Rebuilding Sakamichi in a chaotic worldline

Chapter 45 The Bustling Scene of Our Tokyo

"So, did they end up fighting?"

Nana Min licked a drop of sweat that had trickled from her forehead to the corner of her mouth and asked breathlessly.

"How could that be? I'm still here. I might say a few sarcastic remarks, but then I'll let Hori leave first."

Li Ren casually replied, then bent down, placed a pillow under her lower back, and asked with concern, "Are you feeling unwell? If so, tell me. Don't push yourself."

Rito's intention in saying this was, of course, to be considerate of Nana Min, knowing she had a persistent back problem and wanting to take better care of her. However, to the sensitive Nana Min, it carried a strange undertone. She glanced down at the two of them entwined like vines and raised an eyebrow:

"What, did someone beat you to it during the day? Or have you already grown tired of me?"

Seeing Nanamin, who was usually calm and collected, suddenly show such a resentful expression, Rito became even more excited. He pressed his head against Nanamin's forehead, looking directly into her eyes at close range. While panting, he said, "Alright, since you put it that way, Nanamin, then I won't hold back. I haven't used my full strength yet because I was trying to be considerate of your feelings. It seems I can finally let loose tonight."

"What did you say? No, no! No!"

Ms. Hashimoto quickly regretted her teasing words, but Kubo Rito, who had already aroused her interest, ignored her pleas. Soon, a high-pitched scream filled the bedroom, which had just changed owners. Tonight was destined to be a very long night for her.

The next day at noon, Rito, refreshed after dealing with the arrogant Hokkaido snow fairy, came out of the bathroom, changed her clothes, and prepared to go to work. As for Nana Min herself, she was in a worse state. She was still fast asleep in bed after being tormented until the morning. The varying shades of red marks on her body reflected the horror of the previous night. Fortunately, she was a well-known person with connections, so missing a day of work wouldn't be a big problem.

"I'm leaving now. I might be back a little late tonight, so don't save me dinner."

Rito straightened his clothes, waved his hand at the air, and a murmur came from under the covers, so soft that it seemed like a hallucination. However, he didn't bother to verify it, and pushed open the door and went out.

Hearing the door close, Nanamin, who was curled up in bed, peeked out from under the covers. After confirming that Rito had left, she breathed a sigh of relief, crawled out of bed, and spread out on the covers in a starfish shape.

"Is this guy even human? Is he a murderer? It seems he wasn't lying; he did hold back before, but surely it shouldn't be this repressed?"

Nana stared at the ceiling, muttering to herself. She had always thought of herself as a frigid woman, but everything she had experienced last night made her start to doubt that. In order to prevent herself from being completely captivated by that guy who looked like a human but whose physical strength was comparable to that of a half-orc, she frowned and began to think of a solution.

Regardless of what clever strategies Nanamin might devise to counter her enemies when she's driven to desperation, Rito has arrived at the company and is also facing his own troubles.

"No, Kubo-san, this is too radical."

The one who said this was none other than Konno, the old scoundrel who always followed his lead. But today, he was unusually standing on the opposite side of Rito, earnestly trying to persuade him.

"Really?" Rito frowned and asked, puzzled.

"Of course there is!" The old scoundrel continued to plead, tears streaming down his face, looking just like a regent hearing his young emperor make some outrageous suggestion. However, Rito, of course, didn't consider himself a foolish ruler, rolled his eyes, and said speechlessly:

"It's just a second-generation member being parachuted into the center position, why are you so scared? Are you afraid of not being able to handle the emotions of the first-generation members, or are you afraid that the fans will riot? I don't believe it, it's just a change of center, the sky will fall down. Let's not talk about this anymore, it's settled."

Seeing that the club president had made up his mind, the old thief, though still having doubts, didn't dare to really go against him. He could only nod obsequiously, and after a moment of silence, he raised his head again and asked, "So, president, who do you plan to make the center position?"

"Huh? Didn't I just say that?" Rito slapped his forehead, then glared at him. "Your big reaction has confused me."

"Private Marseille." The old thief quickly offered a symbolic apology, then looked at him with urgent eyes, urging him to speak quickly.

"It's Mai Shiraishi." Rito wasn't interested in playing riddles with an old man. Wouldn't it be better for him to go play with Sleepy or Meow Meow instead? So he quickly gave the answer.

"It's her." Upon hearing the name, the old thief breathed a slight sigh of relief, thinking that the president still had a bottom line after all. If he had to choose someone from the second generation to take on this responsibility, he could only choose this one. She was beautiful and steady enough. With the help of others, this matter would probably be fooled by the fans. As for what the members would think—if he couldn't even handle such a small matter, then all these years of his life would have been for nothing.

After considering the feasibility of the matter in his mind, the old thief's excited mood calmed down. Thinking about it carefully, from the perspective of communication studies, a girl group that is steadily rising suddenly replacing its center with a newcomer with no stage experience is indeed naturally very attractive. If it is managed well, it may really be a surprising move. Thinking this way, he relaxed a lot, and the smile on his face finally had a more sincere meaning.

