Title: Truth in Television
Fandom: SKE48
Characters: Furukawa Airi, Yuasa Hiroshi.(SKE48's theater manager, akin to Tgsk) Mention of Churi
Rating: G
Summary: Airi would never tell anyone, especially not Akane, but management had called her into the office a couple of days before KII's debut.
Disclaimer: I own nothing, nothing is real, this is not for profit.
Furukawa Airi would never tell anyone, especially not Akane, but management had called her into the office a couple of days before KII's debut. She was scared out of her mind, of course, as even functional otaku had some measure of mistrust of authority, but at the same time, she was 19, almost an adult, had previous experience with the industry, and she had an inkling as to what the meeting would be about.
"We need to appoint a leader of KII," Yuasa-san told her, affirming her suspicions. "We've been watching you girls, and you've shown many of the qualities we want."
A reply immediately leapt to the tip of Airi's tongue, but she bit down on it. It probably said something about her abnormality, that even before she had auditioned for SKE48, she had spent enough time pondering over her identity that she'd already known the answer to such a potential question. Plus, it wasn't like management knew about said pondering, and they probably wouldn't appreciate a girl who appeared not to value taking the time to contemplate important decisions.
"Furukawa-san?" Yuasa-san prodded. Well, that was a sign that enough time had passed, right? She wouldn't want to appear indecisive, either. Airi looked up, steadily meeting his gaze.
"Impossible," she said, short and to the point.
Yuasa-san's face didn't change, but he might as well have raised an eyebrow, in Airi's mind. "Really," he said.
"Impossible," Airi confirmed.
"Not aiming for Aznable-san's heights?" Yuasa-san asked. Airi mentally snorted at the blatant attempt at manipulation. At least it showed that he bothered to read the profiles they had filled out, but still, it was a little embarrassing that management thought that she'd be that easy to trust them with one anime name drop--
"Didn't you cosplay as Mami before? She was quite the mentor figure, and such a charming one to boot," Yuasa said, completely throwing Airi off-balance, and she couldn't catch herself in time before her otaku side got the better of her.
"But you're looking for a red ranger," Airi blurted. At Yuasa-san's silence, she hesitantly continued, "A red ranger has the potential to be both the leader and the ace of the team. More importantly, whether or not they're the official leader, the red ranger is the leader out in the field and in the mind of the general public."
She paused for breath. "But I'm a green ranger, or a black ranger at best. The green ranger is usually the quirky character, the strange personality whose weirdness the team learns to deal with. Yet even the green ranger that provides critical technology or information in the field is never the leader. Similarly, the black ranger may take care of the team members, but it's a behind-the-scenes thing, emotional-support based, not leadership visibly seen in battle. The leader needs to have that commanding presence in public, which is what the red ranger provides."
Yuasa-san's smile widened, mischief written on his face. "The lancer can become a non-protagonist leader," he challenged, "Han Solo was a respected captain in the Rebel Alliance by the time of the Battle of Hoth."
Airi ignored the instinctive protest against mixing fandoms and mismatched tropes. "But we're not even at Episode IV yet," she said instead. "I don't even know if we're at Episode I!" She filed the revelation that management knew Star Wars trivia away for freaking out over later. "Besides, I'm too weird to even be the sixth ranger, much less blue ranger. I'm sorry, Yuasa-san, but I'm just not cut out to be the appointed leader of KII."
"Fair enough," the SKE theater manager replied. "So then, do you have any ideas as to who KII's red ranger should be?" It was said with a light-hearted tone, but there was true interest peeking through. It seemed that he hadn't expected such in-depth analysis from the girl, and thought that it might extend to other judgements.
Airi shrugged apologetically. "Again, I'm sorry, Yuasa-san. I haven't gotten to know all of the members well enough to make a recommendation." It went unsaid that this was another sign that she wasn't the right candidate, but she knew that he had understood her implied meaning. Anyone trusted by Akimoto-san to manage a group of his would have a sharp enough mind.
"Thank you, Furukawa-san. I'll see you in rehearsal, then."
As Airi turned to go, Yuasa-san's voice stopped her.
"You know, there are seasons where it's not all about the Red-Blue bromance. Often the dynamic that best fits the definitions of best friends is the Red-Green relationship instead. Like Taichi and Koushiro*." Airi mentally twitched again at the sudden jump between fandoms. "And then, of course, the black ranger is often Red's shinyuu**--" Yuasa-san paused, and the twinkle in his eyes had Airi mentally reaffirming that otaku were right to never get too familiar with authority figures. Even if they made friendly geeky banter.
Suddenly, Yuasa-san fixed her with a gaze. "I'm sure you'll make a great Green-Black Ranger, Furukawa-san," he said gently, "because Takayanagi-san's going to need the help."
Immediately, hindsight flooded Airi, listing all of the reasons why the girl was ideal for the position. She turned around and bowed at the man in good humor. "A great choice, as expected from manager-san."
"Gambatte, Furukawa-san."
"Yoroshiku onegaishimas."
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A/N:
*From Digimon Adventure. Americans would know them as Tai and Izzy.
**"shinyuu" closest tranlates to "best friends," but in Japanese there are extra connotations of trust. Alice may actually be closer to Betty, but Alice's shinyuu Cara is someone that Alice absolutely trusts and can confide in.
Beta'd by
noomuumuu, who made significant contributions to the characterization. Also, it was thanks to
noomuumuu's tumblr that I got to know not just Airi's savviness, (she's not an awkward otaku at all except when it comes to Rena
) but also how much she supports KII, and Churi in particular, inspiring this one-shot. Furuyanagi comes off to me a little like Takagaki that way.
The next story's a lot longer and ballooned out into multiple parts already.
Hope to see you here again soon!
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Topic: Short Story compilation (5/1, Truth in Television) (Read 3725 times)