Chapter 17: To Accept A Change Thus Fate

"My dream to enroll into a seiyuu school never washes away, and even today, I hope Mother or Father will let me. I want to be stubborn, but they will be the one funding my high school. However, I have followed their demand to go to common school in the neighborhood, so there should be no other problem to give me their consent, right?" - Aki.

It was the critical moment for the final year students to make up their mind regarding their preferred high school. Each of them needed to submit the high school entrance form and choose their course wisely. From the form, the teachers and administration would channel them towards their respective route. By this, no students should be left out and everyone would successfully graduate from Izumi Junior High School.

The club members gathered themselves in the room, tensed and solemn. Maya and Yuma could not curve a smile, triggering the bewilderment of Aki, Tori and Hiro. They have just delivered the news about their upcoming graduation to the twins, which predictably slumped their spirit to work on the club. Aki as the most attached senior to them patted Yuma’s shoulder, lending some inspiration to the younger so that he could share the energy with Maya as well.

“Why are you gloomy? Relax,” Aki smiled, yet it was forced and too bad that it was noticeable by the others there. “Well, uhm, I must say that I love this club, and its content.”

“And us?” Tori leant his forearm against Aki’s, teasing him to not forgetting them as the members of the media club.

Aki nodded vigorously, “I love everything of this club. Through it, I learnt many other things besides studying in academically. I got to know kind-hearted people too.”

“Including us?” Maya and Yuma goofily asked.

“Of course you are,” Aki stroked Yuma’s hair and patted Maya’s shoulder lovingly. He has already considered the twins like his siblings. They were really helpful for the club.

None of them figured out the fact that the twins were the real information hub who they could not let go of them. It explained why Maya and Yuma were enthusiastic to join the club. Maya was an expert in collecting proofs and witnesses over cases and gossips. From her skills, they could find culprits, identities of people, and eventually prove a truthfulness or wrongness in every rumours available. Aki’s faked appearance was divulged by her too, but she failed to point out that Aki was not actually the member of drama club.

The other twin, Yuma, was a pure detective. His deductive skill surpassed Tori’s, and he could even solve cases regarding missing things. By using the information his sister has collected, he would correlate each of the points and connect them into a plot. As he has told the seniors, he has already discovered that Aki was Kishi’s mentioned partner, but he did not know Aki would be in the media club.

Therefore, participating into the media club was an achievement.

Nevertheless, no matter how strong their memories were, they had one particular weakness. It was that they rarely seen studying, and they really did not, which subconsciously worried the seniors as top scorers of class 3 – 6. Even though they were only first year students, it was necessary to perform from the first year so that they would not be marked as problematic students.

Aki, Tori and Hiro have somehow agreed to not mention anything regarding studies, or it might hurt them.

“Say, Aki-senpai,” Maya broke the overwhelming silence, shifting from Tori and Hiro to Aki, “do you have any high school you wanted to go?”

The twins could witness Aki and Tori stiffened immediately, and Hiro beside them blinked in perplex. Maya and Yuma waited for Aki’s response, however the elder seemed to not be able to reply. He remained quiet with his eyes fixated on the desk, staring at it blankly as time went by. Tori patted him on the shoulder.

“We both want to go to the seiyuu school!” Tori announced proudly, at the same time he leant against Aki’s forearm. “Right, Aki?”

Aki flinched at Tori’s declaration as he was swayed by his past time for a moment. He unconsciously recalled his memory around three years ago, when his mother Atsuko rejected his demand to enrol into a seiyuu school in the neighbourhood. She declined Aki’s wish and insisted to send him to regular school instead in order to keep on learning normally. In conclusion, she despised Aki’s dream to learn to be a voice actor. A proper voice actor.

“I- uh,” Aki entwined his fingers in fidgety, hesitating to concur to Tori’s proudness. “I guess I do want to.”

“Aki, what are you talking about?” Tori clung his arm around Aki’s shoulders, dragging the latter into his embrace, “It’s your dream to register there, right? Do you still remember the thrill you felt when we met Fuku-san, your favourite seiyuu?”

“Fuku-san?” Yuma’s eyes sparkled in exhilaration, “Fuku-san, the seiyuu of Kokoro-sensei of the anime <Assimilation Classroom>? Or the one who acted as Elle Britannia in <Code G>?”

Tori frowned at the enthralled Yuma before them. Even Hiro blinked in confusion. Just what has gotten into this Yuma boy…

“Both are the same actor, Yuma,” Aki intently ruffled through Yuma’s hair, giggling at the younger’s spirit. “Yes, it’s that Fuku-san! Tori and I happened to get into his reality show, the one he pretended to be a hawker. Surprisingly, he remembered us because we came to his food truck twice, and there was a fight during our second visit. He was the one breaking the fight.”

Yuma, Maya and Hiro ogled at Aki in astonishment, for that they have never assumed Aki to have such memorable history with someone popular. Much popular than Kishi. Fuku-san was a famous Japanese voice actor who was introduced to the industry from an anime <Invisible King> and he acted even in video games. Despite the fame, Fuku-san was popular even among kids due to his loveliness towards them. Whenever there was kid-related events, he would make some time to spend there, and get himself surrounded by kids almost every time. He was not the type to act real snobbish and arrogantly reject any fan service.

“I didn’t watch the reality show, but I did hear about it. He promoted it on the television, if I wasn’t mistaken,” Hiro reminisced thoroughly. As a kid, it was normal to watch television during free time.

Aki’s childhood was not that normal though.

