Spare Classroom A In Use
O-Okay!
Let's do a read-through of our script!
Does anyone have any questions?
Whoa, what's with this mood?
Oh! I have a question for Fuka:
Alucia's emotions here—is she more desperate? Or resolved?
Um, it's more the latter.
Got it!
Wow, Hinami, nice assist!
So...
Like this?
If I don't do something, you'll be killed.
So please... let me do this.
How's that?
P-Perfect...
Cool!
I mean, she is already acting all the time, anyway.
I hate to do this, but I have a student council thing after this.
Is it okay if I slip out?
A-ha! To create a pretext for spending less time in rehearsal,
she starts out with a bang that'll make her more persuasive.
From what we just saw, yeah, you should be fine.
Sure—no problem.
2nd Stage: Lv. 11 Even fairies feel lonely when they're away from their spring by themselves
Wh-Who are you? What are you doing here?
I'm Libra, the locksmith's son.
And this is...
Freeze, all three of you.
Seize that man!
His Highness's orders!
Resistance is useless!
Come quietly, now!
Having escaped execution thanks to Alucia's quick thinking, Libra...
Hah! Ow ow ow...
You can't just take things—that makes you a thief!
Calm down, Father.
Nice work!
Yeah, good job.
Our first day went off without a hitch.
I was nervous, but I had fun.
Yeah? Well, that's good.
Thank you so much for all your support.
Not at all! I'm doing this because I want to.
But... you're so busy.
You've got that thing with Nanami...
The comedy skit?
Right. That's something else you have to do.
So, um... that's what you should do tomorrow.
Huh? But what about our rehearsal here?
I'll... I'll do my best.
I've been thinking... You've changed, Hanabi's changed...
and I'm the only one getting left behind.
My Unfamiliar Way to Fly
So... it's about time I change, too.
Oh, okay.
Don't you think this could spark real change for me?
That would be the ideal, anyway.
Yeah. I understand.
I'm going to go for it.
Tomozaki
That would be the ideal, anyway.
What is it...?
Something about that word—"ideal"—doesn't sit right...
Spare Classroom A In Use
O-Okay, let's start from the first scene.
Top Secret
Ta-da! I've actually finished our script!
Wow, really?
Now let's give our married-couple routine a whirl!
Clap-clap-clap-clap!
Hello there!
Wait wait wait! I can't just jump right in like that!
Huh? Why not?
I haven't even seen the script!
Even though we're friends, Brain?!
Even though we're friends.
See? That's what I call great flow!
Huh?
What we did just now!
We were just having a normal conversation,
but it started sounding like a comedy skit, right?
Ah!
Which makes this natural married-couple comedy!
Let's get rehearsing!
Hey, I know! Why don't we go to the zoo?
I wouldn't want to be there if the lion escaped its enclosure.
So I'll bring a tranquilizer gun.
You know they'll confiscate it at the gates!
Don't you think our usual conversations are funnier?
This really feels like we're reading a script.
Oh...
The funniest comedians come across like they're having an impromptu chat.
So even though memorizing this is part of the process,
maybe not every line should be carved in stone.
Yeah. But that's kind of terrifying.
I guess...
But you and me always have such crazy conversations... couldn't it work?
Now that you mention it... maybe?
That's right! We'll conquer the world!
What's this "world" stuff? It's just the culture festival.
See? Nice comeback!
Sheesh...
I have fun with Mimimi—and so, by extension, it's easy to picture us dating.
But how is that different from being friends?
Here.
Nice work today.
You've had a lot on your mind lately, huh, Brain.
You can tell?
Aww, c'mon! Your ol' uncle is always here for advice!
My uncle, huh?
It's not healthy to keep stuff to yourself.
And if a girl my age is saying it, you know it's true!
What, so you're not my uncle after all?
Don't you worry about that.
Um... thanks.
F-F-For what?!
For worrying about me.
Oh, well, y-y-you know...
I've actually had a lot of things to think about lately:
the script for our play, Hinami...
Aoi?
She's playing Alucia, right?
We asked her a lot of questions for the part,
like, "Why do you push yourself so hard?"
Oh, that. I've been wondering that myself, ever since the election.
And how maybe she and I are the same.
The same?
I told you how I need to be in first place because I'm not special, right?
Yeah.
So I'm thinking...
maybe Aoi shoots for first place so she can be special, too.
