Scene 29

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* Magazine

**Scene 29. Puppet Show** is the twenty ninth chapter of *Act-Age* manga series.

## Summary

Akira Hoshi does some vocal exercises while the rest of the actors wait for Kei Yonagi, wondering where she has been as she missed practice the previous day. Kametaro Aota mockingly says that it is because Kei is terrified of Director Yujiro Iwao but before he can finish he gets irritated by Akira's practice and tells him to knock it off. Brought out of his reverie, Akira reassures the others that Kei will be just fine and will be better than ever before when she returns. People take this confidence and start thinking to themselves that the rumour of Kei and Akira must be dating.

We cut to Kei practicing at Inokashira Park with some puppets she made by herself with newspapers overnight. Passersby notice her with it and give her a wide berth believing her to be an eccentric. Looking around for someone to practice on, Kei spots a foreign-looking young girl crying by herself and goes up to her. Meanwhile, Sumiji Kuroyama and Yuki Hiiragi are taking care of Kei's siblings Rei and Rui Yonagi as Yuki asks Sumiji why he sent Kei to the park. He responds that the park has many street performers so Kei will have an audience as she does her soul searching. Sumiji expands on this and explains that film actors aren't used to performing in front of their audience and in Kei's case this was compounded by the fact that her performances came as a result of escapism. For her to be ready to take the lead in his dream project she needed to develop this facet of her skills.

Back at the park, Kei tries to communicate with the foreign girl using her puppet though the language barrier stops her dead in her tracks at first. Thinking back to Akira and how he handled being recognised in public before she tries again. She finds that expressing herself is easier than she thought it would be, remembering that the first time she tried doing something like this was when she played peek a boo with her mother and siblings. Gaining some momentum she restarts her puppet show in earnest and this time manages to catch the little girl's attention, distracting the girl from her crying. Going from strength to strength, Kei's performance begins to draw in a crowd as she comes to realise that she has always been able to express herself naturally.

Arriving back at the studio, the others look at Kei and are able to tell from the difference in her demeanour that she is now capable of expressing herself naturally. They ask her about the puppets and Kei tells them that they are Konsuke the Fox and Ponta the Raccoon. Iwao sees this from afar and smiles, coming forward to tell Kei that she will be joining them all for script reading from the next day onwards. As Akira looks in awe at how quickly Kei has managed to grow, Araya Myojin steps forward smiling and says that it's been a long time since he's misjudged someone which left him annoyed at himself. He asks her if he can stay at her place overnight, leaving Kei and Akira stumped but the rest are used to him and say that its because he is now serious about getting into character. Nanao Sanzaka says that he is so intense about understanding his costars that he becomes stalker-ish and now Kei would go through the same.

## Chapter Notes

* Kei learns to express herself naturally for a live audience and is allowed to attend script readings from now on.

## Characters in This Chapter

* Kametaro Aota
* Nanao Sanzaka
* Akira Hoshi
* Kei Yonagi
* Sumiji Kuroyama
* Rui Yonagi
* Yuki Hiiragi
* Rei Yonagi
* Yujiro Iwao
* Araya Myojin