GJ Bu Volume 3 Chapter 1

The Color of the Traffic Lights

In the club room after school, as usual.

Pres, who was reading a shounen manga magazine, spoke suddenly. "Hey, what is the color of the traffic lights?"

"Huh?" Kyouya asked back while reading a magazine. His eyes were still locked into the manga on the magazine. Two magazines were sold today, so he had to finish reading his magazine before Pres finished hers.

A few seconds later, Pres said something again.

"I was referring to the color of the light that indicates 'go'."

At this moment, Kyouya finally understood what Pres was saying, and so he said the answer.

"Isn't it turquoise?" (TL/N : Traffic light colors in Japan used to be referred as 青, 黄色, 赤 which is blue/turquoise, yellow, and red respectively. However, the "blue/turquoise" color is a misnomer because the color is actually supposed to be green, and thus later that signal is referred to as 緑, which is the Japanese word for the color green. Confusing, I know. From here on, the term 'turquoise light' refers to the 'go' signal.)

"But isn't it green in color?"

"Well, since it's the turquoise light, then of course it's turquoise in color."

"No, it isn't turquoise at all!"

Pres placed the manga on the table, and assumed a pose that showed she was not going down in this discussion without a fight.

Kyouya could only put the magazine down and talk to Pres face-to-face.

"I've always felt it's weird how everyone else say that it's turquoise in color. No matter how you look at it, it's green! Turquoise should be more vibrant, like the color of turquoise Hawaiian shaved ice or something."

"Speaking of shaved ice, I like the strawberry flavor the most."

"Nobody asked you about that. Ah, I know, the turquoise light is the same color as a honeydew, so it's green!"

"Well, honeydews should also be turquoise in color then... Pres! Ouch ouch ouch!"

Kyouya was thinking if Pres would bite him, and she really did.

"Why is it so? That's so strange."

Pres finally slackened her jaw so Kyouya rubbed the hand that was bitten while saying that.

Pres, who had always started strange conversation topics, was also specially stubborn about it today.

"However, since everyone else says it's turquoise, we should also call it turquoise, shouldn't we?"

"I don't wanna. Even if the entire world says 'YES', I will also say 'NO'! Humph!"

Pres folded her arms and turned her head aside.

"Er..."

Kyouya then looked around the club room for help.

He started from Shion-senpai.

She normally has this attitude that showed how little she cared about it on her face. She would wave him away since "dealing with Mao is Kyouya's job." Today, however, she placed her coffee cup on her plate and helped him out.

"If we look at international standards, the color of the 'go' signal should be green. It has been the same for Japan for a long time now, but since everyone calls it the 'turquoise light', so the term 'turquoise light' came to mean it. Actually, Japanese culture doesn't seem to take turquoise and green as two completely different colors. Think about it. If we use the word 'bright turquoise' to describe honeydews, it doesn't sound that weird, does it?"

Shion-senpai's answer is both intellectual and graceful. It sounds like what a well-read person like her would say. Kyouya agreed with her answer.

"I see, so even if we mix up turquoise and green light signals it wouldn't be weird at all. So Pres, it doesn't matter if it's turquoise or green!"

"I don't wanna! I have to know if it's really turquoise or green. We have to settle the winner for this, we have to settle if it's green or turquoise!"

Pres did not agree.

They could only move onto the next answer. This time it was from Kirara-senpai.

"Kirara, is the color of the 'go' signal turquoise or green?"

Kirara-senpai sat on the sofa in the club room, eating meat as usual. She raised her head when her name was called. She had not heard any of the discussion that had happened just now, so Kyouya had to explain the whole thing to her again.

After some explanation, Kirara finally nodded, as if to say that she understood.

"The color of the 'go' signal, has a smell like safety."

"A smell like safety, huh? Pres, do you accept this answer, then?"

"I don't understand what does that mean at all!"

This answer was also a no-go.

Finally, it was Megumi's turn.

Megumi heard their discussion while she was pouring tea for everyone, so they did not need to explain the whole thing to her again.

"I've always been curious, the person inside the light... Is it a man or a woman?"

"The person inside the light?"

"Yeah, like this..."

Megumi made the pose of a person walking or standing still.

"Ah, you're talking about the person inside the pedestrian traffic signal, right?"

"This is a tough one!"

Pres exclaimed. The conversation topic had changed and nobody seemed to notice.

The GJ Club was laid-back as usual. The GJ Club today is the "Traffic Light Questions Review Committee".

GJ Bu Light Novel Translation

GJ Bu Volume 1 is completed translated while Volume 2 is partially translated. You can find them here : https://gjbuthetranslation.wordpress.com/

I've decided to start from Volume 3 instead. The translations will also be co hosted on Baka Tsuki here: https://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=GJ-Bu

Available Translations:
1. Volume 3 Chapter 1

GJ Club

GJ部

Author: Shin Araki

Illustrator: Aruya

Publisher: Shogakukan

Genre: Slice of Life, Comedy, School

Introduction:

Shinomiya Kyōya is forced to become a new member of the GJ-bu (lit. GJ Club), an unidentified club that dwells in a room of the former building of a certain school. There he meets four girls: Mao, Megumi, Shion and Kirara. Time flies with these unique girls around. The series follows the everyday, though unusual, antics of this band of friends.

Gah, I really wanted to continue translating Aitsuko, but I have too much on my plate to take on such a heavy project as of now. I've also handed over the Zero No Tsukaima translation over to Immorrel, and he's making great progress. I still want to translate something though, so I was looking around and finally I saw this reddit post.

I read GJ Bu a few years back. Who knew you could do a 4-koma light novel and make it so interesting, huh? So I guess this would be my current project. Each chapter is short, so it would not take as much time as researching Aitsuko word play or Zero No Tsukaima lore for me.

Tsuki Ga Kirei OP Imakoko (Here, now) Lyrics Translation

Imakoko (Here, now)

This song is the OP for the anime, Tsuki Ga Kirei, one of my favourite animes this season.

Original Song from Flying Dog, sung by Nao Touyama

Translation (Kanji, romaji and english):

なんとなく頭の中で君が　離れなくなっていたんだ
Nantonaku atamano nakade kimiga hanarenakunatteitanda
I don't know why, but the memory of you lingers in my mind


途切れ途切の会話だねいつも
Togireru togireruno kaiwadaneitsumo
Our conversations were always so short, weren't they?

息も吐き出せないほどの鼓動
Ikimo hakidasenaihodono kodou
I can't breath, my heart is beating so fast 

目が合った瞬間にまた何かが胸をつらぬいてゆく　今
Mega atta shunkannimata nanikaga muneo tsuranuiteyuku ima
When our eyes met, my heart felt as if it was pierced by something, now


大好きな人が今ここにいるいるんだよ
Daisukina hito ga imakokoni-ruirundayo
The person I like the most is right in front of me, here!

最高の毎日は恋のパレパレード
Saikouno mainichiwa koino PAREPARE-DO
It feels amazing, just like I'm having a love parade everyday

近づきたい　誰よりも君に今 今以上
Chikazukitai dareyorimo kimini ima imaijou
I want to get closer to you, closer than anyone else can be

会いたくて会いにゆく　笑顔また見つけにゆくよ
Aitakute ainiyuku egaomata mitsukeniyukuyo
I want to meet you, I want to meet you so bad, to see that smile of yours


教室の隅で笑った君は　今すべてのものの中で光る
Kyoushitsuno sumide waratta kimiwa imasubetenomonono nakade hikaru
It feels like every part of you, who is smiling at the corner of the classroom, is shining brightly right now

初めてつないだ手　嵐のようなうねりが駆けめぐる　今
Hajimetetsunaida te arashinoyounauneriga kakemeguru ima
When we first held hands, my heart felt as if it was being ravaged by a hurricane, now


何度でも君だけに僕は恋恋する
Nandodemo hitodakeni bokuwa koi koisuru
No matter how many times it will be, I will only fall in love with you

知るほどに加速する恋のスピスピード
Shiruhodoni kasokusuru koino SUPISUPI-DO
I feel as if this feeling called love is expanding so quickly in my heart 

ありのまま伝えたい　なのになぜなぜだろう
Arinomama tsutaetai nanoninazenazedarou
These feelings that I wanted to tell you so much, but why, why is this so? 

どうしようもなくいつも不器用になる僕がいるよ
Doushiyoumonakuitsumo bukiyouninaru bokugairuyo
It can't be helped, I have become so cowardly

どうして？
Doushite?
What should I do?


まだ僕ら未完成で始まったばかりの未来
Mada bokura mikanseide hajimattabakarino mirai
It has not ended, our future has just only begun

春も夏も秋も冬もいつも一緒にいたい
Harumo natsumo akimo fuyumoitsumo isshoni itai
No matter if it's spring, summer, autumn or winter, I want to always be with you

どこにいるの？何しているの？誰のことを想ってるの？
Dokoni-runo? nanishiteiruno? darenokotoo omotteruno?
Where are you right now? What are you doing right now? Who are you thinking of right now?

行け　行け　行け　今
Ike ike ike ima
Let's go, let's go, let's go! Now!

行け　行け　行け　行け
Ike ike ike ike
Let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go!


大好きな人が今ここにいるいるんだよ
Daisukina hito ga imakokoni-ruirundayo
The person I like the most is right in front of me, here!

最高の毎日は恋のパレパレード
Saikouno mainichiwa koino PAREPARE-DO
It feels amazing, just like I'm having a love parade everyday

近づきたい　誰よりも君に今 今以上
Chikazukitai dareyorimo kimini ima imaijou
I want to get closer to you, closer than anyone else can be

会いたくて会いにゆく　笑顔また見つけにゆくよ
Aitakute ainiyuku egaomata mitsukeniyukuyo
I want to meet you, I want to meet you so bad, to see that smile of yours

Random Post Update : League of Legends for experienced Dota2 Players

I do apologise for the hiatus in the translations due to school work, but now, since ZnT is getting some translators of its own, I can be back to translating Aitsuko, in ... a month maybe? Let's not get our hopes up shall we? :D On a serious note, I would be translating Aitsuko once I've finished moving my residence and my exams.

