Hello to new and continuing readers.

"Blah" — Speech

"Blah" — Speech in another language

'Blah' — Thoughts

[ Blah ] — Text

*Blah* — Sound effects in speech

(Blah) — Author's notes

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters of Love Live! School Idol Project. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

Prepare for the Other Side

Nico and her team are at her house getting ready to leave; it's been a few days after the party and Nico is ready to get back into it. Nico looks at her guard's wardrobe, "Well, at least you girls don't look too obvious." Eli and Umi are wearing pants, Rin is wearing shorts, and Nozomi is the only one wearing a dress. But Nico isn't deceived and knows that Nozomi can take care of herself.

Nozomi smiles, "Thank you."

Umi fiddles the baton strap inside her jacket, "This still feels too unnatural for the job."

"Nico's job is to be in public. Our regular gear would make us too obvious." Nozomi elaborated.

"Blending in... So long as it works." Umi finished adjusting the strap.

Rin jumps in, "It'll just be like a group of friends hanging out together."

Nico narrows her eyes, "Oi, you saying I'm lonely?"

Rin frantically waves her hands, "No-I-that's—"

Nico grins and playfully punches Rin's shoulder, "I'm just playing with you."

Rin pouts, "You scared me there nya~."

"Nya?"

Umi sighs, "It's a habit I'm trying to get rid of."

"Ehehe." Rin scratches the back of her head.

Eli claps her hand, "Right. We're going to be late so let's go."

"Oh right." Nico and the team make their way to the car in the garage.

. . . . . . . . . .

The ladies walk in the manager's office to see Ryu looking on his computer. Nico raises her hand in greeting, "Yo Ryu."

The manager looks up, "Hey Nico." He then looks at Eli and Nozomi. "I want to say thank you for saving Nico at the concert."

Eli answers for both of them, "It's no problem."

Ryu looks at Umi and Rin and puts his hand out, "Hello, I'm Ryu Endo."

Umi shakes first, "I'm Umi Sonoda."

"I'm Rin Hoshizora."

Nico peeks at the computer, "So what are you looking at?"

"Ah. You must see this." Ryu ushers Nico closer and turns his monitor around. He clicks on it with a short wait-time before the video begins. The video shows Nico in a different costume and location. Nico looks at Ryu, "It's one of my earlier concerts."

"Look at the bottom of the screen."

They look down to see English lyrics.

"Someone is translating and posting these online." Ryu clicks on the channel, "This person has been posting all of your earlier concerts."

Nico sees the views, "Holy crap! This video has almost two million views."

"That's not all." Ryu scrolls down to the comments.

Nico squints and tries to decipher the comments. She almost gives up when she feels someone leaning on the side. She turns to the side to see Eli so close to her face and immediately goes back to the video. "Here let me translate them for you."

TheChadster: Best gurl. 452 likes

Kazuma_desu: Glad this got translated. 326 likes

Animewasamistake: I would totally pay to see her live. 2315 likes

Ryu turns back the monitor. "This is what I want to talk to you about. Do you want to do a concert at United States?"

Nico raises her eyebrow, "Overseas? But shouldn't we focus here?

"That may be true, but..." Ryu spreads his arms out. "So is every other idols here. Look, you're getting popular but this is a great opportunity. None of the idols here want to go out of their comfort zone and you'll have no competition."

Nico looks at her guards where Nozomi seems to know what she is thinking, "We have done overseas jobs before so this is nothing new."

Nico looks back, "Can you give me some time to think about it?"

"Of course."

"Any concerts coming up?"

"Well..." Ryu looks on some paper in front of him, "You got one for Christmas."

"Alright."

Nozomi puts her hand forward. "May we have her schedule?"

"Here." Ryu offers a piece of paper.

"Thank you." Nozomi takes the paper and the group walks out of the room.

Before they leave, Nico turns back, "Oh hey, what's the channel's name?"

"Uh..." Ryu looks at his monitor, "It's Kayo_RiceFTW."

Nico hears a small gasp and turns around to see Rin starting at the corner of the door. "Oookay." she looks back to Ryu. "Any way to contact them?"

"From the looks of it, no."

"Alright. See you later." Nico waves her hand.

"See you later."

. . . . . . . . . .

The whole party are seated and on their way to the dance studio. This time Nozomi is driving and Umi is at the passenger seat. Eli, Nico, and Rin are at the back. Nico turns her head to Rin, "Do you know about that channel Rin?"

Rin jerked in her seat. "W-What do you mean?"

"You were being weird when Ryu mentioned that channel name."

Rin avoids eye contact and stays silent. But she starts to fidget as the silence in the car stretches on. The other guards are looking elsewhere but seem to be listening in.