"You've figured it out?" Rito glanced at him with a forced smile. "If you've figured it out, then go and prepare. You don't need me to teach you how to guide the narrative or how to appease the members, do you? I'll send you the selection form for the fourth single tomorrow. Go out if you have nothing else to do."

The old thief chuckled sheepishly, realizing that his overreaction had displeased his superior, so he quickly shut up, pretended to be dead, and slipped away.

After seeing off the old thief who hadn't gotten used to the tradition of new recruits parachuting in, Rito turned on his computer, brought up the software he used to simulate selection positions, and stared at the screen for a while.

"Tsk, I haven't been paying enough attention to the first generation lately. I need to find someone who knows a bit about this to help."

With a soft click of his tongue, Rito took out his phone and dialed a number.

"Are you free right now? Come to my office for a moment. By the way, it's best not to be recognized."

"Don't ask so many whys, come here and I'll explain."

"Okay, don't worry, it won't make you late for get off work."

Hearing the reluctant "oh" from the other end of the phone, Rito smiled, hung up, and lay back in her chair to reply to messages on Line—Pigeon and Airi were about to graduate. Airi had already finished her general entrance exams and was preparing for her university entrance exams. Pigeon, who wasn't taking the university entrance exams, was free lately, but her mother was starting to feel reluctant to let her go, so she agreed to use the graduation ceremony as a dividing line before letting her come to Tokyo. This had made her very upset lately, and she had been complaining to Rito on the phone quite a bit.

"Okay, okay, you'll definitely make it to four orders. I'm figuring out the locations right now."

"Really? σ`∀´)σ, then where are you planning to put me?"

"I won't tell you. You'll find out when you're on the show yourself. You've never experienced the moment of the selection announcement, have you? I can't take away the fun of experiencing that."

『Kubo Rito(#`Д´)ﾉ! 』

Rito chuckled as he looked at the somewhat dated emoticons in the chat box. Just as he was about to tease her again, the door clicked open. He quickly put down his phone and looked up.

"President—" Meimei, who had been urgently summoned by him, saw his grinning face and felt a surge of anger rising within her. She turned her head and scolded him playfully.

"Hey hey, Meimei, you're here, come on over."

Meimei's cold face naturally didn't scare Li Ren. Looking at the girl who could make such a cute face, he felt a unique feeling and laughed even more. Seeing this, Meimei could only pout and reluctantly sit down next to him.

"What do you want, Kubo-san? I was about to go home."

Meimei is a very easy girl to understand. The fact that she's now calling Kubo-san means she's a little angry. Rito figured this out long ago, so she quickly explained:

"We're preparing for our fourth single, and I feel like I haven't been paying enough attention to you first-generation members lately, so I specifically asked you to come and give me some advice."

"Hmph, so you knew about this too, Kubo-san." Meimei glanced at him and said irritably, "What strategist? I think you're treating me like a spy among the members, Kubo-san. I've never agreed to that."

Seeing that he couldn't fool her, Rito chuckled somewhat embarrassedly, then grabbed her hand and began to act coquettishly:

"Meow, my dear meow, I can only rely on you now. Maneja and the others might have been bribed by the members. I know you're the most honest one, meow, you're the only one who wouldn't lie to me, right?"

Rito pulled his chair forward half a meter, clasped his hands together, and blinked at the girl in front of him who looked disgusted. His voice carried a deliberately cloying tone. Meimei thought she would feel nauseous, but for some reason, when she heard him say, "Now I can only rely on you," a strange feeling instantly welled up in her heart. She was startled and couldn't figure out what was going on. She could only turn her head away from him, but her ears secretly turned pink.

"Kubo-san, you can't talk bad about Mane-san behind her back, okay? They're both very hardworking." She tried to make her voice sound indifferent, but the last syllable still involuntarily rose in pitch.

"So you agreed?" Rito persisted, tugging at her sleeve.

"Alright! What a bad president!" Meimei finally couldn't take it anymore, shook off his hand, and yelled at him seemingly angrily, but she quickly lost her composure and the two looked at each other and laughed together as if they had a tacit understanding.

"Seriously, the president is clearly an adult, but he acts like a child. He's shameless."

As she laughed, Meimei gave him a disdainful look. When Rito heard her scolding him like that, he also felt that his previous behavior was a bit outrageous. However, since Meimei was the woman who could become his mother, even if the time and space were different, this stereotype would still be deeply rooted and could not be eliminated.

Rubbing her flushed face, Rito roused herself, opened the webpage, pointed to the screen, and said, "Alright, enough of that, let's get started. Let's finish early and go home."

"All you do is run away from things." Meimei muttered cutely in a low voice, turning her gaze to the computer as well. But after just one glance, her little mouth involuntarily opened.

"Huh? Who's this one in the middle?"

(Grandma Mei remained calm even after being called to the selection process)

"It's Mai Shiraishi, a second-generation member." Rito knew exactly what she was surprised about, and nodded to confirm that she hadn't made a mistake.

