First-person: Hoshino Yume
What should I do? How can I protect Ai in this situation?
First... no. Second... no. Third isn't it either... fourth, fifth, sixth...
In that fraction of a second, dozens, hundreds of thoughts swirled in my head. But none of them seemed to work.
[Are you going to give up?]
I don't want to give up.
[Then what will you do?]
I'm thinking about it right now.
[Do you really think the answer will come from just thinking in your head?]
........
[It's impossible, because there's no way both you and Ai can get through this unhurt.]
Then...
[You know, right? You've decided to change fate. So show me that resolve.]
Ah, of course. I had forgotten. To change Ai's fate, I would...
[Even if it costs my life, I will save Hoshino Ai.]
Even if this life ends, I will protect Hoshino Ai.
[That's me.]
That's my resolve.
Grabbing Ai by the back of her neck and pulling her backward, I looked at her surprised face.
"It might hurt a bit, Ai."
I showed her a bright smile—not a performance, but for the first time in my everyday life, a genuine smile.
"Yume!?"
Ai fell backward as if rolling away. And as a result...
Stab!?
"Cough!?"
I felt a kitchen knife stabbing into my stomach, burying itself deep.
It hurts. It hurts like hell. No matter how excellent my physical abilities are, I'm still human. If you get stabbed by a knife, of course it hurts. If it hits wrong, it's fatal. If I'm not careful, I really could die.
Seeing me in pain, the hooded man didn't even think to pull out the knife stuck in my stomach. He stepped back, laughing maniacally.
"Puhaha... hahahaha!!! Does it hurt!!! I was in more pain!! I suffered!! An idol having a child... bet... betraying your fans...!!!"
Don't make me laugh... No matter how you see this world, idols are living humans too...!!
If chasing your own happiness is impossible, then you're no longer human—just a doll...!!!!
"Ignoring your fans! You probably thought we were idiots behind our backs!!"
She's not the kind of girl to think such rude thoughts, you idiot...!!
"You liar!!!!"
No one... no one has the right to call Ai a liar...
"No one does, you hear meaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
As if startled by my shout, he stepped back. I grabbed his wrist and pulled him toward me.
"Listen up, you idiot!! Being an idol is a job of selling dreams!!!!"
"It's a job of singing about love with a pure, innocent, and upright heart—cuter than anyone else!!!"
"Ai isn't a liar! She's just a bit awkward at expressing emotions like love! But she's a girl who wants to love and be loved more than anyone else!!!!"
"Right now, she just fills the dream she shows everyone with lies because she can't be honest with her own feelings! But I believe those lies are sincere too!!"
I kept shouting while tightly holding the wrist of the man trying to escape. But the hooded man brazenly spat back:
"Ha... haha!! You say you love us, but it's all lies!!!"
"I told you to shut up!!!!!!"
"Guh!?"
I grabbed his neck and lifted him up. He struggled painfully, choking out sounds like 'Kek... kehk...!?', but I only tightened my grip.
"Ki... kill....."
"Guh...!!"
With him resisting and thrashing, normally it wouldn't have been a problem. But with a kitchen knife stuck in my abdomen and blood flowing continuously, I couldn't even muster half my usual strength. I ended up losing my grip on him.
"I've been irresponsible from the start..."
".....Ai?"
The door was open. Aqua and Ruby stood on either side of Ai, and Ai was looking directly at the fallen man...
Third-person: Hoshino Ai
"It might hurt a bit, Ai."
Seeing Yume hurriedly coming out of the bathroom, Hoshino Ai wondered why he was so flustered. But that question was immediately answered by the man standing in front of her.
"Ai... congratulations on the dome performance. Are the twins doing well?"
Seeing the man pull a kitchen knife from a bouquet and lunge, Ai thought in that instant:
'Ah, this is the karma for all the lies I've told until now.'
Ai instinctively sensed her own death. But feeling herself being thrown backward, she looked at Hoshino Yume and called his name.
