SIDE Hoshino Ruby
"It's boring."
The members at Ichigo Production were Hoshino Ai, Ruby, and Arima Kana. And the program they were watching was, of course, "True Love" featuring Aqua, but at some point, Arima Kana...
"I'm getting bored of this, I should stop watching. Ah, from the start, the concept of comfortably watching other people's love lives is in bad taste, don't you think? What's so great about who pairs up with who? Is it a matchmaking thing? Are you trying to breed racehorses for the Kikka Sho or something? Ah, no, no, I don't want to watch anymore. I don't even want to see Aqua's face. Bye-bye, see ya."
After saying what seemed like an endless stream of words, she first left Ichigo Production, leaving only Ai and Ruby behind. Among them, Ruby peered closely at the laptop.
"Mama?"
"Huh? Did you call me, Ruby-chan?"
Ruby had called out to Ai, who for a moment had looked like Akane, and of course, Ai, who was right beside her, hugged Ruby and said.
"Ah... um... it's nothing."
Ruby tried to convince herself that seeing Akane as Ai was just her imagination, but at that moment...
"Yeah, yeah, this Akane girl did a good job imitating me and Yume."
"Huh? Ma... Mama, did this Akane person look like Mama to you too!?"
Ruby was startled by Ai's words, which seemed to confirm that it wasn't just her eyes playing tricks.
"Yeah, yeah, from the start, Yume also thought quite highly of this Akane girl. But who would have thought she'd look so much like a carbon copy.... And I can kind of see Yume's likeness too. As expected of Yume! To have discovered such a gem in advance!"
Ai hugged Ruby's head and spoke as cheerfully as possible, but...
[It makes me sick, as if I'm confronting my past self. I want to tell her to disappear right now... Should I kill her?]
A surge of murderous intent towards Akane rose in Ai's mind for a moment, but she quickly calmed her emotions and then.
"Well then, shall we head home, Ruby-chan!"
"...Yeah, Mama!"
Ruby felt a chill when Ai hugged her, but thinking it must be her imagination, she headed home with Ai.
SIDE Hoshino Aqua.
In a dark room, Hoshino Aqua focused on the two monitors that were the only sources of light.
[From childhood until now, I've lived with Ai and Yume for years, but I think I don't know a single thing about Ai or Yume.]
[No, did I even try to find out? Could it be that I never bothered to learn anything about those two?]
[...Is there no way for me to know where the lies end and the truth begins with those two now?]
[What is Hoshino Ai to me?]
[The object of my fandom? If not that, then a mother? Or...]
[Even if Ai is sincere, what about Yume?]
[I've never directly heard the truth about Yume; it's only through 'senior' that I've gotten a few bits of light information.]
[What if what 'senior' said isn't the truth but a lie?]
[It can't be a lie. Then Yume is...]
The next morning, Aqua oddly went to school separately from Ruby, and as he was about to cross the crosswalk, he called out to Arima Kana, who was in front of him.
"Arima Kana... want to skip school and hang out with me starting now?"
If Yume heard this, he'd probably grab the back of his neck in frustration, Aqua thought.
"I'll go!!!"
"Haa... really, how ridiculous? Skipping school to hang out, that's totally delinquent behavior~ unbelievable! The worst!! The absolute worst!!"
Even as she said that, Arima Kana looked happier than anyone else in the world.
"If you hate it that much, should we call it off?"
"I didn't say that. You look like you're troubled about something~ so as a senpai, I feel like I should take care of you, you know? I'm such an angel! So where are we going? Disney? Tokyo Tower?"
"You've got some nerve to suggest such big places while skipping school."
In many ways, Arima Kana is amazing, Hoshino Aqua thought.
"But if we skip school in uniforms, people will stare!! Going home to change is a waste of time!! And at those places, there are lots of people in uniforms, so we won't stand out..."
Arima Kana was more sincere about this date(?) than anyone.
"No need for that..."
"Huh?"
And so, the place the two headed to was.
"Haaaaa... you really are a weirdo, aren't you?"
"Am I?"
"Yes!!"
A park in the neighborhood.
"I thought a young man and woman escaping from the prison of school would do something, but playing catch leisurely in a park? You even bought gloves and a ball on purpose, that's strange!"
"Just throw the ball already."
Come to think of it, I've never done catch with Yume... ah.
For a moment, the Yume in Aqua's mind was...
"Here, Aqua!! Catch this father's heart with all your might!!!"
'Bam!!!'
"...Better not do it."
It's just imagination, but Aqua decided never to try sports with Yume.
[Achoo!!... Ugh, who's bad-mouthing me?...] - Hoshino Yume.
"I... I've never played baseball or anything...! Sorry!"
The ball Kana threw veered wide past Aqua, but he didn't mind much.
"It's fine."
Watching Aqua's back as he went to retrieve the ball, Kana said.
"Wouldn't it be better to call someone who's better at this than a klutz like me? Like Ruby..."
"What kind of older brother makes his little sister skip school?"
A valid point.
"Siscon, that's annoying..."
Aqua's siscon nature was genuinely irritating.
