A Game for Adults 1

Time rewinds. Yesterday, in the most popular nightlife district around the ES building—Time Street

Yuuta: Hmm~ Hm-hm ♪ Dinner tonight is piiiizza buuuuns~ ♪[1]

Just a dash of Tabasco sauce to give it that nice burning inferno kick ♪ Extreme torture for your tongue~ Hm-hm-hmmm ♪

(Whew! I’ve felt so satisfied lately! It’s like all my worries and cares have been blown away! This is bliss~ ♪)

(I’d been so caught up in what would happen with the MDM the other day—or Crazy:B, really—but it looks like things are finally settling down.)

(They gave their formal apology to everyone, and now all four of them are making an honest living working together as idols.)

(Obviously some people will still hold a grudge, but the consensus seems to be that they’re genuinely sorry, so we should all forgive them.)

(The VP at CosPro, Saegusa-senpai, is a real go-getter—he’s using this as an opportunity to garner sympathy... And since the summer started, he’s been piling up work like nobody’s business.)

(I’m sure we’ll reap the reward of that, too, since we’re part of CosPro. It’s nice when your people are raking it in.)

(...I was a little hesitant when CosPro first reached out to us, honestly.)

(We were finally getting consistent results with our two-in-one twin idols shtick.)

(So I didn’t know if it would be a good idea to take a gamble and jump into a new environment.)

(But Sakuma-senpai and all the other idols from Yumenosaki were scattered across the different agencies.)

(If we didn’t assert ourselves, some bigwig we don’t even know might have snatched us up for themself.)

(And if that was the alternative, I knew we had to pick a place we wanted to join. At least then we had agency over that choice.)

(—We’re not here to be gofers. And I’m sick of being an opening act to hype up someone else’s crowd.)

(......)

(—Well anyway, it turns out the choice we made was right on the money. Even if the VP doesn’t think we’re anything more than useful pawns for him, that still comes with some responsibility.)

(He gives us a bunch of work that we couldn’t have even dreamed of at Yumenosaki, since it’s so focused on lives. And thanks to that we’re building up a good rep as we pull through with everything that comes our way.)

(We get results, we get praise and recognition, we get offers—we get appreciation.)

(Even though our own father called us disgusting.)

(......)

(...But I can’t talk to Aniki or anyone else about this because they’d get worried.)[2]

(We’ve never been in better shape, but we’re not really happy. Or like, something’s not clicking.)

(It feels kind of empty, or something.)

(We’re the two-in-one twin idols. And because we’re two people, we can become the strongest “individual,” one nobody can beat.)[3]

(That’s how we’ve come to define 2wink, and we’ve actually been getting better and better results.)

(But that’s exactly why, no matter how much recognition and praise 2wink gets, how much “we” get, it always seems to be about someone else—never me.)

(Sometimes I get scared. It’s like I’m alive, but I’m not.)

(I shouldn’t think like that, though. I made the decision to live this way, after all. I can’t separate myself from the “we” because this is the best shot we have.)[4]

(We’ve finally become the idols we’ve always dreamed of being.)

(—I won’t let anyone tell us we’re disgusting because they can’t tell us apart.)

(......)

Hinata: Haaaang on, we shouldn’t be doing this, Rinne-senpaaai ♪

Rinne: It’s fiiiine, it’s fine! Just say I pulled one over on ya and come with me. It’s gonna be killer, I prommy ♪ No, seriously! C’mon, c’mon... heh, pretty good, riiiight?

Yuuta: (...Huh?! Uh, what? Aniki’s—he’s with that guy Amagi Rinne from Crazy:B?)

Hinata: Huhh~? Buuut my little brother’s waiting for me, y’know?

Rinne: Gyahaha! Then make him wait! The older brother was born first; that makes him better than the younger one![5]

And ‘sides, what high schooler actually eats all their meals with their dearest family? Are those really the “family values” we have today?

It’s the twenty-first century, baby! Modern Japan! We look out for our own happiness now. Who cares about family?

C’mon, Onii-chan, whatcha gonna do when you get a wife someday, huh?

Say you wanna live together with your baby bro? I don’t know a self-respecting person around who’d say yes to that!

See what I mean? It’s fine for Onii-chan to do things for himself.

