Unlike our previous concerts, most of the venues in the tour had the option to sell VIP tickets, which allowed people to be present for the soundcheck. We chose to enable them.
Although it was going to be announced throughout the entire venue, I told Tomokazu that a small wave of fans was about to come inside since I was already talking to him.
Both the photographer and I rushed to the green room. While walking, I told the venue assistant to let the VIP buyers in through the Talkie channel.
The announcement was made just as we arrived at the green room. Everyone had just eaten lunch and seemed in a great mood.
"Girls, they just let the VIP buyers in, meaning the soundcheck should start shortly," I informed them. "Still, there's no rush, so make sure you're ready."
Thus, the concert frenzy began. We barely had time to celebrate the start of the tour as the next concert took place the very next day in the same city, though it was in another venue. Most of the venues were similar in size—around two thousand people. In this case, the venue had seven hundred less capacity. The girls' performance kept improving throughout the following shows, making them less prone to mistakes. However, although we were more than happy to add a second date to many of the venues, they used up half of the days we had planned to take a break. It didn't seem like a problem at first, but it slowly burnt everyone out. A drop spilled the first glass eleven shows into the tour. The girls had already shown signs of fatigue, but it was nothing serious and they did everything they could to p
Tomokazu and I woke up with the same alarm as we shared the hotel room for the night. Since we were going to give a concert for the second day in a row in the same venue, it was better to have a comfortable sleep at a proper lodging instead of being cramped on a bus. As usual, Tomokazu let me use the bathroom first. However, I received a message from Astra while brushing my teeth, asking me to come to her and Risa's room as soon as possible. She had never done that before, so I rushed to brush my teeth and stepped out of the bathroom without showering. "Is something the matter?" Tomokazu asked me with a raspy voice, knowing I usually took more time in the bathroom. I put my toothbrush and my toothpaste in my backpack before answering. "Astra asked me to go to her and
The entire team headed to the venue as if it were any other day. However, there was something that had to be done before anything else. "Open wide and say ah," the doctor asked Risa, who sat on a chair in the dressing room of the venue for more privacy. Risa complied and the doctor pushed her tongue down with a stick to be able to see her throat with the help of his glasses' flashlight. Risa choked a few seconds later, so the doctor stepped back. He threw the stick into the recycling bin and put his glasses in his bag. "In addition to the radiography I just took, I can confidently tell you that it's nothing serious." Risa and I smiled at each other. "That doesn't mean you do
Aeryx's world tour was only one month away and, since we had been on the road for almost three months, I gave everyone that went on tour two weeks of vacation. Including the girls, with the instruction that they were not to do or even think about anything related to their job: being idols. They tried to go out together to have some fun, but fans kept stopping them on the streets. It happened even when they went out on their own, wearing caps and tinted glasses to disguise themselves. Aki and Umi refused to hire a personal bodyguard, while Astra preferred only going out with Butcher, Sanae, and Risa. In the end, they had no other choice but to accept that it was going to be like that going forward. Aside from that, something interesting happened with the assistant we
Eventually, Sanae and Risa took Butcher's cake out of the fridge and put it on the table. They added two candles to spell Butcher's age and lit them. We sang happy birthday for him before he blew out the candles. Somehow, Sanae and Risa were able to push his face into the cake. They then served one slice to everyone at the party, along with the food they had prepared. It made me realize it was the first time I had eaten food prepared by them. It wasn't bad. Once everyone was done eating, Butcher opened his gifts. It was hard choosing something to give him. A butchering knife was too obvious, as was any home appliance, since they had moved in not long ago. Knowing he didn't have many hobbies, I ended up picking something riskier. "A flute," Butcher said as he took it out of the box. It looked even smaller in Butch
We followed them through the streets again and, just like Risa had said, people started greeting Butcher as soon as they entered the neighborhood that had many restaurants, stalls, and food places. Sugioka seemed confused at first, but her shyness quickly kicked in. It even looked like Sanae's and Risa's plan was about to backfire. Luckily, it didn't, but not everything went as planned. "Oh, no," Sanae expressed as Butcher and Sugioka walked past a boxing gymnasium. Butcher slowed his pace down and stared at the building. Sugioka said something to him, but we couldn't hear them from our hiding spot behind a delivery truck. They stopped in front of the gymnasium and exchanged words for a while. They then stepped into the building. Sanae hit the truck and fumed, "Damn
Our glasses detected we had entered a new country a few minutes before landing, and they recommended changing some settings to improve our experience. It was done with a single instruction. The changes became evident before we even stepped out of the plane. Subtitles appeared in front of my eyes when the flight attendants welcomed us to the country, indicating they had done so in the country's language, but I could also understand them perfectly thanks to my glasses translating their voices in real time. The subtitles became annoying quite quickly, so I disabled them as we walked down the tunnel into the airport. Once inside, I had no trouble understanding the instructions to grab our luggage, nor did I reading every line of text in the announcements, signs, or whatever other words were written. This included som
Despite all of GIMA trying to come up with ideas for the next album, there was nothing we couldn't agree on. Finally, after months of nothing, something came up. It happened during the night after the second-to-last concert. We were back at the hotel, and I was about to change into my pajamas to hit the bed when, suddenly, someone knocked on the door. I was in the bathroom, so Tomokazu responded. "Come in." The door opened and Sanae asked. "Where's Kaito?" "He's taking a shower. Did something happen?" "Kind of." Somewhat worried about her answer, I stepped out of the bathroom since I had only taken off my jacket.
