Operetta - Brothers 1

Location: Road to School

- Some days later, in the early morning -

Koga: (...Aah, shit. It’s like I’ve totally become a “dog without a collar”.)

(I ain’t a dog though! I’m a wolf, figuratively speakin'!)

(I'm free to do what I want from now on, like I've been released into the wild. But I ain't got a clue about what I wanna do or how I wanna live my life.)

(Havin’ said that, I gotta hunt for my own food now, else I’ll just starve to death.)

(Still~... At least we decided that we're joinin' our senpai after graduation, so we can keep performin' as UNDEAD together.)

(That bein’ the case, I can't get my head around anyone but us four bein' the members.)

(That’s why I’m on the fence about recruitin’ new members like Knights and Ryuseitai are doin’~…)

(It just seems like there’d be trouble if we did that, and I wouldn’t know what to do about the new members after we graduated anyway.)

(Honestly, I wouldn’t feel like lookin’ after ‘em either.)

(The twins from the Light Music Club are cute and all, but I ain’t got the time or patience to deal with frivolous brats who don’t know a thing.)

(I only wanna focus on the stuff I wanna do, and sing ‘n dance with all I’ve got.)

(So… I guess I don’t have a choice but to keep going with just Adonis and me, and perform as somethin’ like the super cool UNDEAD’s reserve troops at school.)

(But y’know~, that’s kinda tedious... Feels like we’re runnin’ in place for no reason.)

(If we’re gonna reunite with those guys sooner or later anyway, we might as well get it over with already.)

(We could just quit school right now and become full-time idols…)

(But the deal was about joinin’ up with them “after graduation”, and droppin’ out of school halfway seems like it could end up hurtin’ our careers…)

(Ahhh geez, I’m so irritated! Why am I of all people havin' to worry about stupid stuff like this, it ain't me at all!)

(...I miss the days in my second year where I could just sing without a care in the world, with nothin’ to fret about.)

Ritsu: Bam~☆

Koga: Waongyah!?

Ritsu: Ahaha. What a funny shriek~. You’ve totally got the makings of a reaction comedian*, Corgi...♪

Koga: Ritchii, you bastard~! You really just ran me over with your bike like it’s the most natural thing in the world, didn’t ya!?

What the fuck do you think you’re doin’, I’ll kill ya! Don’t screw around, what if some well-behaved little kid imitates you!?

Ritsu: Well, I think as soon as they imitate that they’re no longer a well-behaved kid. Sorry Corgi, I’m sooo not used to riding a bicycle yet...♪

I carelessly made a mistake while steering and ran you over. I really didn’t mean to, I swear ♪

Koga: I-Izzat so. Tch… Guess it can’t be helped then, but be more careful next time.

Ritsu: Roger-dodger. I’ll deeply reflect on my actions and vow to some God or whatever that I shan’t repeat this faux-pas~.

Koga: But hey Ritchii, you come to school by bike now?

Didn’t Dekosuke** carry you to school and back last year? You brothers are pretty much the same in that way, huh..♪

Ritsu: Quit bringing up Anija and me in the same breath.

...Ever since Maa~kun became the new student council president he’s been stupidly busy, and if I added onto that burden he’d seriously die, so I’m exercising some self-restraint about being spoiled.

I want Maa~kun to live a long life after all.

Koga: I see. Ain't that admirable of ya, doin’ your best like that.

Ritsu: Yup. Feel free to heap on the praise, I really am doing the best that I can lately.

In any case, Corgi, there’s something I wanna ask you. ...What the hell is going on?

Koga: Aaahn? Whatcha talkin’ about, you gotta give me more details than that!

Ritsu: That so. Hm~... Well, seeing is believing, so take a look at this.

Koga: Hmm? What’s this, a newspaper? French, huh. You gotta know I can’t read that without a dictionary.

Ritsu: Figures. Guess we've gotta study up on foreign languages and all too.

Thanks to Ecchan and Anija hustling pointlessly, the idol industry has been expanding world-wide.

Well then. This translation is just my summary, but the article goes more or less like this-

“That Sakuma Rei has a little brother! He’s an idol just like his brother, and is super popular in Japan!”

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*Reaction comedians in Japan make their money by partaking in over the top scenarios where they’re made the butt of a joke by reacting in over the top ways to the ridiculous skits they go through. Popular examples of this are routines where the reaction comedian is being fed hot oden, or being pushed into a tub full of hot water.

**Deko means forehead and -suke is an ending for boys’ names. I liked this dig at Mao’s hairstyle so much that I couldn’t bring myself to translate this nickname.

Operetta - Brothers 2

Location: Road to School

Koga: ...Is that really worth writin’ an article about?

Ritsu: I know, right. But Anija's been flying worldwide for a while, and he's always been super popular, so he's actually more of a celebrity than we think--

Koga: Hahaan. So the “Superstar Sakuma Rei”’s little brother is walkin’ the same road he is, and that’s catchin’ the attention of the ignorant masses, huh.

So that’s why they published an article on it.

If anythin’, you’re makin’ me jealous, Ritchii. Someone like me, who's only performed with UNDEAD for a little while, ain't gonna get talked about overseas.