Anyway back to the main topic at hand here, I did write a reddit post for a basic comparison, but I would like to go into more detail here. Before that, it would be nice to give some context into this comparison. There is a few posts questioning why LOL does not have as big of a prize pool as DotA2 (TI5 had the largest prize pool in esports history), and a viewership fewer than DotA2(comparing between 2014 internationals and 2014 season for LOL).

LOL does boast the most time spent on it in 2015, but it does not provide any boost to its current value. Value is given by the players, and the players have said otherwise. The same could be same for some other MOBAs attempting to recreate DotA2's success, and failing in the process.

While I could not deny that LOL is much newbie-friendly than DotA2, considering its forgiving mechanics, and playstyle, DotA2 is a game that undeniably requires more knowledge considering its advanced mechanics and larger scale of gameplay, which IMO is brought in by the fact that you can alter the landscape of the map, among other things. 
    
Other MOBAs such as strife and paragon, which tries to emulate the way LOL is played and advertised, emphasizing constant combat, and personalized user accounts, falls into the same trap as LOL had been. Players have been saying that LOL has grown stale, and that it does not have much variety in its playstyle. While you can see a lot of strange strategies come and go and win in DotA2, like an aggro trilane, dual mid, dual roam, 5-man at minute 10 strategies, LOL games typically only have a few set strategies, some of which is similar to DotA2, but cannot be executed well because of differences in the map and mechanics.

With our eyes set for TI6 prizepool to overtake TI5, one may wonder what is the difference between these two games that really makes the cut. Many posts such as this and this and this tries to look into the differences, but most of it is done by players who have less experience in DotA2. Due to the difficulty in DotA2, spending even number of hours in both games does not equate.

1. Heroes are all free in DotA2 while LOL's champions are not : This affects gameplay in the way of information. As players may attest, you can't just watch and read a skill description to understand a skill. Most of the time we learn by experience. DotA2 allows you to go into bot games and try out all the heroes and find your niche. Perhaps you would prefer playing heroes that push well, or heroes that does skill shots, etc. However in LOL, you start out with a limited hero pool, all of which may not suit your play style. You're boxed into thinking these are the heroes that are "for noobs", when in fact there are champions in there that are constantly banned or picked only in high elos due to their specific playstyle. 

The result of this is that casual gamers, who watches a game of professional DotA2 could at least understand what's happening on the screen (with the help of casters of course) and try it out in their next game of DotA2, adding to the excitement and changing the meta itself. For casual LOL players, unless you've unlocked those heroes, it is unlikely that you can do that. 

2. Runes and masteries in LOL : A person with lower hours played, but with sufficient experience in similar MOBAs such as HoN, can quickly get up to date in DotA2, but they can't do so in LOL, as they would be lacking of runes and masteries, resulting in uneven gameplay. Gameplay is rewarding when you win against a tougher opponent with your skill. That, as with above, is why some professional play in LOL may fail to be executed for casual LOL players even though they did the philosophy right, which is disappointing for players. 

3. DotA2 heroes are much much versatile than LOL's champions : You can play a mid antimage or carry warlock if you wish (as OG.Miracle- has done) and it will still work. LOL's champions have much lesser flexibilty in their game play, and their spells feel a bit generic even though they have their differences. There is no clear line between who does what in DotA2, and while this may be confusing for newbies, it provides much more variety when it comes to gameplay.

The reason why gamers continue to return and play a game is the variety it has in the game. LOL lacks the particular variety for casual gamers unless you play a whole lot and unlock heroes. DotA2 provides this variety straight from the start. 

4. DotA2 maps are much bigger in scale than LOL, and it can be interacted with the characters : Some of the first few things people notice, coming from League is that you can cut down trees in DotA2! LOL has its landscape set in stone, and this, again reduces variety in strategies, and teamfights. However, LOL has special neutrals that provides buffs when killed, which is very important in teamfights. Meanwhile in DotA2, neutrals provide skills that you can use once you control them.

In DotA2, the jungle is a resource, and efficient carries often find ways to exploit map stacking and pathing and tree cutting, but in LOL, the jungle normally would be reserved for the jungler alone, and farming the jungle is much slower than in DotA2, without the before mentioned mechanics.

5. There is really no way you can alter the creep equilibrium in LOL, unlike in DotA2: Without deny mechanics and pulling, the carry often has no way to keep out the enemy offlaner from getting exp, or keep the equilibrium at a safe place to farm. This keeps the laning phase from growing into a stale farm game, and encourage aggression from both sides in LOL. Which also means that carries with low early aggression potential early game, if paired with a high aggression enemy would likely lose the lane. Also, this means that it is hard to close the experience gap once you've been ganked once or twice since there is really not much safe lanes to farm.

6. There are no TPs in LOL : TP scrolls, IMO, is the most important item in DotA2. It allows you to channel a teleport to any allied building, but comes at a cost of 75 gold. Also, any allied TP within 20 seconds will add 1 second to your channeling. Everyone will buy it. It provides defensive and offensive uses depending on how you use it. However, the closest thing we have in LOL is Recall and Teleport. The former channels for 8 seconds and is broken on any enemy damage while the latter has a 4+ minute cooldown. Ask any DotA2 Player and they will tell you that an extra second in channeling that TP already feels like an eternity.

In DotA2, supports tend to TP to a lane to help a ganked ally. In LOL, only supports with the teleport spell can do that, and once its baited, it means that the support can't help another lane for 4 minutes. Not only that, it is important to TP to a rosh fight to prevent the other team from securing the aegis. So, controlling the towers and gaining map control is an important factor in winning the game. In LOL, it doesn't really matter if your tower is gone, since it doesn't provide any tangible advantage to your team. There is a lesser emphasis on controlling towers in LOL. In DotA2, towers are also important to protect your own jungle, but this control is also diminished in LOL. Basically if you are ganked anywhere in LOL, you can't really expect your supports to TP if they have used up their teleport.

This also affects heroes with innate tower-pushing abilities, like Ashe. Her Q does wonders to towers, and if it was introduced to DotA2, would be nerfed within a patch. Her E scouts brilliantly, like Clockwerk's rocket. However, her skill set does not match the requirement's of LOL. She, like her DotA2 counterpart, Drow Ranger, excels in splitpushing, but due to the way LOL is played, she is rarely seen past lower ELOs, until the very High ELOs, because she lacks an escape, contributes quite less to teamfights without items (which means she has to solo farm), unlike Drow, who has a silence knock-back spell.

7. There is no death cost in LOL : In DotA2, we often expect death number to be correlated to their position. Pos1, often carries, die the least while Pos5, often supports die the most. The reason is that most of the time, Pos5s have to sacrifice themselves to save carries, like slowing or stunning the enemy to allow the carry to escape. This results in supports carrying less gold, and thus their items comes online way slower than in League. Supports in DotA2 often have to spend money on cheap escape or mobility items to reduce their deaths and increase their contribution.

In LOL however, there is no death cost, so really this encourages offensive play from both sides. In DotA2, people are hesitant to dive, or play aggressively as TPs from supports may come (from the first point) and they may die, thus losing gold they get from CS-ing, which is a waste of time. In LOL, you don't want to die to feed the other side, but the reduced penalty causes a larger tendency to fight all the time. This, coupled with the next point, is why Junglers are a must in LOL gameplay, which is basically if you play DotA2 by ganking all the time.

8.  It's really hard to have no mana in LOL : The only thing limiting you from using your spells, is possibly your cooldowns. Basically you're expected to keep spamming your spells to harass the enemy. In DotA2, this is mainly done by the supports in the lane. However, the reason why carries are carries is because their spells are supposed to scale with their auto attacks, and are supposed to augment their auto attacks. Meanwhile, supports have utility spells that can do CC. This means that carries have spells that are weak early game, and in a dual lane scenario, are extremely disadvantaged. It also means that pushes can be done continuously as the only limiting factor is cooldowns and health.

9. There is no buyback in LOL : DotA2 has a mechanism to cheat death by buying your way through. This rewards teams with a high gold deposit, but was picked off or something so they can still defend with the team. In LOL, this results in Aces, or Team wipes, and just end the game, unlike in DotA, where you have to be cautious of their buybacks.

10. Stuns in LOL last shorter than in DotA2: While this reduces being "stunlocked", it also takes away another comeback mechanic for teams in LOL. In exciting games, people often talked about games where a team manages to comeback through the use of continuous stuns in DotA2, like the way NaVi won TI1, while in LOL, often the winner just snowballs into victory and it's hard to actually comeback with a huge deficit in LOL.

In a conclusion, there are many advanced mechanics that makes DotA2 a much rewarding game to learn and play unlike LOL. This affects viewership as it makes game play much exciting to watch due to the variety of strategies involved. I believe this is also one of the reasons why DotA2 is growing in the international esports scene compared to LOL, in spite of clinching the Korean esports scene.

Zero No Tsukaima is getting a continuation!

Aitsuko has been translated to 78.7% of Chapter 2 of Volume 1.

While I'm still translating this, I'll concentrate on getting Chapter 19 of ZnT completely translated in Baka Tsuki as the editors of the book has announced that they will continue to finish off the series with notes provided by the author.

Gatchaman Crowds Analysis 2

In any battle, no matter how cool looking the scene is, it isn't truly an epic battle unless it is really a clash of ideologies. Take for example Sparta 300. The clash present here is not how the 300 warriors fought against the entire Persian army, but more of how the 300 warriors challenged the entirety of Greece against their cowardice to bow down to an outside pressure. The reason why we are rooting for the warriors are because they have been left alone during their fight, with no help from the king's own country, who have been bought over by the power of money. It is a clash of money and loyalty, materialism and essence.

Such is the same with Gatchaman Crowds. I've researched on some of the opinions on the net for the series and some have stated that the opening of the series is pretty slow. While I do agreed to some extent, I cannot stress again how important the starting few episodes were important in setting up the status quo and all the foreshadowing for the clashes to come. Most of my analysis here will come from the first half of the show, since any mention of the second half would most likely spoil the story for you.

