The Festival Begins

Takahashi sighed as he walked towards the school. After spending weeks prepping for the festival, it was finally here. While he was excited, he was also a bit apprehensive. His school's festival was a pretty big event that ran for three whole days, starting on Friday. Because of that, a lot of people tended to come check it out. Sure enough, as soon as he turned the corner, he could already see the crowd starting to form at the school gates as visitors were let in. He could hear the principal in the middle of his opening speech amongst the buzz of the students and teachers who were making preparations for the day.

That, of course, did not include his own students, who wouldn't be putting on their play until Saturday. They had everything ready days before the play, and Takahashi couldn't bear to make them rehearse on the first day of the festival, so he allowed them to enjoy the school festival as much as they liked. Of course, Takahashi would not be allowed to do the same; as a teacher, he needed to do his job and patrol the school to make sure that no one was causing trouble.

“Everyone's so lively,” Ueda said brightly as she patrolled with Takahashi through the school's halls. “The visitors are having lots of fun too. It's proof that the students have worked hard to put on a good festival.”

“What did your class do for the festival?” Takahashi asked. He was so busy with his own class's project that he never managed to ask.

“They're doing a maid cafe,” Ueda answered. “It's a little cliché, isn't it? Still, they were having a lot of fun making the costumes and putting together the menu. I'm sure they'll get a lot of customers!”

“Well, there are a lot of people around,” Takahashi noted. “But if a fire breaks out, it could get bad.”

“I don't think there's a need to worry about anything like that,” Ueda said with a giggle. “Honestly, we rarely have problems during the festival. I think the worst that's ever happened is a fight or two.”

Takahashi hoped that would be all. He wouldn't know what to say to Fukuda if after all they'd done, the festival ended up canceled.

As Takahashi and Ueda walked through the halls of the school, they also took their time to peek in on the many stalls and attractions that the various classes had put together. As they did, Takahashi happened to spot several of his students enjoying the festival. He saw Yada eating crepes with some girls from out of school, and Nagasaki getting a fortune from the fortune teller. In a stall where one class set up various games, Izumi and Kitamura were competing in a goldfish-catching competition. All over the school, Takahashi saw everyone running around having a great time. Everyone except Fukuda.

At first, he didn't think much of it, but after a while he started to worry. Once his break came around, Takahashi decided to go and see where Fukuda was. Obviously, the large crowds made that quite difficult for him, but he eventually found her by herself on the school's rooftop. She was looking at her phone with a rather complex look on her face.

“So you were here, Fukuda-san,” Takahashi said with a sigh of relief.

Fukuda shook herself and put away her phone. “Sensei,” she tried to call out casually. "Did you need something?"

“What are you doing all the way up here? Shouldn't you be enjoying the festival?”

“Oh, I just got a message from someone, that's all.”

“I see. There's nothing else?”

“Nothing at all! Now if you don't mind, I'm going down to check out the haunted house on the 1st years' floor.”

Fukuda quickly walked past him down the steps, keeping her head down so he couldn't see her face. Still, Takahashi was already sure that something was up with Fukuda. He just didn't know what.

Could it be that she was getting cold feet over the play? It wasn't unreasonable; Fukuda was an amateur actor, regardless of her technical skill. It wouldn't be surprising for her to fall prey to stage fright, especially for her first big performance.

Still, was that really it? Fukuda didn't really seem like the type to get stage fright. Despite her introverted impression, she always seemed to take to public performance fairly easily. She certainly had no problems in the improv contest only a few days before. Of course, the scale was completely different, but it didn't really seem like stage fright would be a problem for her.

Takahashi glanced at the time on his phone. It was nearly time for his break to be over. He didn't really have the time to track down Fukuda and ask her what was troubling her. Besides, he could tell from their conversation just now that it wasn't something that she was fully comfortable with explaining to him.

The first day of the school festival ended without much happening. As the sun set, the visitors left the school after enjoying the day's attractions, while the students stayed behind to make a few last-minute preparations before the next day.

As Takahashi stood by the gates, he noticed Kuroda and Ooe walking to the entrance.

“Going home?” he asked as he called out to the two of them.

“Yep,” Kuroda replied. “Are you still gonna be at school?”

“Of course. Someone has to stay behind until all the students have left.”

“Bummer.”

“Say, do you two know if Fukuda-san is still at school?”

“Fukuda-san?” Ooe's brow furrowed. “I think she probably went home already.”

“Yeah, I don't think she has any reason to stay, right?”

