Despite a little trouble, Yuzu and I went around the festival as much as we could, and when it was time, we decided to show up at the basketball club.

“It’s right before the show, so my last task is to let them relax by being bathed in my cuteness.” Yuzu turned strangely enthusiastic as we were on our way to the gym.

Well, Yuzu, who was a great socialiser, would certainly be able to relieve everyone’s nerves well.

As we walked into the gym, I saw that the drama club was performing on stage. Their play was Romeo and Juliet… Ah, no wonder their costumes coincided with Cinderella1.

“Where’s the basketball team?”

“At the passageway below the stage. They’re doing some final checks on the props and stuff.”

We sneaked discreetly to the side of the gym and entered the lower passage from there. I was looking forward to seeing their nervous faces when suddenly…

*BANG!*

There was an impact followed by an echoing loud noise that could be heard from further inside the passage.

“Sota?!” Kotani’s voice rang, almost like a scream.

Yuzu and I looked at each other and advanced further.

There we saw a set of stage backdrops lying in the middle of the hallway.

“What’s wrong?”

As Yuzu and I approached, a pale-faced Hina looked back at us.

“Yamato…! Just now, someone’s costume got caught among the stage backdrops placed here, causing them to collapse and almost fall onto Sanae… And then, Sakuraba-kun jumped in to shield her.”

“Then, they’re both buried…! Hey, let’s lift this thing up!”

When I called out to the others, the frozen members of the club seemed to come to their senses and approached the backdrops.

“We’ll lift it slowly. Ready, set, go!”

""

As we lifted it in one go, Kunie-san and Sakuraba’s figure came out from inside, he was wrapped above her to protect her.

“Sota, are you okay?” Kotani rushed towards Sakuraba as we were removing the backdrop.

“Oh, I’m fine. But, what a shame, you’ve come all this way to support me, yet….Ouch!”

Sakuraba pressed his foot while saying this.

I looked over and saw that his calf was roughly torn and bleeding. Startled at this sight, I then looked at the backdrop.Then I saw a protruding nail that had not been properly hammered in one of its corners.

He must have caught his foot on this…!

“Move aside, Aki. We gotta do first aid.”

Yuzu, who had somehow brought a first aid kit labelled ‘Drama Club Supplies’, rushed over to Sakuraba.

“I’ll stop the bleeding.”

“Sorry, thank you.” Sakuraba obediently received Yuzu’s treatment.

“…Sanae?”

At that moment, Hina called out to Kunie-san, who had been silent next to Sakuraba for a while now.

“Hinano-chan…” Kunie-san frowned and held her wrist as if trying to endure the pain.

“Could it be that your wrist hurts?”

“Yup.. I think I might have hit it when I was shielding my head.”

“Isn’t that serious? It might swell up later… Let me see.” Hina began treating Kunie-san with a serious expression on her face.

To encounter this trouble right before the show. What an extremely bad situation. Thankfully, no one had any serious injury, but it was important to ensure whether they could still perform on the show.

“Yuzu, how is Sakuraba?”

First of all, I asked about Sakuraba’s condition, since he seemed to be more seriously injured.

Then, Yuzu, who was treating him, spoke with a bitter look on her face,”The wound is light…but it’s wide…so I think it will open up if he moves.”

When I looked closer, Sakuraba’s leg was wrapped with a bandage to stop the bleeding and pressure was put on the wound.

“I’m sorry to cause such a fuss, but the injury isn’t as gruesome as it looks, and it’s not a problem.” Perhaps anticipating what was to come next, Sakuraba furtively convinced us of his good condition.

“Sota, don’t force yourself.” Kotani was anxiously rebuking Sakuraba.

With these words, Sakuraba fell silent, as if his spirits had been deflated.

Then, I threw in a few words of my own, “I appreciate your spirit, but you won’t get the teacher’s permission with an injury that involves bleeding. If you go out like this, the stage will be cancelled as soon as you bleed out. Do you still want to do that?”

When confronted with the cruel reality, Sakuraba pondered with a bitter look on his face, then sighed.

“It’s impossible then…At least not on today’s show.”

