𝒩ᴼᵂ 𝒫ᴸᴬᵞᴵᴺᴳ : ❝ 𝑀ᴬˢᵀᴱᴿᴾᴵᴱᶜᴱ ❞ 𝒷ᵞ 𝒥ᴱˢˢᴵᴱ 𝒥
↻ ◁ II ▷ ↺
ʏᴏᴜ ʜᴀᴠᴇɴ'ᴛ ꜱᴇᴇɴ ᴛʜᴇ ʙᴇꜱᴛ ᴏꜰ ᴍᴇ
﹌﹌﹌
ᴀQᴜᴀ ᴅɪᴅɴ'ᴛ ᴅᴏ too bad after the first, and only, rehearsal. Despite how much he practiced, that was to be expected. The only reason he was so good when he was younger was because he used the fact that he was mentally a lot older than how he was physically. Now that his physical age was catching up, he was a regular actor.
He would change that. For Ai.
"So you can still act after all," Kana said when it was time for a break.
Aqua smiled at her. "I'm not as good as I was in the past. I'm just a regular actor now, but I guess that makes me fit in with everyone else here—everyone except you. You're still talented."
Kana smiled. "I have to say, I'm kind of disappointed. You were great back then."
"I was only using what I had." Maybe he should try using that skill again. If it worked back then, it could work now. Some of the rainwater that had leaked through created puddles on the ground. He could try to walk through them to add to the eerie setting. That would make the episode more watchable, wouldn't it?
Though, it wouldn't be possible to fully create a good scene if the actor for Aona Kanaka, Melt Narushima, wasn't the best at acting, to say the least. It was mean of him to think that—hopefully, Ai would forgive him—but it was true. Despite Kana telling him that it was natural for young people to act so stuck-up when first gaining popularity like she did, he still didn't like him.
"This is enough," said Kana, a smile on her face. "Your performance feels like it came from someone who's been putting effort in for a long time. I'm guessing you did."
Aqua smiled and let that answer for him.
"The finer techniques you used were well polished," she continued, "or maybe you suppressed your sense of self and became part of the story."
"I'm just following your lead."
Kana smiled. Talking this way with her was nice, even though he remembered clearly of wanting to kill her when they first met as children—or, Aquamarine was.
"Do you think you'll get more roles after this?" he asked. "I haven't seen you anywhere recently."
Aqua wanted to take the words back when Kana flinched. "W-Well, I...I had a very long dry spell. I couldn't get any work, and people online acted like my career was over."
"But it's not, is it?"
"No. I never stopped practicing. I didn't know why I was working so hard, and the thought of retiring was always on my mind. But look where I am now!" Kana gestured around them with open arms. "I'm finally being valued for my skill. It was a painful road to get here, but I'm happy I never gave up. So that's why, even if you aren't the best actor in the world, just knowing that you kept at it all this time makes me happy."
"The world's a hard place," said Aqua. "It's only natural that we keep going. Things are going to be hard, but as long as you keep going, things will eventually get better. You just have to believe in it."
He was ready for the old-man comment, but Kana's smile only grew wider. "See, you get it!"
Aqua smiled back. The moment touching if not for the fact someone's younger sister decided now was the perfect moment to interrupt them.
"Hi, Kana and Aqua!" Ruby exclaimed as she stepped beside Aqua. "Sorry to interrupt, but I need to borrow Aqua for a few seconds."
Kana's face looked slightly annoyed, yet she shrugged.
Aqua followed Ruby to a quieter area where there was no one but them. Still, Ruby checked multiple times to make sure they were alone.
"What do you need me for?" he asked her, wondering why she was being so cautious.
She turned to him with a sheepish smile. "Okay, so I know I was supposed to be near the entrance because that's where you and Kana left me, but I got bored. And since my job was to stay out of people's business, I thought I could look around as long as I wasn't bothering anyone. So, I went around and stayed out of everyone's way, and I found the director going into the smoking room. I know it's bad to eavesdrop, but I was curious since someone he was talking to was talking about me! They were asking him why he let me on set, and the director said this whole thing's already a mess. Then they started talking about Kana and how she helped keep the cast together" —her smile fell as she paused— "and how she's dirt cheap so you could do anything you wanted with her..."
