Hikaru Suzuki
When you play the record, a soft melody begins to play, one that turns into a full-on song that repeats as long as the record is still in the player. As the song plays, the curtains parts on their own, the lights come on, and the stage is now revealed.
A large cardboard cutout of a beautiful manor stands near the back of the stage, taking up the majority of the background. In front of the entrance to the manor stands a cardboard cutout of an elderly man in a fine suit, a tired and annoyed expression on his static face. A cardboard cutout of a sleek black car stands to the side of the manor, large enough to completely obscure the cutout of the elderly man were he to be positioned behind it. High above the stage hovers an enormous pair of disembodied hands clad in white gloves, and extending down from the fingers of these hands are strings on its right and chains on its left.
As your eyes trail down these chains and strings, you find that at the end of them are two wooden puppets, the one with its limbs attached to chains resembling Nobuko Yoshida and the one attached to strings resembling Shiori Yoshida. Their faces are painted and static, the Nobuko puppet retaining a permanent smile while the Shiori puppet sports a permanent frown. You see the lifeless puppets onstage begin to move, the fingers of the hands above it twitching to life to control them. The Yoshida puppets bow to the audience before standing at attention with their arms at their sides, ready to receive their next order.
The show has begun. What order will you give them first?
