It had all started with Milky Watsons.

Takumi had wondered, given the direction that his choreographer friend wanted to go, if the seiyuu also on Milky Watsons (Soramaru, Mimorin, Nanjolno, Emitsun, Shikaco) could somehow "voice ahead" without ruining something. When he was told that it could probably be arranged, with difficulty, and depending on the seiyuu, he was gratified, and he messaged his choreographer friend that the Muses could probably accommodate his plans. By coincidence, his main contact in the VR world had been wanting to get ahold of him with another Muse project. He said they should discuss it in person.

The "Cool Japan" initiative seemed to be stalling, to a degree. Some of that was because it was mostly a thinly disguised intellectual property protection campaign combined with rather old-hat boosterism, but some of it simply reflected the blowback: the cooler you made otaku things like anime and manga, the more Korean, Thai and Chinese artists and producers would want to do them. The Koreans had already overtaken them in Japanese style TV dramas after those had seen a huge boom internationally. So the initiative was losing on two fronts — a lackluster response and little cooperation on IP, and increased competition from abroad.

"Now," said his friend. "Close your eyes and imagine this." Takumi waited to hear what 'this' was.

"Imagine there is something that really is ahead of its time. Something that is, since we don't have a better word for it, really, really cool!"

"You, me, and the Ministry of Culture."

"Bzzzt! Technically incorrect. It's the Agency for Cultural Affairs under the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology."

"Yes, yes, the Ministry of Everything."

"And, yes, they ARE interested. Keep imagining, now. What if we could swing enough money from the agency and from donors and investors to put everyone involved with Love Live! on easy street for the rest of their lives? Do you think that could get them to 'voice ahead' like you did with Milky Watsons, not take any new jobs, and focus on our project?"

"Just to be clear, do you mean everyone involved with School Idol Project, the diaries, Sunshine, the Festival game, and Perfect Dream Project?"

"No, just School Idol Project. What's the Perfect Dream Project?"

"It's a disconnected, flexible idea for a sort of sequel to Sunshine, if there's still interest in the franchise."

"Is it already in motion?"

"No, it's just a name, but you should, nonetheless, consider it top secret."

"Well, that's not a problem, then."

"Can I open my eyes now?"

"Ahh, not quite yet. Scrap it."

"Scrap what, PDP?"

"Yes, keep the name, it's perfect. We are going to remake School Idol Project. The show itself will be called School Idol Project. The actual project will be the Love Live Virtual Reality Project. And our code name for what we're really doing will be Perfect Dream Project. It's perfect. If anyone sees it they will assume it's the sequel idea."

It had taken a year of negotiations and "if you take a new job while we negotiate, the deal is off" ultimatums. It had taken a lot of money up front: even the moms had gotten at least 200 million yen each as a signing bonus. But here Takumi was, in his VR lab/studio. And out there was Soramaru. Convinced she was really Yazawa Cocoa, age 13, and at Joshigakuen Middle School. Interacting with computer de-aged actresses, including herself, in the belief that they were really the characters they portrayed. It was a genius process. You had them voice things, then act them out, then combined that with the ones who came in later. Sometimes, in addition to regressing, you made them forget about their first run-through so everyone involved believed they were there, and really living the scenario.

It had also been genius on the part of the project director to give everyone their actual relative ages. Every seiyuu had been de-aged to their age when Love Live! School Idol Project began. When they saw the rest of the cast, CG de-aged, they would look exactly as they did when they encountered them the first time. This would help create and preserve the illusion of being back in time. Then, a combination of fatigue, hypnosis, drugs and VR had the cast living out the scenarios. All the most popular relationships were going to be explicit in this show, too. The woman who wrote the manga and diaries, Himawari Sakurako, had been called in (and given her own fortune for scripting). It was a 3-D (though you could watch it without that), VR-accessible, CG reality show drama. It was the first of its kind, and would be difficult to duplicate. It would probably make a fortune, but the money wasn't the issue. Putting Japanese cultural products on the map again was.

By now, the Love Live VR Project was the only job the nine main cast had, so there were far fewer hassles. To the greatest extent possible, if they had a lot of lines, they were expected to live at the project for a few days around that episode. Soramaru had had a few very intense session, given she was playing four characters, and that her siblings were introduced early in the first season instead of waiting for the second. Given they'd all be at school together with their altered ages, it made no sense to hide the others. The original plot had been adjusted accordingly.

Looking over at Cocoa, an obviously fatigued Soramaru, as she returned from filming and collapsed on her bed, he thought the stress might be a little much for her. They should wrap it up as quickly as they could and let the seiyuu enjoy a long vacation, Takumi concluded. Well, while he did feel sorry for them, none of them would ever have to work at anything again as long as they lived. And at the end of the day, they were serving their country.