STARLIGHT | krmy ✓

24

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR —
WHERE'S YOUR PRIDE?

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"IT WASN'T THE Korosu who found me as a replacement–" Maya growls, "–it was you."

Kenjirō leans back, his expression impassive. "The Star does remember it all."

"How did I..." Maya trails off, looking down at her hands. It was as if she could feel that dull ache of holding her rapier again. But...yet...she suddenly remembers it all: the revues. The Revue of Fate. And that revue...the Revue of Conclusion?

She had sacrificed her brilliance. Everything was making sense now: why people never remembered her name, why the instant she had gotten out of Seisho, the callbacks just weren't all that satisfactory.

And with the loss of her brilliance, others followed too, especially those who had been unconsciously relying on her to bear the standard. Juuna was now a literature professor in Tokyo University, Mahiru had gone back to her family farm, Futaba and Kaoruko were in the police force.

But how about those who stayed? Claudine, Nana, Karen, and Hikari? Was it because they had harvested their brilliance on their own? But then again...hadn't the rest done the same?

And she had known Aruru way before Claudine's Starlight tour? Unbelievable. Yachiyo was there too, wasn't she? Akira, Michiru, Shiori, Fumi, Ichie, Tamao, Rui, and Yuyuko too.

It had all been a giant game that she hadn't had the means to see.

"Oh, fret not, nobody could entirely forget a...traumatic event," Kenjirō rises, looking down at her with an expression not unlike a sneer. "You remembered it on your own accord. You just needed the right stimulus."

He draws nearer to one of the boxes, lifting the flaps to reveal a set of stage props; a Suzdal Cat and a Mr. White plush being the most notable of them all. Maya's gaze, however, drifts to the smaller swan stuffed animal amongst them, and then moves back to Kenjirō, who was wearing a rather impassive expression on his face.

"I bet that Daiba-san would remember, too. After all, she did win the revues before. She has a brilliance greater than anyone I had ever seen."

"What's the entire point of this?" Maya grits her teeth, clenching her fists, the rope digging painfully into her wrists. "If I had already sacrificed my brilliance, why are you doing this again?"

Kenjirō laughs, a hollow sound. "You can't possibly expect that yours alone would sustain forever. Even the brightest flames die out."

"What does it have to do with trying to make Claudine Top Star?"

"Simple," he indicates the swan plush thoughtfully, a smile curling along his lips. "She's second to you. You have yet to be...reborn. Still wallowing in self-pity."

He meets her fiery gaze. "Where's your pride?"

Where's your pride?

Where had it gone? Diminished to nothing after her brilliance had been taken, was what had happened. What had spurred her to become a stage girl in the first place?

Maya closes her eyes. The spotlight. The stage. Clau...Claudine. Claudine. Arrie. The first time she had ever seen the child star; her voice, her graceful movements as she overtook the stage, her song, her dance. All so, so, bright that it burned.