Hot Limit - Epilogue 1

[bakemonoremy]

CW: Domestic Violence Mention, Murder Mention

Location: Hot Limit Stage

- One week later. The abnormal heat wave still continues into the last third of September. On the day of Hot Limit, a project to beat the summer heat -



Rinne: “Gyahahaha! Thanks for coming, dipshits! Didja enjoy your summer to the fullest?!”

“Just one more week to go and then you’ll be forced to marry this pushy guy named autumn or whatever*, who snuggles up to everyone like he’s their friend!”

“But before that! Why don’t you enjoy one last party of this annoying summer with us bunch of nuisances who never do anything but aggressive, unpleasant shit?”

“Then you’ll have no regrets when it’s time to part ways!”

“Fireworks, wind chimes, watermelons, swimsuits! Let’s tightly embrace all these summery things and confirm our love for summer once more! Won’t that be fun!?”

“What’s that? You can’t find it in yourselves to love it after all? You’re sick of this never-ending humidity?”

“Like I give a shit! Save those complaints for some bigwig, like God or the banker who runs this gambling den called Earth: the sun!”

“♪ ~ ♪ ~ ♪”

Niki: Umm~...  Sorry to interrupt you when you’re in the middle of rampaging on stage right from the get-go as usual, but what exactly is this?

Weren’t we gonna be crowd pullers for some summer festival?

I mean, the crowd here does seem as hyped as if they were at one, but somehow this still seems wildly different from a normal temple festival…?

Or maybe I just don’t get it because I wasn’t really listening to any of the stuff you guys said about this?

HiMERU: — How about you listen to people when they talk from now on, okay, Shiina? This world is full of traps set by devils to ensnare people who abdictate their right to think for themselves, you know.

Kohaku: Like the fine print in contracts, fer example. Loan sharks in particular like t’employ that old trick.

HiMERU: — Indeed. So don’t just let yourself get carried by the flow, Shiina. Rather, you should record every single injustice Amagi inflicts on you in order to collect evidence of his transgressions.

It’ll serve you well in assembling a criminal case and may become the deciding factor in court once you sue him.

Niki: No, I don’t plan to sue him though…

Kohaku: But why wouldn’t ya? Love? Is it ‘cause of love?

HiMERU: (whispering) Shh, he’s only saying that because Amagi might kill him if he finds out that he’s suing him.

Kohaku: (whispering) Ooh, now I get it. Ya often hear that happenin’ ta victims of domestic violence.

Rinne: What irritatin’ shit are you whisperin’ about behind my back here?

How’s about you guys get in gear and do your jobs already? At this rate Anzu-chan’s never gonna get us another job again, y’know?

Niki: “Anzu-chan”… So this is another project Anzu Nee-san produced?

Rinne: You got it. She’s really got the skills — This event was put together on the fly by her.

Despite that, it turned out great. She prepared outfits, songs, and staff, and now the event looks so well put together that you’d think it’s been in the works for way longer.

I’ll leave the judgment of her work’s quality to the experts, but I can at least say that her speed’s at the top of the industry.

Apparently, performances back at Yumenosaki were often prepared at top speeds within even less than a week, so Anzu-chan’s probably used to it.

We can make use of that “speed”. ‘Course, ya can’t resolve anything and everything in the industry with speed alone, it ain’t that easy, but as long as you’ve got even a single weapon, you can fight.

Gyahaha. Very well, for the time bein’ I’ll acknowledge that you’re a worthy producer, Anzu-chan ♪

Niki: Why’re you talking down to her.

Rinne: Heh. It ain’t about who’s at the top and who’s on the bottom; we’re equal work partners here.

And that’s exactly why it was possible for us to negotiate together, instead of one side only givin’ or receivin’ orders from the other.

Kohaku: Yeah. Niki-han, ya probably don’t know this ‘cause ya had to leave halfway into the briefing session and weren’t even listenin’ fer the part ya actually attended in the first place.

But in the end, we were deemed unfit for that local government’s strait-laced job after all — the crowd pulling fer that summer festival, that is.

HiMERU: Yes. HiMERU already alluded to the reason for this back when the discussion of this job began, so he won’t get into it again.

Niki: Ahh~... Back when you were all talking and you said something about us being the messiahs of evil or whatever, right? My memory of that whole thing was basically wiped from my brain getting all shaken when I was put into a headlock, though.

Rinne: Oh~? So you’re gonna blame your crappy memory on us now, Mr. Middle School Graduate?

Niki: I’m not hearing this from a guy whose academic background is “none”. And anyway, it’s not even about my memory, I just had no interest in the stuff you were saying.

But I see how it is~... I bet HiMERU-kun and Kohaku-chan did their best to ask Nee-san for that job and all, but she didn’t entrust us with it in the end.

Kohaku: Actually, she got pretty close to handin’ us the job for a moment there. Rinne-han started usin’ all kinds of dirty tricks like coercion to get his way, y’see. Even someone like Anzu-han would buckle under that kinda pressure.

But Anzu-han’s mighty impressive. She stayed surprisingly strong in the face of adversity.

She evaluated the qualities an’ circumstances of each of the units that attended the briefing session…

And ultimately decided that entrustin’ that crowdpullin’ job to the Ryuseitai rookies after all would be the best course of action.

———————-

* The “aki” in the name Chiaki is the kanji for “autumn”