Operetta - Epilogue 2

[bakemonoremy]

Rei: “Ritsu~ ♪”

“My dear little brother, are you watching? It’s me, your Onii-chan~♪”

“Kukuku. Originally, I had planned to invite my cutie little brother here as well and have a friendly chat with him... But seeing as he is still a high schooler, I cannot allow him to neglect his studies.”

“And so, as a substitute for him, this cute plushie will make an appearance instead.”

“I wonder if we can’t start selling these as merchandise... I would buy them all up and fill my dorm room to the brim with them.”

“(Imitating Ritsu’s voice) Geez. There’s no need for you to buy plushies of me, Onii-chan…”

“If Onii-chan only wishes for it, the real me will come to his side and hug him tightly right away ♪”

“Ooh, I’m so happy to hear that. There, there, thank you Ritsu ♪”

“Onii-chan loves you the very most in the whole world too~, smooch smooch ☆”

Ritsu: That piece of shit Anijaaaaaa! What the hell is he doing, broadcasting shit like that to the whole world?!

I-, I’ve gotta--! Hire a hitman! What do I need to do to procure a professional? I’ve gotta ask Ecchan about the cost of it and stuff! 

I have to kill him, right now...!

Mao: Ahaha. Calm down, Ritsu. It’s already been broadcasted, so even if you dispatch a hitman right now it won’t change a thing.

It kind of feels like Sakuma-senpai lost all restraint…

I’m sure he’s happy because he feels like you had a real heart-to-heart with him during “Operetta”, and that’s why he’s so weirdly giddy now.

Koga: Right. But it looks like the point of the news conference was just to announce the existence of Ritch-... His little brother to the whole world again. Look, the subtitles are sayin' so too.

Arashi: Oh, but isn’t this French? You can read that, Koga-chan?

Koga: Nah. But there’s people translatin’ this stuff in real time on the net, so I’m gettin’ this info off their social media.

I figured it’d be good to know about stuff happenin’ overseas, so I recently asked Wimpy Glasses to show me some handy ways of gatherin’ intel.

Mao: Ah, I had Makoto give me advice on the same thing. In the future, he’s probably gonna be unstoppable because he’s so good with the internet ♪

Ritsu: Don’t soften up, everyone get up in arms already! We’re gonna go dispose of that idiotic Anija, got it!?

Mao: Seriously, calm down, Ritsu… You must've thought this'd happen, right? You use your brain way more than I do, after all.

Besides, didn’t you finally accept being that guy’s little brother and steeled yourself for this when you decided to do “Operetta”? 

And it’s not like he’s talking badly about you either, so just suck it up.

I don’t see any downsides to everyone knowing that you’re being this adored by the Sakuma Rei, either.

Though some people might be jealous. But now the whole world knows that to lay a hand on you means to make yourself an enemy of Sakuma Rei…

People who approach you with weird motives will eventually dwindle, and your idol activities will only get easier because you gained a lot of support.

Ritsu: I don’t wanna hear those kind of level-headed opinions right now! What I’m saying is I want my embarrassing relative to die already!

Anyone who gets that should grab a sword, and then we’ll head out kill him right now...!

Koga: Shhh… Keep it down, Ritchii~, Sakuma-senpai is sayin’ something.

Up ‘til now, it seemed like he was just makin' some jokes to soften the mood, but now he’s suddenly got a serious face on, like he’s about to humbly announce somethin’.

Ritsu: Huh? Rather than soften the mood, he ruined it. Or at least he ruined mine!

Seriously, what the hell! Geez, being born as that thing's little brother was the greatest misfortune of my life!

Arashi: Aha ♪ If you suffered a great misfortune the very moment of your birth, that means there’s only fortune waiting for you after that, right?

Ufufu. But really, seeing Sakuma-senpai like this… He looks so happy, I'm positive he's overjoyed that he gets to talk about his brother…

Aah, isn’t family such a nice thing? ♪

Ritsu: As I said, don’t try to make this out to be a good thing! 

Won’t anyone understand my feelings here? This isn’t a “happy ending” in any way whatsoever…!?

Location: Overseas Townscape

Rei: ...Hm? What is it, Kaoru-kun? I’m in the middle of a broadcast, we can talk later. You’re just going to tell me that Ritsu is bombarding my phone with a ton of calls, no?

In that case, I’ll postpone it for now. I plan to have a nice, long talk with him once I return to Japan anyway. For now, I need to focus on this--

“Everyone who is watching this on their TVs right now, please hear me out.”

“I am sorry that I kept this from you all this time. In my home country, I market myself as a vampire character such as this…”

“I never divulged much about my lineage, because there was a need to cloud myself in mystery.”

“However. As I am sure everyone is well aware, I am human.”

“Just like everyone else, I cry, I laugh, and I get angry. And when I go home at the end of a day, I eat a normal dinner and sleep in a bed.”

“I don’t roam the darkness, nor do I suck people’s blood or sleep in a coffin like a monster. So as you see, there’s no need to be frightened…”

“From here on out, I want you to befriend us brothers as your brethren.”

“We want you to love us. And we will repay you with the same amount or even more love in return. We will return the warmth we gained from you, as humans -- As Idols.”

“With song and dance, our smiles… From now on forever, we want to fraternize with all of you around the world.”

“That is all I, Sakuma Rei, hope for. It is my wish, as a fellow human.”