After looking at the conservationist and the realist last time, this time we would look at the idealist, Rui Ninomiya.

Instead of object metaphors as before, Rui himself (yes, he's a guy) is his own metaphor. He cross-dresses and walks around the streets watching people use Galax, a social game of his own creation. However, he lives alone with X, an artificial intelligence he created by himself. It is ironic that he seeks companionship with a computer program rather than with people when he himself is the creator of the application that brought the masses together. When he is outside, he wears elaborate clothes of the other gender and hides in plain view, preferring not to communicate directly with others. 

In fact, Rui is the ultimate cluster of clashes and irony in the series. Galax is his tool to bring humanity together by solving problems on their own. X, the AI is able to match people with needs with the right people with the ability to solve that need. Early in the series, we see posters hanging everywhere in the train where Sugane was in, stating that "the world is not updated by heroes, but by us". However, as we can see later on in the series, in spite of Rui's best intentions, humanity have not learnt to solve problems on their own, instead, they relied blindly on the machine like a faux God. It shows how humanity craves for leadership and an omnipotent character. They simply move their beliefs from superheroes to an AI. However, they don't do this lightly, and they only do it after X proves itself worthy and correct time over time. This is especially evident in a school scene where Rui and X prevents students from consuming spoilt milk. Every Galax user believes in X, while non users, some cynical, turn from non-believers to believers.

In the background, the TV is showing a bribery case of the vice-president of Japan.

Rui is obsessed with making the world a better place. Again, early in the series, we are shown how politicians are ruining Japan. In spite of being in a democratic country, the people still elected a leader that has shown himself incapable of running his country while allowing money embezzlement to occur. The democratic system is the one clashing with Galax, which itself is actually quite a despotic system. Democracy, where the people are given the power to rule themselves is shown to have led to a downward path of disappointment while despotism, which hides under the pretext of freedom, is shown to have positive results. This shows how information symmetry is important for the democratic system to actually work, since what Galax does is essentially sharing information. In this age where internet allows free trade of information, the one who holds the most information is king. The demographics of this is skewed towards the younger generation, but the ones holding the most information, is the search engine companies, but for a larger discussion on that you could watch the movie, Ex Machina. 

The Galax system itself also clashes with the notion of having heroes save the day. On one hand, Galax helps people with their everyday lives, while the Gatchaman fights with aliens and does not progress from there on. Rui does not place his hopes on superpowers and instead wishes to rely on humans, however, he does realizes that there are some cases where even humans can't do anything, which is shown in a scenario later on, and that is when he activates his own superpower to summon the Hundreds Crowds, which is paradoxical to his idea that humans should help themselves without superpowers. This places him in direct conflict of Hajime, who believes that people with superpowers are part of the everyone he was talking so fervently about. Hajime thinks that superpower or not, what can be used, should be used, but Rui thinks that only humans can help themselves.

I think that part of the charm of Gatchaman Crowds is in watching how Rui grows as an character. While Sugane may be one-dimensional, Hajime two-dimensional, Rui could be said as a multi-dimensional character, one that we can relate to as we grow as a person, having our ideals shattered one by one while we try to hold on to them, only to leave them once we've grown into an adult. 

Fate Zero and Fate Stay/Night Semi-Rant

So I have been watching the Fate Series, from Fate Zero to Fate Stay/Night UBW.

I'm getting my hats off to ufotable for making such a spectacle in both series. The artwork is gorgeous and splendidly meticulous (I especially appreciate the job they did with the lighting and the dust effect), the animations are fluid and it shows the exciting fight scenes very satisfyingly, for both series. 

Absolutely gorgeous. (The GIF might be slightly large)

Fate Zero had the blessing of Gen Urobuchi to work on the its story and characters, so I also like how each Master is given a chance to grow within the series, with the help of their Servants, as a mirror of their ideals, yin to their yang. I liked how the setting is played out as a death match between powerful heroes. Each character is separated from the normal tropes we normally see in a lot of anime now, and they have their own ideals, thoughts and desires, making them incredibly humane, even though somewhat twisted. I also like how Gilgamesh is potrayed and animated as a bad-ass, which is his original setting, instead of how he is downplayed in Fate Stay/Night, in favor of the "plot".

Which brings us to the sequel to Fate Zero, Fate Stay/Night. The first thing I want to say is how lucky I am to watch Fate Zero first. The character motivations are much clearer compared to how I watched the Fate Stay/Night Fate arc from 2006, without watching Zero first. Unfortunately, even with all the eye candy, bad story telling is still bad story telling, no matter how many times you remake it. I guess the problem with UBW is how it tries to wrap the plot around Shirou, who is really, as Arcada puts it, an idiot. Unlike in Fate Zero, where our characters are mature, Shirou, our main protagonist is a high school student, so I can accept that Shirou might be somewhat immature in his thinking, but not really to this level. What he does completely conflicts with what he says, and even though he is powerless compared to the others(and he knows it), he still drags other people who has the power into life threatening situations by putting his own life in danger. 

While I may understand that this is a show of courage, did he really had to chase Saber while she was focused on fighting Beserker, and then just do absolutely nothing except getting nearly killed? Of course, the explanation for why he acts like he acts in from around episode 4 is that he is so angry that he has become calm and emotionless and brainless. Now, I may be getting too harsh with his character, since I actually understand where he is coming from, i.e. the immature always-in-anger stubborn child, but he is really painful to watch. In fact, to get a sense of what I'm saying, go watch the interactions of Shirou and Archer in episode 6 and 7, and tell me why Shirou acts like that. He has shown repeatedly that he has no magic, is useless against Caster, and yet he wants to go after Caster, who has already disappeared into thin air. He asks Archer to chase after Caster, and even after Archer explains that defeating her Master is the better way to defeat Caster, he still does that. Where the heck is he going to chase after, thin air? Then in episode 10, he acts nonchalant towards the clues of Caster's master's indentity, as if his desire to save people has suddenly vanished to thin air. I could almost understand why Archer wants to kill him so badly. 

Every time, Shirou is dependent on the powers of others, but he acts like he actually can do it by himself, which either makes him delusional or thoughtless towards the sacrifices of others, which makes his altruism fake and pointless, since he doesn't have empathy at all, which contradicts his so-called good guy setting. So unless they want to show how Shirou goes down the dark path, I don't see why are they are doing this.

Next, I also don't like how Rin is potrayed as a bad-ass at first, but suddenly becomes a confused damsel when Shirou is around. So at first, she takes on a building full of monsters by herself in one episode, and then she acts scared when she is with Shirou in a school full of the same monsters in another. What the heck? This can be explained as her infatuation with Shirou clouding her judgement, I guess, which is probably the only reason why someone who had been training as a magician in a deathmatch for more than 10 years under a killer of Magi, could suddenly lose her professionalism. Love is blind. But other than that, I like her character pretty well, just like how Asuna in SAO makes the story interesting. 

Other than the problem with Shirou's character, the rest is pretty good, I think. What I really want to see though, is Sakura. A girl who got sold to another family, and got tortured with worms all over her body, witnessing how a person she has once took as a kind uncle die in vain, thinking that it is his fault for not listening to her grandfather, who was also the one torturing her, getting raped by her brother, among all the other things, and yet she managed to potray herself as a normal high school girl, who seemingly has a crush on a "kind" senpai. All that psychological and physical trauma hidden under a facade of smiles...I want to see her break free of her facade and get saved (Well, its not that I mind a Bad End anyway, I just want to see her story). 

So don't mess up the Heaven Feels movie, please. 

Gatchaman Crowds Analysis 1

So I've been watching a reboot of the children's show, Gatchaman Crowds.

And boy was it a tough watch.

Now, don't get me wrong, I don't mean that it is bad, it is surprisingly good, with detailed animation, meaningful character development and a rich plot, with clashes and conflicts within each episode paced out to advance it, but that the anime feels like a novel or a social commentary. The messages are deep and meaningful, but takes time and effort to think about it before you manage to get the point.

You don't really get these types of anime in the market nowadays. Especially considering that this came from a children's show, but requires more than just a teenager's perspective to pick it apart.

I'll start the analysis of the show with an analysis of the characters. The characters are human, in that they are not stupid, but have normal intelligence. They don't just do things just because of plot, like a lot of anime out there, but do things because they feel like doing it, with their own reasons and compulsions.

However, their interactions are pretty complex, but for most part I'll talk about the ones with more screen time first.

1. Sugane Tachibana, conservationist.

We focus on Sugane first, our protagonist who provides an objective view on the world around him because of his simplicity.

Our main male character is a high school student who walks and talks like a samurai. Early in the opening scene, we get to see his room.

His room is simple and traditionally styled. A scroll stating "to focus with all your heart" is place on top of his Gatchaman NOTE, whereas his sword is placed below his NOTE. A person's room is one's own personal space, and the way you treat your room is like the way you treat your mind. It serves to show where Sugane put his loyalty to. He places his ideology first, and his gatchaman duty next in front of him. This part is a little crucial if one were to understand why as to he chose to remain in the shadows as a Gatchaman.

A samurai is affliated with honor, loyalty, and the old forgotten world. This will put him in direct conflict with our main protagonist, Hajime. The Japanese are not known for talking back against their superiors, nor are they known to challenge the status quo. Sugane here is our exaggerated normal Japanese. He does not question the actions of his superiors and is loyal to a fault.

In episode one, we see him asking a sick young man to give his seat to a pregnant woman. This is not wrong. He simply judged that the pregnant woman deserves the seat more than a young man. However, in a later episode, we see a similar scene happen again, with a standing old man, in front of a sleeping young couple. However, this time Hajime is present. Sugane determines that the old man deserves the seat more, but Hajime stops him saying that the couple may be too tired from work. They are both not wrong. It is simply a show of perspective. This is a recurring theme that occurs from time to time.

There is no right or wrong in the real world, this may seem cliched, but in Gatchaman Crowds, instead of showing us a villian who had another perspective on his actions, it shows us the absolute villian, and instead turns the focus on the good guys, who actually seems to do bad, even if their intentions are good, but they are stuck with their own self-made rules to do anything significant.

