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.
Chapter 2
No good. I don't get it at all.
What's this "Frankenmagistrate" thing? There's so many of these works I dunno, lookin' 'em up one-by-one on my phone's gettin' annoying.
Ah, right. It was a property trying to cash in on the success of Vampire Shogun
It’s a courtroom setting where Frankenmagistrate, a well-renowned judge, though not to the point where he’s timelessly famous, pulls back the curtain and reveals the true culprits in each trial.
There weren’t any reruns, so I’ve only heard of it, though. It didn't get a sequel like Vampire Shogun did either.
Hmm. So… with a judge-character as the lead role, it is a work similar to a detective-story.
Kiryu-dono. Could you look up more information on the “in-taa-netto” for me, so we can understand what kind of show this is?
Gimme a sec. I'm pullin’ it up.
But I can't fact check as thoroughly as you, Hasumi-no-danna, so, well, just be patient.
Sorry, Kiryu. Thanks for going to the trouble of taking on the research for me.
No big deal. You’re always doin’ everything for us, like makin’ this list.
I’m good with tinkerin’ on machines, but high-tech stuff? Not so much.
It seems like all kindsa media like online videos have been replacin’ TV these days. I feel like I hafta start gettin’ used to all these newfangled things.
Heheh. I’m sure you’ll pick it up quickly with how skillful you are, Kiryu.
Besides, there are old works who don’t have any information about them on the internet. It’s not a matter of whether you’re good at it or not. It’d end up taking a long time, even for me.
Oh. Here it is.
Looks like there’s some kinda Frankenmagistrate fansite. Seems to be someone’s personal site, and it looks pretty old, but it’s got full records of news about the show and their personal thoughts about it.
Hmm… It details that the difference between Frankenmagistrate and Vampire Shogun is that Frankenmagistrate was a half-baked blend between a period drama and a monster story, and as a result, it did not stand the tests of time.
Frankenmagistrate was not a traditional period drama that based itself in the concept of good and evil, but in the worries that come with being a living creature, and that is what had mixed reception.
Hmm. Guess there are reasons some masterpieces stick around and reasons others don’t, huh!
“It was an almost unexpected endeavor in blending science fiction with historical period drama…”? Just readin’ this makes me wanna watch it, kinda.
Perhaps that is exactly what makes devoted fans such as this keep such detailed records.
...
Hey, what’s up? You’ve been silent, y’know?
Haha, could it be that yer interested in Frankenmagistrate? ♪
Ahh, no... Well, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't interested.
But popularity is important when you're picking a cover song. Even if you manage to get the super-fans to listen to it, it’s a gamble whether or not they’ll actually take to it.
Yeah, guess so. Welp, guess this Frankenmagistrate thing’s a bust.
… Yeah, you’re right.
Hm? You seem strangely evasive, Hasumi-dono. Is something the matter?
Not really. I just feel a little sorry for Frankenmagistrate with the reception it received from the public.
The way they aimed to be something so cutting-edge, yet came across as half-baked— I can tell they did what they wanted to achieve, but as an artistic person, it’s conflicting to me.
Hmm… The public certainly may prefer the tried-and-true path.
We AKATSUKI are “aidoru” who base ourselves in tradition as well. It seems we need to keep in mind not to make the same mistakes as we balance the new with the old, hm?
You’re real serious Kanzaki. You don’t gotta take everything so seriously, y’know?
Maybe Frankenmagistrate was just too ahead of its time. I mean, nowadays, Japan’s pretty eager takin’ on stuff from the West, right?
Certainly, “Ha-rou-iin” is such an event.
Western culture… What was once undesirable in one generation has become quite popular with the current generation.
Perhaps “Harou-in” has become a substitute for hometown festivals for those who live in the city.
The experience of such a day is rare in this day and age. Our unit lives may very well be descended from an unbroken lineage of festivities since time immemorial too.
Maybe. Now, that’s enough of Frankenmagistrate. We should take a look at the next work.
There are plenty of works to uncover beneath the passage of time. At this pace, we’ll be here all night.
Yeah, yer right. Welp, the next one we gotta look up is, “The Family-Man Yakuza.”
Understood. Haha, this work seems perfectly suited for you, Kiryu-dono.
(...)
(Frankenmagistrate was halfbaked, so it wasn’t able to catch on with the public?)
(Honestly. It’s just like what we were talking about the other day, it just feels bitter to think about.)
(Conveying the old using a new perspective. As the compass of AKATSUKI, that is the path I have chosen. But…)
(Should I be wrong in going down that road, I’ll never be able to face Kiryu and Kanzaki again.)
Chapter 3
One, two, three, four…
(Alright. My form is nice and sturdy.)
(I feel like the movement of the fan conveys sleekness as well. Even my Japanese dance teacher praised that about me, so I’d like to cultivate it even more as a strength.)
