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Chapter 1: Autumn Winds Bring New Encounters October had arrived, and the wind had finally started to take on that distinctive chilly autumn bite. It was time for us to say goodbye to our summer uniforms and say hello to the Eichou High cultural festival, which was now looming just around the corner. It had only been half a year since the last time I'd worn my winter uniform, but putting it on still gave me the most weirdly intense feeling of nostalgia. That probably had something to do with the enormous changes that had come about in my life since I started my second year of high school. Up to that point, I'd assumed that romance would be a foreign concept to me from the day I was born till the day I died—but then, somehow, I ended up with two wonderful girlfriends instead! The me from back in April—a me who was still dressed in my winter uniform—never could have possibly imagined things would turn out this way. The two of them were still just friends to me back then. Who would have ever believed that I'd be asked out by two people, both of them girls, and who would have ever believed that I'd decide to say yes twice and two-time them?! I sure couldn't believe what I'd done, that's for sure...and somehow, in the end, the two of them had actually accepted my more-than-a-little-selfish decision. It was like a big bang centered entirely on my love life— the biggest, most shocking development in my existence to date. And it didn't even stop there! Ever since then, I started making new friends, learned about the feelings for me that my little sisters had been keeping hidden away, and reunited with my childhood friend who'd gone off and become a nationally famous idol since the last time I saw her in kindergarten. Honestly, it was kind of hard for me to believe that the person I'd become and the person I was back at the start of the school year could possibly be the same individual. The last six months had been just that eventful, and every one of those events had been just that intense. So intense, in fact, that I could practically see each and every one of them playing out before my eyes in perfect, vivid detail... "...Huh?! Wait a second—is my life flashing before my eyes right now?!" For a moment, I'd been so distracted by the sequence of images parading through my mind—each more impossibly hard to accept as a real thing that had really happened than the last—that the actual, present-moment me had accidentally dropped the pair of scissors I'd been holding. "Whoa! Are you okay, Hazama?" asked Mukai, who happened to be standing nearby. Her eyes were wide with shock. "Ah, yeah, I'm fine! Sorry about that," I frantically replied. Mukai scooped up the scissors and handed them to me. "You shouldn't space out when you're working with these! It's dangerous." "Ugh—sorry. Ha ha ha... I was just sorta reminiscing, I guess," I explained. "Ahh..." Mukai chuckled in a way that told me she knew where I was coming from. I had a feeling that the things that sprang to her mind were pretty different from the ones I was thinking of...but then again, everything that had happened between me and her was easily significant enough to make it onto my list too. "Hey, Chiaki! Can you help us out over here for a second?" called out one of our classmates. "Ah, s-sure!" Mukai replied, slightly flustered. She glanced over at me, and for some reason she looked almost a little apologetic...but then she went off to help our classmates before I could figure out why. "She sure is busy, huh?" I said to myself as I watched her go. Then I went back to my work, this time taking great care to keep a firm grip on my scissors. Not that my "work" was anything major in the first place—I was just helping make really simple decorations for the performance. In other words, I was doing the same sort of busywork that I'd been occupied with since the start of our preparations for the festival. Mukai, on the other hand? Oh, boy, were things different for her now! I think it's fair to say that Mukai probably hadn't stood out much in our class before. Ever since the late-September meeting about advertising our festival offering, though, our classmates' impression of her had been completely turned on its head. The cute, pretty, downright amazing pictures that she drew, after all, got picked up as the official art we'd be using to advertise class 2-A's idol show! Thanks to that decision, Mukai had suddenly become a super important leadership figure within our class. She'd pretty much turned into the head of our advertising efforts, and ended up getting constantly dragged this way and that by classmates who needed her input. The days of the two of us quietly working away on petty chores in a corner of the classroom were long gone...well, maybe just half gone, considering I'd been left behind in the same corner as ever. It was only natural that things had turned out this way for Mukai. Not only were her illustrator skills the real deal, she was also just plain nice, not to mention a hard worker and a tremendously brave person. Of course everyone would realize what made her so great, I thought as I stood back at a far, far removed distance, arms crossed as I nodded with satisfaction. On the day of the advertising meeting—the day that Mukai suddenly skyrocketed to the heights of stardom—a change came about class 2-A. We as a class had decided to put on an idol show starring our school's very own Sacrosanct duo, Yuna Momose and Rinka Aiba, plus the reallife celebrity and center of the idol group Shooting Star, Makina Oda. It was a truly, excessively star-studded cast for an event like this, so all of us leaped straight to the conclusion that there was no way it could possibly fail...and in the process, we completely lost the drive to actually put any effort or passion into the event ourselves. After all, no matter what we did, the show would still be a smash hit in the end. That all changed at the advertising meeting, though. In its aftermath, our whole class was caught up in a raging explosion of pure, fiery enthusiasm! We weren't going to sit back and let the whole weight of the event's success rest on our performing trio's shoulders. No, every one of us would put in the work to support them and lift them to greater heights! We'd put this show on together, and make it all of ours! It was already clear how the class would contribute to the advertising effort, but that was only the start. People with the appropriate know-how also quickly gathered up to help design and produce decorations for the stage, as well as the costumes that our trio of performers would wear for the show. Makina, Yuna, and Rinka would write the song they'd sing at the festival together, using one of the songs from