A train is bound for glory, so I run after it
No time to find my shoes, it's pulling out, so in just my bare feet I jump on

Nico found herself seated on a stool, singing, in the kind of strapless dress that a night-club singer wears. Complete with a padded bra - Kotori had insisted. Nico's hair was in a loose pony tail, swept behind one ear, and she had a small rose tucked into the band.

When the sun sets tonight in my town
the empty people will gang up and beat up on
Anyone even weaker than they are, like always

They were at the karaoke place where "Minalinsky" had practiced singing. It was a cosplay karaoke bar. Kotori had somehow gotten a fake ID and had put her hair up temporarily to make Nico look older than she normally did. Kotori had flashed her ID and told the night manager — a very fun-loving and irresponsible young woman — that Nico was older than her, which was true. She said they wanted a small amount of drinks to loosen Nico up, but not too much, as she was a debuting singer who needed to keep her vocal cords from tightening up. Kotori had proceeded to pick all the music for the night. Nico was grateful for that.

As their cries echo, that just makes my blues pick up speed

Something was picking up speed, anyway. To add to the unfamiliarity, Kotori had gotten a digicam, with, she assured Nico, very good sound. Apparently it was a common request at the karaoke bar. She pointed it at Nico. fiddled with various adjustments for a while, and let it run. She told Nico she should ignore it completely. Easy to say.

I want a kind of freedom you can't see
I make a gun with my finger and I fire it all around
Just one true voice, one time
That's all I ask

Nico had to admit she identified with the song, by an early Nineties band from Shibuya called "The Blue Hearts." She felt like her muted, wistful performance wasn't doing it justice, but Kotori adjusted her vocals and pronounced it "perfect, Nico-tan! Just keep singing like that."

This place isn't heaven, but it's not hell either
I'm not a good person, but I'm not a bad one either

It wasn't exactly a good times sing-along.

There's a romantic starry sky out tonight
I want to hold you
While the south wind blows around us
I want to dream wild dreams

Three guesses whose face she saw then. Then again, what didn't make her think of Maki these days?

Earlier that day, at the cafe, the waitress had come while Kotori was holding Nico's hand. It was obvious Nico had tears in her eyes. Kotori had told the waitress they'd come there to cheer Nico up after a breakup — as straightforwardly as that. Nico was too sad to care about how embarrassing that was, and the waitress was sympathetic. "Good for you!" she'd said to Kotori. "I'm surprised someone could stand to break up with a cute little thing like your friend, but I'm glad she has someone to cheer her up."

And the train, the train will keep on going
The train, the train wherever it's going

They had talked quietly after the food was brought. Kotori said, "Nico, if we are going to make the most of this week, I can't hesitate. I have to be brave and not afraid to talk about things, to ask about things, to tell you things. You have to be brave, too." She added that she was glad she was able to sincerely compliment Nico, instead of tiptoeing around her fragile ego. Which the old Nico had practically forced on them. "Nico, you really are attractive, if you only are willing to believe it."

True to her pledge to be brave, she'd elaborated on Honoka and Umi, and their discussion. It turned out that while Kotori was dating Nico, Honoka and Umi would likewise be dating each other all week. "So you see, Nico," she'd explained, "why this works out for us. They wouldn't be able to get closer if they were worrying about what I was doing, or what I was thinking about them."

It was only one song, but after Nico was done singing, she felt drained.

"Don't mind," said Kotori. She had apparently anticipated that a little. Her song came up. Suddenly, Kotori burst out singing, looking right at Nico. In English!

I just want to be with you tonight.
I know that you want to be in my bed.

Nico wasn't perfect at English - not as good as Eli, Maki or Umi, who were good in all subjects, or Kotori, who'd been planning to study abroad for a long time, and had mastered a great deal of English as well as considerable French. But this wasn't exactly difficult to parse. Kotori winked. At some point she'd thrown on a lab coat over her clothes and topped it off with a nurse's hat. True to the spirit of the place, as befitted Minalinsky.

