Elysian's Monogatari

Chapter 98: "HiMERU" and Ibara

....! What are you doing Kaname?! What on earth are you thinking? Who told you to do such a thing?! I ordered you to act according to my orders! That was our agreement so stop acting on your own! Who saved you when you fell from your grace, lost the title of honored student and didn't know what to do?

It wasn't that Kazehaya Tatsumi, putting on the facade of a saint and smiling besides you, was it? Of course not! It was me! I was the one who saved you! Only me! How dare you forget your debt to me...?! HIMERU thought.

"Well well well." Ibara suddenly appeared and said surprising HiMERU. "How strange. No matter how I look you look exactly like the current top idol, the renowned HiMERU-shi. But HiMERU-shi is making a speech on stage right now. In that case, who and why are you here, watching from a distance?" Ibara asked.

"...." "Are you ignoring me? Very well I'll just keep talking on my own. I apologize in advance if it bothers you! However it is my job to spill out my words." He then said. "...Who are you?" HiMERU asked. "I should be the one asking this question. But well here is my business card." Ibara said as he hands HiMERU his card.

"Saegusa Ibara huh? The manager of the companies and schools affiliated with CosPro, including Reimei Academy?" HiMERU said. "Hai. Very nice to meet you, whose name I do not know yet." Ibara said.

"It was you wasn't it? The mysterious figure who was supporting HiMERU-shi from behind the scenes. At first I thought it might be that person. The monster-like figure living in Reimei Academy, the one who shall not be named. The taboo taboo of this industry. He lives in Reimei Academy by himself. With bonfires for warmth and roasted meat for sustenance that person lives a self-sufficient life." He added.

"However he's not just a homeless wanderer in this academy. In fact he is one of the few legacies left by the original super idol, the legend of this industry. The legacy left by the monster who single-handedly built the idol industry." He added.

"Of course that monster had offspring all over the place so that alone isn't particularly unusual. I, Saegusa Ibara, am actually one of them. However the wanderer in Reimei Academy is an untouchable presence, way more dangerous than someone like me." He said.

"You don't need me to explain do you? Tojo-" "I've abandoned that name." HiMERU said interrupting Ibara. "I didn't intend to get involved with you guys in the first place. I abandoned everything for a place to survive overseas." He then said.

"Yes I did some investigation about you. You abandoned your name and your appearance. You perfected your disguise skills under a certain someone. Then you took on other people's identities and lived with various faces." Ibara said.

"I just bought the skill from that person. If ant any it was that person who approached me first, insisting that I accept the deal because I have a little bit of the blood of that original super idol. So I was forced to learn the skill. I did make sure of that skill to benefit myself but I don't feel like I owe anything to that person." HiMERU said.

"I've abandoned everything. My name, my soul, my bonds with other people." He then said. At least that's how it was supposed to be. But I received a letter from my father, whom I hadn't been in contact with for ages. I didn't even tell him my address so it must be the arrangement of that person, the 'Priest'. HiMERU thought.

...Of course I planned to crumple it up and throw it away without even reading it. We are strangers now. Hearing from him is nothing but trouble. That's what I thought. Yet I couldn't help but feel unsettled without knowing the content so on a whim I read it.

And it was about my little brother. About how my little brother was in trouble and how my father wanted me to help him. I didn't even know I had a little brother up until that point. My little brother, by the name of Tojo Kaname, has been living a carefree life as an idol, oblivious to everything.

How foolish of him not knowing the burden upon him as the last descendant of a family stained with sin and taboo. Ended up becoming an idol out of all these options. HiMERU then thought.