The home of rock is overseas after all, I wish they’d seek me out all like, “The new face we’ve been waiting for! He’s the rising star of rock!”.

Ritsu: Hoho~. So Corgi's got aspirations of being fawned over, huh? That's kinda unexpected~.

To be honest, I thought you were kinda more the stoic type of person.

Koga: And what’s wrong with that… Ain’t like I wanna be squealed at, but since I’m pourin’ my heart and soul into this, I wanna be appreciated for it in return.

Ritsu: There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s not just you either, even I want myself and Knights to shine even brighter, to have our names be known all over the world...

...It’s not like I don’t have those kinda aspirations.

However. I’m pretty unwilling for it to happen like this. Having everyone’s eyes on me just because I’m that thing’s little brother… I’m sick of it. Besides, there’s a number of things that are suspicious about this.

Koga: Suspicious…?

Ritsu: Yeah. First off, I’ve been “Sakuma Rei’s little brother” ever since I was born, so how come they’re making a fuss about it overseas, all like “A new truth has come to light!”?

Koga: Well, ain’t that ‘cause the vampire ba-... Sakuma-senpai has been keepin’ it hidden all this time? In order to keep his family from bein’ the target of unwanted attention and stuff?

Ritsu: Mhm. That’s probably it, since that thing’s thinking works along those lines.

From the very start, we’ve been a family that lives by hiding in the shadows motionlessly, so we instinctively shirk from unwanted attention. 

But, well, it’s still none of his business. I’m fine even if Anija doesn’t go protecting me like that.

Koga: Haha. Don’t say that. In that guys’ eyes, you’ll always be his “cute baby brother”, Ritchii.

Ritsu: Mhm. Well, that much is fine. It’s a much greater blessing than not being loved at all would be.

...Probably. I wonder if the TV crew, or whatever those guys who approached me and Anija overseas were, broadcasted this fact as a scoop all over the world?

Back then, Anija was making an uncharacteristic face that had “I messed up” written all over it. I guess to him this was a disastrous accident. 

Koga: Hm? You met that guy overseas? That’s so unfair, Ritchii! He won’t even talk to me through anythin’ but phone calls these days!

Ritsu: Nh~... Rather than met him, I had an encounter with him, I guess. And that’s also something suspicious about all this, didn’t that guy limit his activities to be primarily within Japan since he graduated?

Koga: Yeah, he’s livin’ it up with Hakaze-senpai since he joined “that agency”.*

That guy stands out no matter what he does… You're already aware of that though, ain'tcha Ritchii?

Ritsu: Mhm. So why was he overseas?

In the end, that noisy drama began before I could actually press the issue, so I had to leave without hearing the reason why.

Siiigh. And here I was hoping that Corgi, who’s in the same unit, might be able to think of something.

But it seems like you don’t know anything about this. You’re as useless a dog as ever.

Koga: I’m not a dog! How many more times are you gonna make me say it, it’s becomin’ a seasonal greetin’ between us at this point! 

And in any case, you say we’re in the same unit, UNDEAD…

But the two of us who are merely in the line-up for “that agency” only join up with ‘em temporarily when a job calls for that, more or less.

It’s not like we’re clingin’ to ‘em day and night or anythin’.

Maybe they’re too embarrassed to face us after actin’ like we were sayin’ our final farewells for this lifetime back durin’ “RepayFes”, but our senpai are seriously bein' half-hearted about all this.

Sheesh. If I’d known things were gonna turn out like this, I wouldn’t have tormented myself over the “RepayFes” like that, thinkin’, “this is the end”, and I’d have spared myself the trouble of speakin’ so frankly about a buncha things back then.

Ritsu: Well, I don’t think that could’ve been helped? Thanks to Ecchan acting all enigmatic for no reason, no one could have imagined a future like this, right?

But, well. Whenever I see Tsukipi~ and Secchan for work I think to myself, “Just what on earth was the “RepayFes” all about anyway”, and feel kind of disappointed, too.

Koga: Well, it's fine if it was just a return gift for everythin' they did for us when they still went to school, ain't it?

Life and idol activities both go on, so I’d be annoyed to think of that as our “happy ever after”.

In the first place, there’s nothin’ happy about this. Ever since they graduated, our senpai have been really curt with us, and whenever we see ‘em for work they’re all businesslike- 

Maybe it’s ‘cause we’re still in the training stages, but our senpai won’t even share their opinions on what we should do from now on or anythin’.

It comes off as if they’re sayin’, “Just do your stuff the way you wanna”.

I’m the one who really wants to know what that guy is thinkin’, alright? Just what’s he plannin’ to do? Ritchii, you’re his little brother, so can’t you tell that instinctively?

Ritsu: Beats me… Blood ties are nothing but an illusion. It doesn't matter how often I get a read on his thoughts, there hasn't been a single moment since I was born where I was able to believe in him.

Seriously. No matter how much time passes, it annoys me… What an incomprehensible, infuriating “Onii-chan” he is.

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*”That agency” (or “that aforementioned agency”) is what characters refer to when they mean the agency that was elaborated on in Wonder Game, where Tsumugi works post-graduation. I don’t know if this is due to HappiEle not wanting to disclose the name of the agency at all, or only until Ep:Link drops, we’ll see.