LU Chapter 8

# Chapter Eight - "Small and Angry"

Anette

    "I can't believe she did that! What's her problem?!" Quick as a flash, Yume's foot struck out at the nearest locker in frustration. I ignored it, because even though she's upset it isn't entirely uncommon for Yume to kick at things that annoy her.

    "Yeah, that's really disappointing. She's been so nice to me so far…"

    "But… Non! Eimi's our friend! This must be just a practical joke, oui?"

    "I dunno, Anette. Some of the things she wrote are really not nice. Especially about Kazue."

    "Ah, but it is a joke! Kazue, you aren't even that tall. I'm sure there are many, many idols taller than you… You are only barely one hand taller than moi!"

    Mademoiselle Kazue leaned back against the row of lockers with her eyes closed. "I know I'm pretty tall for a girl. That's not what bugs me. Everyone's just been so nice to me, I never expected anyone in the group would feel like that. I really don't know what to think about it."

    "We'll find Eimi and tell her to apologize ***or else!*** Even as a joke, saying that kind of stuff isn't okay! And who knows what your letter says, Anette. Or should I call you Chizuru like she did?" Yume was positively fuming. I nearly thought she was going to kick one of the lockers open, but she chose to deliver a strike to the nice, très hard to dent cement wall instead. At least I don't believe she's strong enough to dent that…

    "Non! My letter is very nice! Nothing at all like Kazue's! They must have simply not known how to spell 'Anette Chanel' properly in French letters. It is quite difficult."

    "But the letter's in French, so obviously they know how to spell that. And how do we know that it's nice? We can't read it."

    "Y-Yes I can! B-Because my French is très perfect. It's a very nice letter telling me how good a job we've all been doing, and that this was all a prank! Ohoho! Très hilarious, non?"

    "That is ***not*** what it says. Why would it say that?"

    "W-Well, yours was a very nice letter too, s-so…" Yume can be très scary when she's upset, which means it's a good thing she doesn't get upset easily. Except right now she is very upset, and I found it affecting my words in French, Japanese, and any other languages I tried to call to mind.

    "She said I shouldn't be in the group. That's not nice!"

    "B-But only because you're so talented you could be a très successful solo idol! That sounds like a compliment, non?"

    "Guys, chill out. None of that's up to Eimi anyway, so it's all pointless. Maybe she's just annoyed by how easy we've had it compared to the group's debut. We really just joined and immediately got the benefit of all their hard work, right? It's still weird thinking there are so many fans out there who say I'm their favorite idol, but that probably wouldn't be the case if I'd premiered by myself. Maybe we haven't done enough to show her how much we appreciate all the work everyone did before we joined? Can you really blame her if that's the case?"

    "Y-Yes! She's just feeling neglected by the fans. Probably because she was a solo idol for so long and was used to getting all of the attention. So she played this little joke to haze us a teeny bit. That's why I started playing pranks on my siblings - so they would like me more! So it makes sense that Eimi would do the same thing, non?!"

    "Yeah, but…" Yume looked back and forth from Kazue and moi, then continued shaking her head. "It's still not okay. At the very least she needs to apologize for going too far."

    "If it was just a prank, then I'd be happy with an apology so we can square everything away and everyone can go back to being friends like it never happened. We can chalk it up to her not being very good at dealing with people."

    "Oui. That sounds fair. I'm sure Mademoiselle Eimi will happily apologize for getting carried away. She is très classy like that."

    A small amount of grumbling continued to come out of Yume for some time as she paced the length of the room, and Kazue stayed leaning against the lockers, the offending letter laid on the bench next to her. After some time we were discovered malingering instead of going to the set like we were supposed to, but can you blame us? Eimi is terrible at pranks. Maybe even worse than Yume! Perhaps she needs me to take her under my wings and teach her how to be hilarious? I bet Akira is still shivering!

    "There you guys are! What's wrong? You were supposed to be on set with us waiting for everyone else. Caterina was really really specific about being where we're supposed to be!" Dam-Bi and Megumi entered the locker room with confused looks on their faces, probably because, as Dam-Bi said, we weren't supposed to be in here right now.

