Kikukawa Kyo tugged at the hem of her skirt. She wasn't used to wearing skirts, and the airy, floating sensation made her feel a little uncomfortable.
It did look nice, but pants were definitely more comfortable.
Mana, on the other hand, was practically sparkling with excitement. She looked like she was about to pounce on Kikukawa Kyo at any moment. "This is too cute! Let's perform together from now on, okay? Let's be sumimi idols together!"
"Eh, you're inviting me to be an idol just based on my appearance?" Kikukawa Kyo was suddenly clung to, but she didn't mind the close contact.
Standing nearby, Uika watched the two of them playing around, smiling. She felt like she had truly become the most mature one in the room.
Come to think of it, if the agency wanted to recruit Kikukawa Kyo, perhaps the best person to persuade her wasn't herself, but Mana—whose cheerful, infectious energy naturally attracted people.
Uika was personally quite supportive of bringing Kikukawa Kyo into the group. For one, if Kikukawa Kyo joined sumimi, the agency would undoubtedly allocate more resources to them, which would improve Uika's own career prospects within the company.
Outside of the agency, having someone as naturally attention-grabbing as Kikukawa Kyo on board would strengthen the newly formed collaboration with Kikukawa Shuku. sumimi was already gearing up to ride this momentum into a breakthrough period—her addition would only accelerate their rise.
If that happened, then the next time she saw Sakiko, Uika would finally have the confidence to stand on equal footing with her.
Until she could truly be a match for the esteemed eldest daughter of the Toyokawa family, even if Uika learned of Sakiko's whereabouts now, she wouldn't rush to meet her.
She had never slacked in her pursuit of that goal, nor would she let any opportunity for growth slip away.
As for whether Kikukawa Kyo's addition might negatively impact sumimi instead—there were usually two main concerns when a new member joined. One, if their skills were lacking or if their personality clashed with the group, leading to internal strife and dragging the team down. Two, if they were too talented, overshadowing the existing members.
For the first issue, Uika wasn't too worried about Kikukawa Kyo's skills. There's a saying—nicknames might get messed up, but rarely are they entirely unfounded. Someone as widely recognized in the industry as Kikukawa Kyo, even if her reputation were exaggerated, had to have at least some legitimate skill. As for her personality…
Uika glanced over at Mana and Kikukawa Kyo, who were now tangled up in playful chaos. Mana was already trying to get Kikukawa Kyo to pose with her in sumimi's signature performance stance.
Since Mana could accept Kikukawa Kyo so easily, there shouldn't be an issue.
As for the second concern—whether Kikukawa Kyo's talent would be so overwhelming that it overshadowed the rest of them—Uika wasn't worried about that either.
She had debuted as an idol back in middle school and had come this far. If she still doubted her own abilities, she wouldn't have made it in this industry at all.
Uika believed in her own talent and skills. She was confident that she was second to none—this was the conviction she had always carried.
"Kyo," Uika suddenly spoke, drawing the two girls' attention. "If you really want to try out what being an idol feels like, just wearing the outfit isn't enough, right? How about playing a song with us at our usual rehearsal space?"
"Yes, yes!" Mana nodded enthusiastically, unconsciously joining in on Uika's attempt to pull Kikukawa Kyo into the group.
"I don't really mind… but won't it be a hassle for the agency? Letting an outsider use your equipment."
Kikukawa Kyo had completely let go of her own thoughts by now. She wasn't particularly close to the two of them yet, nor could she fully imitate their energy. These past two or three days were her first real attempt at socializing again—just dipping her toes in.
After confirming that imitation wasn't as simple as she had initially thought, Kikukawa Kyo decided to fall back on her usual approach—just talking to the two of them honestly. Mana's carefree enthusiasm and Uika's considerate nature gave Kikukawa Kyo a long-lost sense of comfort in socializing.
At this point, she simply let Uika and Mana drag her around wherever they pleased.
And when they brought her back to the dressing room in her sumimi idol outfit, the manager's eyes practically shot out laser beams!
Well done! You two did an amazing job!
What's more, Kikukawa Shuku didn't seem to mind at all. In fact, she was delighted, pulling out her phone to snap a few rare pictures of her youngest daughter in a skirt.
The manager waved a hand grandly—never mind just the practice room, even the actual performance hall used for recordings was open to them. If they wanted, they could even call in some staff to help film, using the excuse that it was to commemorate Kikukawa Kyo's visit to the agency.
And so, after another round of bustling preparations, they made their way straight to the performance hall. By the time they arrived, everything was already set up—lighting engineers and all—making it feel like an actual professional shoot.
Among the three of them, Mana was by far the most excited, looking as if she were the one about to perform instead of Kikukawa Kyo. "It's not just live concerts—recording sessions are super exciting too!"
Meanwhile, Uika had stepped away to retrieve her seven-string guitar, the SCHECTER AR-07. But considering Kikukawa Kyo might not be familiar with a seven-string, she also had the staff bring over a standard guitar as an alternative.
"Kyo, you mentioned before that you used to be a guitarist in a band, right?" Uika asked. "Do you want to try playing and singing? Or would you rather just focus on singing?"
Her question was phrased thoughtfully, offering Kikukawa Kyo an easy way out no matter what she chose. But deep down, Uika hoped Kikukawa Kyo would opt to play the guitar—she wanted to see for herself just how much of a gap existed between them and this former guitarist of Sakiko's band.
Kikukawa Kyo thought for a moment before decisively picking up Uika's SCHECTER AR-07. Uika wasn't surprised—someone who had been in a band with Sakiko was surely capable of handling a seven-string guitar.
Taking the instrument, Kikukawa Kyo carefully strapped it over her shoulder, casually strumming a few notes. Satisfied, she nodded. "Tuning's just right, no need to adjust the strings."
"What song are you planning to play?" Uika asked.
"Well…" Kikukawa Kyo didn't answer right away. Instead, she pulled out her phone and opened a video. A familiar melody soon filled the room—it was sumimi's debut song, "Here, the World!"
"This might be a bit of a case of 'showing off in front of the masters,'" Kikukawa Kyo said with a slightly shy smile. "But since I'm wearing your outfit, Uika, I figured I'd give this song a try."
Uika was genuinely caught off guard.
Wait—could it be that Kikukawa Kyo is actually a sumimi fan?
Having the confidence to play their debut song in front of the original members suggested that she had probably watched their performances and practiced the song before.
Mana, on the other hand, didn't think too deeply about it—she just jumped up excitedly. "If Kyo is gonna be the guitarist and backup vocalist, then I wanna join in too! Let's sing together, okay?"
"Sure." Kikukawa Kyo readily agreed. "But I'll need to watch your video one more time to get familiar with it."
"Yay!" Mana cheered, immediately running off to change into her idol outfit. Meanwhile, Kikukawa Kyo focused intently on the video, her fingers lightly tracing over the guitar strings as she worked things out.
Neither of them noticed that the smile on Uika's face had frozen slightly.
Listening to Kikukawa Kyo's words and observing how she seemed to be transcribing the song straight from the video in real time, Uika suddenly realized something almost unbelievable—
Wait… don't tell me Kikukawa Kyo has never actually listened to sumimi's song before? She hasn't even seen the sheet music?
And now, after just watching a single video, she's planning to go straight into performing it on stage…?