Neverland - Return to Neverland

Characters

Writer

日日日 (Akira)

Translation

lukas

Proofreading

raspberryjams

Season: Summer

Chapter 1

One week earlier, beginning of September. On the main street, outside of the Grand Hall where SS took place.

(Sighhhhhhhh, what ‘m gonna doooo-)

(Oshi-san’ll be mad atme~ No, instead of gettin’ mad atme, lately Oshi-san’s been so sweet with me that 's givin’ me the chills, but he's still gonna scold me~)

(He’ll abandon me~ I can just imagine Oshi-san’s face lookin’ atme with scorn~)

.....♪

(Wait a sec, why am I smilin’?! I need t’ think of somethin’, no matter what it is!)

(Oshi-san’s returnin’ t’ Japan at noon, so I wanna make a solid plan before he gets here!)

(I can hear him already~ “What have you even been doing until now? If you’ve been acting like nothing but a lifeless corpse, then I suppose I should have held a funeral for you.”)

(I suppose that type of sarcasm is just right fer someone who’s well-bred…)

.....♪

(Nnha, this ain’t the time t’ get excited! I gotta think about what I need t’ think!)

(Nnaaaa, God, why didn’t ya put a smarter brain in my head?!)

(Aah… As I thought, it’s impossible to create my own art~)

(If I try to imitate Oshi-san, I’d be nothin’ but a cheap façade.)

(Art? Is someone sellin’ art in the street like this?)

Huh? Isn’t that Oshi-san’s friend一

Oya? Oya Oya Oya? It looks like we’ve met in an unexpected place, Doll-san!

Nna? I’m happy ya call me like that, but I’m not a doll anymore. Now, I need t’ live as a proper human, as I vowed durin’ the Repayment Festival

Oh? We, fine, were not too involved with the repayment festival, so we didn’t know much about the details―

So that's how it ended up after all?

Should this be said to be a non-normal act of Shu, or rather a normal one?

This is the type of contradiction that art holds

The more one pursues art, the loftier the work becomes, and the more distant it becomes from human beings. And it is only when humans determine its value that art can be considered art

An artist truly is a thin, transparent thread that connects never-changing eternity to our own transient world! Amazing...☆

Nnha? Ok, if ya say so, but… What’re you doin’ here, Hibiki-senpai?

It looks like you’re doin’ a street performance or somethin’, but are you doin’ work around here?

No, no! Today is “Eichi Day”1, so I’m also enjoying my personal time!

Eichi Da–y?

Fufufu. It's a special and important holiday for us fine, don't you know?

No, I don't know. Now that I think about it, I think I read in a magazine article that the members of "fine" have been spendin’ their days off together

I've been doin’ a lot of gravure shoots lately, so I've been gettin’ a lot of complimentary copies of the magazines I work for

That's right! We call that day off "Eichi Day". It's a special code only known among us fine

Ahaha. As usual, it seems like the namin’ sense of the Student Council President’s exquisite, it was the same case fer DDD an’ MDM

Wait, that guy isn’t the President anymore. Eeh, ‘s Tenshouin Eichi-san, right?

Doin’ something like namin’ a holiday after yerself just shows how he’s still trying to put himself in the spotlight somehow

Well, Eichi is an idol after all, that’s our role. Maybe he was just influenced by me, who is always trying to be under the spotlight

I mean, s’just bad pun usin’ holiday… From the “eh” in “H”- day t’Eichi-day. Sounds kinda dumb

Fufufu. Actually, he wasn’t the one who brought up the idea of calling it “Eichi day”

Well, I won't deny that it's a very Eichi-esque name

Speaking of him, Eichi has been repeatedly admitted to and discharged from the hospital recently due to fatigue from the summer

We love to have Eichi by our side, but when he’s around, he acts tough and pushes himself too hard

So we are spending our time happily and joyfully, communicating with each other through Hall Hands and other means

The world is so beautiful and lovely, so please come back soon, Eichi

Fortunately or perhaps unfortunately, we’ve gotten used to Eichi's absence... Even without him, we have set up the activities of fine so that they can continue somehow

It's truly lonely and unfortunate. Just when we were about to start walking together, we had to separate

Fufu. Well, there’s nothin’ ya can do with his health the way it is

Last year, we, Valkyrie, were both in bad condition too, an’ there were times when we couldn't perform on stages that we wanted t’ perform on

Fufufu. Such a thing is common amongst artists, isn’t it? They tend to put their whole heart and soul into the work in front of them, and forget about their own “self”

Even though for us idols, our “self” is our selling point

.....♪

Oya? What's wrong, why are you grinning? Did I say something amusing? Can you tell me what it is?

Nnha, ‘s not that… I was just thinkin’ about how easy it is to talk with ya, even though I’m shy when it comes to people 'm not that close to, Hibiki-senpai

I guess ‘s because yer pretty similar to Oshi-san, bein’ his friend an’ all♪

Me, similar to Shu? That's the first time I've ever been insulted in such a way, and I'll never forgive it! My beloved doves, teach that fool a lesson!

Ahhh!? I- I- I-I'm sorry, ‘m so sorry! Don’t set yer doves on meee! How are ya even doin’ that!? Are you a circus animal tamer?

Fufufu. Doves are intelligent creatures, so if you train them well, you can control them however you like

I personally hatched those pigeons from their eggs, fed them delicious meals, and taught them everything from how to stand to how to walk

Nnha~ So ’s like the way Oshi-san raised me, I suddenly feel like I have a real connection with them

No, in my eyes, me and Shu, and you and the doves are completely different

Nnha~ do ya hate t’ be compared with Oshi-san, Hibiki-senpai? Well, I guess y’all had a tough time two years ago

Y’all were thrown in the trash as "things the world doesn't need”一

Goodness, you're acting like it was someone else's business entirely. You were also a victim, but perhaps your sense of self had not yet developed at the time

Just like your predecessor, the blonde-haired Doll-san

........Are ya talkin’ about the stuff involvin’ Nazuna-nii? Or Mado-nee?

It could apply to both. Humans have a hard time telling the difference between male and female birds, because humans have a hard time becoming interested in or attached to things that are far away from us

I believe that's why Shu made you into a "human", you know

...?

Next Chapters Soon

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Translation Notes

1. ↑ During Tempest, fine members are working a lot and don’t have time to spend together, specially Eichi. So, as a solution, they create something called “Eichi Day”, a day off they would pass together.