Nico sighs and turns her torso so she gives Rin her full attention. "Rin, as your boss, I promise nothing will happen to this person. I just need to know who it is."

Several seconds pass by before Rin caves in, "It's Hanayo."

Umi reacts to that, "What?"

Nico leans back, "I suspect it so."

"How...?" Rin was curious.

Nico holds her hand up with one finger out. "She's a huge fan of mine."

Two fingers, "She spends a lot of time on the computer."

Three fingers, "You called Hanayo 'Kayo-chin' in our first meeting and that can't be a coincidence."

"Derr`mo." Eli mutters.

Nico turns to Eli, "What?"

"I just realized I was the one who translated the songs." Eli sees Nico's raised eyebrow and continues, "Some months back Hanayo asked me to translate some words since I speak English the best among the company."

"Oh you speak different languages?" Nico interrupted.

"Yes. English and Russian are my specialty. May I continue?"

Nico became sheepish. "Right. Sorry."

Eli smiles, "It's quite alright. Anyway, some months back Hanayo asks for my help on translating some songs. At the time, I didn't think much of it and I saw it as a chance to improve my Japanese. I recognized the background and song when your manager showed us the video."

"You could say it was fate that brought us together." Nozomi chimed in.

Nico smirks at Nozomi, "Pshh, it's because my charm brought you guys to me."

Rin tilts her head, "But weren't you—"

"Anyway." Nico looks back to Eli, "Eli can you call Hanayo?" Eli takes her phone out and dials the number.

This sets Rin into a slight panic, "Wait, you said you weren't mad."

Nico raises both her eyebrow at Rin, "I'm not?" Nico sees Umi's disapproval at Rin and raises her hand to placate her. Nico looks back at Rin and smiles, "I just want to talk to her."

That seems to mollify Rin, "Okay."

"Hello?" It seems that Eli put the phone on speaker.

Nico feels dramatic for this moment and smiles. "Oh hey Hanayo... or should I say Kayo_RiceFTW?"

"...Eep..."

Rin was about to protest again but Nico put a finger on the rookie-guard's lips, "Hush."

Hanayo went into a panic, "I'm sorry Nico I had no intention of making money off of your videos I just wanted your foreign fans to watch—"

"Hanayo stop. Breathe." Hanayo takes a deep breath. "Thank you for your work on those video."

That seems to catch everyone off, "Eh?"

"What? Would you rather deal with a total stranger? Hanayo, you seem like a good person and you wouldn't make money off of this."

"I would never do something like that." Hanayo proclaims.

"See?" Nico looks at the people around her, "It's an extra plus that she's working for me now." The idol claps her hands, "So. Do you mind having extra work?"

"Not at all."

"Would you like to manage my official channel?"

"But you don't have one..." It finally clicks for Hanayo, "You don't mean—! Yes! Of course I will!"

Nico nods, "Oh yeah."

Rin asks for the team, "Wait, what's going on?"

Nico smiles, "It's unfair that my fans from the other side can't enjoy me. So I think it's time to give them the service they deserve." Nico looks at each of them in turn. "With your help of course."

Rin bounces in her seat, "I'm in!"

Nozomi voices her approval, "I'll be glad to help."

Eli smiles, "Might as well keep on translating."

"Are you sure about this?" Umi asks. "There's a reason why no one has done something like this before."

"Sometimes you have to make sacrifices." 'Lord knows how I much I lost.'

Umi was silent for a while, "...So long as it doesn't hinder us protecting you Miss Yazawa."

Nico threw her head into the seat behind her. "Urrrgh, Nico is fine."

"That is highly unprofessional."

"One of these days you will use my name."

"Don't you think this might be a lot to handle with your upcoming event?" Umi asks instead.

"Oh for sure. I'm just thinking out loud here. We can plan after the Christmas concert and this gives me time to practice my English."

"How good is it by the way?" Eli asks.

Nico coughs into her hand. "Herro my name is Yazawa Niko."

"That's decent, but you say your given name first and family name last."

Before Nico could say anything, the car slows to a stop and Nozomi turns her head back, "We're here Nico."

Nico sighs, "We can work on my English later and the rest of the world can wait. I gotta get ready for Christmas."

.

Fin for now.

I'M BACK BABY! Thank you for being patient with me.

Now for some notes:

-That is a long-ass car ride.

-I hope it is believable that an idol from Japan would spread to other countries.

- Derr`mo means shit in Russian; I wanted Eli to say 'Oh shit.'

-That's some big words there Nico.

See you on the next chapter.

Thanks for reading

Constructive criticisms are appreciated

Bravo Tango out