Surprisingly, the song continued in Japanese. Looking at the Karaoke monitor, she saw that it was Ringo Shiina's "Honnou."

We are both lonely,
No one blames us for licking our wounds correctly.

Kotori stuck out her tongue and pretended to lick the microphone.

Nobody, nothing can be blamed
When the threads come undone, I begin to have doubt about life.

Unconsciously, Nico drank down about half of her drink in one gulp.

Earlier at the cafe, Nico had been neither talking nor daydreaming, so she was able to concentrate on the subtler flavors of the not-very-sweet desserts there. It was somewhat of a new experience for Nico, who normally had the tastes of a child when eating out, and especially as it involved dessert. It was something Maki hadn't had the patience to teach her.

Almost against her will, Nico was realizing that the world still had things that were mildly interesting or pleasant left in it. But her sadness stubbornly refused to abate.

After some coffee and small talk, they had gone to a theater somewhat far from Otonokizaka. 'Bian teens had somehow gravitated to the matinee showing there, which had, in turn, become something of a 'gay matinee' on the weekends. Today it had the recent version of Natural Woman

"Yoko and Hanayo fell in love while working together as manga artists at their university newspaper. The intensity of their affair was such that for years after their breakup Yoko avoided forming any new relationships."

and the live action adaptation of Love My Life. The former movie, essentially recapitulating Nico's own story of heartbreak on the screen, had been excruciating to bear. When they bought tickets, Kotori had chosen the couple's seats, which gave them privacy for Nico to spend much of the movie crying on Kotori's shoulder.

At least that had been an incentive to stay and watch the much cheerier Love My Life. As Nico cheered up, however, Kotori had taken that as a cue to start kissing Nico. True to her word, she took the girlfriends for a week thing completely seriously. The ups and downs of Natural Woman followed by the warm fuzziness of Love My Life had had an effect on Nico. She hadn't been able to say she didn't like it.

Forgive me for my fickleness,
Don't tell me it's too late, just move me!
Come in even deeper,
Set my true instincts in motion!

Come to think of it, wasn't "Honnou" a girl/girl song? The way Kotori was pulling out the stops with all the 'bian stuff, Nico was surprised they hadn't ended up in Nichome! She kept looking at Nico in a flirty way as she sang, too.

Under the moonlight, it makes me feel
like saying I don't care about anything
Inferiority complexes, categories
Let's forget all that

Now it was Nico's turn. Another thing Kotori was taking seriously was the karaoke. She had not only picked the music, but had printed out a lot of lyrics and gave them to Nico to read while Kotori was singing and while they took breaks. Then when Nico was up, she let her get a feel for the verse and chorus as practice, then started the song over. It wasn't a normal karaoke flow, but then again, it was just the two of them. They ordered more drinks, but Kotori made a point of saying in front of the staff that if it affected her singing, Nico couldn't finish hers. She was heavily role-playing the lovestruck manager and her talent she had to watch over. The staff had recognized her as Minalinsky, of course, so anything was possible.

Had a dream last night that I was dead
Had a dream last night that I was dead
Evil spirits All around my bed

The second drink had opened up Nico's feelings a bit, and the song felt appropriate, somehow. She was able to give it a little more energy than she had "Train, Train," though not a great deal.

Mean blues spirits stuck their forks in me
Mean blues spirits stuck their forks in me
Made me moan and groan in misery

She looked at the name on the song, "Blue Spirit Blues," and her face twitched:

Maki

She continued singing but threw a glare at Kotori. Was she doing everything on purpose?

Maki Asakawa didn't seem like a cheerful person. Well. What if someone came to Nico now and told her to be cheerful? Maybe she shouldn't be so hasty to judge.

This is hell I cried, cried with all my might
This is hell I cried, cried with all my might
Oh, my soul, I can't bear the sight

When she finished, she was drained, again. But Kotori seemed really pleased. With glee, she went right in to Utada Hikaru's "Ore no Kanojo."

