Reserved at Amatomnes

[idolchatter]

Whaaaat?!

No way! Not in a million, billion years! Geez, why the heck would you even think something like that place would be okay?! I don't care what you've read on my fan pages, but that sort of thing is--!

...even if Senpai is there, my mind's made up, and that's final. Time for another plan, you perv!

Comments

[magatsu]

Ahahahahahahha! You're hilarious, though technically I'm not a serial killer. You need three kills to be labeled as one, and I've only got two. So I guess I get around that one by a loophole! Hahahahaa.

[idolchatter]

Then it'll just have to be a "no murderers, period" policy.

[magatsu]

[Sorry, Rise, he's still giggling.]

And if I refuse to accept that? Then what?

[idolchatter]

Then my friends and I kick your creepy butt. Again!

[magatsu]

And how many of you will there be? Just four, right? Or am I missing someone?

[idolchatter]

Like we'd need any more to do the job.

[magatsu]

I'm not going to argue fire power, but bunch of brats beating up a detective? Not exactly the sort of thing that'd look good to others. Four against one isn't exactly playing fair.

[idolchatter]

Four kids defending themselves from a known murderer looks a hell of a lot better, if you view it that way.

[magatsu]

Yeah, maybe if the known murderer had the murder weapon at his disposal, or if that's his intention. As it stands, neither of those would apply. I don't want to kill any of you, especially if you're just going to end up back alive.

[idolchatter]

You don't have to kill someone to assault them. Shouldn't a police detective know that, or do you forget all about that stuff once you've been arrested?

[magatsu]

Only the subject of assault has a lot more gray area. In fact, I could even argue that you kids assaulted me first. As far as I'm aware, you guys saw that I had a gun and didn't realize I was part of the police, so you assumed the worst. One thing you'll learn about the real world: the truth is relative, and it can be twisted and changed depending on whose perspective you're hearing from. It's actually pretty easy.

[idolchatter]

Wha--

--that's ridiculous! We all know the truth of what happened, and you know it!

[magatsu]

Of course we do, but they don't. What? Do you really think I'm somehow above lying now? Hahahaha, that's pretty rich.

[idolchatter]

Four voices speak a hell of a lot louder than one, you know! And even back home, Dojima-san would back us up no matter what you had to say.

Face it, buster, there's no way you're weaseling out of this one!

[magatsu]

I hate to break it to you, but Dojima-san isn't there. He can't help you if he's not around. Back home is back home, and Atia is something else entirely.

[idolchatter]

You're really going to try to get away with it, aren't you? You haven't changed at all.

[magatsu]

Sorry, but that's life. If I don't look after my own ass, no one else will. That's how everyone thinks.

[idolchatter]

You've never even have one genuine friend in your life, have you? You know what? I think I really pity you.

[magatsu]

[That was the wrong thing to say.]

Don't.

I don't want anyone's pity. It's better to be alone. I can do what I want when I want to, never have to discuss what to do with anyone else. It's people like you who really piss me off, assuming with your usual sense of arrogance that just because I don't spend time with other people the same way you do that somehow your life is better than mine. And hey, maybe it is! But that doesn't mean you have the right to pity me. You know what you're doing with that, Rise Kujikawa? You're playing in dangerous waters. As if you weren't already.

You're going to get what's coming to you, you know. The way you wear your idol clothes, at least you know you're a sex symbol. You're going to find out the hard way how dangerous it is to be an idol. You're going to discover the bad side to being in the spotlight, by playing with all the hearts of those innocent young men out there who wish they could be your boyfriend. You're nothing more than an attention whore, someone who needs all eyes to be on her to feel like you're actually worth something. Hahahaha! You're such a joke! All you idols with your pretty faces and bodies on display for all of us out there who want nothing more than to be close to you. Now, I've never been a big idol fan. You're full of bullshit, every single one of you! I knew it from the moment I saw you that Risette was just an invention, something you created so you could be in the spotlight.

You know, you and I aren't so different. Using your job as a front, ahahaha, and you think you have the right to pity me! What a laugh! Inside, you were just as lonely as I am, weren't you?

[idolchatter]

*She's about to rise up to his bait. All of that talk about 'getting what she deserves' and being a whore cuts deep in ways she can't really help, and she takes a deep breath and puffs out her chest, and--

--and exhales.* Being an idol isn't just about that at all. Sure, there's the photoshoots and the skimpy outfits and making people want to be with you even if they'd never really have the chance. And it's kind of fun to be out on the stage or up on the screen and feel like so many people are adoring you... or at least, the "you" that they think they know.

So no, it's not real. But Risette is much a part of me as anything else is, and it was a friend of mine who helped me figure that out. Because yeah, I was just as lonely as you were. You're right about that part.

But I'm not lonely anymore. And that's why I pity you, Adachi. You're really kind of pathetic, you know?

[magatsu]

Shut up! Just because you've had that sort of experience doesn't mean you can say anything you want to! You're nothing but a stupid little bitch trying to fill her empty life! So call me pathetic all you like, you're just as much as I am! The only difference between you and me is that you've still got that naive hope about you that all young people do. But that won't last for long... Once you start getting older and the media drifts its attention elsewhere, once Risette starts getting wrinkles and losing her looks then you'll see. You'll understand how cruel the world is, how it can promise you so much only to snatch it out from under your nose!

It's funny, though, because even though you have the adoration of thousands, you still have the gal to be lonely. To say you want to be loved, that you're missing something in your life when any one of your fans out there would give anything to be by your side. See, this is why I hate idols. You're selfish and you never think anything about those who look up to you, or want to be close to you. You're just in it for yourself! You all are. And you call me pathetic. The irony is you are just as much as I am.

[idolchatter]

You just said it yourself. None of those people love the full me; they only loved the part of me that was Risette. And when I got older, or another idol came along who the agency wanted to promote more, all but a few fans would forget about me entirely.

There's nothing that's not lonely about that. That's why I'm grateful... to Senpai and the others.

You're so full of anger and resentment that you can't even conceive of someone thinking differently from you, can you?

[magatsu]

I said shut up!

[And this is when Adachi gives up on words, and instead uses actions. He moves towards Rise, drawing his gun in a motion surprisingly clean for the usual bumbling detective. Aiming it towards her, he takes a few steps to close the gap between them as well.]

We're no longer having this conversation, Rise Kujikawa. Now get lost or face the consequences.

[idolchatter]

*She gasps, almost a yelp of surprise-- and her heart is pounding loudly in her chest as she looks down the barrel. Of course she's afraid. She's not a fighter like her friends were, after all. She's not a detective like Naoto. She's just an former idol and a clerk at a tofu shop.

So she's shaking. But she doesn't take her eyes off of him.* I don't... really think you want to do this.

[magatsu]

[Adachi stops just a couple feet away, the tip of his gun up against her forehead, right in the center.]

I don't? Why not? Because my life will be better if I put the gun down and accept your pity? Because if I do that maybe we'll make amends and become friends? Don't give me that crock of bullshit. You know better than that, and I know better than that. The only way you get anything in this world is to take it by force, isn't it? So maybe that's what I'm doing.