Hot Limit - Late Summer Insects 4

[bakemonoremy]

Location: Meeting Room

- A few minutes later, in the Meeting Room located within ES. Midway into the briefing session -

Rinne: Gyahahaha! Tremble in fear! Run for the exits! The bees are loose…!

Kohaku: Oi, when ya enter a room, ya gotta say “excuse me”, right?

Keep yer lack of manners to a reasonable minimum, will ya? Look, ya scared the other idols in the room so bad they can’t even stand.

HiMERU: — Hmm. HiMERU almost wants to wager that Amagi’s impoliteness was purposely overacted to an extent that it comes off as a performance in itself.

— Mm? What are you doing, Shiina? You’re coming in with us.

Niki: Ah, please wait just a second. I’m texting the store manager from Cinnamon to say that I’m gonna be late to work after all—

Wawawah, don’t pull me!

Kohaku: Fufu. Please excuse the fuss, Anzu-han ♪

Rinne: Whassup, o’ reliable producer sis! Anzu-chan! Just as promised, I came back with my buddies in tow ♪

‘Cause I’m the serious type, always as good as my word! Gyahahahaha ♪

Kohaku: Huh? Did ya already attend this briefing session on yer own earlier?

Rinne: Sure did. Your courageous and admirable Rinne-kun’s been conscientiously makin’ appearances in all kinds of conferences and the like, huntin’ for a project that’ll open the door to our future!

Kohaku: Hmmm. An’ here I thought you were just gamblin’ yer time away at pachinko parlors. Gotta say, I’m seein’ ya in a slightly better light, Rinne-han.

Rinne: Gyahaha. When there’s no money for playin’ around, ya gotta do shit seriously for once, right?

At this rate we won’t be able to afford air conditioning, or worse, we’ll get kicked out of the dorms and be left in the summer heat to sun-dry, y’know!

Kohaku: Are we really as destitute as ya say? I can’t really imagine money bein’ that tight fer us.

We’ve recently gained the backing of our agency, too — ‘cause we did that joint live with 2wink, an’ I contributed to ES as Double Face.

Rinne: Well, we’ve got the money to keep ourselves fed at least, but that’s nowhere close to the kinda ideal lifestyle we’re aimin’ for, right?

Kohaku: What on earth is this “ideal lifestyle” ya speak of? Ain’t that just something ya decided all on yer own?

HiMERU: (— Hmm. Seeing as the others are behaving outrageously as though there was no one else around, it seems like HiMERU needs to be the one to calmly assess the situation.)

(Shiina aside, at least Amagi and Oukawa must be having their own thoughts on the matter.)

(But their ways of thinking are quite flighty, so it’s up to HiMERU to keep his feet on the ground.)

(If we’re just buzzing around aimlessly, the moment our luck runs out we’ll be crashing into a huge tree and be completely annihilated.)

(An organization made up of nothing but eccentric geniuses can’t maintain itself indefinitely in reality.)

(In any case, it appears that all the units assembled at this briefing session are inconspicuous mid-rank or lower idols here at ES.)

(In terms of agencies, most of them seem to be affiliated with StarPro or NewDi.)

(CosPro, which generally has a spirit of self-reliance, and the long-standing RhythLink, which is full of obstinate old geezers, don’t seem to actively try to get involved with the Producer Association and Anzu-san much.)

(The trend here seems to be “ordinary idols” — or, to use a less generous expression, “supporting actors” who haven’t graduated from Yumenosaki, and are therefore not the current focus of ES.)

(Hmm, how very interesting.)

(The way ES is now, only the fairly unique Yumenosaki idols play the leading roles, so “normal idols” haven’t really been in the spotlight.)

(But there must surely be those among them who look enviously upon the shining Yumenosaki stars in the sky, unable to stand out themselves no matter their efforts…)

(Perhaps their negative emotions are going to become nourishment for us, Crazy:B.)

(By making use of them and collecting them like honey for nutrition, you’re going to try and finally reach those shining stars this time — Amagi?)

Niki: (Ohh, HiMERU-kun looks so serious, like he’s lost in thought.)

(But I really don’t think that Rinne-kun thought any of this through all that deeply~, he’s the kinda guy who does things by feeling alone~.)

(Then he just makes up some reasoning for it after the fact to make it all seem consistent~.)

(Rinne-kun’s always been like that. He’s nothing but a fast-talker who’s only good at making excuses.)

(...He’s probably always desperately thinking of ways to declare that whatever he’s doing is correct, because he doesn’t want to be “denied”.)

(But I think that everyone here in Crazy:B won’t ever deny him, even if he doesn’t line up excuse after excuse like that.)

(Of course, we’ll criticize him for his conduct, but his way of life—)

(At the very least, that’s not something I’ll ever completely deny and discard.)

(If I was just gonna throw him away, I wouldn’t have picked him up in the first place. I wish these feelings of mine would finally sink in for him already.)