The heavy door to the rooftop burst open with a resounding clang, the metal hinge groaning against the sudden force.
"WHAT IN THE WORLD ARE YOU DOING?!"
The voice was like a thunderclap, slicing through the suffocating tension. Umi Sonoda stood in the doorway, her long, dark blue hair whipped wildly by the Odaiba wind. Her chest was heaving, her sharp golden eyes instantly locking onto the scene—the raw despair on Ayumu's face, the heavy silence of the Nijigasaki members, and the unmistakable, glinting shape of the discarded knife on the concrete.
Umi didn't just walk; she marched into the center of the rooftop, her posture radiating a rigid, terrifying authority born of years of traditional discipline and leadership. The sheer aura of a legendary school idol predecessor made even Karin and Shioriko instinctively take a step back.
She stopped right in front of Ayumu, her expression a mask of pure, unadulterated fury.
"Ayumu Uehara!" Umi shouted, her voice trembling not with sorrow, but with profound indignation. "Look at yourself! Look at what you are holding—look at what you almost did! Is *this* what the Nijigasaki High School Idol Club has become?!"
Ayumu flinched as if she had been slapped, her tear-stained face looking up in sheer shock. "U-Umi-san... you don't understand, he—"
"I understand that you have completely lost your mind!" Umi interrupted, her voice dropping into a fierce, commanding register that brooked absolutely no argument. "I do not care what history lies between you all and this man! I do not care how deep the wounds are, or how much pain you have carried for three years! Nothing—*absolutely nothing*—justifies bringing a weapon onto a school grounds, let alone using it to threaten someone's life!"
Umi turned her sharp glare to the rest of the group, her eyes sweeping over Setsuna, Rina, and Emma, who all looked down, unable to meet her gaze.
"And the rest of you just stood there and watched?!" Umi's voice echoed off the rooftop vents. "You call yourselves school idols? Idols are supposed to bring light, joy, and hope to people's hearts! You are supposed to guide others through their darkness, not drown in it yourselves! To use violence, to let your emotions degrade into something so ugly and lethal... it is disgraceful! It violates everything a school idol should stand for!"
She turned back to Ayumu, her expression softening only a fraction, replaced by a deep, aching disappointment.
"If you had gone through with this, Ayumu," Umi said, her voice cutting through the wind, "you wouldn't have been protecting Kanata. You wouldn't have been saving anyone. You would have destroyed this club, destroyed your future, and broken Kanata's heart beyond repair. Is that the 'protection' you wanted to offer?"
Ayumu collapsed to her knees, the last of her frantic energy entirely spent, burying her face in her hands as a fresh wave of quiet, broken sobs took over.
Umi stood over her, breathing heavily, before finally turning her gaze toward Agung and Kanata. The older idol's presence had completely derailed the insular, agonizing vacuum the group had been trapped in, forcing the cold, hard reality of the outside world onto the rooftop.