Alright, it's high time we started planning our next performance!

Yeah!

Let's do it☆

It feels like it's been forever since we last met up to plan something together...

The School Festival kept us all busy so...

Now, raise your hand if you have any suggestions!

Me! Me! Me!

Can we do a show about animals?

A story about animals maybe...?

Yeah! There can be this one animal who's all by itself but it'll go on an adventure to fight a bad guy and make lots of friends along the way!

Hmm. It's pretty orthodox, but it could work.

It's a nice story, but the structure is very similar to our previous shows.

Yeah. We've done some before where the protagonist defeats baddies and finds happiness.

Simple stories that are easy to follow are well-suited for children, but they might lose interest if we keep reusing the same ideas.

Oh, how about we add more protagonists?

Like in my class play about Romeos.

You just had a lot of people called Romeo in that and you were the only actual protagonist.

But I do like the idea of a play with multiple protagonists and parallel storylines.

Oh! That is another way of doing it!

However, if we have too many characters, we risk overwhelming our young audience.

It may help to go with a motif that they're already familiar with...

(Something familiar...

Maybe more realistic and less fantastic...)

(Something real... For me, that's going to school, rehearsing here or in SEKAI, then going home and playing games...)

(No... There's nothing exciting about just staying indoors.)

(Something else that's familiar, but a little out of the ordinary... The School Festival is the most recent thing that comes to mind...)

Oh, duh... The School Festival...

Did you just have a eureka moment, Nene?!

It isn't that spectacular but...

I was thinking about school, the School Festival or some other festival. Something that most kids would be familiar with...

Um... For example, there could be this one kid with some kind of problem, like being lonely or wanting their family to make up after an argument...

But while they're preparing something for the festival, they make new friends and maybe have some small fights, but it all works out for them in the end.

Oh, wow! That's an awesome story!

And it's even simple enough for little kids to understand!

But hold on... Is it just me or does it sound too plain for us, especially compared to what we've been doing...?

Perhaps we could make it more interesting by having it take place at a school of magic?

If we keep it simple, I think the kids will enjoy it.

Magic is unusual and inexplicable, but it's a familiar and exciting concept to them.

Rui, that's genius! Then let's do a show about a school of magic's School Festival!

Um... We're really doing this?

Hey, what's this now? It was your own suggestion!

Okay, we've got the basics down.

Now to hammer out the details!

(Th-They're really going with my suggestion...)

Oooh, I know! Since it's a school festival, we'll need lots and lots of stalls!

Good idea! We could set them up both on stage and around the audience seats. How about that?

It would also be nice if some of them were actual shops and not just decorative. That way, the audience could take part in the play as well.

I see...

(It might be even more fun if you could get different stuff each day or week...)

Nene, do you have anything you'd like to add?

Huh?

Don't be shy.

It's your story after all!

Um... I-I was just about to say something, okay?

Everything is starting to turn out nicely thanks to you, Nene. But well...

Well, what?

Well, I was just thinking that you must've really enjoyed the School Festival to propose this idea. Hehe. I'm glad I fixed that cotton candy machine now.

Okay, okay. I mean, it only took you a few minutes to get it going again...

Nene! I'm going to start writing the script.

I need some more input from you.

Huh? But I already told you everything.

That couldn't have been everything! This is your chance to make yourself heard and create your very own play. Don't pass it up!

(What happened to his overblown ego? He's always so pushy about putting what he wants in the script.)

Fine, I'll see what else I can think of...

But you need to contribute too, okay...?