Love Live!: SHATTER [PART 9]

DAY ONE:

*THE NEXT DAY*

*PRACTICE ROOM - NIJIGASAKI HIGH SCHOOL - ODAIBA - TOKYO*

So today, the first step begins.

It's the start of my journey to become a school idol.

Even though I've led many training sessions in the past, I've always been the one leading those sessions, never the one being trained.

But not this time. Instead, it's the girls who are going to be training me.

I'm feeling nervous, my heart is beating at my chest much faster than usual, and my nerves are on high alert.

Why wouldn't I be nervous?

It's a big step into a world that seems familiar, but I don't know the other side of. I'm a producer, not a performer.

So what do you expect from me?

Stepping out onto a stage and performing in front of thousands of people, on the biggest platform the school idol industry has to offer... Yeah, it's pretty fair for me to say that this is as far out of my comfort zone as we could possibly go.

Complaining all I want won't change anything, because this is all my fault. I'm the one who tried to act tough in accepting Katsuo's challenge.

At that moment in time, I had no regard for my own wellbeing or reputation, I was seeing red. The way he pushed his disgusting lips against Ayu's, stealing her first kiss and embarrassing her in front of our whole school.

The same girl who has been there for me since the start, who has stuck by my side throughout it all and has always kept me on the right path. My precious childhood friend.

What EVER made him think that he had the right to kiss her?!

Katsuo Togo acts high and mighty, calling himself a King and looking down on everybody, but there's something Ayu and I BOTH agree on about him...

He's a TERRIBLE kisser, because we both know from experience!

The fact that Liella! even associate themselves with someone as vile as him only makes me lose even more respect for them, only showing further how far they've fallen.

As much as I want to turn around and back down, I know that it's not an option anymore.

If I give up, or if I lose, I will be blacklisted from the idol industry. Banished and forbidden from ever returning, or watching live shows.

That includes the Nijigasaki High School Idol Club... If I lose, I'll have to leave the Club, and I will never get to attend another one of their live shows.

At that rate, you might as well just kill me. Because I promised that diner full of school idols... I promised them that I would change this industry for the better, or I would die trying.

This is it.

This is do or die for me, and on paper this couldn't be any bigger of a mismatch.

Undefeated School Idol King.