“I see...” Takahashi was a little disappointed. “Thanks. See you tomorrow, kids.”

“See you tomorrow, Sensei.”

Takahashi waved goodbye to his students and looked back at the school. He'd hoped to get another chance to speak to Fukuda after the festival, but it looked like that wasn't going to happen. Hopefully, Fukuda would be feeling a bit better tomorrow. It was finally time for her debut, after all. He didn't want her to mess it up.

*****

On Saturday, there were even more people coming to the festival than there were before, especially since it was now the weekend. Takahashi's class was a lot more on edge today as well, since their play was going to be the first on the stage. Still, there was about an hour or so before the first performance, so there was plenty of time to make sure that the stage was set up properly.

Takahashi was supervising the preparations as his students ran to and fro trying to get things ready for the performance. As the set was being put together, Izumi ran up to him, panting heavily.

“What's the matter?” Takahashi asked worriedly.

“I can't find Fukuda-san,” Izumi replied. “You haven't seen her, have you?”

“I know she came to school,” Takahashi said. He had hoped to speak with her then, but unfortunately he was stuck taking care of other things. He did notice that she still seemed troubled. Did that have anything to do with her disappearance?

“I want to look for her, but we still need to prepare for the play. Plus, I don't want other people to disappear while looking for her too. What should we do?”

“I'll look for her,” Takahashi replied as he patted Izumi on the shoulder reassuringly. “The preparations are mostly done, and I can trust you to handle the rest.”

“Thanks, Sensei,” Izumi said with relief. “I don't know where she is, but I don't think she'd be looking around at the festival or anything like that. She's probably in a place where she can be alone. I hope that helps.”

Takahashi nodded and rushed out of the auditorium. He was trying not to panic, but it was a little hard not to. Fukuda was essentially the star of the show. If she wasn't there, there was no play. Not to mention that it would be almost impossible to find her since there were even more people here than the day before, turning the school into a nearly insurmountable sea of visitors.

Takahashi tried the first place he could think of, which was the rooftop he found her at yesterday. No dice. He then called each of the teachers who were in charge of patrolling the festival today, but they hadn't seen her either. He sighed as he put away his phone. Fukuda wasn't making things easy for him, that was for sure.

Takahashi then tried thoroughly searching the third-year and second-year floors. He knew Izumi said she probably wouldn't be there, but he couldn't ignore the chance that she had entered by chance. Still, his searches turned out to be fruitless as time continued to wind down.

Finally, he headed down to the first-year floor, feeling a little pessimistic about his chances. As he rushed down the stairs, he suddenly noticed something out of the corner of his eye and turned around. It was a frilly green dress that looked exactly like the one they were using for Altera. Takahashi walked closer and realized that it was Fukuda, hiding under the stairs as if she were running from a demon. He sighed and cleared his throat to alert her to his presence.

“Takahashi-sensei,” Fukuda said with some surprise. “What are you doing here?”

“That's what I should be saying,” Takahashi said with a sigh. “The play's going to start soon. What are you doing all the way out here?”

“Nothing,” Fukuda replied unconvincingly. She stood up from her sitting position and straightened out the wrinkles in her dress. “Sorry about worrying you. We should get back to the auditorium.”

Takahashi glanced at her face, which seemed to be a little tired. “Are you sure you're okay?”

“Yes, I'm fine.” Fukuda smiled weakly. “It's just nerves.”

“You sure? We can take a quick trip to the nurse's office if you're not feeling well.”

“No, it's fine. It's no big deal! Come on, let's go to the auditorium before it gets too crowded.”

Takahashi sighed and relented. He was reminded of the first time they spoke, when he was still trying to convince her to try out acting. She had been pretty tight-lipped then as well. However, this time felt different. Takahashi felt like if he tried to push too hard here, he might end up overstepping his boundaries. The two of them walked out of the school building and took a pathway through the courtyard in order to avoid having to push through the crowds and risk damaging the costume.

They arrived at the auditorium with a few minutes to spare. Ooe was furious, but since Fukuda was already in her costume, she only needed a few touch-ups on her makeup to be ready for the stage.

As the class ran around putting together the set, Izumi came up to Takahashi with a slightly relieved look on his face. “I see you found Fukuda. Thanks, Sensei.”

“Yeah.” Takahashi still felt somewhat concerned. “Izumi-kun, did Fukuda-san seem off to you?”

Izumi raised an eyebrow in confusion. “No, not particularly. Why, did something happen?”

“Er, not really. It's probably nothing, so don't worry about it.”

