Night Club - A Job For Children 2

[bakemonoremy]

Location: Time Street (Afternoon)

HiMERU: Hmm, what a childish way of spending your money… Although it's not rare to see this in young people who made a killing by being resourceful in one specific area, despite lacking overall experience in adult society.

Or rather, it’s something you often see in show business. It’s in the distant past now, but there once were celebrities who'd play around by folding up 10 000 yen bills into paper airplanes and letting them fly.

Whoever’s paper airplane would fly the furthest would receive all the other paper airplanes, or in other words, those other 10 000 yen bills — And they'd use real money for this game.

It seems to HiMERU that if you have enough money for that kind of thing, there are far better games you could be playing with it.

Yuuta: Woah, are you talking about the bubble economy? It’s a fairytale to our generation at this point...

HiMERU: Just as it is for HiMERU. HiMERU may not know just how you see him, but at least on paper, there isn’t that much of an age difference between the two of us, you see.

Each and every one of us is standing on ground that’s made of the days gone by. With that in mind, would it not be neglectful to think of the past as a mere story from a distant parallel universe, and to remain ignorant of it?

Yuuta: ………

HiMERU: ? Whatever is the matter, Yuuta? Did HiMERU say something questionable?

Yuuta: Oh no, not at all, I’m sorry. I was just thinking what a surprise it is that you're way more serious and reasonable than I expected, HiMERU-san…

I guess it’s thanks to Amagi Rinne leaving the strongest impression among Crazy:B that I kinda ended up thinking that all of you were like that.

But unlike “us”, the members that make up other units aren’t all the “same”.

HiMERU: Being lumped in together with that man is an extremely regretful thing.

Although that’s probably inevitable. This unit system which originated from Yumenosaki certainly makes its presence felt within ES — No, within the entire current idol industry.

We live in a time where the very boxes people have been crammed into are observed and cherished, rather than the individuals themselves.

Yuuta: Ahaha. Well, it’s not like we’re absolutely forced to associate ourselves with a unit. There are exceptions out there, like Mikejima-senpai.

HiMERU: Fufu. The path we're recommended to walk upon is one paved for the vast majority's convenience. Straying from it will only result in our progress being hindered, to the point of it being unfeasible to carry on.

That’s why no one chooses another path; it’s because no one can. Now tell me, how is that any different from “being forced”?

— It appears that you’re a left-hander. In that case, there must’ve been times when you met with hardship because you had to conform to “what’s convenient for everyone else”.

Yuuta: Yeah~, like at the train ticket gates*, or when using scissors. But we’re pretty dexterous, so it’s no biggie. And we’re quick to adapt, too.

Also, if we were to change the world to match what’s convenient for us, the hardships which the two of us face would be forced upon way more people.

HiMERU: — And what would be wrong with that?

Yuuta: ...Pardon?

HiMERU: We’re all living our own lives, so why must we endure hardship for the sake of others?

Even though it wouldn't even occur to the majority faction and the public at large to make a single sacrifice for our comfort?

Why do only people like HiMERU** have to put up with all this?

Yuuta: Ummm...?

HiMERU: — Fufu. How unlike HiMERU to say something so childish. Right, yes, HiMERU gets it already.

Society distributes all burdens equally — and everyone lives while enduring hardship and accommodating others every step along the way, right?

If it appears as though the majority faction conspired to construct a system that imposes an absurdly heavy burden on the minority… Then surely, that’s nothing but HiMERU’s imagination playing a trick on him.

To voice any complaint at all would be unreasonable, selfish, and inconceivable… Right?

Opposing it would just draw the ire of others, causing your burdens to increase even further. Which is exactly why “the two of you” act so unconcerned, as if everything is fine…

You pretend to be goody-two-shoes in order to avoid attracting attention and getting slaughtered, don’t you?

Yuuta: ………

HiMERU: HiMERU admires how very skilled you are at staying alive, 2wink.

Yuuta: ...It kind of feels like you’re picking a fight, you know. Don’t you have a policy not to attack units from the same agency as yourself, Crazy:B?

HiMERU: We do. Of course, HiMERU doesn’t intend to attack you. Please excuse HiMERU for losing his temper just a little — 

Aah, “HiMERU” is the same as you… Why does everyone play the part of the obedient children that adults want them to be?

“The majority faction is in the right, and if you find yourself unable to conform to it, then you’re in the wrong…”

“And being wrong means that you'll have to “correct” yourself…” Why does everyone believe this?

When there had been someone who loved everything about them, as well as their very way of life which had been considered "wrong", only for them to ignore and trample that voice into the ground — 

Why would they choose a way of life that’s been deemed correct by society?

If that’s what it means to become an adult, and if you can’t survive otherwise…

Then it follows that the only place where you can actually live in happiness as a child is the afterlife.

And that would mean that Heaven exists only for children and bad people… Although that sounds like something Kazehaya Tatsumi would say.

Yuuta: ……?

——————

* Ticket gates in Japan use an electronic system where you hold your ticket up to a reader and it unlocks the gate. Of course, these readers are located on the right-hand side of the gate.

** HiMERU uses a plural here (HiMERUたち) that means “HiMERU and (at least one more person)”, but doesn’t specify how many people or who exactly is included. It’s possible that he’s referring to himself and the “real HiMERU”, or himself and Yuuta, or himself and any other group of people here. Since the text is very ambiguous in this, I chose to go with “people like HiMERU”.