"Yume!?"
Hoshino Ai fell back, rolling on the floor.
Stab!?
"Cough!?"
With the sickening sound of flesh tearing, Hoshino Yume's back filled Ai's view. But what was different from usual was the red blood spreading across the floor.
Seeing Yume groaning in pain yet still preventing the man from approaching her, Ai felt something in her chest shatter.
"Puhaha... hahahaha!!! Does it hurt!!! I was in more pain!! I suffered!! An idol having a child... bet... betraying your fans...!!!"
To the words of the man calling himself a fan, she thought:
'Ah, the world probably sees it that way.'
'But idols are living humans too.'
'Am I not allowed to chase my own happiness?'
"Ignoring your fans! You probably thought we were idiots behind our backs!!"
'I didn't go that far, though.'
"You liar!!!!"
Ai was about to speak out in that instant when—
"No one does, you hear meaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
A huge shout, something that would never come out of him normally, burst from Hoshino Yume's mouth. Ai watched in surprise.
Seeing him continue to bleed from his mouth yet speak so fiercely about her, Ai listened.
"Listen up, you idiot!! Being an idol is a job of selling dreams!!!!"
That's right, being an idol is a job of selling dreams.
"It's a job of singing about love with a pure, innocent, and upright heart—cuter than anyone else!!!"
Always singing about love cutely, purely, innocently, and uprightly.
"Ai isn't a liar! She's just a bit awkward at expressing emotions like love! But she's a girl who wants to love and be loved more than anyone else!!!!"
But... but I'm not pure, I'm despicable and dirty...
"Right now, she just fills the dream she shows everyone with lies because she can't be honest with her own feelings! But I believe those lies are sincere too!!"
Even though I'm the kind of person who doesn't really understand loving others... Yume keeps believing in me.
"Ha... haha!! You say you love us, but it's all lies!!!"
"I told you to shut up!!!!!!"
I don't get it... things like love... but still...
"Guh!?"
Hoshino Yume grabbed the man's neck with one hand and lifted him.
"Ki... kill....."
"Guh...!!"
Hoshino Yume lost his grip, and the man fell to the floor, clutching his throat and thrashing in pain.
"I've been irresponsible and hopeless from the start, and I don't really understand what it means to love someone..."
Hoshino Ai finally brought out the words she had been hiding and enduring all this time.
First-person: Hoshino Yume
"Ai...?"
"I've been irresponsible and hopeless from the start, and I don't really understand what it means to love someone..."
What are you talking about....
"Instead, I've been telling pretty lies that would make everyone happy."
Ah, I see. The person who will give you the chance to change is...
"Hoping that someday these lies would become true, I worked hard and told lies with all my might. For me, lies are love. In my own way, I conveyed love to everyone."
It was me.
"I don't know if I love you all properly... but I thought about wanting to love while singing love songs, hoping that someday it would become real love."
So that's how it is, Ai. You... were loving more than anyone else all along. Even if it was through lies, you did it so that love could reach everyone.
"See, even now, I think about wanting to love you."
Ai slowly approached and stood right next to me, reaching her hand toward the man on the floor.
"Li... lies... I can't even remember. After this man in front of you, it's you... I... I want to kill...!!"
That's right. Ai is poor at remembering people, so remembering him would be a miracle.
"It's Ryosuke, right? You often came to handshake events. Huh? No? Sorry, I'm not good at remembering names. The star sand you gave as a gift—I was happy. I still have it decorated in the living room."
No wonder there was strange sand in the living room... so that's what it was.
"What... that... something like that... Waaaaaaah!!!!!!!!!"
The man ran off. I couldn't let him go, so as I was about to chase after him...
"No."
"Ai... let go... cough!?"
"Yume!?"
Ai grabbed my hand to stop me. In response, I forced my body, which was about to collapse while coughing up blood again, to turn away from her.
I didn't want Ai to see me like this.
