Track 1

Woof ♪  Woof ♪ Woo-woof~♪

Hang on, Shumai! Don’t pull so hard!

Haha. Shumai’s in a great mood, isn’t he? Well, I can see why. After all, today is—

The HAMA Wanwan Festival!¹

A huge event packed with shops and goodies just for dogs... I heard they even have a massive dog park. I promised I’d take you there one day, didn't I, Shumai?  

Woof!

The weather's great today, and I’m glad Renga even managed to join us for his day off!

Yeah! I really wanted to go, so I packed my schedule with back-to-back studio gigs just to keep today free.

There were days when I’d get so worn out that I couldn't even keep track of where I was anymore—

Hehe, some days you’d even come home so exhausted you could barely stand. Good job~ I guess you deserve a little treat today, too?

I-I mean, just being here with you and Shumai is already a fitting reward for the great me…!

Awoof ♪

See? Even Shumai thinks you did a great job~

Shumai…! Let’s have lots of fun at WanFes!

Woof!

… Woof woof!?

Oh, passing through the HAMA Police Station is the quickest way, huh? Thanks for showing us the way, Shumai. What a good boy ♪

HAMA Police Station…

Come to think of it, R1ze’s next job is HAMA’s “Police-Chief-for-a-Day Event” ² right?

—A collaboration request from the police station, huh…

That’s right. It's a one-day job where I’m to serve as the acting police chief, since I’m HAMA the 0th Ward Mayor. The rest of the Morning Team will act as my assistants.

Why would the police go out of their way to ask us? I mean, we’ve got a super scary mafia guy right here. Is it really okay for the police to be hiring someone like that?

......

The Lurong Family basically acts as HAMA’s clean-up crew. The police benefit from them, too, so it looks like they decided it wouldn’t be a problem.

Huh? So your family also runs a cleaning service, Liguang? I’ve never heard about anything like that from Xingbing-san, though…

......

Ahaha. If we're talking dirty work, then it's pretty accurate. Right, Liguang-san?

... Shut up, you brat. Like you’re one to talk.

Ooh~ I’m so scared. I, like, totally just got bullied. Renga-saaan~ This guy’s really scary~.

Liguang…! Don’t bully Ten, he’s younger than you, y'know…!

… Tch. Shut up.

W-Well, putting that aside, Kafka’s the focus for this request, right?

Yeah, I think they want to use my position as 0th Ward Mayor, as well as whatever acclaim my name has, for a crime prevention campaign.

I tooootally get that! As soon as I catch wind that the President's coming, I straighten right up and go like, “I swear I didn't do anything wroooong!!!”

Like, haha, of course. It’s not like I’ve ever wished for anybody’s misfortune using curse apps or anything like that. Absolutely not. Haha…

(Yachiyo-kun’s saying something kinda scary…)

So this will be a big moment for Kafka then. I’m looking forward to it.

I’m sure that Kafka serving as the police chief for a day will make for a wonderful sight. It makes me so happy to see my little brother growing up so well.

Hey, stop with the “big brother” act right there. …Maybe I should add that to the company rules.

Ahaha… But that wasn’t the only request we got, right?

Yes. They also asked us to help out with a promotional event for the police dogs that protect HAMA.

Each member of R1ze will pair up with a police dog for activities like “obstacle jumping” and “scent tracking,” where the dogs try to identify the owner of an object based on its scent.

And they’d like us to do a performance with the police dogs on top of the one-day police chief event.

A performance with the police dogs…!? Wow… that sounds fun!

That’s great~ You get to work with dogs.

… I’ve heard that HAMA’s police dogs are highly capable. They certainly deserve more recognition from the local citizens.

So everyone's on board, I assume?

(agrees)

Okay, moving forward. Next on the schedule is—

We'll get to meet the police dogs on Monday, right?

Yes. We’ll probably be at the station the whole day.

Police dogs… I bet they’re really awesome. I’m so happy I get to work with them. I can’t wait, Kafka!

Yep, I figured you would be happy about it. As a fellow dog lover, I'm really glad, too.

... Woof?

Woof! Woof!

H-Hey, Shumai? What's wrong? WanFes isn’t that way.

Do you want to head that way? It is a brand new path for you..

Well, WanFes does go on until late, so how about we take a small detour and go the way Shumai wants?

This place… A long time ago, I was…

Renga?

......

(A back alley… Come to think of it, isn’t this area near where Chief-chan and Renga occasionally volunteer at food drives?)

