nebulancer

1. In and Yo

[The sounds of a keyboard clacking.]

Employee: Next, please direct your attention to this screen. It will be found on the third page of the proposal you’ve been given.

Until now, we have produced several joint projects for the SUNPRO-associated talents and artists at a single time. However, one project we haven’t done despite seeming as if we have, has been releasing songs based on a singular theme.

Of course, this serves to express the wide range in SUNPRO’s music depending on how you portray this same theme. However, this may also serve to acquire new fans through...

[Mitsuru yawns.]

Makoto: Hey. At least try to hide your yawn.

Mitsuru: Look, I’m trying! But the guy’s explanation is all written right here in this proposal. He’s just reading it right off!

Makoto: He needs to put on this performance as a company employee. To act like he’s doing his job.

Mitsuru: Sure, I see~? That being said, could he hurry and wrap it up then?

...Don’tcha think, Kuroi-kun~

Kuroi: ......

Mitsuru: ? Um, what? Ku~ro~i~kun~

Shiou: *pats Kuroi* Hey, Kuroi.

Kuroi: ...What?

Shiou: Don’t you “What?” me.

Mitsuru: You’re reading the papers very passionately, huh~? Is this proposal right up your alley?

Kuroi: ...Yeah. I guess you could say that.

Expressing the same theme with our own individual types of music. I was thinking about how we in Tobari would handle it.

Mitsuru: Music... Ah, I see. You’re a composer, after all.

Is your desire to create being stimulated on all fronts?

Kuroi: I think it’s an interesting project.

Mitsuru: Mhmm~?

Makoto: Quit getting involved, Mitsuru. ...He’s glaring at you.

Mitsuru: ...! ...Okaaay~

Employee: ...Ahem. With this being our goal, SUNPRO will start the IN-YO series, which is based off the themes of Yin and Yang, respectively, expressing them through music.

Please do take care of it.

Shiou: Yin and Yang, huh? For a first-time project, they’ve gone for a relatively quiet and simple theme, don’t you think?

It’d be more fitting for SUNPRO to go with a modern English phrase or coined word.

Makoto: I get what you’re trying to say. But SUNPRO wants to break free of that “fitting”-ness, which is exactly why they’re doing this.

Both our groups have enough English-titled songs. If we have the title of “joint project” to shield us, though, we’ll be able to try new melodies that we normally wouldn’t be able to do.

Shiou: I see. So you can view it that way, too.

Mitsuru: STAAAAAAAAAAAARE...

Makoto: The hell d’you want?

Mitsuru: ‘S nothing~ I was just interested to know how you and Shiou-kun would talk with each other~

‘Cuz you two didn’t interact at all when we were trainees.

Shiou: Well, true. We were swapped out around the same time, so when you two in ZIX made your debut under your major label and started getting less work as trainees, I started making my way to the forefront.

Mitsuru: Oh, gotcha. That’s why I don’t remember interacting with you much, either...

Shiou, you’re... two years younger than us, right?

Shiou: Yes, I am. I was born in 1999.

Kuroi: I’m... age-wise, I’m the oldest.

Makoto: Really?

Mitsuru: Yeah, really~! Who’d expect Kuro-kun to be the oldest!

Kuroi: I never worked as a trainee, so my time in the showbiz industry is the shortest. though.

Makoto: You played in a band before, didn’t you?

Kuroi: ......Yeah.

Makoto: I had the feeling that that vocalist was gonna botch something at some point. *chuckling* Things went up in flames sooner than I expected, which was a surprise to me.

Shiou: Uh... Ahaha...

Makoto: I guess you composed those songs back then, too?

Kuroi: Yeah.

Makoto: They weren’t bad. It’s good that you get to do music now, too.

Shiou: !

Kuroi: Ah......

Mitsuru: When Makoto says something’s “not bad,” it’s actually crazy-good praise! That’s why it’s rare for him to say stuff like that, Kuro-chan!

Makoto: And you, stop butting in with a side remark after every little thing!

Shiou: *chuckling* Mitsuru-san, you haven’t been able to settle on a concrete way of referring to Kuroi for a while now. “Kuroi-kun, Kuro-kun, Kuro-chan.”

Mitsuru: *laughing* I know, right~? Do I go for the passable and polite “-san,” since he’s older than me? But when I think about how Kuroi-kun and I are brethren who spent a night together...

Shiou: Wh... A night together...!?

Makoto: That survival show on the uninhabited island.

Shiou: Ah—Ahh! *laughs* Oh, that!

The project you had for the variety program, correct?

You were limited on the items you could bring, and through accumulating points, you could acquire the camping goods.

Now that you mention it, you would be brethren who spent a night together.

Kuroi: Unfortunately, our point acquisition was iffy at best, so we had to sleep together in a huddle, under a sky full of stars and atop the sandy beach.

Mitsuru: Meanwhile...! That damned Ryouta and Mamoru spent a night in that fabulous tent...!

...Well! Anyway! Putting that cringe era aside...

Makoto: You were literally the one who brought it up.

Mitsuru: Kuroi-kun! Shiou!

Kuroi, Shiou: Mm. / Yes.

Mitsuru: I’m so excited we get to work together on the IN-YO series! But~...

...I don’t plan on losing.

Kuroi, Shiou: !

Makoto: Heh! His competitive side’s out now.

Mitsuru: Obviously! If all sorts of people are gonna make music based on a singular theme, the fans are going to compare us all, right?

“This one’s good, but that one’s lacking.” They’re gonna stay stuff like that about us, y’know~?

Don’t you wanna be told, “ZIX’s was the best~!”