Zodiac 2 – Monkey's Tail End of the Year

Chapter 2

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Nearly an hour later

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Madara

Thank you! Thank you for stopping by to see my performance during this busy time of the year!

Was it to your liking? If so, that’s wonderful! I’m sure to sleep peacefully and enter the new year with a good first dream! Hahaha!

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Madara

Okay, one last time! Mr. Monkey and I will do a cartwheel! A back handspring! A backflip! A somersault!

My hat’s falling off but—look! He caught it with his toes! And now… A huge flip! I sure am spinning around a lot more than usual!

And for our final trick, a one-handed cartwheel! Now put my hat back on, Mr. Monkey! Take a bow and say goodbye to everyone with me!

What thunderous applause! Thank you very much, we appreciate your cheering and support!

This has been the joint performance between Mikejima Madara of MaM and his companion, Mr. Monkey! It wasn’t much, but thank you for watching ♪

Please put your donations in the hat! Mr. Monkey will come around to everyone with it!

He’s an obedient little guy, so it’s okay to give him a good pat on the head!

Of course, it’s fine to just leave a donation!

But money’s tight for everyone at the end of the year, so the greatest payment for us is just your smiles and cheers!

Yes, thank you very muuuuuuch! We appreciate it!

To tell the truth, I lost my wallet, so without your donations I won’t be able to pay the train fare to get home!

Hahaha! Thank you, thank you for your kindness! In thanks, let’s give it one more go! A cartwheel! A backflip! A triple somersault… ☆

And a back handspring! May fortune spring up in all your lives… ♪1

All right, bye-by~e ♪

Ahaha, you’re really popular with aaall the little scamps, Mr. Monkey? I’m jealous! I’m preeeetty scary, especially to young kids, aren’t I…?

…Oh. Sorry to keep you, Anzu-san. Thanks to you, we had a huge turnout and really raked in the cash!

Well, more than half of it goes to Mr. Monkey, and so my earnings will be pretty meager once I’ve paid your share…

Do you think it’ll be enough to at least pay for my kagami mochi?2

Hahaha. Don’t worry, don’t worry! I didn’t do this performance to turn a profit.

An acquaintance of mine hurt their back, so I’m just filling in for a while as their substitute.

I couldn’t go and refuse the guy who taught me all sorts of traditional arts.

And well, I was free since it’s right before SS and there are no DreamFests being held, so I took the job.

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Madara

Fufun. I had some prior knowledge about monkey dancing, but it was my first time actually doing it. I’m pretty relieved I did it without any problems.

Where there’s a will, there’s a way!

It was still pretty crude, but! Anyhow Anzu-san, here’s your share~ ♪ Is this enough for you?

Hahaha. No need to hold back here.

I’m sure you put in a lot of work to call over such a huge crowd. You’ve already gotten quite good at that, haven’t you?

It’s fair compensation for all your hard work. I’ll be at a loss for what to do if you won’t even accept it.

I know I shouldn’t be forcing my kindness on you like this, but I’d like to make you smile. I want to help you. It’s selfish of me, but…

If you tell me I’m being too meddlesome, I’ll be sad, but I’ll leave it at that.

I can’t do anything more than this; I’d only be wounding your pride. So I hope you’ll accept this as just a normal payment.

…Hm? Why am I being so nice to you? Because it’s just in my nature to do so, and because I like you?

If I can use the skills I’ve acquired for the sake of someone else, then it’s all worth it.

There’s no meaning in standing atop a tall mountain all by yourself, with no one around you.

I don’t want to be the king of Monkey Mountain.3

Eh—So what do I want to be? Well of course, I want to be your Mama, Anzu-san ♪

…Juuust kidding. I guess the best answer would be that I want to be an idol.

But that’s not really a high priority for me right now.

There are plenty of fun things to do in this world. To me, being an idol is just another drop in the bucket.

You don’t agree?

Well then, until I graduate, or no—even after then is fine too… Make being an idol my topmost priority.

Make me believe that being an idol is the most difficult thing I’ll ever be able to accomplish in my life.

Otherwise, it’ll be too easy. If it feels like it’ll be over too soon, I’ll lose interest.

Boredom kills. No, it turns you into a walking corpse—That’s what happened to Rei-san.4

I don’t want to go down that same path just because I’m his successor.

But right now, I can see exactly how things will turn out, and it’s painfully boring. So I hope you can make idols more interesting for me.

That’s one of the roles of a producer, isn’t it, Anzu-san?

Hahaha. By the way, I got in touch with your family a little earlier…

It looks like that wallet you thought you dropped was back at your house aaall along.

If you wait a little bit, your real mama will come bring it to you.

Hahaha! My monkey dancing was a pretty good way to pass the time, don’t you think?

Even if you refuse my help and don’t take the payment for the work you did, I’ve still already helped you!

Are you frustrated? It’s like you’re dancing in the palm of my hand?

If you’re so angry, then show me your competitive spirit as a producer. Show off your skill and use me, next year and… even farther into the future.

I’ll be looking forward to it, Anzu-san. Have a good new year ♪

  1. 人間風車 is a wrestling term meaning “double arm suplex,” but more literally translates to “human windmill.” With this wind imagery, Mama is actually telling Mr. Monkey to do a cartwheel (windmill) and then says “the winds of fortune are blowing into everyone’s lives!” Very punny!

  2. Kagami mochi is a mirror-shaped mochi that’s used as a new years offering.

  3. A fun little stretch here lol, but Mama uses the term 猿山 which is a “hill in a monkey enclosure at a zoo.” Since we’ve got the whole monkey theme going on in this story, I wanted to keep that monkey reference, so this is what I’ve got: like “king of the rock” but much, much higher lol

  4. Not sure if this is a direct reference, but Rei talks about this exact thing in Crossroad.

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