“Here.”

“Oof. Got it.”

Caius caught the rice ball that Eon tossed at him from across the table, neatly in the palm of his hand. The ball wrapped tightly in plastic, Caius leaned back in his chair and casually peeled a part off to take a bite from it.

“Do you do this in your own classroom too, or are you only doing this because it isn’t?”

“Nah, Bia, we do it when it’s needed, whether it’s here or there.”

“Then don’t throw food around here, please. It’s me who’ll have to clean up after you guys.”

Bianca gave a blanket ban from the other end of the long conference table, where to her side were Ariel and Scarlett, considerably busy trawling through paperwork as they had already finished lunch before the Elites even joined them.

The student council room was a double-classroom-sized labyrinth of desks, chairs and file cabinets, and they all sat at the large table in the inner depths of the room; there was another nearer to the main doors. At a glance it was a jam-packed office, but there was actually a good amount of manoeuvrable space upon closer inspection. Very luckily, there were wide windows that allowed natural sunlight and wind to assuage the cramped feel of the room.

“Is there a lot of student council work to do? How does it work?”

“It’s people and resource management. The school and the Assembly green-lights a budget for certain purposes, and we try to align our resources with the people who execute on it around school. For example, organizing the talent show takes a bunch of things. Booking and maintaining the facilities we’re using, approving and auditing budget for resources requested by performers, publicity campaigns, etc. It’s a lot more involved than you’d think.”

“Most of that’s done by the SLO and the AC. As the chancellor, I’m supposed to be doing the budget auditing, but I also have to do the president’s job while Mira’s away.”

“What do you do as acting student council president?”

“It depends on the makeup of the administration’s executives. Usually I help around wherever I can, but for the most part I’m negotiating with a lot of different parties and managing their interests against others. For example, if an independent choir under the AC wants to use one of the music department’s recording studios for their work, and the music department refused, then they come to the student council to get that issue resolved.”

Bianca held up a file folder.

“If you remember, there are mailboxes outside in the hallway. They compile their requests and dump it in there, where we look through and follow up on it. Usually, they go to the SLO first, and then they file a request if they can’t settle it easily.”

“To be more precise, the SLO and AC together can resolve their own internal problems, but anything that the AC itself can’t touch will be escalated to the Department of the Administration, hence the mailboxes. Supposedly, Ariel should handle all of it, but a good chunk of it is either budget-related or requiring a student council president-level intervention.”

Scarlett chimed in at Mayumi’s continued confusion as she dumped another package of papers into some other file folder. The mailboxes outside looked like wooden filing cabinets, but of course like a mailbox had slits to hand in papers, originally used by teachers for students to hand in assignments.

“Huh, all that sounds like a pain in the ass.”

“It’s a thankless job. You’ll understand once you get here.”

“Then what do these asses here do?”

“Physical work. Like collecting docs or fetching us drinks.”

A sinister grin appeared on Bianca’s face, pulling out a warped and difficult expression from Mayumi. She held her eyepatch open in the disbelief that her henchmen were being manhandled by their rival.

“Is this true?”

She spooked some of the others at the table with her malignant eye; the ones who weren’t used to seeing it, at least.

“Sort of true, but rest assured, mon capitaine, we only do the most menial of labours here—”

“—how is that supposed to be a good thing??”

Mayumi let her palm flop loudly on the table to cut off Eon’s ass of a response, but the rest of them heeded it no attention.

“Also, we only do this sometimes, since we’re not welcome here on all days of the week—”

“—and how does that help??”

Caius continued, but she remained just as upset.

“And most importantly, we do the absolute minimum required to ascertain that our efforts cannot be complained about—”

“—what’s this, procrastinating in real life??”

Sadly, Kato’s punch line didn’t help one iota to relieve her of her melodrama.

“It’s fine, Mayumi. Ever since you’ve left, the rest of us made peace with the Jupiter sisters just as you had, and for good reason. We’ve had bigger, more menacing enemies since.”

