When Honoka arrived at Kira Tsubasa's house, which she had only seen once before, she remembered it was, like Tsubasa herself, modest, elegant and friendly. Because she'd been thinking about Nico a lot lately, she suddenly realised they had a lot in common. Tsubasa was, basically, a successful Nico. Honoka was, too, but not nearly as good a match. Maybe Nico and Tsubasa should be dating? she wondered. Then she made waving gestures to banish that thought, which she hoped A-RISE wasn't watching her do through a window.

To her surprise, Erena and Anju hugged her after Erena opened the door. "We were just going," Anju said, apologetically. And they did leave, but not before Nico could hear them giggling when Tsubasa said, "So, you're here to discuss dating the mini-me?"

"But, Tsuba-chan, you're ..." Honoka began.

"I forced her to submit to a height check. I'm a full centi taller," Tsubasa said, folding her arms.

"Then ..." Honoka said, tentatively, "... then, yes?"

Tsubasa surprised her with a hug, too.

"I won't mind not being your first if you won't mind not being mine. What you and the others are doing is exactly why I like you, team leader!"

Honoka must have looked shocked.

"If you're wondering who, I might like to leave that a mystery," Tsubasa said with a smile.

Honoka decided to accept that with good grace. "Well ... well, okay. So you aren't mad at me? We'll still go out after Love Live!?"

Continuing to surprise her, Tsubas just smirked. "You dummy, it's going to be Erena and Anju. They're a couple, but they've always wondered. It might add a little something to our performances. After all, it's cheating if only Mu's does that."

"You're right about it not mattering so much to Nico ..." Honoka said. "Wait!"

"If we did something now, could you stand it if you were then with Nico and I was with them?"

"If it's Anju, or it's Erena, I can stand it. And Nico won't mind."

"We won't have a week, if you're determined to keep to your schedule," Tsubasa pointed out.

"But we'll have plenty of weeks, after that," Honoka replied. She hoped her face looked hopeful instead of panicked.

"Wait," said Tsubasa. She looked like she was thinking about something. "Let's bring snacks up to my room, and talk."

"We talk about you, of course," she heard Tsubasa say as she came through the door with a couple of drinks and some snacks. "The Mu's girls, I mean," she continued, as she sat next to Honoka on her bed.

Honoka waited.

"If Nico's not finished healing by the time she either does or doesn't get Ayase-san, I think we'd all be interested in joining the project," Tsubasa added. That was not something Honoka would have ever imagined coming out of Tsubasa's mouth today.

"Um, w-why?" Honoka asked.

"With your approval? Because it would give her more closure. Call it the Kotori Theory: the more girls she sleeps with, the more at peace she is," Tsubasa said, smiling to show she was only half-serious. "More seriously, what about Nishikino-san?"

"Umm, about Maki-chan?" Honoka answered, puzzled.

"Well, she'll potentially have this very experienced older girlfriend, and she'll only have ever had Nico. If things fall out a certain way," Tsubasa explained.

Honoka wasn't the naive girl she'd been even a month ago. She now realised that might be a problem.

"But you nine are too close, she couldn't follow in Nico's footsteps. It's not on the table," Tsubasa said.

"So ... A-RISE?" Honoka said, a little squeakily.

"A-RISE," agreed Tsubasa. "There also won't be an element of comparison. They'll have one more thing in common to talk about - much later, hopefully."

"Then," Honoka mused out loud, "I would be with Nico-chan and Tsuba-chan, and Tsuba would be with Erena, Anju, Nico-chan and Maki-chan?"

"Honoka, I won't be dating Anju and Erena separately, for the most part. After Umi and Kotori get together, if they're up for it, you should be with them both. I won't mind. It'd be annoying if you were wondering about it for years."

"Eleven girls!" Honoka blurted out. Tsubasa laughed. Honoka had just now seen the big picture with Nico-chan.

"Yes, our little imp is going to be quite the authentic fushidara na jo. I know Kotori's project -" Spotting a twitch of Honoka's head, she added " - yes, your idea - is for helping Nico recover from her heartbreak, but can you honestly say she won't be rewarded? She gets to sleep with eleven pretty girls in as many weeks. And fellow idols, to boot, not just fans!"

Looked at that way, maybe Nico was already over the hump, and Honoka didn't have to worry over her as much. Maybe even after a bit, Nico'd become an asset again. An asset! Is that how I think about things now? she thought, a little dismayed. Well, no use feeling that way about Nico - that was already how she thought about things. Even Maki's contributions going forward could be made the most of. And now she had another stray thought. I really had no idea what I was doing, did I? It made her turn red. She hoped Maki had had fun, because the way the rest of the girls wasted her time, she now saw, was criminal.

"I want to scold you, Tsuba-chan, I want to, but ..." Honoka began. "Let's say, let's say Nico-chan is building up stuff to brag about to herself inside. Like, you drink a lot of cocoa before you go out into the blizzard, because you won't be warm again for a long while. Like that."

Honoka had always snorted when she read that Tsubasa's charm point was her forehead. In the privacy of her mind, she thought fan magazines were mostly silly. But unfortunately for her, she caught sight of Tsubasa's face in just the right light, just then.

"Oh, shoot," she blurted out. "It IS pretty."

Tsubasa considered where Honoka had been looking. "Oh, you like my forehead, Leader-chan? Well, I have an idea, then." With that, she moved any remaining snacks to the end table, opened the covers on her bed, and started matter-of-factly undressing.

"We should see how many charm points we can find on each other, Honoka," she said.