[IC]めざして!! Top Idol!!! Chapter 1: Birth of a Unit.

[Chevaleresse]

Hiroki shot Ringo an irritated look before turning her head back to Kagari and Ruri. "Well, a capella means I can't play along. I can probably keep up with singing, too, but I'm not very good at singing in the background." It was a practice studio, and she did need practice singing in a less... forceful way, but she didn't want to completely drown out the other two girls. Hiroki really wanted to start off on the right foot, and the discussion earlier had been awkward enough already...

[Hiss13]

As per Ringo's request, Ruri ignored her as she spoke to Hiroki. "Oh no. I didn't mean I wanted to do the song fully a cappella. That's a bit much. I was thinking that you could jump in with the instrumental accompaniment at some point." She put her index finger to her nose and pondered before having a quick eureka moment.

"I got it. We can imitate the concert somewhat. You can jump in right at the start of the chorus. So when I finish the lines," she paused to sing the lines in the right rhythm.

'Someday, a story will have to end.

Once I flip to the last page…'

"You can join in when I start singing the chorus, 'I, Sleeping Beauty, will awaken now'. Does that seem good?"

[Zephyrus the Priestess]

Aaaaand there she went. Rolling her eyes, Gunther stood up and headed for the stairs with her drink in her hand. The floor with practice studios, right? She might as well get some singing practice in... And from the way Ringo tapped her foot, Gunther inferred that the girl had skill with drums. It's not like I have anything better to do anyway, she thought to herself, descending the stairwell rapidly, unfazed by how her drink splashed around in the tall glass. Only a fourth of the stuff remained anyway, so it wouldn't make a huge mess as she went.

[Chevaleresse]

Hiroki nodded. "That's fine, then." She was trying to hide it, but she was actually really excited to play the guitar again. It actually calmed her down, unlike singing.

((sorry for the length, trying to avoid unnecessary fluffing))

[Hiss13]

With Hiroki's approval, Ruri closed her eyes and took a deep breath. As she opened her eyes, she let the lyrics flow with a firm, but serene tone.

"If I were able to stay in slumber forever,

I'd be able to forget this sadness.

There are nights when I wish for that as I fall asleep."

She stayed in place, never once moving her legs and only moving the empty hand closer and closer to her chest.

"It is a a fleeting dream.

Yes, an ephemeral dream I dreamt with you.

Even in a 100-year slumber,

Someday, a story will have to end.

Once I flip to the last page…"

With that, she was caught in the flow of the song. Without even paying attention to whether or not the musical accompaniment, she made a short breath for the pause and started off with the chorus.

'I, Sleeping Beauty, will awaken now'

[Pyon Pyon Kyuu!~]

When Ruri started singing Ringo immediately recognized the song. She felt a bit bored as the drum track for the song wasn't particularly exciting. However it was music, and it actually sounded pretty good. Gripping her drumsticks softly, yet firmly enough so they didn't split out of her hands. She counted the four beats before the chorus by tapping on the cymbal lightly. Rolling her sticks through each tom, she hit both cymbals before steadying back to the regular more soothing beat of the original song.

[Code: PIRULUK]

Kagari's eyes widened ever so slightly when she heard Ruri's singing voice. It was clear and sharp, a crystal carrying within it the melody of the song.

As Ruri entered the chorus in full swing, accompanied by Ringo on drums, Kagari began singing softly, slowly getting louder in a steady crescendo as she sang a harmony to the main melody of the song. As she sang, she closed her eyes, trying to feel the melody of the song and blend with it as the harmonic counterpart to Ruri's singing

"Sleeping Beauty is waking up, and now I
will never wait for anyone to save me
Even if I'm all alone
I will walk forward to tomorrow"

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Arya:

What greeted Arya as she exited the elevator was a staircase. Specifically, two staircases, across the hall from her, curving ever so slightly upward to the second floor, framing a single reception desk in between the staircases. The size of the hall in question was about two soccer fields placed lengthwise alongside each other, with the entirety of the floor covered in a purple carpeting. Aside from the path from the elevator to the reception desk, the rest of the room was crammed with ornate ivory white bookshelves, packed so tightly that there was maybe a metre, at most, between any two given bookshelves. At the front of each bookshelf was a small metal plate, engraved with the categories and reference numbers for the books in each shelf.

