"You've gone above and beyond, Akiteru-kun! Especially in such a short space of time!" Tsukinomori Makoto told me after we clinked our glasses together.
Just like before, we were meeting in the Royal Guest family restaurant. I was drinking grape juice, while my uncle had sparkling wine.
"Picking you was a good choice. Now she'll be having fun with school and friends, and hopefully she'll forget about her bad experiences from before."
"I'm happy for her, too."
"Your little Alliance sure sounds like a nice little bunch." Tsukinomori- san winked.
Not at me though, but at the waitress who was constantly glancing in our direction. The moment she realized that he noticed her, her face went bright red and she hid herself away in the back room.
"You're still going after her?"
"One more visit, and I've got her."
"I don't think it'll be a great look for the company if you get arrested..." He laughed.
I wasn't joking.
"Don't worry! I'm a friend to all women!"
"You're not convincing anyone."
"By the way, what about that nice young girl from the Alliance who said
she'd be Mashiro's friend? Kohinata Iroha-kun, was it?"
"Oh, Mashiro told you about her? But yeah, that's her name. She's not
technically in the Alliance, though," I added quickly.
Tsukinomori-san laughed. "Surely, she's the girl who did all the voices
for Koyagi?"
"What makes you say that?"
"My daughter told me about her acting ability. A girl who hangs out with
you with a talent for voice acting? It doesn't take much to figure it out."
"Well, since the voice acting is all anonymous, it doesn't just mean that it's all one person."
"Come on. I knew from the start there was only one voice actor." "What?"
"I know it's easy to forget, but I worked my way up the career ladder to
get where I am today. I have enough experience to know when it's just the one actor doing several voices, even if they've got a huge range. You learn to pick up on it after a while." He brushed it off as though it wasn't a big deal.
Though I guess you'd need sharp ears to lead one of the greatest entertainment enterprises in the world. He should probably get his hearing tested, just so that he could end up in the record books.
"Oh, that's right..."
I thought back to what my uncle said the first time we met here. "Programmer: OZ. Illustrator: Murasaki Shikibu-sensei. Script:
Makigai Namako. Then we have an anonymous voice actress, and producer and director: Aki. Which is you."
An "anonymous voice actress." Not "a group of anonymous voice actors." He already knew, way back then?
"W-Well, Iroha did do the voices, but—"
"I get it. You want me to keep my mouth shut, right? Don't worry. I know
how to keep things on the down-low. Secrets are great, anyway. They keep people mysterious. Interesting."
"Thank you."
"Anyway, about this Kohinata Iroha-kun..." He lowered his voice. "She's not really your girlfriend, is she?"
"Cross my heart and hope to die, she's nothing of the sort."
I couldn't have put it more plainly. Also, why did he feel the need to lower his voice for a silly question like that? He had the ability to switch between mature and immature so quickly it made my head spin.
"Good. Well, I hope you keep on enjoying the little school life you have with Mashiro and your buddies."
"Of course I will."
"Oh, and one more thing. Don't even think about becoming Mashiro's boyfriend for real, capiche?"
"Don't worry, that's not going to happen either." Even if we were getting along better than before, it was a huge leap from "friend's sister's friend" to
"lover." "I'm sure she wouldn't want that to happen, either. No need to worry."
Helping himself to another drink from his glass, Tsukinomori-san muttered something under his breath with a wry smile. Just then, the bell at the restaurant door rang out as a new customer entered, meaning I missed what he said.
"...Being dense might be your only flaw."