Yukio up and vanished one day and stopped coming to the theater. We've been out of contact ever since.
Izumi:	So we're in the exact same situation...
Manager:	I was hoping maybe we could reach him at his home address.
Furuichi:	So you were going to try and lean on him again. Tough luck, looks like that ship has sailed. You're done.
Izumi:	Now hold on, don't you think that's a little dismissive?! There could be another way to salvage this!
Manager:	Y-Yeah! Who knows, maybe we could get some help from someone other than Yukio!
Izumi:	(He's staring at me again. Do I sense a pattern here?)
Furuichi:	That's easy for you to say. You don't know the first thing about this theater.
Izumi:	What's your point?
Furuichi:	This theater is reserved exclusively for this troupe's use, if you'll believe that.
Furuichi:	Most troupes don't have their own attached theater. They book time in other venues for their own performances, but not this troupe.
Furuichi:	They have their own theater AND their own dorm, which means a lot of overhead costs.
Furuichi:	Back in their heyday, they ran four sub-troupes – Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter. They'd rotate shows on a monthly basis and make money hand over fist.
Furuichi:	The hard truth is that this troupe can't support itself without running constant shows with four mini-troupes.
Izumi:	(I feel like my dad mentioned something about the four seasonal sub-troupes once or twice...)
Furuichi:	But as you can see, aside from Mr. Get-a-Haircut here, the troupe's only member is the kid that jumped in the other day.
Furuichi:	One-man shows aren't going to be enough to carry them.
Manager:	So that's how it is...
Furuichi:	That's what you have to say? You're the manager– none of this should be news to you.
Izumi:	On the flipside, you sure seem to know a lot about this troupe.
Furuichi:	...I like to be well-informed about my debtors' circumstances.
Manager:	Oh! But wait a minute, we have one more feathery member–
Kamekichi:	I'm Kamekichi, here to save the day!
Furuichi:	Birds don't count.
Manager:	...Worth a shot.
Furuichi:	That's enough stalling. Sakoda!
Sakoda:	You called, boss?!
Furuichi:	Do it.
Sakoda:	You're the boss, boss!
Manager:	How heartless can you get?!
Rookie Member:	Please, don't write us off!
Izumi:	(The troupe is about to go under. My father's old troupe...)
Izumi:	Hey, uh, wait! I just remembered!
Furuichi:	What now?
Izumi:	Um, my father asked me to look after the toupe if they ever needed the help! Yup! He totally did!
Manager:	What?! He did?!
Izumi:	(I made that up on the spot. Guess I have to stick to it now.)
Izumi:	Come on, Matsukawa! You're the manager, right? SURELY you would've heard about that?
Manager:	Huh? Naw, not really.
Izumi:	No, I really think you did!
Izumi:	(Come on! I'm dropping hints with all the subtlety of an anvil!)
Manager:	Oh! Uh, now that I think about it, maybe I did?
Izumi:	Basically, what you'd need is for them to expand the troupe and assemble for sub-troupes, right, Mr. Yakuza?
Furuichi:	Yeah, that's the long and short of it.
Izumi:	Then there's no problem! I'll bring some new members on board!
Manager:	You will?!
Furuichi:	How many, and when are they coming? They'd better not be all like Amateur Hour over here
Izumi:	I'll get one– no, two! It's fine. I've got all my dad's connections and insider information on my side!
Manager:	Heck yeah! The troupe is saved!
Izumi:	(There's no way the Yakuza's buying this. But there's no harm in trying, right?)
Furuichi:	...Sunset
Izumi:	Huh?
Furuichi:	You have until sunset to bring those new troupe members to me.
Izumi:	You'll really wait until then?
Furuichi:	Yes, and I don't mean any idiot you've conned into filling your quota.
Manager:	No worries there! With Yukio's daughter on the case, we've got this in the bag!
Izumi:	(That's a whole lot of confidence in somebody this guy's just met.)
Furuichi:	If you can't manage that, you can kiss this sign and this theater goodbye.
Izumi:	Y-Yes sir! Come on, boys.
Manager:	You're the boss, boss!
Rookie Member:	Y-Yes, ma'am!
Furuichi:	Good God, she can't act to save her life. She's got nothing whatsoever on Yukio.
Sakoda:	So what do we do about the sign, boss?
Furuichi:	Just what I said. Wait for the sunset.
Sakoda:	You're the boss, boss!

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