Atem overhears the word "oshi-katsu" and resolves to take it up.
Seto points out that he is not the one who has an oshi but the one who is one. Atem proceeds anyway: an acrylic stand of his own tomato drawing, a shrine of his own merchandise, and the discovery that as a king he cannot pick favorites among his subjects.
Yugi, cornered, suggests the safest possible option. The result is a bedroom wall of Seto and a life-size Solid Vision, after which Atem finds he can no longer look at the real one without his heart pounding.
This is a translation of an original work on Pixiv.
Original Title: 愛と理論 24 王、推し活をする
Original Author: 葉人(@Hathor_yuki)
Personal site: https://prideshipping.sakura.ne.jp
With after-lunch coffee in hand, Atem was listening to the employees' enjoyable chatter.
"Lately my oshi-katsu has been busy again~."
"I know! When your oshi is sublime it gives you the will to live!"
Oshi-katsu.
At the unfamiliar ring of it, Atem blinks his eyes.
The moment he returned to his seat, he began searching on his tablet.
Several minutes later, Atem lowers himself into his chair with correct posture and quietly concludes:
"Oshi-katsu is... conduct for making the heart dance and obtaining vitality, is it."
At that definition, his chest as a king fluttered.
"What a splendid culture. It illuminates the human heart, becomes daily sustenance, and becomes strength..."
Atem nods deeply.
And in the next moment he had already resolved.
"Good, I too shall do oshi-katsu."
That expression was more serious than when heading to a battlefield.
Who Atem's oshi will be.
The answer is far too obvious, but only Seto, sorting documents in the next room, has yet to notice.
—— Atem decided to set out on a journey to find an oshi (he has not yet set out)
While Seto was checking materials in the executive office, the door opened vigorously.
"Seto, I think I'll start oshi-katsu."
Seto stopped the movement of his pen and slowly raised his face.
Sure enough, at this point already he has nothing but a bad feeling.
"...An oshi, you say?"
"That's right. Oshi-katsu is a splendid culture that makes the heart dance, becomes daily vitality, and brings blessings to the spirit. Seto, I intend to convey its merits to you as well."
Atem speaks with a full-faced smile.
Seto returned it in an extremely composed voice while pressing near his temple.
"...That concept does not apply to you."
"Why."
"It's obvious that you are not the one who has an oshi, but the one who is one. On a global scale... and incidentally on an afterlife scale too. Currently and ongoing."
Atem raises an eyebrow with a twitch and rebuts.
"I want to do oshi-katsu. That people revere someone, burn their hearts, obtain vitality... I want to experience such a beautiful act."
"Give it up."
"I refuse."
There is not the slightest hesitation.
If anything, an unshakeability characteristic of a king, to the point of being unreasonable, dwells there.
Seto entrusted his back to the chair and let out a deep sigh.
A degree of nuisance sufficient for A.R.E.S. to erase its presence and fade out.
Atem folded his arms and began thinking seriously.
"What is an oshi... Respect, admiration, attachment, fascination. An existence such that merely seeing them makes the heart take on heat. Which is to say, one who strikes the chest strongly."
"You are saying that you yourself are such an existence for the world."
But Seto's words are ignored, and Atem states it flatly with eyes full of resolve.
"Good, I shall search for an oshi."
Seto got the feeling that sliding off one's chair must mean this.
"You'll search from now? Wait, where are you going."
"On a journey to find an oshi."
"Don't get lost inside the company."
"I won't get lost."
That declaration alone was oddly full of confidence.
And so Atem's quest for oshi-katsu, without having taken a single step, dropped a new spark into Kaiba Corporation.
Atem set out on in-house fieldwork in order to understand what an oshi is.
A.R.E.S. supplements evenly across the terminal.
In-house survey: 83 percent have oshi-katsu experience.
The employees, while trembling at the sudden questioning by the King, began speaking with delight.
"Idol concerts are my lifeline! I keep the silver streamers carefully stored!"
"I line up acrylic stands of my oshi on my desk!"
"Every morning I check my oshi's social media before coming in to work!"
Atem took notes while nodding seriously.
"...I see. An oshi is an existence that gives vitality to daily life. And oshi-katsu is the act of assembling and doting upon the symbolic objects of one's oshi... is it."
Seto heard that explanation nearby and knitted his brows faintly.
"The interpretation of that last part is wrong."
But it does not reach Atem.
Atem's thinking had already entered the action phase.
After returning home.
Atem discovered software that lets one draw pictures oneself and turn them into acrylic stands rather than buying them mail-order, and mobilized the Kaiba mansion's printer and A.R.E.S. to produce them all at once.
He proudly places the completed acrylic stand in the bedroom.
Seto came home, saw it, and froze.
"...What is this."
"An acrylic stand. I heard it's the introduction to oshi-katsu."