Makina's idol career as a base, but other capable classmates would help them arrange the song as well. We even put together a plan to recruit volunteers to play as a live band for the actual performance! Like, wow! Oh, and while we're on the subject, this was an idol show, and it wouldn't be an idol show without idol merch. It was decided that we'd make and sell a variety of merchandise with designs inspired by Mukai's drawings. It felt like the whole class was suddenly overflowing with ideas. There was just no stopping us! Handling all these preparations on top of our usual studies was really, really hard, of course...but everyone was also enjoying themselves so much more than before, and most importantly of all, Yuna, Rinka, and Makina were all way more upbeat. They seemed that way to me, anyway. Huh? What about me? Well...let's just say that even if a person suddenly feels really, really enthusiastic and motivated about flying, it wouldn't give them the ability to flap their arms and take off, just like that. I totally got in the spirit of it all too—I was like, "All right, let's do this!" and everything—but there was still only so much that I could contribute to at all, and most of it was the same sort of chore-handling and errandrunning that I'd already been doing. But, I mean, you do need someone to be a gofer for this sort of thing sometimes, right? And it wasn't like I minded playing that role. It was fulfilling in its own sort of way! The one tiny little issue was that now that Mukai wasn't around to do those chores with me, I was on my own basically all the time. It made me feel a little lonely, I guess. That was why I'd been so glad when Mukai went to the trouble of coming over and talking to me a little. Then again, it was also possible that she just happened to be passing by and just happened to say something on impulse when she noticed me... No, no, stop that. You can't keep letting yourself get all discouraged like this! Yuna, Rinka, and Makina were working their hardest, and now Mukai and the rest of the class were too. I had to do my part as well! I slapped my cheeks, hyping myself up to do my best! "All right, let's do this!" Then I got right back to my chores, telling myself that I would finish all the work I had laid out in front of me within the day, no matter what it took! ◇◇◇ "Hee hee hee..." I quietly giggled to myself. The sky was more or less pitch black, and I was finally ready to start heading home. I ended up sticking around a lot later than I'd initially meant to, but at that particular moment I felt so incredibly satisfied, I couldn't help but grin like a weirdo. "What? You got all of those done, for real?! That's incredible—you're a lifesaver!" That's right. My classmates were all super grateful and praised me for my hard work! Yes, they were a lot more motivated now than they'd been before, but "motivated" didn't necessarily mean "totally ready and raring to go for a bunch of petty, timeconsuming busywork." I couldn't blame them for not being excited for that. It wasn't like I particularly enjoyed all those chores either. Realizing how grateful everyone was after I'd finished doing them, on the other hand, was something that I could really get used to, and drove me to work even harder than ever from that point on! Hee hee hee! And so I headed for the shoeboxes, smiling all the way— and found a girl I knew very well standing beside them, staring absentmindedly at the ground. "Huh? Makina?" Makina sucked in a sharp breath and jerked her head up. "Ah—Yotsy," she said, frantically combing her hair with her fingers. So cute... Wait, no! Not the time! "What's up? I thought you'd have already gone home by now," I asked. "I, umm, was waiting," said Makina. "For what?" Makina gave me a look. "Is there anything other than you that I'd possibly wait for?" "Oh... Right, I get it now. S-Sorry!" I babbled. It really was obvious in retrospect, but I'd asked anyway, mostly because I was just going with the flow of the conversation and not really thinking about what I was saying. I was apparently more tired than I'd realized. I figured I'd probably end up walking home with her...but I also found myself wondering why she'd gone out of her way to wait in the first place. "Did you need to talk to me about something?" I asked. "No, that's not exactly it..." "Oh?" Makina seemed a little down. It was really obvious that something was going on with her...but the fact that whatever it was seemed to be hard for her to bring up also made it hard for me to probe deeper about it. "Is your practice going well?" I asked. "It is, yes," Makina replied. "It looks like things have been pretty crazy for you too, if you had to stay this late." "Ha ha ha... I think everyone's pretty busy, but I'm only doing random chores, so I have it easy in comparison." "Chores are just as important as any other work." "Th-Thanks," I replied. Makina was the one who seemed like she was in low spirits, but somehow I'd ended up getting cheered up by her instead, pathetically enough. "OOh, right! Have you gotten used to the school yet?" "I have, yes," Makina replied. "You only just transferred in last month, and now you already have to swap uniforms again! It's just change after change for you, huh?" "It certainly has been." I kept making random small talk as Makina and I walked home. I never managed to figure out why exactly Makina had waited for me, and I didn't even get close to touching whatever the core issue that was bothering her was. Her reactions all seemed rather subdued too. In a weird way, it reminded me of how she'd been when we were in kindergarten together. She never liked talking about her feelings back then, but she also could never quite manage to keep them hidden, and I would always pick up on them in the end, just like I had now. Of course, the one big difference was that back in kindergarten, unlike now, I'd been a hyperpositive little optimist who fully believed that the world revolved around her. Even if I noticed that she wasn't in a great mood, I'd assume that just being around me was sure to make her feel better in no time and not bother thinking any deeper into the matter. I didn't have that sort of unbridled confidence anymore...but if there was something bothering her, I still wanted to do something to help out. It felt like my duty as her childhood friend. Hmm... What could have happened to her? Assuming it's something I have any shot at figuring out... Oh! I ran through all the big events of the past few days in order, racking my mind for an answer, when suddenly a certain development sprang right to mind and I stopped in my tracks. "Yotsy?" Makina turned around to glance back at me, looking a little concerned that I'd ground to a halt out of nowhere. I found my gaze