That could be.
Mimimi?
If so, that worries me a little.
How so?
Maybe Aoi and I are the same:
hollow.
Hinami, hollow?
I mean, I don't know what her core motivation is.
To try that hard and still be empty inside... How sad is that?
And if it's true... then she might...
Might what?
She might not ever come to me for advice. Right?
It's true. I doubt Hinami would unload on Mimimi about herself.
And not just Mimimi...
I can't picture her opening up to anyone at all.
Cast Libra: Takehiro Mizusawa Alucia: Aoi Hinami Kris: Hanabi Natsubayashi King: Shuji Nakamura Knight: Erika Konno
How can you even be that strong,
Aoi Hinami
Aoi Hinami?
Spare Classroom A In Use
When I joined rehearsals for the first time in two days...
Could you be more dignified there, please, Nakamura?
You mean like this?
Yikes! That's not dignified—that's intimidating!
Say what?
C'mon, a king's more like this!
What's so kingly about that?
Right? Not dignified in the slightest.
Aw! It is too dignified!
How long do I have to keep doing this?
Alucia
Want to swap?
Cut it out already.
Oh, thanks.
Hey—focus! Help Fuka out here!
Oh, sorry! Keep going.
O-Okay, um...
What's rehearsal been like these past two days?
Oh, Kikuchi's been trying to really actively talk to everyone.
To everyone?
Yeah. Like when you were assigning parts earlier.
It feels like she learned from watching you.
Y'know, though, I hate to say this...
She's not really used to that kind of role.
Well... no.
So it's like... our tires are spinning, and we keep losing focus.
And Aoi hasn't been around—she's busy with student council work.
Good morning, Tomozaki.
Morning, Kikuchi.
Could it be... finished?
Yes. I know it took a long time, but...
I've finished the script.
Ooh!
The script went in a different direction than I'd anticipated.
After Libra and Kris took off on the flying dragon
and Kris got a taste of how beautiful the world was,
she began asking to venture into town.
Libra accompanied her out of the castle.
She didn't know how shopping worked,
and got a real scolding from the greengrocer.
Thus Kris came to know the real world.
Eventually, Kris got to thinking:
this garden she'd been cooped up in for all this time,
this place she wanted to leave... she did nothing
in return for clean clothes and delicious food,
and she could read all the fairy tales she desired.
It may have been a little too convenient.
Say, Libra... am I spoiled?
Eh?
Being shut away in this garden,
never having to work hard to live...
The outside world is pretty from a distance,
but I'll have to work hard if I want to be part of it.
In the end, Kris sneaked out of the castle and went missing.
Libra and Alucia searched desperately for her.
But the castle's residents did nothing about the missing girl.
Kris had finished raising the flying dragon,
so as far as they were concerned, she was only baggage.
Kris took a job at the greengrocer's.
Despite a string of failures,
Kris used her own skills to learn what life required of her,
and decided to live in the outside world.
Libra and Alucia celebrated her new venture.
I sure didn't see that coming.
Still...
It's so similar to what I felt back then...
Bottom-Tier Character Tomozaki S2
I read your script.
H-How was it?
Um... Why was Kris... like that?
Like what?
She left the garden and Libra and Alucia...
and decided to live alone in the village, right?
Yes...
My Unfamiliar Way to Fly Fourth Draft
I'm sure you put a lot of thought into this,
but reading that actually made me kind of sad.
I felt like it was negating everything about her life in the garden.
One of my favorite Andi books is The Popple on Raptor Isle.
The Popples...
Oh, right... You mentioned that before.
It's an incredibly positive story.
This Popple, a blind creature, was living all on its lonesome
when it left on a journey in search of friends.
At first, all the other creatures feared it because it was different.
But it made friends through the power of its words.
And after making all these friends of other species,
they all went on a voyage to see the ocean.
After reading it, I thought this Popple was an ideal for the world.
An ideal... for the world?
It didn't even know what kind of creature it was,
but it reached out to all these other species and made friends.
All thanks to the power of language and a little effort.
That's how it made friends.
It reminded me of a certain two people.
Two... You mean...
Yes. You and Hanabi.
I like this Popple's tale, and think it's a great storytelling ideal...
an ideal for the world.
I thought I needed to be more like that Popple.
But I just kept giving up.
Maybe it was impossible.
