[TSSIM] Chapter 518: A Romance Manga?

[Comment 1: Bro, you're too much! Alright, you got lucky, but did you really have to flex?]

[Comment 2: Lmao, what's the point of good luck if you ain't flexing?]

[Comment 3: Get his ass, boys!]

[Comment 4: What? You wanna beat me or something?]

[Comment 5: Beat you? Nah, we're about to drain you dry.]

[Comment 6: Bruh, I'm straight and ain't into that kinda shit. Do it yourself.]

[Comment 7: Man, fuck you! I'm not into that either! I meant draining his damn luck!]

Upon reading these comments, Homura rolled his eyes, while Elf just kept laughing.

[Comment 8: Btw, those who won, mind sharing what tags you picked?]

[Comment 9: Drama, wholesome, romance. Maybe something like Your Name.]

[Comment 10: Oh? Sounds like we're in for an emotional ride!]

[Comment 11: No matter how it ends, the story's gotta be good. It's Minamiya-sensei, after all.]

[Comment 12: We'll see it tomorrow! Can't wait.]

Honoka let out a soft sigh as she read this comment.

"Tomorrow, huh... Just one more day and the Love Live tournament's gonna start..."

"Yeah. You ready for it?" Homura asked with a smile.

Hearing this, all nine members of Muse nodded.

""We're ready!""

"Including the song selection?" Homura asked again.

"No new songs..." Eli replied softly. "Our setlist reflects our journey as school idols—it's the path the nine of us have walked together."

Homura nodded, understanding what she meant.

Over the past few days of training, hadn't they all been reliving their journey as school idols in a way?

Given that, their song choices had to reflect that too, right?

"Honestly, not having a new song isn't a big deal. I mean, A-RISE has been singing the same song over and over again..." Homura casually threw in a jab.

Girls: "..."

In fact, A-RISE didn't have that many original songs, as most of their performances were covers, but one couldn't exactly perform someone else's song when promoting themselves, right?

Because of this, every time A-RISE did a promo, it was always that one super popular original song. Not that it was a bad song or anything, but even the best song got old when one heard it on repeat too many times.

Since everyone knew this, they were kind of speechless at Homura's jab.

"Compared to them, even if you don't have a new song, at least all of your songs are originals, which in itself is an advantage no one else can match, but..." Homura paused and smiled slightly before continuing. "You're just singing for everyone. If other school idols have their own reasons for competing, then you girls are just doing this for your love of being idols."

What Homura said wasn't wrong.

Since Muse's original goal to save their school from shutting down had already been accomplished, their future was practically guaranteed with Homura around.

Given that, as idols, what else could drive them if not pure passion?

"Just keep the best mindset you can and do what you wanna do." Homura said with a grin.

""OHHH!""

Honoka and the others smiled brightly at Homura and exclaimed in unison.

===

The next day.

Homura carried Haru in his arms and headed out to the nearest Manke Bookstore with Sagiri, Nayuta, Elf, and Eriri.

Meanwhile, the others were either too busy or just didn't feel like moving. Megumi and Utaha were even thinking about going back home for a few days since it had been a while since they last visited.

"By the way, Homura, what were you sneaking around doing in the music room last night?" Eriri asked curiously.

"What else would I be doing there besides writing songs?" Homura shrugged.

"Writing songs?" Nayuta guessed. "Are you working on something for Muse again?"

Homura thought for a moment before nodding.

"Half-and-half, I guess."

"What do you mean by half-and-half? You mean you wrote a bunch of songs and half of them are for Muse?" Elf asked while raising an eyebrow.

"No, it's more like Fate's opening and ending." Homura explained. "I mean, you can't really say these songs were written for Muse, but if I give one of them to Eli to sing, can you say it's not hers?"

Hearing this, the girls nodded thoughtfully.

"So basically, Nii-san wrote new songs that are not specifically for Muse, but one of them is going to sing it?" Sagiri pieced together what she heard.

"Something like that." Homura nodded and grinned. "You girls should be able to guess which work this song is for, right?"

"Aside from that manga you're working on, you don't have any other works that need a song, do you?" Eriri asked casually.

It was only natural for her to say this.

Homura had, after all, already finished the songs for Kanon a while ago, and the theme song had been handed over to Umi.

"Yeah, just one for now, but there'll be more later. And every single one of them is gonna be super important." Homura nodded before letting out a mischievous chuckle.

"Nii-san, the songs you're talking about... don't tell me they're meant to set the mood?" Sagiri couldn't help but ask.

'Oh? She caught on faster than he expected.'

Homura thought amusedly before speaking up.

"Well, the songs are gonna hit hard—no doubt about it. If seeing the scene alone would make you cry a pound of tears, with the music, it'll be at least a pound and a half!"

Girls: "..."

Meanwhile, Haru, nestled in Homura's arms, licked her paw with a deadpan expression.

By now, she could understand most of what Homura said, and even if she didn't get everything, she could still guess the general idea, which was exactly why she had a deadpan expression on her face.

If she could understand what everyone else was saying too, who knew if she would end up rolling her eyes?

"We're here."

As soon as Homura said this, the group noticed the crowd within their line of sight.

"Homura, are you sure no one's gonna recognize you while you're carrying Haru?" Elf asked in a low voice while glancing at Haru.

"Probably?" Homura wasn't too sure. "But does it matter? You, Yamada Elf, are just as recognizable, aren't you?"

"I was just giving you a heads-up, that's all." Elf shrugged, not really bothered.

In the end, Homura and the others approached the crowd, casually listening to the conversations around them.

"Senpai, what do you think Minamiya-sensei's new manga will be about?"

"Huh? Isn't it a romance manga? It's probably a modern setting."

"But... during that giveaway event, I won even though I picked the 'apocalypse' tag..."

As soon as the people around heard this, they instantly froze, looking completely dumbfounded.