Chapter 3

Munch munch~

Sorry about all this, Anzu. You even bought me some food.

I’ve been running around looking for everyone in Ra*bits for a while now, so I’m starved. Thanks a bunch.

Hm? I shouldn’t worry about it? Since the money’s coming straight out of Daddy Gatekeeper’s wallet?

What’s that, some Daddy-Long-Legs reference? Don’t call me that.¹

But it’s fine; I gave ya that credit card for food or clothes or whatever so ya can live all comfortable here.

Well, I didn’t seriously expect ya to go ahead and max the card, though.

Oh, I did think you were dressed pretty stylishly, Anzu-chin. You don’t see that every day.

I was worried Gatekeeper was using you as his dress-up doll or something.

But it looks like it was some good old-fashioned retail therapy to relieve your stress.

Hmph. If ya think ya can strike a blow with that one, I hate to disappoint ya but that card’s only got money I allotted to ya.

It’s just some spare change to me. You’d do well not to let your pent-up stress get to ya, Anzu. Don’t wantcha tryin’ to act out by blowin’ it all at once.

Looks like you’re enjoying life, Anzu. Relatively speaking, that is. …Well no, I’m sure when some weird old guy you don’t know puts you under house arrest, there’s no “enjoying” anything.

Hmph. I’m still takin’ plenty care of ‘er, ‘kay? Well, I never looked after a brat before, so I don’t know how to manage them.

The Boss and his Apostle did pretty well, actually.

Boss? Apostle…?

Fuhgeddaboudit. This isn’t the time to be sittin’ around at a fun little tea party.

I wantcha to listen to me, Nito Nazuna. …What’s Tenshouin thinkin’?

Huh? Tenshouin?

I don’t even wanna think about what might be going on in that guy’s head.

He’s probably hatching some nauseating scheme or something. That’s what he spends all his time doing, anyway. He’s a demon dressed up in a halo.

Pretty scathin’ review ya got for ‘im… Well, I don’t doubt it. I got no sympathy for the likes of him.

Looks like you’re fulla opinions ‘bout Tenshouin. But if ya look at ‘im with that much bias, not an ounce of info I get outta ya will be worth shit.

You’re not gonna get no standin’ ovation if ya go preachin’ a doctrine you barely know to a guy who don’t know your god. Nah, it’s just a worthless, borin’ delusion.

And besides, you look like you don’t know the halfa it—Nito.

What was the point in Tenshouin sendin’ some half-wit over here, anyway?

? Just what are you talking about? What’s with all the metaphors—I can’t follow you at all!

My bad. I’ve been livin’ overseas for a while, and I wasn’t usin’ Japanese none too much. I guess I’ve gotten a bit rusty.

Anyhow. If I wanna share my worries with ya, I’ll hafta take it from the top, huh.

SS is the biggest festival in the whole idol industry, right? But deze Qualifyin’ Rounds here in Kanto aren’t very excitin’ at all.

Well, yeah. …And as an idol who was placed here, I do feel bad about that.

‘S not like youse Ra*bits aren’t puttin’ in the work on your end, though. The bone I got to pick is with fine and all doze other guys.

To tell the truth, it was planned that the Kanto region wouldn’t bring all that much to the table in the first place.

This is ES’s home turf—our hometown, if ya wanna get sentimental.

It’d go against the point of SS—to get idols runnin’ riot all across the country.

No matter what idols do over here, it’s still the same shit over and over again.

Most of the idols from ES’ve been sent off to other regions, right along with their fans.

And those local fans who’d usually fork out an arm and a leg for travel expenses to come to ES can just head on over to the venues in their area.

Plus all doze more enthusiastic fans livin’ in Kanto… This time around, they can take a nice vacation while chasin’ after their favorite idols and sightseein’ in the countryside.

ES even set some money aside for this, and they’re coverin’ some of the travel and lodgin’ expenses.

The fans are overjoyed—They get to travel the country and see their favorite idols perform.

Wait, so where’s that money coming from…?

The government. And what they won’t shell out comes outta the ES budget, and from me and Tenshouin’s piggy banks. This year’s SS has got a lot more money flowin’ into it than usual—

And with the government backin’ us, it’s turned into a nation-wide venture.

We got the whole country workin’ for us, so if the poor little feelings of individual peons are overlooked—Well, that’s just too bad.

When did that even happen? Isn’t our country supposed to be a democracy?

There’s a difference between democracy and populism. But—Never mind allat, I’m not interested in gettin’ political with ya.

The big thing is that SS this year was designed so Kanto don’t got much goin’ on.

We scattered the idols across the country, and they took their energy and shine with ‘em—

And as a result, the Kanto region where ES is turned into a void.

Well, usually it’s just Kanto—or really, just the area around ES that gets any activity, so it’s a nice change of pace, right?

Sure thing. ‘S no good to have everythin’ so concentrated, so this’s what Tenshouin and me decided on.

So we planned for the Kanto region Qualifyin’ Rounds to be less excitin’ from the very beginning—And the Administration didn’t bother with it.

It don’t matter if it’s not some roarin’ success, so long as there’s no problems.

Kanto’s become the place without any expectations.