At the same time, at the end of the world.
The tavern.
"...What innocence? We all saw it with our own eyes: you had your Audience mask taken away, then got strung up and beaten!"
The young woman standing in front of the hall's bar gloated as she made faces at Sparkle behind the counter.
The man beside her, hands on his hips, immediately chimed in, "Yeah, and you even set up a livestream for yourself! Afraid the whole universe wouldn't know about your heroic bearing, huh? A public execution on livestream, hahahahaha!"
Sparkle was furious.
She snapped back at the two Fools who had come to mock her. "What do you mean, taken away? When it comes to the Audience, can that be called taken away? That's called... tactical emotional interaction! It's both tactics and art, understand?"
That defense not only failed to win anyone over, it made everyone around her laugh even harder.
For a time, the entire tavern was filled with a merry air.
Just then, someone else arrived at the tavern.
In the tavern, where people came and went at every moment, naturally no one would deliberately pay attention to a newcomer. But when that person walked up to the bar, the expressions of everyone nearby changed at once, and then they all showed looks of eager anticipation.
"Yo, if it isn't the fake. Haven't seen you for a while—how'd you get this pathetic?"
Hanabi stood with her hands on her hips, smiling as she looked at Sparkle behind the bar.
Sparkle ground her molars and glared at Hanabi. "Old model, did you come here to laugh at me? Don't get so cocky!"
"I~~ came~~ here~~ exactly to laugh at you. If you've got the guts, hit me?" Hanabi laughed even more happily, then took out