    "Did something happen? You three look positively gloomy. Ms. Chanel, did one of your japes backfire again?"

    Before any of us could answer Mademoiselle Megumi's question and defend my honor, Dam-Bi let out a large dramatic *GASP!* "You got those weird letters too?!"

    "Oui. We had come to get a snack because we were hungry from our petite healthy breakfasts and couldn't concentrate, and there was no food on the set, and that's when we saw Mademoiselle Eimi leaving the locker room."

    "Which was strange because we thought she was asked to stay behind. But as soon as we said hello she acted like she'd been caught sneaking around and ran away."

    "That seemed a little strange but we came in here to grab something to eat from Yume's locker anyway, and that's when Yume found a weird black envelope."

    "And then me and Mademoiselle Kazue checked our lockers and found our own letters. But…"

    "But they weren't very nice, were they?", Mademoiselle Dam-Bi interjected. "I found one in my purse yesterday after we had to leave the makeup studio for a little bit! So did Chiyo and Kanon! Chiyo's was really mean! It really shook her up."

    "Oui. Yume's was not too mean, I don't think, and mine is in French so it's très amazing, but Mademoiselle Kazue's was very impolite."

    "It just said I'm not feminine enough to be an idol. It's okay though, I've already heard that plenty before, and it's not like I really care…" Kazue's voice was even softer than normal as she focused on her petite insect friend running around her hands. She acted like it wasn't a big deal, but I could tell it hurt her a great deal…

    "Non! It is not okay! You are a perfectly feminine idol and should not listen to the crazy letter."

    "Curious…" Megumi walked the short distance to her own locker and opened it, checking the contents carefully and closing it gently. "It seems I haven't been a target yet."

    "Well, Eimi actually *likes* you, Megumin, so I'm not surprised."

    "I see… Ms. Han, do you happen to still have the letter you received? The rest of you, may I please see your letters as well?"

    Dam-Bi retrieved her letter from her bag, then carefully checked to be sure that there were no new additions waiting for her inside of her locker, then it joined our three that we turned over to Megumi. She read through them each carefully, shuffling between them several times to compare.

    "Examining the letters, I am nearly certain of two things. One, that these were all written by the same hand, and two, that said hand does not belong to Ms. Inagawa. The handwriting on these is far too neat. For all her charms and talents, Ms. Inagawa has distinctly subpar penmanship. I believe she thinks it makes her writing look cuter rather than less legible. It's easy for someone to make their handwriting worse to disguise it, but nearly impossible to make it more skillful."

    Several of us breathed a sigh of relief. I knew it couldn't have been Eimi!

    "That doesn't mean she didn't deliver them though.", opined Yume. "Someone with better handwriting could have written them, and Eimi just dropped them off. I bet your handwriting is perfect. Uh, no offense. I don't really think it was you. Just, you know, we can't rule out more than one person trying to prank us, and you're better friends with Eimi than the rest of us."

    "You also didn't get your own letter like everyone else here. Not that we think you would do something like that, but I never thought Eimi would do something like that either. I don't know what to think anymore… It feels useless trying to figure it out…"

    "Hmm… Ms. Zhou and Ms. Ono make excellent points. I can assert my own innocence because I myself know it to be true, but that's hardly proof that can be accepted without evidence to support the claim. The only proof I can offer is that from the time we were in our morning conference until right now Ms. Han and I haven't been out of each other's proximity for even a moment. Further, at the time during which this must have happened we were waiting on set with Ms. Watanabe and Ms. Mitsuboshi, wondering where the three of you went to. So we can both confirm that whomever delivered the letters was not one of the four of us. Since you three all witnessed the same thing, you have a similar alibi for the delivery of the letters, assuming you aren't yourselves conspiring to make Ms. Inagawa look bad."

    "Wh-Why would we do that?!" Non! This would be untrue!

