Hot Limit - Late Summer Insects 2

Location: ES Hallway

- A dozen or so minutes later -

Rinne: Alrighty, let’s pull ourselves together and get goin’! Let’s head straight towards our shining future! Gyahahahaha ☆

Niki: Ugh~... Man~... This time I’m really gonna get fired for sure; there wasn’t the slightest bit of a smile in the manager’s eyes back at Cinnamon…

And he was all like, “you’re being a bother to the other customers, so go ahead and settle this matter with your little friends outside the café real quick”...

But you three aren’t my friends~, you’re my enemies who rob me of my source of food~.

Kohaku: Fufu. But wouldn’tcha say that your life would get a lot worse if ya made an enemy out of us, compared ta now where we’re more or less on yer side?

Rinne: Damn straight. Enemies get crushed. To say it in no uncertain terms: we’d harass you on the level of crashin’ a semi-trailer into your workplace every single day of your life.

Niki: T-there’d be no place for me to run!?

Geez, this is the worst~. Seriously, my life was over the very moment I picked up Rinne-kun!

Kohaku: I feel like it doesn’t even matter, but what d’ya mean by “picked up”? Was that moron over there just layin’ on the roadside somewhere, or what?

Niki: Yup. He was sitting in a cardboard box with the words “My Name Is Amagi Rinne” written on it.*

I felt bad for him, so I gave him some pet food and he ended up following me home.

Rinne: Aah? Don’tcha go around sayin’ whatever ya please. It was a lil’ more dramatic than that, yeah?

That cheeky lil’ Niki said some deeply moving stuff like I’d never heard before in my life—

Niki: Ah~, ah~... I can’t remember anything like that, that’s my dark past that I wish I could wipe from my memory.

HiMERU: — While this is certainly a matter of great interest, there’s a more important issue we should be discussing right now.

HiMERU did think this whole thing seemed fishy, and it was. Our new job which Amagi so confidently presented to us — the one about being crowd pullers for a summer festival...

Upon researching it, it turns out this job offer was not extended to us specifically at all.

Kohaku: Huh, that so? But that makes a lotta sense, I also thought it was too refreshing an’ respectable a job ta suit Crazy:B.

Rinne: Ya think so? Actually, I think we’re the right guys for the job of pullin’ crowds ♪

Kohaku: Yeah, in a bad way. As if they’d ever invite us, who committed all these misdeeds until very recently, to a summer festival that the general public will be attendin’.

The local government folks who’re actin’ as the client for this job would need to’ve had their brains fried from the summer heat fer that.

Rinne: Ain’t that ‘cause they’ve seen deep into our hearts and found ‘em to be pure and chaste? Gyahaha ♪

Niki: No pure-hearted person would cause this much trouble for their benefactor who’s done nothing but take care of them all this time.

Rinne: ….. (Raises his fist overhead with a smile)

Niki: ….. (Hides behind Kohaku’s back)

Kohaku: What’re ya doin’. Can’tcha see that HiMERU-han is speakin’ ta us with utmost effort right now? Listen ta him, will ya.

HiMERU: — Oh no, as long as Oukawa is listening that’s already enough for HiMERU. He never had any expectations whatsoever for Amagi and Shiina anyway.

Niki: ….. (Looks relieved)

Rinne: ….. (Smacks the back of Niki’s head as if to say “Don’t look so relieved”)

Niki & Rinne: ….. (Both start squabbling with each other)

HiMERU: — So as HiMERU was saying, it appears as though the job offer to be the crowd puller for that summer festival is open for anyone.

The client previously published an announcement on HoldHands to that effect…

It explained, among other things, that there would be a briefing session held today for all idols who aspire to take on this job.

After this briefing session, the producer in charge of this project will choose which idols to entrust this job to, who will then be officially appointed as the crowd pullers.

In other words, it’s an “open competition”. Oukawa, do you know what that term means?

Kohaku: Hm~, I think I get the gist of it. Reckon it means that the bigwigs from the client side are gonna examine the applyin’ idols an’ then choose who ta entrust this job to, right?

Ain’t that how it usually goes? Makin’ idols come up with a project plan from scratch an’ gather their own staff an’ L$ funds for performances is the weird approach here, if anything.

HiMERU: Indeed. Those are all a producer’s duties, and not the sort of things idols have to do — or at least, that’s how it’s supposed to be.

——————

* For anyone unfamiliar with common Japanese media tropes, finding a kitten abandoned in a cardboard box (often with its name written on it by its former owner) is a common anime and soap opera trope. The most common version of this trope involves a delinquent or someone who otherwise seems like a bad/coldhearted person finding a kitten like that in the rain and feeding it or taking it home, proving to any onlookers (and the audience) that they’re a good person at heart.