drifting involuntarily to her lips, almost as if they were drawing me in... That's right... She kissed me... I couldn't stop myself from remembering that night in perfect detail. I could practically feel the slight chill in the air and the sensation of the wind as it brushed past my cheek. I remembered Makina's expression, her scent, the sound of her breathing...and the sensation and flavor of her lips. It had been so incredibly shocking and impactful, it was seared into my memory—so vividly it almost felt like I was still kissing her now, at that exact moment... "Hey... Yotsy?" "N-Nothing! It's nothing at all! I mean, seriously, nothing! With a capital N! I was absolutely not thinking about anything weird whatsoever!" "Wh-Where's this freak-out coming from?" Makina asked. My blind panic had definitely startled her. That said: This one was definitely her fault! How was I supposed to not panic when she leaned in and peered at me with those full-blown puppy-dog eyes?! Ask literally anyone, and they'll tell you that was a low blow! Looking at her with a fresh gaze, she really was incredibly pretty...in a way that felt like it really would give me a heart attack one of these days. I said a quiet thank-you to my parents for giving me a heart sturdy enough to last for this long, at least. "A-Anyway, I'm totally fine! Nothing to worry about at all," I said. "Oh, really...?" Makina replied. She cocked her head skeptically, but didn't try to dig any deeper. I wondered idly if it was hard for her to question me in much the same way I was having a hard time questioning her...though even if she did try asking, there was absolutely no way I'd be able to come out and say, "Oh, I was just remembering that one time you kissed me." I could not be that honest. After all...I was already in a relationship. As far as society was concerned, what had happened between the two of us was definitely some form of cheating. I'd known how Makina felt about me even before she kissed me out of the blue. I'd known that she loved me, and I knew it was that sort of love; I just hadn't been able to work up the nerve to respond to her feelings. I was taken, and I knew it, so by all rights I should have told her that we couldn't be together in that way...but we'd only just reunited, and had only just started spending time together again. I was scared that if I rejected her, we could end up estranged all over again. And so instead of resolving the problem, I just kept kicking it along down the road. Was I really in any position to blame her for kissing me, considering how I'd been running from my own responsibilities? When it all came down to it, this was my fault...and yet there I was, letting my heart skip a beat at the sight of her all over again. I really am the worst. I've been awful to Yuna, to Rinka, and to Makina too... "Yotsy." Thinking back on how things had turned out this way put me on a one-way trip to the depths of self-loathing in a car with no brakes whatsoever, but then Makina tapped me on the shoulder. "Where do you think you're going?" "What? Oh..." Before I knew it, we'd arrived at—and almost walked right past—my house. Makina's home was just a few steps away as well. In the end, I'd spent almost the entire trip from school to our houses lost in thought. "Sorry, Makina," I said. "I just..." "No, I understand. I can tell how tired you are. And besides, I'm happy just being around you, so it's fine." "Makina..." There she went again, saying just the right thing to make me both happy and completely befuddled at the same time. Makina smiled. "Okay, then. See you tomorrow." "Y-Yeah... See you," I said with a nod that was so stiff and awkward, even I could tell. Then I watched as she turned around and went along on her way. What exactly was it that I even wanted? I knew that things couldn't stay this way. I couldn't keep turning a blind eye to Makina's feelings and acting like we were still just ordinary childhood friends. It would be so much easier if things could work that way, but they just wouldn't. And then there was Yuna and Rinka. I was already asking a lot of them when it came to my two-timing, and if I kept this up much longer, it wouldn't be at all surprising if they decided that they'd had enough and left me. I can't bring myself to choose, and end up making everyone unhappy instead. Wouldn't it be better for everyone if I just... It was a thought that I'd had on a number of occasions— more and more of them with each passing day. But...just thinking about an outcome like that was enough to make me feel like I couldn't breathe. It made me want to break down and sob. "I don't want that..." My heart ached. My head was pounding. Why was I like this? And why had everyone chosen me, of all the people they could have fallen for? Why...? "Hey, are you okay?" I felt someone touch my shoulder. I'd sort of forgotten that I was on a perfectly normal city street, right out in public. Of course curling up into a ball in a place like this would end up making someone worry about me. Okay, gotta stand up! I'll just stand up, smile, and say I'm fine, I told myself. I stood up, turned around—and was struck dumb. The girl standing before me was wearing a big, thick, long coat that looked pretty out of season, even considering that it was starting to get a little chilly. She also had a hat on that was pulled way down, a big medical mask covering the lower half of her face, and sunglasses to boot. I could barely even make out a patch or two of her actual skin. She looked, to put it gently, more than a little suspicious. "Eeek— Mmphgh?!" I grunted. I'd almost screamed with all my might, thinking that she might be the dangerous sort of creeper, but before I could get more than the very beginning of that shriek out, she clapped a hand over my mouth! "Hey! Come on, don't make a scene!" the girl hissed. "Mmmph?! Mnggh?!" I-I've gotta run away! But for some reason, I can't move at all! What's gonna happen to me now? Who even knows where she might take me...? Maybe she'll take me deep, deep down into the sort of pit where the sun never shines, hand me a pickaxe, and force me to do manual labor until I'm a broken husk of skin and bone! "Oh, for the... It's me! You know, me!" The (alleged) creeper pulled the mask and sunglasses off her face, revealing, much to my surprise...a perfectly normal but rather pretty person? "It's me! Mio Kuruma!" "...Who?" But, nope! Still didn't know her at all. ◇◇◇ The mysterious creeper who called herself Mio Kuruma and I made our way to the nearest park, where we paused by a vending machine. "Want something? My treat." "Oh, then, umm...corn soup?" "You got it." The creeper pressed the button for a can of hot corn soup, then handed it over to me. And, I mean, yes, I did know that I probably