Chapter 4: A Plan and its Fruition
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How stupid of a world. High School DxD?
Wasn't this supposed to be a wholesome and lovely normal world where Gods didn't meddle with mortals? I barely held back a peal of crazy laughter. What was the little sister of Satan doing here? I love this.
I obviously wasn't panicking. I felt great, in fact. I was in the face of a humongous opportunity. If DxD was real, that meant the scale of this world was higher, which meant I could grow faster and earn more benefits than I believed at first.
Still, I am going to avoid her though. I had no intention to draw attention. Plus, I am 2 years old, and she seems to be around 5 years old. I don't want to interact with her, there is no benefit from that.
I quickly concealed my Qi, though I was half sure she couldn't sense it anyway, and then jumped into Miyako's arms.
* * *
After that, Ruby and I were snatched by all the staff and actresses in the vicinity.
"Ohhh, twins!" – was their reaction before they began to torture my cheeks.
At about that time, I also noticed that Rias had been left alone by the kids. From the beginning, she wasn't really playing with them, she was trying to — but the kids did their best to find an excuse and run away from her. Now, she was alone, sitting on a chair and staring out the window.
She wore a cute dress with a purse hanging from her shoulders. Her hands clutched down on the bag, even though her expression was normal. It almost made me want to go talk to her, but luckily the beautiful woman who was hugging me like a stuffy toy didn't let me go.
Afterward, when I finally managed to pull myself away from the lady's soft bosom, I made my way to find Ai. I was curious about what my mother had to do in this sort of job; living hundreds of years without any touch of modernity rendered me curious about these things that I previously didn't care about.
Instead of finding Ai, sadly, I came across the director from before. He paused when he saw me, and crouched down to my eye level, pointing a finger.
"Oh, aren't you the manager's brat?" He said as I decided how to react. "I don't mind you being here, but if you dare start crying during our shoot, I'll kick you out."
The arrogant overlord part of mine said I should annihilate this baboon who dared talk to me like this, but I had learned to control that side of mine in the last two years.
I had quite a few Rules of Reincarnation that I kept in mind, one of them being the name-change one that I have already talked about before. For a person like me to enjoy life, I needed these rules.
Another rule of reincarnation is this: "Be like water, be formless." It goes along with the, "When in Rome, act like the Romans do." So when I'm in the modern world, I don't wish to show my ruthless self. I would if it required it, but I wished not to. Otherwise… it would be hard to enjoy anything, trust me.
So, I pretended to be a scared child and blurted out apologies instead.
"Oh, absolutely not! I understand me and my sisters are mere babies, but I shall try my best to not cause any inconvenience! I am fully aware of my own limitations and the rules to be upheld in a prestigious place like this, so please rest assured. Don't be harsh on Ai because of us, and consider working with her in the future as well!" I bowed, sounding frantic, and waited for his response.
His response was an understandable yell. "Holy! This baby sure can talk! Where did you learn such words?"
I looked up at him. This is the part where I'll lie for more than one benefit. I said I'd need to prove my status to Ruby, right? This will allow me that opportunity.
"YouTube?" I lied, watching the man give me a stunned look.
"Y-youtube?! You can learn such things from there?! What a progressive era we live in!"
He lifted me with his arms, smiling. "I have seen quite a few baby prodigies, but you definitely take the cake. Can you act too? Are you an acting prodigy?"
Am I? Of course, I am. I've been acting since my 2nd life, I had to pretend to be a normal person and not a reincarnator. I've been lying to my birth parents for so many lives, pretending to be a normal baby. When you live as long as I have and meddle with old men scheming to take over nations and planets, you'll have to know how to lie. How to act. I knew how this game worked.
"You'll make a good face on the screen. My name is Taishi Gotanda, I want to put you in something. What do you say?"
Finally, the opportunity had arrived. With my acting ability, I could put the seed of doubt in Ruby's heart, and she would come to ask me about what I was. I gave him a nod even as I prepared plans in my head.