“Okay. Well, the play's about to start, so we need to get out of here.”

“Right.” Takahashi followed Izumi off the stage and to the side of the auditorium as the curtains fell away to reveal the stage. The narration began as Fukuda strolled onto the stage as Altera, the Princess of Geralon. As the narration ended, Fukuda recited her first lines in the play.

“Hark! The wind blows foul today. I fear ill tidings are to come. I must away to the Kingdom of Maltimus and deliver this missive of peace!”

As the play continued, Takahashi and Izumi watched intently from the audience. Fukuda was doing well, and the class was doing a good job of changing the set and performing their roles seamlessly.

“Who's playing the princess?” a student's mother asked with awe in her voice. “She's really good at acting.”

“Is she part of the drama club?”

“I don't think so...”

Takahashi beamed with pride when he heard the audience heap praises on Fukuda, but when he turned to look at Izumi, he seemed like he was deep in thought.

“Is something wrong, Izumi?” Takahashi asked worriedly. “You've got a pretty heavy frown.”

“Oh, sorry,” Izumi said. “I just feel like Fukuda's performance is a little off today.”

“It is?” Takahashi glanced back at Fukuda on the stage. She didn't seem all that different from usual.

“Well, if you can't tell, it's probably fine,” Izumi remarked. “She just seems a little distracted to me.”

“Don't scare me,” Takahashi sighed. He thought of the problem that Fukuda was clearly hiding. Maybe he really did need to try speaking to her about it, at least a little bit.

*****

The first performance of the play ended in a large round of applause for Takahashi's class. The cast came out and bowed to the crowd as the audience cheered for them. Izumi and Takahashi walked back up to the stage to help move the props and set away so that Kondo's class could set up for their play.

Once that was done, Takahashi went to look for Fukuda again. This time, he did not need to go far to find her; she was standing at the back of the auditorium, watching as the second play began.

The play that Kondo's class was doing was pretty unique: they based the main plot on Cinderella, but inserted it with all sorts of elements from Japanese folktales, with the Tale of Princess Kaguya as the main influence. Kitamura, surprisingly, was not playing the main character, but instead performed the role of the adoptive mother of Kaguya. Kitamura was currently standing on the stage right now, performing her role in the same melodramatic fashion as she was during the improv contest.

“That's quite the acting style she's chosen for herself,” Takahashi remarked wryly as he watched Kitamura's performance. “At least the audience seems to like it.”

“She's having fun, though,” Fukuda observed. “I think that's the most important part.”

Takahashi glanced at Fukuda. She looked a little tired and distracted. She was putting up a tough front, but Takahashi worried that she would push herself too hard. He didn't want her to fall apart in the middle of a performance.

“Fukuda-san,” Takahashi said resolutely. “Can you be honest with me?”

“About what?”

“You're troubled over something, right?”

Fukuda averted her eyes. “It's nothing, really.”

“It's clearly not nothing. Even Izumi-kun could tell that you were distracted.”

Fukuda fell silent. He guessed that she didn't realize just how visible her distress was.

“Listen,” Takahashi said with a sigh. “I'm not going to force you to say anything. But I do think it would be better for you to open up. Your problems don't have to be your own. I may not be able to do anything to help you, but at least I can listen to you for a bit.”

After a few moments, Fukuda eventually nodded.

“Okay. But not here. Let's go somewhere more private first.”

Takahashi nodded. That was a reasonable request, though the school's current state might make it difficult to fulfill.

Thankfully, there was an unused dressing room in the auditorium's backstage for them to use. Takahashi sat down on a chair and waited patiently for Fukuda to begin speaking. He didn't want to push her into talking, after all.

Finally, Fukuda built up the courage to speak. “Yesterday, I received a message from my father.”

“I see.” Takahashi couldn't understand the significance, but he could guess at it. Fukuda mentioned before that her father wasn't living with her, so she must have a strained relationship with him. “What did he say?”

“He said... that he would come to the festival on Sunday.”

“I see. Is there... a problem with that?”

“Well... my father doesn't know that I'm acting in this play.”

“Ah.” Everything just clicked into place. “Your father doesn't want you acting?”

“It's not exactly the case... but my father is the reason why I stopped wanting to act.”

“What do you mean?”

“I told you before I've been interested in acting since I was a child, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, naturally I asked my father to let me take acting classes. He was reluctant at first, since he wanted me to focus on my studies, but eventually he relented. I would take acting classes after school three days a week, and my mother would come to pick me up.”