Fighting aliens? Cool! Helping normal people during a crisis? No way, we have to keep our identities a secret! Such is the actions of the Gatchamans, which we can see from Sugane's perspective. He repeatedly stops Hajime from helping people out with their powers, with no explanation given. Remember his room? Simple, organised, and in the center of everything, his ideology, his mater, his sword. His actions are to his master and his master alone. As the story progresses, we see plenty of chances for him to change, but he does not change a lot. The main status quo is still there. This is in tandem with the Japanese society. While it has changed a lot, it retained its culture, warts and all. Sugane is obstinate on change, so is the old society. However, as events and conflicts crashed around him, we see as Sugane slowly opens to new ideas and he changes as the world progresses. He changes his master from simply the Gatchaman duty, to the people of the world.

2. Hajime Ichinose, realist (oh, the irony)

Hajime is our OP female character, almost like Haruhi Suzumiya, but with one difference, which I would like to quote from a comment in the wikia, "Hajime makes Haruhi Suzumiya seem like Ayanami Rei", to which I find to be extremely true.

Hajime strikes many as loud, overly cheerful, creepy and overpowered, but she is human. It becomes slowly apparent that her "genki" facade hides a surprisingly complex and insightful mind. She has a dark personality, but she has it all under wraps of a masquerade.

Ask yourself this. How do you grow, mentally? You think about stuff that happen and in understanding the background and motivations of the people around you gain insight. To understand another person, you must put yourself in their shoes. In PsychoPass, "to catch a criminal you need another criminal", and this is shown in the heightened crime coefficient of the "hunting dogs" of the police force.

For Hajime to make such insightful comments and actions on the darkness around her, she must also sink herself in this dark pool of thoughts. Her "genki" facade is exaggerated, and this may be the last stand for her against the darkness.

One of the most sharpest criticism she has made about the world around her is when she asked Rui, "Are those shining children your friends?". For someone who has just met him and witnessed his actions, that is a very painful question for Rui to answer.

Early in the anime we are shown a glimpse into this complex nature of our female main character. Instead of a room metaphor, we get to see how she uses her notebooks.

She had different note books for different things, showing that she handles different stuff independently. This is apparent in her later involvement in the MESS incident. Hajime treats duty and justice as different things.

In the early episodes, MESS, while being able to morph to anything under the sun, it prefers to run. Now that is strange. Don't you think it should morph, maybe to the double of its attacker and strike back, for an alien race that the Gatchaman takes it to be? Instead, it takes the cowardly route and ran, thrice in a row we are shown this action.

The Gatchaman takes it to be a show of their strength. Hajime being the newbie, has not understood her powers well, and in the skirmish with MESS, she saw that in spite being a powerful alien, it does not prefer to attack her and instead just morphs itself into a faux scissors. This makes her confused, but she bounces back immediately and even makes MESS into something like a lackey.

Again, we see the comparison of the old and new society here. Sugane, in spite of being more powerful than Hajime, but not flexible is not able to solve the MESS "threat", but Hajime, being extremely open and flexible in her thinking, was able to solve the threat without resorting to force. This is a criticism to the current Japanese society that without a fundamental change, they would not be able to clinch the results they actually want.

I've already mentioned how Hajime provides another perspective to Sugane. Something good may not really be the best choice to do, even though it is good. The nice ED of the series captures this spirit, and you can view the english translation here.

Hajime believes in changing the world with their own powers, but it doesn't mean that super heroes are not needed.

Superheroes are also part of the(ir) world too, su!

Aitsuko Volume 1 : Chapter 2

Volume 1 : Chapter 2 

• Update 1
• Update 2
• Update 3
• Update 4
• Update 5
• Update 6

A day full of frightening challenges had finally passed.

Being the host of a broadcast program, getting acquainted with my previous most revered seiyuu, finding out that that the said seiyuu just moved next door and had suddenly barged into my room.

The day felt like a dream. No, from some aspects, I really hoped that today was just a dream. However, it was not a bad day if I looked at it from the perspective of the whole day. No, wait. Getting to know the true face of Miss Otonashi, was also could be said as something that woke me from my dreams, right?

Anyway, I'm going to start a normal life today. The broadcast program recorded yesterday will not be on air so soon, so until the next program, I'm just your everyday high school student.

"So school's starting today, eh?"

Even though the spring break was only a short ten days, going back to school after a series of breaks, was really something that I don't feel comfortable doing.

However, I somehow managed to wake up before the alarm rang. I think it's the sunlight's fault, peeking through the curtains. The outside of my room had been blocked by the construction on the outer wall before, so my room had been in a state of darkness and I have not been graced by the morning sun for quite a long time.

Getting bathed in sunlight and waking up to a fresh morning once in a while may be nice, I guess.

I got up from bed and opened my curtains wide.

I then opened the windows and took a deep breath of the cool morning air.

However, I stopped breathing because of the view before me. Ah, this is simply a view showered in holy light!

--I forgot. That's right, my window is facing Miss Otonashi's room.

`"......"

It was just as they say, the early bird gets the worm. Even though I don't know how much worth is a worm to a bird, but the view before me is definitely something not just worth any amount of worms.

There were two suns. No!

I once again got my eyes full of Miss Otonashi as she was changing her shirt.

The difference with yesterday night was that, the Miss Otonashi was now facing my direction. She was putting on a white shirt.

She seemed to have just put her arms through the sleeves. The collar bones peeking out from the collars was just the appetizer.

As she have not buttoned her shirt, so the two round objects encased within her bra was exposed for all to see. This was the main course.

Just in the middle of her stomach, a slender small navel button. This should be the dessert.

Going downwards we have the panties, right after the dessert, a new main course!

It seems that, today Miss Otonashi opted for the full combination of white underwear!

Under the sunlight, her porcelain white skin seemed to give off a blinding radiance. The body that was completely different from a man's body, seemed to be so slender and luscious.

Has Miss Otonashi ever taken a swimming suit photo-shoot before?

I tried to flip through the photos of Miss Otonashi from the scrapbook in my head. As I had read the whole thing from front to back several times already, I had the all the photos engraved into my brain. I started checking from the first page. However, there is no memory of Miss Otonashi having taken such a photo-shoot before.

In other words, Miss Otonashi have never taken a swimming suit photo-shoot before.

In other words, in other words! Until now, Miss Otonashi have rarely shown her beautiful body to others!

In other words, in other words,in other words! Parts of Miss Otonashi's body which are normally out of bounds to others, was now shown before me! Not, not only that, even the forbidden parts are completely exposed to me!

And also this was happening after what happened last night!!!!!!!!! (Note: I'll have to make do by translating all 8 啊s into exclamation marks)

I have always heard that people worshiped the sun like a god, so I see, so I see! This was indeed something to be worshiped. Alright, I will put my palms together to express my thanks.

Thank you for letting me see something so brilliant. Thank you for the luck you gave me. Amen, amen.

Ah, I think there's something warm in the deep parts of my nose. I have always thought that having a nose bleed due to being overly excited was just something you see in manga, but I seemed to really am having a nosebleed......

Er, hey hey hey! Wait, wait, wait!

Was that supposed to be my reaction now?

"----Tsunemura Ryouto......"

Miss Otonashi's eyes met mine.

This......doesn't seem to be a good thing for me!

Miss Otonashi quickly covered herself.

And then silently closed the curtains.

"Ah, wait! It's, it's not what you think! This is an accident, an accident I tell you! Miss Otonashi? Did you hear me?!!!!!!!!!! Miss Otonashi !!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Even though I shouted loudly, but the curtains didn't seem to open again.

My palms that were supposed to be expressing my appreciation for a piece of art, became the expression of an apology.

I continued to yell for sometime, but my voice and pleads didn't seem to get across. What came instead was the bell from the lower floor of my house.

After that, my room door was immediately opened. The person that appeared at my door, was of course someone who had lost all the image of a seiyuu idol, and had the face of a enraged ogre, Miss Otonashi. Her hair that was slightly curled seemed to stood on their ends. I do hope that this was because she just woke up and not because of her extreme rage!

Eh...eh? I seemed to have seen the uniform from somewhere.

`"Miss...Miss Otonshi! Good Morning! Looking...Looking at the uniform you're wearing, does this mean that you're going to the same high school as I am?"

I tried to use a calm attitude to do a pleasant morning chat with her. However, the other party was as silent as a rock. Alas, the strategy to divert her attention was to no avail!

As it was simply too frightening, I cannot even run away from Miss Otonashi who was slowly advancing towards me!

She suddenly gave me a smile. That...that was good, so she wasn't angry at all? I guess that was the case. I mean, it was also her fault for not putting down the curtains!

Suddenly, a fist from Miss Otonashi hit me right in the heart!

"You outsider!!!!!"

`"Ooooooowwwwwhhhhh!"

I was completely knocked back by this punch. The force behind Miss Otonashi's punch made it hard to believe that it was a fist by a girl......ouch.

Hey, my name is Ryouto, you know......

"You saw it, right?"

`"..................Yeah...I saw........."

"So you did! You pervert! Hentai!" (Note: Hentai mean pervert, for those who don't know.)

"That's......not it! I was not looking at purpose!"

As the damage done by the fist was simply too great, I can't even talk properly!

`"......Anyway......You didn't even close the curtains properly......"

"What? Are you telling me that it's my fault? Are you telling me that the disgrace just now was my fault?"

`"Be...Because......Didn't we tell each other to take more care of our own privacy yesterday?"

"I'm a girl and you're a guy, you know! As a guy, of course you should take more care than me on this!"

Does...Does this mean that I didn't have the right to bathe in the sunlight? This is an infringement of one's right to sunlight! 

"Ugh, you the outsider, my stupid old pop, all men are the same......"

Miss Otonashi used her golden left hand to pull her hair to the back of her head gracefully. (Note: A reference to Diego Maradona's "hand of god") Instead of saying that she was an idol, she was radiating the aura of a regal existence. Hmm? ......your stupid old pop?