The constitution gives us our own freedoms and rights, yanno? Gyahahaha ☆

Hinata: Weeeell...? Maybe that kinda thing’s okay for you Amagis, but—

Rinne: Same goes for any other siblings in any other family! ‘Kay, that’s decided! Sir! We gotta another one for ya!

Bring out all your finest dishes, and keep ‘em comin’!

Hinata: Uwah? No, hang on! Wait, I said! I don’t have any money on me I can use for fun—

Rinne: Don’t even woooorry about it! It’s my treat!

It’s the greatest pleasure for a grown-up to spend his money on his kids, so just let yourself get spoiled by your big bro today!

The night is young, Hi—na—ta—kuuuun ♪ Gyahahahaha ☆

Yuuta: (......)

(Wh–wha... wh—what are you doing?! Stupid idiot Anikiiii!)

(That was him just now, wasn’t it?! Jeez, I’m glad I brought my binoculars!)

(I usually bring them with me to sneak a peek at the audience before a live, so I can adjust my performance to them—)

(I never thought I’d be witnessing Aniki having an affair—I mean Aniki doing something bad!)

(I couldn’t hear their conversation that well because I’m so far away, but it was clearly no good!)

(I could tell! It had that sort of vibe, right? And Amagi Rinne was pretty much shouting everything!)

(Especially lately, I can pretty much hear whatever Aniki’s saying even if I can’t hear his voice!)

(Not that it’s some kind of “twin telepathy” thing; we don’t have superpowers! I know that! I just have a really, really, really bad feeling right now!)

(Wh–wh–what do I do? What am I supposed to do? What’s supposed to happen in a situation like this? Dad? Mom?!)

(I could ask Sakuma-senpai—no, I can’t! I already decided I wasn’t going to take advantage of my senpais anymore. I don’t want a repeat of Setsubun Festival!)[6]

(Ummm, ummm?! Okay, at the very least I can assess the situation!)

(Maybe it’s all a misunderstanding. I’ve made plenty of mistakes before because of weird misunderstandings!)

(Hinata-kun’s more worldly and better at navigating stuff like this, so I’m sure he’d be able to handle whatever happens—but y’know, just in case!)

(Like, we’re talking about Amagi Rinne from Crazy:B, the guy who went on a rampage against ES!)

(He even gave Sakuma-senpai and the VP and whoever else a run for their money over the summer!)

(And Hinata-kun’s just a high school student the same age as me!)

(And we’re family, and I’m Hinata-kun’s brother, and—well, I just have plenty of reasons why I should act just because I’m worried about him!)

(Okay, here I go! First I’ll burst into the shop he took Hinata-kun into! Oh mom in heaven, please guide and protect me...!)

proofing: nayo

  1. Which is like nikuman, or steamed pork buns, but it has marinara sauce and cheese inside instead of pork.
  2. Aniki is a word for “older brother,” which combines the kanji for “older brother” (obviously) with one that indicates “love and respect” for the person it’s being used on, and also suggests a high rank or status. It’s most notable for being used in the yakuza, with members of lower status using it with members of higher status.
  3. A reference to Repayment Festival.
  4. A reference to Setsubun Festival.
  5. The word Rinne uses for “older brother” here is in fact 兄貴 (aniki), which is the same as the word Yuuta uses for Hinata (see the second translation note). However, Yuuta uses katakana アニキ instead of the kanji which Rinne is using here. The main difference between these spelling choices, at least in my opinion, is that the kanji spelling comes off as more traditional, orthodox, and even more “proper,” whereas the katakana Yuuta uses can come off as slangier, maybe even ironic when juxtaposed with the kanji term. More to the point of the line, Rinne might have chosen this term specifically because of the respectful and high-ranking connotations embedded in the word. In addition, Japan has a rigid hierarchy of a social structure, where seniority very often dictates privilege and status. The use of the word is likely making a pointed reference to that social hierarchy. (...Yes, Rinne does not come from a modern Japanese society, but based on what we know of the Amagi village, there is very little difference between the hierarchical structures between the two cultures, except perhaps that the village is even more rigidly structured.)
  6. The translation is linked in the fourth translation note (please read it!), but basically Setsubun was orchestrated by Rei to resolve some pressing issues in Yuuta and Hinata’s lives.