HonoNico Omaki: Digging Up Old Songs


This was going to be very delicate, and that was something she'd never been very strong in.

Kousaka Honoka wished it was anyone else — except, possibly, Rin - doing this. Mika, Fumiko and Hideko, for instance, were very poised, mature, but humble girls capable of putting anyone at ease. Cool girls like Eli, Umi and even Maki knew how to work people to make them so in awe they did what you wanted. Hanayo was too cute to turn down. Nozomi was innately supremely persuasive, but made you feel like it was your decision. Even Nico was better at it — she'd managed to create her idol group without having much of an in, unlike Honoka, who had the principal's daughter in her corner.

The problem with that line of thinking was, only Honoka would think to even do this. Or maybe — no wonder she was such good friends with Kotori. They both liked super-weird ideas and would do them no matter what anyone said. She'd asked around discreetly — she was practicing up for this, plus she'd been stung by a comment Tsubasa probably didn't even notice she'd made, that indicated she thought Honoka couldn't help being a blabbermouth with no tact. Anyway, she found that Nico didn't have a bad reputation at Otonokizaka yet — it was certainly mixed, but overall it had added to her intrigue. It was easy to ignore the littlest Muse, always dressing the same way, usually projecting the same persona, she guessed. Maybe the fans were like the predators they'd learned about in biology class? They only noticed changes.

Wait! She put her hand over her mouth, even though she'd just been thinking to herself.

Why was she comparing fans to predators? But that wasn't the point. What was the point? Dang.

Oh! Honoka raised her fist.

The point was, Kotori's weird idea had done no harm, so far. Even when it looked like it made Maki hate Nico, that got resolved, according to Eli and Nozomi. So even if Honoka's idea was a failure, it would probably do no harm, and therefore, since she'd drive herself nuts thinking about it if she didn't try it, she was going to carry on. It would be great if she could generate the ideas and have someone else do them, but that wasn't in the cards right now, as Nozomi would say. So it was up to her.

Right? Right. She punched herself in the arm and went on the lookout.


As she'd suspected, once she rounded up two of them, they said they would pass her information on to the others. That was after a fair bit of discussion.

When she'd planned how to persuade them, she'd had to swear Yukiho to secrecy and let her play the role of the persuadees.

Yukiho was excellent at shooting down Honoka's ideas, so she was a good test. As she'd guessed, Yukiho had focused on the "why?" of it all. Honoka had to have it clear in her mind what she wanted, and why.

Reassurance for everyone involved. Reconciliation. Closure. She didn't express herself exactly that way, but that was what it boiled down to. She also thought it would be very, very interesting.

They had explicitly called it a crazy idea at first, of course.

"She's really changed, you know," Honoka said. "I mean, not entirely for the better, but ...'

At that they looked even more dubious.

"Oh, I don't mean she's hard to deal with. Umm, if I tell you a big secret, can you keep it to yourselves?" With that Honoka felt herself getting a little irate with Tsubasa. I am not a blabbermouth! she insisted internally. If they were going to encounter her, they needed to know a little bit. The two seniors nodded. "She's a little down now. I know idols aren't supposed to have relationships, let alone relationship issues, but ... I hope I don't have to spell anything out, okay?"

They nodded again, both a bit shocked. Honoka continued: "maybe more than a little down, but she'll be gracious, I guarantee it. She's nothing but gracious nowadays."

"So, is that your main reason, Kousaka-san? I am not sure we can help you cheer her up, if that's the plan."

"Well, I am sure you can, but I think also it's more like ... It's good to talk things out, it's good to finish things on a high note?"

"It's a lot of work, and a lot of persuasion for us, for such a huge amount of guesswork and speculation by you, Kousaka-san."

"But! But! That's kind of the whole point. It'll be fun work. Not like what she's going to be doing every morning pretty soon, I promise you that. It's not a skill contest, it's ... it's communication. Just put a lot of love into it and it'll be fun, and it'll make people happy."

"Ah, there you go. You are more like her than we would have guessed without talking to you personally," one of the girls said.

At that, the other one set her jaw and said, "Yeah, I'm in. Mimi?"

Her friend looked surprised. She looked at her newly determined classmate for a while, then nodded. "Okay, we'll talk to the others, but no promises."

"I'll give you the details. It'll be me and Sonoda Umi at first and then me and Kotori, and whoever else I think we need to tell, if we get stuck. Do you guys have ...?"

"Yeah," Mimi said. "I don't know why, but Yuzu kept everything for a scrapbook."

"You won't regret this!" exulted Honoka. It had taken about half the time and effort she'd thought it would, even at her most optimistic.

One of the girls gave her a lopsided grin, and said, "Are you sure about that?"