Thank goodness Sakuraba was a man capable of making rational decisions .

“It’s an honourable injury, don’t take it too hard. If you weren’t there, the nail here might have struck Kunie-san instead.”

When I followed up with this, Sakuraba’s expression softened a little.

“Yes, that’s right. Compared to that, this situation is still better. Izumi, can I leave the rest to you?”

“…Well, I don’t have a choice. I may be unreliable, but I’ll take care of it.”

When I undertook the task, Sakuraba laughed, as if he was somewhat relieved.

“I’m sure Izumi can handle it, you’re the one who outfoxed me.”

I knew immediately that he was referring to the last time I tried to set him up with the basketball bet.

“Oh, you’re still holding a grudge about that?”

“A little. So this time I will not hesitate to force you to do something troublesome.” Sakuraba nodded to me jokingly in the same tone.

“Kotani, please take Sakuraba to the infirmary.”

“Al-alright.” Kotani, who had been watching what was going on, lent Sakuraba her shoulder in my direction and headed for the infirmary.

Then, we had Kunie-san left to settle.

“Hina, what about Kunie-san?” When I asked her about it, she shook her head with a sullen look on her face.

“It might be difficult for her to perform today. Sometimes these things swell up after a little while, so we’ll have to wait and see.”

“I see…”

Sprained or broken bones were often noticed later when the pain became more intense. If she could feel pain even at this point, it would not be wise to let her move only to worsen the sprain, so Kunie had no choice but to not participate today.

“I can’t believe the prince and the fairy godmother are gone…”

“Can the play be performed at this rate? Doesn’t this mean we need to cancel today’s show?”

“We’ve worked so hard to get here…”

The basketball team members were rattled.

I let out a sigh and then clapped as hard as I could, making a loud, piercing sound. The sudden burst of sound drew the attention of the club members toward me.

“Everyone, listen . There’s no use getting rattled here. Instead of looking for reasons why we can’t do something, let’s figure out ways to make it possible.”

Hina responded to my call of action,”That’s true, but…what should we do?”

At Hina’s anxious question, I swept my gaze around the entire basketball team members.

“We’re going nowhere unless we get a substitute cast. Is there anyone working backstage, who has all the dialogue lines of the prince or the fairy godmother in their head?” I asked just in case, but as expected, no one raised their hand.

It was only natural. This time, the team had stumbled at the beginning much to their surprise, and everyone was probably too occupied with their own roles to do anything else.

Therefore, there was only one option left.

“There’s no choice then. I’ll play one of the roles.”

When I nominated myself despite being an outsider in this matter, Hina widened her eyes in surprise,”Can you do it, Yamato…?”

“Yeah. I’ve taken many roles during the readings. I know all the lines.”

As an introvert, this situation was no way desirable for me, but this was an emergency situation. I also had promised Sakuraba that I would handle this matter, so I decided to just get it over with.

“Then I’ll be the prince—”

“I’ll play the prince!”

As soon as I was about to wrap up this talk, someone else suddenly nominated herself.I looked in the direction of the voice and saw that it was Yuzu raising her hand.

“Yuzu…? Can you do it?” I asked in surprise at this unexpected nomination, Yuzu then nodded her head with a serious expression on her face.

“Of course. I was also doing the reading together with Yamato-kun. At first, I didn’t want to butt in because I’m not a member of the basketball team, but if Yamato-kun is participating, then I can join too, right?”

If she said it like that, certainly, that was true… But, I was still bothered by something.

“Yuzu plays the prince?”

Obviously, this casting was mistaken, I thought, but Yuzu nodded apologetically.

“Yeah. I’m sorry, but I only have the lines of the prince’s role in my head. Yamato, you do remember the lines for the fairy godmother, don’t you?”

“In that case, there’s no choice, but…”

It was surprising that Yuzu, who was admittedly brilliant and talented, did not remember the lines for the role of the fairy godmother, when even I could remember the lines for both roles.

“Mm, okay. Yuzu playing the prince’s role would look good too.”

Although I still had some nagging doubts, there was no time to argue here.

“We don’t have time. Let’s go find a spare room right away and practise!”

At my instruction, everyone started to move.