ebookland Chapter 212 Neighborhood Arc: "The Song That Failed"
Chapter 212 Neighborhood Arc: "The Song That Failed"
"Next up, Hijikata Masami!"
The host's voice rang out. Masami Hijikata took a deep breath and strode onto the stage.
The audience, who were initially stunned by Kurumi's amazing performance, were surprised to see Hijikata Masami on stage in sportswear.
Ignoring everything else, she walked straight onto the stage. Although she didn't have glamorous clothes or a perfect stage look, her youthful face exuded a tomboyish charm.
"Haha, nice to meet you! My name is Hijikata Masami! I've been waiting for this day for so long! Hehe."
She responded to the audience on stage with a hearty smile, instantly causing the audience to erupt in cheers.
"Wow! She's so cool!" "She's my type!" "It's a pity she's a girl..." "So what if she's a girl? It's like you're saying there are boys in the [neighborhood]."
Masami Hijikata's charm is not outstanding, but her powerful singing voice and unique temperament gradually attracted the attention of the audience.
Wuming, sitting in the audience, smirked slightly. Two royal flushes in his face—he was showing him how he could possibly lose! He couldn't even see the possibility of the book being published!
"Her singing voice is melodious and flamboyant, yet full of youthful energy, which is completely different from Kurumi's style."
Backstage, Cang, with her hair in a bun, looked resolute.
She looked at Hijikata Masami on the stage, then turned her gaze back to Kurumi, who was talking to Hibiki over there, and secretly vowed to surpass everyone.
While Masami Hijikata was performing on stage, here in the audience...
"Finally, the song is over..."
Although she displayed complete composure on stage, she had already reached her limit. Kurumi slumped in the audience, complaining to Hibiki.
"How are you?"
Before Xiang could respond, a voice came from behind him from beyond his blurry vision. It seemed to be someone worried about him falling to the ground.
So there are kind-hearted idols after all—Kurumi thought to herself, finding some comfort in her heart.
"I'm fine. I'm just tired from dancing so hard, don't worry."
"I see. You used your full strength?"
"Yeah, we're going all out."
Since it was a trendy type rather than a so-called diverse type, strictly speaking, it didn't showcase 100% of its abilities, but it was indeed a serious performance.
"So that's how it is. That's your full power."
"You bastard?!"
Kurumi then looked at the face of the person she was talking to.
--What?
"Then I will do everything in my power to defeat you."
"gray!"
What appeared before Tokisaki Kurumi was the quasi-spirit from the past—no, the one who was engaged in a fierce battle with Tokisaki Kurumi, who had transformed into Hibiki Hibiki, and whose battle was still undecided.
Known as a battle maniac and a warmonger, she launches a full-scale assault on a quasi-elf... Her name is Cang.
No, that's not the point. Of course, Kurumi avoids meeting her as much as possible because she knows that they will inevitably fight if they meet, but that's not the main point either.
"What's with that spirit outfit of yours?!"
"I had it custom-made."
Cang proudly puffed out her meager chest. Although it still used blue and white as the main colors, the existing elements were improved to perfection.
It should be said that this song almost completely transformed her into a new spirit outfit, which suits her perfectly.
"Huh? Uh, wait a minute. You're not going to fight here, are you?"
Cang nodded.
"That's right, a battle. A battle as an idol. Coincidentally, my assigned song is also 'Blue Bride.' I won't lose in a fair competition between trendsetting idols."
"Huh? Is this a way to fight?"
"Everything is war, everything is up for grabs. The victor is king, the loser is a bandit. My master said that this is the spirit of the quasi-elves who descended to the tenth realm."
Can I complain to your supervisor?
"My appreciation period is over."
After Cang made this clear and decisive statement, he ran onto the stage with light, quick steps.
"Kurumi~~!"
Hibiki looked at Kurumi in front of him with obvious panic.
"Sound, like Cheng Yaojin suddenly appearing out of nowhere."
"You, you still have the mood to be so carefree. This is terrible, this is bad, this is extremely bad."