Seto picks up the acrylic stand with his fingers and gazes at it, changing the angle.
"...This conceptual something with a sense of déjà vu is perhaps..."
"The tomato I drew."
In the Master Painter's distinctive style, an acrylic stand of which it is not clear whether it is a tomato, the sun, or an ominous sphere was glittering in the bedroom.
"Why have this as your oshi."
"I learned one should start from the form."
Seto puts a hand to his forehead.
"If you're starting from the form, at least draw a human being. No — it would be the same even if you drew one."
From the next day, the bedroom began to show anomalies.
· Atem's photo book
· Z — xy special issue
· Kaiba Corporation's public relations pamphlet
· Atem's beauty care feature issue
· An article about Atem clam digging
"You. When did you go clam digging?"
"I have no memory of it."
"Fake news, is it. A.R.E.S., delete it."
Understood.
Seto glances at the collection.
The things Atem can naturally obtain were, inevitably, nothing but things Atem himself was involved in.
And believing that collection to be oshi-katsu, he had been carrying them into the bedroom one after another.
Before anyone noticed, one corner of the bedroom takes on the aspect of an altar to Atem himself.
Seto said in a fearsomely composed voice:
"...Atem. Who are you making your oshi."
"I'm doing oshi-katsu."
"State the object of it."
Atem thought deeply, with a solemn air.
"...An oshi is an existence that brings vitality to the heart. But even gazing at these goods..."
Atem put a hand to his chest and murmured dubiously.
"...Strange. Vitality does not well up."
Seto said quietly:
"That's because you are making nothing your oshi. At most you're making yourself your oshi."
Atem opens his eyes wide with a start.
"...I see. There is a high possibility that an oshi is another person."
"Obviously."
Atem surveyed the mountain of his own goods piled in the bedroom and nodded quietly.
"...An oshi is another person......"
Seto nods with half-lidded eyes.
"Late."
Atem, unconcerned, put a hand to his chest and declared in a serious voice:
"Good. I shall make another person my oshi."
In that voice, said in a murmur, there is no hesitation.
But the direction of that earnestness was, as expected, abnormal.
The next day.
Atem descended upon the company and began searching for oshi candidates.
But Atem's standards were far too kingly.
The eyes he turns on the employees are seriousness itself.
"You are piling up small goals day by day. Splendid."
"Yesterday you were downcast, but today you are facing forward. You have resilience."
The words of praise are far too advanced, and even the same words become maxims for life when said by a king.
And Atem himself was, at any rate, troubled.
"For one who is a king, to cherish all the people is only natural. But when it comes to making an oshi..."
He says it himself and tilts his own head.
The too-broad coverage range that comes of being a king had made him notice the searing fact that it is worst-possible compatible with the concept of oshi-katsu.
The crimson eyes look up at the ceiling, and there he quietly hands down a conclusion.
"No good. The people all become objects of support without exception. Everyone is an oshi... no, this is not an oshi but governance."
The employees are not the people, but for Atem they seem to fall into a classification close to lives to be protected.
Seto put a hand to his hip and let out a sigh.
"That's why I told you. Oshi-katsu doesn't suit you."
But Atem did not give up.
Atem went to the Kame Game shop and consulted seriously.
"...Aibou. I have something to discuss."
Yugi, called over, came running, and seeing Atem's grave-looking expression, straightened his posture in spite of himself.
"Wh-what's wrong? Did the High Priest skip a meeting or something?"
"No. I have no oshi."
"......Eh?"
"I have no oshi."
Yugi took his hand off his cards. He blinked several times, and then pressed at his forehead.
"...Er... you started oshi-katsu?"
"So it appears."
"What do you mean, so it appears...?"
Atem explained succinctly, from the tomato acrylic stand in the bedroom to the matter of the altar of his own goods, to the problem of making the people into objects of oshi.
After several seconds of silence, Yugi collapsed onto the table.
"Whaaaat is thiiiis......!?"
Atem continues straight-faced.
"An oshi is, by definition, an existence one unconditionally wants to support, isn't it? But the people are all objects to be supported, which is to say everyone becomes an oshi, and then the concept collapses..."
"H-hold on a second. Why are you talking about oshi-katsu like it's running a country...?"
"Is it different?"
"It's different!"
Yugi flapped both hands, somehow trying to stop Atem's runaway theory.
But once you let Atem open the door of reasoning, it's long.
The hybrid of love and theory is too strong.
"An oshi is difficult."
"No, normally it doesn't turn into such an abstruse philosophy..."
"Then, Aibou. Won't you teach me the criteria for choosing an oshi?"
"Eh? Er... rather than criteria, by feel...?"
"By feel...? Which is to say a selection method with low reproducibility...?"
"Hold on... don't demand reproducibility from oshi-katsu. You don't need statistics either. You make them your oshi because you like them is fine."
