radicalducati Page 123
Page 123
He once thought he was just an observer, a stowaway who used system loopholes to seek a sense of existence in other people's worlds.
But now he knows he was wrong.
When he pours all his heart and soul and hopes into protecting a dream from its inception to its full bloom, he is no longer an outsider.
He invested in Asuka Pictures' upcoming tenth-anniversary blockbuster project, "Sky Sonata," through complex anonymous channels under the guise of a seasoned investor. The only condition attached was that the voice actress for the female lead had to be Nanami Aoyama.
He anonymously contacted the most renowned music producer in the industry and bought out his schedule for the next three years at a high price, just to tailor-make a solo album for Aoyama Nanami.
After doing all this, he felt as if all his strength had been drained away. He leaned back heavily on the pillow, his chest heaving violently.
He knew that this was all he could do.
She has to walk the rest of the road by herself.
……
At the same time, Nanami Aoyama is experiencing the busiest and most glorious period of her career.
The "Newcomer of the Year" award opened countless doors that had previously been closed for her.
High-quality job offers came in like snowflakes, piling up on the desk of agent Ms. Yamamoto.
"Nanami, this is an audition invitation for 'Sonata of the Azure Sky,' a masterpiece from Asuka Pictures, ten years in the making, and they've already decided on you!"
"Nanami, the operators of the popular mobile game 'Final Frontline' have specifically requested you to voice a new character. The reward is this amount!"
"Nanami, Voice Animage magazine would like to do a cover interview with you next month!"
Nanami felt like she had been thrown into a high-speed spinning top, with her time being fragmented into countless pieces by recording, interviews, meetings, and filming.
She traveled between different recording studios, acting alongside veterans she had only ever seen in magazines, and trying her best to put on a proper smile under the flashing lights.
She was exhausted, but more than that, she felt an indescribable excitement and satisfaction.
She attributed all of this to the rewards of her hard work.
She hadn't heard from that mysterious "Mr. X" for a long time. She thought that perhaps he saw that she was on the right track and was now at ease to help the next person in need.
She wants to become better, so good that one day she can live up to his expectations.
That day, after finishing a six-hour recording session for a theatrical anime film, she leaned wearily against the back seat of a taxi when her phone vibrated.
It was a call from my father.
“Nanami,” Seiichi Aoyama’s voice on the other end of the phone carried a barely perceptible worry, “I…I saw you in a magazine. Um…are you too tired? You’ve lost a lot of weight.”
“No, Dad,” Nanami said, trying to sound energetic. “I’ve just been working a lot lately. I’m eating and sleeping well, so don’t worry.”
"No matter how much work you have, you must take care of your health." The father's tone was still firm, but it revealed an awkward concern. "Don't be like me, who didn't take it seriously when he was young, but now he's full of illnesses."
"Okay, Dad." Nanami's eyes were a little hot.
After hanging up the phone, she looked at the street scene rushing past the car window, and a warm feeling welled up in her heart.
With the approval of my family and the success of my career, everything is moving in the best possible direction.
However, in that moment of overflowing happiness, a sudden, intense palpitation gripped her heart without warning.
The feeling was like having your heart gripped tightly by an invisible hand, and then suddenly released.
In an instant, she could barely breathe, her vision blurred, and cold sweat broke out all over her body.
It was as if something vital to her, something intimately connected to her life, was rapidly being stripped away from her body and drifting away.
"Cough...cough cough..." She clutched her chest and coughed violently, her face turning deathly pale instantly.
"Miss, are you alright?" The driver noticed her unusual behavior in the rearview mirror and asked with concern.
"N-nothing...it's nothing." Nanami gasped for breath and waved his hand.
The terrifying feeling came quickly and went quickly, leaving only lingering fear and a sense of emptiness and loss.
What's wrong? Have you been too tired lately?
She leaned back in her chair, trying to calm her rapid breathing.
My phone vibrated again at that moment; it was a message from my high school classmates' group chat.
She clicked on it subconsciously and saw several names chatting.
"Have you heard? It seems that B. Fibre 0 Silk IX> Qi 4, Class Itsuki Yuto is not doing so well."
"Huh? Really? Wasn't he always in the hospital? I thought it was just a chronic illness."
"My mom used to be their neighbor, I heard that it happened in the last few days..."
Itsuka Yuuto...
The name struck her still somewhat numb nerves like a faint electric current.
That boy who always sat in the corner of the classroom, sickly, quiet, and almost invisible.
That boy... on the day she won the school competition, seemed to have cast a gentle glance at her.
Why did she hear that name again when her heart was at its most aching?
An inexplicable, absurd connection quietly emerged in her heart.
The neon lights outside the car window were bizarre and strange, reflected in her dazed pupils like a spinning mystery.