“That's nice.”

“However, one day, while walking home from school, my mother and I were attacked by a mugger. The mugger was too nervous and accidentally pulled the trigger on his gun. My mother died on the way to the hospital.”

“I'm... I'm sorry.” Takahashi couldn't think of anything else to say.

“It's okay. It's been a long time since then.”

“Did you stop acting because of your mother's death?”

“No, that's not it.” Fukuda shook her head. “My father, he... he was devastated. He loved my mother so much. When he heard the news, he couldn't control himself, and... he blamed me for it all happening in the first place.”

“What?” Takahashi had to keep himself from jumping out of his seat. “How does that make sense? You were just a child! You had no control over the situation!”

“It's okay, Sensei! It was a sudden outburst, and he apologized afterwards. But after it all happened... I stopped going to acting classes, and I haven't said a word about acting since then. I guess in the end, I still felt guilty about my mother's death.”

“Well, you shouldn't. That had nothing to do with you. And you shouldn't feel guilty about wanting to act either. If your father says anything, I'll knock him into next week.”

Fukuda gave Takahashi a warm smile. “Thanks, but I'll accept your sentiment instead. My father's a local politician, after all. He'd make your life hell if you actually hit him.”

“Is that so?” Takahashi was surprised to hear that he was a politician. Still, it made sense. Fukuda seemed like she came from a wealthy family.

Fukuda stretched her arms and stood up. “You're right, Sensei. I do feel better after talking things out. Let's go back to the auditorium before we're missed.”

“All right.” Takahashi was uncertain that things had been settled, but there was not much he could do right now. All he could manage was to keep Fukuda's spirits up and support her as much as possible.

The two of them returned to the auditorium in time to see the ending to the play Kondo's class put on, which ended with Kaguya putting on the glass slippers in order to return to her home on the moon. As the audience cheered, Takahashi and Fukuda made their way to the backstage, where the others were already preparing to put up the set for their own performance.

As Fukuda was pulled away by Yada and Ooe to touch up her make-up, Izumi came up to Takahashi with a concerned look on his face. “Did you speak to Fukuda?”

“Yeah.”

“Is she gonna be all right?”

“I don't know. But I think she'll be fine regarding the play.”

“You think?” Izumi scratched his head. “Fine. We don't have time to do anything else anyway.”

After a short intermission, Takahashi's class put on the second performance of the day. The whole performance went off without a hitch, and this time Izumi saw no problems with Fukuda's performance. Takahashi breathed a sigh of relief. While not everything was resolved, at the very least Fukuda was now able to perform at her best.

As the performance continued, Takahashi's mind wandered back to Fukuda's worry over her father. Though he said he'd make sure nothing bad happened, there was a limit to how much he could do. He was just her teacher, after all; he had no say in the personal relationship between the two of them, especially if nothing untoward was happening.

During a lull, Takahashi noticed Izumi taking a short break to drink some water. He walked over to him and gestured that he wanted to speak privately.

“What is it?”Izumi whispered under his breath.

“How much do you know about Fukuda-san's father?” Takahashi asked apprehensively.

“Fukuda's father?” Izumi frowned. “I don't know a lot about him. I'd only met him once or twice.”

“Anything at all is fine.”

Izumi thought for a bit before responding. “The truth is, the reason Fukuda and I stopped being friends was because of her father.”

“Really?” Takahashi was surprised. “Why is that?”

“Well, I don't know for sure what caused it, but... the day Fukuda came back from school after her mother died, she broke down in the middle of class and started crying. I tried to ask her what was wrong, but she wouldn't say a thing to me. I got worried, so when her father came to pick her up, I showed up and tried to ask him what was going on. Mind you, I didn't know that her mother had died yet.

“Fukuda's old man didn't say a thing to me. Instead, he just took Fukuda back home while looking at me with the coldest eyes I had ever seen. Even she seemed to be scared of her own father. After that, I never really saw Fukuda ever again. Her father arranged it so that she was always picked up and taken home immediately after school.”

Takahashi mulled over what Izumi told him in his head. He couldn't really get a sense of the guy just from that. He seemed unfeeling, yet overprotective.

“I don't have too many other memories of Fukuda's old man,” Izumi continued. “Anyway, what's all this about? Does this have anything to do with what Fukuda was worried about?”

“Sort of.” Takahashi was a little uncertain if he should tell Izumi, but he decided that it was fine. Izumi cared about Fukuda, after all. He wouldn't do anything irresponsible. “Apparently, Fukuda's father is coming to see the play.”