After I have slowly recovered from the pain, my mother appeared.

"Ryouto, what are you doing? Madoka-Chan is going to the same high school as you are starting from today! She's even waiting for you to go with her, so be nice and lead the way properly, okay!"

"I'm embarrassed for intruding this early in the morning, Auntie. "

Woah, she's acting the nice demure girl! She even raised the pitch of her voice by one level!

She really is the professional actor with that perfect performance, isn't she?

"Don't worry, it's fine, Madoka-chan! Thank you for coming specially to wake my stupid son up. Ah, right, Madoka-chan, have you eaten breakfast?"

"No, because of 'many things that have happened', so I left without eating anything."

Miss Otonashi answered while looking at me. Was she trying to blame me for everything?

"Oh, is that so? Well then, would you like to come down for breakfast while waiting for Ryouto to get ready?"

"Eh? That would be even more embarrassing for me."

"Don't worry, don't worry! If you don't mind eating Ryouto's portion."

Hey, mom. Then what about my breakfast?

"Well then, I would take you up on your offer."

Don't use such a soft gentle voice to accept the offer!

Don't seize away my breakfast!

Also, mum, could you please be more caring about me who is lying on the floor!

This world just treats me too badly!

"Hey, be quick, outsider."

Miss Otonashi raised the voice at the end as she told me that before she left. My...my name is Ryouto, you know......

In the end, my breakfast was eaten by Miss Otonashi. Unable to do anything else, I only got to munch on a piece of toasted bread which was about to expire. However, once I ate it, I noticed that it was not just about to expire, it had expired. My stomach was getting a one-two punch from everybody around me, eh?

Burusato High School where I studied was just a fifteen minutes walk from my house, so it was an awkward distance where I couldn't register to ride a bicycle to school. And so, it would not trigger an incident where my girlfriend would ride with me on the back of my bicycle or something like that. Um, even though I did not have a girlfriend anyway.

On the way to school, Miss Otonashi and me were both silent. No, it should be said that the incident just now was so shocking that I don't even know what to say to her now. Even though I have already apologized profusely to her......This really doesn't make sense to me.

On the other hand, Miss Otonashi fits really well with just about any clothing she wears. I couldn't stop myself from thinking that when I turned around to see her.

She was now on her earphones, so she might be listening to some kind of music. She seemed to completely not have any notion to chat with me. Ah, I got stared at. I guess I should just look straight ahead as I walk.

Until now, I have seen Miss Otonashi wear her uniform to act for some character in many occasions. As those characters are anime characters, so the uniform design would be much intricate. However, once Miss Otonashi put on the old-school and bland-looking uniform of our school, it makes one look at it in a different light. She really was amazing. Maybe that's something that only beauties can do?

However, with my other-worldly powers, I managed to capture a truly special view of this beauty.

Even though the fact that looking at the naked body of girls makes us boys excited is a kind of innate ability, however, if I were just to use the word "ability" to explain this feeling, it would be an understatement. The reason was that the other party was Miss Otonashi. Using a piece of thin cloth called underwear to cover her most important parts of the body was really something that makes me so excited that...

"The outsider in front of me."

`"Y-yes?"

"No thinking back just now and smiling on your own."

How do you know that! I was the one walking in front, right?

Could it be said that, as Miss Otonashi had been training her acting skills since a young age, she had been able to discern any small and subtle signs of changes in the emotions of others? I feel that if I were to lie in front of her it would be exposed in a flash.

I bore the weight of the stress emanating from Miss Otonashi walking just a few steps behind me, and just as I was going to be worn out completely, we finally reached the school. In any case, my job will be completed once I brought her to the staff room.

"I have not forgiven you, you know?"

Miss Otonashi threw this sentence just as we parted. Wu wu......so she really was still angry with me, eh?

`"Ah,right."

I called out to Miss Otonashi who was about to enter the staff office. There was something that I had to tell her first.

`"Please help me keep it a secret in school too."

I'm already feeling embarassed about going on a broadcast program, and if the news about hosting it with the seiyuu idol Otonashi Madoka got around, I don't think it will do me any good. At the very least, my close friends will do violent acts on me out of jealousy.

Miss Otonashi completely ignored the worry growing in my heart and walk straight into the staff office.

That aside, to confirm how would the classes be divided, I walked outside.

Actually, the both of us entered school from the back door, so I didn't see the results of the class division near the front door.

As for why we were walking from the back door...

That was because on the way to school, there were way too many eyes on Miss Otonashi. If I were to bring such an attractive beautiful young girl directly to the front door, I would surely be interrogated by my friends. And if they were to know that this beautiful young girl was the seiyuu idol Miss Otonashi, the results would be unimaginable. So, we sneaked stealthily into the school through the back door. Even though it was unavoidable that we got stares from some students, but my luck was not bad, as we didn't meet anybody I know......maybe.

"Morning~"

Upon reaching the classroom, the usual members of my gang were already gathered together.

It seems that my friends were also in the same class as me. Even though the problem of the declining birth rate was frequently discussed in the current society, the number of classes for each year in my school had as much as six classes. With so many classes, the probability of being in the same classes with all my friends was pretty slim.

Before the teacher entered the class, I chatted excitedly with Amachi, Kuzumi, Takamizawa about the normal mundane stuff we usually talk about. I think they are also fans of Miss Otonashi, or it should be said that, they have been influenced by me?

Even though we have never discussed about it, but the leader of our group is unanimously Takamizuwa. There is also Amachi, with his high intelligence, which also caused him to take zealous interest in a lot of things, and Kuzumi, who was the first to take interest in Miss Otonashi, under my recommendation.

The four of us, including me, often gather together. We're not only classmates, but also best otaku friends.

Of course, about Miss Otonashi and me, I'm also keeping it a secret from them. Even though this is painful for my heart to do this, but it was much better than having my body bear the same pain if this thing went into the open.

Ding~dong~dang~dong~

As we were discussing about the newest anime and the newest games that just went on the shelves, the bell rang.

And the teacher entered the class as it rang.

"Hi everyone~! Well then, would everyone please sit down according to the order written on the attendance list!"

As if she was going to start a crosstalk performance, walking into the classroom while clapping her hands......Eh? Is she going to be my class teacher for this year!

She is the female teacher who loves comedies, Miss Wada. She was quite famous for saying cold jokes out of the blue no matter the occasion.

"Alright, alright. Please sit down quickly! It's 'sit' in English. Girls, don't get jealous of me because I'm cute! I'm just joking!"

"......"

Um, How old is this teacher anyway? Was she actually saying that she is cute?

Laughing on her own after saying a cold joke, she was really such a blissful person. Yup, even if you were single your whole life, you will have a blissful life, teacher.

Even though I put it that way, but the effects of her cold jokes are amazing. This was because after she finished her cold jokes, almost the whole class will quiet down. This was the coup de grace to silence any noisy student.

After laughing on her own, the teacher would have a smug look on her face, that spoke of "The joke I said just now was interesting, wasn't it?", as she looked around the class. So, everyone sat straight and coughed gently while turning their focus to their notebooks. This was because obviously, this was not something one would want to dwell on.

A long time ago, I heard that some brave soul decided to rant to the teacher on her jokes. Alas, it was to no avail, and on the contrary, it was thought that the person's rant was the one that made the whole class go cold. The end result was that this incident left such a huge scar in the person's heart that he even refused to go to school or something.

"Alright, alright. Well then, let me now introduce the newly transferred student!"

Everyone went bustling in a flash!

I got a nervous feeling in my heart for no reason!

The transfer student she was talking about was Miss Otonashi, wasn't it? Why was she transferred to this class!

"Let's welcome her to present herself! Present! Wait that's wrong, it should be please come up to the stage! I'm just joking!"

This would simply be the worst opening talk I have ever seen. The situation of transferring schools was already something that would make one nervous, and what's worse was that she was invited to come on stage with a cold joke, by the teacher, no less!

Even so, Miss Otonashi, who presented herself as she opened the classroom door slowly, showed no signs of being nervous at all. She was even showing a small smile, walking gracefully to the front of the stage.

"Woooaaahhh!"

All kinds of surprised sounds echoed in the classroom.

Amachi, Kuzumi, Takamizawa were simply dumbfounded. I sat behind the three of them so all I could see was their backs, but they were staring to the front of them in unison.

Her silky hair shook with natural grace with every step she took. Even though this might just be my opinion, but I think she would leave a nice smell anywhere she walked.

She stood properly in front of the stage, looking around the class. She greeted the class with a look that said, "good morning, everyone." As Miss Otonashi looked around the class, her eyes met mine, but she did not show any reaction. My heart pounded hard once. Of course, it was out of fear.

However, if we were to just talk about her outer appearance, then the person standing before us is undeniably the seiyuu idol Otonashi Madoka I have met during the broadcast program yesterday.

"Nice to meet you, my name is Otonashi Madoka. Due to the nature of my work, I might have to take plenty of leaves from school, but I still hope that we would get along well."

A voice that was as clear as crystal. Even though the volume was not loud, her voice reverberated in every corner of the classroom. Was it some kind of special way to speaking?

After that, she bowed deeply. The whole class looked on, stunned, as they watched her long hair flow down. Using her hand to put her hair in place after she lifted her face, she showed that smile again.

The boys in the class instantly fell for her. Wait, from the looks of it, it was not only the boys who had fallen for her.

"Wooooaaaahhh!"

Next, it was this kind of reaction. Hey it's just a transfer student who introduced herself, you know?

The clapping that just won't stop. If this goes on, I feel that everyone would be chanting her name loudly together.

"Everyone! Calm down a little! Alright, quickly calm down!"

Miss Wada's voice was overshadowed by the clapping, sounding extremely weak.

"Dong~Dong~Dong. Ah, is this the sound of pounding mochi! I'm just joking!" (Note: Mochi is a kind of a japanese rice cake. Frankly I don't even know that this was a joke...)

".............................."

Only the cold joke went into everyone's ears. Why was it so? How much effort did you put into voicing that? Did you want everyone to hear your cold joke that badly?

