Sudden Death - Believability Chapter 5
Mar. 22nd, 2022 05:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shivalriesSeason: Winter
---
Location: Cafe
HiMERU: However, if there is one saving grace in this situation...
...it would be the alliance we have fostered between Crazy:B and Knights.
Rinne: Hell yeah. And we got Kohaku-chan to thank for it. ♪
Niki: Wha? What're you guys talking about? What did Kohaku-chan do?
Rinne: Let's say it's fine that you never understand a goddamn thing—even though it's NOT—but don't make me explain the same shit a bajillion times, aight, Niki?
Niki: I don't care enough to listen... Come on, idols? War? If you're talking about Kohaku-chan, though, I wanna know what's going on.
HiMERU: Heh. It was perhaps around the time our orders were exposed...
Having seen our plight, Knights reached out and offered their hands in aid.
They expressed the desire to join forces and work together as fellow ES idols.
Tsukasa: Y-Yes, that's right. When times are dire, the last thing we need is discord amongst allies.
Rinne: Allies, eh...?
Arashi: Ehehe. I'm sure Tsukasa-chan was just worried about that boy he said was a relative of his... Kohaku-chan, was it?
Ritsu: Nepotism at its finest. Well, guess it's normal to protect your own blood, and it's not unlike us Knights to put our personal needs first.
Tsukasa: No, i-it's nothing like that! I was simply considering what's ahead and making a fair decision—
Arashi: Reaaally? It's okay, you know. There's nothing shameful about being upfront with what you want. ♪
Tsukasa: Really, I'm serious—what's that look in your eyes?! It's as if you're looking at a baby that has just learned to walk!
Ritsu: Aw, wook at this widdle boy~ He's walking so well~♪
Tsukasa: Gaaah! Any more and I shall deem it an insult to your king!
Rinne: Haha! The itty bitty king of Knights has sure got a flashy title for somebody so young, but y'know... I think he's more like the Niki of Knights.
Niki: What, are you sayin' I'm the cheap labor at the bottom of the ladder?!
Rinne: I'm sayin' you're the guy everybody loves! ♪
HiMERU: To put it badly, you're the one who gets picked on.
Niki: That's literally what a bully would say! "Oh, I'm not attacking this guy, I'm just playing around~"— You really think that's gonna fly in the real world?!
Tsukasa: (Hmm... I do feel a sort of affinity towards Shiina-senpai.)
(No matter how seriously I say something, it's taken as a joke, and then I am ridiculed. It's as if I'm somehow lesser than the other members.)
(Lesser, even though I have the crown and sit upon the throne.)
Rinne: ......♪
Tsukasa: ...I proposed an alliance with you because I could not overlook injustice—nothing more.
The debacle in the Kansai region right now is reminiscent of your methods, Crazy:B—you like to reveal your opponents' secrets in order to weaken them.
It certainly reminds one of the terrorism you all committed in the summer.
Niki: Hey, did you hear that? He called us terrorists.
Rinne: Well, duh. What'd you think all that was, Niki?
Like a temper tantrum or somethin'? We're too old to be making excuses like that.
Ritsu: Crazy:B's got a record now. Of course they'd be cast under suspicion.
Tsukasa: Yes. That is why everyone jumped to the conclusion that it was you, Crazy:B, who did the dirty deed.
You are assumed to be the culprits, and why?—because others have already deemed you the "bad guys".
It isn't very elegant to suspect others without any evidence.
That is little more than discrimination—or, to borrow one of your favorite words, a witch hunt.
HiMERU: Agreed.
Ritsu: But I thought it was Su~chan's specialty to flip out and blame people without checking the facts first? ♪
Tsukasa: Oh, but I have grown, my seniors. I have learned much from my many, many shameful experiences.
So I told myself I would not make the same mistakes—that this time, I would do it right.
Innocent until proven guilty—is that not the guiding principle of constitutional law?
Ritsu: True. ...Though with the amount of power we have, it'd be easy work to pin any crime we want on the innocent.
If we did something that terrible, though, we'd be just like Ecchan. And you know, in our field, "just like Ecchan" is the biggest insult there is.
Tsukasa: "Ecchan"... Do you mean Tenshouin Onii-sama? Wouldn't becoming like him be something to celebrate?
Ritsu: Huh? Ew, no... At least I wouldn't wanna be like Ecchan. I might even take being like Anija over that.
Tsukasa: Eheh. It is a common dream to become as one admires.
Every day, I wish to become an incredible idol like my Onii-samas in Knights.
I wish to become someone to be proud of—thus I strive to carry out proper justice as Knights' king.
And that is why I have offered my aid to Crazy:B! None of this is for Oukawa's sake, I assure you!
HiMERU: No, it's clearly 100% for Oukawa's sake... There is no proof that we are the culprits, but there is also no proof that we aren't.
And yet you offered yourself to us without any justification. How else could you explain this but with personal feelings?
Tsukasa: These are not personal feelings, this is a creed! As knights who protect the weak, we shall offer the hand of salvation to those in danger of suffocating beneath undue suspicion!
Because this is who we are!