Atem folds his arms again and nods with serious eyes.
"Make them your oshi because you like them... like... love... Love is an emotion difficult to explain by building theory, and..."
"So I'm telling you not to bring it into theory."
Yugi shouted while laughing half in tears.
But this conversation, though tiring, he unexpectedly didn't dislike.
That Atem is trying to understand with all his strength is somehow endearing.
This person's earnestness as a king is currently getting in the way of all of his oshi-katsu. He thought something like that.
Yugi resolved to present a way to somehow settle things neatly.
Yugi groaned "hmm..." and, considering carefully, presented the most certain option for wrapping things up safely.
"...Then, how about making Kaiba your oshi. He's close by, easy to support, and above all, Atem, you wouldn't have any trouble, right?"
Atem opened his eyes wide and looked blank.
"Make Seto... my oshi...?"
"Yeah. He's strong, he has real ability, and as an oshi he's a safe bet. Above all, he isn't one of the people, right? From your position as a king, from the other party's standing, and, well, various other things globally too."
Atem quietly closed his eyes, thought deeply, and in the eyes he opened, conviction dwelt.
"...I see. Seto is worthy of being made an oshi."
"Eh, so openly...?"
"...No. It was a blind spot."
"A blind spot...?"
Atem quietly clenched a fist.
"Mm. Seto is a man who is valiant, filled with talent, and advances bearing effort and pride. He is fitting to be made an oshi. Good. It's decided. I shall make Seto my oshi."
It was a declaration with no hesitation whatsoever.
Yugi leaned back in his chair and felt the strength go out of his knees.
"...I wonder how Kaiba will react..."
"He is an intellectual worthy rival. There is no problem in making him my oshi."
"No, making him your oshi at full strength is a problem... I think... You're overthinking it with logic..."
If only he'd push it through with love as usual.
The voice in which Yugi murmured that did not reach Atem.
Because Atem had already begun incorporating what oshi-katsu is into a new theoretical system.
Oshi-katsu constructed by the King out of love and theory.
Its first object was Seto Kaiba.
Yugi had nothing but a premonition of upheaval, but as usual decided to lightly foist Atem onto Seto.
That night.
In the living room of the Kaiba mansion, Atem stood before Seto with his spine held straight.
"Seto."
"What."
"I've decided to make you my oshi."
Seto froze for just an instant,
and afterward looked at Atem out of the corner of his eye.
"...You consulted Yugi, didn't you."
"How did you know."
"Because it's the option you'd be least likely to choose."
Atem nodded proudly.
"As expected of Aibou. At any rate, from today I shall make you my oshi with all my strength."
"...I won't tell you to stop, but I have nothing but a bad feeling."
Seto's premonitions are usually correct.
This declaration would later become the opening curtain of the Oshi-katsu Casebook that drags in Kaiba Corporation.
Atem was making his rounds of Kaiba Corporation with a serene, king-like (he is a king) gait.
The purpose is one thing alone. To collect the figure of Seto, his oshi.
Within the company, from monitors with Seto reflected in them, to posters, technical manuals, PR materials, and even the panels of the company history, Seto's likeness is saturated.
The employees were surprised at first, but when Atem explained "this is oshi-katsu," most of them were oddly convinced.
"Mr. Atem, um... this is footage of an old interview, but..."
"That helps. It will aid in understanding Seto's progress."
Atem receives the video data with the compassionate smile of a king.
The employees, while bewildered at the mysterious situation of the King making the president his oshi, apparently judged in the end that "well, there's no problem with the president being made an oshi," and official data arrived at Atem's side one after another.
And that night.
In the bedroom of the two, frames holding Seto's dignified figure were quietly displayed.
Atem arranges the placement with modest movements as though handling works of art, and nods, looking satisfied.
There Seto came in.
"...Atem. In one day, what is this situation?"
Seto stared at the himself lined up across the whole wall.
The expression is nearly nothing, but in the depths of the eyes the words "incomprehensible" are blinking.
"Oshi-katsu."
Atem answers in an unshakeable tone.
"Since I've decided to make you my oshi, I must start from building the environment. In love and in theory both, the foundation is important, isn't it?"
"...No. I have no objection, but the leap in the verification is spectacular."
Seto knitted his brows faintly.
But he does not deny it.
Because one look makes it clear that Atem is decorating in earnest and enjoying himself.
There, the LOVE-OS on the desk lights a pale glow.
For oshi-katsu, the use of Solid Vision is effective. Won't you try projecting a life-size image of Lord Seto?
"I see. A theoretical proposal."
"Wait, Atem, it is not theoretical."
Faster than Seto's restraint, Atem activated Solid Vision.
Pale blue light runs, and a three-dimensional image of Seto appears as though he were standing right there.