As Arya took three steps forward, A young, green-eyed lady in a kimono stepped out from among the bookshelves and bowed deeply. She used the back of her left hand to tuck her long, straight, black hair behind her right ear, then spoke.

"Welcome. May I assist you?

[Chevaleresse]

Hiroki started in on the guitar as soon as Ruri began the chorus. The song itself didn't have a whole lot of guitar to it, so she played the piano part on her instrument as well. Her playing was deft and light, only applying the minimum pressure needed to achieve the chords she was going for. The song wasn't particularly demanding, so she watched the other girls as she played. Ruri and Kagari both seemed to be really into the song, though it was hard to tell with the latter. Ringo appeared to be in a similar situation to herself. I wonder if I can convince them to play a faster song? Kagari-san doesn't really seem like the type to like that kind of music, though.

[Zephyrus the Priestess]

Music and a clear voice guided Gunther to the practice studio. There, she saw Ringo at the drums, along with some of the other girls from earlier. This is a... not really my kind of song, she concluded lamely, as she stood at the doorway to watch while finishing her drink off.

[Hiss13]

Continuing the song, Ruri paid little heed to the instrumental accompaniment that came along. However, she did notice another voice joining in on the song that was slowly getting louder and attempting to harmonize with her voice.

"Even if the morning light is far too bright and my teardrops overflow,

I keep my eyes open."

"No matter how thorny the path,

I was fine if I was with you,

As long as I walked hand-in-hand with you."

She realized that the one singing along with her was likely Kagari. Yet even so, she continued to sing with the same level of clarity and focus in her mind.

"I, Sleeping Beauty, will awaken now,

And I don't need anyone's help, so

That even if I'm alone,

I can walk ahead. "

As she started to reach the final set of stanzas, she let her hand slowly fall back down. As she did so, she could feel a rush moving outwards through her body from her very core.

"Yes, so that if the night ends,

I can find the future."

"I wipe my eyes, looking beyond the blue light

As I gaze up at the sky."

With those final lines, she raised her hand up as if she was grasping at the sky above all while holding a grand smile. As she eventually felt she held the final note long enough, she made a rapid decrescendo to silence and let her arm down so she could wait for the end of the instrumental accompaniment that she finally had noticed.

[Chevaleresse]

Hiroki looked at the other girls as the song ended. It didn't even look like Ruri even noticed she was playing, but she guessed she could understand that, for now. She wanted to play a song that was a bit. . . heavier, but was fairly certain that the other girls likely hadn't even heard of some of the music she enjoyed. Which was a shame; it was fantastic music and most of it had very talented singers behind it. However, there was one song she was fairly certain they would have at least heard of, and another person who probably knew it quite well. . . "Have you guys ever heard of the song Magia by Kalafina?"

[Code: PIRULUK]

Magia, huh...

Kagari knew the song. She was pretty sure everybody did. Even if it was a lot less cute than what she usually listened to, she enjoyed the song a lot.

"Yes, I know the-"

"Ara? It wasn't Chihaya-chan?"

Her sentence was interrupted by the sliding door opening wide, revealing a young woman in the doorway. She had long purple hair tied in low twintails with pink scrunchies, and her eyes were a nice, calm turquoise. She dressed in a plain white blouse which accentuated her moderate bust, accompanied by dark blue jeans. She walked in with a calm air and a graceful smile upon her face.

"Ara, I heard Chihaya-chan's favorite song so I came here looking for her, but it seems she's not here... You must be the new group, then!"