We began the tour with enough energy to power the entire world, and so we did. The first half of the tour took place in the biggest venues in our country, followed by arenas, domes, forums, and stadiums around the world with a capacity of up to sixty thousand people. All of the concerts were live-streamed on the QNet, and included Furenoora, Plaraqor, and Slixam, making us the first idol group to transmit a concert to other planets. Thankfully, the tour was filled with adventures and good times. We had learned enough to be able to avoid most of the problems we had in the past, although that didn't save us from the mistakes of others. Haru accompanied us throughout the majority of the tour to get experience since she was about to become the only CEO of GIMA.
Although work on the fourth album had already begun before the conference, it accelerated after that. Half of the team focused on it, while the other half focused on the rest of the projects. Two developers were hired to start working with the people in charge of the QTubers project—Aya and Tomokazu—and with Jun, who was the designer. The developers could also work on other projects related to the QNet or even Humas, if GIMA ever decided to make them. Prior to opening our studios to other artists, GIMA invested a considerable amount of money in renovating the buildings on the street where HQ was located, while keeping their antique architecture. However, we didn't expect the government to acknowledge our actions and even commit to allocating more resources to the Trading District over the following years.
After revealing Blostars' future to the girls, everything was discussed in several meetings with the entire company. No one expected it to happen so soon. More importantly, it was going to be a huge blow despite the decision feeling like the right thing to do.Even though it took multiple weeks to come up with a plan, we were all able to come to an agreement.The first part of the plan was to schedule a press conference, for which GIMA's HQ didn't have space. We asked TOTOT to lend us theirs, and they accepted without asking any questions. However, I had another request.The longer we waited, the more likely it was for the announcements to get leaked. So, the day of the press conference arrived in the blink of an eye.Walking out of the green room and seeing dozens of ca
Even though we were in a proper venue on Plaraqor, it only had a capacity for five hundred Plaqories, who were similar in size to Humans. Still, the space backstage was very limited. The entire team couldn't fit in the green room at once. Luckily, that was a rare occurrence as most of them were working elsewhere. Sanae finally stepped out of the bathroom after fifteen minutes. I walked in and washed my hands and my face to freshen up, then I approached the toilet to use it. However, I hadn't even unzipped my pants when Sanae's yell made me jolt. "Who ate my sour candies?!" I sighed. Now what? All of GIMA's team in the room glanced at each other in silence when I stepped out. I Became the Manager of the First Galactical Idols
Ms. Yoshida and I agreed on the time later in the day, and the next morning arrived before I realized it. There was no need to wear something too formal since we had known each other for a while, but that decision backfired as soon as I stood in front of the glass door of the meeting room at TOTOT Studios. A suited man was sitting at the same table as Ms. Yoshida, not too far away from her, which caused me to freeze in place. Could that be…? My eyes met with Ms. Yoshida's, so I had no choice but to step in. "It's great to see you, Mr. Miyahara," greeted Ms. Yoshida. "Thank you for coming." "Good morning, Ms. Yoshida," I replied as I approached the table. The Third Final Stretch
Work accelerated despite the uncertainty of the tour, and before we realized it, all of the songs had been written. Life Is Life, the title track, was the perfect introduction to the album. It described what life was and what it meant for any living being in an uplifting manner. Umi had done an incredible job using concepts that were easy to understand. Shapes & Colors, the second song of the album, talked about how life is life, no matter the shape or the color, the body or the culture. It had an uplifting tone just like the title track. Barriers was the third song of the album, making it clear that every species had its own challenges and problems to deal with. More than uplifting, it was a reminder that we really couldn't meddle in another species' life. We Ar
An hour passed. I watched Aki sew Blostars' costume with the new ideas she had for the third album. Aside from small details that made reference to the album, she wanted to add a new layer of fabric to the skirt to give it more depth. I instantly agreed when I saw it. Then, the invitation qmail arrived. The location was the most important conference hall in the city, where the government always announced important stuff. That was where the ex-president, Sanae's and Risa's father, confessed his actions and revealed that he was stepping down as the president. Regardless, it was a beautiful place, surrounded by the most elegant garden I had ever seen. The invitation also included the time, which was the next day before noon, and the dress code, which was strictly formal. It made Aki happy because I was going to wear
Time froze as I stared at the Furenoo aiming at us. It was obvious they were a Furenoo, yet I had to be truly confident they were a bad person. Regardless, there was no time to think. Even though every movement I made was processed by my brain in an instant, my body moved at the speed of a snail. Everything around me had slowed down. Finally, my arm had been lifted high enough so that my stun gun aimed at the Furenoo. I just needed to pull the trigger, but before being able to do so, a distant shot made my eyes shut. After an eternity of silence, a loud thud made my eyes open again. The Furenoo that was aiming at us was now convulsing on the floor. They had been shot by another security guard that had appeared from the other corridor. The security guard next to me wa
We hugged as a team after that, then we let the girls rest. That didn't last for long, however. The owner of the bar only knocked on the door once and opened it before we could even answer. He stood in front of me and looked me in the eye. "Please perform again tomorrow." A sigh of relief came out of my mouth. There were no plans for the following day, so I eagerly accepted. "Sure." He smiled and stepped out of the room without saying anything. The girls laughed and continued to rest for several minutes. Once they felt rested enough, it was time to proceed with the second part of the plan. We grabbed as much as we could of the merchandise we had been able to bring with us an