Soon we left, but before leaving I couldn't help but go give Rias Gremory a KitKat. She looked too sad for my liking, and the candy seemed to do wonders to lift her mood. As I planned, she didn't get to drag me to play with her since we were leaving, we didn't even exchange any words.
* * *
A few days later, we received a call from Director Gotanda. It was a small movie he was directing, where Ai will be a supporting character. However, I too will be acting, as a minor character.
"Whoa, my cutest Aquamarine sure caught the director's attention." Ai hugged me in the car, rubbing her cheeks with mine, as Ruby gave me a jealous glare that was very rare recently.
Sadly, I have lived my life acting, so I had no desire to take this as a career path. I knew that the main character in the cannon timeline had become an actor, but I had no intention to walk that path. This is purely a one-time thing.
"Listen up, prodigy baby,"
We reached the filming area, which was an open forest-like terrain with mountains in the background this time, and the director pulled me away to the side to talk.
"The casting is almost always decided by higher-ups. Only a handful of super big shot directors can choose their own casts, either that or it's the directors who are working on a small-scale movie."
Director Taishi Gotanda was working on a small-scale movie, I recalled.
To my surprise, he lifted me up and then pointed at a tree in the far, under which a red-haired girl sat. My Copper Eyes caught the destruction aura coming out of her.
"I heard you gave that girl candy. She was so happy that she told her father to give her a chance to produce a big film if you were in it. So while this was supposed to be a small project at first, now that I have a big producer, I think this will be popular. Thanks, kid."
Oh.
I just stared at the girl who ate a KitKat bar while staring at the distant mountains. As if noticing my gaze, she turned to me and gave a smile, the red aura of destruction calming around her.
Fucking KitKat. I didn't plan to attract her attention.
* * *
[Third Person Point of View – Ruby]
She didn't like her twin brother. He was a normal baby, yet he now had an acting career.
All right, to say she "didn't like him" would be wrong. She did like him, he was cute, and his usual silence was lovely. She was just a bit sour about why he got the acting offer but not her, while she was a reincarnator. She didn't really hate it though since she always wanted to be an Idol, not an actress.
Though she wouldn't hesitate to say she didn't like this director. He was scary.
Ruby was in Miyako's arms when she walked over to the director, who put Aqua on the ground with a dark grin on his face.
"I am using Ai in this film, in exchange for you being a part of it. We call in bartering in this market. So tell her to give you some kind of treat, I don't know, since it's all you who gave her this opportunity."
Saying so, the director walked away while Ruby glared at his back. Miyako shook her head with a nervous sweat.
"Using Ai's son to barter, what a scary man." Miyako leaned down to look at Aqua, who she thought was normal of the two twins. "That director sure likes you, Aqua. What did you even do?"
Aqua just shrugged and walked away. Both Miyako and Ruby found it odd, until Ruby noticed Ai was nowhere to be found.
Taking a deep breath in, she began to cry. "Mama! Mama! I wanna go where Mama is! Take me to her!"
Oh oops, right, Miyako was supposed to be her mother here.
* * *
That particular day, there was no acting, just some rehearsals that Aqua had to go through. Ruby noticed that his acting there was… strange. She didn't know how to explain, it felt too real, too fluid.
Still, she waited until the date of the proper shooting to confirm her suspicion. Where she would confront him with her suspicion. Today was that day, they had returned to the location.
Yet, annoyingly, Ai didn't come with them today. It was only Ruby herself, Aqua, and Miyako.
"Mama! Mama! Why isn't Mama here?! Take me to her!"
She cried while sitting on the floor, and since Miyako wasn't nearby she didn't care to have anyone question the situation. Only Aqua was by her side, but he was a normal baby, it was fine.
"Ai is shooting on a different date, can you stop crying?" Aqua said, making her stop crying. Right, she was the older one here, there was no need to pretend to be a baby now.
Still, she didn't like why she had to be here when she wasn't even going to act. It would have been better if she was left home with Ai instead.
Around that time, the door of the room they were in burst open, and a girl around their age, if a bit older, walked in with a frown.
