The Ministry of Squeaky Voices
"Nice work everyone. Rin, Nozomi, and Eli are free to leave but the rest of you need to stay here.", ordered Umi who just finished up leading Muse's routined after school training session.
"But Umi-chan, Kayo-chin and I always go home together. She can't stay!"
"Why don't you just practice with us Rin-chan?"
"Oh, good idea Kayo-chin! You're so smart!"
"You can't Rin. This is a specialized training regimen specifically tailored for Hanayo, Kotori, and Nico. You can sit and watch though."
"Okay, but why do Maki-chan and Honoka-chan have to be here if they're not even doing a-nya-thing?"
"Maki is actually leading the training this time and Honoka and I are going to do some student council work."
"Why Maki-chan!? She's such a harsh teacher...", whined Nico who knew first-hand about Maki's strict teaching habits.
"This is a vocal lesson and Maki is the most knowledgeable person in the group in regards to singing."
"You should lead the practice Umi. You're a much better singer than Maki is."
Maki gave Nico the death stare for insulting her. Nico responded back with her famous hand gesture. Normally it means "I love you" in sign language but to Maki it is the equivalent of someone pointing their middle finger up at her. It's sort of an inside joke between the two of them.
"I'm flattered to hear that Nico, but it has already been decided that Maki is conducting this. Besides, I don't even know how to go about vocal coaching."
"Fine, but why is it just me, Hanayo, and Kotori doing this?"
"Maki will explain everything...Honoka, are you ready?"
"I'm always ready Umi-chan."
Everybody was now where they needed to be. Umi and Honoka went inside the school, Nozomi and Eli left to "get parfaits" (slang term for "go on a date"), and Rin took a cat nap on the edge of the roof. The only people present (in consciousness anyway) were Maki, Nico, Hanayo, and Kotori.
"Alright Maki-chan, what's the big deal here?", said a somewhat annoyed Nico.
"Well, I have noticed that the three of you are having issues with your solo parts."
"What do you mean by that?", asked Kotori who thought she had her solos down pretty well.
"In short, your voices are way too squeaky..."
"What!? Who are you to talk? Your voice might not be that squeaky but it sure is nasally."
"My nose is not the problem Nico-chan and it is not relevant at all right now. You also might be glad to hear that I am the least concerned about you."
"How am I suppose to be glad about that? You're pretty much saying that you don't care about me."
"No, I'm saying that compared to Hanayo and Kotori, your voice isn't as squeaky."
"Um...I-I'm sorry Maki-chan but how can we make our voices not squeaky?", said Hanayo who felt really guilty for not doing her job right. She was starting to cry a little bit too.
"It's okay Hanayo! I mean-your voice isn't okay but you're fine." This made Hanayo cry even harder. Hanayo's audible distress was like an alarm clock for Rin and she quickly woke up, strode over to Hanayo, and wrapped her into a comforting hug. She then looked at the rest of the group over Hanayo's shoulder and asked why her best friend was crying. Nico pointed at Maki and Rin immediately yanked the collar of Maki's shirt up to try to look intimidating but it didn't effect Maki at all.
"R-rin-chan, that's enough! Maki-chan didn't do anything wrong."
Rin perceived Hanayo's words as truth and backed off.
"It's my fault that I'm crying. I took Maki-chan's criticism too personally.", explained Hanayo as she wiped away a few tears.
"Oh, okay Kayo-chin. I thought Maki-chan pinched you or something. I know that she pinches me all the time and it really hurts."
"Maki-chan, you're such a bully."
"Shut up Nico-chan! And Rin, I apologize but could you please go back to where you were at? You're kinda interfering with my lesson."
"Sorry..."
Rin slunk over to her original resting spot and stayed situated there for the remaining portion of the practice time.
"Listen up! Before I start working with your voices I would like to say that having a squeaky voice and having a high pitched voice are not the same thing. High pitched voices provide great harmony within the group. You three just happen to have high pitched voices that could use some tuning. You may think that squeakiness is something you can't help. That is a false belief. Your voice is a wind instrument and from time to time instruments, especially other wind instruments like clarinets and saxophones, can start to sound squeaky. This is sometimes because they need to be cleaned-"
"...Maki-chan, are those new panties...I've never seen those ones before...I didn't know you wore lace..."
"N-nico-chan! Pay attention!"
Nico nodded off due to extreme boredom and was sleep talking.
"Is it true Maki-chan? Do you really have lacy underwear?", chimed Rin from the other side of the roof.
"Rin!? Don't ask something like that!"
"...so sexy...", mumbled Nico.
"What kind of dream is Nico having?", asked a now blushing Kotori.
"Nico-chan, wake up already!"
"...Ughhh, why did you wake me up from such a nice dream?"
"Because we're in the middle of discussing something really important! Plus you were sleep talking!"
"It must not of been that important if it put me to sleep."