However, Miss Wada was indeed impressive to get the students who were so excited that they on the verge of doing the "wave" dance silenced in an instant.


Everyone averted their eyes as Miss Wada looked around the class.



`"Ah,right."

I called out to Miss Otonashi who was about to enter the staff office. There was something that I had to tell her first.

`"Please help me keep it a secret in school too."

I'm already feeling embarassed about going on a broadcast program, and if the news about hosting it with the seiyuu idol Otonashi Madoka got around, I don't think it will do me any good. At the very least, my close friends will do violent acts on me out of jealousy.

Miss Otonashi completely ignored the worry growing in my heart and walk straight into the staff office.

That aside, to confirm how would the classes be divided, I walked outside.

Actually, the both of us entered school from the back door, so I didn't see the results of the class division near the front door.

As for why we were walking from the back door...

That was because on the way to school, there were way too many eyes on Miss Otonashi. If I were to bring such an attractive beautiful young girl directly to the front door, I would surely be interrogated by my friends. And if they were to know that this beautiful young girl was the seiyuu idol Miss Otonashi, the results would be unimaginable. So, we sneaked stealthily into the school through the back door. Even though it was unavoidable that we got stares from some students, but my luck was not bad, as we didn't meet anybody I know......maybe.

"Morning~"

Upon reaching the classroom, the usual members of my gang were already gathered together.

It seems that my friends were also in the same class as me. Even though the problem of the declining birth rate was frequently discussed in the current society, the number of classes for each year in my school had as much as six classes. With so many classes, the probability of being in the same classes with all my friends was pretty slim.

Before the teacher entered the class, I chatted excitedly with Amachi, Kuzumi, Takamizawa about the normal mundane stuff we usually talk about. I think they are also fans of Miss Otonashi, or it should be said that, they have been influenced by me?

Even though we have never discussed about it, but the leader of our group is unanimously Takamizuwa. There is also Amachi, with his high intelligence, which also caused him to take zealous interest in a lot of things, and Kuzumi, who was the first to take interest in Miss Otonashi, under my recommendation.

The four of us, including me, often gather together. We're not only classmates, but also best otaku friends.

Of course, about Miss Otonashi and me, I'm also keeping it a secret from them. Even though this is painful for my heart to do this, but it was much better than having my body bear the same pain if this thing went into the open.

Ding~dong~dang~dong~

As we were discussing about the newest anime and the newest games that just went on the shelves, the bell rang.

And the teacher entered the class as it rang.

"Hi everyone~! Well then, would everyone please sit down according to the order written on the attendance list!"

As if she was going to start a crosstalk performance, walking into the classroom while clapping her hands......Eh? Is she going to be my class teacher for this year!

She is the female teacher who loves comedies, Miss Wada. She was quite famous for saying cold jokes out of the blue no matter the occasion.

"Alright, alright. Please sit down quickly! It's 'sit' in English. Girls, don't get jealous of me because I'm cute! I'm just joking!"

"......"

Um, How old is this teacher anyway? Was she actually saying that she is cute?

Laughing on her own after saying a cold joke, she was really such a blissful person. Yup, even if you were single your whole life, you will have a blissful life, teacher.

Even though I put it that way, but the effects of her cold jokes are amazing. This was because after she finished her cold jokes, almost the whole class will quiet down. This was the coup de grace to silence any noisy student.

After laughing on her own, the teacher would have a smug look on her face, that spoke of "The joke I said just now was interesting, wasn't it?", as she looked around the class. So, everyone sat straight and coughed gently while turning their focus to their notebooks. This was because obviously, this was not something one would want to dwell on.

A long time ago, I heard that some brave soul decided to rant to the teacher on her jokes. Alas, it was to no avail, and on the contrary, it was thought that the person's rant was the one that made the whole class go cold. The end result was that this incident left such a huge scar in the person's heart that he even refused to go to school or something.

"Alright, alright. Well then, let me now introduce the newly transferred student!"

Everyone went bustling in a flash!

I got a nervous feeling in my heart for no reason!

The transfer student she was talking about was Miss Otonashi, wasn't it? Why was she transferred to this class!

"Let's welcome her to present herself! Present! Wait that's wrong, it should be please come up to the stage! I'm just joking!"

This would simply be the worst opening talk I have ever seen. The situation of transferring schools was already something that would make one nervous, and what's worse was that she was invited to come on stage with a cold joke, by the teacher, no less!

Even so, Miss Otonashi, who presented herself as she opened the classroom door slowly, showed no signs of being nervous at all. She was even showing a small smile, walking gracefully to the front of the stage.

"Woooaaahhh!"

All kinds of surprised sounds echoed in the classroom.

Amachi, Kuzumi, Takamizawa were simply dumbfounded. I sat behind the three of them so all I could see was their backs, but they were staring to the front of them in unison.

Her silky hair shook with natural grace with every step she took. Even though this might just be my opinion, but I think she would leave a nice smell anywhere she walked.

She stood properly in front of the stage, looking around the class. She greeted the class with a look that said, "good morning, everyone." As Miss Otonashi looked around the class, her eyes met mine, but she did not show any reaction. My heart pounded hard once. Of course, it was out of fear.

However, if we were to just talk about her outer appearance, then the person standing before us is undeniably the seiyuu idol Otonashi Madoka I have met during the broadcast program yesterday.

"Nice to meet you, my name is Otonashi Madoka. Due to the nature of my work, I might have to take plenty of leaves from school, but I still hope that we would get along well."

A voice that was as clear as crystal. Even though the volume was not loud, her voice reverberated in every corner of the classroom. Was it some kind of special way to speaking?

After that, she bowed deeply. The whole class looked on, stunned, as they watched her long hair flow down. Using her hand to put her hair in place after she lifted her face, she showed that smile again.

The boys in the class instantly fell for her. Wait, from the looks of it, it was not only the boys who had fallen for her.

"Wooooaaaahhh!"

Next, it was this kind of reaction. Hey it's just a transfer student who introduced herself, you know?

The clapping that just won't stop. If this goes on, I feel that everyone would be chanting her name loudly together.

"Everyone! Calm down a little! Alright, quickly calm down!"

Miss Wada's voice was overshadowed by the clapping, sounding extremely weak.

"Dong~Dong~Dong. Ah, is this the sound of pounding mochi! I'm just joking!" (Note: Mochi is a kind of a japanese rice cake. Frankly I don't even know that this was a joke...)

".............................."

Only the cold joke went into everyone's ears. Why was it so? How much effort did you put into voicing that? Did you want everyone to hear your cold joke that badly?

However, Miss Wada was indeed impressive to get the students who were so excited that they on the verge of doing the "wave" dance silenced in an instant.

Everyone averted their eyes as Miss Wada looked around the class.

After confirming that everyone has calmed down, Miss Wada once again introduced Miss Otonashi with a confident face.

"Alright, as her name suggests, Otonashi would seem like a very sweet and demure girl, so everyone please be kind and caring to her! As for the boys, don't try anything funny while you're at it!"

"Thank you, teacher. However, I'm not sweet and demure at all. My mother has always told me that I have to act more like a girl."

That was completely correct.

A sweet and demure girl would not have punched a guy's body in the early morning.

"Well then, why don't you just sit on an empty seat? Oh, such a cute girl has transferred to my class, I'm so envious, you know! I'm just joking!"

So powerful! She actually used the same cold joke again without a hint of shame! She was invincible from some point of view!

"Where would you like to sit? You can sit anywhere you please!"

Miss Otonashi looked around the classroom again, before pointing at me.

"Well then, I'll sit there then."

Well, to be exact, at the seat behind me. I sat in the last seat of middle row. There was indeed an empty space behind me.

"Tsunemura, would you please help move the desks?"

Miss Wada moved another set of desk and chair from the corridor outside the classroom. Helpless to do anything except help out, I felt that people were looking at me and thinking "Why you?". I would also like to retort with the question, "Why me?".

After I had moved the desk in front of Miss Otonashi, she said, 

"Thank you. I'm sorry for bothering you like this."

The act of being all demure without even saying "That's okay, I'll do it myself", is really quite the feat. This was indeed the perfect way of making me move the desk for her while maintaining her goody-two-shoes image.

Once I finished moving the desks, Miss Wada began to talk about contact details of the school. Of course, she said a few cold jokes while she was at it.

Even though everyone was not listening seriously, they were pretty restrained, not doing anything so shameless like turning around to look at Miss Otonashi. Everyone was looking in front quietly.

And that was why, she turned her fangs on me.

`"Ouch!"

My chair got kicked!

A shock wave went straight into my core. Well, of course that was so. As I'm only protected by a thin piece of wood, it was no different from getting my posterior kicked!

`"Wh-Wha-What do you want?"

"Has the teacher always been like that?"

It was just like she had no relationship with the person who was sweet and demure just now, as she jabbed her lower chin in the direction of Miss Wada while she spoke to me.

`"Well, she's basically like that. Even when she is teaching. You can't get too serious with that part of her."

I stealthily turned my head to answer. If I were to ignore her, I would have been subject to another kick...

"By the way, why are you here?"

`"Even if you put it like that, it's something I can't prevent."

"Even in the classroom I have to be with this outsider...how far are you going to interfere with my life?"

`"My name is Ryouto! Not outsider! Besides, I'm not interfering with your life in anyway! Even it was so, why the heck did you choose the seat behind me anyway!"

"Um...this was because I felt that many things would be easier that way."

`"What do you take me for...?"

"My slave."

Hey hey, aren't you answering a little too quick and determined there!

"Hey, that's because you saw my naked body. Not once, but twice. Being a slave just a small price to pay for that, understood?"

That seem understandable......I can't help but think that way. That probably was equatable in terms of value. No! No! No! Even so, I can't just agree to it like that!

`"What naked body! I only looked at you wearing your underwear!"

"Eh? Didn't I ask you to forget about it?"

This was too unreasonable......Wanting me to forget about what I saw, while asking me to pay something of the same price.