But when I saw you and Hanabi, I thought:
You're both so brilliant, such ideal people...
And maybe, just maybe, I could be like that, too.
So you're aiming for that ideal yourself?
Kris is the same way.
Working hard to change like the Popple did, to fit in in the world.
My Unfamiliar Way to Fly Fourth Draft
After all, changing like that is ideal.
I was fretting over who'd be with whom in the end.
But this story was really about how Kris lives her life.
Uh-huh.
Got it.
But these new parts of the script...
Can we set them aside for now?
Set them... aside?
Mull over it for a while, and if it has to be that way,
we'll go ahead with it as is.
I know we don't have a lot of time, but...
It really does feel much too sad.
My Unfamiliar Way to Fly Fourth Draft
Understood.
Spare Classroom A In Use
Okay. Places, everyone.
Where do I go again?
The king's right here!
Isn't that my spot?
Is it?
I'm here, right?
Um...
Hey, slow down! Think about Fuka here!
Shuji, you're here.
Erika, you're over here, and Tachibana, you're here.
Right, Fuka?
Yes, right.
Where am I again?
Here, I think?
Matsumoto, you're here,
and Hashiguchi, you're here.
Maybe it's because the school's perfect heroine Aoi Hinami is here,
but Kikuchi seems to be mimicking how she does things.
O-Okay. Let's begin.
Why is she like that?
Could you not sneak up on me?!
Kikuchi's been thinking about a lot of stuff.
Hmm. A lot, eh?
Yeah, well...
Tell me. Maybe I can help.
She thinks she has to become this world ideal.
Changing to fit in better, making friends...
She says she has to do these things to fit this ideal.
A world ideal, eh?
I mean, sure, if she says so.
The way she puts it feels a little loaded.
No, I think it's a good thing.
She's determined to change herself
and is actively working toward making that happen.
And she's doing a great job! It's impressive.
I suppose so.
And so is her reason for it: to fit this ideal.
Pretty ironic that it's the opposite of you, though.
The opposite?
If you mean the directions we're moving in, I think they're actually the same.
Making an effort to change so we fit in with everyone else.
That's what Tama and I did.
Ah, okay! So that's what it looks like to you.
Wh-What?
Look, Kikuchi's talking about the world's ideals, right?
Your ideal is from your own perspective: "I'd like to do this."
While Kikuchi's takes a bird's-eye view: "The world needs me like this."
Totally opposite, right?
I changed myself so I could enjoy my playthrough of this game of life.
Tama changed herself so she wouldn't be making Mimimi sad.
We both did it so we could be our ideal selves.
Then why is Kikuchi doing it?
Is that how it is?
Drawing nearer to the world's ideals
is an objective, player-oriented way of thinking, like Hinami's.
Yes, that's right.
I do feel like I see things from what you call a "player" perspective.
But this has me thinking...
It might actually be an author's perspective.
An author's... like scripts and novels?
Well, yes, those too, but more than that.
An author of this story we call the world.
The world's author?
For a long time now, I haven't thought about what I'd like to do
so much as how to make this world more beautiful, how it should be,
what an ideal form would look like.
A very authoresque way of thinking about things.
So I'm okay with this.
With a player perspective?
Those are your words, Tomozaki.
My Unfamiliar Way to Fly Fourth Draft
In the game world, the opposite of "character" may well be "player."
But in the world of novels, I think the opposite of "character" is "author."
So I'll be all right holding onto my author's perspective.
I do want to take on that ideal form.
Just like Hinami.
Like Hinami, huh...?
Yes.
After all, she's a very ideal person, isn't she?
Tomozaki
My Unfamiliar Way to Fly Fourth Draft Fuka Kikuchi
The whole premise was off.
I was playing the game of life as a player.
Kikuchi was writing the story of life as an author.
But really, she's aiming to be a perfect heroine like Hinami.
Is that the path Kikuchi should be taking?
My Unfamiliar Way to Fly Fourth Draft Fuka Kikuchi
Still, it's not for me to say what should go on inside Kikuchi's head.
Inside Kikuchi's head...
A-ha.
The Popple on Raptor Isle Michael Andi Translated by Emiko Murata Read Now
There it is.
My Unfamiliar Way to Fly Fourth Draft
I read the whole thing...
My Unfamiliar Way to Fly Fourth Draft Fuka Kikuchi
and found a clue that could give me an answer.