---
< Believability Chapter 4 || Masterlist || Believability Chapter 6 >
---
Location: Cafe
HiMERU: However, if there is one saving grace in this situation...
...it would be the alliance we have fostered between Crazy:B and Knights.
Rinne: Hell yeah. And we got Kohaku-chan to thank for it. ♪
Niki: Wha? What're you guys talking about? What did Kohaku-chan do?
Rinne: Let's say it's fine that you never understand a goddamn thing—even though it's NOT—but don't make me explain the same shit a bajillion times, aight, Niki?
Niki: I don't care enough to listen... Come on, idols? War? If you're talking about Kohaku-chan, though, I wanna know what's going on.
HiMERU: Heh. It was perhaps around the time our orders were exposed...
Having seen our plight, Knights reached out and offered their hands in aid.
They expressed the desire to join forces and work together as fellow ES idols.
Tsukasa: Y-Yes, that's right. When times are dire, the last thing we need is discord amongst allies.
Rinne: Allies, eh...?
Arashi: Ehehe. I'm sure Tsukasa-chan was just worried about that boy he said was a relative of his... Kohaku-chan, was it?
Ritsu: Nepotism at its finest. Well, guess it's normal to protect your own blood, and it's not unlike us Knights to put our personal needs first.
Tsukasa: No, i-it's nothing like that! I was simply considering what's ahead and making a fair decision—
Arashi: Reaaally? It's okay, you know. There's nothing shameful about being upfront with what you want. ♪
Tsukasa: Really, I'm serious—what's that look in your eyes?! It's as if you're looking at a baby that has just learned to walk!
Ritsu: Aw, wook at this widdle boy~ He's walking so well~♪
Tsukasa: Gaaah! Any more and I shall deem it an insult to your king!
Rinne: Haha! The itty bitty king of Knights has sure got a flashy title for somebody so young, but y'know... I think he's more like the Niki of Knights.
Niki: What, are you sayin' I'm the cheap labor at the bottom of the ladder?!
Rinne: I'm sayin' you're the guy everybody loves! ♪
HiMERU: To put it badly, you're the one who gets picked on.
Niki: That's literally what a bully would say! "Oh, I'm not attacking this guy, I'm just playing around~"— You really think that's gonna fly in the real world?!
Tsukasa: (Hmm... I do feel a sort of affinity towards Shiina-senpai.)
(No matter how seriously I say something, it's taken as a joke, and then I am ridiculed. It's as if I'm somehow lesser than the other members.)
(Lesser, even though I have the crown and sit upon the throne.)
Rinne: ......♪
Tsukasa: ...I proposed an alliance with you because I could not overlook injustice—nothing more.
The debacle in the Kansai region right now is reminiscent of your methods, Crazy:B—you like to reveal your opponents' secrets in order to weaken them.
It certainly reminds one of the terrorism you all committed in the summer.
Niki: Hey, did you hear that? He called us terrorists.
Rinne: Well, duh. What'd you think all that was, Niki?
Like a temper tantrum or somethin'? We're too old to be making excuses like that.
Ritsu: Crazy:B's got a record now. Of course they'd be cast under suspicion.
Tsukasa: Yes. That is why everyone jumped to the conclusion that it was you, Crazy:B, who did the dirty deed.
You are assumed to be the culprits, and why?—because others have already deemed you the "bad guys".
It isn't very elegant to suspect others without any evidence.
That is little more than discrimination—or, to borrow one of your favorite words, a witch hunt.
HiMERU: Agreed.
Ritsu: But I thought it was Su~chan's specialty to flip out and blame people without checking the facts first? ♪
Tsukasa: Oh, but I have grown, my seniors. I have learned much from my many, many shameful experiences.
So I told myself I would not make the same mistakes—that this time, I would do it right.
Innocent until proven guilty—is that not the guiding principle of constitutional law?
Ritsu: True. ...Though with the amount of power we have, it'd be easy work to pin any crime we want on the innocent.
If we did something that terrible, though, we'd be just like Ecchan. And you know, in our field, "just like Ecchan" is the biggest insult there is.
Tsukasa: "Ecchan"... Do you mean Tenshouin Onii-sama? Wouldn't becoming like him be something to celebrate?
Ritsu: Huh? Ew, no... At least I wouldn't wanna be like Ecchan. I might even take being like Anija over that.
Tsukasa: Eheh. It is a common dream to become as one admires.
Every day, I wish to become an incredible idol like my Onii-samas in Knights.
I wish to become someone to be proud of—thus I strive to carry out proper justice as Knights' king.
And that is why I have offered my aid to Crazy:B! None of this is for Oukawa's sake, I assure you!
HiMERU: No, it's clearly 100% for Oukawa's sake... There is no proof that we are the culprits, but there is also no proof that we aren't.
And yet you offered yourself to us without any justification. How else could you explain this but with personal feelings?
Tsukasa: These are not personal feelings, this is a creed! As knights who protect the weak, we shall offer the hand of salvation to those in danger of suffocating beneath undue suspicion!
Because this is who we are!
---
< Believability Chapter 4 || Masterlist || Believability Chapter 6 >