Evie’s matter-of-factly statement casually dowsed the fire with cold water, which was abnormal since it was usually oil instead. Mayumi accepted it gracefully as the rage in her body evaporated in almost an instant. She sat up and let her eyepatch snap back in place.

“That’s true. I understand that.”

Alice, however, was unimpressed.

“Why so upset? I thought Kato was supposed to be the straight man.”

“Sometimes you have to put up a hard stance against insolence, don’t you both think?”

She pointed her finger at the duo who sat together, and they didn’t deny her point, tacitly agreeing. Of course Alice and Evie would agree with that.

“Anyway, after school today I need to wait for the delivery truck to get to school and have them move it into our recording studio. We’re getting our guitars and drum set and everything tonight.”

“Finally, we’re starting the real thing!”

“Awesome!”

“I thought you said it’ll be weeks before they come in!”

“If I don’t manage your expectations, all of you would be jumping up and down like this and not focus on playing wind instruments properly.”

Alice shrugged it off arrogantly, casually putting her tea to her mouth. Mayumi, though, was instantly animated.

“It’s finally time for the Elites to become a rock band. I’ll bring my own guitar tomorrow, and just in time, too.”

Showing off her imaginary bling with double horn signs—pinky and index fingers out while the others curled up—the men on their feet reciprocated with the same gang sign.

“Wait, are you actually joining us?”

“Of course I am, Alice. Even though today I only sat in for your practice session, I have every intent on playing with you. Now that we have three real music students, it’ll actually work out.”

Alice was slightly apprehensive as Mayumi seemed poised to hijack her operation, but at the same time she also needed as many real music students as she could get if she wanted them to participate in the talent show; and if Mayumi could already play guitar, then all the better.

“Fine. Let’s do this, then.”

“Yay~”

“And now the circle is complete. The original Elites are finally reunited for their reunion tour.”

“A reunion tour that we didn’t need nor deserve. Good luck with it, Alice.”

From across the table Bianca wiped at her eyebrows upon hearing the chortles from Eon’s remark, amply aware of Mayumi’s destructive tendencies. Alice could only sigh at her home econ classmate’s warning.

“Hey, that reminds me of that old skit. Remember? Remember that one-shot ‘Jack’ parody sequence?”

Mayumi shook Eon’s and Caius’ shoulders next to her as she got up from her seat, already positioning herself for re-enacting the skit. She bowed elegantly before she began with a crystal clear voice and an accent, almost completely different from her regular voice.

“Jack, we need to talk.”

Caius cleared his throat as the other older Elites began snickering, knowing how the sequence played out.

“I mostly just like to yell!”

“Fine. I’ll talk, and you can yell.”

“Yaaay!”

“It’s about the band.”

“Which one?!”

“The one that you used to be in.”

“I was in a band—?!”

“—yes.”

“Were we good—?!”

“—no, but you were popular.”

“Oh, is that good?!”

“It’s very good, Jack—”

While the boys were figuratively rolling on the floor laughing, Alice was quite impressed at Mayumi’s mini-performance. With her wide, natural range of emotions put into action, it was especially remarkable. Also surprisingly, Caius’ abilities weren’t something to scoff at either, who was playing the role of a loud, dumb one-note character, and compared to his everyday disposition the contrast was impressive.

“Are those two actually this good at skits?”

“Very good, in fact. Eon and Kato, sadly, aren’t as good.”

“Hey! At least I give it a try. I just trip up a lot when I’m on stage.”

“And I know I suck at it.”

Eon and Kato immediately fired back (but not really) at Evie’s characterization, and the two girls merely smirked at their expense.

“Well, in that situation, I chose to do something that we in the music business like to call: ‘lying through our teeth’. But don’t lose hope, Jack. That’s why I’m here; to lose hope for you~

“It’s time we rebranded your catchphrase.”

“Rebranded?!”

“Rebranding is where you take a property that the general public is sick to death of seeing, change it slightly and promote it as something completely different.”

