mandytl | resurrection sunday of the undying ( reincarnation 8 )

Location: Resurrection Sunday Assembly Hall

Rei: Yes. As you can see, "I, personally"¹, am not being forced to do this... I'm truly standing here of my own accord.

My answer for you hasn't changed since the day I overcame your opposition and enrolled in Yumenosaki Academy.

And while I can't say there haven't been hardships along the way, the work has been enjoyable and fulfilling.

So please, put your minds at ease. A youth like myself wouldn't dare say something so pretentious, but I think it'd best to look at the long term.

Every day our family's losing common ground with a world that exists in the bright of day.

You've turned your curious gazes away from your surroundings today as well. I'm sure you've all realized that once again.

I will change all that. Someday, for sure... Being an idol is merely my way of achieving this. By no means am I making light of our plight.

Please find it in yourselves to enjoy today's festivities, and, much like our ancestors, dream of the day we can come to love one another like neighbors.

Koga: ...

Adonis: Oogami. You need to eat, too. Have some meat.

... are you all right? You look pale.

If you're worried about why Hakaze-senpai hasn't shown, apparently he was "delivered" to the stage ahead of time for that ritual.

It'll be fine. We can see that Sakuma-senpai's family are being convinced into quieting down.

From what we've heard, they're apparently going to watch the stage from a pavilion a little ways away. That way they won't cause any discomfort or fear to anyone around them.

It feels wrong to isolate them, but this way we can mend the situation.

Resurrection Sunday can proceed as planned, without any issues. The audience is also larger than we expected, so I'm sure this'll turn out to be extremely successful.

So don't panic, Oogami. Fill up on meat and keep your chin up just in case we slip up somehow.

Koga: Eatin' a lot's just gonna make me sluggish. It'd be bad if one of us got sick on stage. You don't go stuffin' yourself too much either.

... I look miserable 'cause this is the first time in a while that that damn vampire's ever felt so far. But I'm just bein' bratty. Feelin' sorry for myself.

He's talkin' to them all politely, like a totally different person for some reason...

But who is that over there? It made me realize the usual annoying, old man way of talkin' is really just some character he made up.

Adonis: Then the Sakuma-senpai we're used seeing is just an act and he's been pretending this whole time without revealing his true self... ? Like he's been lying to us?

Koga: Nah, it's not an act. That's just how he is now. But what's with all that false modesty crap? The hell's he mean by "I, personally"? It pisses me the hell off.

But—I can't express myself all that well—but it got me wonderin' what the "real Sakuma-senpai" is like.

Is what we see over there an illusion?

Was it all a lie, an act, a fabrication?

Then who was the guy who spent his youth dancin' and singin' on stage with us?

When I started thinkin' about it I got confused. Now I've got mixed feelings.

Hey, Adonis. I don't get it... I was a huge fan of that guy in the past. I admired him so much I even enrolled into Yumenosaki Academy.

I wanted to be just like him.

I used to think I woulda done whatever it takes forever to become him...

Then I realized, man, I don't understand a damn thing; I'm at a loss for words.

I feel so damn empty, dammit... I can't be like this right before our gig. Time to devour a meal and fire myself up. We're gonna pull this off perfectly, so don't worry, got it?

Adonis: ... Oogami. I don't think I can rid you of your anxiety since I'm not good with words.

But I'm still going to try, since I have no clue about Sakuma-senpai myself.

One day, without warning... he appeared before my eyes. At the center of a crowd wearing tattered rags, he stood like the image of a messiah straight from the Bible.

And he was singing with evident joy, enough to gradually get everyone to imitate him.

Even with their jarring, foreign singing, Sakuma-senpai happily taught everyone how to stay on-key and carry their voices.

Everyone was in a trance... and as the people gathered one after another, their ensemble rang out.

From the starving children, suffering from their hunger, to the plump aristocrats, thinking of nothing but money; there was no disparity in social class there, the difference between each individual indistinguishable.

Just happiness and a song. I was one of them, just blending in with the rest as I started singing too.

I'll always remember that song.

If he — if everything about Sakuma-senpai is just a delusion, then what was that? Could something like that really come to being in this world from an empty void?

I don't think so. He's the wonderful first verse of a song, exactly like the name zero, or "Rei" implies². In other words, I don't think it means emptiness.

Everything starts from that zero and then continues; ... one, two, three. The sound swells, amplifies and overlaps, resonates far and wide.

It gets harder to see who he is from each beginning, but... I don't think that means our Sakuma-senpai never existed.

Rather, projecting himself like that, like an enormous tree spreading all of its branches; they're all him.

So I believe that Sakuma Rei is an outstanding person.

The one in the past, the one now, and the one right before us³ — they're all "Sakuma Rei".

Chances are we're misjudging him when we only have a single leaf that's fallen from the tree to go off of.

Koga: ...

Adonis: F-Forgive me. I did my best to express myself. Was it difficult to understand?

Koga: Nah, more like... you're a real sentimental guy, Adonis. Guess we've gotta write song lyrics someday. Fact is, things can't always go my way.

A massive tree, huh. And its roots, with beautiful flowers that're bound to grow huge... hope I end up bein' like that eventually. As someone who was just born human, or as a man, I mean.

You wanna grow big like that too, am I right, Adonis?

Adonis: Yeah. That's why I'm here in this country as your comrade — as one of UNDEAD.
____
¹ Rei is using "Watashi" (私) as his pronoun as he speaks in a polite manner to his family members.
² Rei's name (零) is the numerical zero, which often represents emptiness, nothingness, and the void. Adonis's long-winded explanation stems from that.

³ I had to completely rewrite this scene so it'd make more sense in English, but in a more literal sense he's stating that every Rei they encounter that utilizes different pronouns (俺/我輩/私) to refer to himself are all the same person.