"Well, that's it then. I'll be in your care in school."

You look very happy, don't you, Miss Otonashi. I felt as if I was worn out already......

There was only the opening ceremony today in school, so there were no classes. The students first gathered in the sports stadium, and after perfectly ignoring the principal's speech, lazily returned to their classrooms, and continued to ignore Miss Wada's cold jokes. Then, the day was over. I felt as if only the "ignore" ability of my class would get raised.

However, the feeling that my energy getting exhausted at a rate not proportional to time should not be my imagination.

In any case, it would be better if I could get home early to watch the spring season anime that had been prerecorded. 

"Attention, everyone!!!"

I seemed to have heard something. Quick, activate the "ignore" ability that I have been training for so long.

Alright, time to go back home! No matter what happens I have to go back home!

"Hey, Ryouto! Don't be so selfish!"

Takamizawa stood at the stage pointing at me. What the heck are you getting excited about? If you want to attract everyone's attention just do it yourself. I'm not someone like that. Sigh, look. All because of you pointing at me, everyone was looking at me!

Home room time was just over, and even though Miss Wada has not left, Takamizawa ignored the presence of the teacher and wrote a few large words on the blackboard on his own.

Welcome party.

Even though his writing were completely unrelated to any sense of prettiness or tidiness, but at least I could see what it meant. 

"Anyone who is free later, come with me! We're going to hold a welcome ceremony for Miss Otonashi!"

Oh, that's great! Have fun so the new transfer student get familiar with her classmates as soon as possible! But I'm going home!

"By the way, I asked Miss Otonashi about it and she agreed!"

Takamizawa's arms were on his waist and he stuck out his chest, like he did something great. However, did you really do something to be proud of?

"Oh yeeeaaaaaah!!!"

"Good job, Takamizawa!"

All the male students were clapping their hands. What happened? Do normal second year high school guys really want to meet idols that much?

Even...Even though if I hadn't seen the true face of Miss Otonashi, I might have the same reaction of everybody else anyway!

However, on the other hand, all the girls were looking coldly at you, Takamizawa, is that really okay? Shouldn't you take care of the girls around you first? (Note: Originally 你应该先确保比较贴近自己的存在才对吧, which literally translates to "shouldn't you make sure of the existence of people around you first?".)

"Girls! Think about it! Miss Otonashi is the most popular seiyuu idol now, you know! If you get into her good books now, she might even introduce some cool guys to you!"

"Takamizawa~~~"

"I wanna go too!"

He really knows the way to a woman's heart! This was completely in his hands all along!

But I digress. Talking nonsense like that, is that really okay? I turned around to look at Miss Otonashi behind me.

"This is just something normal."

Miss Otonashi shrugged her shoulders and said. Could it be said that she had liberal mind or that she had already got used to it?

Unknowingly, Takamizawa had a crowd around him. It seems like half the class was going.

Miss Otonashi took her bag and walk past me...No wait, she stopped.

"Come join us. Aren't you free today anyway?"

`"Uh, but I have some......"

Even though I was a little unhappy at being defined as a slack, that was however the truth, so I can't say anything about it.

"Eh? Don't you want to come?"

This is an act, don't be fooled. Miss Otonashi wouldn't say something cute like that.

"It...It's not like I want you to come or anything!"

...Well...Well, I guess I'll just have to go...(Note: Both lines are said by Miss Otonashi. Two-KO punch!)

"What a simple guy. You're going to get cheated by bad women, you know."

`"Yup. In fact, over these years, I have always been cheated by a bad woman called Otonashi Madoka...Uwah!"

The school-regulated bag violently swung past my eyes, as if to stop me from talking! My solar plexus almost got hit.

"Ah. Sorry. Were you saying something?"

With all smiles, the violent girl who wanted to use her bag to hit me asked me. Her motion just now wasn't just to adjust her bag properly. How hard were you going to hit me anyway?

`"I...didn't say anything......"

"Anyway, just come. If anything were to happen, it would be much easier if you were there."

"Sigh......is this an order?"

Sigh, it can't be helped then. Even though I would really like to watch the anime that I have recorded yesterday earlier, it seems that the only thing I could do was to stand it for a while. Even though, Miss Otonashi has also participated in the voice acting of the anime anyway.

There were around 20 people who came, a large group of people walking towards the karaoke box. Getting a large box easily, with all the snacks and drinks provided, and even not getting scolded if we were too noisy,this was only possible at a low price if it was a weekday afternoon. What a great time to be alive.

Even though it was a karaoke box, there wasn't any hard and fast rule that you must sing in it. As you would have guessed, Miss Otonashi must take care of all the questions thrown her way. The people sitting around her were basically girls and gleeful guys. Even though Miss Otonashi was quite famous, what does she actually do? They are people who base their actions on this kind of curiosity. 

On the other hand, we......actually it should be said people who already knew that Otonashi Madoka was a famous seiyuu, chose to keep a distance with her instead. We don't near her on a whim. Even if we do, we would be so nervous that we would not know what to talk about. We are a group of such people. 

Even though I'm just keeping a distance from her because I know what she really was like. 

"Hey, Ryouto. Aren't you a little too calm for a Otonashi Madoka super fan?"

Kuzumi, who was as much of a Otonashi Madoka fan as me spotted something wrong with me with his keen eyes.

"Ah, no. I'm very excited. How do I put this? I just so excited that I have become calm."

No matter the fact that Miss Otonashi just moved to the house beside mine, getting to know her, hosting a broadcast program with her, are all secrets.

In any case, I plan to avoid getting into any sort of relation with her in school, so I sat at a distance from her, watching her reaction as she responded to the questions. 

Miss Otonashi herself has been receiving questions about her basic information.

"When did you start working?"

"If you're talking about being a seiyuu, I think it was after graduating from junior high. Even though I have been acting since I was younger anyway."

"Miss Otonashi's father is that Mr Otonashi Minamotofutoshi, right?"

"Yeah, but I don't really know much about my father. This was because he passed away when I was really young."

I already knew all of this without even asking about it! I saw this from an interview report on some magazine! 

Miss Otonashi only started acting after her father passed away. After that, she was placed under the drama troupe that her father had created, and after one drama act, some producer saw her talent and so she started after her seiyuu career......I silently added these information in my heart.

However, she seemed to have some trouble due to her father's influence.

"What does a seiyuu do?"

If there were to have a survey among children about "Your dream job", "Seiyuu" happens to be among the top three occupation choices. As you can see, this is a question that most people would be interested in.

"Um~like dubbing for foreign films, and anime characters, et cetera, all kinds of stuff. Recently I got more jobs about hosting broadcast programs or photo shoots."

"However, to convey everything through your voice, sounds like a tough job!"

"En, that is true. But since we don't have to film a video, we can put all our effort into our voice, so I guess it's a one-for-one trade."

"Miss Otonashi is really pretty. Isn't just being a seiyuu too bad? Have you ever thought about aiming to be an actress?"

"Eh! Nothing like that. Thank you for your praise! However, being a seiyuu is also pretty fun. Not only can we dub for female characters, we could also dub for males and animals. Ah, sometimes we could even turn into a Hollywood star!"

Miss Otonashi, until a few years prior, had been an actress in the troupe. Thinking about this made me think that she was indeed pretty amazing. It's just like she was the living embodiment of talent. Even though she was also using the same talent for acting to pulling the wool over the classmates' eyes. That is why I just feel so bad for her. If she was a cute girl on the inside, then she was really the perfect girl!

"I've also participated in the voice acting of some of the spring season anime. If you don't mind, you can watch some of them."

Advertising herself nonchalantly, Miss Otonashi you're really clever.

"What kinds of guys do you like?"

A male student asked the question provocatively. It's the guy who was sitting beside Miss Otonashi all along. 

Hearing his question, every male student in the room cleared their ears.

However -- 

This questions is really pointless. This was because, the person replying is Miss Otonashi who has mastered the art of acting perfectly.

"Not limited to guys, but I think people who work for their dreams are really cool."

Alright, there's the perfect answer for you! For someone who was used to such circumstances, her way of answering questions diplomatically is really unparalleled. 

"Why do you want to study in our school?"

What's that about "want to"? It's just a coincidence, isn't it? There's a 80% chance she was going to answer with a reason like it being near to home or such, right?

"That's because I'm getting busier everyday, so I would like to live near my agency. Frankly, the reason is just that the school is near my home."

I was completely correct!

"Oh, right."

A female student whose name I don't even remember said that before turning her eyes on me, who was busy ranting in my heart. Have I said anything aloud? No, no, nothing like that. It was just one broadcast program, so it's not like I got some occupational compulsion that quickly. (Note: originally 职业病, which is literally occupational disease, but in reality it is closer to an OCD regarding your occupation.)

"Madoka-chan, are you acquainted with Tsunemura?"

Uh oh, have she seen us talking under our breaths in the classroom?

By the way, has that girl got into a first name basis with Miss Otonashi? I guess that's a privilege of being the same gender as a girl. If some boy told another boy, "call me by my first name directly next time", it would feel like stepping into another world.

Well then, how do you plan to deal with the people looking my way?

"Um......he was seated in front of me so I was just saying hi to him."

Miss Otonashi gave me a small smile as she looked at me. However, I understood what she meant very well. As the main character of Miss Otonashi's answer, I couldn't understand more than this. She must have been thinking "I'll just help you keep it a secret for now".

"Gah, I'm feeling so jealous of you! To be able to talk to someone so pretty!"

That provocative guy tried to tease me who was keeping a low profile and sitting at the corner. I really hoped that he would stop that.

Look, Miss Otonashi's eyes are already shining.

"Tsunemura, don't hide in the corner, why don't you sit here."

Miss Otonashi slightly moved away from her seat, creating an empty seat. Are you asking me to sit beside you?

Why...should...I...sit...beside...the main character!

Hesitant, I was unable to shift from my seat.

What I saw next, was the two streams of ideas, "why you" and "You aren't going to reject Miss Otonashi's when she's already offered you, right?", none of which would bring about a happy ending for me if I choose any of them.

