Christine Junna Hoshimi/Bond Story

*As Christine learns to sing from an angel of music, she gets a sudden opportunity to sing onstage as the opera's prima donna.*

* Chapter 1
* Chapter 2
* Bond Level 15 Talk
* Bond Level 30 Talk

Finding Your Inner Talent

 **Junna:**"Father, you once told me, 'If I die, I shall send you to the Angel of Music.'"

 **Junna:**"You were watching over me each night I prayed, weren't you? The Angel of Music flew down to me without a sound."

 **Junna:**"That sweet, gentle voice is truly like a melody of the angels. It improved and guided my singing, and it embraced me with warmth."

 **Junna:**"I owe everything to your love, Father, and to divine mercy. So I shall sing, so that my voice reaches you in Heaven. Your Christine will be all right now."

 **Junna:**(Hmm... Something's not right, but I can't put my finger on it.)

 **Junna:**(I'm not expressing Christine's loneliness as well as I could.)

 **Junna:**(She was orphaned at age seven after her father, her only living relative, died. Even though she experienced terrible suffering, she never stopped believing in what her father said.)

 **Junna:**(And when the Phantom appeared, she thought he was the Angel of Music. Have I expressed her joy and her liberation from loneliness?)

 **Junna:**Oh, it's you.

 **Junna:**Good evening. Why are you here at this hour?

 **Junna:**You saw me rehearsing? Oh, that wasn't a rehearsal.

 **Junna:**I was just acting out some of Christine's lines from the "Phantom of the Opera" script Nana wrote.

 **Junna:**I was reading it, and just couldn't stop myself.

 **Junna:**You'd like to read it? Yes, you definitely should! Nana's script is amazing!

 **Junna:**She wrote it for junior high school students to perform, so it's easy to follow, but it's not the least bit childish.

 **Junna:**You can really feel the Phantom's and Christine's loneliness!

 **Junna:**The lonely singer and the musician hiding beneath the Opera House...

 **Junna:**Every one of their lines is filled with heart-wrenching sorrow. It really draws you in.

 **Junna:**What will happen to them? Is there any hope? The story keeps pulling you in.

 **Junna:**But words don't do it justice. I'd really like to perform it for you, so you can really see how amazing the script is.

 **Junna:**Actually, Nana said I could be Christine if the 99th Class ever performs her "Phantom of the Opera."

 **Junna:**As the title states, it's a story about the Phantom.

 **Junna:**But it also stars Christine, the woman he loves and the one who ultimately changes him.

 **Junna:**What Stage Girl wouldn't be thrilled to be given such a major role? So that's why I couldn't sit still.

 **Junna:**But to be able to really play the role of Christine in Nana's "Phantom of the Opera" one day, well...

 **Junna:**To start with, I'll have to practice and overcome every challenge I face one by one to further polish my skills.

 **Junna:**"Be prepared. An opportunity will eventually present itself." That's what William Shakespeare said.

 **Junna:**Please watch me perform if you'd like. Having you here will help me bring my A game.

 **Junna:**And I think it will feel different from two actors together.

 **Junna:**...Hee hee, it helps to hear you say that.

 **Junna:**Promise you'll come when we perform "The Phantom of the Opera." And don't take your eyes off me!

The Woman Named Christine

 **Junna:**...

 **Junna:**(Love triangles really are complicated.)

 **Junna:**(That's why they are the perfect setup for writing stories full of emotional ups and downs, but...)

 **Claudine:**Why, Junna, you're reading a romance novel.

 **Junna:**Yikes! S-Saijo-san!

 **Claudine:**That's not your usual kind of book. Have you fallen in love?

 **Junna:**N-No! I'm studying!

 **Junna:**You know how Nana's writing a "Phantom of the Opera" script right now? Well, that's why I'm studying up on how to portray love triangles.

 **Claudine:**Je vois! I see. So that's why you're reading a romance novel about a love triangle.

 **Junna:**Have you read this, Saijo-san?

 **Claudine:**Oui, but of course. It is a historic masterpiece.

 **Claudine:**It tells of a tragic love that starts with two houses upon a hard, desolate landscape, but it develops into a tale of vengeance.

 **Claudine:**Afterwards, I was left not quite knowing how I felt. But it was so very realistic... I still remember it clearly.

 **Junna:**Yes... That's right.

 **Junna:**It sounds like a whole other animal than "The Phantom of the Opera," but I thought it might be a good reference for complicated relationships.

 **Junna:**Still...

 **Claudine:**Still... What?

 **Junna:**Well... I can understand the feeling of loving someone with all your heart...

 **Junna:**But I have trouble wrapping my head around wavering between two interests like in this book.

 **Claudine:**So then you can't understand Christine's feelings in "The Phantom of the Opera," either?

 **Junna:**That's one thing I'm worried about. I feel like I do understand, but on the other hand, I don't.

 **Junna:**Christine wavers between the two, but that doesn't mean she doesn't love them with all her heart.

 **Junna:**Rather, I feel like she wavers between her beloved Raoul and the Phantom BECAUSE she loves them with all her heart.

 **Junna:**At any rate, I'm worried whether I can skillfully portray the subtleties of her heart.

 **Claudine:**What? You understand just fine. Christine loves them with all her heart.

 **Claudine:**Besides, aren't love triangles in stories usually about the conflicting emotions of loving more than one person with all your heart?

 **Claudine:**A story with a love triangle based on convenience or mutual interests would be rather dull, don't you think?

 **Junna:**Yes, that's true...

 **Claudine:**You find love triangles difficult to understand, but you can understand loving someone with all your heart. So in other words...!

 **Junna:**D-Don't get the wrong idea! I didn't mean it like that.

 **Claudine:**I know.

 **Claudine:**We are Stage Girls. We chose this life because we've been bewitched by the stage. And that wholehearted feeling is something we have in common.

 **Junna:**Saijo-san...

 **Junna:**Yes... That's right.

 **Junna:**Our feelings toward the stage may differ, but our desire to be up there is the same.

 **Claudine:**That wholehearted feeling is why Stage Girls are Stage Girls, no?

 **Junna:**Yes, you're right.

 **Claudine:**Heh heh, I feel so inspired. Maybe I'll go work up a sweat in the rehearsal room.

 **Claudine:**Oh, I almost forgot.

 **Junna:**What?

 **Claudine:**I read Nana's script, too.

 **Claudine:**And I noticed that Christine's lines reminded me of you, Junna. I wonder if she wrote that role with you in mind.

 **Junna:**Huh?

 **Claudine:**So go ahead and study, but don't overdo it. You should just perform the role in your own special way.

 **Claudine:**Of course, I don't know for sure whether she wrote that role with you in mind, but... Well, I really will get going now.

 **Junna:**(Is Nana's Christine really that similar to me? Did she really have me in mind?)

 **Junna:**(At any rate, it's time to study up on love triangles!)

 **Junna:**(Saijo-san told me not to overdo it, but this is just my style.)

 **Junna:**Okay, back to the books! And this time, I'm going to really focus!

 **Junna:**This script project wasn't anything I ever expected, but now everyone's obsessed with it...including me.

 **Junna:**The Phantom and Raoul... I wonder what it feels like to be loved by two different men.

 **Junna:**Huh, you know!? Wait, are you an expert in romance?

 **Junna:**You're joking!? Ugh, don't do that to me! ...What, me? I... I'm a Stage Girl in love with theater, and that's my final answer!