“Is that so?” Izumi rubbed his chin with a furrowed brow. “Why would that cause her to worry?”

“Well, Fukuda's father is supposedly not very supportive of her pursuing acting.” That wasn't necessarily the truth, but it wasn't far. Takahashi felt a bit too uncomfortable broaching that particular subject.

“I see,” Izumi said, nodding his head sagely. “It's a tale as old as time itself.”

He looked a little silly considering he hadn't been given the full picture, but Takahashi decided to leave it be.

“Did he say what time he was going to come?” Izumi asked.

“Fukuda-san said he would come on Sunday.”

“So he's going to see the big stage show? Well, that's a good place as any, right?”

“Right.” Takahashi wasn't certain that would apply to the actual situation, but who knew?

“In any case, we shouldn't worry about that right now,” Izumi said as he got up and stretched his arms. “We need to run through the rest of today's performances and make sure we've got it down pat, after all.”

Takahashi nodded. Izumi was right. There was no point in worrying about tomorrow when today hadn't ended yet.

*****

Several hours later, the last performance of the day was finally finished. The cast stood in a row and bowed for the crowd, who gave them a standing ovation. From the crowd, Takahashi spied teachers and repeat visitors among the applauding audience members.

The praise continued even after the audience was leaving the auditorium. Some people were critical of the plot, but most of the praise was directed towards Fukuda's incredible performance as Princess Altera.

“What do you mean, you don't know her? Isn't she in the drama club?”

“No! I wouldn't have missed such a talented girl being in my own club!”

“The princess definitely elevated that play, don't you think?”

“I mean, I thought it was pretty good anyway. I'd watch an anime version of that play, that's for sure.”

“Mommy! That princess was so cool!”

“Wasn't she? I'm glad you had fun!”

Takahashi beamed with pride as he stood at the doorway seeing the audience out. To think that only one month ago, his class couldn't even decide what they were going to do! He could almost cry.

Once the audience was gone, Kondo's class ran around to set up for their last performance while Takahashi's class put back their costumes and took their set pieces and props back to storage. As he helped with putting things away, Takahashi noticed Fukuda sitting by herself. Takahashi walked over to her and handed her a water bottle. “You look exhausted.”

“I am exhausted,” Fukuda said as she took the bottle. “Acting under those hot lights in this heavy dress is not easy.”

“But you had fun, right?”

Fukuda was silent for a moment, then nodded her head in agreement. “Yeah.”

“That's good. That's what matters.”

Takahashi took a sip of water from his own drink as he let silence permeate the room. “Fukuda-san. Tomorrow... you shouldn't think about your father being there.”

“Huh?”

“Tomorrow, you'll be performing on the big stage in front of hundreds of people. It'll be a once-in-a-lifetime chance to experience that kind of thing. Won't it be a shame to let that be bogged down by your worries?”

“It'd be nice if I could actually do that,” Fukuda said wryly.

“Fukuda-san,” Takahashi suddenly said with determination. “What do you want to do when you become an adult?”

Fukuda was surprised by the sudden question, but Takahashi's expression told her that he wanted a serious answer. “I want to act. Doesn't matter if it's a movie or a play. I want to keep experiencing this feeling over and over.”

She took a drink of water and smiled a little sadly. “I guess I was just lying to myself when I said I'd given that up. Now that I've had a taste, I can't stop.”

“That's fine,” Takahashi said with a smile. “And don't worry. I won't let your father stop you, even if I have to give up my life.”

“Why would you have to go that far?” Fukuda laughed. “But, to be honest, I really don't know how my father would react.”

“Don't worry about it. What kind of father doesn't support his daughter's dreams?”

“That's not it.” Fukuda shook her head. “The real reason I stopped wanting to act... it was because I didn't want my father to associate acting with my mother. I was scared that me wanting to act would remind him of my mother's death.”

“I see.” Fukuda was a rather sensitive person, after all. She would be thinking of things like that.

“But I'm past that now. I can't deny it; acting makes me happy. And I want to use acting to bring my father happiness as well.” Fukuda gave Takahashi a bright smile, the brightest he had ever seen her wear. “And I have you to thank for giving me the chance to do so.”

Takahashi felt choked up, but it was too early for him to be shedding tears yet. “Just don't screw it up,” Takahashi said with a sly smile. “Otherwise, you'll be embarrassing yourself in front of the whole school.”

“Don't worry, Sensei,” Fukuda declared as she jumped up from her seat. “I'm the lead, after all!”