“My dance was always just an imitation of someone else…
“But I finally found my own style of dancing…
“I won’t mourn for lost friends now. I just want to convey my feelings.
“It’s thanks to you all that I can continue to live.
“So I’ll preserve this precious night through my dancing.
“I won’t ask for your understanding. Words have no meaning here.
“You may hate me, but I’ll always love you.
“I can’t prove it with words. But I can prove it with my dancing.
“Like the way you all inspired me… I’ll set an example for you all.”
Her dancing was more persuasive than a million words could have ever been.
By layering the kind of music created by artists belonging to different fields with the foundations of a culture that’s been unbroken for generations, Tatsuki Ootsuka had finally arrived.
An alternative cross between light and darkness.
Ah, I really am a lucky guy, I thought, to be able to follow the journey of these amazingly talented girls.
I was certain this was the moment a new culture was born. The first page of a new era.
And I was there. Not everyone can say that.
“Shall we head home, Shiika?”
“Will Tatsu and Haru be okay?”
“Yeah. No doubt they’ll have a lot to talk about after this.”
“Hmm. Okay.”
Shiika and I quietly left without anyone noticing.
Later, I got a message saying that Ootsuka and Gokokuji had reconciled, but that’s their story. No need for a guy like me to serve as a spectator. I’m just glad that everything came together in the end.
But alas, there was still one thing that needed to be dealt with.
After taking Shiika home and putting her to bed, I sneaked out of the house.
My destination was a block of expensive apartments in a place a little way out from the city center.
Since there were almost no convenience stores or restaurants that operated until late at night around, there was no late-night traffic. It was the exact opposite of the saying “the city that never sleeps.”
A girl with silver-blond hair looked up from where she was standing under a streetlight.
Io Kanda. An upperclassman in the TV Talent Department of Ryouran High. A famous actress who boasts being the most popular and having achieved the most out of any student in the school.
“Good evening, Gakuto. Nice night, isn’t it? ♪”
“You’re early. It’s only five minutes past when we planned to meet.”
So I’m five minutes late, but that aside.
“I was looking forward to our late-night date, Gakuto. I actually got here half an hour early.”
“I told you what this was about, right? It’s nothing to get excited over.”
“Yes, I understood you perfectly. We’re paying a visit to Azusa Harajuku’s atelier, right?”
As she spoke, Io glanced at the building across the road.
A three-story luxury apartment. The building had a luxurious floor plan, with one household per floor. The color scheme and architecture were quite unusual. The tasteful exterior made it seem like a famous movie director or Hollywood actor might live there.
Azusa Harajuku rents the entire building, from the first floor to the third, and uses it as her home and her fashion atelier.
While she attends Ryouran High School, she employs several students as staff members, and while they handle various orders, she creates designs for contests.
The lights in the windows indicated that work wasn’t quite finished yet. For a lazy guy like me, it’s hard to imagine working this late.
But it’s not like we’d come to Azusa Harajuku’s atelier just to hang out.
“Right. There’s no mistake. But, Io…”
“Hmm?”
“You’re not going to mention that we’re here to fight?”
“I felt like that part goes without saying.”
“You’re so strange…”
“Hee-hee. Thanks. That means I’m not like everyone else at least. To me, that’s a compliment.”
“Yes, yes.”
Despite the seriousness of what we were about to do, we were having a very relaxed conversation.
It’s true that Azusa Harajuku had provided costumes for the Shibuya Gang and, as a result, undermined the value of Sengoku’s collaboration.
As Gokokuji had said, Sengoku and the others would no doubt retaliate out of anger. With that in mind, I got Zeke to hack into Sengoku’s messages again, and I stumbled across a conversation indicating they were plotting revenge against Azusa Harajuku.
I contacted the police, but they said, “Well, technically no crime has been committed yet,” and they didn’t take me seriously at all. Evidence obtained by illegal means can’t be used as evidence, so I couldn’t just show them the conversations I’d discovered through our little hacking operation.
If Sengoku and his group would have been satisfied with just exacting their revenge on Azusa Harajuku, I would have left them to it. But I doubt they’d be satisfied with just that. They would come after the members of the Shibuya Gang… And they would come after Shiika.
I wanted to deal with these low-down delinquents right here, right now.
“I’m sorry I got you involved. But if a poor guy like me was spotted in such a stylish part of town, I’d get arrested. Discrimination sucks, but if I’m seen in the company of someone like you, Io, no one will bat an eye at me.”
“Because I’ve got the right face for it, you mean? Heh.”
“And the fighting skills. You’re definitely the girl for the job.”
“And you don’t often get the opportunity to practice real hand-to-hand combat and knife-fighting like this. Only…,” Io said, trailing off. “It’s a terrible idea to use a woman—a top-notch actress like me—as a pawn in battle.”
“Now that you mention it, that’s true. I guess I was only thinking about my own convenience,” I said.
“Heh. Well, at least you’re an honest jerk. ♪”
“Well, never mind me. You’re kind of the strange one here, you… Ah.”
I stopped talking when I saw in the distance, several men walking our way.
I could tell who they were, even from here. Ryan Sengoku and his hard-faced gang of delinquent cronies.
“Here they come. Shall we strike?”
“Yes. Let’s have a wonderful night, Gakuto. ♪”
We put on balaclavas to hide our faces, and Io and I started walking toward the gangsters.
This was to tidy up the loose ends.
Dirty work behind the scenes—that has nothing to do with the stories of Shiika, Shibuya, Ootsuka, Harajuku, and the other talented students. Yes, okay, one genius, Io, had somehow gotten involved. But she’s sort of an odd duck, so let’s just put her aside.
This was a means to an end. So that Shiika and the others could live in peace, honing their talents and moving forward along their own paths to glory.
Justice… Delivered with an iron fist.