Hot Limit - Epilogue 3

[bakemonoremy]

Location: Hot Limit Stage

- Nearly an hour later -

HiMERU: “♪ ~ ♪ ~ ♪”

(Now then. The theme of Anzu-san’s newly created project, Hot Limit, is “beating the summer heat”.)

(Meeting up with friends you get along with and making merry with them in the middle of the persistently lingering late summer heat—)

(A stupid, or rather, frivolous project to make people forget about the hotness of the summer and go wild.)

(Chicken nuggets from a fast food store… Fufufu ♪ Well, isn’t that just perfectly fitting for us Crazy:B?)

(Anyway. Amagi didn’t hog this project just for us. He pushed for us to play the leading part, to be the focus of the project, but—)

(After quickly putting together a designated “Specialized Music Ward” on the event grounds, they also gathered a number of professional and amateur musicians here.)

(The majority of them are outcasts we established a connection with at Beehive, or rather, they’re medium-rank and lower level idols who have yet to hit it big.)

(By paying either a small performance fee of either L$ or regular yen, they gained the right to perform on this stage.)

(The people from Beehive in particular haven’t gotten involved with the ES mainstream, and the ones who did are ranked among the lowest there, but — )

(By performing here at Hot Limit, they can merge with that mainstream.)

(That’s because performing here will give them the track record of having worked together with Anzu-san, who's producing the main event, and will establish a connection with her.)

(With that track record as their support, the people from the Specialized Music Ward and Beehive will rise in influence at ES.)

(Track records and precedents serve as extraordinarily effective weapons in adult society, after all.)

(Needless to say, the people from Beehive and such will now feel that they owe us Crazy:B a debt of gratitude for having awarded them such a weapon.)

(If this project becomes a success, the people from the Specialized Music Ward will benefit from it as well, so they’ll surely welcome our existence.)

(Such kindness, admiration, and affirmation are exceedingly hard to come by for people who are as universally despised as we are.)

(Rather than only monopolizing the benefits for ourselves, we involved others, and in doing so, dramatically increased the benefits as a whole—)

(And the more we liven up Hot Limit, the more our benefits will skyrocket further.)

(In pachinko terms you might say we hit the jackpot* — It’s a much more profitable development for us than merely getting the summer festival crowd pulling job would’ve been.)

(Fufu. What a worthless “great detective” I am*2, time and time again only realizing, “oh, so that’s how it was” while reexamining everything in hindsight.)

(Looking at the big picture, while you’re feigning that you’re just aimlessly flying all over the place — you’re actually aiming your stinger exactly where it counts.)

(But now that I’ve*2 more or less grasped your method, I believe I’ll be able to cooperate with you more deliberately next time around, Amagi.)

(It’s not HiMERU’s style to endlessly rely on the protection of adults and be hand-fed by them.)

“♪ ~ ♪ ~ ♪”

Kohaku: “~......♪”

(Fufu. Seems like HiMERU-han reached the same conclusion I did. We get manipulated by Rinne-han every single time, ‘cause his explanations are always lackin’…)

(But that’s ‘cause he wants us ta think fer ourselves, right?)

(I get it — an’ thanks to you, I feel like I’ve gotten a lot smarter compared to how I was back when I had just escaped my zashikirou*3.)

(I can see the big picture. I can fly around as much as I want, in this wide world.)

(Rinne-han of all people would never deny me this.)

(He acts needlessly arrogant an’ dictatorial, but that’s just on the surface — deep down, he always respects our opinions.)

(That must've also been why he got outta the room for a sec durin' that briefing session an' left things ta me an' HiMERU-han.)

(He could’ve just advanced things on his own, but he went outta his way ta get us from the café where we were just grumblin’ over our cups.)

(So that’s what he did all that for.)

(If he’d been there, he woulda been the only one talkin’. So instead, he went an’ gave us a chance t’assert ourselves ta Anzu-han.)

(An’ based on our opinions we shared back then, Anzu-han settled on an outline fer Hot Limit.)

(In the smack middle of the Specialized Music Ward that’s bustlin’ with people, I’m flyin’ around an’ enjoyin’ myself more than anyone — an’ you were the one who granted me this brightly shinin’ “public identity”*4)

(I’m grateful fer that. Thanks to you, I can see the Sun better than ever.)

(Anzu-han an’ Rinne-han both will never deny us what we wanna do.)

(This also goes fer the other folks who’re performin’ here — the local musicians in the Specialized Music Ward, an’ the idol wannabes who made the Beehive their hangout spot.)

(They’re goin’ whole hog doin’ what they wanna do.)

(Without bein’ forced inta the “correct” ES style against their will, that is.)

(An’ I dunno if it’s ‘cause they’re attracted to the freedom in this place or what, but the no-name newcomers from the briefing session also came ta participate in Hot Limit.)

(They probably heard what we were plannin’ an’ reckoned it seemed mighty interesting.)

(Even the fellas from Ryuseitai who ended up gettin’ the crowd pullin’ job, who seemed so stiff an’ unsociable during the briefing session — they’re flyin’ about freely here now.)

(Fellas, didn’t ya challenge us to a duel before ‘cause we ruffled yer feathers so much?)

(Didja come here ta stake out the enemy, but once ya mingled with the crowd ya ended up havin’ a good ol’ time after all?)

(Yer so young… Still, this is fine. Kids — youngsters like you fellas should just get caught up in the mood of the place an’ frolic as ya like.)

(We Oukawas exist ta protect the peaceful, ordinary days of carefree folks like you.)

(Well, while the Sun’s still high up in the sky like this I’m the same as you fellas, just a singular bug frolicking merrily.)

(I’m gonna have my fun flyin’ all over this open stage as part of Crazy:B! An’ I won’t let anyone complain about it!)

“♪ ~ ♪ ~ ♪”

———————

* I localized this to simply “jackpot”, but for those who care, HiMERU refers to “kakuhen” here, which is a pachinko payout system in which additional jackpots multiply rapidly after the first jackpot has been hit. Rinne also referred to kakuhen in the first chapter of Honey Bee.

*2 It’s worth noting that HiMERU phrased these sentences entirely without using a pronoun (which he often does), so he didn’t drop “HiMERU” or “ore” in any of this, and it’s impossible to tell which he refers to. Personally, these struck me as very personal insights, so I opted for “I”.

*3 Mentioned before in A Dark Night’s Passing: A zashikirou is a room from the Edo-period, built for the solitary confinement of criminals and lunatics.

*4 Picking up on a theme that’s used excessively in A Dark Night’s Passing, Kohaku refers this this side of his as his 表の顔 (lit. surface face, ie. face he shows in public) as opposed to 裏 (undersurface, opposite side) which he often uses in relation to his unsavoury activities in Double Face.