“If we look for the video on online video platform, we could have found you, Aki-senpai, Tori-senpai,” Maya pumped a fist, “I just knew I’m befriending an ardent fan of Fuku-san!”

“Yes, yes!” Yuma shook Aki’s hand, “I’m glad to be in this club! Really!”

According to the twins, Fuku-san had a cousin who was much younger than him who happened to be their senior during their fourth grade. That cousin was once schooling in the same elementary school as another kid voice actor, Mura-san, and there was rumours exclaiming that they befriended each other. Estimating from the age gap, that cousin should be at the same age as Aki, Tori, and Hiro, which indirectly providing them a chance to encounter him at high school.

Nonetheless, Maya and Yuma have lost the track of that cousin. Besides, they did not really know who Fuku-san was, hence they just took it lightly and concentrated their focus on Mura-san instead.

“The last thing I know about Mura-san is that he’s acting for a kid anime, but I think he couldn’t remain long in that anime,” Yuma commented while propping his chin, like a chief discussing strategies with his subordinates.

Aki raised a brow. “Why did you say so, Yuma?”

“It’s a sensitive issue, I guess,” Yuma paused to see how Aki and Tori would react upon the news, “Mura-san is getting into puberty, Aki-senpai. It’s normal for boys at your age.”

“How’s that related to his voice acting?”

Aki asked, but then he immediately got the idea as he imagined the possible scene occurring during a voice acting session was held. “Do you mean about… his voice?”

Yuma reluctantly nodded to Aki’s assumption. “Yes, Aki-senpai. As a voice actor, their job rely on their own voice, beside the talent and acting skills. Girls probably won’t get affected during their puberty, but not to boys. Boys tend to have some voice alteration during puberty, which making it difficult to find their ideal voices back.”

In order to handle the situation, a male voice actor might need to change their character preference or switch to other anime genre suitable to their current voice. Aki has never acknowledged who Mura-san was, but he just had the insight regarding it. His own voice has not changed, the same to Tori and Hiro, which meant he had to thoroughly think of anime genre he could do once his voice turned hoarser, sooner or later.

Out of the blue, Aki slapped both his cheeks, completely in denial.

“What should I do? What if my voice changes like that too? I can’t think!”

He manageably surprised Tori, Hiro, and the twins. A light hit was delivered to his shoulder by Tori. “Relax, Aki. You haven’t gone to that phase yet, so you still have some time to act as much as you want.”

Aki’s teary eyes depicted his restlessness. “What if I just joined the seiyuu school when my voice turned hoarser? What if I was rejected since then? How can I face my mother after that?”

Maya and Yuma stared at Aki in squints as they never thought their favourite senior of Izumi Junior High School would overthink to such extend. They exhaled a long sigh in unison, feeling difficult to accept such side of Aki.

“Then, you just have to be like Mura-san, Aki-senpai!” Maya encouraged Aki to chin up, “Mura-san is a person, an actor, who can act as both gender, depending on the role he gets. He can be a girl, and he can be a boy,” She scooted over, drawing herself closer to Aki, “On top of that, he can act more than one character at a time!”

“What?!” Aki, Tori and Hiro screeched altogether upon Maya’s revelation.

Was that Mura-san even a person since day one? How could he do that?

“I need to know who Mura-san is!” Aki sprung from his chair, toppling it over and dashed to the shocked Hiro. “Please find me his video or anime with him as the cast, Hiro!”

“Yeah, yeah, I got it!” With one hand, Hiro typed on the keyboard and his another hand controlled the mouse.

Less than a minute after Hiro clicked on the Magnifier icon, the results of the online search popped up. Several bluish links to different websites displayed on the screen, and the first link Aki eagerly pressed the cursor on was about the biodata of Mura-san. As how Maya and Yuma have stated, Mura-san was a child actor who got popular as the cast of kid anime. Getting deeper into the investigation, Mura-san did own a few girl characters, yet most of his roles were boys. The diversity in the characters he casted as was fascinating because people could barely hear about a person with two voices. This Mura-san was extremely rare! A precious germ!

“I must find this Mura-san!” Aki thumped his palm on the desk, again, startling the other club members. “I must learn from him! I want to know about two voices!”

Tori seized Aki on his wrist. The worry portrayed on Tori’s complexion told Aki not to jump to conclusion. Aki’s enthusiasm almost faded wholly, but he did not get frenzied. Instead, he listened to Tori first.

“What is it, Tori?”

“Weren’t you upset that your Mother didn’t let you enter the seiyuu school last time?” Tori murmured in order to not let the twins heard him as well.

It was undeniably true. Aki’s dream of enrolling into a proper seiyuu school was still inflamed by his ambition of becoming a voice actor just like Fuku-san. He has planted a vow in himself to enrol in one once he has graduated from his middle school, then his parents would not have other reason to reject his demand. He has learnt exactly like how they have instructed him to do, and he has endured it for almost three years.

All he needed was a little more boldness and… a brochure.

That was why he confronted his mother once he returned from Izumi Junior High School. He has made up his mind. Plus, there was a possibility that Mura-san has joined a seiyuu school as well. They were at the same age after all.

“Please, Mother! Let me go in there this time! Three years have passed, and I’ve decided to follow this course instead!”

The Aki in front of her bowed his upper body to implore for one chance, along with his hand stretching out to hand her the brochure. One sole opportunity, and that was to consent him to learn what he wanted.

Atsuko crossed her arms in utterly denial, shooting off deadly glares at the anticipating son.