Chapter 6

One hour later

Nazuna: Alllll righty then. Guys, let’s give a warm welcome to Akatsuki ♪

Hajime: O–okay. Akatsuki, it’s a pleasure to work with you...!

Mitsuru: Ahaha. Akatsuki nii~chans, good to have ya ♪

Tomoya: We’re still learning, but we’re looking forward to receiving your guidance and encouragement...!

Nazuna: Mm, Hajime-chin, Tomoya-chin, you’re both way too nervous. And of course Mitsuru-chin is way too relaxed.

Well, we can work on that later...

All right, it’s good to be working with you, Akatsuki. Ra*bits is definitely gonna liven up your performance at the Summer Night Festival.

Keito: Right. We’ll be counting on you, Ra*bits.

Enough with the formalities; let’s talk about the details for the festival.

I think you’ve heard the gist of it from Anzu already, but the theme of the event is “illumination.”

As long as we follow that theme, we’re free to decide the contents of our performance however we like.

Kuro: Haha, you say we can decide on whatever we want, but that just makes it harder.

Hey, Hasumi. If Ra*bits are gonna open and we’re the main act, does that mean we’re workin’ with different themes?

Just curious, since it’s gonna decide how I do the costumes.

Keito: No, I believe we’re both using the same theme for this.

According to Anzu, there are other idols also participating in the live.

By matching our themes and costumes, we can demonstrate with our visuals that we are idols of Yumenosaki Academy.

Akatsuki and Ra*bits are the Yumenosaki units performing at the Summer Night Festival. And we’ll make sure everyone knows it.

At the same time, it’ll keep the other idols in check. It’s a win-win.

Tomoya: Huh... So you have to take those kinds of things into consideration too. I’m learning a lot.

Nazuna: Mm... with that face Keito-chin’s making he kinda looks like an evil mastermind, so I have mixed feelings about you learning from him...

Kuro: I feel like Akatsuki’s dominating this discussion. Hey Ra*bits, if you got some opinions of your own, feel free to speak up.

Nazuna: Thanks, Kuro-chin~

But are you sure that’s okay? This time around, Akatsuki’s the main feature. Shouldn’t we let you guys take the reins here?

Kuro: That defeats the whole point of a discussion. Hm, what to do. Hasumi-danna, whatcha thinkin’?^[1]/p>

Keito: Why are you pinning all this on me? Well, I guess I am the leader of Akatsuki, so it’s not too strange.

Hmm... we’ll go around so everyone can share their ideas for the theme “illumination,” and then we can give our opinions on each of them.

If the majority of us is in favor of the idea, we’ll use it. If not, we throw it out. If you have any objections to this, raise your hand now.

...All right, no objections, so let’s get on with it.

Hm. I was the one who suggested this, so I’ll start us off.

How about paper lanterns? I think that hits the mark for the theme, but I want to hear your unreserved opinions.

Mitsuru: Unreserved? What’s that mean? I can’t understand you if you use big words!

Nazuna: Mm, he wants you to share your opinions without holding back. But yeah, I think paper lanterns definitely fit the theme.

But don’t you think lanterns would give off a kinda dark and gloomy feel? Since they’re something you see a lot in ghost stories.

Souma: Hum. There are paper lanterns in mine home, yet I never considered them dark or gloomy.

Tomoya: Huh? You do?

Souma: Yes. I write letters and such by their light.

Keito: Seriously. If you told me you were a time traveler from the Edo period, I wouldn’t even be surprised.

Nazuna: Y–yeah, I’ve never seen paper lanterns inside a house before, either.

Going back to what we were talking about, wouldn’t it be better to go with a more fun and cheerful atmosphere?

Tomoya: Fun and cheerful... what about fireworks?

Mitsuru: Oh, like what we did with the Trickstar nii~chans the other day! That was super fun, I wanna do it again~ ♪^[2]/p>

Tomoya: No, not the ones you hold, the ones that paint the night sky.

...But we’d need a bigger budget if we wanted to do fireworks. It’s not very realistic, is it?

Keito: Right. Fireworks give off a magical feeling, but they’re just not feasible financially.

Kuro: The festival’s at night so it’d be pretty sick to pull off something flashy like that, but preparing for it’d prolly be tough. Maybe let’s think more along the lines of lighting that feels magical?

Mmm, okay... yeah, I got nothing that gives me an “aha” moment.

Keito: Mm? Anzu, why are you raising your hand? Did you think of something that’ll put us on the right path?

You’re the producer who brought this work to us. Go ahead and say it.

Hmm... there’s a place near the live venue where you can see fireflies? And since it’s such a beautiful and magical sight, it’s been counted as a major firefly-viewing spot?

But I’m sure the season for viewing fireflies has ended already...

Oh I see, since it’s located upstream, it’s always cool, so you’d still be able to see fireflies even in August.

It would feel pretty magical to have the fireflies illuminate the night, and it’d be reminiscent of Japanese summers, so maybe we can come up with something for the performance...? Right, right. How about we try paying it a visit? We can get a look at the location for the live ahead of time while we’re there.

Mitsuru: Heck yeah! Field trip~ ♪

Nazuna: Hey now, we’re not going to play around.

Mm, but I do think it’s a good idea to scope out the location ahead of time, so I’m in.

Kuro: Both of our leaders are on board. So let’s leave it there today and go see that site tomorrow.

Keito: Right. Then we’ll meet at the site tomorrow. See you then.

proofing: Verdantgrove