Producing a polished song was far more complicated than people imagined. After recording, it still had to go through tuning, audio correction, and a whole series of post-production steps.
While the music was being produced, the voice recording had already begun.
According to the news from Kosaka Akane, Aoyama Nanami had, as expected, failed this round of auditions. After all, asking someone as serious as her to voice endless "Ah, ah, ah!" sounds really was asking too much.
After leaving the maid café, everyone went their separate ways. Sato returned to the apartment to rest, and before long evening arrived. After dinner, he headed back to his room.
...
Inside his bedroom, Sato was on the phone with Fujimiya Konomi.
"Are you coming over this weekend?"
"Not this week. I'm going shopping with my new roommates this weekend. We only just met, so it'd be awkward to turn them down."
Fujimiya Konomi sounded a little troubled. Sometimes ordinary socializing could be a real headache.
She actually wanted to go. After all, they had only recently started dating and hadn't really had the chance to go out together yet.
Chiba City was a large city. Even by train, traveling between the Private Mixed High School and Chiba University required several transfers, taking well over an hour.
Although they were in the same city, it was difficult to spend time together except on weekends.
"I see... Then have fun."
"Mm. Then how about I come over next weekend?"
Sato replied with a helpless expression.
"We have an off-campus practical course next week."
"Ah, why's it like that?"
"Are your classes really that busy?"
"Mm, very busy. My schedule's completely full."
"Then I guess it can't be helped."
"..."
After chatting a while longer, they hung up.
After thinking for a moment, Sato called Kosaka Akane.
The call was quickly answered.
"Miyabi-sensei, what made you suddenly think of calling me?"
Listening to her voice through the phone, Sato walked over to the window and pushed it open. He sat down in front of his desk, leaned back in his chair, and gazed out the window as the pleasant spring breeze drifted in.
He didn't beat around the bush.
"The favor you mentioned before, was it about Kosaka-san and the others?"
"Hm? They've already gone to see you?"
"Kosaka-sensei, isn't that a silly question? If they hadn't come to me, how would I even know about it?"
Sato glanced at the whiteboard beside his desk. Reaching over, he pulled the board, already covered with notes and outlines, in front of him. Looking at the plans he had casually written after coming home, he continued,
"So what exactly are you planning, Kosaka-sensei?"
"Oh? Then what do you think I'm planning, Miyabi-sensei?"
"If it were just ordinary help, you could have done it yourself. Why send them to me instead?"
"What if I said that really was all there was to it?"
Holding the phone, Sato couldn't help smiling. Looking up at the ceiling, he said meaningfully,
"I don't believe that. Kosaka-sensei is famous in the industry as both a strong career woman and a notorious penny-pincher. You'd never go to this much trouble over something meaningless. If there weren't any benefits involved, you wouldn't have dragged me into it."
"Hehe, it seems Miyabi-sensei really does understand me."
Chiba City, Midnight Diner.
Holding her phone while sitting on a barstool, Kosaka Akane had a fragrant grilled chicken skewer in hand. Hearing Sato's words, the corners of her lips curved upward.
Beside her, someone curiously leaned over, trying to eavesdrop. Kosaka Akane shoved her away several times in annoyance, but the woman shamelessly kept edging closer until their faces were nearly touching.
After glaring at her friend to no effect, Kosaka Akane simply got up from her seat, keeping a wary eye on her before replying.
"That's right. There is something I need you to help me with, Sensei."
"What is it?"
Sato asked curiously.
"Miyabi-sensei, do you know about Love Live!?"
Love Live!?
Sato immediately turned on his computer and searched for it. After quickly reading the general description, he nodded.
"I do now."
Simply put, Love Live! was a competition for school idols.
"..."
Even Kosaka Akane, the formidable businesswoman, looked genuinely impressed.
"Sensei, your typing speed is unbelievable."
She had clearly heard the sound of his keyboard just now. His fingers had flown across it like the wind.
"It's decent."
"Sensei, being too fast isn't a good thing for a man."
"If you keep talking nonsense, I'm reporting you for harassing a minor."
Sato replied coldly, black lines practically appearing across his forehead.
"Haha! Sorry, I forgot about that. You're still under the legal age, Sensei."
"Can we get to the point?"
"Haha! All right. Actually, I'm planning to cooperate with the organizers of Love Live!."
"Cooperate? How?"
Sato frowned slightly.
Behind the competition stood numerous idol agencies. What kind of cooperation could there be between them?
"We'll have them host their main page on our website, including voting, videos, and everything else."
"You want to use this to increase the popularity of the video section?"
"Exactly."
Kosaka Akane's tone turned serious.
"I studied the development trends over the next few years. Video is going to become a major hotspot, so I plan to make it one of our website's core business areas."
"What do we have to provide?"
Sato agreed with her assessment, so he didn't ask any further questions about the idea itself. Instead, he focused on what each side would be exchanging.
"Prize money."
"In the original Love Live!, reaching certain rankings earned participants the chance to sign with an agency. We'll instead provide prize money. Of course, we'll also have to cover part of the offline event expenses."
"The main reason the negotiations succeeded is that they're interested in our danmaku system."
"Does the company have enough funds?"
"Mm. The company's finances are very healthy right now. We might even be able to distribute dividends by the end of the year."
"Forget the dividends. Keep the money. The company will have plenty of expenses coming up."
"All right, if you say so. After all, you're the big boss."
"Then I'm hanging up."
Beep...
Listening to the busy tone, Kosaka Akane pouted and set her phone on the counter.
"What a heartless capitalist. The moment he's done using people, he tosses them aside without a second thought."
"Was that Miyabi-sensei?"
Machida Sonoko, sitting beside her, asked with great interest.
"Didn't you hear everything already?"
"Then why didn't you help me remind him about his manuscript?"
"Don't you have his phone number yourself?!"
"If I dared to pressure him, I wouldn't be asking you to do it."
Kosaka Akane grinned at Machida Sonoko.
"Since when did editors become this pitiful?"
Machida Sonoko snorted, raised one hand, and slowly curled her fingers into a fist one by one.
"If they weren't a top-tier author, I could handle the rest with one hand."
"Tsk. How ruthless."