/
“Rhinoceros beetle! Cooool!”
“Exactly, there’s a male and a female. Let’s set aside the pair. Okay, bug cage.”
“…Rhinoceros beetles, how to hold them?”
“By the small horn. If you carry it by the long horn, it can fall off from its head, so absolutely never do that.”
If I pulled on the long horn, it could fall off. I saw the prominent horn, decorating the big body that shined with a black luster, at the department store, but mother didn’t like insects, so she didn’t buy the rhinoceros beetle. The one that I’m seeing now is entirely bigger than the one at the department store.
“Cooooool!”
The giant stag beetle was good, but, yep, the rhinoceros beetle is number one. When I was looking at it, my heart went wakuwaku a little.
“This one is female. For now, I’ll put them together, but, later, I think it’ll be good to buy another bug cage to separate them.”
“Is it bad if they’re together?”
“It’s great if they reproduce, but it’s more important for them to live a long life.”
“Ohh, you know a lot, don’t you?”
“Use Nana, not you.”
“N?”
“Didn’t I say that yesterday? Since we’re friends, let’s call ourselves by our first names. I’m Hanasaki Nana.”
Oh yeah, yesterday, when I was crying because the director was mad, she said such a thing.
“I never said that we were something like friends!”
“Then, it can be just for show. Let’s become friends for the sake of role immersion, okay?”
While smiling and saying that, the rhinoceros beetle entered the bug cage.
“Can you give one to me?”
“I don’t really need them, so you can have them all.”
“All!? You’re a great person!”
“So, n. a. m. e.”
(TN note: Instead of hi, mi, tsu, imagine it to be na, ma, e)
“I get it, we’re friends, Nana!”
This, the strange girl…Nana and I became friends in a moment.
After that, in the time between the filming, we practiced acting, and, when it wasn’t my turn, we snuck away to catch fish bare-handed in the river, we built a secret base on a tree, we played various things that I didn’t know, and I learned a lot.
Nana isn’t like other girls; she doesn’t talk about boring things forever, and, disregarding that, she never cries. When we play together, it feels like she talks like a guy. It’s fun and amusing.
(TN note: Based on the context, it should be “Nana isn’t like other girls” but “Nana is like other girls” is the real translation. I think the author made a mistake.)
Besides, it always goes as how she say it will. The director wasn’t getting mad, and, conversely, I was getting praised a lot.
After that, we co-starred several times, and, each time, we did various things for role immersion.
At that time we played a couple, according to the script, we were supposed to go on a fake date, but it was completely boring, so she brought me to a game center midway. I entered the game center, which wasn’t as scary as adults said it was, for the first time, and all the strange games were fun.
When we were acting as assassin twins, we practiced the scene where we hugged each other half-nude, where I had to call her, “nee-sama.”
“Good, we are the lost children of the Ceaușescu family. (1) Slaves bought by the mafia, we’re broken twins who were forced into violence and murder.”
“Chowshehsku?” (2)
“A big-time foreigner from a long time ago. Hiro and I are orphan twins.  Besides ourselves, there’s nobody that we are able to trust. We’re broken, broken, broken to the end, we can’t stay apart, our personalities are mixed together, nobody can tell who is who.”
“…Don’t really get it.”
“Then, until we start filming, let’s live our life like our live. Okay?”
“Understood, Nana.”
“Wrong, it’s nee-sama.”
“…Nee-sama.”
“Good boy, Nii-sama.”
Saying that, Nee-sama suspiciously laughed, hugging me close.
Then, when I was living the life of the broken twin role, gradually, the boundary line between my role and myself grew vague, and it was like nee-sama was my real twin. Only us two in this world, with nobody else to rely on but nee-sama. As puppets, we can cut down others lives to increase our own. So———
“Hiro, the filming already ended?”
“Eh, nee-sama…?”
“Are you going to do this forever? Don’t be stupid.”
When I noticed it, my face was in pain. It seems like Nana slapped me.
“You were smiling weirdly all the time, so I was worried if you were taking some strange medicines.”
“Huh? Filming?”
“Like I said, it’s all already over. Today, we’re free to sightsee, so let’s go play somewhere.”
When I noticed it, I was seeing an unfamiliar landscape.  Sitting on my hotel bed, I saw through the window to see a place filled with tropical plants that were like the ones I saw on TV and white building standing in a line. Walking down the road were noting but brown-skinned foreigners. I heard that we were filming in a foreign country, so I think that this is probably not Japan.
My memories of these past several moths were vague, so, when I asked Nana,
“Hiro was doing(acting) it perfectly. The director was praising you, did you forget?”
“…I don’t remember.”
“Hmmm, who cares? Shinosaki-san and your mom are waiting in the lobby, so let’s hurry.”
After that, we sightseed together, returned to Japan, and, when we saw the final version of the movie, I recalled the memories of when we were filming. But, it was still hazy, I really only remember it as I watch the movie, but I was acting the best until now on the screen.
The figure that’s brandishing the axe wildly and speaking with broken laughter was something, until now, something that I couldn’t have acted.
Yep, as Nana said, it went well.
Though, I thought that we would co-star together from now on, yet, suddenly, I couldn’t co-star with Nana anymore.
Because I became an idol.
My mother said, “If you want to become a masked rider, becoming an idol is good,” and I agreed without much thought. I wanted to become a masked rider when I was in kindergarten(child), now, I’m more interested in a certain elementary schooler(adult).
Since it’s like that, I wanted to quit being an idol and turn back to being a child actor, but I’ve already switched offices, so, now, I’m not able to quit.
Besides, Nana said, “Eh? You wanted to become a masked rider, so you switched into being an idol? I was sure that idols that’re masked riders had a little something… Besides, the guarantees are cheap and the restriction times are long, so isn’t it hard when idols become famous? Apart from that, you’ll become the talk of the school; do you understand how many times you’ll be talked to?”
And so, she became annoying again.
It doesn’t mean that I wanted to become a masked rider to that extent, but even I don’t know why I became an idol. Since some time ago, I’ve been surrounded by girls at school and it seems like I’ve already been talked to the most; the girls blabber about particularly uninteresting topics endlessly.
I wanted to ignore them, but Nana tells me to be careful around fans. Especially women, among them, I must not make enemies out of married ones. I’ve been careful over and over.
But, this is already my limit.
“I will quit being an idol right now!”
“If I want to quit, I should quit!”
After some complaint, I quickly got a yes, so I was called to the old building, and after a long time, I can meet Nana.
Eh, I wonder if quitting’s okay?
(1) Wikipedia Article. Note that this is said in katakana.
(2) Said in hiragana.