Leave a comment

While I was totally against it, I had no way to stop them from playing the song. There was absolutely no need for them to play it on our end, but as if to taunt me, they made it audible for me.

“There’s a box sitting on the table.”
“It’s actually Anne’s face.”

I face-planted on the table out of embarrassment. To think that this song would end up on the public airwaves for a second time. Even if I were to sell music, I intend to never sell it no matter what, you know?

“Now, let’s get back to the program and proceed with the Q&A corner. It’s a chore to sift through all these questions, so I’ll just pick randomly.”
“Is that really okay?”
“Time is limited. Well then, let’s go with this. How did you all meet each other? Am I included in this?”
“Pattern A, then.”

This is my first meeting with the radio personality Kataribe. In that case, it would be more novel to talk about our first meeting when I was Souji. Also, it should serve well to hide my identity too. Even Unknown’s age is unknown, after all.

“Isa and I were high school classmates, not really that interesting to be honest.”
“You added a weird BGM edit on my conversation with Sou and that caused a fight, I think?”
“It’s a real mystery with that class how a happening like that resulted in friendships.”

They made a weird romantic edit over our conversation, resulting in us chasing down Kataribe and someone else. And as tag is a game of physicality, there are only a few in our class who can win against me and Isami. One of them was caught in an arm lock, while the other was sentenced to forced back bridge posture.

“Since the class was uncontrollable, the teachers called it the rogues’ den, but when did that weird nickname start again?”
“Wasn’t it after the big brawl that split the class in two? The one where we had a survival game spanning the whole school, if I remember?”
“I still don’t have any idea what caused it. Did it escalate from the mushroom-bamboo shoot war?”
“All I know is that it was due to something trivial. It was literally anything goes: feints, sneak attacks, and all that stuff. I even remember there being tools ready and prepared since who knows when.”
“It was hilarious how we all got suspended. Though the punishment after that had everyone traumatized.”

Kataribe was no exception, she was also traumatized by Teacher and Step-mom’s punishment. That was when they became the rogue den’s natural enemy. Even Nako couldn’t win against Teacher, that’s how strong she is. And Step-mom’s lecture, which sometimes sounded logical and sometimes not, went on for far too long.

“But thanks to that, the class gained strong solidarity. We were comrades that all suffered the same fate, after all.”
“That was also when our reputation at school changed. I was just happily greeting people as usual, but they’d run away. Isn’t that rude?”

Isami is honestly reasonably strong when it comes to combat potential. That might be because of Teacher’s blood flowing through her veins. At that time, we were called the hooligan gang, I think? Later on, the teachers changed it into rogues’ den, and that ended up having the most use.

“Let’s end the nostalgia talk here. It’s weird how Unknown knows so much about our past.”
“Just for confirmation, Unknown isn’t the same age as us, we’re not actually classmates, okay~”

The mystery only deepens, but I personally find it better that way. Very nice information derangement. I want to keep Unknown disconnected from Kotone as much as possible. My acquaintances have already found it out, though.

“Next question. What are your daily routines?”
“Jogging early in the morning.”
“Hitting the sandbag early in the morning.”
“Put your voice first as singers, you two. Why are your first answers immediately related to physical training? Moreover, why early in the morning?”
“Your body is your capital.”
“Health is wealth!”
“Now I finally understand why you two have a ridiculous amount of stamina.”

I forgot who said it, but you can’t start anything without having enough endurance. It was probably either Teacher or Isami’s old man. Step-mom was basically fully invested in the humanities, so she’s not very acquainted with physical training.

“Hmmm, next is… I wonder if you’ll answer this. Unknown, what are your three sizes?”
“I’ll smack you.”
“Well, that’s a shame. Since you call yourself Unknown, of course you wouldn’t give information to fill a profile with.”
“By the way, she undoubtedly has a nice body!”
“Read the mood, you idiot!”

Since the inquirer isn’t here, I smacked Isami in exchange. I’m here thinking hard about what I can say, so it’s Isami’s fault for wasting my effort. Seeing this unfold, Kataribe has a complicated look on her face, but she’s resilient enough to have only the minimal reaction.

“Yup, just as usual. Then next, marital status?”
“Single. And for personal reasons, I probably won’t get married.”
“Why is that?”
“I don’t really understand romance. If someone ever proposes to me, I’d probably refuse. And that will likely spell the end of our relationship. Since I’d likely feel bad about it, and take distance from them.”
“I don’t intend to infringe your privacy, but you really have a difficult personality.”

