Chapter 7: Aim to Become Pon Pon Crepe's Image Girl!

"My passionate idol activities - Aikatsu! is starting."

Last time on Aikatsu Bloom!

The results of the duel were finally out! Yuri was the winner! Nanami felt upset but was ready to give away her Premium Rare Coord! But surprisingly, Yuri denied to take it! Yuri told that competitions aren't about winning Premium Rares! But they are about having fun while working hard! In the end the two became rivals!

Nanami's POV

"Hello everyone. Today I have a news for you all.", Suzukawa-sensei spoke as he entered the class. Two days have passed since my lose to Yuri and I'm training harder than before.

"What kind of news is it?", Rin asked.

"You all know about Pon Pon Crepe Image Girl's audition, don't you?", he asked. Every girl nodded except for me.

"What is it about?", I asked.

He replied, "The Pon Pon Crepe Image Girl Audition is widely considered to be a critical step on the stairs to success."

"Then who were the winners before?", I asked again.

"The first generation's winner was Kiara Kisaragi. 2nd winner was Erika Asuka. I don't remember the names of the generations of 3rd to 11th but 12th was our former top idol, Mizuki Kanzaki! The 13th generation winner was again Mizuki Kanzaki. The 14th winner is our well-known Idol Professor, Aoi Kiriya. The 15th Pon Pon Crepe Image Girl's win went to DreAca's best producer, Kii Saegusa. And currently the 16th Image Girl is our very own Starlight Queen, Akari Ozora! Now it's time to decide a 17th generation girl, but who will it be? It will be decided by your hard work and your performance.", he explained.

"That's interesting! I'm going to register my name for the audition!", I exclaimed.

"That's the spirit. The competition is on next week. Be sure to be prepared and give it your all.", Suzukawa-sensei smiled.

After the classes had ended I went to search for Yuri. I found her in the Starlight Garden. She was looking at some flowers.

"Yuri, there you are! I've been looking for you.", I spoke as I approached her. She looked back at me in surprise but then lightened up and smiled, "Ah it's just you, Nanami! You surprised me there."

Then she started looking at the flowers again. The flowers looked like Yuri's aura. One thing I have to note is that her aura first consisted of the flowers and hearts and when she wore that Premium Rare Coord her aura got upgraded to the same flowers but the hearts were removed leaving the flowers and ribbons. So the flowers have to do something about her.

"They smell wonderful, right?", she asked.

"Y-Yeah, I guess. What kind of flowers are they?", I asked. She again looked back at me in surprise, "Nanami, you don't know? They are lilies. My favorite flowers of all time. Because my name Yuri means lily.", she explained.

"Oh I'm not really into flowers or something.. that's why I don't know.. you have lilies in your aura, right?"

"Yes I do. I love lilies so I'm happy they stayed as my aura. I hope they stay forever with me."

"Well that's nice but I'm here to talk about something.", I said. She stood up and asked, "Wanna go to the cafeteria? I'm starving!"

I sighed but then nodded. As we both arrived we ordered two strawberry parfaits and sat down to eat.

"Did you know? Hoshimiya-senpai is famous for her love for strawberry parfaits!", Yuri said while enjoying the delicious parfait.

"R-Really? I didn't know that..", I replied sweating.

She stared at me for a while. "W-What happened?", I asked.

She giggled, "You know you are actually pretty clumsy in real. That's actually cute. You are a mix of coolness and cuteness. Unique."

I blushed rather than a tomato. "Whatever.."

She giggled again. We were then silent for two minutes until Yuri broke it, "Nanami, you wanted to talk to me about something?"

"Oh yes! Thanks for reminding me! Did you take part in Pon Pon Crepe Image Girl Audition?", I asked.

"Yes I did! I know you did too.", she replied. I was quite shocked.

"To clear up your confusion, I saw you registering your name. Simple as that. I decided to register my name too. We are rivals, right?", she explained happily.

Yuri's POV

I explained happily. "Yes we are!", she smiled brightly. I smiled back too. We were done with the strawberry parfait.

