★DIGITAL STAR★

Free.

It had finally hit her- she was free.

[“Takahashi-san, you mustn’t do such irresponsible things. An idol’s image must be kept pristine. You wouldn’t want us to report this to your father, would you?”

“Ohhh, so you’re gonna tell on me? I’m soooo scared!”

“Takahashi-san, this is unacceptable behavior. If you want to stay in the business, you must follow such regulations to keep your reputation fully in-tact. Do you understand?”

“…Yes, sir.”]

There’d always been someone stopping her, trying to “keep her in line”. Her behavioral issues, her impulses, all of it kept under watchful eye. It was so stifling.

She hated that.

But now… now there was nothing.

No one was holding her back, telling her what she could or couldn’t do, was there? Her label, her agents, none of it. All of them were… far, far from whatever this place was, weren’t they?

She was free.

Her grip on the utensil in her hand was tight, locking eyes with herself in the mirror. She hadn’t done this before, but… what could be the harm, right? She was starting to feel so weighed down, it was getting almost unbearable. She could feel herself getting antsy, her common sense shouting ‘no’, but her impulses screaming back 'yes’ at an equal volume.

[What’s there to worry about? It’s gonna look great, right?]

…Change is a necessary thing.

Snip.

“…”

It wasn’t as much of a difference as she’d hoped, but… for now, it was enough.

Discarding her cut pigtails in the trashcan, she fluffed out her hair and gave a smile in the mirror.

[Don’t look-]

The words rang in her head all too softly, as she didn’t heed their warning one bit. The idol watched on as her trial neighbor was dragged out to slaughter, and kept looking through the entire horrible scene.

When the body dropped into the courtroom (gods, why do I have to look at this again-), her expression stayed largely the same. Shocked, but attempting a calm. She swallowed hard, like she was attempting to keep down a shout. 

She was vaguely aware of Kaya fainting, and vaguely aware of other people’s reactions. It almost felt… numb. Now that she’s dropped the act… she could hardly bring herself to even care about how other people felt.

And then… there was Ayano. Alive. Looking sicker than hell, but… alive. She was glad her investigation partner hadn’t run off and died somewhere when they’d disappeared- she would’ve felt awfully responsible, and guilt is bad for the health. 

But… ah.

“Ayacchan… you might not want to look…”

Her eyes drifted back to the pile of debris that the musician’s corpse lay in for just a moment, before returning to the ground.

[If you’re gonna be like this now, you should at least still try to act nice.]

It wasn’t a bad idea to act nice, of course. She briefly considered helping Tori with Kaya, but… she felt it may not be appropriate for her to do so. Not right now, at least. Not until she’s gone through some drastic changes. Things were about to be very different for the idol.

[alt title: i was rereading old astral stuff earlier and now im dying]

Oh.

So much for not having the spot next to her vacated so early, then.

“…Jazi…?”

In too much shock of her neighbor’s revelation of guilt (she was right next to her, how could she not even notice…?), Yui didn’t even get the chance to vote before the trial had come to a close.

“…I can’t believe…”

Something of sadness washed over her, even if only for a selfish reason. There would be an empty space there now, and then it would just get emptier from there. More and more people leaving (leaving me alone, abandoning me-), and nothing would be left soon enough.

For a moment, she tried to recall what it felt like to care about people other than yourself. But the memories would not come to her.

It was starting to get a lot more difficult to keep herself contained, especially after Shion’s response. Quickly getting over her blunder, she breathed out a short sound that could’ve been an indignant laugh.

“Heh… ‘friends’, huh? I thought people knew this by now. I’m an idol. 'Friends’ aren’t the kind of luxury I get to have.”

She considered adding another comment, but… no, that would cause too much unnecessary commotion. There was enough as it is.

“Sorry about the fighting, Kayacchin. It’s true, we do need to work together. So I’ll… try, even though you all seem to have it out for me now.”

With a sigh, she attempted to let herself cool down… only to be very quickly jolted out of peace by her neighbor’s shouting.

Jaz’ outburst was enough to make Yui jump a bit to her left, letting out a bit of a squeak even. 

“Eep! J-Jazi…”

A glance at the hair of her trial neighbor was enough to tell that her hair looked completely uncut. She was almost glad- it would feel kinda empty to already have a spot next to her vacated with a freshly refilled court. 

“…Aah.”

Right… Shion found the body. 

Completely frozen by the realization of her own idiocy, it seemed that the idol had leaned over her podium a little bit too far and… tumbled right over the front of it.

Landing hard on the ground, she looked utterly mortified. She stood and dusted herself off, awkwardly getting herself back to the proper side of the podium, and stood up straight as though pretending nothing had ever happened.