should've been running away...but she'd asked me if I could spare a second, and come on, how was I supposed to argue against that?! Like, imagine if I tried to resist and she decided to do something to me! How scary would that be?! I was keeping my phone constantly in hand, just so I could be ready to call the cops at any second, and she definitely did notice that. But even though I was being as openly suspicious as I could possibly be, she just grimaced and didn't actually say a word about it. The creeper bought a can of black coffee for herself, then led me over to a nearby bench where we sat down. Okay, honestly—why am I going along with this? "Sheesh..." the creeper grumbled. "I really wasn't counting on you not recognizing me at all. This kind of stings." "Have we, umm, met somewhere before?" I asked. "No, this is definitely our first meeting." "O-Oh, okay..." In that case, why would she assume that I would know her? I wondered as I took a sip of my canned corn soup. It was nice and hot. "You and Maki just looked so close. I assumed that if you knew her that well, it would only make sense for you to know me too," she explained. "Maki...? You mean Makina...? Meaning... Huh?! Are you Makina's stalker?!" "No! Why the hell would I stalk someone like... Well, I guess depending on how you look at what I'm doing, it's not actually that far off, but still." For some reason, the creeper let out a very drained sort of sigh. Huh? Hold on a second. Now that I'm looking at her again, it does sort of feel like I've seen her somewhere before. "Mio...Kuruma... Oh!" I exclaimed. I'd finally remembered. I had heard the name Mio Kuruma before! "Are you in Makina's group with her? Shooting Star?" "So...you did know." "Ah, umm! I just, well, forgot." "You realize that makes it sting even more than before?" "Sorry..." I hung my head, but also tilted it upward just enough to steal a peek at her face. Mio Kuruma was a member of the same idol group that Makina belonged to. She was the group's second-in-command, in fact, and the way she could harmonize with Makina was really incredible. It was supposedly the biggest reason why Shooting Star had caught the world's attention, actually, or something along those lines...according to a Wikipedia article that I was pretty sure I'd read at some point in the past...probably. Most likely. Pretty sure. "Well, fine. You're right. I'm one of her—of Maki's— coworkers. Meaning I'm not a creeper or a stalker. Got that?" "Y-Yup!" I yelped. Her irate energy was terrifying enough that I ended up standing with perfect posture, nodding vigorously. "But, umm, in that case, why are you dressed like that...?" "If anyone knew it was me, it could turn into a whole thing. Would you want to have to deal with that?" "O-Oh, that makes sense." Guess that's the sort of outfit that idols wear when they want to go incognito. But, wait— she also got all offended when I didn't realize that she was an idol, so... Nope. Don't get it. I just don't get idols, period. "So, what's your name?" "Huh? Ah, umm... I'm Yotsuba Hazama." "Yotsuba...? Hmm. Yotsuba. I'll remember that." Sh-She's jumping straight to using my first name, just like that?! Idols are incredible! "Well, Yotsuba—it looks like you and Maki get along pretty well, don't you?" she pressed. "Huh?" I grunted. "You walked home from school together, didn't you? And you seemed pretty chummy too." "Bwuh?! O-Oh, did we, now...?" "You wouldn't think it, but Maki has a pretty big bubble when it comes to personal space. It's not normal at all for her to walk so close to someone her shoulder nearly bumps up against theirs." It isn't...? Huh. That was news to me. Makina had always given me the impression that she wasn't really bothered by that sort of casual closeness...but then again, looking back, I couldn't actually remember ever seeing her get that close to anyone else at all. "Well...now I'm getting annoyed." "Huh?!" I yelped. "Oh, no, not with you. I'm annoyed that Maki looks like she's having such a good time with all this," the creeper said in a tone that came across as both a little bored and a little on edge. Wait, no, not the creeper! I meant the idol— or, er, Kuruma, I guess...? "Just call me Mio." "Huwah?" "You looked like you were tying your brain in knots trying to figure out something stupid along those lines, so I took a guess." "Are you a mind reader?!" "I've talked with a lot of different people through my work, and you're one of the easier types to read. Your face says it all." "Oh! Yeah, I get that a lot." "You do, huh...?" Mio said with a look in her eyes that all but screamed, "So then why haven't you tried to fix it?" Huh? Wait a second—am I turning into a mind reader too?! "Oh, and quit acting so tense. You're a second-year in high school, right? That means we're the same age." "Oh! Yes, I am." "It really pisses me off when people my age walk on eggshells around me. It always feels like they're making fun of me." "B-But they probably don't actually mean it that way, right...?" I tensely replied. "..." "I-I mean, I bet they're just trying to be nice! Yup!" Oh, god, that glare! That was a glare that could kill! This girl is so scary! Apparently, people Mio's age treating her like she was some sort of authority figure was a major pet peeve of hers. I didn't really understand why, but I had a feeling she'd get upset if I asked, so I decided against it. "So, umm...I should just call you Mio, then?" I confirmed. "Right. Do that," Mio replied. "Mio, Mio, Mio, Mio..." "Wait, wait—I didn't say to keep saying it forever!" "S-Sorry! I'm just not used to calling people by their first names right off the bat... I need to practice or I won't get it right!" "O-Okay, I guess?" Mio—yes, Mio—gave me a look that felt a little pitying, almost? I could already tell that she hailed from the land of light and sunshine. I, on the other hand, came from the realm of shadows and gloom, and for people like that, calling someone you've only just met by their first name is an almost insurmountable hurdle. She just didn't get it! "Mio, Mio... So, umm, why exactly did you talk to me in the first place, M-Mio?" I asked. "Because you were curled up into a ball on the side of the road, and I was worried...but, no, that's not really it." Mio cleared her throat in a stilted, not super natural-sounding sort of way and started over. "You know about what's going on with Maki, don't you?" "Umm..." "I mean, you know she didn't really step away from show business because she wanted to focus on her studies, right?" Mio clarified. Oh! That's what she meant! "Well, I can't accept it," Mio grumbled. "Huh...? Wait, really?!" I yelped. "Of course I can't! Shooting Star was on the rise, moving into the single most important moment in the group's career —and then