Hanejima Yūhei & Hijiribe Ruri Episode
This is a story of the future.
A story of a twisted future.
♀♂
Strange! Bizarre! The darkness of a world woven from illusion and madness, cleaved and purified by a heretic shinobi!
Camilla Saizō is a vampire ninja!
As a child despite being male he lived a peaceful life as the vampire girl ‘Carmilla’ due to family circumstances, but upon the awakening of his ninja master blood he began on his path to fight evil and defend the peace of New Tokyo!
Five years past the first arc, the story’s setting goes abroad!
A formidable foe sudden appears: Dracula Momiji!
Contrary to Carmilla Saizō who was raised as a girl, the Knight Earl Momiji, who was raised as a boy… turns out to be his younger sister…?!
The secret vow between the ninja and the knight from 666 years ago!
And what could be the true identity of Sin Organisation, moving behind the scenes…!
A small hit in Japan! The suspenseful launch of this 4th episode of Super Ninja-ring Action!
—Extracted from Vampire Ninja Carmilla Saizō IV ~ BLOOD REVOLUTION pamphlet
♀♂
Somewhere in the city. Press Conference.
It was an event hall with an ambience of luxury, usually for weddings and anniversary celebrations.
“Alright, please look this way!”
“Here too please.”
The subject to these camera flashes was a number of film actors lined up for a press conference.
It was an event premiering the latest Vampire Ninja Carmilla Saizō film.
While assumed to be a short-lived production at first, Carmilla Saizō had been able to acquire sequel after sequel due to the breakthrough of the leading actor Hanejima Yūhei amongst other factors, and its financial success had risen accordingly.
Given this background, Hanejima Yūhei’s acceptance of his role in this supposedly minor series even after he had gone big was another point of interest. Although his managing company Jack O’Lantern attempted to stop him, the director of the firm Max Sandshield welcomed the idea, and so instead the company wound up making its topselling talent star in one low-paying movie after another.
In any case, these elements combined such that Carmilla Saizō produced several movies featuring Hanejima Yūhei, and continued its progress to gain a place amongst the representative works of the generation.
With the closure of the initial photo-taking session, they moved onto the question-and-answer segment.
“It was mentioned that most of the filming took place in India. How was it?”
“It was a good place.”
“What are the highlights of this latest movie?”
“The fully ad-libbed fight scene.”
“It seems Hijiribe-san was responsible for the movie’s SFX makeup; how were your interactions?”
♀♂
Meanwhile. Conference Room, Jack O’Lantern Japan.
“…It’s hard to tell from his expression, but he was embarrassed back there, wasn’t he?”
A woman said this as she watched the variety show on the screen.
“Is it fine for you not to attend? Everyone knows Hijiribe Ruri’s one of the major contributors that got Carmilla Saizō where it is today.”
The other woman she spoke to—Hijiribe Ruri—looked away awkwardly, answering,
“Sorry, I’m bad at things like press conferences… Besides, I didn’t do anything impressive.”
“That’s not true. Your SFX makeup has been praised since the work first came out, right?”
“The credit goes to Zakuroya-sensei.”
Ruri attributed it to her SFX makeup instructor, but she was not being modest; she honestly felt that her teacher had had played a major part in Carmilla Saizō’s production.
At the same time, Ruri felt once more that fate was a strange thing.
That a film she had done SFX makeup for she would find herself acting in now.
And presently she, who had become an idol, was being interviewed by a journalist, while—
Unexpectedly, she had wound up watching the press conference of Hanejima Yūhei, who was now her lover.
She was currently being interviewed by a freelance writer, Kinomiya Kazane, under the theme ‘Celebrities in Ikebukuro’.
♀♂
Hijiribe Ruri possessed power unlike any human.
And in the past, using that power, she had committed terrible crimes.
While it was revenge for a family member, those crimes were against the laws of this country, and likely unforgiveable by societal standards.
That was why she had decided to accept the fate coming for her.
Even the fate that befell her days after she became the fake lover of Hanejima Yūhei—when she was embroiled in a certain conspiracy and trapped under the rubble of a collapsed building.
She could feel the fire surrounding the debris burn ever-higher.
For all she was superhuman, she would probably die if those flames consumed her.
—Maybe this is my punishment.
If she actually used her monstrous strength she could probably break free of the debris, but a thought had come to her.
It was that perhaps, if she disappeared here, she would no longer be a burden to others.
As she thought this, the face of a man appeared in her mind.
The face of the man who had told a monster like her that he did not want her to die.
—I’m sorry, Kasuka-san.
—If I die here, my crimes won’t inconvenience you anymore…
As her thoughts reached that point, something odd occurred in her surroundings.
The pressure of the rubble weighing down on her had suddenly eased.
When she opened her eyes, there was the face of a man currently levering the slab above her up with a steel pipe.
“Kasuka-san…? Why…?”
“…It’s not a question; I don’t need a reason to help you.”
Something must have happened on his way here; his body was already littered with injuries.
“Please stop! Over someone like me… You should know what I’ve done… You can’t get hurt over someone like me!”
Ruri cried out, close to tears, and the injured Yūhei replied,
“I think there are people who would deny your right to happiness. That is true.”
With his usual lack of expression, he narrowed his eyes slightly, and continued.
“But even if your crimes are unforgiveable, I do not deny your right to be happy. I hope that you will never forget that, at the very least, you have one person who thinks this way.”
With this even voice, Kasuka gave his reply.
“On the contrary, without you, I will not be happy.”
“…Kasuka-san?”
“All that I have are lackings. I don’t have the strength of my brother, or the Director’s ability to get along in the world. I have always been empty.”
Even as Yūhei tried to remove the rubble with all of his strength, he continued to speak to Ruri, who had been giving up on her life just earlier.
“So please… let me dream on a little longer.”
♀♂
After listening to her story, Kazane was silent for a while—before slowly, she tilted her head and asked,
“…That’s a scene from Carmilla Saizō IV, isn’t it?”
“…You realised?”
“I watched the premiere only just now! Ugh, the words are slightly different, but it’s straight from the last scene between you and Yūhei-san isn’t it! To think before I realised I was listening so seriously, too! Hey!”
Kazane said, laughing, to which Ruri smiled gently—
And slid the movie pamphlet on the table over, pointing to one section.
‘Script Contributor: Hanejima Yūhei’
“…”
“Although he said just now that he tried to avoid involving his personal feelings…”
Ruri looked up at Yūhei’s face on the screen, where the press conference was still ongoing, and said, half to herself,
“He truly is bad when it comes to these kinds of things…”
“Um… Do you mean to say, he used a real life conversation as a model for the script?”
Kazane’s voice was uncertain—but in truth she was working hard to conceal a curious anticipation wishing it to be so.
To Kazane, the ‘monster’ replied, with a very human smile:
As if the smile on her face were Yūhei’s share as well, inasmuch as he never smiled at others,
“That’s up to you to interpret, Kazane-san.”
(*The reporter Yūhei addresses by name, Kozaki, is from Otsuberu to Warau Suiyōbi. ‘Ko’ is written as ‘fox’.)
****EPISODE END****
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