“That sounds both insulting and manipulative!”

“I’d like to call it: ‘good marketing’.”

“Well, now I think it sounds great—!”

“Take a catchphrase for example—”

“CARD GAMES ON MOTORCY—!”

“—Jack, I will double your paycheque right now if you never say those words again.”

“What’s two times one billion—?!”

“—two-billion-jack.”

Even the Jupiter sisters put down their pens to admire the exchange between Mayumi and Caius, though Ariel actually had to go to the door to greet the two newly arrived visitors waiting for someone to take care of them. Not surprisingly, the visitors also took a pause to watch.

Eon filled in as the insignificant extra with a regional South Candoran dialect.

“Sí, Señor Goodwin.”

“It’s Godwin! Damn clowns and their clown language.”

“That’s racist!”

“Never mind my inherent hatred for other cultures, Jack, we have more important things to do. Like reunite Team Satisfaction.”

“Who?!”

“The band—the one that you were in.”

“I was in a band—?!”

“—yes, Jack.”

“Were they good—?!”

“—absolutely! And that’s why it’s very important you talk to the other members about a reunion. It’ll be good for you, Jack, but more importantly, it’ll be good for the company.”

“But I haven’t spoken to—YUUSEI——in years!”

“Don’t worry about it, Jack. Yuusei’s a smart kid. He’ll come around real easy.”

Using the space around her comfortably, she put it to good use expressing the Godwin character’s emotions, especially at the ‘absolutely!’ where she put her arms in the air with such exaggerated joy that that was what she also wanted the audience to think; clearly cajoling the Jack character to agree with the business plan.

“But you guys are old friends, compadres, blood brothers, hetero life partners, slightly homo life partners—”

“What—”

“—I’m sure once you guys get together, it’ll be like old times.”

Mayumi grinned at the sitting Kato, signalling to him to start enacting the next segment casting as the Yuusei character. Kato rolled his eyes, though he got up from his seat anyway. However, the skit was interrupted suddenly by the visitors’ arrival at their area.

“Perfect! Bravo! That was excellent! And Caius too I guess, that was very well done!”

Eon snickered at the lame attempt, at least to the receiving end, of Mr Verne to include Caius in his praises when it was clearly Mayumi who was the star of the show.

“That’s true. They’ve always been good at these types of segments.”

Surprisingly it was Ariel who complimented the two, standing next to Mr Verne and his companion visitor. The companion with the dirty blonde hair waved sheepishly at the crowd and struggled to smile as she was a little embarrassed.

“Celia! And Mr Verne too I guess. What’s up?”

Genuinely surprised, Caius immediately straightened up and got out of his act, though he subconsciously reused Mr Verne’s quip against him.

“No assignments for you yet, Caius, don’t worry. Although now that I’m here, I have a great idea for you and the miss here. As you’ve heard, I’m Mr Verne, Class 3-C homeroom teacher and advisor for the drama department. What’s your name and class?”

Mayumi’s eye sparkled, spirited as always. She bowed elegantly and politely, surprising Alice and Franco who only saw her silliness up until now.

“I’m Mayumi Hanamiya, Class 3-F! I just transferred to this school yesterday from Regia Miriam. Pleased to make your acquaintance!”

“Mmm, good. Very good! I like that smile of yours! You’re a very energetic one, aren’t you?”

“That’s right! And I can do this here all day!”

She pointed to the smile on her face with both hands as an idol would, and even the Jupiter sisters had to gag when indirectly forced to bask in such radiance.

“Ahahahaha! Perfect! Then we’ve solved our casting issue, now, have we?”

He motioned emphatically to his student next to him, and she was just as surprised as Caius was on the other side.

“Uh, I suppose? You want them to be cast in the musical?”

“Musical? You mean what the drama department is doing for the talent show? Auxirian Idiot?”

“Exactly that, Caius. We need to do some emergency recasting because a number of the drama department are moving out to the Public Safety Committee. What do you think, Cecilia? Just by that skit alone, they’re obviously really good, aren’t they?”