our center ditches us to go on hiatus?! Unbelievable!" Mio had been acting a little prickly this whole time, but now she'd full-on exploded. It felt like that question I'd just asked had only made things worse, so I decided to take a sip of corn soup instead of digging myself any deeper by saying something dumb. "That's why I want to bring her back somehow," Mio continued. "You... Huh?" "Maki's always been able to master anything she wants to, if she just puts her mind to it. She could keep her grades up and keep performing at the same time, no problem. There's no way someone like her would have to go to a fancy prep school to get into college." "B-But don't you think it's important to respect Makina's wishes about—?" "And by the way," Mio continued, trampling with ease right over the objection that I'd worked really hard to bring myself to spit out. Also, this might've just been my imagination, but it kind of looked like a really dangerous sort of sharp glint was starting to shine in her eyes...? "I've noticed that you don't mind calling her by her first name. You just said it—'Makina,' right?" "Hyeeek?!" "So you two are close enough to be on a first-name basis? Even though it's only been a month since she enrolled at your school? You just got done telling me about how you're not used to calling people by their first names, Yotsuba, and there you are, saying Maki's like it's absolutely nothing... Care to explain how that makes sense?" Mio pressed. She was giving me a really close, appraising look that made it feel like she planned to study every inch of me from top to bottom. It felt uncomfortable in a gross, slimy, almost suffocating sort of way. "Well...fine. If you're Maki's friend, then I think you should take some time to think about what exactly would be best for her." "You mean...?" "How would you feel about lending me a hand, Yotsuba? I want you to help me convince Maki to call off her hiatus and come back to show business with me." I barely held back a gasp. Is she kidding right now? She wants me to help her talk Makina into changing her mind...?! "This is a pivotal moment for Shooting Star. It's a crossroads, and which path we pick will determine whether or not we can make it in this industry long-term," said Mio. "It is...? But you're already so popular," I replied. "For now, sure. We've been getting some attention. The fame we have right now's not sustainable, though. Do you think we'll still have that momentum a year from now? How about two?" "U-Umm..." "Idols are a consumable resource. When people get bored with an idol, they just move along to the next one. You wouldn't believe how easy it is to lose your place in this industry. You can't just take the top spot once—you have to claim it again, and again, and again, until finally you can move on to the next stage. We'd just gotten our chance to make it big for real, after all this time..." Mio's fists were clenched tightly with frustration. I couldn't find the right words to say to her. Her desperate drive was so purely, profoundly sincere that I couldn't confront it head-on... She'd told me not to be nervous around her—to call her by her first name, since we were peers—but even if we were technically the same age, it felt like the two of us lived in completely different worlds. "All idols are like this. We're all locked in a constant, desperate struggle for relevance. It'd be nice if we could get by without Maki, but this industry just isn't that gentle. Shooting Star isn't Shooting Star unless all five of us are part of it. Plus...and I hate to admit this...Maki's the real deal. She has a passion and a ravenous appetite for fame that none of us can match. We could never keep up with her... And that's exactly why we need her, more than anything else!" "Ugh..." "So please, help me! I've talked to her a thousand times, and she just won't listen, but maybe if you're the one she's hearing it from, it'll finally get through to her!" "B-But how could it? Why would she listen to me...?" "Honestly, I don't know. I have no clue what your deal is, but it can't hurt to try, can it?!" Mio practically shouted as she grabbed my shoulders. "I can't let our group end like this. We've got the hopes of our whole agency riding on our shoulders—an agency full of girls who worked as hard as they could to follow in our footsteps because they looked up to us! It's our duty to clear a path to success for them too! And that's why we...we can't just sit back and let Maki run off on her own to play her little games at some school somewhere!" Mio's desperation came through excruciatingly well. Her whole life really was riding on this, to such an extent that even just wanting to understand what she was going through felt terribly presumptuous of me. And, yes, I could see the logic in her words. She had a point...and from a societal perspective, she might even have been flat-out in the right. But still... "I...don't want to." I couldn't say yes. I could barely say no either—I could actually feel myself physically trembling from the effort it took—but I still mustered up all the courage I had and shook my head. "Makina thought as hard as she possibly could about all of this, and this is the decision that she came to... And, I mean, I think she's really trying her hardest in all sorts of ways, so...I just don't think I have any right to question that," I said. By no means did I understand everything there was to know about Makina. That was especially true when it came to her work as an idol—as Maki Amagi. There was no chance that I knew anywhere even close to as much about all that as Mio did. Just because I didn't know everything about Makina, however, didn't mean that I had to sit back and agree that she was "playing her little games" by going to school. I hated hearing her get belittled like that. "Makina's actually really amazing, you know?! Our school's transfer student entrance exam is supposed to be super crazy hard, but she passed it anyway, and, like... She must've had to study a crazy amount to manage it, and she did it while she was still working as an idol, which means it must've been even harder for her than it would be for everyone else... She's put so much hard work into all this, and I know you're part of her group, but that doesn't mean you can just wave off her effort by saying she can do anything with ease! It's not easy at all!" I was still scared witless, but something totally unrelated to my sense of reason had taken the wheel partway through my speech and put the pedal to the metal. By the end of it, I was straight up shouting. Mio should've known way more about what Makina did behind the scenes when she was working as an idol. All I had to work off of was how I imagined her behaving. That said, I just couldn't believe