Yui had to do her best to keep her expression from curling into something gross and hateful. But… it didn’t seem like she was succeeding. Anger was swirling within her like a hurricane, but… no, it wouldn’t be very idol-like of her to act like that…

So, she simply tried to do as she did best.

“You’d do anything, you say? Would you kill? Since you’re the one doing these checks and all, there isn’t anyone checking you, right? I mean… in times like these, you have to take cautions, right Shitzu? And trying to throw the attention other ways… it’s pretty suspicious to me, at least. So what if someone killed before? Unless they killed now, that doesn’t matter. We’re looking for Kaorin’s murderer.”

She looked so… smug. It would seem out of character, if it didn’t occur to you that it was hard to be certain what her character was in the first place.

The way she looked almost brought to mind a cat, swishing its tail and giving a complacent look. She leaned over her podium like she was trying to get up close without having to go through the trouble of moving.

“So Datan killed someone, and so did Ayacchan. But did either of them kill Kaorin? I mean, I was investigating with Ayacchan-”

Ah… wait. Looking over the courtroom, she soon realized that her investigation partner was mysteriously absent. Come to think of it… they had disappeared in the middle of their investigation, hadn’t they? Yui hadn’t been troubled by it at the time… but it was suddenly very worrying.

“…Ah… whatever. Anyway, trying to throw shade on Datan and Ayacchan and even Kumakichi just seems kinda like you’re trying to throw people off of yourself! But that’s just my personal opinion. No biggie!”

Ouch. So much for people not disliking her.

“…I didn’t think it was that bad of an idea…”

She huffed and crossed her arms, leaning onto the podium and holding her head up with one hand. She seemed like she was… pouting. Yui Takahashi is five years old. Was she even listening? Her earbuds were still plugged in!

It was a bit difficult to ignore the sudden shouting from a couple seats down, though. Pulling out one cord and turning her attention to the girl there- Yona, it seemed like her podium said-, Yui’s mood turned around a bit.

“Yeah, exactly! I mean… to solve this thing… we’ve gotta be a team! We can’t work together if we keep getting all grouchy at each other for silly stuff. We have to bond and become closer! And there’s no better way to become closer to someone than to trust them with your secrets! …I’m gonna assume none of you are Super High School Level Paparazzi.”

Way to be, Yui.

“Like, mine wasn’t that bad at all. I don’t wanna say anything about what it was yet, but I do hope I can convince you guys to agree just a teeny bit. And… I will admit that I’ve been pretty curious about who’s got mine and what it says! But that’s beside my point. So what do you say, guys? Let’s become a team who can fight through this together!”

By the end of investigation, Yui waltzed into the trial like nothing had happened at all. An idol must make a good first public impression on new potential fans, right?

“Hiya! Ehehe, sorry I haven’t been the chattiest lately, but please allow me to introduce myself! Although, I’d hope some of you might recognize me… my name is Yui Takahashi, also known as YuYui, and my title is Super High School Level Virtual Idol! But you can just call me Yui!”

She was almost exactly as she had been at the beginning. You would find it difficult to believe that this girl had seemed so… broken not too long ago.

“So… this was all because of those card things, right? Then, why don’t we just show them all? It’s easy enough to do! I mean, it probably won’t help us find the killer, but if someone’s got a secret worth killing for, then at least we know where to start, right? I mean, the one I got seemed kinda… well, it wasn’t something you’d kill to keep hidden, really!”

She didn’t wanna say ‘silly’ or ‘childish’, out of fear of possibly hurting someone’s feelings. It would be pretty bad for her reputation if someone disliked her, after all. 

“Also, Mizu seemed pretty much clear as far as I could tell! I wasn’t looking very hard, so if anyone else got something then please share, but what I saw seemed normal, I guess!”

Koko de Matteru yo | Rin Hoshizora

START:DASH!! | μ’s

(alt title: ame has a bad time with college work and forgot to post)

Everything had happened so quickly that the idol could barely wrap her head around it.

Regrettably, Ri’s death was… expected, when she’d noticed he was missing from the trial. She didn’t know him, though, so she decided to just brush it off. It was better for her that way not to dwell on it, right?

Then, all of a sudden, an entirely new class was introduced. Another group of kids around her age that had been through the same exact things as they had on the islands. It was dizzying to think about…

But, it wasn’t something she had the luxury to dwell on. 

“Gh-!”

Now, being faced with this motive… it was terrifying. Anyone could have a secret that she so dearly wanted to keep away from prying eyes. People she didn’t know or trust at all. People who’s names she didn’t even know, let alone their personalities. And what if one of them was- gods forbid- a journalist?! 

Don’t let them see you waver anymore.

Holding the card in her hands, she let out a small, uncertain giggle.

“Ehe… someone’s worried over something silly like this? That doesn’t sound that bad at all… If all of them are like this, then I doubt this’ll do much, y'know. Aha… right?”