“Um, I mean, I’m not sure, really. I don’t have an eye for this kind of thing.”

“So you don’t think we’re good enough?”

Mayumi interjected, smirking as she leaned forwards into Cecilia’s face. She was taken aback by the aggression, thoroughly confused. The words that came out of her mouth were hurried and jumbled.

“No, no, no. I just don’t know how to evaluate this sort of thing. On the surface, I guess, both of you look really talented, yeah…”

“Mhm. I knew Caius had the skills already, but with both of you we can fill up exactly the two roles that we are missing: Tommy and his alter ego St. Timmy. What do you say? The drama department convenes in either the drama classroom or the Assembly Hall almost every day after school for rehearsing. We don’t rehearse together at other times, but you’re still welcome to do so. I understand it might be hard because they’re both primary roles and the talent show is only six weeks away, but this kind of an opportunity comes only once in a lifetime, y’know?”

“Uh, um…”

In his receding hairline Mr Verne smiled widely as Cecilia stuttered, unsure of how to add to Mr Verne’s pitch. The fact that Cecilia and Caius were staring at each other in a mixture of surprise, disbelief and a pinch of shyness, didn’t go unnoticed by Mayumi. Like a shark, she smelled blood in the water. Though she was aware that she was on the impulsive side, she was still surprised at how fast she decided in her head.

“I’ll be happy to be cast in the musical! I have two conditions, and the first one is that Caius must also be cast. We’re a package deal, and if anything happens to one of us, we both go.”

“There’s no problem with that. I wanted Caius to be cast in the first place.”

“I don’t have a say in this?!”

Mayumi easily agreed, and agreed for Caius as well, which shocked the rest of the Elites. Unlike Caius’ weak-willed retort, Alice was the first to stand up in fiery defiance.

“Wait a minute! Mayumi, didn’t you just say you’re going to play for us? What’re you doing, taking on another gig now?”

“It’s okay, Alice. The Elites will practice in the mornings, and the musical’s after school. A good balance of extracurriculars, dontchu think?”

“I mean, are you going to be able to balance that kind of a schedule?”

“Of course I can! It doesn’t seem unbalanced to me!”

“Really?”

“Yep!”

“I’m not allowed to give my opinion on this either?!”

Alice was extremely skeptical, but she sat back down tentatively at Mayumi’s unwavering grin. If it were Alice, she wouldn’t voluntarily throw herself into a situation as difficult as Mayumi’s.

“Then what’s your second condition?”

“We’re performing Auxirian Idiot, right? Before I give my other condition, there are some other things I want to know first. This is Cecilia here, right? What’s her role in the musical?”

“My role? I’m playing as Whatzshecalled.”

“Mmm. That’s what I feared. This is my second condition. I want to play the role of Whatzshecalled. In turn, Caius will play Tommy and Cecilia will play St. Timmy. How about it?”

“Wait, Mayumi, you’re familiar with Auxirian Idiot?”

“Well, of course, Caius. I wouldn’t have agreed if I didn’t know what we’re performing.”

Caius was doubly surprised, but perhaps it shouldn’t be as surprising since this musical theatre was in general quite renowned.

“That’s an odd condition, or maybe not, since everyone argues over their roles. What do you think, Cecilia? Entirely up to you.”

“What?! Um, oh, yes, the casting. I don’t mind giving my role to Mayumi. It was just given to me at the start anyway—”

Before anyone else could say anything, Mayumi already interjected.

“Perfect! Then we have a deal! We’ll be in your care!”

Mayumi shook both Mr Verne’s and Cecilia’s hands simultaneously as Mr Verne returned her ecstatic expression while Cecilia continued to be flummoxed. Next to her, Caius was incredulous as she signed him onto such a major responsibility for the next six weeks.

“What is this even…?”

“Don’t lose hope, Caius. That’s why I’m here. To lose hope for you.”

