"Don't forget what I said before. Come on, perform on stage with me. After all, if you're going to be here you need some way to make a living. Are you planning to be a couch potato from start to finish, or do you want to keep living this tight, pinched life?" Watching Tohka with an amused look, Miku spoke from the side. In her eyes, Tohka spent every day at home just eating and sleeping like some kind of overgrown pet. She was already dumb enough—if she kept this up, she'd end up with senile dementia, so Miku could only try this method to motivate her.
"Nooo, I don't want to perform! I want to sleep, I want to play games, I want to eat good food!" Hearing Miku's words, Tohka simply sprawled out right where she was and shamelessly started flailing around in protest.
"You—sit up properly and stop embarrassing me. And by the way, that's my agent sitting across from you." Watching Tohka throwing a tantrum, Miku smacked her on the head, veins popping in exasperation. This idiot—she was really hopeless. Didn't she realize her own life had gotten all wrinkled and shabby? Back in the Marvel world, she'd been so extravagant.
"They always say it's easy to go from frugality to luxury, but hard to go from luxury to frugality. But you—how are you so adaptable, huh?" Looking at Tohka rolling around and acting cute, Miku couldn't help but mutter a complaint. This girl kept shattering her understanding of what was possible.
"It's fine—as long as I have a computer and games, I can stay home till the end of time." Rather than being ashamed of Miku's criticism, Tohka puffed out her chest with pride and patted her own ample bosom. Then she finally noticed the other person there, the agent Miku had mentioned earlier. Tohka politely said, "Hello, I'm Tohka."
"Mm, hello. Hm—Miku's got good taste. Not only are you pretty, but your voice quality isn't bad either." Hearing her greeting, the middle-aged woman wearing black-rimmed glasses in the driver's seat responded calmly. The whole time Tohka had been throwing her tantrum, she'd been quietly observing her from the front. Now, she gave her assessment: "And you've certainly got thick skin—someone like that is quite suitable."
"..."
"Hahaha—yeah, you really do have a thick skin."
Tohka was left speechless by this. What did she mean, thick skin? How was she thick-skinned? And where the heck had Miku found such a one-of-a-kind agent? She was pretty sure this person hadn't existed in the original story. Otherwise, she doubted Shido Itsuka would have gotten rid of Miku so easily. As for Miku herself, she was laughing so hard she was shaking. Indeed, while Tohka looked a bit ditzy, she really was someone who normally didn't care about saving face at all.
"You're slandering me! And you—Miku, stop laughing already! It's just singing, fine, I'll go." Shouting indignantly, Tohka realized she couldn't out-argue Miku, so she simply folded her arms and sat there in silence. After all, she'd seen more than a few events in Marvel where all eyes were on her—she wasn't the least bit afraid of performing. The reason she agreed so quickly was partly that she wanted to have some fun with Miku, and partly because she wanted to lure Westcott out of DEM. If she stayed visible in public, at least when those people eventually came after her, she wouldn't risk getting innocent bystanders caught up in it. After all, Miku and Kotori Kanazuki weren't really combat-type Spirits.
"Relax, relax—little Tohka, you're so cute when you're mad." As Tohka sat there pouting, Miku continued teasing her with a grin.
"..."
Like that, the car drove all the way to a venue on the other side of the city. Under Miku's lead, they walked inside together.
"This is the place where I plan to hold my next concert. What do you think—not bad, right?" Looking around the venue in satisfaction, Miku explained to Tohka.
"Er...it looks kind of shabby, doesn't it?" But Tohka twisted her neck to look around, then said with some distaste. Back when she'd helped Miku prepare venues, they'd always been fancy and high-class. So, to her, this place really seemed a bit cheap.
"Oh, come on—this isn't that place." Hearing Tohka's comment, both Miku and her agent simultaneously rolled their eyes. The agent just thought Tohka was overly arrogant, but Miku knew perfectly well what she meant. To be honest, when she'd first arrived in this world, she'd had trouble getting used to it too. But unfortunately, this wasn't the Marvel universe—she didn't have the kind of resources to set up an operation on that scale. Back then, she'd had Stark Industries backing her up. The venues were already there, usually unused anyway, so Tohka could mess around however she liked. Leaving them empty was wasteful, and they still needed maintenance—so she and Tony had been happy to let her do whatever she pleased.
"You little brat—this is literally the best venue you can rent around here. Even if there were fancier ones, it's not like you could easily book them." Over on the side, the agent muttered under her breath. In her view, Tohka was clearly the type who set her sights way too high without understanding how things worked.
"Alright, alright—so what are we doing next?" Fine—this woman didn't know Tohka at all. She had never thought about debuting as an idol; half of her just wanted to have some fun with Miku, and the other half wanted to lure Westcott out.
"Alright then, let's continue—come with me. Since you haven't studied vocalization and such, I won't be too demanding…" As they walked in, Miku and her agent briefed Tohka on the necessary points, knowing full well she didn't understand this stuff.
"Here—try this. And don't you dare start howling like a dying cat. You think you're Sakura Tange or something—singing with every note off-key? Only someone specially trained could manage that. Alright—follow my lead." Miku set a sheet of music in front of her. But she quickly noticed that the moment Tohka looked at the notes, her eyes started spinning in circles. It was only then that Miku remembered Tohka had literally never studied this stuff. So, she could only compromise and have Tohka repeat after her instead.
"Eeee ahhh ahhh—waa waa waa—"
Thump.
"Ow—my head!"
"Take this seriously and stop fooling around!"
"..."
"Okay, okay—I got it! Just stop hitting me on the head! I barely have enough brain cells left as it is—if you keep that up, they'll all be gone!"