Wonder Game - infinite 10

[bakemonoremy]

Location: Soundproof Lesson Room

Tsumugi: (...? For some reason, Natsume-kun is staring intently at me... Yoo-hoo~♪ Thanks for the encouraging words, I’ll do my very best!)

Natsume: (What is he waving at me all giddily fOR? He’s such an incomprehensible gUY, and always has beEN.)

(The exact opposite of mE, I thought he never hAD, or was able to gaIN, a single thiNG… His life was supposedly so miserable all this tiME, so how can Senpai smile like this nOW?)

(...When I don’t have anything to dO, I can’t stop my mind from wandering like thIS.)

Tsumugi: Hey, Natsume-kun, Natsume-kun!

Natsume: ...WhAT. I told you not to speak to mE. Get back to woRK, glassES. Don’t you know that glasses are only permitted to be worn by diligent peopLE?

Tsumugi: Who cares about my glasses! Listen to this instead! I somewhat had my suspicions, you know!

But then I went ahead and asked just to make sure, and I couldn’t believe it!

The kids who are “Alice” today seemed oddly obedient, and for some reason seemed to want to get along with me from the very beginning~... And I thought that was so strange!

Because, you know, when I first meet someone it’s normal for them to look down on me and make fun of me! So for them to take to me like that is really out of the ordinary for me, or rather, miraculous?*

Natsume: What on earth are you talking aboUT? Get your thoughts in order before you speAK, SenpAI. 

Tsumugi: I’m sorry! I got a little excited! Umm, so, apparently a lot of the participants in this “Wonder Game” are former acquaintances of mine!

Not just acquaintances, in fact they’re former students of the same idol training school that you also attended for a short while back in the day, Natsume-kun!

They all continued being idols~, it’s somehow really touching ♪

Natsume: ...AaH, the one from my dark paST. You’re talking about that school your no-good mother failed to manaGE, until it finally went bankruPT. That small-scaLE, privately managed coaching schoOL.

(Now that I think about iT, after that school went undER, all of its students who no longer had a place to train at were split up and sent to other various schools through Mommy’s connectioNS.)

(If they were so inclinED, nothing was stopping them from continuing to pursue careers as idoLS.)

(After aLL, they must have started going to that shady school to begin with because becoming an idol was their dreAM.)

(I never ran into anyone from that school agaIN, besides SenpAI, so the thought of re-encountering those kids never even crossed my miND…)

(WeLL, until recently Yumenosaki Academy was pretty much like a closed countRY**, so if they all went on to other training schooLS, it’s no wonder I never came into contact with any of thEM.)

Tsumugi: Yes! Since my parents managed that school, I was made to help out too. Because of that, I know all the students by sight!

To think we’d reunite after all this time~!

It’s an amazing coincidence! No, it must be a miracle...♪

Natsume: (Yeah, nO, there’s no way this is a coincidenCE. Miracles are called that because they happen seldomLY, but speaking from a point of probabiliTY, this is completely impossibLE.)

(But if this was all set up by someoNE, what were their intentioNS?)

(It’s no goOD. The gears in my head just won’t turn right nOW. Since when was I such an idiOT…? This is all Senpai’s fauLT, I must have gotten infected by his stupidiTY.)

Tsumugi: Fufu. They all still idolize me and call me “Tsumugi-niisan”, just like back then.

Come over to us, Natsume-kun! Maybe some of them still remember "Natsume-chan", the legendary pretty girl idol!?

Natsume: If there’s any living human around who still remembers thAT, I will burn off every single one of their cranial nerves one by oNE.

Tsumugi: D-don’t say such scary stuff, please! The cameras are still rolling~!

Natsume: That’s my liNE. Stop getting sidetracked and start getting serious about your responsibilities alreaDY, SenpAI.

Tsumugi: Fiiiine. Still, this concerns you too, so... I felt like I had to tell you, Natsume-kun. And I always find myself wanting to share these kinds of deeply moving moments with others ♪

Natsume: ...All you share are joyful and exciting moments like this oNE, SenpAI. And the sad and heavy things you keep to yourseLF, refusing to share the burdEN.

Tsumugi: Huh? Did you say something, Natsume-kun?

Natsume: NoPE. I guess if I stick around and watch you’ll just keep getting distractED, and I don’t want to get involved with anyone who might remember me from back then eithER…

I’m gonna head out and find some other job I can help wiTH.

Sora seems to be somewhere elSE, so I’ll go join hIM.

AnnoyingLY, and for some incomprehensible reasON, it seems Sora took a liking to that former fine, Ran NagiSA, and follows him around all over the place nOW.. 

Tsumugi: Ahaha. Rather than taking a liking, Sora-kun seems to have developed a strange fixation on Nagisa-kun.

I thought they just got along well as fellow weirdos, but it’s somewhat rare for Sora-kun to react like that to anyone.

Natsume: YeAH. I’m concerned about that paRT, which is another reason why I want to check on how Sora is doiNG. ...Don’t slack off on your job just because I’m no longer watchiNG, got it, SenpAI?

Tsumugi: How rude! I am always giving everything I have! It’s my only redeeming quality, and if I don’t work hard I can’t accomplish a single thing, after all!

Natsume: …………

Tsumugi: (H-huh? Usually when I say self-deprecating things like that, Natsume-kun scolds me… He didn’t react at all, even though there’s no way he didn’t hear me.)

(What could possibly be the matter? Ever since “Wonder Game” began… No, shortly before that even, he has been acting strange…?)

(...It’s weighing on my mind. I’m in the middle of work, but I’ll come up with some excuse and slip away for a moment.)

(And if there’s something troubling Natsume-kun, I want to resolve it… Or at the very least, I want to worry about it together with him.)

(Never again. Never again do I want to think of myself as a background character that has no right involving himself in other people’s lives… And restrain myself while I lose the things that are important to me.)

(This time, for sure. I will ____ the bluebird of happiness--)***

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* Tsumugi keeps using the word “不思議” which means curious/strange/amazing/wonderful depending on how it’s used, and it’s also in the Japanese title of Alice in Wonderland (as the word for “Wonder”).

** Natsume is referring specifically to the Sakoku (isolationist foreign policy) in Japan during the Tokugawa shogunate. 

*** Because of how Japanese sentence structure works, Tsumugi leaves this sentence unfinished without adding a verb at the end of it. Notably, he finishes on an “o”, which makes “I will become the bluebird of happiness” unlikely, since it would normally be phrased with “ni”, not “o”.