act44side

Put me down, I can walk on my own.

Alright.

Wh-What happened?

My room, it's a complete mess... have Kinbee's guys been here already?

Careful, someone might be lying in ambush—

Momoka ignores Hoshiguma's warning and runs towards the window.

Ha...

...suke?

H-How could this happen...?

Who cut my Hasuke?

Cut?

Following Momoka to the window, Hoshiguma sees the objects lined up on it, and...

A flowerpot.

There is only the stem of a plant left; the upper half has been severed.

Hoshiguma turns her head towards the trash can, and sees the upper half lying inside.

Hasuke is a tree?

A sapling! It didn't grow much because I haven't taken good care of it.

Who did this? And why? Why? Why?!

Momoka, calm down—

Let me go! I'll get revenge for Hasuke!

For some reason, Momoka seems to get angrier with each word that Hoshiguma says.

Her eyes are wide. She is panting hard, and trembling all over, seemingly willing to fight to the death.

Hoshiguma instinctively takes a step back and even has the urge to gulp, something that she does not often do. Not that Momoka is trying to do anything to her, but...

Momoka intends to kill. Hoshiguma can sense it.

Hoshiguma takes another step back and touches a water bottle. She immediately pours a cup of water and hands it to Momoka.

Here, have some water.

Momoka does not answer. She snatches the cup out of Hoshiguma's hands and empties it in a single gulp, leaving bite marks on the edge of the paper cup.

At least it seems to have calmed her down a little... if only a little.

It must have been Kinbee's people who did this to Hasuke, right?

Very likely.

But... why?

Did they cut Hasuke to vent their anger just because I wasn't home? How could they do this?

Judging from what I see in the trash can, Hasuke wasn't in very good shape—

Momoka takes a big step towards Hoshiguma. Hoshiguma almost knocks over the water bottle as she flinches.

Of course Hasuke's in bad shape! How could it be anything else, when all my time is occupied with work?

Huh?

Of course I wanted Hasuke to grow up healthy and keep changing its pots until it's too big for my room!

But I have to do overtime when the agency asks. I don't get home until 3 or 4 in the morning, and a lot of times I don't even remember when I last watered it.

But that's okay. I could take notes and measure the water.

But the people at the agency laugh at me when I say I want to take Hasuke with me on long trips!

I tried those blogger tips and put eyedrop vials in the soil, but it doesn't work. Hasuke's leaves are always yellow when I come back from a long trip, and it almost wilted a few times!

I had to work hard to save it every time. How could it grow when it's always on the brink of death?

It's very important to you. Is it...?

The question that came to Hoshiguma's mind was 'a rare species', but she immediately realizes that it is not what she should ask.

Is it... a gift from someone dear to you?

No, I picked it up from the roadside.

The roadside?

I came to Mitsukue with Hanamaru, a cloudbeast I had kept for a long time.

As my work got busier, I no longer had time to care for her, so I gave her away along with her climbing rack. I bought a similar one to remember her.

I knew I didn't have time to keep a pet, so I thought I would keep a plant.

And that was Hasuke?

No, my first one was Ran.

I tried my best to make time to take care of Ran, following the instructions in the manual to the letter, but after a few months...

Hoshiguma glances at the flowerpot next to the cloudbeast climbing rack.

A little seedling sprouted in Ran's pot. I asked the flower shop owner and he said it was a berry seedling, and suggested that I changed pots. That was Ichigo.

Then the windows of my room broke on a windy day, and by the time I got back home...

Ran, Ichigo, Matsumaru, Toge-dono... my plants always die in strange ways. Toge-dono died because of a flood upstairs!

I started suspecting that plants and I just weren't good together, but I couldn't keep a pet because I might have to go on a long trip at a moment's notice at any time.

But I would come home to an empty room, without even a single blade of grass I could talk to without putting on a mask... I couldn't take it anymore, which was why I got Tamasaburou.

This electronic pet? What happened to Tamasaburou?

When I talked to the repair shop owner, he said it left the factory with a defective motherboard.

I picked up Hasuke with its pot from a trash dump on my way back from the repair shop.

When I found Hasuke, I made up my mind... I would give up on keeping a plant if I couldn't keep it alive.

With tears in her eyes, Momoka walks from one end of the window sill to the other, showing them to Hoshiguma one by one. Hoshiguma is not sure whether to laugh or cry, until Momoka pulls the last bag open.

It is not a memorial for a pet or plant, but two memorial tablets. The names inscribed upon them are 'Kazuhiko Shino' and 'Kumiko Shino'.

What is this?

My Mama and Papa.

You don't mean—

No, no, it's not that.

I grew up in Gokawa, near the southern border.

It was a small backwater nomadic city, in Kaneshiro territory. It was known for its plastics and chemical plants, and nothing else.

Waste from the factories had polluted the water supply. People didn't know they were drinking polluted water until a few years before I was born.

I managed to grow up pretty healthy, but my parents were not so lucky.

Papa died when I was very little, around five or six years old. I was brought up by my mother.

I don't remember much about Papa. As for Mama... she was never in good health. She complained about not being able to see clearly, feeling numb in her hands and feet, and was also prone to falling.

The Kaneshiro clan hushed things up, giving people with clear health problems a pittance, while finding all sort of excuses to deny relief to people who could still take care of themselves.

Mama's condition had really deteriorated by the time Kinbee's agency scouted me, partly by persuasion and partly by coercion. She passed away not long after my debut.

I wanted to attend her funeral, but the agency wouldn't let me, because I had become somewhat well-known by then, and they didn't want people to know that I came from Gokawa.

They gave me the surname name 'Hanyuu', which sounds northern, because the surname 'Shino' might clue people in on where I came from.

My relatives took care of the funeral, but the agency prohibited me from telling them the true reason why I couldn't go back.

They cut ties with me after sending Mama's spirit tablet and ashes to me.

The agency told me the best way to comfort my parents' souls was to become a star.

Like force-feeding a fowlbeast, they kept telling me to become the biggest star in Mitsukue, in Higashi, on Terra, that it was the meaning of my entire existence.

And so I kept walking down this path, forcing myself to believe that they were right, until a few days ago.

My performing career was the entirety of my life. Anything that could help my career, I had to do, no matter how unwilling I was. Anything that could hurt my career, I couldn't touch, no matter how attractive it was.

But... I'm tired. I would be, even without all those strange kaidan that keep me on edge every day.

It's not that I don't like my work, but... who can I talk to about things other than work?

So... this is what it's come to. Nothing I kept ever lived long, their memories forming a long row on my window sill...

Silly, isn't it? A girl who kills anything she tries to keep.

Momoka Hanyuu should go home alone, take off her makeup, shower, brush her teeth, and go straight to bed, then straight to work the next day when she wakes up...

Momoka Hanyuu should do exactly as her agency says and stop trying to have a life outside of her performing career.

But Hasuke lived for a long time, even though I never took good care of it. But now... now!

Momoka—

Sorry, what's your real name?

Haruka.

Mama and Papa gave me the name because they wanted me to go far away. Away from Gokawa, away from the dirty water that killed without taste or smell, to live in freedom.

I made it far away, alright. As for living in freedom...

Should I call you...?

No, don't. Call me Momoka. Momoka Hanyuu.

Sorry.