Chapter 37 | This Magical Girl Is a Bit Strange

“Tian Gong-san, are you free this Saturday?”

Finally, she asked. If she hadn't said it soon, I would've choked to death... I should go buy a bottle of milk in a bit.

Qiluo swallowed the cookie in her mouth and mentally replayed the conversation between Star-trail and Yuki Kurokawa from last night.

“A new aquarium opened this semester, and if you're free... I'd like to invite you to go.”

“Saturday morning,” Yuki Kurokawa spoke again, her pace slightly faster than before, as if terrified that any silence would be filled with a rejection. “It won't take all day. If you want, we can be back before noon. I already bought the tickets. If you don't like aquariums, we can go somewhere else—there's a movie theater and an art museum nearby, or we could just find a place to sit. I just felt like... since you helped me last time, I haven't properly thanked you yet...”

Yuki Kurokawa watched Qiluo Tian Gong purse her lips, seemingly contemplating whether or not to agree.

Yuki's heart skipped a beat, and she instinctively lowered her head.

Should she agree, or should she decline? Seeing Kurokawa-san this nervous was honestly rather delightful.

“Sure~”

Yuki Kurokawa's head snapped up, her mouth slightly agape. She stared at Qiluo, blinked, and then quickly looked down again.

The tips of her ears rapidly flushed from pale to a deep crimson—the exact same reaction she'd had when asking Star-trail at her desk last night.

“Then...” Yuki Kurokawa stood up, her movements very gentle, the hem of her skirt flaring slightly as she turned. “Let's meet in front of the station at nine on Saturday morning.”

She took a few steps toward the school building, then paused and glanced back at Qiluo, as if she wanted to say something more. But she quickly turned around, hurried across the courtyard, pushed open the glass doors, and vanished down the hallway.

Did she agree too quickly? Qiluo had really wanted to tease her with something like, “Oh? Is Kurokawa-san inviting me out? I'm so flattered~ But I can't~ Though if Kurokawa-san begs me, maybe I'll change my mind~” However, seeing how fragile Kurokawa-san looked, she swallowed the playful banter.

If she had actually said that, she might have really gotten to see Kurokawa-san beg. But then again, her favorability in Yuki's eyes would probably plummet.

She popped the last bite of the cookie into her mouth, folded the wrapper neatly, and slipped it into her pocket.

By the time Qiluo walked back into the classroom sipping banana milk, Rei was standing by the podium holding her phone high in the air, surrounded by four or five girls.

“Look, look! Meruru's official account just posted! A special livestream this Saturday at seven-thirty! The theme is 'A Stardust Night with You'—oh my gosh, that theme name is so beautiful!”

Rei turned her phone screen toward everyone. It displayed Meruru's official account page, where the latest post featured a silhouette of Meruru under a spotlight, with the stream time and theme written in stylized font next to her.

“Why the sudden livestream announcement?” A girl with a ponytail leaned in to look. “Doesn't Meruru usually announce her streams a week in advance? This time, she posted it just a day before?”

“It's probably the agency's decision. Look, the caption says 'Special Livestream,' not a regular program. It was likely a last-minute call.”

Another girl had already opened the comment section and scrolled down a few pages. “The comment section is blowing up! The top comment already has over ten thousand likes.”

Rei pulled her phone back, her fingers sliding rapidly across the screen, while her other hand grabbed the sleeve of Qiluo, who had just walked in. “Tian Gong-san, Tian Gong-san! Are you back from your date? You weren't here, so you didn't hear—Meruru is hosting a special livestream this Saturday night! At seven-thirty! Let's watch it together this Saturday!”

She paused, suddenly remembering something. “Ah, but we still have to watch the Wings of Freedom's debut stream at seven... It's fine! We can watch the Wings of Freedom's stream for the first half hour, and then switch over to Meruru!”

“We'll watch both! The Wings of Freedom starts at seven, and Meruru starts at seven-thirty, so they're offset by exactly half an hour. This is the agency's kindness! It has to be intentional so we don't have to choose!”

Meruru? Seven-thirty? A half-hour gap wasn't a direct collision, but it was enough to siphon away the traffic for the second half of the stream. The Association didn't want to ban the Wings of Freedom outright; they wanted to use an idol's appeal to get the audience to switch channels on their own.

What about Meruru? Was she doing this willingly? If she knew this was meant to siphon away the Wings of Freedom's audience, would she still want to do it?

Gosh, why is Meruru being so bad!

Ultimately, the conflict between the Association and the Wings of Freedom shouldn't be dumped on an idol. But since Meruru had taken on this task, either the agency had accepted it on her behalf, or she simply had no choice.

“Tian Gong-san?” Rei waved a hand in front of her face. “Are you spacing out?”

“...Just calculating the time. The Wings of Freedom's stream is forty minutes, and Meruru's stream will probably last longer than that, so we can switch over in the middle to catch her opening.”

“Right, right! I knew you'd want to watch it too! Meruru sang a new song during her last stream, so maybe she'll perform the new single scheduled for next week. Do you think she'll reveal a new form during the stream? That barrier skill with the musical notes from last time was so pretty. The comment section said it was an S-class mana construct, but she's never officially showcased it before—”

“Wait, wait, wait! Hold on! Did you just say Kurokawa-san and I went on a date?!”

Qiluo waved her hand over Rei Yano's phone.

Rei Yano looked up and scanned Qiluo Tian Gong from head to toe, as if trying to verify if she had actually done something like that. “Y-Yeah... Weren't you two on a date?”

Where did this rumor even come from?! Blushing slightly, Qiluo tapped Rei Yano's head. “Stop spreading rumors! Kurokawa-san... Kurokawa was just... the teacher asked her to check if I was keeping up with my studies. Seriously, stop spreading rumors.”

Rei Yano nodded half-believingly, then immediately went back to discussing Meruru's stream announcement with the other girls.

Several girls in the front row joined the discussion, pulling up Meruru's past videos and debating whether her strongest move was "Stardust Symphony" or "Moonlight Rondo".

While they were in the middle of their heated debate, Qiluo quietly slipped back to her seat and pulled her phone out of her pocket to check the Wings of Freedom's private group chat.

Dozens of unread messages had already piled up, and she had to scroll up several pages to reach the top.

Night Sakura had spammed over a dozen messages in a row, ranging from “Meruru isn't that kind of person” to “she was definitely forced into this,” interspersed with several memes and an unfinished curse word.