Starmine ~Love of a Prisoner~ Chapter 3

[nebulancer]

Hokuto: Yuuki. I want you to answer me honestly.

I'm- we're your friends, right?

Makoto: Uh, yeah. Of course. Hidaka-kun, everyone in "Trickstar" is my precious friend.

We're comrades, we share the same destiny... It's a relationship that even if it's cut away, it can't be cut, and I love you guys.

Hokuto: Thank you. I'm glad. But that's why you shouldn't keep toughing it out.

Let more of your true self out, and say what you want to say.

You don't need to keep holding out. If it's painful, then it'll hurt... If you're suffering, then just say that you're suffering.

I'm insensitive, so there's no way I can sympathize with you.

Makoto: No, no, there's no way that's true! Hidaka-kun, recently as "Trickstar"'s leader, you've been properly caring for everyone!

Before, you really couldn't have read the atmosphere!

Hidaka-kun as well, are you toughing it out? Are you all right?

You're the type of person to force yourself to push too hard as a leader, even though you don't have to store your feelings away~?

I'm fine, you see. Look, I'm so energetic!

All I can do is spit out weak sounds anyway, and compared to everyone else in "Trickstar", I completely lack any ability! Even if I cough out blood, I have to do my best!

Hokuto: Yuuki. Don't misunderstand. For us, if you lack ability, then you're not needed in "Trickstar"... that what you say is how you feel?

For us to heartlessly, business-like, cut you out and throw you away?

Makoto: ...

Hokuto: I might not have the right to say this to you. Once, having been swayed by the Student Council President's deception, I had separated myself from you guys.

That time, I was thinking for myself as an idol, that I would have some kind of profit for my future...

As soon as he said that, I obeyed. With a rational calculation in human nature, like a machine I meant to take the most optimal route.

But I was wrong.

Although the best choice was correct, as a human, I made the answer that was lowest of the low.

I always regret it. Even though we've returned to normal after everything's been said and done, I think that there's nothing I can ever do to be forgiven or to pay you back.

Makoto: Hidaka-kun... No one pays it any mind anymore.

In that situation, it couldn't be helped. No one's blaming you for that. No matter how you struggled, it was something that you couldn't go against the course of.

If we had faced it head-on, like always we would have pushed against the tide to the point where we would have been crushed that no shape would have remained.

Despite that, "Trickstar", like an undying phoenix that was reborn, stirred up a miracle and won [DDD].

Usually, that kind of thing would be impossible. "Trickstar" really is amazing...

That's why I want to cherish it, I don't want to regret it. That's why clinging clinging onto this hard work might look kind of unsightly.

That's why, you just have to say it. I'm kind of lonely...

If I'm of no use to "Trickstar", if I can't help, it's fine if you throw me away. From a distance, I'll be cheering you on.

Hokuto: No one said anything of the sort. Have we even once ever said that you were useless... that we didn't need you?

You're a treasured comrade of ours, there's no way that what you're doing isn't enough.

No. Even if you're chipping away little by little, you'll definitely reach us.

Makoto: If you put it that way, I feel sorry for being a burden on everyone.

Hokuto: For myself as well, I more or less feel like towards Akehoshi and Isara that I'm not enough, that there's something I'm still missing.

By supplementing one another, we support each other and move forward such that we've come here.

Just one-sidedly leaning on us, just only causing annoyances for us is kind of...

Don't get conceited, Yuuki. Don't make light of us. We really love you too.

Yuuki. I- no, only we, never wanted you to keep holding out... like the people who once hurt you.

We didn't want you to force yourself too much; we didn't want to hurt you.

Please, I really mean it... Don't think that you're causing an annoyance. If you want to say something, then just say it.

Makoto: I'm all right... Hidaka-kun?

Hokuto: ...Whatever, it's fine. Before the real performance, I probably shouldn't have said any odd things.

Once everyone returns, let's resume the practice runthrough on the stage.

There are still problems that pile up into a mountain, and until the real thing let's work on them until perfection. I'm depending on you, Yuuki.

Makoto: Y-yeah. I don't know if someone like me can be useful, but I'll be doing my best all I can.

Hokuto: Yuuki. When [Starmine] ends, at a later date...

With everyone else, let's walk around a festival. Putting on yukatas, stuffing our faces with stall foods, without a care in the world.

The schedule will be adjusted. To that degree, there won't be any conflict. The calculations are my specialty.

That's why. As the leader, I'm saying this, that to properly carry out the real thing, we have to do our best.

The whole time today, you've been making a smile that reeks of lies.

With that fabricated smile, I'd like if you never let that smile show to the audience.

Makoto: ...I'm properly smiling, aren't I?

Hokuto: If you think that's true, then that's a critical condition. This is something that Akehoshi would say, but you're not even sparkling one bit.

Us, and that Sena-senpai must have immediately noticed it.

If that's what you call a smile... even I could always laugh like an idiot. I'd become a character who frivolously gets carried away.

Makoto: ...