I'm curious to see your opinions on this chapter, more in the end notes


Hoshino Ai, idol by profession, mother by night, was studying her script in the corner as she kept one eye open, watching the kids.

Usually, it was Miyako who was in this position, while Ai was busy filming, recording, singing, dancing, interviewing, talking on the radio, practicing, doing whatever she needed for her job as an idol transitioning into also becoming a general entertainer.

This time, Miyako was watching over Aqua as pretend mother/manager as they attended an onboarding for Aqua's new role.

Detective Conan… Even she knew of it.

She didn't know much about Detective Conan, nor was it much of her thing, but she knew it was big. That it was popular.

And now her son was to be at the center of it.

It was an incredibly crazy, amazingly fortunate turn of events, that such a popular role would fall into the hands of her son. She had full confidence that her son would perform amazingly in the entertainment industry, just like she knew she herself did and so would Ruby in the future, judging by her already stellar dancing abilities.

It was a strange feeling for her, that her small, practically a baby, 5 year old son could become just as popular as she was. The boy already tended to escape her babying affections unlike his pampered little sister, and now he was making a full foray into the entertainment industry.

Based on the discussed contract, he would be making about as much as she did, and Ai was in quite the popular phase currently.

That was the power of the Detective Conan branding, a big name in the entertainment industry of Japan.

Ai could feel the pressure build up in her stomach, a mixed bag of emotions piling up.

Aqua was her child, but now, he would be helping support the family.

A big part of her, the prideful idol, wanted dearly to reject it. To say no, and rely purely on her efforts to fund the family. Based on how popular she had recently gotten, it was possible too.

She worked hard to be as entertaining in every way as possible. She knew it, the audience knew it, and so did everyone around her. And it was paying off, she was getting more and more popular, and the requests kept going even as the agency pumped up her fees.

But another, bigger part of her, the greedy idol, whispered in her ear, demanded she accept it.

Aqua loved the role. He was a big fan of Detective Conan, and would always reserve an hour every week of the TV to watch it. It was really his only request, and his pleading eyes easily got her and Ruby to let him do it.

Not to mention, more money would be good, not just for her, but also for Ruby. For Aqua. Even if her pride was assuaged and she finds peace in being the sole provider for her children, she knew that it would not be as good as the nearly doubled funds the family would have with Aqua's help.

She wanted the best for her family. Only the best for the children of the greediest idol.

And at the same time, though she did her best, popularity wasn't forever. The audience could have eyes on her one day and move on the next day. Even not counting that, her secret got closer and closer to getting uncovered, especially with Aqua's entry into the mainstream entertainment industry.

She did her best to keep any leaks from occurring, but the more exposure their family had, the more likely it was for an incident to happen, that was just how it is.

Ai's eyes looked up from the script that she'd gotten distracted from reading. Her eyes landed on Mana, her recent partner on stage. They had a lot of jobs together for the foreseeable future.

They'd be starring in a show directed by Director Gotanda together soon, once more taking advantage of their popularity in the sibling role on the screen once more. Then they'd work together again, this time as voice actors, for an idol anime. She was to be the idol and he was to be the idol's little brother. Those were the bigger projects, and there were a lot of requests of interviews for shows or radio episodes.

They worked together so much recently that they'd developed a dynamic, so to speak.

Ai was the cheeky, teasing older sister while Mana would be the attached but more rational little brother. The dynamic came about as a result of all the jobs they were invited to together.

There were so many things she wanted to tease Mana about recently, so she naturally became teasing older sister. It happened even if most of the things she wanted to tease him about were things she had to keep secret.

The main thing she wanted to tease him about was that her two twins had gotten really attached to Mana recently.

Ever since getting the Detective Conan role, Aqua talked about Mana nonstop, always practicing 'to beat his rival' and calling him about anything and everything. They were best friends now, and she found it so cute how her subdued son seemed to have brightened up.

If only he would stop getting embarrassed and surrender to her pampering.

Meanwhile, Ruby seemed to have become a big fan of Mana ever since the movie. She seemed a little pouty in playdates recently since Aqua and Mana got closer and they spent more time, just the two of them.

Ai didn't expect Ruby to like the message of Mana's improv lines in the movie that much.

Ai herself was affected by them. She knew that they were emotionally moving lines. She knew that they were delivered convincingly and movingly. But she really didn't get why Ruby seemed so affected.

Ai always did told Ruby that she beautiful. Because she was. Ruby was her child, and so she would be beautiful. It was as simple as that.

Ai couldn't see why Ruby might have thought she needed to be more beautiful in anyway in order to be loved.

'Ruby is plenty lovable.' her mind provided, and she instinctively agreed.

But immediately as the thought crossed her mind, she had to control her expression as a grimace threatened to form on her face. 'But I still can't tell them I love them.'

'Maybe that's why she's worried about being loved.' Ai worried.

The guilt threatened to eat her up from the inside. Her eyes closed involuntarily in her anxiety. Her hands grasped the script tightly as she did everything she could to keep the grimace out of her expression.

Her daughter's voice, in the distance took her out of her inward spiral. "Wait, really? Can I really?"

The curiosity slowly mounted and pried her out of her negative emotions, leading Ai to open her eyes to check on what was going on.

"I can't wait! I'll ask mama when I get home." Her daughter seemed to be writing something on the notebook excitedly, pausing only when Mana whispered something into her ear.

Later, in the privacy of their home, Ai's daughter immediately made a mad dash towards her mother.

"Mama! Can I go on YouTube videos with my friends?" her daughter was bursting with enthusiasm, instantly filling Ai's insides with warmth.

She was going to think about it more, especially regarding safety and security, and whether or not someone so young should be allowed on YouTube, but when Ai thought about how her son was about to become a mainstream media actor and how Ai herself was a very popular idol, the argument died in her mouth.

Instead she hugged Ruby tightly, causing the girl to let out a little giggle before leaning into her mother.

"Of course you can Ruby." she gave her agreement. "Just make you sure you show them to Mama first, okay?" Ai just had to double check that nothing that would reveal their family secret would be leaked.

"Okay!" her daughter instantly agreed, and Ai's hand quickly found itself back on her daughter's head.

"I need to tell Mana!" Ruby gasped, running to Aqua who got to use his mother's old phone, just in case he needed it, while he was out acting.

Ai's smile that evening was particularly warm.


I have no idea how the entertainment industry actually goes LOL

But I'm having fun writing :))

Please let me know any tips you have to writing the entertainment industry!

Also, I wanna know what you think about Ai's perspective here. Her popularity is soaring more than ever, although it's a bit different from her popularity in canon. A lot of it is a shared popularity with Mana, and the popularity is less about her beauty and more about the message of empowerment. Not needing to be beautiful to be loved.

In a way, her popularity is both less and more than in canon, in different ways, and I tried to emphasize that in this chapter. That will have effects in more subtle ways.

Let's lie! There will be more fanfics and more updates! Oshi no Ko fandom let's go!