"Then.. I'm going to practice.. catch you later!", Nanami said as she stood up. "Me too. Wanna practice together?", I asked.

She thought for a while and said, "No, I'd rather practice alone."

I smiled, "Okay I'll go practice on my singing. It's really rough."

"I'm gonna practice the dance. I need to polish it neatly.", she spoke.

"I've noticed this. I'm good at dancing and you're good at singing. While we are same in many ways, we are also equally different." I said.

"Yeah I agree...", she added, "I should go now."

As she was about to leave, she said something in a whisper, "Yuri, thank you very much! But I won't lose!"

Even though I heard it clearly, I pretended I didn't notice, "What did you just say? Sorry but I couldn't hear it clearly."

She turned back. "I said I won't lose. That's all.", she half-lied.

I was kinda turned off by this reply but nonetheless I smiled energetically and replied, "Okay so do your best in training so I won't be disappointed. Of course I won't be losing anytime soon."

She smirked, "Prepared to lose, Yuri."

Before I could reply anything she rushed off somewhere. Maybe the gym. I sighed. I do very much love singing more than dancing but right now I don't feel like improving my voice. I want to eat another ichigo (strawberry) parfait. Maybe I'll practice singing later.

I ordered another ichigo parfait and sat down to eat it. After 5 minutes, I heard someone say.

"Yuri-chan, I see you are enjoying your ichigo parfait. May I join in? I have donuts with me."

I looked up and saw Daichi-kun. I smiled brightly at him, "Sure!"

He sat down in front of me. Suddenly a girl approached him and whispered something in his ears.

Daichi's POV

I sat down in front of her. Suddenly a girl approached me and whispered in my ears,

"Don't take this too far. Realize what you are doing is wrong or you'll regret your choice and be haunted about it forever.", and went away.

What? Is she the required idol? But how does she know what I'm up to? First I had a little fight with my sister and now this?! Wait.. did she happened listen our conversation? I don't remember her being there. Maybe I just didn't notice. But I don't get it. Wasn't Yuri-chan meant to be the special idol? Or are we mistaken? But she did that tremendous Special Appeal in her entrance audition. I'm confused.

"Um.. is something wrong, Daichi-kun? What did she whisper?", Yuri-chan asked noticing my confusion.

Yuri's POV

I asked him as I noticed he looked a bit confused.

He looked at me and stuttered, "N-No, nothing i-is wrong. Don't w-worry."

Before I could say anything, he interrupted to change the topic, "Oh that reminds me! I came here to congratulate you for your success in the duel against Nanami. Even though I'm a bit upset she lost, but I'm happy for you! You are really becoming a true idol."

My face brightened by the compliment. I smiled brightly at him and thanked him. "Thank you very much!"

Then we continued to talk about several things and enjoyed the ichigo parfait and donuts. After I was done I went to improve my voice.

Nanami's POV

I noticed a bit disappointment in her tone yet it was still energetic. Nonetheless I smirked, "Prepare to lose, Yuri."

Before she could reply anything I rushed off to the gym to practice the dance. On my way I saw Onii-san.

"Nanami! How did your competition with Yuri-chan go?", he asked as soon as he approached.

I blushed redder than a tomato upon hearing this for I wasn't ready for this question at all. I was quite embarrassed.

He chuckled, "I saw it. You lost, didn't you? But that's okay. You can just work harder. I was just heading off to congratulate Yuri-chan for her win."

At this I giggled and asked, "Onii-san, you love Yuri, don't you?"

"A-Ah of course! She's my friend!", he replied, being a bit embarrassed.

"Not as a friend... I mean.. you have a r-romantic interest in h-her...", I stuttered some of my words realizing how embarrassed I was speaking about this stuff myself.

"Don't be dumb. Of course I don't love her like that.", he replied blushing and I kept on laughing.

For a minute we were silent. But I broke the silence.

"Onii-san, about that plan you joined Starlight Academy.. please tell me you have left it..?"