I wanted to show her only bright things from now on. I wanted to do so much more for her. If this is the result of that desire, it wasn't such a bad feeling.
But...
"Ai."
"Yume, don't die... no... no, I hate being alone again...!!"
Ai held onto my leg, continuously shouting, "No... no...!"
Aqua hurriedly came to my front, looked at the wound, and stammered.
"B... bleeding...!! Did he aim for the abdominal aorta!? Fo... fortunately it missed, but the bleeding...!!!"
As expected of Aqua... no, is that knowledge from Goro in his past life?
"Yu... Yume? What's happening... why is the floor red.....? Huh?"
Ah, Ruby... I didn't want to show you this side either.....
Am I going to die like this after all?
...............................
..........................
..................
..............
...........
Don't make me laugh. Do you think I'll die like this?
I haven't shown Hoshino Ai so much more yet.
I haven't done so much more for Hoshino Ai yet.
I haven't seen Hoshino Ai truly happy yet.
Just now, the 'sincerity' Hoshino Ai spoke of reached me. With that sincerity as a trigger, Ai will surely have grown one step further.
I want to see Ai growing even more.
I want to see Ai conveying sincere love to Aqua and Ruby.
I want to tell Aqua to walk the path of an actor.
I want to see Aqua acting.
I want to create a path for Ruby to become an idol.
I want to see Ruby becoming an idol and being loved by everyone.
Even if it's a story of the distant future, I want to see Ai, Aqua, and Ruby all appearing on the same show.
....Well, this is something.
Hoshino Ai, because of you, even I seem to have become greedy.
"Hehe... hahahaha... cough!?"
"Yume!?"
As I let out a hollow laugh and coughed up blood, Ai hurriedly tried to lay me down.
"Ai."
"Yume, it's okay, you can still live...!"
"I won't die, so listen to me now."
"Huh...?"
I executed a method I had seen in an old manga, and the result was a success.
Using all the nerves and muscles in my stabbed abdomen, I tried to constrict the wound to stop the blood from flowing out further.
The result was a great success.
I don't know what manga it was, but it seems that manga saved me.
"Ai, you said it yourself with your own mouth. That you're irresponsible, hopeless, and don't really understand what it means to love someone."
"Those words are a lie, Ai. You're a girl with more sense of responsibility than anyone else."
"You don't know what love is? That's just because you're not being honest with your feelings yet."
"As I said before, I didn't wish for you to change quickly."
"Just seeing you slowly, step by step, moving forward is enough for me."
"The lies you speak of will surely become truth. Of course, the Hoshino Ai I know is a girl who loves to love and be loved more than anyone else."
"You said you wanted to have both Hoshino Ai as a mother and Hoshino Ai as an idol—that you're greedy, right?"
"I'm the same. I want to see you loving both."
"I haven't shown you so much more yet. I haven't done so much more for you yet, and I haven't seen you truly happy yet."
"I still want to see you growing even more."
"I want to see you conveying sincere love to Aqua and Ruby."
"I want to see Aqua walking the path of an actor. I want to see Aqua acting."
"I want to create a path for Ruby to become an idol, too. I want to see Ruby becoming an idol and being loved by everyone."
"And... and if possible, even if it's a story of the distant future, I want to see you, Ai, and Aqua and Ruby, all three of you, appearing on the same show."
Speaking all the sincerity I held inside, keeping my body still, I turned only my head to look at the faces of Ai, Aqua, and Ruby watching me.
"I, Hoshino Yume, seem to have become greedy. So until all these things are achieved... I guess I can't die."
Saying that, I saw our company's staff members running over. The moment I looked at the woman leading them, I instantly recognized who it was.
"Haha... you're quick to respond, Senior... I'll leave the rest to you... D..."
Thinking that if it's 'The Doctor', she's a renowned physician who can save even dying people, so treating me with just a kitchen knife stuck in my stomach should be quick...
My consciousness faded.
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