Special Report: ILLGATOR Impromptu Interviews

【Exclusive Interview】 Unveiling the true faces of ILLGATOR! Unreleased, never-before-seen footage

Reporter: Calls to ban Phantom Lives are growing louder by the day... and yet, a new team has joined the Paradox Live -LIVE FOR the TRUTH-. They go by the name of ILLGATOR. In order to uncover the mysterious true identities of these individuals, we conducted a series of impromptu interviews...

[ext: alleyway]
Reporter: Excuse me! You're Noah-san, aren't you?
Noah: Eh? The hell you want?
Reporter: Would you be willing to talk a little bit about ILLGATOR? It seems as though you're a team without much of a proven track record, so how confident are you about this competition?
Noah: ... [clicks tongue] Pain in the fucking ass...
Reporter: ...?
Noah: [extremely insincere sounding] Weeeell, we are newcomers, after all. We'll just do our very best so that we don't drag the senpai teams down.
Reporter: (He seems surprisingly humble...?)
Reporter: Ah, but on the subject of you, yourself, Noah-san... No matter how much we searched, we couldn't find anything about your real name, your birthplace, or anything about your background. Not to be too direct, but who exactly are you?
Noah: ... ...
Reporter: Huh?
Noah: You'd best shut your fucking mouth.
Reporter: Hey, what's with the sudden change...!?
Noah: There's things in this world that you're better off not knowing. And I'll teach you that lesson mysel--! [lunging]
Reporter: AAAGH!
[sfx: thunking, the camera feed being broken, beeeeeep]

We are experiencing technical difficulties with the video feed at this time.
Please stand by for just a moment.

Noah: [laughing] What a pathetic scream! [cackles]

[ext: riverside]
Reporter: Our reporting team made a frantic escape from the back alley... whereupon we discovered our next target, Yofune Akito.
Reporter: What is it you're looking at?
Akito: ... Humans.
Reporter: Huh?
Akito: Despite appearances, I am a researcher. I make observing humans a matter of my daily routine as part of my research. And from the looks of you... are you journalists? I imagine you are seeking an interview with me about LIVE FOR the TRUTH, yes?
Reporter: Ah, yes, that's correct. Thank you for cutting right to the chase. To get right into it: how did ILLGATOR come to be formed as a team?
Akito: Ah. It's because a very bad man asked us to do it. He wants us to ruin the tournament.
Reporter: --!?
Akito: ... [laughs] Of course, that would be silly. That was merely a joke. The truth is that there's someone who asked me to keep an eye on Noah and Meno to keep them out of trouble. I suppose the team formed as a natural consequence of that.
Reporter: I see... well, by the way, Yofune-san. There are rumors around that you used to work at one of Alter Trigger's illegal underground research facilities. Do you have anything you'd like to comment on about that...?
Akito: ... [sigh]
[sfx: phone ringing on the line]
Reporter: Yofune-san? Who are you calling all of a sudden...?
Akito: Hello, Noah-kun? I'm currently being harangued by a quite troublesome reporter... ... ah, yes, exactly! I would appreciate your help with the disposal. Which would be less troublesome, the sea or the mountains?
Reporter: --! This is bad, quick, let's get out of here!!

[int: arcade]

Reporter: Our reporting team once again made a frantic escape. Our final target is a girl by the name of Azumi Meno. She is probably less dangerous than the other two. We would like to extract at least a bit of information from her, but...
Meno: AAAAAAAAAGH!!!! [thwacking an arcade machine in frustration]
Reporter: !?
Meno: This is SUCH nonsense!! I was SO sure I was gonna win that time!! The claws are just way too weak! It's like they gave up and died halfway through!! Ugh, I'm gonna try a bit more, test period or no!!^[1]
Reporter: Um, excuse m--...?
Meno: Oh, hey! You saw that too, right!? That one was SO close, wasn't it!? I mean I ABSOLUTELY almost got it that time, right!? Aa~aghhh.... it's a special plush keychain of Panchom-chan with a design that you can only get from crane machines, I was gonna win it so I could rub it in Noah's faaaace...!
Reporter: Do you like crane games?
Meno: Oh, yeah, I love 'em~. ♡ It's super frustrating when you fail, but when you win it's like, BAM, a total FLASH FLOOD of the happy brain juice, y'know? I totally can't get enough of that feeling~! So I end up playing them until I get stuffed animals whenever I see them and so my room is, like, totally stuffed with them, it's, like, total chaos. Ooh, you wanna see a picture? Especially this really huge teddy bear I won just the other day, it takes up SOOOO much space-- ... ... ah, huh? Wait, who're the heck are you?
Reporter: We're journalists covering ILLGATOR.
Meno: Eh, a reporter!? No waaay! That's aaaawesome~!
Reporter: We were hoping we could get an interview with y...
Meno: ... eh, hold on!? Wait, what time is it?! I'm WAY late for my part-time job!! You're kidding, right!? Uuuuuuugh, the store manager's been absolutely spamming my phone like crazy! Crap crap crap, I'm on my way now, please don't be piiissed~!!!
Reporter: ... ah...
Reporter: All we could do was watch as her back retreated away into the crowd as she left in a panic...

[1] This line is one I'm not 100% on so take this with a grain of salt. I believe but am not sure that she's referring to being in the test period for a part-time job, based on later events.

Reporter: And so our impromptu interviews came to an end. Just who, exactly, are they? That mystery will be unveiled through LIVE FOR the TRUTH. We will continue to keep a close eye on what they do next.