"Then the Jinreal cast...? You get along, right?"
"Well, it's not bad, but since it's work-related, we're not that close either."
"I see."
"Because they lie or move only out of calculation, there aren't many people around me for casual chat without tapping on a calculator."
Hoshino Aqua was really beating around the bush about having no friends... hmph...!
"In that sense, I don't need to be careful with you."
"Be more careful, you idiot!!! But still, picking me as that kind of companion isn't so bad! Jinreal is nearing the end of filming, right?"
'Whoosh~'
"Yeah."
'Swoosh~'
"The most popular is Yuki, right? But lately... Kurokawa Akane seems to be rising fast too!?"
After exchanging the ball once.
"Actually... Aqua, who are you aiming for?"
"It's just work, so I don't have anything like that."
"But you must have preferences, right? Like younger girls or older ones!"
"That's a tough question."
[I've been feeling it keenly lately.]
[Human thought is greatly influenced by physical development.]
[In infancy, due to infantile amnesia, memories don't settle well, and during puberty with secondary growth, I clearly feel a strong wariness towards attention.]
[Gradually, as I grow as Hoshino Aqua, my mind adapts to the body's environment.]
[More and more...]
[The boundary between me and Hoshino Aqua is disappearing.]
"The boundary between me and Hoshino Aqua is disappearing."
"I've thought this before, but I was too scared to ask."
"Huh?"
"You, maybe... have eighth-grader syndrome? It's better to graduate from that quickly... it's embarrassing."
"Hwah!?"
Aqua was seriously pissed off by Arima Kana's words.
"To put it simply, I'm also a high school student. It means I recognize girls my age as potential romantic interests. Well, I do prefer someone a bit older..."
"So you like older girls? Aha~? Hmm~? Aha~?"
Arima Kana: high school second year.
Hoshino Aqua: high school first year.
"Just throw the ball."
Another truth that suddenly came to Arima Kana's mind.
Kurokawa Akane: high school second year.
"Haa...? Hmm...? Aha...?"
Arima Kana-chan, who was highly excited, quickly deflated. Easy, too easy...
"What's wrong?"
"It's nothing!!!"
Arima Kana threw the ball with all her emotions behind it.
"Wow, you throw well?"
"Do I?"
"Are you really a beginner?"
"Yeah, it's my first time with you. My very first time. Ahahahaha... maybe I could be an idol for the first pitch?"
[So... my feelings towards Kurokawa Akane aren't that. I owe Arima for this.]
After skipping school, Aqua moved to the filming location.
[My emotions are sorted out.]
[I'm just seeing the illusion of Hoshino Ai in Kurokawa Akane.]
[Though it's laughable to see an illusion of someone I live with.]
"Finally, filming is over too. It's lonely... thanks to you, Aqua-kun, I created a character, gained popularity, and it helped a lot! Thank you."
"Hoshino Ai's acting... no, character study, right? It was like a dream... as if I was seeing the real thing. How did you do that?"
Actually, Aqua was quite curious too. Hoshino Yume acknowledged it, and Hoshino Ai also acknowledged Akane's portrayal of her role. Hoshino Aqua wondered how she could pull off that role. And also, how she managed to capture the small charisma of Hoshino Yume hidden in Hoshino Ai's role.
"Ah, no... it's not that great."
Kurokawa Akane said that, took out a notebook from her skirt pocket, and continued.
"First, I read books like profiling manuals... I just investigated a lot and interpreted it in my own way. I added various arbitrary settings too..."
"Arbitrary settings?"
"Yeah."
"For example... that Hoshino Ai actually has a hidden child... with that, various emotional lines align, and I can understand the reasons behind all those mysterious actions. I can figure out what she thought and what kind of personality she had, like solving a math puzzle!!"
[If Yume finds out what I'm about to do, he'd probably try to stop me... but.]
"How far can you understand Ai's thought patterns?"
"Huh? Um... how she lived and what kind of man she likes... well, since she's already dating Yume-senpai, let's skip that... I think I can roughly figure it all out?"
[The entertainment industry gathers talents.]
[For me, there was the free-spirited, talented Hoshino Ai, and the overwhelmingly talented Hoshino Yume who silently supported her from behind.]
[I didn't know even a hair's breadth of what those two felt or wanted to do.]
[The talent named Kurokawa Akane probably understands those two much more deeply than I, who have lived with them for years, and perfectly mimics their actions.]
[We're just acquaintances through work... once the program ends, we won't have any more connections.]
[But... Kurokawa Akane is useful...! I can't let this go... even if Yume or Ai scold me, I won't stop.]
SIDE Hoshino Yume.
"...So that's your choice, Aqua."
On the final day of filming, by chance, I received a call from the main PD of Jinreal Love, and of course, I went to watch Aqua's acting, but the Aqua I saw before my eyes...
"Is so very alien. But I have no right to stop him... I'm the one who told him to be free. Still..."
Seeing my child stray is quite... heartbreaking.
It must be the same feeling my parents felt watching me in my past life.
Because in my past life... I was broken.
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