My girlfriend's pretty good-looking, and she's got social graces
Even my friends all say she's a smart girl.

By this point, Nico had completely forgotten the digicam. But Kotori hadn't.

I want the courage to want what I really want,
I keep thinking lately when we're holding each other

This was a much bigger step than becoming "The legendary maid Minalinsky" had been. But the feeling was somewhat similar. She understood Maki's objections. All too well. But Maki was wrong, and they, the rest of mu's, were right.

She could sense it. Kotori was the only one in mu's who had succeeded on her own terms, so far. Nico had failed with her own idol group. Eli had failed at ballet. It might be cruel to think that, but it was accurate. Winning a Love Live! was one kind of goal, but building for the future was completely different. Romance aside, Nico was due for a crash course in all the things she needed to be good at if she was serious about "being an idol," which wasn't really meaningful if you looked at it too closely. Not all idols stuck with singing and dancing. Some mostly acted. Others expanded their singing careers without focusing on dance. Kotori had created a persona much more fleshed out than "Nico, Nico ni!" and sold it, all on her own.

And now, it was time for Nico to practice singing in English.

Oh baby, I love you much
Oh baby, it's not enough

They had started over a few times, but Kotori felt like Nico was in the groove. The lyrics had a Japanese translation below them. Kotori had also let Nico hear the original singer perform it, to give her a taste of what blues singing in English was like. Nico had asked about the singer. "Well, she died a couple months before Touhoku, Nico," Kotori said, and when Nico asked how old she was, she said 27. How completely depressing! Then Nico asked about Maki Asakawa, and it turned out she had died a year before the British singer, Amy Winehouse. "But she was in her sixties, Nico." To be fair, that was pretty old. As old as Nico's grandmother, in fact. Still, blues singing was starting to sound like Death Note as far as Nico was concerned.

We only said goodbye with words
I died a hundred times
You go back to her
And I go back to black

Looking at the lyrics in Japanese and reflecting on the performance she'd heard on Kotori's phone, Nico decided the British singer had definitely been there — that was just exactly how it felt. When she was done, the effort of singing in English made her feel exhausted completely.

But this time Kotori didn't let up. "You know," she said, looking at Nico sympathetically, "Sometimes you have to keep singing even when you don't want to, but you feel better afterwards." Nico looked at her, bewildered. Kotori produced another song in English, from an American named Amanda Palmer. Kotori called it a "cabaret song." It seemed rather angry, and Nico decided to humor Kotori. She took her anger and annoyance with her life out on the song, much to Kotori's delight. It was called "Good Day," which Nico thought was ironic. Kotori seemed pleased that it completely wiped Nico out.

Up for Kotori came another Utada song, "Tomodachi." It was rather blatant compared to her earlier choices. Actually, it was a duet, so Kotori started it over a few times till Nico caught up. She subtly turned them both so the digicam could get both of them in the lens. While Nico was finishing up the cabaret song, Kotori had changed into her Minalinsky outfit.

Oh, because I want to touch you and I can't help it, oh
Oh, I can't be your friend, can't be your friend, oh
Because there's no point if I'm not your number one anymore

Kotori made sure they were pressed close together during the whole song. Nico didn't think of the digicam, so it seemed a little much. But she was playing along, she'd decided, so she continued as she began.

If I showed you what was in my heart-no, it's no use
I'm very good at lying, but my heart is honest to a fault

Kotori moved a little back and looked at Nico flirtatiously.

I want to kiss you; I don't need hugs or anything like that
Let me have one kiss, but of course...

Kotori finished by making it look like she was about to kiss Nico as the song ended.