That sudden pang of heart palpitation stirred up ripples in Aoyama Nanami's heart that lingered for a long time.
In the days that followed, that empty sense of loss lingered, as if it had become a part of her being.
It didn't come on as fiercely as it did that night, but rather felt like a slow, dull ache, reminding her from time to time that something was different.
Her work was affected.
She frequently drifted off into thought while dubbing a new animated film.
The sound supervisor peeked out of the mixing room for the third time, frowning as he tapped on the glass: "Ms. Aoyama, the emotion! Pay attention to the character's emotions! Your line just now was too flat, like you were reading from a script."
"I'm so sorry!" Nanami immediately bowed and apologized, forcing herself to concentrate.
But when she looked at the script again, the black lead characters seemed to turn into blurry shadows, and behind the shadows emerged the quiet corner of the high school classroom and the profile of a sickly boy.
Itsuka Yuuto.
She began to uncontrollably recall everything about him.
The box of memories was opened, but the contents were pitifully few.
He was always on sick leave, and his time at school was very limited.
He had excellent grades, but never participated in any group activities.
He always kept his head down, appearing indifferent to the world around him.
But... are we really indifferent?
Nanami suddenly remembered that once when the student council was distributing questionnaires, she handed one to his desk. He looked up and his eyes were surprisingly clear, with a calmness and gentleness beyond his years.
She only glanced at it briefly and didn't pay much attention.
Looking back now, that gaze didn't seem to be blank; it seemed to hold something within it.
what exactly is it?
This lingering doubt, like a tiny thorn, pierced her heart.
After finishing her work for the day, she declined all invitations to dinner parties and practically fled back to her spacious and bright new apartment.
For the first time, she felt that this space, which symbolized her career success, seemed so empty and cold.
She rushed into the bedroom, opened the closet, and rummaged through the deepest part of it, finding a dusty cardboard box.
Those were all her memories from high school.
She dumped everything from the box onto the floor, like a treasure-hunting madwoman, searching for any clue related to the name "Itsuka Yuto".
She opened the graduation yearbook. In the group photo of Class B, Yuto Itsuka stood in the most inconspicuous corner, his figure slender, with a polite but distant smile on his face.
His personal message board simply reads, "Wishing everyone a bright future."
There's nothing special about it.
Unwilling to give up, she picked up the treasured box that contained all the connections to "Mr. X".
She laid the printed emails out one by one on the floor, alongside the graduation yearbook, as if reenacting an absurd case.
She reread, word by word, the words that had once supported her through countless difficulties.
Please don't give up on your dreams.
"The Kansai dialect is not your weakness, but your unique characteristic."
"Believe in your path; you were born to do this."
I'm so proud of you.
These words were once so warm and powerful.
But now, when she superimposed them on the image of that sickly boy, a chilling sense of incongruity arose.
Why would a classmate who is a complete stranger to her know her so much?
Why are we always able to provide the most precise help and encouragement when she needs it most?
His omniscient perspective, his generosity that transcended ordinary kindness... all of this seemed so illogical.
Her gaze fell on the custom-made pronunciation correction textbook that "Mr. X" had given her.
In the corner of the cover, there is a tiny, almost imperceptible gold-stamped logo, the letter "Y".
Y...Yuuto?
A crazy idea struck her without warning.
Just then, the computer beeped softly, indicating a new email.
Her heart skipped a beat, and her hands trembled as she clicked the mouse.
The sender was none other than "X," who hadn't appeared in a long time.
The email was unusually short, consisting of only one sentence.
May you always pursue what you love.
There was no salutation, no signature, and even a single punctuation mark conveyed a sense of abrupt ending.
This doesn't sound like encouragement, much less like guidance.
This sounds like a farewell.
In that instant, all the clues, all the doubts, all the palpitations and unease exploded in her mind, stringing together a complete yet unbelievable answer.
The guardian who always lit a lamp behind her.
The mysterious benefactor who pulled her out of despair.
The "Mr. X" who paved the way for her stardom.
It was that sickly classmate she had almost forgotten, Itsuka Yuto!!
The guess was so absurd, yet so real, so real that it chilled her to the bone, and her blood seemed to freeze.
No.
impossible.
She had to verify it.
She had to ask him herself!
Nanami suddenly stood up from the floor, and because she got up so fast, her vision went black for a moment.
She didn't care about any of that, grabbed her coat and keys haphazardly from the back of the chair, and rushed out of the house in her slippers without even changing her shoes.
She is going to find him.
Now, immediately, immediately!
She rushed downstairs and flagged down a taxi on the roadside, her voice trembling with urgency: "Driver, to...to the nearest central hospital! Please, drive fast!"
Outside the car window, the city lights flashed by, and Nanami's heart was beating faster than the speeding car.
Only one thought occupied her mind: