Damn... Now I want to see Himura Kiseki actually draw Tifa
But Kouhai-Chan makes the Tifa look work.

Are those her groupies behind the photographers?

... OK, who asked who in this scenario? The second batch of lines don't seem to quite fit together unless we change "I was asked by my junior from university" to "I asked my junior from university", IMHO.

MarqFJA87 said:

... OK, who asked who in this scenario?

Kouhai was asked by someone junior to her, presumably from the club/circle she belongs to.

.... office sempai-san is that really the kind of thing you should be looking at while you're at work?

The girl holding a crutch next to Kakyou-san is probably the junior Kouhai-san talked about.

jindo90 said:

The girl holding a crutch next to Kakyou-san is probably the junior Kouhai-san talked about.

I'd guess she was the one who was supposed to be doing the cosplay, but twisted her ankle or somesuch, so Kakyo and the circle members called in Kouhai as reinforcements.

It's a dangerous thing to have a mole in the Tawawaverse if you want to keep your anonymity...

@DreamFromTheLayer said:

Kouhai was asked by someone junior to her, presumably from the club/circle she belongs to.

No, see, the phrasing of the first line in the lower right as you provided is from Kouhai-chan's first-person perspective... which clashes with how the immediately subsequent line cannot be from her as well, as it only makes sense from the perspective of, say, the junior who asked her. Even more confusing is the third line, which apparently is said junior going into a bit more detail about her replacement that Kouhai-chan is comfortable with.

And having taken a look into the kanji of the first line, I notice that the hiragana after 頼 appear to be まれる, which makes the verb in the passive form... which can be used as a form of respectful language rather than true passive voice (i.e. it's grammatically treated as if it's in the plain form). If so, the sentence would then translate to "I asked my junior from university (to take my place)".

Side note: I'm actually thinking it's more likely that the one who asked Kouhai-chan is Kakyou-san, not Crutch-Girl, since she appears to be part of the club and is the one who's doing the stereotypical "Please! I beg you, do this for me!" clapped-hands pose.

MarqFJA87 said:

Side note: I'm actually thinking it's more likely that the one who asked Kouhai-chan is Kakyou-san, not Crutch-Girl, since she appears to be part of the club and is the one who's doing the stereotypical "Please! I beg you, do this for me!" clapped-hands pose.

It seem more like she's asking her to tough it out/beg her forgiveness (read: not destroy her) at this point.

MarqFJA87 said:
I notice that the hiragana after 頼 appear to be まれる

No, it's 頼まれて, she's telling the reporter about how she was asked. The first line is surrounded by quote brackets「」 that you don't see closing. The rest of the article is in the voice of reporter.

Also, Kakyou-san and Kouhai-san are the same year, so 'junior' can't apply to Kakyou-san in the first place. The junior is the girl with the crutches and the same hair style as Kouhai-san.

DreamFromTheLayer said:

No, it's 頼まれて, she's telling the reporter about how she was asked. The first line is surrounded by quote brackets「」 that you don't see closing. The rest of the article is in the voice of reporter.

Also, Kakyou-san and Kouhai-san are the same year, so 'junior' can't apply to Kakyou-san in the first place. The junior is the girl with the crutches and the same hair style as Kouhai-san.

... Ooooohhhh. OK. That makes a lot more sense, though now I'm wondering if if it's normal for news reporters to cover Ariake and similar anime/manga conventions in Japan.

And I was more thinking that Kakyou-san acted as the intermediary between said junior and Kouhai-chan, pulling all the stops to convince her after her (almost certain) initial refusal out of embarrassment.

MarqFJA87 said:

... Ooooohhhh. OK. That makes a lot more sense, though now I'm wondering if if it's normal for news reporters to cover Ariake and similar anime/manga conventions in Japan.

And I was more thinking that Kakyou-san acted as the intermediary between said junior and Kouhai-chan, pulling all the stops to convince her after her (almost certain) initial refusal out of embarrassment.

I have a feeling that if Kakyou-san hadn't succeeded in her persuasion, she would be the one doing the cosplay instead =3

I mean, who knows? Maybe she was the one that the junior had approached initially and decided to, ah, offer it to one more fitting XD

Kouhai-chan definitely has the tawawa to cosplay as Tifa.
I wonder who would be the best choice for Kakyou-san to cosplay as...
Of course the best choice for Ai-chan to cosplay as would be FGO's Charlotte Corday.