(... Still, I’m moving with uncertainty too. Sure enough, what happened yesterday is still on my mind.)
(I wonder why Frankenmagistrate was unable to leave a legacy…)
(After our lunch, I tried watching videos from way back when in the Rhythm Link archive, but I can’t say that Frankenmagistrate was considerably worse than Vampire Shogun or anything.)
(If anything, you could say that the production wins out over Vampire Shogun in some respects. And yet for whatever reasons, Frankenmagistrate was a work left to the annals of time.)
(I wonder if its downfall truly was because it felt half-baked.)
(They failed to hit the gas and follow all the way through with their decision, and so the world turned away from it.)
(I wonder if outsiders see us and think we’re half-baked1 too.)
(Just like the monster Dr. Frankenstein created, if you can’t commit, and just loiter between being human and something different, anyone would forget you—)
(That’s what I want to avoid)
(There isn’t much time until I have to give Rhythm Link my answer.)
(I just need to calmly assess the situation.)
Hmm… How interesting.
Wh–? Amagi— Were you watching me?
Please don’t stand behind me without making yourself known. You almost gave me a heart attack, coming out of nowhere.
Sorry, Hasumi-senpai. I was just captivated by what you were doing.
Was that some kind of traditional dance from Japan you were doing just now? I’m not very familiar with it, but I’ve seen AKATSUKI do it before.
Indeed. That was traditional Japanese dance.
It’s a traditional art that combines dance and performance, and it was once said to be an offering to the gods.
Heheh, that’s what I’d thought. Even my hometown has our own ceremonies dedicated to the gods, so it’s quite interesting to hear that Japanese dance acts in a similar kind of way.
That’s right. I suppose it is just a universally rooted sentiment among Japanese people since time immemorial.2
I’ve read up on some old technique manuals as well. They served as good reference for your mindset while performing traditional arts. If you have the time, you ought to read up on them too, Amagi.
Alright, I’ll give it a try.
That’s Hasumi-senpai for you. I’ve learned so much in Keito Lecture already, but I really do respect you for all of the knowledge and wisdom you hold!
It’s nothing. I still have much more to learn, myself. The act of studying every day is crucial.
When I see your love of learning, Amagi, it makes me want to resolve myself too.
Where you have knowledge, you have choices. I find it rewarding getting to teach everyone in Keito Lecture, with you at the head.
By the way, Amagi. There’s something I wanted to ask you. Why did you come to ES’s dojo today?
You should still be in school right now, right? But… it feels too early for the martial art’s circle SHIN3 to be practicing...
Actually, it isn’t for SHIN but for the Karate Club.
We can’t use the dojo at Yumenosaki because of all the preparations for the Halloween Party.
We had trouble finding a place to practice, so we ended up coming here, but… Are we going to be a disturbance, Hasumi-senpai?
No, it’s not that you’re going to be a disturbance, but…
I see. The Halloween Party that was an S1 rank. In order to prepare for it, the whole school had to drop everything and halt activities.
But I’m lost as to how the Halloween Party is so big that it’s halting all other extracurricular activities.
For that to have been a mandate means this event is sanctioned by the actual school.
Hmm, I don’t really know the particulars of what happened last year, but Buchou seemed to agree to it.
Nagumo did…? So if no one’s dissenting, does that mean even the suspension of extracurricular activities was considered a standard procedure…?
That’s right. Buchou hates things that are underhanded, so if he agreed to it the way he did, I imagine it means it was a formal request put in.
Hmm. How surprising, the way the Halloween Party is being handled like that… I wonder how things have changed since last year.
Anyways. Thanks for all the information, Amagi. I’m done practicing, so feel free to use the room as you please.
Thanks, Hasumi-senpai.
But I’m a little concerned. If this year’s Halloween Party is different from last year’s, that might be why I feel off.
You feel “off”… What happened?
That’s the thing, I don’t know. It just feels like Yumenosaki has a weird atmosphere over it.
I hope I’m mistaken, but it felt like some kind of… hostile atmosphere. The rooms are stuffed to the brim with practices, and it feels like fights could break out at any moment.
What did you say…?
Translation Notes
- ↑ 半端者 generally describes someone not fit for society, but meanings are broad, and can include delinquents, misfits, outcasts and fools. It can also mean someone who has no true passion or someone who doesn't know what they want to be yet; these people are also not fit for society, and instead loiter on the edges of society.
- ↑ Sensitivity note: It's important to clarify that Hiiro is not ethnically Japanese (日本人; nihonjin) but rather belongs to an ethnic group that is indigenous to the land of Japan. Keito is likely trying to communicate similarities between themselves via the proximity of their cultural practices, but this line is erroneous and promotes the idea of a monocultural Japanese identity.
- ↑ SHIN Circle is a martial arts circle in ES, with Madara, Kuro, Tetora, Chiaki and Hiiro.