At the backstage.
"Prepare yourselves, everyone! We're up in an hour!"
Furina yelled. She gazed at her classmates, each of whom were in varying degrees of nervousness. Unlike her, this would be the first time for most of them to perform in front of a large audience.
"Whew, it's finally yawn~ starting."
Next to Furina, Dawn covered her mouth mid-sentence as she let out a tired yawn. Seeing this, the white-haired girl turned towards her in concern.
"Are you okay? Do you want to take a nap first? We still have time."
"No, no. I'm fine. Yawn~ I want to go over the script again. I'll yawn~ just wash my face for a sec."
Holding a stack of paper, Dawn stood up, planning to do a last minute review. But Furina's voice made her pause.
"...I'm sorry, Dawn. You had to go through this because of me."
"Don't blame yourself. I know you yawn~ want this performance to succeed more than anyone. It's that douchebag's fault things turned out like this."
Dawn gritted her teeth, her sleepiness temporarily disappearing as she recalled the event that led to this.
"Do you always have to deal with people like that?"
"Unfortunately, yes. It's one of the reasons I temporarily quit showbiz."
Furina sighed. The person they were talking about was their classmate, who was supposed to be the male lead in this play. However, something he did yesterday made him unavailable for today's performance.
Flashback Starts
"And…cut! Perfect! Let's move on to the next scene."
Furina nodded in satisfaction. She had always wanted to try directing a movie. This upcoming class performance allowed her to grant her wish on a much smaller scale, though it came with a downside of having too many roles. Case in point…
She stepped in the middle of the rehearsal room, her eyes turning limpid as she got into her role as the damsel in distress. However, when the male lead got near, Furina's senses tingled.
From the moment he stepped closer than necessary, Furina already felt that something was wrong. And her instincts were proven correct as he suddenly pulled out a sharp dagger from his sleeves while reciting his lines, and lunged at her.
Fortunately, Clorinde was accompanying her. The assailant barely got within a foot of her before being subdued.
Later, she heard from the police that the student had been promised a hefty sum of money by someone if he was able to assassinate her. They also found a Pokeball with Yanmega in his possession- a Pokemon given by his mysterious backer to use for his escape.
Because this incident can cause damage to the school's reputation, it was resolved as quietly as possible. Furina's class received an order to keep quiet about what happened. In return, they were given Merit points to curb any dissatisfaction.
Honestly, Furina didn't care about any of that. What she did care about, was what would happen to their stage play now that the male lead was arrested?
She asked the other male classmates on who would like to step in as the male lead. However, since the performance was already scheduled for the next day, they were all hesitant- afraid of humiliating themselves on stage.
In the end, to save the play from being scrapped entirely, Dawn stepped up as the male lead.
Flashback Ends
With Furina's disguise skills, she could easily make Dawn appear to look like a man. However, that was only part of the problem. As the male lead, they had many lines in the play, second only to Furina.
Because of this, Dawn hadn't slept all night trying to memorize all of it. Coffee had worked wonders in letting her get through without needing sleep, but its effects had already worn off more than a couple hours ago.
—
"Thank you, class 1-G! Next, we'll take a short break for Class 1-F to prepare the stage for their play!"
"It's finally Furina and Dawn's turn!"
Candice exclaimed as she looked up at the stage. Beside her, there were Kachina, Mualani, Shinobu, Focalors, and Dante. They were all sitting at the front row seats that especially reserved by Furina. She only had to mention it was for Dante and his friends, and the organizers enthusiastically agreed to her request.
"PIKACHU!" (GO FURINA!)
"Geez, calm down, bud."
Dante covered his ears. With how much time they spent with the white-haired diva, he thought Pikachu's idolization had faded at least a bit. But looking at the yellow rat who held two glowsticks in his arms and wore a bandana with Furina's face on his forehead, Dante facepalmed in shame.
Where did he go wrong? And why did his partner turn into a simp?
"Focalors, can you hold Vulpix for a sec? I just need to go to the bathroom real quick."
"Alright, be sure to return before the performance."
Dante waved back silently and walked to the bathroom. It wasn't that far, and he quickly relieved himself. But on his way back, right as he turned the corner, he bumped into someone.
With his physique, Dante didn't even take a single step back. The same couldn't be said for the other party, however.
Dante stretched his arms and caught the other guy to prevent them from falling backwards. At the same time, his other hand caught the stack of paper that the other party threw into the air in panic.
"You alright?"
Dante asked the 'man' with short, blue hair and wearing a suit. After making sure they were stable, he let go of their slender wrist and handed the papers back.
"Whew, thank you. I almost got a concussion, yawn~."
"No probs dud-"
The familiar feminine voice made Dante stop and stare suspiciously. Although they were rubbing their eyes, Dante could still make out parts of their appearance.
"Dawn?"
"Huh?"
Dawn opened her heavy eyelids. When she saw Dante's face, she gave a weak smile.
"Ah, Dante. Hey yawn~, fancy meeting you here."
"Heh, I thought it was a man for a sec. Your outfit looks so convincing."
Dante scanned her body from head to toe. If it wasn't for her voice, he wouldn't suspect she was Dawn if they walked past each other on a hallway.
"Yawn~ it's thanks to Furina. Her make-up skills are very top-notch yawn~"
"You alright? You seem…tired. Very tired."
"Ehehe, it's nothing that a yawn~ quick cup of coffee won't be able to fix."
"Is that so…"
"Yup! Yawn~ I'll head out first. The show's about to get started."
Dante skeptically watched Dawn walk away. Then, his eyes widened.
"Hey, be careful!"
—
"Where did she go?"
Furina walked back and forth on the stage, glancing constantly at the stairs where Dawn walked down from. Seeing that there was less than 5 minutes left before the show, she called one of their classmates to check up on her.
But coincidentally, it was at this moment that the blue-haired girl finally returned.
"Hey, Furina!"
"Dawn! You're back! I thought you fell asleep in the toilet!"
"Hahaha, I was just pumping the sleepiness out of my body. Now, I'm 100% ready!"
Furina glanced at her suddenly energetic friend and raised an eyebrow in surprise. Did she chug a whole liter of coffee?
"...we've finished setting up the stage. The show will begin in a few minutes."
"Is that so? Well, I'm prepared whenever."
…
"Dan, wake up! The show's starting!"
"Waz zat?"
'Dante' opened his eyelids, the lights from the auditorium almost blinding him.
"Pika pikachu?"
On his lap, Pikachu tilted his head and confusedly looked at his partner. How could Dante suddenly be tired after returning from the toilet?
However, as the stage curtains slid to the side, the yellow rat Pokemon threw this thought out of his mind as he cheered at Furina's appearance.