Nico sat down with complete relief. A staffer came and asked if they needed a third round of drinks. Kotori said it was fine, that Nico had done the songs where her voice had to be in shape and deserved a reward for "being a good girl." Before this, Nico would have been annoyed that the staffer might think of her as the kind of performer who drinks too much, being monitored and babysat by her manager. As it was, she decided she could use it. Of course, that was how those performers started, but she didn't think about that.

Unbelievably, Kotori wanted Nico to do one more song. Her voice felt weak, she was exhausted, and she just wanted to go home and sleep. She told Nico this song, in fact, was the main song she wanted to have Nico sing on. "But we needed you to be just right for it, and now you should be." Whatever that meant. Half-dead? Sick of the whole thing? Nonetheless, Nico smiled at the fact that it was the last song.

Somehow this song, another blues song by Maki Asakawa, hit Nico with the impact of a punch in the stomach.

From the rear window I can see the setting sun
I can see the step-ladder where the washing is drying

It was as if she'd been watching Nico, who had in fact often had to dry the washing on a step ladder outside their family's little apartment at Shouhei Bridge.

From the rear window I can see a couple nestling together
From the rear window I can see the river
I can hear the sound of a dark barge
From the rear window I sometimes see people parting

And wasn't that Nico's life in a nutshell? Years of watching other people, happier, more fortunate, more popular, live their lives while she just watched?

From the rear window I see myself three years ago When I was still young

Niko stopped singing and looked at Kotori.

"Are you trying to break me, Kotori?" she asked. Nico started crying. She was tired and sad and bewildered.

"I have a really good reason for you to sing this song, Nico-chan," Kotori said, though she hugged Nico. "So please trust me this one last time?"

Nico felt a morbid curiosity about the possibility that Kotori would turn her persuasion skills, finely honed on Umi over the years, on Nico. Would that be good or bad? In any event, Kotori simply waited. They started over and Nico tried to do her best. She made her voice as firm and strong as she could. In places it cracked somewhat, and in others, it sounded surprisingly strong, even good, to Nico. The lyrics seemed to stay with her even after she finished, and burst into tears again.

Kotori comforted her again, they dressed in their own clothes and put their costumes in the collection bin. Kotori insisted on paying for the whole night, which they hadn't paid for in advance. This karaoke place gave Minalinsky a good discount, and she had mentioned them to tourists at the maid cafe a few times.

Nico's mother had said it was fine staying overnight at the Minami house. When they got there, it turned out Principal Minami was away visiting her sister. Kotori told Nico her father was usually away for business, even on weekends. So they had the place to themselves.

Kotori insisted they take a bath together. Nico agreed because that would get them to sleep faster, she thought. Of course, it was embarrassing to be in the tub together, especially since Kotori insisted they wash each other before they got in, "all over." Then when they were in the tub she cuddled up behind Nico. She rubbed Nico's shoulders, which made Nico want to fall asleep in the bath. After a while, when they got out, Kotori didn't put any clothing back on, but just wore a long t-shirt, and found one for Nico. It really was similar to how Nico and Maki had gone to bed after a bath at Maki's house a few times. The reality of what she was doing hit Nico rather hard. She felt like she was cheating on Maki, and giving up on her at the same time. A night spent cuddling with Kotori in bed, in just tee-shirts, that might be too girlfriend-y to handle.

Kotori suggested a late-night snack. Since they hadn't eaten since early afternoon, it sounded good to Nico. Amazingly, Kotori's house had an espresso maker. Nico didn't really want coffee that late at night, but Kotori said it would be sad if they fell asleep the minute they hit the bed, without any cuddling or pillow talk.

The snacks were surprisingly plain. Just ochazuke from packets and pudding. And cookies with the espresso in porcelain demitasses. They discussed the day. Nico laughed a little at how 'bian Kotori had made it. "What sort of reputation would Muse get if people saw us?" she said rhetorically. Kotori laughed and said from what she saw of fan comments, Muse had already gotten that dubious haircut*, and there was no way to un-cut it.

