>Maria completely vanishes with no warning for over two months>She's suddenly coming back with just as little warning for Shima's collab this week, >Shima didn't seem to actually know where she'd been and seemed surprised about itHere's a rrat for you, fresh from the rrat factory (AKA my ass):
Maria actually got into IdolEN gen 2, which is why she disappeared suddenly (this was the same thing she did when she got into Tsunderia). The reveal trailer for the new gen was supposed to drop today, but for unknown reasons it was suddenly pushed back by a week (https://twitter.com/idol_corp/status/1663586379652005904). This is because something happened behind the scenes (again) that caused Maria to either drop out or even get terminated right before debut (again), and so the company is re-editing the trailer and other promotional material to remove any references to the existence of her character. This all happened very last minute, which is why there was very little notice of her return or for the trailer release delay and why both of these things are happening so close together. As for Shima, he either genuinely didn't know where Maria was this whole time because she outright couldn't tell him or anyone else, or he knew but came up with "exam hell, or wherever she was" as an excuse for her absence.Rrate it.