The woman said nothing more as she pulled out a deck of cards from her pocket, shuffling them, then flipping open the top one. It depicted an image of a wheel, with two people sitting atop it. Underneath it was the marking "X"

"The Wheel of Fortune, upright. A happy surprise, indeed."

The young lady smiled unhesitatingly as she addressed the room.

"Well, hello. I'm Toujou Nozomi, of Myu's. We're also under the umbrella of YUSAPRO, so I look forward to working with all of you in the future~"

Nozomi turned to Hiroki.

"Now, you mentioned Magia. I quite like that song, myself. If you're going to perform it, maybe I could join you?"

[Hiss13]

Ruri was not all too familiar with μ's. Actually, she was not all to familiar with the world of school idols in general. Beyond hearing a few songs like 'Snow Halation' and 'Shocking Party', she had virtually no knowledge of school idols. As such, she was quite unfazed by Nozomi's sudden arrival.

"You can take my place, then." She walked up to Nozomi and held out the microphone with a sheepish grin while her ahoge waved back and forth. "I really don't know the song well enough to actually sing it without a lyrics sheet or something like that."

Magia was a nice song but definitely not one Ruri had listened that often. She was more of a fan of calmer songs like 'Pray~Inroi~' by Iku, 'Memories Last' by Maon Kurosaki, and 'Satanic' and 'See visionS' by Mami Kawada or more pop-esque songs like 'Orbital Beat' from the Zwei Wing duet. Needless to say, singing this song was definitely not something she felt confident in being able to do without messing up a lot.

[Pyon Pyon Kyuu!~]

During the song she looked at the doorway and saw that Gunther had been spying on them. Maybe we can get her to join in. When the song finished, Ringo finished by tapping the cymbals over and over again giving a long 'Tsshaaaaw' sound. When they were done, she twirled her drums sticks a bit as she waited for the girls to decide on their next song. Her ears twitched when she heard a familiar voice.

Ringo nearly jumped from her seat and rested her hands on the drum set. "You're... You're from Myu's!" Her hands were shaking a bit. It wasn't like her to get nervous around people, but it was Nozomi. "I uhm, could you sign my drum sticks?" She outstretched them as an offer but then remembered. "Wait these are the studio's drum sticks." The realization made her glum for a bit, until she looked up at Nozomi again. "Wait Nozomi-San if Myu's is here does that mean." It was impossible for Ringo to contain her excitement over this. "Does that mean I might get to meet Nico-Chan?" She interlocked her fingers together as if praying that'd she would meet her idol.

[Code: PIRULUK]

Nozomi turned to the jittery Ringo.

"Ara? Nicocchi? Well, yes, she's contracted here too, but I don't think she's here today... I believe BiBi was doing filming for a drama series...? If you want, I could let her know she has a fan among the new idols; Nicocchi loves her fans. As for the sign... I don't have anything to sign for you, but since we'll be working here, we'll get plenty of opportunities."

Nozomi flashed her signature subdued smile.

"Perhaps, soon I might be asking you for your signatures too. You never know how the wheels of fate will turn."

[Pyon Pyon Kyuu!~]

"Uhm please!" She looked down at her feet a bit disappointed. "Bibi is my favorite idol group. Their music is part of the reason why I want to be an idol. Maki-San and Eli-San both look so cool and pretty, but Nico-Chan manages to be cute at the same time." Ringo said this almost dreamily. Then she covered her mouth as she realized the way she sounded. "I'm not saying you aren't pretty as well Nozomi-San. I love all of Myu's and I think you are very pretty as well it's just that Bibi and Nico-Chan." She interrupted herself with a sigh. Ringo looked around when Nozomi mentioned about their signatures. She looked at Nag Queen, the pale haired girl, the genki girl, and then finally at Gunther.

Ringo's usual cocky grin returned to her face. "Yeah, maybe you should ask for our signatures." She didn't want to get away from Nozomi, but for the sake of coolness she went over to the drum set and grabbed her drum sticks. Throwing one in the air, she twirled and caught it as it came down. "After all I am... I mean we, are going to take the world by storm!"