They talked a little about the food and the movies, but mostly about karaoke. Nico said she saw the pattern Kotori had picked. Nico cries her heart out about her misery with blues songs, and Kotori flirts with Nico with love songs.

"You got it, Nico!" Kotori said, bringing her hands together in front of her. "But more seriously, as I said about how you dress, and your hair, it's also true that Nico needs to try singing other things besides cute and high-pitched idol songs now that she's going to be graduating soon. I think Nico's natural voice is a little lower than mine, even though you make yourself sing higher. I thought you would sing blues songs well, and I was right."

She touched Nico on the arm and looked in her eyes. "You know, you looked like a real singer tonight. And you were very beautiful."

Kotori cleared up and washed the few dishes they'd used, then brought out little cups of plum wine for a night-cap. She toasted "our first day together," and they sipped it until it was gone. It was a very good-tasting, aged plum wine and Nico felt it affect her. She was still just a little affected by the alcohol at the karaoke place, too.

It was clearly time for bed, as Nico yawned and stretched sleepily. As she'd expected, they got into Kotori's bed, which had a blanket and sheets that smelled fresh out of the dryer. Probably for the best that she didn't smell Kotori's scent in the bed or the pillows. Kotori faced Nico and they sort of arranged themselves so they could cuddle but still talk. It wasn't long before Kotori kissed Nico again. This time she licked Nico's lips, and when Nico opened her mouth a little, she kissed her in a racy way. She stroked Nico's back and it became very sexy. Kotori gently moved one of Nico's hands to her breast as they went on kissing. Then she, even more gently, touched Nico's breast. Nico started to panic a little.

Was the unbelievable going to happen? Wasn't Kotori a virgin? Even with girls, Nico meant, thinking to herself. She tensed up a little. Kotori kept her hand where it was and simply slowed down the pace of kissing. She hugged Nico tightly and made reassuring noises. After a bit, she kissed Nico's chin and neck. She gently stroked Nico's breast.

"Kotori, you aren't serious?" Nico said, a little panicked.

"Nico-chan, I am," Kotori said, simply. She shrugged her shirt off and was completely naked. She again placed Nico's hand on her breast, gently, and went back to kissing her and caressing her breasts. Nico felt a sense of unreality. Her feelings of betraying Maki and her love for Maki returned. At the same time, she felt herself responding to Kotori. She hesitated. Was she really capable of doing — well — that?

At that point, Kotori brought out the big guns. Making the best puppy eyes Nico had ever seen in her life — and Nico had three little siblings she had to parent - Kotori leaned over Nico, staring into her eyes. She reached for Nico's shirt and started drawing it up.

"Nico-chan! Nico-chan ... Onegaiiiii?"

From the rear window I see a couple who look happy
But tonight the wind blows hard
And the shutter closes with a bang
Then flies open again with a bang
And the ghosts have already disappeared

*age-otori: Look worse after a haircut. In this case, "that ship has sailed" because you can't un-cut hair.


Notes*:

Birb! How could you?!

"Fushidarana jo Nico," the title of this chapter as well as this work, translates pretty exactly as "Nico the Slut" After all, she's now slept with 25% of the Muse girls. And she put out on the first date!

Surprise Songfic! (Karaoke Edition):

Train Train c. 1988 Hiroto Kōmoto and Blue Hearts

Honnou c. 2000 Ringo Shiina

Ore no Kanojo c. Utada Hikaru

Back to Black c. 2006 Amy Winehouse

Blue Spirit Blues c. 1929 Bessie Smith Japanese version c. 1971 Maki Asakawa
Maki Asakawa version is a major rewrite: Among other things, she changed the repeated first lines in each stanza to rhymed couplets, and extended the imagery of the song.

Ura Mado c. 1973 Maki Asakawa

Tomodachi c. Utada Hikaru

Obviously a lot of wordplay here. It's age-otori because Nico can't un-screw Kotori. And for this week, at least, the KotoNico ship has sailed.

*Cross-posted from AO3