Meimei glanced at him expressionlessly, then after thinking for a moment, remembered who the girl was: "It must be that prettiest older sister, right? I really didn't expect that."

Li Ren smiled, put her finger to her lips, indicating that she should keep it to herself and not spread it. Mei Mei naturally understood, nodded, and silently kept it to herself as she continued reading.

"neru, nagi, miho, Nishino Nanase, eh? Nishino Nanase?"

Counting down the row, the first three were all quite ordinary and there were no questions. But when she got to the fifth position, a somewhat unfamiliar name appeared. Meimei lowered her head and pondered for a while before remembering that she was the first-generation student who was temporarily taking a break from her studies. Because their numbers were quite different during the selection, she and Nana Sai had almost no contact. She had only heard the name occasionally in conversations between the captain and Elbow Bro.

"Yes, she'll be back in the spring, around the same time as the second generation," Rito explained considerately.

A whole row of them just dropped in as soon as they got back? This selection process is really exciting.

Meimei thought to herself, but she never really cared about rankings or anything like that. So even after hearing this bombshell, she just nodded and didn't even change her expression. This amazed Liren, which was why he specifically chose Meimei to help him. If we were to talk about how close she was to him, the member who ranked first would naturally be Shuishui. But Shuishui was too busy with work to care about others, and her personality wasn't as calm as Meimei's, so she was unfortunately left out.

"The first row is set as is, and no matter how we change it, it won't affect them. What I want to know are the members in the back row. Meimei, tell me your impressions of them, and I'll think about how to arrange things."

"Okay, let me think about it..."

Half an hour later, Meimei, her throat dry, finally managed to give a fairly comprehensive account of her impressions of the dozen or so first-generation members. Being kind-hearted, she naturally wouldn't speak ill of anyone, but Rito could still glean quite a bit from her words. As for how the final selection would be made, Meimei didn't ask, and Rito didn't offer any answers either. She simply rested her chin on her hand, pointed to the screen, and said with a smile:

"I understand. Meimei, you can choose whichever you want to go."

"Really?" Meimei looked at him, not seeming surprised. Seeing that Liren nodded seriously, she hesitated for a moment, then pointed to the right side of the second row: "Then I'll choose number ten."

"Oh, so far ahead?" Rihito looked at her with some curiosity. "I thought you'd choose one of the corner rows."

"Kubo-san, if I really didn't want to be seen, I wouldn't have participated in the audition in the first place, okay? What kind of person do you take me for?"

With her hands on her hips, Meimei switched back to calling him Kubo-san. Rito laughed and apologized repeatedly. Despite one being the youngest member of the first generation and the other the president of the company, their way of getting along was so peculiar. If the other members saw it, they would probably be shocked. Unfortunately, this kind of scene could only be seen when the two were alone, unlike Sukiyaki, who was too blatant and therefore attracted most of the criticism. The relationship within the group has always been very delicate.

"Okay, I've said everything. Can we go home now?" After joking around with the club president for a while, the usually composed Meimei was a little tired. She stood up and stretched.

"There's one more thing." Rito saved the revised selection form, then turned around, leaned against the table, and looked at her. "Meme, thank you for your help today. Is there any gift you want? Just tell me, and I'll buy it when I have time."

Meimei blinked, thought for a moment, and didn't refuse: "I want to travel alone."

"Travel? Where to?" Rito's memory contained many images of her traveling abroad, so he wasn't surprised and asked.

"Europe... if that doesn't work, then domestically will do." Meimei raised her head, but as soon as she spoke, she was silenced by Rito's intense 'Are you kidding me?' gaze. She pouted helplessly and had no choice but to reluctantly choose a secondary option.

"It's definitely not okay for you to go alone. For one thing, I can't explain it to your parents." Rito tapped her fingers lightly on the table, speaking slowly and deliberately. She glanced at Meimei out of the corner of her eye and noticed her face darken. Then she added, "However—"

Meimei's eyes sparkled; she saw hope.

"If you don't mind having two people, I have an idea." Rito stroked his chin, remembering something. "The construction team is preparing for the New Year's party, and one of the prizes is a travel voucher. I can help you upgrade it to a trip for two, but you'll have to find someone willing to go with you first, and then you'll have to shoot some footage along the way to report back, otherwise it'll be hard to explain to the program."

"Huh? How about Miho?" Meimei's mind worked quickly, and she immediately thought of her best friend.

"That definitely won't work. What if you two little brats get kidnapped together when you go out?" Rito shook her head with a smile and took the initiative to narrow down the choices for her, "Let's choose one of Wakatsuki, Takayama, and the captain. They are the most reliable ones among the first generation."

"Hmm... I'll go back and think about it." Meimei scratched her hair in distress. She wasn't very familiar with any of the three people Riren mentioned, and she couldn't choose one for the time being.

"Okay, you should go ask them if they're willing too. There's no rush." ​​Rito nodded and pressed the power button. "Let's go, I'll take you home first. Ms. Tsutsui, you're not enthusiastic about work, but you're the first to leave work."

Second generation students

Four-person selection