If it’s just friendship, I’m confident that I can keep the relationship going forever. However, when it comes to romance, I’m inexperienced… or rather, it’s somewhat impossible for me emotionally. This is both due to Kotone’s influence and my own circumstances. Kotone loved her father and was thrown by the wayside, while I was abandoned without receiving love from my mother. I really don’t think I can have feelings of proper romantic love.

“Our acquaintances have a low marriage rate, and I suspect it’s because of personality issues as well.”
“Considering what’s needed to keep up with them, they have a pretty limited dating pool. Still, aren’t around 20% married?”
“Eh, aren’t they pretty mean? Like, having their marriage without letting us know, I mean. What did we do to deserve that?”

Upon hearing what Isami said, Kataribe and I averted our gazes. The reason for this is that during our class adviser’s wedding ceremony, we celebrated a bit too hard. Having something of that scale happen with an absurd bomb at the very end is something that everyone probably wants to avoid.

“The lack of self-awareness is scary.”
“We’re still somewhat better since we’re self-aware.”
“Ha?”

Her lack of self-awareness in that department is what makes Isami so thick-skinned. Our adviser at the time was later hospitalized with a stomach ulcer. Half of the class laughed it off, while the others were in a cold sweat, which is pretty in character for us.

“Due to the time, the next one will be the last question. Let’s see, were you ever called by a unique nickname in the past?”
“Not in my case.”
“I was called 6th sense. Sou was called a lot of names, but the one that suited him best was the deterrent force.”
“I was called backdoor. All of these are from our high-school days, aren’t they?”

In Isami’s case, it’s because she had a sharp intuition and tended to act on her instincts. As for Kataribe, it didn’t refer to an actual backdoor, but it was because she used sneaky methods, like that weird edit, in order to cause chaos.

“About 70% of them got a weird nickname, right?”
“I think everyone got a nickname by the end of it. Thanks to that, our underclassmen thought of us as a gathering of weird and eccentric people.”
“Or a class of chuuni’s. Even though we didn’t come up with the names.”

Not a single one of us came up with a weird nickname for themselves. The nicknames came from what the teachers and other students called us, which ended up being used within the class. I’ve never heard Nako call herself empress even once. The same goes for Ruru.

“Rather than the mysteries of Unknown, I feel like the program ended up being mainly about our common friends. What are your thoughts, Unknown?”
“Feels like we just had a long chat.”
“It feels the same for me. Please don’t think of this as how our broadcast normally goes. Because it’ll definitely end with a scolding.”

I know that. There wasn’t any major information they could offer, and because of Isami, the conversation kept getting derailed. When Yui started gesturing to put a gag on Isami, that honestly freaked me out.

“Isa, make sure to go and get scolded. I made sure to give them a warning in advance, so it should be alright?”
“What did you say?”
“That she has my vote for the most uncontrollable person.”

Thought so. The only ones who can control Isami are Teacher and Step-mom. You can say that she’s not Isami if she doesn’t do whatever she pleases. Since they called her in as a guest, then they should be ready to be caught up in her pace.

“Well, that ends today’s broadcast. Sorry that we couldn’t actually share that much!”

Since she apologized, it seems like Kataribe has grown mature. She understands that, as a working adult, she can’t just do whatever she pleases. Completely different from this idiot next to me. And after I gave my farewell greetings, the broadcast really ended.

“Alright! Time for an after party! There’s a really good okonomiyaki shop nearby, are you alright with that?”
“I’m with you. How about you, Isami?”
“If possible, I’d really like to eat your home-made okonomiyaki, Anne. It’s one of your specialties.”
“At another time, okay? It takes some preparation to invite one of you guys to my room.”

After all, when you call one of them, ten will arrive. I’d rather not invite that many people to my room. It’ll be troublesome if they come in. That’s why I’ll have to find a place to rent out. Though Tecchan’s place should be good enough. Still, I’m scared that more people will come than what’s expected.

“Now then, it’s time to escape this studio. Everyone, are you ready?”
““OK!””
“Roll out!”

First, the problem at hand: Unknown’s identity. There are sure to be people who want to know or even just catch a picture of me. I won’t undersell myself. I understand that I’ll suffer harshly if I don’t consider what people want out of me. Even if I exhaust all my methods, I’m going to escape remaining completely unknown!

At a later date, I received a complaint from my bodyguards. “Don’t try to shake us off,” they said. I did it for fun, but with my bodyguards becoming more experienced, I couldn’t shake them off. Sad.