Empire of Fantasy 1
The following morning, inside Valkyrie’s room in the Tohoku ryokan rented out for the ES idols
Mika: Ngaaaaah... ♪
(Ahh... It’s been a while since I slept so good.)
(Between gettin’ the stage set up for SS and makin’ our costumes, we been workin’ pretty much ‘round the clock lately.)
(I’m so sleep-deprived my head’s got all fuzzy an’ stuff. I can’t wrap my head around nothin’ too difficult at all—I mean, even worse than usual!)
(But that’s just how it goes in Valkyrie... An’ I can handle the performance no problem so long’s I can do what Oshi-san says!)
—Wait, yikes?! Did I just say that out loud?
Nah, it was in my head, right? Phew, that was a close one ♪
(Ahaha, that order thing I got was that I can’t go callin’ Oshi-san “Oshi-san” the whole time during the Qualifiers—or something like that.)
(Not that I really get what the whole deal is with these orders or nothin’. But I got it so ingrained in me to call ‘im Oshi-san it’s like breathin’, so this is kinda hard...)
(Even yesterday I kept slippin’ up lord knows how many times, an’ Oshi-san kept gettin’ mad at me.)
(Naw, I oughta be careful not to even think “Oshi-san” in my head.)
(Prolly for the whole time we’re in Tohoku, since we were dropped here for the Qualifiers.)
(But since we won that winner-takes-all thing yesterday, Valkyrie won the whole tournament.)
(It’s a real shame Tsumu-chan-senpai—and Switch too—got kicked outta the Qualifiers. Only one unit in Tohoku can make it through, after all.)
(But they didn’t feel like draggin’ these Qualifiers out over the whole month, so they asked if we wanted to get all that competition stuff outta the way so we could just do whatever we wanted afterwards.)
(I prolly shouldn’t go sayin’ it’s their just desserts—but well, they are the ones who agreed to the winner-takes-all thing. An’ all the other idols here in Tohoku did too.)
(Well I say that, but. That whole shindig was somethin’ we sorted out on our own, without even talkin’ to the Administration.)
(So even if ya win, all’s that happens is the other idols takin’ part fork over their SSL$ to ya—that’s all we agreed on.)
(It’s just us idols in Tohoku that went an’ made an agreement like that.)
(‘Course, if you get lotsa SSL$, you’ll win for sure, but it’s not like it’s official or nothin’—)
(So really, it ain’t even a guarantee we’ve made it through the Qualifiers.)
(Right, I can’t go losin’ my focus here. I gotta stay on guard ‘til the whole SS schedule’s over and done with and the winner’s officially announced.)
(If I don’t follow my order, I hear the management’ll get mighty angry and give me a fine.)
(Then it won’t even matter how much money we made in that big match yesterday.)
(If I just keep on goin’ “Oshi-san! Oshi-san!” and get fined all the time, all that work we put in is just gonna go to waste.)
(Ngaah... I got so much to think about. I ain’t none too good at that kinda thing, though.)
(I really wanted to go have fun sightseein’ with Oshi-san since we’re in a new place than usual.)
(But I’m scared I’m gonna make some kinda mishap... Maybe it’d be better if I just keep my mouth shut an’ stay put in this ryokan ‘til the end of the Qualifiers?)
(That’d be a waste, though, an’ then I’d have way too much free time on my hands to just sit an’ think.)
(Oshi-san sure looked happy yesterday though, huh? Oshi-san’s the kinda guy who turns all his anger and frustrations into fuel for his art, but that’s all just ‘cause he really, really hates losin’.)
(So obviously he’d really, really like winnin’. Oshi-san’s all bright-eyed an’ bushy-tailed right now—I don’t wanna be the one who ruins all his fun.)
(So first of all, I gotta think of a new name to call Oshi-san so I don’t mess up my orders ♪)
(But what’m I s’possed to call ‘im? Onii-chan? Master? Sh–Shu-kun...?)
(Aw man, I could fly through a whole month just thinkin’ ‘bout the options... ♪)
Mika: ...?!
(Ngah? Huh—what was that just now?!)
(Maybe I’m still half-asleep...? I swear I saw somethin’ real weird just now.)
(What is that, a li’l fairy? Kinda looks like it, but...?)
(Nnngh, no, I gotta be dreamin’ still, right? There ain’t no such thing as a person so tiny they can fit in your hand, right?)