The last rays of the setting sun had completely sunk below the horizon, and the outline of Starlight Academy had long since blurred in the distance.
Koharu Miura, with her student bag on her back, walked slowly along the tree-lined path leading to Sakuragicho.
The anniversary performance that was destined to change everything was drawing closer, yet the pieces in her hand still seemed insufficient.
The class, the idol group, and the stalker—these three elements seemed to form a tight closed loop, leaving her no way to find a breakthrough.
As she walked, Koharu Miura reviewed all the information in her mind.
‘Kiyono Arisa’s transparency in class was a survival strategy naturally formed by the combined influence of her personality and circumstances—for now, I can consider the stalker’s motive as the distortion of the world.’
‘But Mayumi, simply because of a chance sighting, immediately suffered targeted harassment.’
‘My previous thought: the person behind Kiyono Arisa was not only watching Arisa but also keeping a constant eye on everyone around her.’
‘…So, regarding Mayumi’s experience, I had only simply associated it with an already “confirmed” conclusion.’
‘But looking back? If there was no perpetrator inside the idol group, could the harassment Mayumi suffered still be reasonably explained?’
‘…Mayumi was precisely targeted immediately just because she witnessed Kiyono Arisa meeting someone.’
‘A train of thought.’
Koharu Miura’s gaze passed through the dim passageway as she carefully reviewed the information before this trip.
‘Mayumi had accidentally encountered Kiyono Arisa meeting someone else. Even that was noticed, which could only mean that at that specific point in time, someone was not only monitoring Kiyono Arisa but also the people around her.’
‘Because Mayumi’s encounter was “accidental.” She hadn’t been following Kiyono Arisa, so it wasn’t that the stalker was watching Arisa and happened to see Mayumi. Mayumi had been seen from the beginning, as a specifically monitored target.’
Considering this, Koharu Miura’s line of reasoning opened up a new direction.
‘Monitoring Kiyono Arisa could be attributed to both students and outsiders. Monitoring Mayumi could also be said to be outsiders.
‘But being able to specifically monitor both Kiyono Arisa and Mayumi… Could this person really not be a teammate?
‘…In the original story line, the harmonious facade between Kiyono Arisa and the other members of the idol group should no longer be used as a reference by me now. Because the deviation of the world had already become a fact, so how could I say that within the harmonious idol group, there were no characters influenced by the distortion of the world?’
‘…As for the identity of the stalker, I had originally only considered classmates, outsiders, or paparazzi. I had never considered the possibility of it being a teammate.’
‘—But a teammate certainly also meets the requirement of constantly observing Arisa.’
Koharu Miura’s steps faltered.
She recalled the scene when she first came to the Livehouse.
At that time, she and the others had merely brushed past Kiyono Arisa, without any deep contact.
Yet even so, photos of her and Yui Hori and the others had been precisely captured and made into an anonymous report letter.
This meant that the stalker had been on the scene.
‘At the time, I thought it was the work of some passerby, but now, considering the possibility of a teammate? If that stalker was a teammate, not only watching Arisa but also constantly paying attention to the teammates’ situations, then the fact that Yui Hori and the others and I had been secretly photographed here earlier would have a perfect explanation.’
—Someone in the idol group was very likely the stalker lurking inside.
Not only was she Arisa’s teammate, but she also used the gaps in rehearsals and breaks to synchronize Arisa’s every move.
That was why Koharu Miura wanted to return to the Livehouse.
She needed to make contact and probe the logical flaws in the idols’ words, to see who was most likely playing the role of “eyes” in that surveillance network.
She needed to confirm this again.
If someone inside the idol group was really feeding negative information about Arisa to the outside, then she had to catch them the moment they showed a flaw, or at least make them realize that they outsiders were not entirely defenseless.
However, when Koharu’s figure finally appeared at the entrance of the damp, dark underground street in Sakuragicho, her meticulous train of thought momentarily went blank.
From the long staircase leading to the Livehouse, the faint sound of a noisy argument could be heard.
“…Hurry up and get back to your school.”
It was an extremely rough, impatient voice.
Koharu Miura hid in the shadows, peeking out half her body.
When she saw the figure standing in the middle of the staircase, being pulled by that burly security guard, her heart skipped a beat.
That figure was all too familiar.
The person who always wore a crisp uniform, acted elegantly, and even carried a hint of aloofness—who else could it be but Sou Kanzaki?
The main character was actually carrying his DSLR camera, standing alone at the edge of this malicious territory, facing the security guard’s aggressive expulsion.
‘Huh? Why was he here?’
Seeing the other party turn around in the shoving, Koharu Miura quickly withdrew her gaze and shrank back into the shadow of the corner.
‘…If Sou Kanzaki had come to trace the truth of the anonymous report letter, then his current action is tantamount to declaring direct war on that invisible group.
‘This means that this “local conflict,” which originally existed only in Haruka Kondo’s and my plan, now directly involves Sou Kanzaki as well.’
‘Even worse…’
Koharu Miura closed her eyes.
‘If he met Kiyono Arisa, what would the plot turn into?!’
Unable to rest easy, Koharu Miura poked her head out from the darkness.
Watching Sou Kanzaki show his camera, watching him negotiate with the security guard with that almost calm attitude, an inexplicable bitterness welled up in her heart.
‘Sou Kanzaki is like a dazzling star; wherever he goes, all trajectories are deflected by his gravity. And myself? I’m nothing more than a humble craftsman trying to mend the world’s holes in the dark.’
‘How painful.’
“You talk about a sister, what sister?! No one knows you!”
The two had a falling out; the security guard clearly wasn’t buying it, and one hand had already roughly grabbed Sou Kanzaki’s collar, seeming about to drag him out of this dark area.
Koharu Miura gritted her teeth.
‘Never mind. Anyway, Kiyono Arisa is most likely not in training. Rather than let Sou Kanzaki get driven away now, and then have to face the security guard who was already on alert and ready to kick me out, it would be better to have Sou Kanzaki with me.’
She raised her head slightly, her gaze locked onto Sou Kanzaki’s stubborn figure.
Koharu Miura took a deep breath, forcefully calming her heart, which was nearly leaping out of her chest from the shock of the unexpected encounter.
Looking at Sou Kanzaki’s calm eyes, seeing how even when being harassed by the security guard he still maintained that almost rational demeanor, she also found courage.
“Security guard, sir? I’m the one who called him here?”
‘Whatever, I’ll just speak out first!’