Operetta - Birthday 8

Location: Operetta Stage

Ritsu: You see, I… To be honest, at first I enrolled to Yumenosaki because I felt lonely.

But while doing activities with Knights and everyone else, I came to love “that part” of idols. 

There are no distinctions here. There are so many fun and happy things, and anyone at all can have them.

That’s the kind of miraculous place the stage is.

Hey, Anija. My idiotic Anija…

Even though you always make that arrogant face as if to say “Shall I teach you?”, you never caught on to this simple truth -- Foolish, no-good Sakuma Rei.

Our family has always lived in the shadows. All while gasping “It hurts, I can’t take it, someone save me”--

And without abandoning those pathetic guys, you’ve been trying to hide them away deep in the darkness where no one can reach them, Anija.

Just like we always have, ever since our ancestors' times.

Avoiding the light, delving into the depths of darkness…

But was that really the right answer? Is this what our ancestors, generation after generation, always hoped for us?

Cowering in the darkness, licking each others wounds?

I think that’s wrong. At least, when I was protected and hidden away in a sheltered place like that…

I just grew colder and colder, I lived enveloped in loneliness and unhappiness. 

But when I stand on stage… Then I can show my cute smile, just like this. Look, Anija, isn’t everyone from our family in the audience making the same face right now?

If they’re smiling, isn’t that the right answer?

To be able to smile and laugh just like other people… What if that’s been our true wish all along? 

To be like other humans, or in other words, to become human. You seem overjoyed to have become one yourself.

We're family related by blood, so why didn't it ever occur to you that the others could be feeling the same way you do?

Mingling with humans, walking alongside humans, living as humans. To turn everyone in our family, who've roamed the depths of darkness as vampires for eternity, into “normal humans”...

To fulfill their heart's desire; isn’t that your duty -- “Head of the Family”?

Rei: …………

Ritsu: It’s possible, for us. Because we're idols. There’s no way you can’t do something that even I think I can do if I try, right?

Show me your cool side, Onii-chan. Using this “Operetta” as a trigger, let’s slowly but surely… return our family to the world of humans. 

Let’s break the “bonds of obligation” that accumulated in the past, and live beside our beloved humans.

We acted like we were vampires and put up a facade, and while that might've comforted our hearts, I think it was all meaningless.

Let’s do something meaningful. Because human lives are finite.

And if you think it’s too difficult for you to do it by yourself… Well, it may be a bother, but I’ll lend you my help as your little brother.

Leave it to me. I'll repay you for protecting me so much this whole time.

That’s part of the reason for this “Operetta”. I’ll gather everyone’s attention as the little brother of you, who is so stupidly popular all over the world.

By making use of that news hook, I’ll shine even brighter as an idol…

And I’ll gain power, enough to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with you. 

So you see, there’s no need to protect me any longer.

Ritsu: Really, don’t look down on me…

I’m no longer a delicate, fragile baby. As you can see before you, I've grown quickly into a splendid knight.

Recognize that already, Onii-chan.

“♪ ~ ♪ ~ ♪”

Rei: (...I get it. I truly do understand, my dear Ritsu.)

(I wanted to carry you in my arms like a baby forever. Rocking you back and forth, calling you a good boy over and over to comfort you, keeping you away from all of life's hardships--)

(But there was no need to pamper you like this. I really… was blind to what was right before me.)

(When I first saw you, you really were so very small…)

(And through some ill fate, you inherited the weaknesses that run in our family especially strongly. You were a baby that seemed like he'd die on the spot if I left you be.)

(And so, I felt I had to protect you as your older brother.)

(I’m your Onii-chan, so I felt I had to protect you even if I had to give you my own flesh and blood for it.)

(.............)

(...I had to stave off the boredom of my nights, which were lengthier than a normal person's, and so I was a child who did nothing but read books.)

(Thanks to that, I became an armchair theorist, the likes of which not even Hasumi-kun could laugh at.)

(And I’d come to realize what a tiny existence I am within this enormously wide universe.)

(But because I developed prematurely, everyone celebrated me as some sort of genius.)

(I was always so scared. Because I was well aware of just how small and weak I truly was.)

(However, I never expressed these worries to anyone else, and put up a strong front. It was all I could do to protect myself.)

(I hid my weaknesses and pretended to be strong, and disciplined myself so the world wouldn’t crush me.)

(By learning any possible skill, and reading every available book to gain knowledge, I tried to become a superior existence if only by a small margin--)

(I struggled. While drowning in fear within the depths of darkness, all by myself.)

(That’s my true form. The true form of the ominiscient, omnipotent Sakuma Rei.)

(If I let down my guard for even a second, I’ll be seized by that darkness and vanish… Unable to wipe that hallucination from my mind, I did my best to fulfill everyone’s expectations, no matter what they were.)

(As long as I did that, people would thank me and affirm my existence. And I was relieved every time… It turned into a habit, then into an instinct, and I became who I am now.)

(My dear Ritsu. I only tried to protect you because you were so very weak.)

(Your existence seemed so fleeting, as if it’d disappear if I didn’t keep my eye on you… By lovingly protecting it, I secured my self-esteem.)

(But now, you've grown up. You escaped from that darkness with your own strength, and progressed towards a domain even your brother was never able to reach.)

(And now you’re beckoning me from over there.)

(I won’t say it was all for this, but… Aah, I really am glad I protected you all this time.)

(I’m glad I was born a little earlier than you, became your older brother, and was able to raise you to become this strong.)

(The countless books I read, the blood and sweat I put into learning all those skills… It wasn’t all for in vain.)

(My existence… No, my life* has been affirmed with just this.)

(My dread, and the darkness, are lifting--)

(I will live on, as a human.)

“My dear Ritsu-”

Ritsu: What? Don’t talk with your mic on, Anija.

Everyone’s probably imagining us as brothers who get along great, so if they overheard the bloodthirst in our conversation, I think they’d all be super disappointed.

Rei: No worries. Even if they heard us, the pivot of this “Operetta” is a fight between brothers anyway. 

Even if we were to point our blades at one another, and spat words of abuse at each other, they’d just think “This must be part of the script”.

And according to the script, the plot has us reconciling at the very end.

Surely, even the audience will see that we are brothers who love each other from the bottom of their hearts and think of each other as irreplaceable.

No. We are idols, so we possess the skills to convey important things clear as day.

So you see, even if I point my blade at you like this--

What I truly want to say to you will surely be conveyed.

Rei: -- I love you.

My dear little brother. Since your birth, up until today, that’s what I truly felt as your brother.

I’ll believe in your strength… So please, believe me when I say that these feelings aren’t a lie.

“♪ ~ ♪ ~ ♪”

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* Rei corrects himself between two expressions that both mean life/existence here, but the second one includes the kanji for human, as in “human life”.