Quote:
The city is looking for heroes! Not super heroes, but the everyday heroes that live in Destiny City. City Council has asked for nominations for these heroes that deserve a little extra recognition for making the city a better place. Posters have been hung in a few prominent locations around the city, searching for “The People’s Heroes”. The posters are quite clear: anyone can be nominated for any reason whatsoever, they don't need to have performed a heroic deed by any stretch of the imagination--all they need to be is a hero to the person nominating them. The nominations aren’t competitive by any standards; participants are asked to fill out a small form either online or in person. Nominations are collected and are televised nightly on a local news channel for the duration of the event; the notes of recognition are also delivered to the nominees when applicable. Do you fill out a nomination, or are you the recipient of one? Are you watching the news for anyone familiar that you might know?
’Destiny City is looking for heroes!’
That was the tagline that caught Tochi’s attention, and thus, piqued her interest. Apparently they were taking nominations for people that could be considered ‘heroes’ for making the city a better place to live, and they were going to air it live on the news, as well. It wasn’t any sort of competition or anything, and arguably, Tochi’s definition of a ‘hero’ and the city’s definition were the furthest from being similar, but the gears had been set in motion, and Tochi had immediately set to work. Getting her name on television was certain to get her noticed by talent agents, or at least just attract more subscribers to her channel, and of course, she couldn’t leave out Rune, either. Making multiple alt accounts with fake names and burner e-mails, Tochi filled out numerous forms, nominating both herself and Rune, as heroes for ‘making the city a better place with our music’.
(It was, perhaps, cheesing the system, but it wasn’t a competition, so she wasn’t exactly taking away anyone else’s spot.)
Every night, Tochi tuned into the news, hoping to catch her name being said on air. Morie checked in on her at one point, questioning as to why her little sister had taken a sudden interest in watching the news so late at night, but Tochi had made up an excuse about there being a program airing afterwards that she wanted to watch. That had worked for about three days, before Morie became suspicious, so Tochi then claimed that she was checking to see if any of their classmates had been nominated, seeing as the two of them had quite a few names between them that they could see being considered ‘heroes’.
Finally, just when Tochi was about to give up hope, the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel appeared… or so she thought. Zoning out one night, while playing through the new event in one of her rhythm games, Tochi heard the name ‘Shimotsuki’ and immediately bolted upright, grabbing the remote to turn up the volume. Unfortunately, as she continued to listen, she would soon find out that the Shimotsuki being mentioned on the air… was the entirely wrong one.
’Morie Shimotsuki is a real hero for helping me get through class all these years,’ the newscaster read aloud, ’If it weren’t for her always bringing me my notes and homework, I’d have never passed! She’s just really smart, y’know? School’s always so boring, but it’s thanks to her I’ve gotten into uni.’
Tochi listened on in horror as the broadcast continued praising her sister, instead of herself, feeling a sense of complete utter disbelief at what she saw as a betrayal of sorts. She had sent in! So! Many! Nominations! Sure, she wasn’t the best at using VPNs aside from using location-based features in her Japanese-region games, but Tochi had thought that she had done a pretty decent job and not making them sound like they all came from one person. What was it that she was lacking, that Morie had? And, for that matter, who had even nominated her sister? Morie was a bossy busybody- what about that made her so heroic?
Apparently, she didn’t have to wait long for an answer. Startled by the sound of someone behind her letting out a deep sigh, Tochi turned around to find Morie looking at the television in complete disbelief herself, before burying her face in her hands with a groan of embarrassment. “Mariel,” was all her sister muttered, and that word alone told Tochi all she needed to know.
