Nexus Drama - VS AMBIVALENZ 2nd Episode 4.5

[vsaenglish]

Futaba: (Umm… By any chance, are the six people who withdrew…)

Shinonome: (It has just been announced that they are participating in a different audition.)

Futaba: (Ever since VS AMBIVALENZ was held, the number of auditions held in the same way where two people compete for one spot has immensely increased.)

Shinonome: (President Inamoto has suspicions about that person… About whether Atarashi planned all of this.)

Inamoto: (I have a favor to ask of you all. I ask you all to take control of VS AMBIVALENZ 2nd’s future. I’d like you to participate in the audition as mentors.)

——

Taiyou: We’re back~

Subaru: We’re back.

Futaba: Welcome back, you two~

Auguri: Welcome back!

Cion: Good work~

Jintarou: Welcome back!

Taiyou: Thanks~ Huh? Why are some of us not here?

Futaba: Issei-san and Lion-san are out recording in town together; Sakuya-san and Nagomu-san are being interviewed; Kazu-san, Mio-san, Rey-san, and Cuc-san are helping sell at a school festival!

Auguri: That’s Futaba for you. You have everyone’s schedules in your head?

Futaba: I can remember them since I can see them on the shared office calendar!

Jintarou: W-Wow! When they give me my schedule, all I can remember is that it looks like a colorful building when you look at it from far away.

Auguri: You have to break that habit of rushing to prepare the day before, y’know.

Cion: Subaru, Taiyou. How did your first time mentoring go?

Taiyou: Umm~… Well, there was a bit of a problem, but…

Subaru: Generally, there weren’t any issues.

Auguri: There were problems, but there weren’t?

Jintarou: Is this a riddle?

Taiyou: No, no.

Subaru: We were able to teach them as mentors eventually, but it was a bit of a struggle to get to that point…

Jintarou: Tell us the deets!

Cion: Sounds like you didn’t watch this documentary drama either, Jintarou.

Taiyou: Actually… The two Orange candidates… We kinda got into something with Riam and Ainosuke.

Subaru: Ainosuke and Riam seemed to have prior feelings about Taiyou and I respectively, so they weren’t pleased to have us as their mentors.

Taiyou: Ah, we said this earlier, but we were able to get along with them in the end, and the assignment went by fine too!

Subaru: It made me realize again that there are things we must consider on top of participating as mentors.

Auguri: I see~ So those two were the problem.

Cion: They talked back to you two a lot, after all.

Futaba: The two of them did seem like they had a lot on their mind, so…

Taiyou: H-Hold on!

Subaru: Aren’t you all processing this too quickly? It feels like you’ve already known about Riam and Ainosuke…

Everyone: Aah…

Cion: Um, so here’s the thing…

——

Taiyou: EHH?! The documentary drama showed that much?!

Auguri: All the stuff that seemed like it’d be pretty sensitive… It was shown completely.

Jintarou: Ough… Just hearing that gives me the chills!

Subaru: That’s strange… Cut-kun was supposed to cut things like that out.

Cion: The footage wasn’t left completely as is, but… It’s still true that the considerably sensitive parts were shown.

Auguri: It felt like we were seeing something separate that wasn’t meant to be shown. I call those parts “InnerDrama.”

Taiyou: “InnerDrama” from the inner, hidden parts of the drama… I get it.

Jintarou: But it’s more or less being edited, right?

Subaru: What criteria does Cut-kun use to determine which parts of the documentary drama to include…?

Inamoto: Regarding that…

Auguri: Inamoto-san…! Wait, no…

Subaru: Shinonome-san…?!

Jintarou: Shinonome?! Don’t just show up out of nowhere… Also, hold on… Wasn’t that just Inamoto’s voice?

Shinonome: Ah, yes, it was. Inamoto-san will give an explanation about those “InnerDramas.”

Futaba: We heard him, but we can’t see him… Where is Inamoto-san…?

Inamoto: I am here.

Jintarou / Futaba: !

Inamoto: I cannot come above ground for a year during the audition period, so I asked Shinonome-san to contact me remotely.

Jintarou: You pop up out of nowhere, even remotely…

Inamoto: Just as you all have realized, I am aware of the decrease in Cut-kun’s accuracy, who is supposed to cut out any sensitive footage.

Futaba: I thought so! Which means it’s not cutting things out!

Jintarou: It was made to cut things out, but it’s not even doing its job!

Inamoto: In the first place, Cut-kun was… a program that Atarashi forcefully included, so that I specifically would not be able to edit the recordings from the audition.

Everyone: …!

Cion: … That definitely sounds like something that person would do.

Inamoto: Therefore, I have no control over the footage that is taken, and there is still nothing I can do.

Subaru: The two Orange candidates, Ainosuke and Riam, were able to sort things out, so they may not receive major backlash from the viewers, but…

Taiyou: If things keep getting streamed like this, then…

Inamoto: That’s right. I fear that the other candidates may face some sort of harm.

