"Hey, Choromatsu."

"Yeah?" He looks over at Osomatsu, lounging next to him on the couch.

"You know that one game you play, Project I'm-a-loser-with-no-life or whatever?"

"Project Diva?" Choromatsu corrects, trying to keep the contempt from his voice.

Osomatsu ignores it. "Yeah, that. Todomatsu was telling me 'bout this game kinda like it that's been pretty popular. He said to tell you because you're into stuff like that."

Choromatsu couldn't deny he was interested. He had saved his (meager) income for months to buy Project Diva and its required gaming system, and had then spent the subsequent months unlocking all the outfits and clearing all the songs. Just last week he finally succeeded in getting perfect on his favorite song, Break it, Break it on hard mode, and since then he's basked in his personal knowledge that, if Meiko were to ever meet him, she'd be proud.

"What's the name of it?" Choromatsu asked, pulling himself from his thoughts.

"Love Live, I think. Todomatsu said there was idols? One of his coworkers told him, so he ended up talking more about her than the game."

The name Love Live rang a bell somewhere in the back of his mind, and the word 'idol' brought it to him–an anime he had obsessed over years earlier. He couldn't believe there was a game made after it, and decided, without much thought, that it would be his new challenge.

"I've heard of it before. Do you know what station it's for?"

"Phone." Choromatsu could have cried. He wouldn't have to save up for another console, wasting precious time that could have been spent playing.

"Don't tell the girls at Todomatsu's work you're playing it though, 'cause Totty might get jealous that you're getting their attention~"

Choromatsu had tuned out to what his older brother was saying, already pulling out his phone and doing a search for Love Live – there it was, girls with flashy outfits and adorable poses smiling up at him. He hit install.

In the minute it took to download, Choromatsu had tracked down some headphones, and had them plugged into the phone and his ears before he started the game up.

He had expected cute idol girls with short skirts, not an entire 15 minutes of waiting for the game to download after the tutorial.

The first 5 he spent tapping on the girls along the bottom, hearing them yell out phrases like "Just another minute to go!", "Sorry for making you wait!" and "I love white rice!" But, even for him, 5 minutes of clicking on anime girls wasn't enough to entertain him. The remaining time was spent pacing, and then opening Project Diva to give affection to Meiko (though he had long ago maxed her affection level.)

Finally, the page stating that the download was complete popped up, and he clicked okay, excited to start the actual game play.

However, he was not ready to have to choose a main.

He only vaguely remembered the characters from the anime, but even having that bare glimpse at their personalities didn't help.

He looked over his options. He decided right away to say no to Nozomi. The big breasted girl was only used for fanservice, and he didn't want to seem like he was into that.

He said no to Rin as well, since he wasn't into the sporty type.

Honoka irritated him, with how clumsy and loud she was. So did Maki, with her tsundere personality.

Nico, if he remembered correctly, was only after attention throughout the anime, and he decided against her as well.

'Blonde' was not part of his likes, though Eli did have a nice personality. He moved on to Umi, who was cute but too strict for him.

When he saw Hanayo, he thought he had a winner. She was adorable, soft and quiet, but always so nice. He moved his hand to click her name when he saw her. 'Kotori', the name said, and it all came back to him. The love he had had for that character was immense, almost as much as his love for Nyaa-chan (though not quite that much – nothing could beat you, Nyaa-chan!) He had watched all the anime had to give him so that he could see more of Kotori, hunting down every extra and movie. He had moved on from his love from her when he found Nyaa-chan, but seeing Kotori's face again brought forward those unrequited feelings, and he wondered if he would have to go dig up the merchandise he had bought oh so long ago.

Kotori was clicked, and then 'okay', marking her as his first Rare card and the main of his team. The rest of the tutorial was presented, and then he was free to do as he wished of his new game.


It took nearly two months, but he had saved up 50 LoveGems, and was about to do his first big scout. Scout 11 times for a SR or above! claimed the picture for the scout, and he hoped with all his heart it would be a SR Kotori.

Click.

The envelopes tumbled from the box in a hurry, and then popped back up one by one to show him the idols he had received.

A rare Maki. A rare Rin. A rare Honoka (that he could now idolize!). They went on, and his suspense increased with each girl that showed up on his screen.

A rare Hanayo. Another rare Rin. And then–there it was! His Super Rare! His excitement almost made him miss seeing who it was before the next envelope was opened, but he saw, and almost dropped his phone.

A SR Nico. Pure.

It wasn't bad, he supposed. He shouldn't expect to get exactly what he wanted on his first go at the 50 scout. He quickly went back to his member screen, locking the Nico as a favorite so he wouldn't accidentally use her as level up material. He doubted that would happen since it was the first SR he had ever gotten, but he preferred being cautious over making a mistake later on.

The Nico was added to his team, but he kept his idolized rare maid Kotori as his main. She was too cute to replace with a mere Nico.


He's 6 months into his playing of Love Live before he gets his heart's desire.

It's after an Eli event. He played just to get the LoveGems, and ended up with a SR Eli as well. When the event ended and he was awarded his LoveGems, he went over to the scouting page, knowing that there would be a new set of girls to try to collect, as there always was after an event. There he saw it: an UR Kotori, the words Scout 11 times for a SR or above! displayed below the sparkling pink of her card. He took a deep breath, looked at his LoveGem counter (the glowing number 51 gave him life) and clicked the button.

He tapped through the envelopes this time, too impatient, too tense to wait it out like was his usual habit. He closed his eyes tight, afraid to be disappointed with his haul.

He peeked. Once, then twice, to make sure his eyes didn't fail him. He felt his breath hitch.

There it was, the glimmering circle, UR in bold letters next to it. Inside was a Kotori looking off in the distance. Tears formed in his eyes, and it took him a minute of trying not to scream before he could tap and look at the Kotori in full.

She was beautiful. She wasn't dressed particularly stylishly, but it didn't matter to Choromatsu. Her hair flew behind her in the wind, the snowy landscape giving good contrast. Her breath misted out in front of her and her eyes sparkled with the winter sun shining down. Oh, she was beautiful.

She was set as his main immediately, and he went to his profile page to see how she looked next to his name, nyaafan1. He couldn't look away.

He did, eventually, stop admiring his new, first and only, ultra rare and continue playing. He leveled her up as much as he could, feeding to her all of the rares he already had idolized and farmed a LoveGem from. He realized quickly how much experience UR's need, and started playing songs again to get more food.


Todomatsu had watched from his spot laying on the ground as Choromatsu nearly cried from something on his phone. He didn't care quite enough to ask, but he was nosy enough to be curious.

"Do you think Choromatsu is okay?" He asked Osomatsu, who was sitting next to him flipping idly through a magazine.

"Fappymatsu? He's fine. One of his anime girlfriends probably just told him to get a life or something."

Todomatsu laughed, agreed, and went back to texting on his phone.