Not unlike the Cheshire cat, Mayumi greeted him with a grin along with the same line from before. He sighed in exasperation, and remembered how Mayumi dragged them on in her adventures when they were children. He couldn’t do anything except to accept it begrudgingly, but in this instance, it might turn out better than expected. He looked over to Cecilia across from him, and felt a strange but comfortable anticipation well up inside him. Like Mr Verne said, this was a once in a lifetime opportunity, no?

“So, what’s with this extraordinarily high number of lookers among the girls in this gathering, hmm?”

More of an accusation for the men, they had to admit that on some level they were surrounded by not only quality girls, but also the fact that all of the Three Heroines were in their circle.

“Uh… what’s that supposed to mean?”

However, Mayumi said that as she was scrutinizing Cecilia, and like before she was also doing it right in her face, so her reaction was more than warranted.

“That’s just Mayumi being a dumbass as usual. Just ignore her.”

“Caius?! This is a serious question! Look around you and tell me you see a girl that isn’t pretty, excluding me.”

“C’mon, you’re not even being serious now. If you ask any of us that question, of course we’d say everyone here is pretty. There’s no other answer we can give—”

“—and Mayumi, you’d be included in that category anyway, so we can’t even name you. Just drop it, chief, it ain’t worth discussing.”

Regardless of what Eon and Caius said, the rest of the girls stared them down with suspicion and contempt. Eon welcomed it with a sneer while Caius shrugged.

“Okay, fine. Even if I put that aside, you can’t say that Cecilia here isn’t a looker. It seems like the Elites only associate with the prettiest girls in the school.”

“That narrative is completely fictitious, and any resemblance of that is purely coincidental. Well, we do associate with incredible people from or in incredible places, so I’ll give you that much. The only normal people here are us here.”

Eon pointed to himself, Caius and Franco, who gave him a double thumbs-up for saying something reasonable for once. Remarkably, one of the main reasons for their solidarity with Franco was because of their status as people from the “normal” world, as in, people not associated with Eternia or the hierarchy in some way.

“Hey, I’m just pointing this out, but anyways. Welcome to our humble abode, Cecilia. Don’t listen to the drivel they spew out. It’s bad for your liver.”

“Don’t make this more awkward than it already is, when I’m trying very hard to damage control exactly that.”

She winked at Cecilia, but was met with Eon’s disapproval immediately.

“Eh, um, thanks. Pleased to meet you too.”

Caius shook his head dramatically, following up Eon.

“C’mon, don’t be so brash towards a guest. Look at her. She’s kinda like, unsure of how to respond to your drivel, Mayumi.”

“What drivel? I’m being—very—polite and civilized here, you fuck; isn’t that right, Cecilia?”

As Mayumi’s sentence broke down into a fit of giggles, it prompted chortles from everyone else, including the Jupiter sisters and even Cecilia, who finally let go of the tension in her nerves.

“Yeah, I’ve received nothing but courtesy from Mayumi so far. And also, you all can just call me Celia. It’s easier that way.”

“Celia! Perfect! Whenever it’s convenient for you, you’re free to join us here or in the 3-F classroom for lunch. We’re gonna be working together for the next month and a half anyways!”

She clasped her hands together with Cecilia’s, no doubt excited for the Elites’ newfound friend. Cecilia returned the hospitality with a warm smile, something she did rarely if not at all.

After Mr Verne and Cecilia finished with their business with student council about the drama department’s budget, Cecilia was invited to stay behind on Ariel’s insistence. True to Cecilia’s pessimism, she was intimidated by this congregation of elite students that she hadn’t met before and would have attempted to leave immediately, but the presence of Ariel and Caius convinced her to stay around. Thankfully, as capricious as Mayumi could be, she was by nature friendly with anyone and everyone.

“And about that, Mayumi, that’s a lot of work you got yourself into. Are you actually gonna be able to handle all that?”

“Of course I can. I’ve been casted in plays back in Regia Miriam, so I know a thing or two about show biz.”

