Chapter 4

No! Absolutely not! Oogami-senpai, please make an actual effort to get into the mind of a bunny!

Wiggle your body all cutesy, and hop~ hop~ hop~! See? It’s easy ♪

Hop, hop, hop—Gh, the fuck am I doiiiiiiiing?! I’m a wolf, not a dumbass rabbit!

Throw away your shame, Oogami Koga! Sakuma-senpai says so too, okay?!

……

Sakuma-senpai ain’t even lookin’ at me though?! Don’t just say whatever the hell you want, Yuuta!

Well, I just realized that if I told you Sakuma-senpai said something, you’d listen to whatever I said! And then I started having fun and just rolled with it… ♪

You bastard?!

Hm. Quit playing around and take this seriously, Oogami. And Yuuta, don’t keep trying to rile him up.

We’re trying to take parts of the performances other units do and show the world an entirely new UNDEAD and 2wink.

With us each lacking one of our members, it feels like something’s missing when we try to perform as our usual selves.

Which is why we’re creating a new image for these videos.

That is the plan we decided on.

Duh. If we just straight-up copy those units, we’re gonna get into trouble with copyrights, so we said we were just snatchin’ up some bits n’ pieces.

Yep yep. That’s why we’re acting like bunnies in order to adopt some elements Ra*bits uses.

Tch… I’m sure it’s easy for 2wink to act like Ra*bits since you’re both so innocent-lookin’. But they’re polar opposites from us.

We work together often, though, perhaps because we’re in the same agency. Besides, this is the only way to keep things fresh.

Yeah, well… We ain’t done it much these days, but both UNDEAD and 2wink’ve collabed with plenty of other units before.

Makes it easy to pull stuff outta their performances when you’ve worked with them and watched them up close.

Yeah. But we haven’t done much of that because whenever we try to do something out of the ordinary, you violently oppose us.

Huh? You gotta problem with that? You don’t think it’s important to maintain our own style?

No, I do. However, if we keep going as we have up until now, we will only be able to earn our name as a rock band through events such as Nightless City Live.

If we want to go beyond that, we need to be more flexible and diverse. We can adopt some new elements to our style without losing our essence—

I can’t express it well. But I think we need to discover a new version of UNDEAD through that.

Well I get what you’re tryna say. These days all you see is job offerings lookin’ for guys who can do anything and everything.

It sounds good to say the range of jobs’re expandin’ n’ all.

But now they’re just wantin’ people who can do tons of things and givin’ the bird to one-trick ponies like Valkyrie.

It’s work. Rather than extravagant, luxurious meals that can only be eaten on special occasions, people want junk food that can be eaten on a day-to-day basis.

This is what happens when you’re driven by profit. It’s costly and labor-intensive to hand-pick the most suitable idol for every job that comes along.

So it becomes quicker and cheaper to procure a multi-talented idol without having to think twice about it. I suppose that’s why they do it.

Gh, if ya don’t value time n’ effort, the world’s gonna turn into a cesspool of boring dumbasses.

And if you don’t minimize the time and effort needed to produce product after product, you won’t be able to meet the demands of society. What I’m trying to say is that we exist within a world of severe mass consumption.

And furthermore. In today’s society, idols are a business, not an art. We are made as cheaply as possible, then sold at the highest price possible.

That is what is considered right.

I can’t stand that! I can’t stand it… Sure, maybe that kinda method’s more profitable but.

If you don’t like it, then let’s change it—with our own hands.

If it becomes so that careful and soulful worksmanship of each piece of work is considered the right method—

Then the flow of things will surely change. But in order to change that flow, we need to win first.

And to do that, we gotta sell out for a bit to get that win, huh?

Correct. To start, let’s take victory at SS. Being named the winners of SS would give us enough power and brilliance to even change the times.

Yeah, I know. It’d be some dumb shit to waste the somethin’ like that the way Trickstar did.

Well, ‘course that’s somethin’ they’d do. I can’t even imagine that dumbass Akehoshi kickin’ back n’ fawnin’ all over himself, thinkin’ they’re so strong and cool.

Those guys always put the happiness of idols and fans first.

It’s just that the interests of those guys and all the people who wanted to make ES a thing coincided last year.

But we’re different from them, ain’t we Adonis?

We don’t give a shit about politics or “the greatest happiness for the greatest number” or nothin’—We’re here to make the greatest music for the greatest thrill!¹

We’ll keep playin’ our guitars and singin’ ourselves hoarse all for that! Ain’t that right Adonis?!

Yes. You’re right, Oogami—I, too, am driven by some primal instinct like that. In the end, all I want is peace on earth.

But right now, I am too weak to achieve that.

Huh?! If you’re weak, then work to get stronger. And you’re not fightin’ all alone, remember?

You’re right. As long as I’m with you all, I believe that I can overcome any hardships.

And of course, I don’t think it’s impossible for us to win SS.

You’re damn straight! ‘Cause we’re UNDEAD!

Yeah. However, I think the most important thing is what we’ll do after we win.

I think SS is being moved by hands that don’t just consider what’s before them now. I think they’re gazing far into the future as well.

I have the feeling that what Trickstar had obtained last year was consumed in order to build the idol utopia—ES.

But I’m sure things will be different this year.

Those who wish for ES to prosper will be able to use the power and authority they won for that purpose.

At the same time, those who think disfavorably of ES will be able to wield the power to destroy it.

Some may use it to achieve their own personal goals, and some to make their dreams come true.

In an extreme case, depending on who takes control of SS, the future of the idol industry may change drastically—No, perhaps even the future of the entire world.