He gave me a cold stare, "Nanami! I need to find the required girl! That's why I requested Orihime-san to allow boys as idols in this academy too! I'm not going to give up until or unless I find that specific idol who needs to get banned from the entertainment industry."

"But Onii-san! That company is evil! Why are you working under them?!"

"I don't want to speak about this to you!"

I got angry and tears flowed down my eyes. I replied angrily to him, "Fine! Find that 'special' girl and make her dream be ended! But remember this Onii-san, I won't give up! If you are going to end the poor girl's dream, I'll end yours! And also, before leaving.. I wanna say I HATE YOU!", and ran away to the gym as fast as I could. I looked back to see him walking away. That hurt me to no limit. Why did he need to do this?!

Soon I reached the gym. Even though I was broken I still put in my effort and practiced dancing. I shouldn't let Onii-san's plans weaken me.

"Aikatsu! Aikatsu! My effort isn't enough! I need to work harder! Aikatsu! Aikatsu! I... want to defeat Yuri with everything I have got fair and square! Aikatsu! Aikatsu! Because she's my first friend and rival, I won't disappoint her!", I thought as I danced harder. Suddenly I fell down.

"Wow wow. Take it easy, take it easy. Here, I'll help you practice, Yuki-honey.", somebody helped me get back up on my feet. That -honey part seems familiar.

I looked at him and recognized him, "Johnny-sensei! Thank you very much! I appreciate your help very much but I want to practice alone."

He looked at me surprised, "No no, Honey! You need to be trained as a teacher as cool and skilled as me."

Nanami sighed and said, "Guess I can't really resist you now.. Please take care of me, I'll do my best!"

Johnny-sensei smiled, "Now that's cool."

A week passed, and today was the day of Pon Pon Crepe Image Girl's Audition. I swore to give it my all and enjoy the performance too. My dancing had gotten a lot better.

I had no physical contact with Yuri or Onii-san... I sighed.. I can't be bothered about them right now, I need to show to put on.

Yuri had sung Two∞Piece Ribbon and wore her Premium Rare, Frill Love Coord in her audition. Surprisingly, her voice was a lot better. So she was also working hard like me this past week. But I'm determined I'll put on a better show than her, of course I won't forget to have fun.

It was now my time to shine. I went to the changing room and fixed my Premium Rare, Mystic Zoom Coord into the machine. I auto-transformed and stroke a pose and jumped on the stage to start singing Signalize!.

Hi visualise!
Tatoeba kyō wa aoi meiro datta
Hayaku nukedase
Boku to kureba ī sa kono mama

Do that visualise!
Hikari no yō ni hashiru fui no energy
Furueru hodo no kiseki wo
Dakara ima wa shinjite

My aura appeared, consisting of stars and meteors.

Kanaetai, tsuyoku negai tsuzukeru
Get a luck
Junsui wo utaō utae utaitainda
Mō zetsubō nante shinai

Yagate umare kawaru sekai wo
Kanjiru yokan no naka de
Utsuri kawaru sekai wo, motomeru tabi da ne zenshin da
Umare kawaru melody
Bokura wa kibō no naka sa
Yatto kawaru melody hirameita chizu de It's new world!

In the end I flew in the air and successfully did the Premium Electro Groove Special Appeal.

Soon the results were announced.

"The 17th generation Pon Pon Crepe Image Girl is none other than our Nanami Yuki! This marks the debut of our new generation image girl of the famous audition!"

I was so happy I broke into tears. All my hard work payed off. I won't forget to thank Johnny-sensei later.

I came backstage to find Yuri there.

"Nanami, I won't lose next time! Just wait and see!", she declared.

I sweated with annoyance, "Where's my congrats?"

She giggled, "But of course..."

"Congratulations, Nanami-chan!"

TO BE CONTINUED

I chose Chapter 7 for Pon Pon Crepe's Audition because in the first season the audition was held at Episode 7. I really like this competition x3 it's my second favorite after the Starlight Queen Cup and the 3rd favorite is One-Day Manager Audition. Enjoy~