"You really are hopeless..." In order to get Nico to cooperate, Maki whispered into her ear, "I bought some new underwear the other day and I'll let you see them when we're done here but in the meantime you need to do what you're suppose to do, got it?"
Nico whispered back with a stupid grin on her face, "Yay, okay!"
Little did Maki know, Kotori and Hanayo heard the whole conversation and they couldn't get an image of Maki only wearing lacy underwear out of their head which turned out to be quite distracting.
"Kotori, Hanayo; you two look flustered and preoccupied with something. I have an idea of what it is but let's get back on track now."
They both looked at each other and giggled when they realized that they shared the same thought.
Maki cleared her throat rather loudly to focus the group's attention back to herself. "As I was saying, instruments need to be cleaned frequently since saliva builds up inside, causing obstruction."
"Excuse me Maki-chan."
"What's wrong Kotori?"
"If our voices are instruments and instruments sound squeaky because of saliva does that mean that us three just have too much spit?"
Nico and Hanayo covered their mouths to prevent themselves from laughing out loud from Kotori's ridiculous yet logical question.
"Possibly, but I suspect the main reason is that your voice is cracking. Since your pitch is higher it comes out as more of a squeak. The solution to this is to get better airflow. Everyone's voice cracks once in a while but it is less noticeable if your pitch is lower. When we sing in unison it is hardly noticeable at all but when you guys are doing solos it becomes a problem."
"Oh, I see, I see..." Hanayo was scribbling down notes on a piece of paper. Her inner artist came out when she was done writing. She mindlessly started doodling a picture of a chibi Maki wearing a lacy bra and panties with one eye closed and her tongue sticking out.
Kotori and Nico saw Hanayo's picture and they started laughing. Hanayo didn't understand why they were giggling so much until she looked down at her paper again and saw the sketch that she didn't even know she made. Now all three of them were laughing hysterically.
"Come on you guys! This isn't a joke! Ah, forget it... I'll just assign you homework and we'll call it a day. I'll grade it tomorrow."
"What!? Homework!?" Nico couldn't believe she was being assigned homework by her underclassmen/girlfriend.
"That's right, homework. I want you all to do some breathing exercises at home. First, place your hands on your stomach and take a deep breath to the count of three. Let the air rise more into your stomach rather than into your chest and hold it there to the count of three. Then slowly release it to the count of four. It is very important that your exhale is longer than your inhale. Repeat this a few times and then sing the scale from low c to high c. Focus on singing from your diaphragm instead of the top part of your lungs. We'll try it once together."
The lesson was starting to look like an actual lesson now. The girls followed Maki's lead and in the end, everything sounded decent.
"W-what kind of sorcery is this!?", exclaimed Hanayo.
"It's not magic, it's science. The breathing exercises help relax your whole body which makes you calmer and it loosens up the muscles in your throat and chest to promote smoother sound. It won't do you any good if you don't practice though. I'll be listening carefully tomorrow to hear if you took my advice seriously."
"Are we done now?"
"Yes Nico-chan, we're done."
"Cool, now I get to see Maki-chan's new underwear!"
"Nico-chan!"
"Oops..."
"So Maki really does have fancy underwear!", cheered Rin. She was proud that her speculation was correct.
Maki just smacked her forehead and walked down the stairs all embarrassed. She wasn't having a good day whatsoever and as a result, Nico never saw her new purchases.
[The next day]
"So how did the practice go Maki?", questioned Umi.
"Don't even ask..."
"Was it really that bad?"
"It was awful. They hardly payed any attention. I also gave them homework to do and nobody did it. Hanayo attempted it but she did it all wrong. I told them to "sing from your diaphragm" but Hanayo thought I said "sing from your diagram" so she drew this elaborate diagram of a pair of lungs, a throat, and a mouth and explained how singing works in the margins of the paper."
Maki didn't mention the fact that this diagram was on the same piece of paper that had that certain portrait of her scribbled on it.
"Wow, that's crazy. I'm sorry that you had to go through that. You can leave all the teaching to me from now on alright?"
"Yeah, I'd appreciate it."
[Afterword]
I have returned with another Love Live story! I know I published one yesterday but I just couldn't stop writing. This is the end result. Yesterday I said that I wanted to write about Kotori and I tried to but somehow it turned into a story about Maki and her underwear... Yeah, I don't know how that happened either but it did. I apologize for the lack of fluff but it's good to mix up your writing style once in a while wouldn't you say? It was about to turn to the dark side near the end. You see, I usually write my fics on my phone's writing app and it likes to suggest which word to write next and when I wrote, "Hanayo attempted" the next suggested word was "suicide". I refuse to write anything tradgic about the Love Live! characters. (It's tradgic enough that they had to sing about boys in "Lonliest Baby") Also, I don't know how accurate the advice that Maki gave in this is. I used to play the clarinet and it did squeak when there was too much spit in it so that part is true and the breathing exercise does help you relax. The other stuff is all just made up, haha!