It was a girl with strawberry-red hair and a fierce expression. "Hey! Acting is a pro's line of work, you know? If you don't like it here, go home, stop crying!"
"I already stopped- wait," Ruby gasped as she registered who the girl was. "You're the child genius who will lick a lying snitch!"
"Flick a crying switch!"
This little girl was kinda popular, Ruby recalled. Was she going to act with Aqua? How annoying; why wasn't she picked?!
* * *
[First Person Point of View – Aqua]
"Everyone says I am great at crying scenes, cus duh! They're great."
The little girl was too arrogant; she gave me the vibes of those annoying young lasses from big martial art clans. If young masters were annoying, imagine how those young mistresses who thought the world belonged to them would feel. I don't like her.
At least, that Rias girl wasn't around today. I avoided her that day in the rehearsals as well, and everything had worked out perfectly since she hesitated to approach me by herself, worried that she'd scare me away like others.
A while later, after a loud introduction, the girl – Arima Kana – looked at me with a frown while holding up a stack of papers with the label "Script" written on top of it,
"By the way, neither you nor the Idol have any actual lines in the original script! You came here because of connections, right? It's not allowed, you know!?" she looked at me in disapproval.
"That's not exactly…"
"I saw the last drama she was in, and she barely had any screen time. I am talking about Ai."
The little girl said, interrupting me. Interruptions were a bit annoying, but since she was a child I could-
"Must be because her acting was bad, isn't it? That's why they had to cut all her lines, and she had such low screen time."
"…"
The girl said that tried to storm out, and I felt my fingers twitching. Ruby was yelling something from behind me, and I released a sigh to calm myself. That was a child, even if she was insulting a legendary talent that was Ai – even I had to admit her acting was stunning – I ought to be kind and benevolent.
"Ouch!"
I picked up a little stone that was on the floor and threw it at the girl. It hit her on the back of her head. She cried in pain, turning to me with wide eyes.
"Y-you! How dare y- ouch!"
My expression was calm, my eyes filled with kindness, as I bestowed upon the girl a shower of meteorites specially controlled to not do any serious damage.
In the end, the girl turned around and rushed out crying. Tsk, children.
….
The shooting soon began. To summarize what was going on, the film is about a woman who has no confidence in her appearance. She decides to get plastic surgery from a hospital deep in the mountains, and Arima Kana and I are the kids she meets at the entrance of the village.
"Welcome, honored guest. We are here to greet you." Arima said with a dark expression on her face, talking to the woman in front of us while cameras surrounded us from all directions.
Her acting wasn't up to my standards. I have seen quite a few wicked children in my life, off-spring of great people who passed down their genetics to their children. Compared to those lying little brats, this Arima wasn't any big deal. However, in the context of this world, where entertainment was greater than back in my original world, she is good. Very good, I could understand why someone like her would grow arrogant given her age.
Soon, her lines were done, and it was time for me to talk. The director hadn't given me any instructions on what to do, but from what I recalled about what happened in the cannon, and the hints the director was giving, I am supposed to act like a creepy kid.
Easy. I put my hands behind my back, like an old man.
"You are the 4th one this month," I said to the lady in front of me. I didn't have any lines, so I was supposed to use my wits to fit in the plot. "Four of the girls who entered, none of whom returned… Foolish mortals."
I continued my act, with my hand under my chin, as I felt all the gazes slowly focus on mine. When a great immortal venerable speaks, it's natural for people to look, and their stunned expression was understandable as I talked a bit like my 9th incarnation. There was an underlying hint in the film that I and Kana were some wandering ghost who died long ago, so it suited me if I acted old and mighty.
"C-cut!"
The scene was finished on the first take, as the Director yelled with a goofy grin on his face. He crackled while everyone continued staring at me. Kana began to cry, yelling for a retake – because she apparently did too much worse than me – while Ruby just stared with wide eyes.
I turned to her as my blue eyes met with her red ones, and she frowned while looking at me in nervousness. The seed of doubt had blossomed into a flower.
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Master4thWall Note: Leave some reviews guys??