040 Idol Chapter 16: Reflection Meeting

The debut performance and new member reveal for Brush Lips went off… well, mostly without incident.

The next day, we Brush Lips members gathered at the Kami-za Promotion SFO branch office for our post-mortem meeting.

The SFO branch was located in residential sector D-9-301—the same floor as that interview hall.

Huh. I said hello to the boss and the crew, but I haven’t seen the woman who was at the front desk during the interview since the final selection round.

We did vocal and dance training at the Earth office, after all.

The vocal coach and dance instructor were external specialists, so they’re not here.

The interview hall is now being used as the reflection meeting venue.

A table sits in the center, laden with drinks, hors d’oeuvres, and a wooden bucket of sushi.

Six attendees. President Kamizawa, four from Brush Lips, and one other woman.

That woman wasn’t the one at the interview venue front desk.

President Kamizawa introduced her.

“She’s meeting everyone for the first time, right? This is Isoshu Sayaka, the new manager for Brush Lips’ SFO. Her GN… what was it again?”

“…Frozen… President, I’d prefer if you didn’t broadcast that GN too openly…”

“Ahaha, you know, the kind of thing you think is cool when you’re hiding behind a screen, then regret later.”

“President!”

(Oh. So that’s the ice one. The main character’s one of the crew, huh?)

“I thought manager meant the front desk audition person.”

"Yeah, he's just a temp worker. Supposedly damaged the ship and needed cash to fix it. Still, with a SF0 pro gamer license, manpower's tight. Ayame's another one we recruited on Earth—SFC gamer, got her to level up and go pro."

We nodded, then did the usual introduction. Me, the extra version.

"Hi there ♡ I'm Naho, the leader ♡"

"Smile duty, Saya here~"

"Silence duty, Miyu……"

"New member, sound duty, Kirara here ♡"

"「「「Ready. Four of us, Brush Lips (b r a s h l i p s) ♡ Nice to meet you ♡ (……)」」」"

One silent one, as expected.

Self-intro's over. Time for the so-called "reflection meeting"—just idle chat.

"Man, just quit already."

Akira’s usually quiet, as expected. Self-intro’s done. Time for the so-called “reflection meeting”—just idle chat. “Man, just quit already.”

Miyu suddenly shouted, loud enough to startle everyone. I looked over and saw Nahoko slurring drunk, grabbing Miyu’s hair and ruffling it like she was petting a cat.

Miyu tried to bolt.

Now that her victim was gone, Nahoko turned her attention to the boss.

“Boss~. This time it was just fangirl fleet, so it’s fine~. But we gotta boost our forces. Can’t beat regular people without it, y’know~♡”

“I already said this—recruiting inside SFO is impossible. If we’re gonna scout on Earth and train them, it’ll take ages.”

“But~. We don’t even have a manager! She’s kinda cute, right~♡”

“She’s too old for idol work. She’s made that clear herself.”

“Yeah. I really can’t do it. Not confident in my face, and I’m too old…”

“But~. As an avatar, that’s no problem at all~♡”

“Nooo—! Not me—!”

Ayame ran off.

“Hey, hey— don’t push the manager we just hired into a corner. She’s not becoming an idol. That’s final.”

Seemed like the conversation had wrapped up, so I asked President Kamizawa the question I’d been wondering about.

“How’d the stream feedback look? Anyone actually paying to watch? Any new fans?”

“Ah, this stream was promotional— no charge. Gave the fan fleet special merch from Brush Lipps, so they waived their royalties. Still, they went wild over it.”

Classic President Kamizawa. Always one step ahead.

"About the live-stream reactions—thanks to the net users getting excited, the tabloids picked it up. Mostly positive, I guess. They kind of shifted focus away from the actual gameplay to stuff like e-sports explanations and the high prize money for pro players."

"Media people always have such fancy ways of saying things. So if you're not gonna win properly as a pro gamer, you won't stand out, right?"

"Probably. Ayame, go ahead and find a match partner for the individual duel."

At the time, none of us had any idea that one simple sentence would later bring both crisis and fortune.