"Oh, I see... Where is it so bad?"
"First of all, her strength is almost on par with yours."
"...Really only a little?"
At this moment, Kurumi's expression froze. Since the two sides were evenly matched, the attackers, aside from Hijikata Masami who was already on their side, had a significant advantage.
This is the ironclad rule for victory or defeat.
"In addition, Cang is just like her name, which is most suitable for that song... that is, a trendy idol."
"...!"
Kurumi almost let out a wail that was unbecoming of a lady, but immediately swallowed it back.
"This last point is the fatal blow... it's her spirit armor."
"What's the background of that spirit outfit? The clothing is indeed very magnificent and dazzling..."
"It was probably designed by a quasi-elf who served as the designer for the ruler, Kizuna-in."
Kurumi suddenly felt dizzy.
"Now, please welcome Ms. Cang to give us a wonderful performance!"
Hibiki and Kurumi quickly peered from the side of the stage to observe Sora's performance.
"Wow!"
"Wow!"
Kurumi and Hibiki exclaimed in unison, "So dazzling and captivating!"
My heart sank into the azure sky.
Please don't take everything away.
Only the moonlight remained.
Cang sang with deep emotion but without any hint of resentment.
Her dance moves were as precise as a machine, and her expression made it impossible to tell whether she was singing with all her might, but occasionally a sharp gaze would appear.
The appearance of the flawless trendsetting idol since Kizuna-ouin easily swept away the shock brought by Tokisaki Kurumi.
"Waaaaaah!"
Kurumi pressed her temples hard beside the panicked Hibiki. Simply put—
"My head hurts so much..."
No matter how you look at it, it's a thorny problem. Kurumi sighed deeply at the sight of Cang's appearance.
………………
Kurumi wasn't the only one feeling troubled; Wuming, watching from the stands, was also in a difficult position.
"Damn it... this is really troublesome."
Looking at the girl with the bun hairstyle singing on the stage, her slightly stiff yet cute voice, coupled with that spirit dress that she had never seen before, was indeed a great obstacle for her.
"This is really troublesome. I need to think about this carefully... Why did this uninvited guest suddenly appear? Hmm, should I consider silencing her? I can find a quiet place to deal with her after we get out... No, it's too late now. She's the champion. Doing this would be pointless and might even cause more trouble if I don't know her connections."
The moment the terrible thought of "getting rid of her" crossed his mind, Wuming rejected it without hesitation, because he knew that doing such a thing would be pointless.
Furthermore, he was definitely not the kind of person who would casually trample on the fruits of others' labor. Or rather, this was at least not a paranoid thought that Wuming himself would have; it might just be a side effect of only having fragments of memories.
Of course, this is not a side effect for Wuming at this time, and it is not important. If it is an enemy that stands in the way of "seeing her again", he will still do it if necessary.
………………
The host rushed to Cang's side after his performance.
"Um, um, um, um!"
"……What's up?"
"Thank you so much for such a wonderful performance!"
"I'm only singing this designated song to win, no need to thank me."
Cang spoke arrogantly and smugly, glancing at Kurumi on the side of the stage. That look was somewhat, extremely, incredibly infuriating.
"For victory...?"
"Yes, it's my victory. This finally vents some of the humiliation I've suffered."
Perhaps instinctively realizing that she shouldn't pursue the matter any further, the host quickly shifted the topic to the audience.
"Alright everyone! Next, we'll be announcing the rankings of the rookie idols debuting this month. It's a strict and fair ranking system based on fan support and audience enthusiasm. Please take a look!"
As expected, the results left the two of them dejected.
Kurumi Tokisaki's rank is A, with 8,036 viewers (including fan energy). Ao's rank, on the other hand, is a formidable S, with 25,106 viewers.
This is a remarkable achievement for a solo idol debut, following in the footsteps of Rinne and Mizuha.
"Don't you think it's despicable?"
"Well, this is a bit despicable."
The second meeting was probably because Mizuha had given prior instructions, and the two of them met with Mizuha without any problems, and then told her about it.