Shinonome: That is what that person is aiming for… To begin with, we speculate that Atarashi may have introduced Cut-kun to edit and portray the candidates he favored in a positive light.

Everyone: Eh?!

Jintarou: Seriously…?

Taiyou: Is he really going that far?

Inamoto: We cannot let the futures of these promising candidates be destroyed. I am going to continue the investigation from the inside.

Auguri: You’re so cool, Inamoto-san…! When we head over there as mentors, we’ll help out a bunch too!

Cion: The fact that this happened goes to show that Inamoto-san's decision to send us to the Internat turned out to be the right one.

——

Inamoto: (I’d like you to participate in the audition as mentors.)

Everyone: (Eh…?!)

Cuc: (Mentors?)

Sakuya: (It’s where seniors give advice to their juniors and be someone they can go to for help, right?)

Rey: (Indeed. The Kisumi family also incorporates it into our corporate in-service training.)

Subaru: (Essentially, you want us to participate in the audition and be advisors for the new candidates?)

Inamoto: (Correct. Originally, VS AMBIVALENZ’s final audition is meant to showcase the candidates’ growth and development through friendly competition along with the challenges they overcome to GLANZ. However…)

Futaba: (Um, I’d just like to say… Won’t those looking forward to VS AMBIVALENZ feel unhappy that people other than the candidates will appear?)

Jintarou: (Whaddya mean?)

Futaba: (There may be people who feel that “the candidates’ screentime was stolen” if people other than the candidates appear on screen.)

Auguri: (That’s so…)

Inamoto: (That is a fear we have. There may be heartless words thrown your way.)

Shinonome: (But, if Atarashi continues to intervene in our determination that he does not wish for…)

Subaru: (The precious moment for the candidates participating in the audition will go to waste.)

——

Auguri: Back then, I wondered how things were gonna turn out, but…

Futaba: Right. We must protect the new candidates no matter what happens, right?

Inamoto: Thank you very much. We greatly appreciate your continued assistance.

(Phone rings)

Auguri: Woah, ah! Sorry! I forgot to put my phone on silent… Oh, Sakuya’s calling.

Shinonome: You can pick up.

Auguri: Sorry again! Sakuya? What’s up?

Sakuya: Y’ello~? Where are you right now, Auguri-chan?

Auguri: In the office! Everyone’s here too, including Inamoto-san and Shinonome-san. What about you?

Sakuya: I just finished work with Nagomun~ Actually, since everyone’s there, just put me on speaker, okie?

Auguri: Mm, okie, okie.

Sakuya: Hello, this is Sakuya.

Nagomu: This is Nagomu.

Inamoto: Good work.

Everyone: Good work~

Jintarou: So, did somethin’ happen, or what?

Sakuya: Mmm… I just heard something here that caught my attention, so I wanted to share it…

Subaru: Something that caught your attention?

Nagomu: There’s a chance that Inamoto-san might have already heard this, but…

Sakuya: So, just now, the staff who always takes care of us came to talk to us after our interview.

Futaba: Wah~ It’s the number one line you want to be able to say! “The staff who always takes care of us…” It feels like you’re really in the industry…!

Sakuya: You’re so funny, Futabacchi. Anyway, well, those staff members really were just having small talk, but... “The next VS Audition assignment is a dance competition, isn’t it? I’m excited to see it!” is what they said…

Taiyou: Eh…?! That’s…!

Subaru: That is the next assignment, but…

Shinonome: The next assignment has not been announced yet.

Nagomu: I thought so. For some reason, the staff knew what it was… Ah, but there’s a chance they could’ve based it on how the 1st season went.

Sakuya: Well, we’re not sure what’s true. Then, when I looked into it, the other VS Audition announced an assignment that was completely the same as ours.

Everyone: …!

Auguri: So that means, they’re not just basing their audition off of “VS,” they’re making their assignments the same as ours too?

Sakuya: Well, that’s what it looks like… But, like Nagomun said, they may have just said that based on the flow of the 1st season… But we were worried about whether that was actually the case and decided to call.

Futaba: ! W-Wait! I just saw this online… Look!

Everyone: !

Shinonome: The other VS Audition’s assignment announcement… It looks like a schedule for the year… These assignments…! Everything is the same as we’ve planned!

Everyone: Eh?!

Inamoto: We do not have plans to announce the audition’s assignments beforehand. This is information that has never been released.

Sakuya: Damn… So, it’s true…

Nagomu: The fact that the staff knew means that it might’ve already been spread through the industry.

Jintarou: So we’re gonna end up announcing the same stuff they announced before us?! If that happens, then…

Subaru: People may start saying we copied an existing audition…!

Cion: Yeah… It's one thing if it's slander against the audition management itself, but if it spills over to the candidates participating in the audition…

Futaba: Who in the world leaked the information…?

Shinonome: There’s only one person it could be. That bastard…!

——

Atarashi: ♪~ ♪~~ ♪~~~ Hehehe… Now, what will you do? Reisen Productions…!