Aqua frowned. "They wouldn't talk about her like that. She's their best actress."
"I want to think that, but when they talked about me, they didn't say my name, but it was obvious it was me. But when they were talking about Kana, they said her name."
"But... Why would they say that?" Aqua didn't know why he found it so unbelievable that Masaya would talk that way about Kana when he barely knew him.
"I don't know... They talked about how her name has some worth to it thanks to the child acting, so just adding her name to projects adds its value."
Its value. Not her value, because according to them, Kana had no value other than her name.
"Does she know?" Aqua quietly asked her. All the checking she had done earlier now made more sense.
Ruby shook her head. "I don't think so. I just heard them, and you were with her the entire time, right? You're the first person I went to. I don't want to be the one to break the news to her."
He didn't either.
"I'll deal with it," he decided, taking on the responsibility as the older sibling. He thought he might be older than her in their mental ages as well, having several suspicions about who she was in her past life since finding out they were both reborn as AI's children, but he didn't know for certain.
Ruby nodded, her shoulders relaxing. He hadn't realized how tense she was.
Aqua and Ruby headed back to the main area. Filming was about to start soon, so he wouldn't have enough time to tell Kana. He also wasn't close enough with her for her to believe him if he had told her, and that was if she sat and listened through the whole thing. She was also incredibly happy about getting the lead role of something after years without it. He couldn't ruin that.
That meant he would try to make the show better than watchable.
The filming started. Melt sounded robotic as normal, but Aqua could change that. He simply had to use what he had.
When he was about to enter the scene, Aqua made sure to step onto the puddles. He hunched his shoulders with his hood drawn over his face to give himself a mysterious aura.
"This girl isn't the kind of person you think she is," he said, keeping his voice low. "She'll never be compatible with a shallow playboy like you. She's the same sort of person as me. She'll wither and die in the sun. The darkness suits her."
He let Melt say his lines before he walked closer to him and whispered, "You know, you're pretty ugly up close. Photoshop really does wonders, huh?"
Melt froze. Anger took over him as his hands whipped up to Aqua's shoulders. He clenched his hoodie in a fist and pulled him closer. "What the fuck did you just say?"
Aqua smirked. Melt realized what he did, but the scene had to keep going. "Are you deaf? I said you have nothing to gain from protecting that woman!"
Melt scowled. "This girl is a precious friend to me! Nothing you can do will make a difference! I'll protect her even if it kills me!"
Aqua smiled as he pulled the knife out of his pocket. He ran forward, dodging Melt and raising the knife towards Kana. "Give up and be gone!"
Melt punched him away, knocking the knife from his hands. He smiled as he went down, an evil glint in his eyes. He hit the ground hard. He still sat up and laughed, low and slow.
The yelling came like a slap. "There's not a single person who needs you! Know your place in this world! Get your head out of the clouds! You have no future. Your life is nothing but pitch-black darkness!"
Now, for Kana. The child actress who could flick a crying switch. The one who Aqua had set up the stage for. All she had to do was finish the infamous scene with her crying, and the scene wouldn't be watchable—it would be perfect.
The tears fell out slowly as she lifted her head. A smile was on her face, and she said just above a whisper, "Even so...I believe there is light!"
The filming ended.
Aqua got himself cleaned up and looked for Ruby. He was unable to find her, causing worry to seep in. He was prepared to look for her when Melt approached him.
His face had genuine worry. "I'm sorry... That punch actually connected, and I put some force into it too."
Aqua shook his head and smiled. "You don't have to apologize. I wanted to get you mad anyway. Acting should carry emotion along with it. You gave a good performance. Thanks to that, Kana got her chance to give her best performance, too. Now, if you excuse me, I have to find my sister."
Aqua left a confused and shocked Melt behind. From the corner of his eye, he saw Kana looking at them, but he wasn't sure if she had heard their conversation.
That didn't matter, though. What mattered was finding Ruby. Not even she knew what trouble she could accidentally get herself into. As her older brother, it was Aqua's job to protect her.