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.