Qiluo pulled her gaze back from the poster.
The Seisou on the poster was indeed beautiful, but she had seen an even more beautiful version in the hospital room.
When Kizuna had drawn her bowstring for the first time, a light purple arrow of light had formed at her fingertips, illuminating the lingering trace of illness in her eyes until they shone crystal clear.
“She's pretty good.”
The moment the words left her mouth, Qiluo felt it sounded too perfunctory.
Yuzuki didn't say anything, clearly waiting for her to elaborate.
I already said she's pretty good, what more do you want?
Did she absolutely have to praise her?
“...Her positioning is a bit different from the others. She isn't the dazzling type of idol, nor is she the gentle, healing girl-next-door. If I had to describe her in one word, she's more like a star that hasn't fully lit up yet.”
Halfway through, Qiluo realized that her words had veered from a ‘complete passerby’ to sounding almost like a fan.
She quickly stopped herself and turned her head, only to find Yuzuki staring at her with a gaze as intense as Qiluo's when she was eating a pineapple bun.
Qiluo gave a soft cough and looked away.
At the end of the day, Seisou was her contractor.
If Seisou wasn't good enough, wouldn't that mean her own taste was lacking?
Praising her own contractor was only natural!
Another cheer erupted from a nearby booth, as if new limited-edition merch had just been stocked. A few audience members ran over from the lounge area, their footsteps and laughter blending together.
But Yuzuki didn't seem to hear any of it.
“...Thank you.” This time, she wasn't teasing Qiluo; she was genuinely thanking her.
She straightened up, gave Qiluo a slight nod, and turned to walk toward the backstage area.
After taking a few steps, she paused and glanced back at Qiluo.
Qiluo watched Yuzuki's back disappear around the corner of the backstage corridor.
She pulled the Meruru keychain out of her pocket and looked at it. The chibi face was smiling at her, making her feel a little guilty.
“...I'm not your fan.”
She flipped the keychain over. Printed on the back in tiny letters was: “Official Meruru Fan Club Limited Edition.”
Rei had probably stood in line for a long time to buy this.
She put the keychain back in her pocket, deciding not to return it to Rei just yet.
Rei squeezed her way back through the crowd, clutching three paper bags in her arms. A thin layer of sweat beaded on her forehead, and her twintails had been jostled to one side, but her expression was as satisfied as if she had just won a hard-fought battle.
“Tian Gong-san! Guess what I managed to snag! Look, look—”
She laid out her loot from the paper bags one by one on the bench in front of Qiluo.
“...It's pretty.” Qiluo flipped over a clear card; printed on the back was a short, handwritten snippet of lyrics.
She carefully placed the clear card back into the paper bag, then picked up a nearby badge, turning it over to examine it.
Beside her, Rei chattered away, introducing the origin of each piece of merch—which booth she had snatched it from, how long she had waited in line, and which one was the very last copy.
She spoke with animated gestures, rustling the paper bags loudly as she occasionally held up a piece of her loot to the light to show Qiluo the details.
Qiluo nodded, but her gaze was involuntarily drawn to the crumpled receipt sitting at the bottom of the paper bag.
The number on it made her eyebrow twitch.
She earned so little standing at the convenience store register for an hour, yet Rei had spent nearly a month's worth of Qiluo's wages in less than forty minutes of battling in the sales area.
Who knew Rei was actually a rich young lady?
Am I the only poor one?
She knew this was all part of the Magical Girl idol industry...
But seeing Rei empty her wallet for these shiny pieces of plastic and paper with her own eyes still made her draw in a sharp breath.
“...How much did you actually spend?” Qiluo carefully put the badge back into the paper bag.
“Not that much!” Rei hugged the paper bags to her chest, her eyes guiltily drifting toward the ceiling. “Just my allowance from last month plus a small portion of my New Year's lucky money.”
“And look at this badge! It's out of print. If I don't buy it now, I'll never be able to get it again—”
Qiluo wasn't listening to Rei's explanations.
Every shiny little thing in the paper bags before her was priced between several hundred to several thousand yen.
She looked down at her empty palms, then at the three bulging paper bags in Rei's arms.
Magical Girl fans were so easy to make money off of.
If—she was just saying if.
What if Lightweaver released merch too?
An acrylic standee priced at 1,500 yen. Assuming the cost was a third of that, she would make a net profit of 1,000 yen per sale.
Her debut video had over a hundred thousand views. Even if only one percent of those viewers were willing to pay, that would still be over a thousand people.
One thousand times one thousand... Her fingers tapped out the calculation unconsciously inside her pocket, feeling a slight thrill at the size of that number.
She thought of her hourly wage from standing at the convenience store for a full hour, which wasn't even enough to buy two of the badges in Rei's paper bags.
Yet these pieces of merch could easily earn her an entire night's wages spent crouching in front of the freezer restocking shelves, just by printing her profile onto a piece of plastic.
She could continue to maintain her identity as the ordinary high school girl Qiluo Tian Gong, going to class, working her part-time job, and eating pineapple buns every day, while letting Lightweaver make money for her in another dimension.
Could it be?
Can I finally become rich too?
“Tian Gong-san?” Rei waved a hand in front of her face. “Are you spacing out? You've been staring at my paper bags this whole time. Are you finally interested in merch? If you want, I can share this badge with you—”
“No, thank you.” She gently pushed Rei's hand back, standing up to brush non-existent dust off her skirt.
Ticket checking had already begun at the entrance, and the crowd was slowly moving toward the performance hall.
A line was forming at the ticket gate. Rei stood on her tiptoes to peer forward, muttering, “I hope there are still good seats in the front row.”
Rei carefully set her paper bags down by her feet, pulled out two glow sticks, and handed one to Qiluo.
Qiluo looked down at the slender, glowing stick.
“Take it. You're supposed to wave it when the Magical Girls come out later.” Rei stuffed the glow stick into her hand and turned on the switch for her, casting a small, warm yellow light between them.
The lights in the venue dimmed just as the host took the stage to make the announcements. Qiluo leaned back in her seat, holding the glowing stick.
The moment the opening idol group started performing their fast-paced dance track, Rei sprang up from her seat.
Resting her chin on her hand, Qiluo watched the young girls running back and forth under the spotlights, her mind still spinning with ideas on how to make money.
Rate on N.U.
