Scene 14

* Volume
* Magazine

**Scene 14. Transformation** is the fourteenth chapter of *Act-Age* manga series.

## Summary

The next day, the actors eat food and talk with each other as Ryuugo Donoue gets irritated at Sen Wakatsuki's sudden doubts about herself after seeing Kei Yonagi's performance, still unable to accept that she got chosen over Kei during their audition with Stars Agency. Ryuugo tells her that a Stars actor should hold their head high and that if she wants to be able to reproduce a performance like Kei's she should simply puke at her next scene with Sen arguing that is not the point.

At the table next to them Kei, Masaki Minamoto, Takemitsu Karasuyama and Akane Yushima overhear this conversation and Takemitsu notes that things get a little crazy every time Kei acts. Akane says that their opinions of her vastly different and Kei are displeased at Ryuugo going as far as to call her "puke-girl". Kanna Kinashi nervously walks up to Kei and asks for her autograph, explaining that at first when Kei had thrown up she had thought it was cringe but upon seeing the take she was taken aback and impressed.

Later, the filming resumes, this time with the scene immediately after the one Kei had shot the day before. Ryuugo sticks around despite having completed all his filming as he had wanted to see more of Kei's acting after hearing Sen talk about her, bidding his Stars co-star to not be outdone by Kei with Sen nervously responding that she wouldn't be. The scene begins with the trio of Kei, Akane, and Kanna being chased by Sen and they find themselves at the edge of a waterfall. Ryuugo looks on unimpressed as Yukiji Tezuka tells them they would film the moment where they jump off the cliff back in Tokyo and not to jump off the waterfall but is shocked alongside everyone else as Kei does exactly that. Yukiji says not to cancel the shooting and says it was his mistake for not calling cut, telling the concerned Akira Hoshi not to intervene. Determined, Akane follows Kei's example and also jumps off the waterfall, finding that it is not too long a jump, Takemitsu smiles at this turn of events but Masaki is annoyed and wonders why Akane followed suit as well.

Kanna however, had not jumped and Sen catches up to her, killing her character much to the girl's relief as she had been too scared to jump. Resolving not to be outdone by Kei and reminding herself that she was the one who had won the Stars Agency audition, Sen jumps after Kei and Akane and Yukiji calls cut once she does. Ryuugo is shocked at the nature of the rivalry being developed as even Sen had followed Kei's example when they had originally planned to film the jump back in Tokyo, as Takemitsu begins to laugh. The other Stars actors note that the actors from the audition are all fired up, saying they would mess up the schedule and wondering if Sen had always been the type to do such things as well, Chiyoko Momoshiro however, looks on in fascination.

Yukiji asks the staff to check up on the girls and make sure they were unharmed and calls them later to speak with him about their decisions to jump, with the day's filming ending three hours behind schedule. Kei says that she had continued since no one had called cut and assumed she would have to continue with Akane saying she had followed Kei's example and Sen vociferously declaring that she thought it would be better than editing in the jumps in post-production. Yukiji waves off their apologies, saying it was his fault for not calling cut in the first place, going on to say that it was a real actor thing to do to continue the scene simply because no one had called cut. Ryuugo interjects and vehemently disagrees, saying that actors who risked their lives when the scene didn't even call for it were just idiots and that he was disappointed that Sen had drawn inspiration from the "puke-girl" with Sen immediately standing up and rebuking Ryuugo for being rude as Akane pats Kei on the head and she looks down and says he called her that name again. Ryuugo tells Kei that he would not acknowledge actors like her as Yukiji looks on.

Later, Kanna tells Kei that she wants to become exactly like her, with Kei half-heartedly asking her if she wants to become like "puke-girl" but Kanna says that Kei's determination to jump down the waterfall showed that she was fully immersed in her role and she wanted to emulate that. Kei tells her that it is inconvenient but Kanna does not budge asking her what she means as Masaki and Takemitsu talk from further away and Masaki says that all the actors have begun to act strangely because of Kei. Takemitsu says that he believes they are going in a good direction but Masaki disagrees, pointing out Ryuugo's attitude from earlier and saying that the Stars actors had less time on their hands and would quickly become tired of things if the audition actors continued to cause complications.

As Yukiji reviews the footage from that day's shooting he is quite pleased with the results but Chiyoko interrupts and disagrees with him. Saying that the atmosphere on set has become tense due to Kei and that if things kept on the way they were there would be more people like Ryuugo and Yukiji says that is fine as it would be as if the actors really wanted to kill each other just like in the movie and Chiyoko realizes what Yukiji wants out of these circumstances. Asking the director what he would have her do, Chiyoko smiles as Yukiji tells her to wrap things up as she usually does but not to forget Kei while doing so.

## Chapter Notes

* Filming continues and Kei's unorthodox methods begin to spread to the other actors.
	+ This causes consternation amongst other members of the cast such as Ryuugo.
* Yukiji asks Chiyoko to wrap things up.

## Characters in This Chapter

* Sen Wakatsuki
* Ryuugo Donoue
* Takemitsu Karasuyama
* Masaki Minamoto
* Akane Yushima
* Kei Yonagi
* Kanna Kinashi
* Yukiji Tezuka
* Akira Hoshi
* Chiyoko Momoshiro
* Rika Machida