(... Could this be the place where Renga grew up?)

Woof!

You figured out where I grew up? You’re really something, Shumai!

(I knew it…)

M-Maybe it’s because we’re so close…? Hehe… I sure hope that’s why.

Ah… Wait, maybe I still smell like I did back then!? Oh no…

… You always smell nice, though. Besides, you’re a perfume ambassador, aren’t you?

Kafka...! Yeah, that perfume brand I work with uses ingredients that are dog-friendly too, so dogs don’t hate the smell!

Anyway, you’re amazing, Shumai~

Wooof~

(A dimly lit, garbage-filled street that not even a single ray of sun can touch. There's no way you can call this livable. To think that in a place this filthy, Renga was…)

… When I was little, I used to spend time here with a stray dog.

Huh?

Seeing Shumai here reminded me of that.

That dog was skinny and small, just like me… He got attached to me after I shared food with him. Whenever I felt lonely, he always stayed by my side.

Woof...

Is that so…?

We spent only a few months together… In the end, some passerby took him in. But he was my lifesaver, y'know?

Your lifesaver?

Yeah… A long time ago, I got dragged into a crime involving dogs.

Back then, I got bitten by a dog and ended up getting badly hurt. I was on the brink of death for several days.

...!?

(I can’t believe Renga went through something so horrific…)

But… Did you end up being okay? Someone must’ve saved you, right?

Yup! That dog I got along with went and dragged a volunteer over to me.

Thanks to that, I somehow survived! Well… I’ve always been pretty tough, y'know!

......

Honestly… back then, a part of me had already given up. I thought if I ended up dying like that… then that's just the way things were.

But now, I get to work as a ward mayor, and I get to take walks with you and Shumai. I couldn’t be happier!

I’m really glad I didn’t end up dying back then.

(Dying…)

By the way, Renga. How old were you when this happened?

Umm, how old was I…? This was before I met Kiba… so I was 7? 8? Maybe 9? I can’t really remember….

(He was almost the same age as when I nearly died…)

(... While I was hovering between life and death in the hospital, Renga was fighting for his life in a back alley all alone. But… Renga wasn’t able to receive proper care.)

(It wasn’t because of any illness or anything. He simply happened to be born here, and got dragged into a crime. Just because he was one of society’s most vulnerable, he almost died...)

......

… Kafka?

(But what right do I have to talk? When I first met Renga, I thought of him as a burden, too…)

(To be honest, if Renga hadn’t changed, I fully intended to discard him.)

(If I had actually cut ties with him… he might’ve ended up powerless and vulnerable all over again. The Nishizono family was in a tight spot back then, after all…)

(I… If I had taken just one wrong step… I could’ve been the one to hurt Renga...)

(What’s wrong with Kafka? He looks really upset…)

… Renga, even after getting hurt in a crime involving dogs, you still love them, huh?

Y-Yeah! I mean, there was also that stray dog I was close with. Sure, I got bitten by a dog, but it was also a dog who protected me, and I made it through in the end.

And… I just feel bad for the dogs that are forced to do bad things.

Yeah. Anyone who exploits dogs for criminal purposes deserves to die a thousand times over. A public execution wouldn’t be nearly enough of a punishment.

W-Woah... Kafka, you say some scary things sometimes…

(… Seems like the time Renga nearly died from a dog bite is just a thing of the past now. I'm relieved he doesn’t seem traumatized.)

I hope you'll always love dogs.

?

Yeah! Anybody who loves dogs can’t be bad!

… Yeah. You really are cute, Renga.

C-Cute!?

N-No, whichever way you look at it, Kafka’s way cuter—Wah! W-What are you even making me say…!

Ahaha, that’s exactly what makes you cute. Right, Shumai?

Woof~!

U-Ugh… Not you too, Shumai…! I’m supposed to be a stylish, cool celeb, y’know…!

Alright, it’s about time we go to WanFes! Don’t blame me if the food you want sells out!

Alright, alright.

(... If I’d been healthy as a child, maybe I could’ve met Renga back then and protected him under the Oguro house.)

(If I had been there, maybe I could have kept him from living in dark, cold back alleys like this… And maybe I could’ve kept him from getting involved in that Kiba guy’s switching scheme, too.)

……

(I'll never let Renga get caught up in something like that again. I don't want him to be put in danger anymore. Because now that he has me—)

(I’ll protect him no matter what.)