Scarlet Halloween | Moonrise
Chapter 1
Phew... Today’s practice went off without a hitch as well.
Yeah. Succession Match just wrapped up too, so AKATSUKI’s gettin’ to a good place slowly but surely.
… Still. Ya good, Danna? Ya seem strangely tired.
Me? I didn’t really mean to come off that way, but...
With Succession Match and Unification by Force having just happened, it’s been pretty hectic lately. I might be a little burnt out.
Burnt out, huh…?
Ahh. Guess that’s what you were talkin’ about when you said you were feelin’ unwell before?
Jobs have been hard to come by ever since we got to Rhythm Link, so we've been givin’ it our all for the ones we do get.
That's right. I can't say I know know the cause for sure, but that’s what I suspect.
I chased a longtime, dearest wish with Sakuma in Succession Match, and clawed and struggled to be recognized by the Rhythm Link veterans in Unification by Force.
We'd spent so much time just sitting around, sprinting forward so suddenly might've been what exhausted me.
Haha. Now that ya say that, we have had our hands full with huge jobs back-to-back.
Especially you, Danna. As the leader, you worked at it harder than any of us.
You're probably used to organizin' projects, but doin' somethin' you're not used to like a live with tons of action scenes... Figures you'd be totally beat from it all.
Don’t push yourself, Hasumi-dono. What will happen to AKATSUKI if you collapse?
You're worrying too much. I'm mindful of my health more than most. I had a childhood friend who’d get sick easily, after all.
That aside, practice is over. Let’s pick a spot to settle down and start the brieifing.
Like I mentioned before, I wanted to talk to you guys about AKATSUKI's plans for Halloween.
Yeah. I wanted to ask about that too.
It’s been goin’ around that AKATSUKI’s not gonna participate in the ES Halloween event. Is that actually true?
When I ran into Nito at the office, he said somethin’ like “If AKATSUKI’s going to do the agency’s live, leave ES Halloween to me.”
…? What…? I said I was still considering it, though.
Well, that’s a problem. Plenty of idols come in and out of the office. Someone must have seen me listening to what a senior had to say and got the wrong idea.
But what about the Rhythm Link joint live? I'm no expert, but is it that good of a live that we're prioritizing that over ES Halloween?
My kid sister looks forward to Halloween every year. I figure Halloween’s what's all the rage for the young crowd, right?
Of course, your perception of Halloween is right, Kiryu.
Still, I see the benefits of forgoing Halloween just this once vastly outweigh the ones we get if we participate.
Halloween, as it were, is a relatively new event with a short history in Japan. It’s only natural the middle-aged seniors of Rhythm Link find it unfamiliar.
Coming at it a different way, rumor has it that this is our chance to butter them up.
I’ve had my concerns about how the higher-ups operate too, but if you want to get close enough to strike while they sleep, you need to curry their favor to get close enough in the first place.
… I suppose that's coming from years of dealing with politics in the Student Council. But if you want to participate in ES Halloween, Kiryu, I can withdraw us from Rhythm Festa right away.
No. You’ve saved my skin time ‘n time again. Whatever you decide, I’ll follow your lead.
I feel the exact same as Kiryu-dono. Hasumi-dono is the head of AKATSUKI, so we’ve left it to you to decide the course we take.
I understand. Well, here’s what I’m thinking right now.
Rhythm Link has many, many untapped resources— there's value in the ones people have stopped paying attention to.
That's what happened with Vampire Shogun, after all. Rhythm Link holds the rights to plenty of works that used to be popular.
AKATSUKI might get great benefit out of making use of those works' name recognition. Covers, revivals, that sort of thing.
All that to say, I went ahead and pulled together all the works that Rhythm Link holds the rights to.
Ohh. I was wondering what was in that paper bag. This is quite the large collection.
Not bad. Picking between Rhythm Link and Halloween's gettin’ real interestin’ all of a sudden ♪
No point standing around and talking about it here. Let’s go grab some grub while we talk it over.
Right. We’ve been treated like newbies up to this point, but now we’re finally being seen as "young go-getters". It’s about time we made an even bigger splash.
Tradition and innovation— that is AKATSUKI's strategy. We'll take this opportunity and make some broad steps towards expanding our influence within the agency.