[Zephyrus the Priestess]

With mild amusement, Gunther watched as the girls went all wide-eyed when a girl in pigtails walked in. Apparently, it was another one of the idols, but... To be honest, Gunther didn't have a freaking clue as to who this was. It was her mother who was into all the nonsense about celebrities and whatnot; personally, she couldn't really care much. Nevertheless, the lady probably did something great to have gotten the attention of all these girls, and being a performer was tough respectable work... to hear her mother put it, anyway.

She could, however, totally get behind Ringo's confidence. "No question about it," she spoke, not moving from her spot by the door, though she shook the drink container she had with her just to mess with the leftover ice cubes inside.

[Chevaleresse]

Hiroki's nervousness at meeting a famous idol in person was overtaken by amusement at Ringo's fumbling. Ha! How does that feel? She replied to Nozumi with a faint, satisfied grin still lingering on her face. "Of course, that's fine." She didn't bother asking if she knew the lyrics; obviously, if Nozumi volunteered to sing, she knew what she was singing. "Um, does everyone else want to play?" While she waited for their responses, Hiroki began a set of vocal warmups.

[rustytengo]

Lyre watch Arya leave the elevator, waving her cuddle fish's arm as a goodbye tell the door closed. After she pressed the button to the floor for the bar she slumped back against the wall sighing. Closing her eyes she stated humming Senbon Sakura in order to keep her self from nodding off, since its tempo was highly active and not to mention one of her favorite songs.

After a little bit and most of the song the elevator stopped and opened. Lyre quickly hurried out of the elevator and started looking around for a place that sold snacks or something sweet hopefully cake. She finally spotted her target after a little bit of wandering around a patisserie. Making a B-line to the place she stopped and stared at the sweets under the glass counter, while making very expressive sounds and movements that most people would usually make well seeing something extremely cute. After staring at them for an extended amount of time she excitedly asked the person behind the counter.

"Do you have any cake or something cake like? Well not carrot cake but you know sweet yummy cake."

[Code: PIRULUK]

The woman behind the counter, a lady in about her early twenties, with long blue hair, dressed in a cute pastel yellow apron with paw prints on it, shook her head at Lyre's inquiry.

"I'm sorry, but due to company policy, we're only allowed to serve nutritionally balanced pastries. We do have a couple cakes, but none of them are likely to be as sweet as what you would find elsewhere, though I assure you, they do still taste great. Would you like one?"

As she said thus, she reached down and extracted a slice of Lemon Cake, then placed it upon a cute white plate and proffered it to Lyre. The cake was a bright yellow, devoid of icing, with a texture that looked visibly less moist than you would otherwise expect from a cake. Across its surface was a sprinkling of cut almonds, and the pastry gave off a slight mint fragrance.

[Pyon Pyon Kyuu!~]

Ringo looked at Gunther and nodded, happy that the girl has agreed with her. "Well let's get on with the show." She announced as she sat down in front of the drum set. She twirled her sticks a bit and then raised her arms in the air. "Are you ready Silver Surfer?" I have to come up with a better nickname, that one is pretty weak.

"One, two." As Ringo counted down, she tapped her sticks together counting the time. "One, two, three four!"

On four, she started the song. It started off with a military like tah tah tah tah on the floor tom, with the floor kick keeping the beat over it. I wonder how Nozomi-San is going to sound singing this. Her mind wandered a bit. She really wanted to look up to look at the idol, but she kept herself focused on playing.

[Chevaleresse]

Oh, I guess we're not waiting for everyone to get ready. That works.

Hiroki began the non-verbal part of the song with a slight quaver in her voice, which she quickly corrected. It's a good thing that I've probably played and sung this song enough times to do this in my sleep. . . Having an already-famous idol with her was making her jittery, like she was singing in front of a crowd.