“All right, yep, you’ve got this.”

Kato raised both of his open palms at Mayumi’s answer, already conceding. Alice, however, was not impressed.

“I, too, know a thing or two about show biz and it’s not easy. I just hope you’re up to the task, Mayumi.”

“Oho? Ms Alice questions my abilities? I’ll have you know that I graduated top of my class in the Navy—”

Mayumi made her way back to her seat across from Kato and Alice to make sure her retorts were heard as the chortles around her continued.

“Celia, just sit down here. It’s usually Mayumi’s show here, and it’s also usually this whack, so just leave her be.”

“You don’t say. So this is Class F and Class B’s alliance.”

“Alliance by coincidence. We’re just a big group of old friends plus some, that’s all.”

“Even if that’s the case, the other classes don’t see it that way, I’d imagine. Even for Class B itself.”

“Oh, for sure. However, it’s probably more accurate to say that in practice, Class F is a puppet of Class B, and a puppet that’s hard to remove from because the relationship is not built upon mutual political interests; a fact which I appreciate.”

He pointed at the rowdy group of hooligans, and Cecilia at first felt a little disappointed at the scene. She realized that her mind was spinning because was a bit jealous of Caius’ circle of friends. Compared to herself, Caius seemed to have much more than she did, but that wasn’t the main problem. She met plenty of others who had much more than she did, so why would Caius’ situation irk her so? Ariel too was right over there, wholly part of this grand circus, and Cecilia never felt this kind of indignation before.

“Don’t worry about it. The Elites are open to having like-minded allies. You’ll get used to it in no time.”

“That’s right. It seems like Mayumi took a liking to you, so rest assured that you’ll be treated well here.”

Like a ninja, Ariel suddenly made aware of her presence in the seat next to the two of them, who reflexively jumped at her apparition.

“Ariel. Is that even a good thing?”

“I think it’s a good thing. There’s a time and place for everything, and it’s time to stop being a permanent bookworm at school.”

“Hey! Ariel! That’s not true at all!”

Cecilia shook Ariel by her arm frantically, to which she only grinned lightly and amusedly. Caius didn’t help.

“And you don’t look like one to start with, so she’s right, there’s no need to be a bookworm.”

“What?! No, no, no, I’m not, I told you! Of course no bookworm would look like this! I hang out with the girls from the other classes too!”

That was true. She did have a so-called “night” life (really only after school) hanging out with girls from the other classes singing at karaoke bars, loitering at local convenience stores and eating out for dinner. She was a part-time tag-along member and not truly in the core as Risa and Flora were, due to obligations at home and at the drama department, but at least she was welcomed there.

“In any case, I’m glad that Mayumi took a liking to you, because I want you to join us this Sunday for the Equinox celebration. I say celebrating, but it’s us doing our rounds around the annual street festival on Jordan Street.”

““What?””

Double whats came from Caius and Cecilia.

“Celia, you said you wanted to hang out with me more often, right?”

“Ariel!”

Flustered, she shook Ariel frantically once more, but a tinge of smugness remained in Ariel’s rigid expression. Caius rubbed his chin both in arrogance and in thought.

“Ha. I forgot that the Equinox is soon, though it’s like weeks after the real equinox. It’ll be fun. Like she said, we’ll just be walking around holding lanterns and eating cakes. Or do you have other plans for the Equinox?”

“No… I don’t have any real plans for that day.”

“Then, perfect. You can hang with us.”

“What?!”

“What is it, what is it? Celia’s coming with us to the Equinox?”

Suddenly Mayumi returned, again eye sparkling with anticipation and aimed at Cecilia, who was also again visibly startled in return.

“Wait, I haven’t said anything yet!”

“If you need to think about it some more, you know where we are. We’re here all day.”

“And we’re gonna be over there with her in the drama classroom too.”

Mayumi added to Caius as he sat back with his hands behind his head, content with Mayumi taking the spotlight.

