Chapter 1

(……)

(A new year’s arrived—I’m a third year now. I have one year left in my high school career. At this rate, it’ll probably end up just slipping by me…)

(And I’ll spend my days until graduation in a daze.)

(Starting with Valkyrie’s defeat, fine finally showed their true colors…)

(They captured the other units—One by one, like a line of dominos they fell.)

(As if they were fruit ripe for the picking. They found the optimal timing, and then used every ounce of Machiavellian finesse they had up their sleeves, crushing anyone who stood in their way…)

(And just like that, fine became the champion unit at Yumenosaki.)

(I don’t know how much of this was calculated. But I can’t help but feel like this was a strategy they prepared before it all went down.)

(fine did everything in their power to climb to the top of Yumenosaki.)

(I keep thinking—Are they stupid? There’s no way they can be this serious about it.)

(It may be called a battle between units, but it’s just a bunch of high schoolers fighting among themselves, right?)

(It was supposed to just be a fight between kids, all under the protection of their parents and other adults.)

(fine was different. It was like they were actually fighting to kill. They were the only ones prepared to go to war.)

(But we weren’t. And so we were kicked around, trampled on, suppressed completely.)

(As if by pre-established harmony, fine got the whole school in their hands.)¹

(I guess… this was all probably the outcome fine was expecting.)

(They drenched themselves in blood in their fight to revolutionize Yumenosaki.)

(And now… fine’s created a rock-solid empire, controlled by the student council.)

(I’m sure if they hadn’t gone as far as they did, nothing would have changed. This school’s been rotting for so long.)

(It was just a bunch of unmotivated, wannabe idols wasting their time doing whatever they wanted.)

(But when fine declared war on the whole school and went on an all-out rampage, those sleepwalkers actually sensed the danger and woke up.)

(They came together and started to take their work seriously.)

(The Dream Fes system used to grade idols was created during the war…)

(The unit system too—and a bunch of other rules were established for their goals.)

(They brought order to the lawless Yumenosaki Academy.)

(This school, overrun with barbaric imitation idols, became a modern society with strict governance.)

(Anyone who couldn’t conform was culled. Anyone who was lazy, anyone who just wanted to indulge in easy pleasures—They were all forced out of the school.)

(The culture of the school has become healthier, more serious—Are you happy now, student council? fine…?)

(Not everyone can live up to those ideals, though. Obviously this is better than the unrestrained, rotting Yumenosaki of before.)

(But people can’t change so easily. They may bend their knee to the student council and act like their slaves, but that doesn’t mean they’ll put in any actual effort…)

(There’s probably lots of people who haven’t gotten serious about things yet.)

(By tying them down with rules, murdering their individuality…)

(Everyone gets squeezed into a mold. They’re just mass-producing the same kind of idols. But that’s the whole point of an idol training school, I guess.)

(It doesn’t really even feel like anything has changed on a fundamental level.)

(I’m just making excuses for myself…)

(Sitting back and nitpicking the people I can’t stand just because they beat us. It’s unproductive I know, but what else can I do?)

(Ever since that disastrous live…)

(Ever since his defeat during the showdown with fine, Oshi-san hasn’t been able to get back on his feet. His mental health plummeted—Almost every part of him shattered.)

(That live was awful, sure, but afterwards it looked like he was having a conversation with fine’s ringleader.)

(And that guy said something then that seemed to completely destroy his mind—)

(“Thank you, for dancing upon my strings.”)

(It’s like something a demon would say. It’s the worst kind of irony for a self-proclaimed puppeteer like Oshi-san.)

(It would have been better for him if he’d been the type to just shake it off.)

(But Oshi-san’s sensitive, an artist. He got so sick and angry he holed himself up.)

(He fell apart, started talking to his dolls and doing other strange things…)

(Mika-chin and I were left to take care of him. I guess Valkyrie’s done for.)

(I could try to join another unit… No, I could never do that. I’m too broken in at this point.)

(I’ve already been optimized for Valkyrie’s style—I’d never be able to adapt to another unit…)

(At this rate, I’ll just end up gathering dust in the corner of a storage room.)

(Stuck in that place, right up until I graduate.)

(……)