Chapter 12

I mean obviously ES is gonna think you’re super cute when you’re talented, obedient little teacher’s pets like that.

That’s why ES put Knights over all the other idols—That’s what I’m thinking.

They went through all the trouble of making the Kansai region into a place that was just perfect for you guys when you ended up here, all so you could snatch the win.

Like some helicopter parent who forks over buttloads of cash to send their kid to a good school. They cracked you open, put you up on a pedestal, and expected great things from you—Knights.

……

It’s not even just that the rules were designed to make it easier for you guys to use your winning strategy with your Duels, nah.

ES didn’t put any other strong units in Kansai, so no one could get in your way.

Actually, it looks more like they just rounded up the good-for-nothings and the pests who’d have no one mourning if they were crushed by you guys. Yanno, just like Crazy:B, since we’re kept under real close surveillance nowadays.

It’s like they’re pinching your cheeks and saying, “Go get ‘em, you cute little Knights! Eat up aaaall your yummy food so you can grow up big and strong!” right?

So all you guys make light of us as you swallow us whole, and we just have to be okay with that.

……

But yanno. We’re not gonna sit back and let you use us as fodder. Even the weakest insects’ll open their jaws and snap or sting ya with their prickers when they’re cornered.

All so they can keep on living. All so they won’t be squished dead for someone else to be a little more comfortable.

—Which is why we teamed up with Gatekeeper. All so we can keep on living, all so we can survive.

Gatekeeper—Do you mean the head of the SS Administration Committee, the questionable character who gave us our secret orders?

Yep, that fishy old fart. He’s the kinda risky guy even I wouldn’t get close to usually, but this time our interests were one and the same.

So now we’re besties or whatever. And there were plenty of reasons to team up, anyway.

…?

So you mean to say that your true allies are not Knights, but rather the Gatekeeper?

Ain’t that what I just said?

Maybe he’s got a piss-poor rep with idols, but this guy’s got power and money coming outta every nook and cranny—Probably enough to change the whole world.

…Ain’t it s’posed to be that Crazy:B goes around stingin’ self-important assholes like that?

Yeah, I dig. And I’ll give him a good prick later. But now’s not the time for that.

…?

Fortunately for us, ES and Gatekeeper aren’t some monolith. Sometimes there’s a conflict of interest, sometimes they butt heads.

And it looks like right now they’re not seeing eye-to-eye about how to deal with Knights.

ES wants their golden goose to win.

But Gatekeeper’s got a partnership with Switch and Double Face—from the same agency as Knights.

Those guys have a business partnership with him.

…‘S that right. It did look like Madara-han was all chummy with Gatekeeper an’ actin’ like they were best buddies.

I guess that’d be why he stopped me from rippin’ out Gatekeeper’s guts.

His guts…?

I’ve been mighty busy myself, yanno. …But if we’re in an alliance with Gatekeeper, does that mean I went too far back there?

Nah, don’t worry about it. It’s good to give ‘im a little sting so he doesn’t start thinking we’re just some pawns he can use as he sees fit ♪

Anyway, Gatekeeper wants to make sure he gets the best deal possible with Switch and such. Well, that much is obvious—That’s just how business works, right?

So that’s why he’s looking to see NewDi’s biggest—or more like their only—breadwinner eat shit. And that just so happens to be Knights.

If Knights breaks, NewDi breaks. Then Switch and them lose their backbone, and suddenly they’re all squishy and weak, floppin’ all over themselves.

I’m sure they’ve been driving a hard bargain ‘cause they feel safe and cozy knowing they have Knights.

But if they lose their “insurance,” that’s gonna get harder to do.

So that’s Gatekeeper’s aim. It’d be bad if NewDi got too strong—It’s easier to exploit the weak, amirite?

…How contemptible.

Nah, it’s a legit strategy. Even the strongest predator will use its claws and fangs to bleed their prey dry—to weaken them.

Fighting fair and square? Having some code of chivalry? C’mon, you can’t fill your belly on that, yanno?!

And if you can, that just means you were at the top of the food chain from the very start.

It means you got your fridge jam-packed with food. You’ve got no worries about the future, and you scoff at the lowlifes desperately trying to feed themselves, pity them even.

But the very bottom of this world runs on something more primitive, more animalistic. But a trust fund baby like you wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?

……

It doesn’t help your case that even though you’re in such a privileged position, you can’t even bother to give to the weak.

Knights operates on individualism, right? So it’s all good as long as you’re good?

That is not the case. We are training the next generation, protecting the weak and the persecuted—

Yeah yeah, I know that’s what you’re tryna do.

But then ES comes in all, “Don’t overextend yourselves, only think about shining as brightly as you can,” and whatnot—

Knights and Ryuseitai make for pretty good examples here.

ES has been making it so you can’t do anything “unnecessary” for whatever reason, so all you’ve got left are your own idol activities.

They took away the newbies you’ve been taking such good care of and told you to focus on your own work, right?

ES can’t help it, you can say—It’s a business, so it’s gonna chase after profit.

And it’s way more profitable for ES if you only do your idol work.

That’s all I’m saying. All those pretty words and justifications are just excuses made up by the gluttonous ES to fill their bellies.

The management policies of this massive corporation we know as ES is no different from a monster that lives on instinct alone.

In short, even if people like us start whining about this and that, they’re never gonna listen to us, or even understand us.

If you want to make a monster like that do what we want, you have to hurt it and make it understand.

And for that purpose you have formed an allyship with the Gatekeeper, despite the rumors surrounding him speculating that he is part of the mafia or something of the sort?

Sure thing. Well, that’s not the only reason, but yeah, you could say we’re taking down one monster with another monster.