that she could have kept up her idol work and her studies without any trouble whatsoever. And that wasn't even starting on all the hardship that the situation with her family and the stress of constantly having all eyes upon her from all directions as an idol must have brought her! Makina really was incredible. She put someone like me— someone who couldn't do much of anything at all—to shame, and I completely understood how easy it was to get the wrong idea about her. I also knew, though, that she was the same as us. She was just another high schooler, and more importantly, she was my precious childhood friend. I probably didn't have any right to talk like this, since I was still putting off responding to her feelings...but at the very least, I wanted to respect the decision that she'd made. And even if someone else ended up being hurt as a result of that decision, I, at least, would still be on her side to the bitter end. "Right... I'm realizing that I didn't pick the right way to say this. I'll admit that," said Mio, hanging her head slightly. I wondered for a moment if I'd managed to get through to her—but it really did only last a moment. She looked up again right away and gave me a very self-assured glare. Yup! This girl's terrifying, all right! "But I'm just as serious about this as she is. I've staked my whole life on it, and if you think I'm giving up that easily, you're dead wrong. I can't accept her bringing her career to a standstill just to go to a prep school, of all things..." Mio really was serious. The air around her was so thick with tension, it almost made me shiver—but it didn't make me consider backing down, even for a second. In fact, being hit with the full-force brunt of her dedication just made me more dedicated than ever! A surge of sentiment was spilling forth from deep within me, driving me to protect Makina with everything I had! "Going to a prep school may seem pointless to you, but I know for a fact that it's going to be valuable for Makina! She'll make it valuable!" I insisted. "This is the path she chose, and she's taking it as seriously as she takes everything else! And if she does go back to being an idol once she's finished, her work won't suffer for the time she spent at school. No, she'll come back bigger, better, and cuter than ever! She'll be the most super awesome amazing idol you've ever seen!" "You seem awfully confident about that...even if you said it with the vocabulary of an elementary schooler. What makes you so sure? What exactly are you basing all that confidence on?" "Huh? Well, umm..." That put me at a bit of a loss. I'd let myself get carried away and was coasting on pure momentum, which wasn't exactly an easy mode to pivot away from to cite my sources. I was drawing a blank. "What? You're not basing it on anything?" "N-No, just, umm... I just really don't think Makina's playing around, is the thing! She's been working super hard on the idol show we're doing for our cultural festival! She stays late after school every day, and—" "Wait. What was that just now?" Wham! Mio grabbed me by the shoulders all over again, but this time, she put way more strength into it! Her fingers dug into me so hard, I was worried they might actually leave a mark. "O-Ow?!" I yelped. "Answer me. What did you just say? Maki's going to be in a show? At a high school cultural festival?!" "Oh..." When she put it that way, I could sort of see where this reaction was coming from. Belatedly, I realized that I had reached for an extremely sensitive nerve and straight up pinched it. Makina had put her idol career on hold for the sake of performing at a cultural festival as an idol...and while I thought that was really impressive and admirable of her, it seemed totally possible that Mio would see it as stronger evidence than ever that Makina was just playing around! "N-No, it's not what you think! I mean, okay, I guess it kind of is...but Makina's taking it super seriously! It can't have been easy transferring in at this time of year, but she's doing her best to make something amazing with her new classmates anyway, and..." I babbled, but the truth was, all of that was just speculation on my part. I just hoped that was what motivated her. I was, however, absolutely positive that she was taking the performance seriously. She'd written a song, collaborated with her classmates to come up with choreography, and spent who even knew how long giving Yuna and Rinka lessons. It might have been a far cry from a professional performance, sure, but I'd never had the slightest impression that Makina was just playing around with it all. "How...interesting," said Mio. "What?" "You have my attention now. When's this cultural festival happening? You don't seem like much of a liar, so I'm guessing all that confidence from before was totally sincere, right?" "I-I mean, I'm not sure if I'm confident, really... I just believe in Makina, I guess...?" "Well, if you believe in her that much, then how about the two of us make a little wager?" "L-Like a bet?!" "I'll come to your festival and see your show. If I come out of it believing that Makina really is taking this seriously, and that this hiatus really will give her whatever it is she needs to up her skills as an idol, then I'll step back and wait for her without complaining. If I come out of it thinking that she really is wasting her time, though...then you, Yotsuba, will have to do everything you can to help me convince her to give it up and come back to the group." "Huuuuuuh?!" Mio flashed me a smirk—and that smirk was what finally made the pieces click together for me. This was her plan all along! She was going to make me into her ally like it or not, no matter what sort of dirty tricks she had to play to get me on-side! It was clear that Makina had a soft spot for me, which meant that I had a unique chance of convincing her in a way that Mio wasn't capable of. She knew that, and she'd been waiting this whole time for the perfect opportunity to bring me around to her team. And so, the second a culturalfestival idol show—the absolute perfect opportunity to draw a line between Makina's life as an idol and her life as a student—came up, Mio had latched on to it without wasting a second. Her eyes glimmered with an elated confidence that told me she was positive the key to victory was already in her grasp! I, meanwhile, was fully confident that I could not get away from her. The pain gradually spreading out from my shoulders made that pretty darn clear! "This bet is purely between you and me, Yotsuba. It has nothing to do with Maki," said Mio. "All that's on the line is whether or not you'll help me. That's not a problem at all, is it?" "Wh-Whether or not it's a problem isn't really the problem..." "What, are you saying all that