Mizuha Kizunain was served by a group of pseudo-spirits at the concert venue in the Budokan.
Kizuna-in looked troubled and gazed at the two with gentle eyes.
………………
Meanwhile, outside the building where the performance was taking place, Masami Hijikata was walking out together with a gloomy-faced Wuming.
"Hahaha, boss! Don't take it so seriously. Although it was arrogant of you to leave me there and then run away with the organization, I tried my best to enjoy it. This is just a show, so don't look so gloomy."
The cheerful girl patted the gloomy Wuming on the shoulder, but Wuming could only sigh helplessly. After all, he was the one who asked them to go on stage, and it would be too arrogant of him to say that they did a bad job.
However, such a perfect gamble was disrupted by a spoiler who wanted to take first place, delaying his plan to leave the Ninth Domain. It must be a bit of a headache.
After walking out of the building and onto the street, Masami Hijikata was comforting Wuming when suddenly someone called his name.
"Zhengmei-jie~! Wuming! How's it going! Have you become an S-class idol yet? Although you're not quite as cute as me, you've got my old style!"
Turning my head, I saw a blonde girl grinning foolishly.
"Oh! It's Rion-mu-san! Long time no see! Speaking of which, what about Rainbow Eyes?"
The blonde girl skipped over. "Oh, she's reading in her apartment. I just wanted some dessert, so I came out. Want to come with me?"
The two chatted cheerfully, which made Wuming, who was behind them, feel somewhat awkward.
But compared to that, Wuming felt something was wrong.
"Wait a minute, how did you find out about the competition? I don't remember telling you."
Wuming grabbed Liyinmeng's shoulders and said with a strange expression.
"Huh? Wasn't that what you said the day before yesterday when you couldn't find the person you were looking for and were sitting on the sofa complaining to yourself? Sister Caiyan heard it when I was reading in my room."
Wuming's face instantly turned bright red. He hadn't expected that Liyinmeng would hear his complaints.
"Ahem, I see." He let go of her hand and straightened his clothes somewhat awkwardly.
Hijikata Masami laughed so hard he almost fell over. "Boss, your memory seems to be somewhat incompatible with your paranoia..."
"Cough cough cough."
"Haha, I absolutely have to agree with this! Wuming! You've finally met your match!"
Rion Yume laughed along with her.
However, the smile seemed a bit strange, and Wu Ming felt that something was off, but he didn't ask any further questions.
"Oh right~ I haven't heard you guys talk about how to become an S-class idol yet."
Wuming frowned, about to speak, when Hijikata Masami preemptively said, "You really have no sense of atmosphere."
"Sigh, don't even mention it. Everything was going so smoothly until Cang suddenly appeared out of nowhere and stole Kurumi's thunder. She got S-rank, Kurumi got A-rank, and needless to say, I got nothing."
Rion Meng's expression faltered slightly. "No..." A hint of surprise and sadness flashed in her eyes. "That Cang is so amazing. That's interesting. But it's okay, there will be other opportunities in the future."
After saying that, she took their hands and said, "Let's go, let's go have some dessert and forget about all the unhappiness."
Wu Ming still had some doubts, so he waved his hand and left with a remark:
"Sorry, I have some things to take care of today, so I won't be able to go shopping with you guys." Then she turned and left.
"This man is as lacking in manners as ever."
Li Yinmeng murmured involuntarily, causing Wu Ming, who had not yet gone far, to start twitching his eyelids wildly.
"Fine, fine... You have no manners, huh? I'll remember this grudge."
………………
Hijikata Masami and Rion Yume were leisurely walking and chatting about the Nameless One, complaining about the differences between their understanding of the Nameless One, and the two were having a very pleasant conversation.
Just as I was about to reach the coffee shop entrance, a clear, crisp voice suddenly rang out:
"senior!"
Hijikata Masami and Rion Yume stopped in their tracks and looked in the direction of the sound.
Not far away, a girl with light red hair and twin ponytails was waving excitedly at them, with a figure dressed entirely in white standing next to her.