Starmine ~Before the Storm~ Chapter 1

[nebulancer]

Makoto: ...

Subaru: Wha-! Ukki~ has dead-fish eyes! You all right? Cheer up!

Hokuto: ...

Subaru: Hey, Hokke~, why are you wordlessly patting Ukki~'s head?

Hokuto: Hm. Our Tomoya usually has those same eyes, and when I pat his head he revives.

Subaru: Fuuun, I think that only works for that kid...

Just doing it to Ukki~'s unfair, pat me too! Pat me somewhere like the back of my ear~♪

Hokuto: U~hh... Although your touching others is a common thing, the summer is seriously hot, so I'd like if you spared me from that.

Are you all right, Yuuki? Still alive?

Subaru: Ukki~, you probably didn't eat enough during lunch~!

Your stomach must be empty? I'll take a little run to buy some bread¹ or something☆

Mgh!? Whaat, Anzu? It's bad if you jerk my neck from behind, I'll choke!

Nn? If I'm going out to buy something, you'll go instead, you say?

Ah, then go to somewhere like a coin laundry and grab this towel and wash it on the way!

It's sucked up all the sweat, it's not fluffy anymore!

Hokuto: Don't just freely use the "Producer" like a messenger, Akehoshi. From that viewpoint, she's even greater than we are. Isn't that right, Isara?

Mao: I wo~nder about that, I don't really want to see her as above us or below us...

More importantly, we're about to start a pretty long practice, there's no time for anyone to go out and buy something.

If Anzu's not here watching over us we won't be as motivated, I mean...

It can't be helped, I'll go and bow my head to Kunugi-sensei to ask to buy something, then.

He's the student council's advisor; I talk to him a lot, so I know what's on his mind.

Makoto: Ahaha. My stomach's not empty, I'm fine~...... I'm just a little bit tired.

Sorry for worrying you, everyone. It's always like this, huh.

Hokuto: ...As I thought, was the photo shoot hard on you?

My apologies for giving you work that you're not on good terms with. This fault is my responsibility, you haven't done anything wrong.

Makoto: No way no way, that's not your fault, Hidaka-kun!

Don't bow your head~? I feel awful for this, because the main reason for my feeling exhausted is Izumi-san!

Subaru: Ahaha. Ukki~, you're aaalways being stuck with Seaweed-san.

That guy was pestering the cameraman by giving orders~, changing things like poses one after the other and shooting huge amounts of pictures.

Ukki~ was also acting as expected, perfectly carrying it out, though.

Makoto: Well, because I'm used to it. But mentally, it really took a huge toll on me.

Mao: Ahaha. After that, even I'm tired, so don't mind, don't mind.

Let's change our feelings around; the photoshoot was prolonged so there's not much time left to practice.

Hokuto: You're right. It's best to begin our practice runthrough.

[Starmine] is, after all, an endlessly time-consuming live.

It's our goal to not let the audience collected for viewing fireworks to wander, mainly during the time of firework preparations.

Subaru: Uu~n. So that means, it's like we won't be able to go watch the fireworks?

Hokuto: If you want to see them you can see them on the stage, but there's no carefree going off and having fun, of course.

While the fireworks are going up, it's a performance where if you interfere or cause problems we'll have to restrain you.

Until it gets dark, we're on the side of making it fun. If you're captivated by the fireworks and lose sight of your duty, it'll all come toppling down.

Mao: Roger that~. Well, Hokuto's the kind of person who prioritizes work, but let's just enjoy watching the fireworks while doing our work.

We've got a summery atmosphere, so it'll be fun if we go with the flow♪

Subaru: Muu. I wanted to do stuff like going around stall-hopping~, with yukatas and all that...

Too bad that's impossible this time, huh. Even if it's on a different occasion, let's go and all enjoy the summer festival! And the beach too!

Hokuto: Right now's [Starmine], so focus, Akehoshi.

Anyways, don't deviate from our talk... [Starmine]'s following program is just as we reconfirmed in the morning.

Mao: Ahaha. During [Duel] we fought and lived, huh~, surprisingly enough it feels like we can match with "Knights"' pace.

Even in our performance, we've really made strides from that in [Duel].

Hokuto: But because yukatas and atmosphere are different things, we could arrange for that somewhat.

During our joint practice in [Duel], we've gotten a better understanding of our individual breathing and intervals.

Without these huge troubles, we couldn't have done the performance so readily. Though unpreparedness is one's greatest enemy, let's aim for success to the extent we can and do our best.

Yay yay, ohh!

Subaru: Yay yay, ohh~! Let's become the fireworks that color in the summer night sky☆



¹-"kinako pan" is a bread that's made from soybean flour. It felt weird to put "sweet bread" or "soybean bread" in the translation so i just left it as "bread".