A New Life
April, 2011
Heisei 23
"This is it," Niko thought.
She didn't mind the stares of the other Otonokizaka freshmen. She planned to weaponize her cuteness, after all, so looking like a grade schooler was half the battle. Yazawa Nico had had a couple of setbacks just before starting here, but she felt in her bones this was where she was meant to excel. Well. Last year finishing middle school, she'd been certain she'd be excelling at UTX. But anyone could become a super-idol out of a flashy place like that. Nico imagined the interview she'd give.
"Well, my family is honest and hardworking, and we wanted a school where there was a sense of Japanese tradition. UTX seemed too impersonal for Nico. Of course, Nico worked hard in school, so she could have gone to any school, but Otonokizaka had the greatest tradition of all ..."
Not really true, although Nico's grades had been quite good. She had barely not made the cut to get in to UTX right away, and couldn't find anyone prestigious to give her a recommendation anyway. Plus, while she might have wangled a scholarship to UTX, it wouldn't have covered even their rather pricey winter and summer uniforms, and each subject, each trip, and each club seemed to have extra fees. Her mother had told her they probably couldn't afford it, and since Nico wasn't a shoo-in, anyway ... Luckily, Nico had gotten a feeling right around then and worked extra hard to make sure she could get in to Otonokizaka, where one of her mother's cousins had gone.
Her last year of middle school, Nico had literally studied while cooking dinner, while watching her siblings in the bath, eating breakfast, and so on. She studied over breaks and over lunch at school. Thank goodness for the internet and computers at the library! Once she'd disciplined herself not to sing in the library - and get the evil eye - she could keep up with the world of singing and dancing idols by judiciously researching no more than an hour a day. When that cut in to dance practice behind the middle school, she would curtail it to a half hour. Singing, she practiced at home in her room. After a while, she let her siblings come listen if they were in the mood.
That their beloved Onee-chan, already a second mother to them, should be a singer just like on TV or videos was amazing to them, and they were a worshipful audience Nico secretly probably needed then. She'd even befriended two girls enough that they'd pledged to join her "Idol Research Club" (really just a vehicle for an idol group) when they all ended up at Otonokizaka. Very suddenly, however, Nitta Rin and Sera Yuzu, who were close friends with each other, had told her they would join a different club, and that they could only be "ghost members" for Nico's.
It wasn't so much that Nico minded soloing, but that a club could get the kind of support a selfish lone idol wannabe never could. A room, a computer, maybe even somewhere to practice. However, she decided to pick her battles and was completely gracious.
"Of course, Nico is disappointed, but can she hold you to the ghost member offer?" she'd asked. Rin and Yuzu had agreed, relieved. Rin had a cousin Nico knew from middle school, also interested in being an idol, who would be there at Otonokizaka in a year or two, and it was good to keep good relations in any case.
As she'd hoped, this first day some clubs had already been allowed to set out desks to recruit people. She went over to the dance club. They actually had two tables and chairs, and only one person there. Nico very straightforwardly told the girl sitting there she wanted to start a singing and dancing idol club right away, and asked if she could borrow a little space by them. Although the dance club member was surprised at such a confident yet young-looking girl, she tentatively agreed. Nico left her school packet there and went into the bathroom. She came out dressed like an idol. She asked if it would be okay if she exhibited a bit of singing and dancing near there - there happened to be a large cleared out space between their tables and the stairwell. "Just shoo Nico away if she's embarrassing," she offfered with a sweet smile. The club member, not a complete fool, asked Nico for a pledge to join the dance club. Nico bargained with her: could she put her club first, and use the dance club to train at? She pledged to try to give credit for any glory she received to the dance club. The club member agreed, and Nico, pushing her luck, put up a tasteful sign saying "Who wants to start an Idiol Club?" and her contact information.
When Nico was ready, she brought out a portable karaoke she'd borrowed from Rin. She'd practiced how to get the best sound out of it without being too low-volume to be heard - sheltering the mic in lots of foam seemed to help. She performed a less-known song by a promising 12-year-old pop singer who had recently become popular, and with her own, simple but well-executed, choreography. Her completely professional manor, yet obvious joy in performing, drew a small crowd, and in fact, benefited the dance club more than Nico, whose name was already on their sign-up sheet. But she did get two girls, friends named Fujioka Ageha and Shirai Mimi, to sign her hand-made member sheet, and with Yuzu and Rin, she would at least have the minimum for an association. She would twist everyone's arms to get as many ghost members as possible, but this day wasn't for hustling, it was for winning hearts and minds.
Part of the draw was that Nico looked far too young to be there. Just this morning she'd decided on rather tightly banded twin-tails that would have looked ridiculous on anyone that didn't look, as she still did, like a grade-schooler. Skipping grades is not very common in Japan, but that was the impression she made. She noticed one of the people watching her looked like a teacher, so after she performed, she went over to them and asked, straightforwardly, if they knew of any teacher who could advise a new club for idol singing, dancing, and research.
It turned out the teacher, Mizukuki-sensei, had managed to beg off advising a club for quite a while up till then, and had been requested to do her share at the end of the previous year. It also looked like this little girl was quite the self starter, and if she did well, the founding advisor would look good - and she could beg off doing any more unless the club took off in a bigger way than she'd predict school idols at Otonokizaka would. Somewhere in the middle should be fine. So she wrote her name in as tentative advisor, pending the correct number of members. Right after that, Rin and Yuzu showed up and Nico had five names, and herself as president.
On a whim, and in celebration, she asked Rin and Yuzu to do a dance number they'd practiced in middle school. Nico put Rin in the middle and she and Yuzu played along. Nico was so much in practice she could not only dance and sing, but hold the mic near enough to Rin and Yuzu that you could hear them singing. Certainly not as polished as Nico, but charming enough. Just as they had after Nico performed solo, the students and teachers watching applauded.
Nico tried to score points by going over then and guilting the drama club Rin and Yuzu were joining - she graciously told them, quietly, that she didn't mind them poaching Rin and Yuzu "even though we made all those plans in middle school - I guess Nico is now the Lone Musketeer," because she "wanted dear Rin-chan and Yuzu-chan to follow their dreams as Nico was following hers." It had probably worked. She might be able to get help with costumes in the future, or even a small role in a drama if they needed more than the club was providing. It never hurt to have things like that in your idol resume.
She went back to the desk, but didn't get any more bites. Three girls it was.
