Chapter 12
About one hour later, in Osaka
Hey Niki, check this out! C’mon c’mon, get a pic! I’m on top of the world, baby… ☆
Y–you’re so embarrassing, Rinne-kun! What are you, some kinda tourist from the boonies?!
You’re way too excited, pleeeease stop posing like the billboard guy~ Everyone’s looking at us wondering what the hell we’re doing!1
Gyahaha! We’re idols, right? Aren’t we supposed to get this kinda attention?
……
Oh c’mon, Meru-Meru, don’t try acting all cool. Make some noise, get stupid!
Well, I’m actually gettin’ pretty sick of Osaka myself, tell the truth. Can we go to some other touristy place next time?
I wanna make friends with the deer in Nara!
Ooh~ Yeah, the deer in Nara are pretty nice, huh. They look delicious, and it’s totally the ideal lifestyle for me.
Pretty sure the best way to get the kinda life where tourists fawn all over you and feed you and stuff is just like, by being a manwhore—or by being an idol.
So Niki! It’s high time you got serious about your idol work, eh? ♪
Huhh? I don’t wanna be told to “get serious” by someone who’s causing a riot in a tourist trap!
Dumbass~… I’m playing dumb on purpose. You’re the one who couldn’t take something seriously to save your life, got it? Don’t go mixing us up.
Man, you’re way too easy on yourself and way too hard on everyone else! Everyone hates a guy like that, y’know?!
But you love that about me, don’tcha Niki? ♪
Uh, no? It’s awful and I hate it? Can you try fixing that terrible personality and be like, a good person for once?
It’s good to see you two are as close as ever. But that aside—
…Oh?
—Y’all look like you’re havin’ a grand ol’ time, bee-chans ♪
Oh, Anego! Nice to see ya~ ☆
Wassu~p Sakura-nee-san ♪
—Miss Oukawa. We haven’t seen you in some time; where have you been?
Can’t y’all at least find some common ground in the namin’ department? That’s way too complicated. Actually, we don’t know who all’s listenin’ in—Just treat me like I’m Oukawa Kohaku, ‘kay?
We’d be in a real pickle if the higher-ups found out his disguise-savvy big sis switched places with him.
Usually you’d think that kinda thing couldn’t happen in a million years, but people get mighty invested in big lies like that.
Eeeeverybody wants to believe they’re the only ones who’ve figured out the truth that everybody else’s completely blind to.
It’s fools like that who fall victim to con artists, kokoko ♪
—Just as HiMERU suspected, he can’t tell the difference between you and the real Oukawa even when we’re talking this close to each other.
Hmm, so Kohaku’s been showin’ off “that” side of himself, huh? Guess he just couldn’t keep it covered.
Must be why he trusted y’all so much. My baby brother sure is a lucky guy ♪
……
So sorry, missy! I’ll have this dumbass hanged for his crimes later!
I–I–I’m sorry! Really! I didn’t mean anything bad by it~! It’s just easiest to tell people apart by how they smell!
That right. Well I can’t get ridda that type of smell no matter how hard I scrub.
You got yourself a good nose there, Sissy. You better treasure that gift your parents gave you, y’hear?
Gyahaha! Good thing Anego’s got an open mind, huh? If not you’d be facing a lawsuit for sexual harassment right about now!
Kokoko ♪ I wouldn’t go so far’s to sue him—I’m not in the position to do somethin’ like that…
But if you’re gonna go an’ stake a claim on an unmarried woman, I’m gonna have to ask you to take responsibility.
‘Course, if we’re gettin’ married, you’ll need to defeat my dad first. He’s married into the family, but hoo boy is he strong, so you better go all out if ya want my hand.
Nah, this guy’s already engaged to me.
No matter where I look, all I can see is hell…!
HiMERU is jealous of how popular you are, Shiina.
If that’s what you think, then you can have it! C’mon HiMERU-ku~n, this is so not fair! How are you the only one who ever gets to stay outta this…!
Fufu. It’s because HiMERU has something he wants to protect.
Rinne is standing in front of the Glico billboard in his CG, which is a famous billboard in Osaka. It’s common for tourists to pose like the Glico man in pictures, which is exactly what Rinne is doing here lol
KohaSis uses ○の字 as nicknames for people. In Niki’s case, it’s 椎の字 (Shii no ji), using the first character of Niki’s family name (椎) + の字. This type of naming convention comes out of the Edo period, back when nicknames were meant to not reveal the interlocutor's true name. The literal meaning of this would be something like “the character X” where X refers to the identifying kanji. This nickname was used by lower-class men and in brothels, and it's a nickname you would call someone who is either (1) inferior in rank to you, or (2) of the same rank as you, and who was particularly close to you. Since KohaSis is using this style of nicknaming as a term of familiarity with the Bee-chans, I’ve tried to localize it to reflect that :]