My, I can't believe it.

You're helping your enemy who's trying to destroy your club?

We disagree on many things, but I have never thought of her as our enemy. At the very least, she is not a bad person.

You're too softhearted.

I was fine helping her, but once I heard Shioko would be practicing with us, I was like, “Seriously?!”

It's a drastic move.

I thought it seemed like a good chance, so it felt natural to ask her.

Chance?

Yup. I want to use this opportunity to make her realize how great school idols are.

Are you sure about this? Doesn't she believe being a school idol is a waste of time?

She's probably just pretending to be your friend so she can break up the club from the inside!

Don't worry. She's not that evil.

However, if she doesn't have a good impression of school idols, she won't put much effort into practice, will she?

Yeah, it wouldn't be fun if she was grumbling the whole time.

This is the time to be firing yourselves up for the School Idol Festival. What are you going to do if she ruins your motivation?

Don't worry about that. If anything, I'm more motivated than ever.

Huh?! What do you mean, zura?

Shioriko has been diligently practicing so that she can keep up with the others. She was even first to arrive at morning practice the other day.

Wow, excellent!

Yup. She always asks for help when she has a question and learns the songs and dances quickly by practicing them over and over. Seeing that makes us want to work harder, too.

I must say I'm a bit surprised. However, it is wonderful that things have turned out this way.

I think she takes everything she does seriously. So no matter what happens, I find it hard to dislike her.

Yeah, I want to get to know her better.

Me too. If we understand each other better, we can be friends.

Yes. Honestly, I didn't find her approachable at first, but since we started spending so much time together, my impression of her has completely changed.

Same. I thought we would bump heads more, but she's been surprisingly obedient.

Yeah, when I'm talking to her, I start to think that maybe she doesn't hate school idols after all.

But that's what she claims. Rina-chan Board says, “Question mark?”

Hmm, maybe she's just saying that. But…that's strange, too.

I wonder why Shioriko acts like she's so against school idols.

Maybe something happened to her in the past.

Like what?

Th-That, I don't know…

If it were me… I would just ask her straight-up.

I don't think she'd give a straight answer.

Then there's no use thinking about it. She's giving it her all at practice, so that's good enough for now, right?

Yeah, if anything happens we can just deal with it when it comes!

Yeah, I think you guys are right.

Let's put aside this Mifune stuff for now. More people are learning about the School Idol Festival each day. I keep receiving one message of support after another.

You can really feel the wave we released starting to spread.

However, it is not enough that people hear about the festival. We must make it an event that they will want to actually attend.

In order to do that, we need people to learn more about us and not just the event.

Yeah. We need to become a group that people will feel like they want to see or put on a live show with.

And for that, we need more people to see us! I wanna do a live show!

To start, we need the live show at the Nijigasaki school tour to be a hit.

A lot of people will be attending the school tour, so we'll try our best.

Let's make it a great live show no matter what!

Can we go to the live show and hand out flyers for the School Idol Festival?

That's a great idea, zura!

I wanna help, too! But if I see a live show, I might turn into a regular fan and start cheering!

Then let's go as fans and hype everyone up!

No, you have to help.

*Laugh* I definitely want you guys to see the live show! We can pass out flyers together after the school tour ends.

Totally!

By the way, is there any update on the School Idol Festival venue?

Oh, yeah… We're having trouble finding a place that meets all our conditions.

There are many things we cannot do until we have picked a place. We must figure something out and quick.

Right? There isn't much time left, so let's try our best to find a place!

[Fade in/out.]

Phew, that was another great meeting. What μ's and Aqours are doing is incredible. We can't lose to them!

Yeah. We need to make sure the club introductions go well!

Oh yeah! I had a favor to ask about that.

A favor?

Um, I'm discussing the club introductions with each club, but that means I'm taking on a student council role.

Because of that, I'm considered a representative of the student council and can't attend the school tour meetings as the club president.

Sorry, Setsuna and Ayumu, but can you keep attending the meetings in my place?

Sure, I don't mind at all.

Me neither.

Great, thank you! I'll try my best to negotiate with all of the clubs, so let's make the club introductions… No, the entire school tour, a success!

Yeah!