The real Seto (the genuine article) looked at the illusory image (the one being made an oshi) and lost his comprehension further.
"...Atem. Concretely, with what emotion are you showing me this?"
"Pride, respect, and a faint happiness."
Told this straight-faced, Seto blinked his eyes.
Stronger than the feeling of wanting to refuse is, somehow, the quiet heat lighting deep in his chest. A temperature that cannot be explained by theory.
"...No, I have no complaints. But... my comprehension cannot keep up."
"Rest easy. I understand something."
"Explain that something."
Atem smiles and shakes his head left and right.
"If I explain it, the theory breaks."
"And the contents of that theory?"
Only Seto was nothing, and Atem was calm as a windless sea.
The next day.
In the circle of the employees' oshi-katsu talk.
In the break space, the women employees were conversing animatedly.
"Lately it's in fashion to buy a cake and celebrate on your oshi's birthday."
"Ooh, I get that. My oshi is..."
There, with a king's gait, Atem joined them.
"Talk of oshi-katsu?"
"Eh? M-Mr. Atem. N-no, um, that is...!"
"Don't mind me. In fact I've started oshi-katsu too."
Several employees freeze.
"...Who are you making your oshi?"
Atem put a hand to his chest with high pride and answered quietly.
"Seto Kaiba."
"""Eh, the president!?"""
The break space shook like an earthquake.
Atem continues in a composed voice.
"Seto is worth being made an oshi. Effort, will, strategy, spirit — every one of them is splendid. Oshi-katsu is the act of nurturing the lamp of the heart. That is how I understood it. I make him my oshi theoretically."
"Th-theoretically...?"
Atem nodded with a calm smile.
"Love and theory are compatible."
The employees stir with cries of "sublime," "we've come to an incredible world line," "I wonder if the president's mental state is all right," and Seto, catching wind of the commotion, shows his face from a distance.
"Atem... what did you say this time?"
"A report on oshi-katsu."
"There's no need to report."
But in that tone of voice, the same faint wavering resembling gladness as yesterday was mixed in.
The day after Atem openly declared to the employees that he was making Seto his oshi.
Seto quietly sat beside Atem and threw out a question afresh.
"...By the way, Atem. To begin with, you started oshi-katsu in order to obtain vitality, didn't you? I'd like to confirm the original objective once more."
Atem put a hand to his chest, held up a penlight, and nodded.
"Mm. To make the heart dance and obtain vitality. That is the objective. And in actual fact, making you my oshi is... extremely heart-stirring."
In those words there was not the slightest exaggeration.
If anything the truth of it rang heavily along with a king's dignity, and a faint heat comes into Seto's chest.
"...I see. Then, is the objective being achieved?"
"Presumably. ...However."
Atem lowered his gaze just a little.
That was a fragile gesture not as a king but as a single person.
"Perhaps from the effect of making the illusory image so deeply my oshi... when I face the real Seto, my chest pounds far more than before..."
"...Pounds?"
Seto folds his arms and sinks into thought.
For the theory-inclined Seto, this state of Atem's is interesting, but not something that can be left alone either.
Atem continues.
"The illusory Seto was perfect as an oshi. But the real Seto is... more intense still. Merely being near, my heart is stirred. Is this a side effect of oshi-katsu?"
"A side effect... you again..."
Seto pressed at his forehead.
Endearing, but it doesn't hold together at all.
But Atem's gaze was serious.
Somewhere troubled, and yet somehow looking happy as well.
That mixed expression is, for Seto, fatally endearing.
"...I see. Which is to say, you've come to grow tense in front of the real me."
Atem quietly affirmed it.
"An oshi is a fearsome thing."
"Is there no other way of putting it."
Seto drew a deep breath and said, as though deciding:
"Nothing for it. There's nothing to do but grow used to time with the real me."
"Grow used to...?"
"Rehabilitation. Nerves overstimulated by oshi-katsu, adjusted with the real thing."
Seto takes his arm and stands up.
"We're going. Today we spend it together. First, from taking lunch together."
Atem instantly reddened.
Even his ears faintly take on heat.
"...Alone with you?"
"It's because you react like that that rehabilitation is necessary."
Seto isn't aware of it, but his voice was filled with gentleness.
Atem's reactions are unbearably endearing to him.
Atem thought for a while, and before long raised his eyes.
"...Understood. If you say so. ...To walk together with one's oshi. That too may be part of oshi-katsu."
"It isn't, but... well, fine."
Seto smiled awkwardly.
Meanwhile Atem puts a hand to his chest and takes a deep breath.
As a result of oshi-katsu, Atem became weak to the real thing of the one he makes his oshi.
To that figure, Seto is helplessly drawn.
That day's lunch proceeded with Atem tense throughout and Seto casually helping him along.
Just like a first date between lovers.
Yes. The two were treading the road of love and theory, one step at a time.