confidence from before was just a bluff? You don't really believe Maki's taking the show that seriously? It's just going to be a silly little game after all? Heh heh—well, how about this? We'll add another layer to the bet: If I lose, then I'll do anything you want me to. You get one favor that I can't say no to! I'm offering you a pretty sweet deal here. Are you really going to run away when everything's stacked in your favor?" It was so, so obvious that Mio was trying to provoke me. She couldn't have possibly been more blatant. She wasn't even trying to hide it. Even an idiot like me could tell, for crying out loud! All I had to do was say, "Oh, I see, I'll think about it" and brush her off. That would be the mature way of dealing with the situation, and I knew it perfectly well. I was a second-year high schooler, after all! On the other hand, Mio was probably convinced that a performance put on at a high school's cultural festival could never possibly come anywhere close to touching the things she and her co-idols could accomplish as pros. What she didn't know, however, was that we were all dedicated to making our show the real deal...no, to making it the best show in the whole wide world! She was underestimating us, no question about it—but maybe that was intentional too? Maybe me assuming she was taking us lightly and agreeing to her deal was exactly what she was aiming for. I knew I'd feel a little bad about it, but I'd found my decision. I would resist the urge to prove what we were made of and tell her that she wasn't going to bait me—I, Yotsuba Hazama, would never fall for that sort of cheap provocation! "I'm super confident, actually?! Makina's show—class 2- A's show—is totally going to be the best idol performance you've ever seen, and you'll never, ever, eeever in a million years see it coming! You're gonna be so shocked by how amazing it is, for sure!" Gah! What just happened?! I didn't mean to say any of that stuff! The next thing I knew, I was declaring preemptive victory as loudly as I possibly could, pointing confidently at her while I was at it for good measure. Mio's grin, meanwhile, grew broader than ever. It was a truly belligerent sort of smile, but at the same time, it was exactly the sort of smile I'd expect from an idol of her caliber—one that was so overflowing with charm, I knew it'd be a very long time before I managed to forget it. "Well, then—it sounds like we have a deal." And that was how I ended up getting dragged into a bet that, really, I had no business participating in. If I won, Mio would give up on pulling Makina out of her hiatus, and if Mio won, I would have to help her convince Makina to return to her idol career. It was, in other words, a tremendously important bet with Makina at its center! O-O-O-Oh, no! What am I supposed to do now?! I frantically wondered as I squared off against Mio, a torrent of cold sweat pouring down the small of my back. Chapter 2: Planning Won't Help, but Let's Do It Anyway "So, that's the whole story! What on earth should I do now?!" It was the day after I'd met Mio. The very serious predicament that I'd very carelessly stumbled my way into was far too weighty for me to bear on my own, and so the moment the afternoon break began, I went out to find a certain upperclassman and spilled the whole story to her, from start to finish! "I don't know how you'd expect me to know what you should do, whether I have the whole story or not," that upperclassman said with a shrug that told me she really just couldn't be bothered. Her name was Akane Hishimochi, and she was both the president of the Sacrosanct fan club and also one of the very few third-years—or rather, the only third-year—who I was acquainted with. I'd called her out more or less on a whim, and had ended up meeting with her in the student guidance room yet again. That might seem like an odd choice for me, but, I mean...the place was always abandoned, right? It really was pretty convenient, in all sorts of ways. "I really think it'd make more sense to talk to Maightingale about this sort of thing than me, don't you?" the president asked. "Maighting...? Oh, Koganezaki! I already did, actually. She said, 'Don't know, don't care' and left," I explained. "Oof, yeah, she would. Cold and coolheaded as ever, that girl." "It really is just like her, isn't it? But I figured that since you're the opposite of coolheaded, talking to you instead might make sense!" The president paused. "Was that supposed to sound like an insult?" "N-Naaah, no way! I just meant you're friendly and enthusiastic, of course," I replied in a stilted monotone. The president gave me a long, hard stare, her eyes half closed behind her glasses, and I broke eye contact. "For crying out loud... You really never change, do you, uhh... Wait, what was it again?" "What was what?" The president paused. Again. "Your name." "Huh?! You mean you forgot?!" Now that hurts! I'd thought that the president was the one upperclassman I was acquainted with, but apparently as far as she was concerned, we hadn't even reached the acquaintance level! "N-No, not like that," said the president. "I remember your name. Of course I do. It's just..." "Just?" "I gave you, y'know, a nickname or something, right? That's the part I forgot." "Ahh..." Okay, I actually forgot that one too. I feel like it involved the word "band" in some way or another, but that's all I've got. "Okay, but do you really have to use a nickname? Couldn't you just use my actual name instead?" I proposed. "Absolutely not!" the president snapped. "Huuuh...?" "Do you have even the slightest clue how socially awkward I am?! And you expect me to just come out and call you by your actual, real-life first name?!" You'd almost think I was the one being unreasonable, from the way she laid into me. I hadn't actually said anything about her using my first name, for the record—my last name would've been just fine too. It wasn't like I was an idol who worked on a first-name-only basis or anything. "Wait," I said, "I thought you were super sociable, actually? You're so cheerful and chatty and stuff!" "You only think that because you're seeing me on a surface level," said the president. "You might say that's how I defend myself. If I keep talking nonstop, then I'll never have to deal with any awkward silences, and it makes me look nice and friendly too, right? Even if I do catch people saying stuff like 'Man, Hishimochi just never shuts up, does she, lol' behind my back later on sometimes..." "Ugh?!" Just hearing about that bit of gossip was excruciating. Though, to be fair, pretty much any behindthe-back gossip was painful for me to listen to. You might even say that sort of gossip was my greatest weakness. "But if I had my way, I wouldn't talk to anyone. I'd love