"Someday, the light of love that you set aflame in your eyes
(Will transcend time)
And surely destroy one dream
(Of this world that hurries to its ruin.)"

Hiroki, instead of singing every line like she usually did, left the correct lines out for one of the other girls to sing. It was a multi-part song, after all. She hoped that they wouldn't be annoyed with her taking the lead part, though. As much as she liked the song, she still felt like she sung it a bit too forcefully, though that could have just as easily been nervousness around a celebrity talking.

"Swallow down your hesitation.
(What is it that you wish for?)
On the path of yearning as greedy as this,
Will there be a transient tomorrow?"

It was kind of difficult, focusing on keeping her voice in tune with the song and playing the guitar part simultaneously. She could do it, though, and she felt a small thrill of personal pride that competed with her usual nerves about performing in front of people.

"With power that can break through the darkness,
Something like the ancient magic
That I dreamed of when I was young,
I want to meet you and your smile.
What I hold in these frightened hands of mine
Is courage made of handpicked flowers.
My feelings alone are all that I rely upon,
A wish that will awaken
The light."

She took a quick breath after singing the long, continuous verse before starting to sing the next.

[Code: PIRULUK]

Hiroki started to sing out the next verse in a clear, sharp voice like glass.

At the same time, besides Kagari, who was more than happy to hum the melody and sing the echoed parts, there was one other person who sang the melody.

Nozomi, with her eyes closed and her hand on her chest, had begun to sing the melody alongside Hiroki.

"Someday, you will also

wish for great power

For the sake of

someone else, I suppose".

Nozomi's voice was not loud, but it was powerful. She sang at a lower volume than Hiroki did, yet her sound rang out so much more.

"In the night when

love captured your heart,

unknown words

are born."

As the girls watched, Nozomi seemed to shine. Her voice, though soft, carried so much weight. Even as she did nothing but stand still and sing, the eyes of the girls in the room could not help but be drawn towards her. Gradually, the focus of the world shifted. It wasn't about the song anymore. It was about Nozomi singing the song. The next verse, a powerful loud one, cut in.

"If I can go on without losing my way,

I don’t mind if my heart is

broken to pieces.

I want a spell

that can let me fight against

the sorrow that is always

in front of my eyes."

Nozomi substantially increased her intensity in this verse, pouring her soul into the music. One could see the words and emotions of the song surrounding her, encasing her, being given life by her. Even though she was singing, Hiroki could no longer be heard. In this room, in this world, there was only Nozomi.

The room gradually quietened down as one by one the girls stopped singing or playing, and instead focused their full attentions on Nozomi, now singing alone. As they looked on, all of them shared the same thought:

"This is an idol."

"Let us have an unending dream.

During this time I go through with you,

my feelings alone are all that live.

What will create life is

this wish."

When the song drew to an end, Nozomi opened her eyes. Her brow glistened with sweat. Then, as if realising something, she tilted her head to the left, then turned to the other girls with a puzzled expression.

"...ara? When did all of you stop singing?"

[Hiss13]

Powerful. If there was one word that could describe Nozomi's singing, it was that. Ruri watched from a distance, standing with her back against the wall near the door and out of the view of the performers' direct lines of sight. While she was not really in love with the song like she assumed the others probably were. Nevertheless, she could not help but be pulled in by Nozomi's voice.

Ruri did not notice but she was definitely smiling. It was a smile that one would stereotypically find on a villain who was thinking "I found it" about something they were seeking. After all, she was watching an actual idol singing up close and personal. Needless to say, she was allowing it to soak in.

Once the song ended, well, when Nozomi had finished her last stanza, Ruri's smile had relaxed into a more normal one as she chuckled at the fact that Nozomi had also been so pulled into her own singing that she didn't realize what was going on around her.

[Zephyrus the Priestess]

Well then.

Gunther stared, her brown eyes intensely focused on the girl... who wasn't just any girl, she realized. Powerful; a powerful rival. A true idol. Even she was impressed... this was some serious competition.