VS Audience Prologue

Characters
Writer
Akira
Translation
Proofreading

VS Audience Prologue

Season: Spring, ES's second year of establishment
Spring of ES’s second year of establishment, in the middle of May, NEW DI offices

I’m sorry, it looks like next month’s photoshoot for the magazine feature has been canceled.

… Hah?

What? What happened? They insisted that they wanted me to do the cover shots just the other day, didn’t they?

They were the ones who requested for me to take it on, so what the hell happened?

I’m sorry. I only heard about it through the director, but it seems like the project was halted immediately.

I heard that a famous idol from overseas was suddenly arranged to come to Japan —

And that it’s even been decided that while that idol is in Japan, they’ll hijack a few Japanese magazines and have photoshoots for them.

And so, under the higher-ups’ orders, it seems that your photoshoot will happen another time.

No way! No way, no way, no way no way…!

What idol could they have wanted more than me? Who the hell is it?

This isn’t from a direct source either, so I can’t really be certain of its credibility, but...

Apparently, they’re an idol produced by Nice Arneb Thunder, an accomplished producer from overseas.

MELLOW DEAR US’s 1 Madoka Nozomi-kun… Do you know them?

Madoka Nozomi…?2

Several days later

Izumi-chan. Did you see the message Tsukasa-chan sent?

Yeah. The one about wanting us to take part in 4piece, right?

It’s basically all hands on deck to demonstrate the prestige of Knights… I think he said. Kasa-kun seriously just decides things all on his own without asking us, doesn’t he?

Ufufu. It’s juuust like him… Don’t you think? Like, that kid has a strong fighting instinct.

But 4piece seems to be an individual competition, so whether I'll participate or not is a different matter.

The reward and the judging of the audition haven’t been made public, so it's a liiittle too shady for me. That NiceP guy was dressed weird too─ Hard pass for me.

What about you, Izumi-chan? With the way you’re talking, it doesn’t seem like you’re going to participate.

I will be, naturally.

You’re right. There’s no benefit for the modeling group to participate, so一

Wait. Izumi-chan? Did you just say you'd participate?

On the contrary, why were you so sure I wouldn’t?

Izumi-chan, don’t you hate it when Tsukasa-chan decides what we do on his own?

And now, he's done it again: he contacted us about participating, even passing it off as something mandatory. I thought for sure you wouldn't join?

I do whatever I want to. While Kasa-kun’s decision annoys me, I would’ve participated with or without it.

MELLOW DEAR US, was it? Because of all of them coming to Japan, my magazine assignment got canceled. Since that happened, participating's just the thing I need to kill time, right?

MELLOW DEAR US... Oh, that's the overseas unit everyone's been talking about lately.

I think it passes itself off as some kind of international unit, and it’s produced by NiceP.

You’re not holding a grudge and doing something like going to challenge NiceP, are you, Izumi-chan?

Who said I’m holding a grudge? I'm just going to prove that I can be active in that space!

All I intend to do is make them recognize me as an individual, not just a member of Knights!

If you're that angry, I guess I'm right on the money.

In any case. If even Izumi-chan’s participating, I’ll be the only member of Knights who isn’t going to be applying for 4piece.

Since everyone else is going to do it, I’d have at least considered it, but…

I’ve got a job that’s already lined up, so there’s nothing I can do, I can’t act independently.

On the bright side, I think it’s something like fate that your job was canceled, Izumi-chan.

I’m expecting great results. You’ll do your best, won’t you?

If all the members of Knights get disqualified, I won't accept it~♪

Hmph. There’s no way that not one of us can break through and get selected.

We just have to overwhelm everyone around us from beginning to end, and perform well enough to get our efforts recognized for all to see.

It's a large-scale audition with both established and debut idols coming together to compete, so I know it's not going to be that easy.

But you can’t grab victory unless you're mentally prepared for all of it, right?

If I actually stood face-to-face with him, even NiceP would undoubtedly have to recognize my true strength.

I'll prove to him myself that Japan has the best idols.

Translation Notes

  1. MELLOW DEAR US is written as メロウ・ディアース
  2. Madoka is written with 円 (mado; "round, full") and 果 (ka; "fruit, accomplishment, result"), while Nozomi is written with 望見 (nozomi; "hope, wish, desire").