Meet the Members

"Thahnk you sho mhuuchh!"

Honoka cried out while hugging my waist. Perhaps it's the worries that she built up suddenly relieved that she can let out all of her emotions now. Though I must say she does it in the strangest way possible.

"Honoka, you're bothering him, come on." Umi pulled her from my waist and made her sit down besides the others. Oh, by the way. I got back the next day and there are a few new faces here that I didn't meet yesterday.

"Hmph. Can we really depend on you as our producer/manager? You don't seem much to me." A short girl with black hair tied in a high twin-tail spoke to me. Her short stature might make some people easily mistake her as younger than she actually is; and her personality is pretty much completely different from what you might expect from a person that looks like her.

"Uhh... My name is Asai Masaki. Nice to meet you." I scratched the back of my head and bowed politely. It does seem like she might not really approve of me, but I just shrugged it off. "Hmm, you're a polite one, aren't you? Name's Yazawa Nico. You might've heard of me."

I cocked my head to the side. "Sorry, I don't."

I think I can hear something breaking within Nico, probably her pride.

"Well, Nico-chan used to be an Idol, but didn't you fail the Love Live qualifications?" Rin butted in, but immediately regrets it as soon as Nico stormed to her and pinched both her cheeks wide.

"Shut up or I'll hurt you."

"Yhou alrheady arhe!" Rin spoke through her pinched cheeks.

"Woah, so you actually tried again?" I asked with genuine wonder, hopefully it doesn't trigger her cheek-pinching technique. "T-that's right, is that wrong?"

"Ahaha, not really. I think it's amazing that you're willing to go again even after you failed. Not a lot of people have that courage." I said to her, which in turn made a tinge of blush appear on Nico's face. "I-I see." Nico walked away and sat down. I decided to not elaborate further about her past.

"Even on your first day, you're already flirting?"

"I-I'm not! Wait, that voice..."

I looked at the direction of the voice and sure enough it is someone I knew. "Ayase? Is that you?"

A blonde girl walked in. She has a look that many idols strive to be; tall, slim, gorgeous. And I've known her since childhood. Ayase Eli. A half-European, half-Japanese girl that moved out abroad to pursue her career in ice-skating when she was just in 6th grade Elementary. We used to be friends because of our house being close by.

"I had a feeling that it might be you since you applied, so I'm not really surprised. It has been a while, Asai."

"I never thought you would return to Japan. Interested in Idols?"

"Fufu, you can say that." Eli chuckled before introducing the girl besides her. "Ah, this girl is Tojo Nozomi. She's the one who... 'prophesied' your appearance." Eli continued, and Nozomi bowed. She has a long dark purple hair that's let down to her waist. One good look at her and you can feel that she has a mature aura surrounding her.

"Prophesied?"

Nozomi pulled out a bunch of Tarot cards. "I read them using these. It said that when all 9 of us are gathered, it needs one more person to truly unite us."

"I-I see... You like Tarot Cards?"

"It's just a hobby of mine." Nozomi said with a smile.

I looked around and found another two that I didn't know yet sitting around Honoka. I walked closer to her.

"Have you calmed down yet?"

Honoka looked up at me after wiping her tears. "Y-yes, sorry. Oh, meet Minami Kotori. She's our main Costume Designer."

"Nice to meet you, Producer." The girl with grayish-brown hair named Kotori greeted me.

"Ah, yes. Nice to meet you." I scratched the back of my head. Honoka pouted a little. "Why are you nervous?"

"Being called Producer kind of feels strange." I chuckled. "Well, you are our new Producer after all. So you should get used to it." A new voice, coming from the red-haired girl besides Kotori.

"My name's Nishikino Maki. I hope you can be a good producer to us."

"I'll do my best." I nodded and smiled at her. It seems like Maki is the type to be quite blunt about what she's thinking, but is pretty earnest about it. She is also quite a striking beauty that if she's not an idol, she might cut it as a fashion model instead.

Anyway...

"Anything I should know of?"

"Oh yeah, first of all..."