to shut myself up in my own little world, all alone...but that's not on the table, right? So I figured that at the very least I could be as superficially friendly as possible, and, well, calling people nicknames is a pretty friendly sort of shtick, right? Or, I mean...I kinda hoped it would be, I guess...? Ugh, sorry, I'm being such a pain..." Ahhh! The president's losing momentum at record speed! I had no idea that her nickname for me was that important to her... If she'd just told me, I would've made a note about it on my phone or something! "You're not a pain at all!" I insisted. "I mean, I do stuff like that all the time too!" "Put a sock in it, Miss Has-A-Social-Life..." "Ugaaah?!" O-Okay, yes, from a broad societal perspective, I probably would look like a socially fulfilled normie, what with the being-in-a-relationship thing and all. But that was just luck! By nature, I live in the deepest, darkest depths of the social trenches! Even if it was just her trying to protect herself, her bright and cheery attitude was way more impressive than anything I've ever pulled off! "I-I know!" I said. "You can just give me a new nickname right now, okay?! We can't un-forget the first one, but we can start fresh instead!" "A new nickname...?" "And I'll call you by a nickname too! Like, uhh..." I did, in fact, remember that the president already had a nickname I'd used in the past: Mocchi. That, however, was a nickname that she'd told me to call her—I hadn't come up with it myself. Considering I was asking her to think up a new nickname for me, it only seemed fair for me to think up a new nickname for her too! Let's see... Nicknames, nicknames... "Mocchi" had come from the latter half of "Hishimochi," her surname. It was a pretty rare surname, by the way, written with some odd, kind of cute characters, but the problem was that if I picked a surname-derived nickname for her, it could just as easily apply to her parents too. Imagine if I called her at home, said, "Hi, is Mocchi there?" and her mom or dad was all, "Yes, speaking" or something! It was just asking for misunderstandings, no two ways about it. In other words, this time, I was set on thinking up a new nickname using her given name, Akane, as its basis. It'd be the better move long-term, for sure! So... Umm, sooo... "Akksy?" "You're definitely making fun of me now!" "Am not?! I thought it'd be cute! It has a nice ring, right?!" I'm absolutely not trying to make you sound like a big dumb cow! It's Akksy, not Ox-y! Half of Akane with an s and a y! I was operating off of the same system that Makina had used to give me my Yotsy nickname. A system employed by an idol could never be flawed—it would be no exaggeration to say that my new nickname for her could trace its origins back to the most noble and respectable of sources! (Even if Makina was in kindergarten when she gave mine to me!) "Hmph... Akksy, huh?" the president—or rather, Akksy muttered to herself. A faint smile began to spread across her face. "You know, I think this might be the first time someone else has given me a nickname," she said as the smile continued to grow, her eyes narrowing contentedly. Th-That's so... On the one hand, her perfectly innocent smile was adorable, and on the other hand, the fact that she'd been calling people nicknames for so long without anyone else ever giving her one of her own was a little tragic. I was torn between "so cute" and "so sad" in equal measure. I hadn't really considered it when she first told me to call her "Mocchi," but from the sound of things, she really had come up with that nickname for herself... "Akksy, Akksy... It still kinda feels like you're making fun of me, but if you want to call me that, then I guess I wouldn't mind letting you get away with it," Akksy said in a hesitant, faltering tone, her cheeks slightly flushed as she looked at me with bashfully upturned eyes. She was actually acting so bashful that I felt a little embarrassed too. I'd given her the nickname pretty casually, but it was starting to feel like that act had carried a lot more significance than I'd realized. "H-Hey. Try saying it, okay?" "O-Okay! So, umm...A-Akksy," I said, a little flustered. "Yeah," Akksy replied after a slight pause. She still seemed embarrassed, but even more than that, she seemed distinctly happy in a really cute/sad sort of way. "And as for you...since you're calling me Akksy, I'll call you Yocchi!" she added with a grin, almost like she was powering through her embarrassment and overriding it with confidence. From Yotsuba to Yocchi? I can sort of see it, and it's actually kind of cute, I guess! I hadn't thought that Akksy would turn The Makina System right back around on me...and while I'm on the subject, there's actually a bit of a story to how Makina ended up calling me "Yotsy" in the first place. You'd think that if the goal was just to trim my name down a bit, "Yotsu" would be the obvious choice, but it just didn't have a very nice ring to it, and going all the way down to "Yot" would've made me sound like a boat. "Yotsy" was the nicer-sounding compromise that the two of us ended up settling on together. It was a weirdly heartwarming feeling to more or less live out that old memory all over again as my high school self, and I soon found myself grinning as well. "I like it!" I said. "Hee hee... You do...? Then I guess you're Yocchi starting today!" the president—Akksy—said with a satisfied chuckle. Actually getting called by a nickname like that really did make me feel like squirming a little, but in a good way. I had a feeling that the way she was acting now was probably the closest thing I'd seen to Akksy's true personality. That did raise some questions about the crazy hyper persona she'd adopted the first time I met her, of course. Maybe she'd psyched herself up for it since she knew I'd be coming in advance? Or maybe I'm reading into it too much, and it wasn't about me after all. If that is what happened, though, then I feel a little bad for visiting her like this today. I did kinda call her out for a talk without any warning at all. "So anyway, Akksy, about what I actually came to talk about today," I said, steering us back on track. I felt a little bad for it, but this really was a super pressing problem for me, and I needed someone to give me advice about it. After all, the cultural festival was less than a month away! "Oh, right. Yeah," said Akksy. "So, umm, the issue was Miss Makina's coworker, right? You know, when I step back and look at the big picture, I think you might be the single biggest trouble magnet in the world." "Ugh... I can't argue with that..." "So now you have a contest going—or I guess you called it a bet." "Do you think I could, like...just take it back? No way, right?" "Yeah, nah, I can't see