In addition, Miss Otonashi had a twisted smile on her face. That was her showing her true face in the instant everyone had their attention on me.

There was no way to run. Even if there was only hell before me, I could only walk forward.

Miss Otonashi's side was also where everyone's attention was at.

"As we're seated really close, I'll have to bother you about teaching me about the school."

`"Al-Alright......"

I surrendered completely, without any notion of resistance. I hope I can leave this battlefield with the barest casualty. Of course, I don't think I can leave without a scratch on me.

"Thanks for moving the desks for me."

`"You-You're welcome, that's nothing big....."

"I'll look forward to your care in the future."

`"Me-Me too......"

"Tsunemura, you're my fan, right?"

`"Y-yeah......Uh! Eh?"

Gaaaaaaaaah! Don't expose something like this!

Even though I have told my friends, who were also otaku about this face, but I have never openly admitted to that. Even though it was not something that I have keep secret, but it was also not something to publicize anyway.

Just as I was thinking like that, eh? Why was everybody nodding in agreement! What's the deal about the reaction like you guys already knew about it!

"I'm really glad to hear that. Thank you!"

This sentence was said without a shred of sincerity. Her smile was full of contempt. 

"Come on, don't be so nervous. I'm just your average classmate after this after all."

Average...classmate? An average classmate wouldn't call others her slave, would she?

Even if we were neighbours, and also hosts of the same broadcast program, so we were never just average classmates. Although I can't tell anyone about this now anyway!

"You know, I really hope to interact with my fans more. This is also to repay everyone for supporting me all this time."

I couldn't tell completely how much truth was in her speech just now. It just feels strange.

At the same time, Miss Otonashi winked at me playfully. If she was an idol character in some anime, she did the action so perfectly that stars would have shot out of her eyes. Being so perfectly matched would really be her personal charm, I guess.

Watching Miss Otonashi's every move, the classmates around her exclaimed in wonder.

Don't be fooled! Everybody just calm down. It's just an act anyway!

"Okay! Since we've already reached the Karaoke anyway, why don't we start singing!"

The person who suddenly spoke up, was the guy who had been sitting beside Miss Otonashi before I came. He probably tried to change the situation after seeing the seat beside Miss Otonashi get taken away by me, and that the both of us seem to be chatting away happily. Even though this was just his delusion, but I must say, good job!

After this, what's left was to escape from this place. To escape from Miss Otonashi's clutches!

"Eh, where are you going?"

Mission failed!

I got pounced on the instant I tried to get up. It seems that she was not going to let go me any moment now. So I tried to ask for help from my friends through my eyes. However, what I got return was hateful stares. Argh, I can't rely on them now.

Quick, I need a plan now! I have to escape somehow!

"Right, I remember that Miss Otonashi had her own CD, right?"

Somebody said that, making everyone focus on the main character again.

"Miss Otonashi~! Sing a song~!"

Everyone in the room called out to Miss Otonashi in unison. No, wait, suddenly asking the main character of the welcome party to sing isn't really nice to do, right!

Besides, letting the person sing her own song, it does not feel like it's a Karaoke anymore.

Naturally, nobody heard the ranting in my heart. The microphone is passed to Miss Otonashi. 

"Sing a song? Ne-never mind about that. I'll get nervous, you know."

Stop cheating these people! For someone who has been singing on a stage countless times, how could you get cold feet just singing in a Karake!

"Eh? Really? Uh! Then I'll try my best."

Wow~such a perfect reaction. Nothing to nitpick out of that. Did you prepare a script for that?

After she accepted the microphone, Miss Otonashi began to choose a song. You obviously tried to decline just now and now look, aren't you happy to control the machine?

After that, Miss Otonashi who was originally looking at the screen suddenly turned to me. Dammit! I actually missed the god sent chance just now to escape!

"Tsunemura, what song do you want me to sing?"

`"Eh? Me?"

Why are you asking me! Can't you ask for everybody's opinion! Could you please stop bullying me!

"I think, if it were Tsunemura who knows me so well, then you would be able to pick a good song for me."

Miss Otonashi turned the small screen to me for me to choose.

Hmm! What song to choose! Hey wait, any song will do anyway! If any song will do then......this song will do. Even though it has been on air for quite some time, but this is the song that I have played the most in my portable music player......Argh, dammit. So in the end I really wanted to hear her sing anyway!

After the music started to play, the lights in the room went dim. A stage performance in a karaoke box.

Iridescent lights shone on the walls.

Loud catchy beats shook the core of everyone present.

It felt like this karaoke box has been cut off from the world. Maybe this was a similar feeling like when I was in the broadcast studio.

And in this space where lights and music intertwined--

She stood at the center.

The girl who had been sitting beside me until now.

No wait, she's still beside me, just that she was standing up. 

She started to sing. Not looking at the television screen with the lyrics, but looking at each and everyone one at a time. 

This song is the title track of the her first solo album. Before this, she have sung plenty of anime character songs; but this song, is where she sung as her own self, instead of a character. 

The song had a vibrant rock tune, but the lyrics seem to make one's heart ache instead. 

A voice that could make people who had been chatting enthusiastically quiet down and fall for her.

She completely dominated this space.

Not letting go of any of the eyes on her. Not releasing any of the fans' hearts captured.

Finally she came to the chorus. And she looked at me as she sat beside me.

And then I finally realized it. The reason why my heart had been shocked so thoroughly, was not only due to her beautiful voice.

This is too cunning. She looked perfect only on the outside. This is an unyielding fact. So for my heart to beat that wildly, is also something I can't prevent. 

By the time me and Miss Otonashi relinquished our freedom, the sun had already set west. If I think about us leaving school in the early afternoon, then this was really a long welcome party.

Bidding our classmates goodbye on our way home, in the end, there was only the two of us, Miss Otonashi and me. I walked on the road as if I was chasing the shadow of Miss Otonashi's head.

"Hey, outsider. I'm just so damn tired after all that singing."

The cute idol who held an impromptu solo performance just now has now disappeared into thin air. That's just too bad.

`"I didn't hear it. I didn't hear anything at all."

"Why are you following behind me?"

`"That's because our home is in the same direction!"

Miss Otonashi laughed out gleefully.

"You're getting used to talking to me. Even though you're just an outsider."

Wu......it may actually be so. Even though I have seen Miss Otonashi's true face with my own eyes, but, like yesterday, the nervous reaction that I have when I see her, is slowly fading away.

Although I have no idea what did she mean by "even though you're just an outsider."

"However, you were finally of some use today."

`"Ah? Of what use?"

"The boy who had been sitting beside me in the karaoke box, was pretty annoying."

`"So you asked me to sit beside you?"

"That's because you're much easier to handle."

So that's the reason why I got bullied? Dammit, I was going to thank the guy, but now I'm going to take that back. It's all his fault. My identity of an otaku seiyuu fan was exposed because of him. Not letting go of Miss Otonashi, you're really shameless!......Eh?

`"Sigh......You're two-faced facade was pretty impressive."

"Two-faced facade? Are you referring to me?"

Miss Otonashi asked while pointing to herself.

`"You're always smiling in front of the staff and classmates. When you're being bombarded by the questions, I actually thought that you were going to get a case of measles or something."

"Isn't this normal?"

`"No, it isn't."

"I just appreciate the impression of 'Otonashi Madoka' in everyone's heart very much. It is my job to carry their dreams, so it's normal."

Even though she spoke of it like it was nothing, this was really something amazing, isn't it? To become the person everyone wants you to be, is the same as giving your all in accomplishing their hopes. To accommodate the impression that everyone had dreamed up of, she had to reject her original self, to change her original self.

`"But, isn't that pretty tiring?"

"Eh? What's so tiring about that? No matter the side I'm on, I'm still me."

Miss Otonashi would sometimes show a complete serious expression on her face.

It's not the face of anger, nor the face of an idol, but a face of judging herself objectively. This was probably an attitude she had unknowingly nurtured while she was training her acting skills. A human who is able to see "herself" clearly after becoming an existence that is not herself.

`"Um, you could put it like that."

"Because this is my job."

Miss Otonashi blocked the evening sunlight out of her eyes with her hand while saying that, creating a shadow purposefully behind the ever radiating sun.

"Because the stage I'm on, is built on the efforts of all the staff around me. It's not only for the everyone who are willing to watch and listen to my performance, but also for the staff, I must be the 'Otonashi Madoka' that everyone wants me to be. No matter the pain, I must also put on a smile."

Miss Otonashi put down the hand which was blocking the sunlight and bathed in the evening sun, showing off a smile again.

What was that all about?

The Otonashi Madoka, that I have adored before, is a cheerful, straightforward, and cute seiyuu idol. Not a girl who would be punching people, calling others as outsiders and taking others as her slave.

So frankly, after knowing what she was really like, my dreams were a little crushed. Because the feeling of getting cheated is really strong.

However, what was this about? Looking at her, who was talking about her attitude towards her work seriously, I was a little...even though really it was just a little......

"What are you standing there for? Let's get home quickly."

I seemed to have unknowingly stopped moving.

"Ah, or is it that, you have been captivated by my beauty?"

I was unable to tell her "that's right", so I have to try to cover it up somehow.

`"I never thought that you thought so much about it."

"Are you serious! Of course I'm using more of my brain cells that the outsider!"

`"I told you, my name is Ryouto!"

"But, I'm really tired, outsider."

"The way you're ignoring me is just too blatant, so I can't help but reject what you're saying."

Who asked you to sing from start to beginning anyway?

"If my voice is ruined, how are you going to compensate for it, outsider?"

`"This is completely something of your own doing. Also, my name is Ryouto."

"Eh, outsider, do you have a cough lozenge or something?"

`"How could I possibly carry that with me......Ah, I really do have it. Here. Also, my name is Ryouto."

"Here you go, Ryouto, a reward for you."

"Hurray! Hey, this is just the wrapper for the sweet! Also, my name is outsider! Wait, that's not right!!!!!!!!!!!"

What's wrong with her? How far was she going to tease me......even though I've also used an old trick to rant at her anyway.