“No, no, no, it’s not that. Uh, I think I can go with you guys, It’s just, uh…”

“Don’t sweat it. I know you’re feeling a little hesitant, but you’ll get to know Mayumi and the rest of the Elites. I’ll be right here with you.”

“Ariel?!”

Her cheeks flushed red again at Ariel blurting out her inner thoughts that she couldn’t say out loud, but at the same time she was relieved that she didn’t need to do the talking. Yet, it made her feel a little upset that she wasn’t able to do it herself.

“You said the rest of Class F here is going to the festival too, right? Are they okay with me coming?”

“You mean these guys? Don’t worry. We don’t need to care about their opinions.”

Ariel said coolly, completely ignoring Caius’ peeved expression. Mayumi was still all smiles as she weaved her fingers through Cecilia’s in a tightly knit handhold.

“Hahahahaha! Good, good, good. I’ve only returned to this district just yesterday, so we’re in the same boat. Well, not exactly, but there’ll be lots of things I missed over seven years’ time, right? You’re the senior here, Celia.”

“Ahahaha…”

A touch embarrassed, she still returned the hold and smile in earnest. Caius merely shrugged nonchalantly at Mayumi’s usual cavalier enthusiasm.

“This is not the first time you’ve put yourself in a difficult situation, mate. Then again, Mayumi’s actually an expert at turning everything into horseshoes and hand grenades, so go figure.”

“Hey! That’s probably not entirely false…”

Mayumi already let go of Cecilia to point a finger at him, who shrugged again condescendingly, obviously not yielding.

“What? What does he mean by that?”

“Mayumi’s a lucky star who has a few screws loose, that’s what he means.”

Ariel explained to Cecilia as they watched Caius point a finger back, alarmed at something trivial Mayumi had said to him.

“Eh… so she’s just really lucky?”

“Because she’s made of that much luck, she tends to push it a little too far, too often. A little dangerous, kind of like a hand grenade, and it’s why Caius is always a little worried. After all, he’s the most conservative of the Elites, compared to Eon and Kato who learned a bit too much from Mayumi’s maverick streak.”

“A little worried… about Mayumi?”

“He always was, for as long as they’ve known each other.”

“…that’s their relationship?”

Cecilia suspected half out loud, which brought a sinking feeling in her chest. Is that why Mayumi wanted the role of Whatzshecalled? She was Tommy’s main love interest in the play. Does that have anything to do with the two of them?

“Well, it’s a lot more complicated than that. On a certain level, their relationship’s past the point of no return, so to speak.”

“Huh? What?”

Then she was suddenly reminded of Caius’ reference to the final song in Auxirian Idiot. Was he describing exactly his relationship with Mayumi? Even without knowing for sure at the moment, it made her feel uneasy nonetheless. It would be utterly unreal that if Caius viewed the relationship this way, that Mayumi would agree to that interpretation.

“What you see right now is probably the best it’ll ever be; is my assessment, given what I know.”

Slightly buoyed at first, Cecilia reprocessed what Ariel just said and asked another pertinent question.

“Right now? You mean you think it’ll get worse in the future?”

“Undoubtedly. But at the same time I also think that, somehow, she’ll make everything work out in the end. A miracle worker, if you must. ‘Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades’ doesn’t seem to exist in her vocabulary when she gets every job that needs to be done, done. Or maybe it does, and like Caius said, just turn everything into horseshoes and hand grenades. So there’s no need to worry about her in her role in the musical. She’ll deliver on it like a pro.”

“Uh-huh…”

Ariel’s expression turned surprisingly jovial as she segued away from the question at the end there, leaving behind a cryptic impression. Then again, it wasn’t abnormal for mysterious words to come out of Ariel, and Cecilia was definitely aware of it. She took her answer at face value and returned to watch the implosion blossoming in front of her, with Mayumi in the centre and surrounded by awkwardly positioned Elites, like some sort of strange ritual to appease the gods who were angry at their insolence. It was like watching a movie with the silver screen right in her face, and it wasn’t bad, she thought.