    "I can't think of a sensible reason why, Ms. Chanel. Thus it seems the most likely reality is that whomever is behind these letters, it is not any of the seven of us with a verified alibi. Of course, much like Ms. Ono stated, it is exceptionally hard to believe that any of our group would be capable of pulling this sort of prank on the others, let alone that several of us would work in concert. The list of things I would do for Ms. Inagawa is long and varied, but demeaning my friends is most assuredly not on it."

    "Anette's usually the one pulling pranks on me and Akira, but they aren't usually like *this*."

    "Non! I would never pull a prank like this one! It is too mean and not really very funny…"

    "I don't think it was Eimicchi either. I've seen her tell people what's on her mind bunches of times. If she really had a problem with any of the stuff in the letters I'm pretty sure she would have just come out and said it. She's a lot of things, but she isn't good at keeping her opinions to herself."

    "I agree with Ms. Han. I don't believe Ms. Inagawa would have reason to be involved in something as crude as this knowingly when her demeanor renders it rather inefficient compared to her usual methods. But for the sake of exploring all possible realities, it is possible that she may have been asked to deliver the letters without ever knowing their contents. Though I still don't see why she would do such a thing, unless asked by one of our superiors."

    "Who would have done that though? We only have three real bosses on set. Kazue is the only one of us Lina actually likes, so there's no way she'd ever say things like that about her. And being rude - well, ruder than normal - to Yume and Anette doesn't make any sense. Yume's making Lina a bunch of money, and if she wanted to give her some solo gigs she could do that since she's her producer. Yume, has Lina brought up anything like that to you?"

    "Just once. She said 'Don't start getting ideas like having solo concerts just yet. You girls are already making more work for me than I can keep up with!' So I really don't think it'd make much sense for it to be Lina… Or Ms. Rossi, for that matter. She doesn't even know us, and she's being paid a lot to be here, so it just doesn't make any sense."

    "Ms. Nana, likewise, has no rational reason to sabotage things as both the assistant project manager and the lead designer. It would be a very large professional setback for all three of them if the project were to fail, so I reason it's unlikely that any of our superiors would do something so crude and childish. While we can't yet confirm their whereabouts, it seems equally nonsensical for Ms. Hoshino to say things such as were written to her closest friends, and as our leader it would be unthinkable that Ms. Hanazawa would be the culprit. Especially after being so passionately insistent that all of you join our little ensemble."

    "Yeah, and there's no way Juney could be behind it. She'd never do something to upset Hanarin."

    "Which means that we can only reach one of two logical conclusions. The first is that one or more of our friends are behind these letters, and perhaps our alibis and motivations are not as secure as they seem. The preferred reality would be that we are all innocent in this affair and you were simply mistaken in believing you saw Ms. Inagawa leaving this room, in which case we're dealing with one or more culprits who are conspiring against us. Ms. Han, do you happen to know what became of the letters which Ms. Watanabe and Ms. Mitsuboshi received yesterday? They may hold valuable information."

    "Kanon crumpled up Chiyo's and took them both. She didn't even open hers, at least not when we first found them. They're probably in their room if she didn't throw them away."

    "Has anyone else received one of these black envelopes that we know of?" Megumi was starting to think hard about the events surrounding us, her face growing even more blankly serene than normal.

    "No, we hadn't even heard about you getting them yester-"

    A loud series of clanks and thunks interrupted Yume as Kazue opened and went through one of our absent friends' lockers. Once she was done she held up a new letter triumphantly. "I had a feeling that since the three of us got them just now that Akira would have one too, since she joined when we did."

    "Excellent deductive reasoning, Ms. Ono. We should go find our friends together so we can make everyone aware of what seems to be happening. With any luck the four of our number who were asked to stay behind can provide alibis for each other, and then we can get to work. Shall we return to the set to await their return?"

    "I'm still not sure about all this…" Yume fidgeted, staring at the new, unopened envelope in Megumi's hands that was addressed to our best friend.

    "I don't get it either. Mademoiselle Megumi, what exactly do you think is happening?"

    "Elementary, Ms. Chanel." The usual calm smile on Mademoiselle Megumi's face turned into a slight grin of excitement. "We're directly in the middle of a mystery, and it will be up to Interlunium to solve it."

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