[TSSIM] Chapter 499: Love Live's Signing Event?

Homura looked at the girls and grinned.

"Why'd you all go quiet?"

"It's just... I don't think we're really mentally ready yet..." Megumi murmured gently.

When it came to Homura's mother, no matter how casual he made it sound, they couldn't just treat it lightly.

"Okay then, just take your time. Whenever you girls are ready, 'our' mom will always be happy to have you over."

Upon hearing this, the girls' faces turned even redder—even the usually calm and composed Megumi couldn't escape the same fate.

"Ou-Our mom?!" Eriri exclaimed with a stunned expression.

"What? Am I wrong?" Homura asked with a grin.

Eriri: "..."

It wasn't exactly wrong, but wasn't that a bit too sudden?

"Okay, let's stop here. Hanayo and Nanami are gonna start overheating soon." Homura chuckled, ending the topic.

He had noticed all of their reactions—no matter how calm they usually were, his words had completely thrown them off.

It was probably best not to tease them too much.

And so, once the girls regained their composure, they returned to work—some focused on their tasks, while others continued their practice, steadily pushing forward to finish Kanon.

Before they knew it, the day had come to an end.

===

The next day.  

Not long after Homura and the girls finished breakfast, Honoka and her group showed up at the Minamiya residence again.  

"Heehee, Homura-kun, we can stay over a lot during the holiday!" Honoka said proudly as if showing off. "But there's a catch. We gotta spend more time at home too."  

"Oh? How did you girls negotiate with your family?" Homura asked, looking puzzled.  

"What? I didn't need to negotiate anything. I live alone anyway." Nozomi replied with a grin.  

Homura: "..."  

"I don't need to either..." Eli calmly shook her head, then shrugged. "It's just me and Alisa at home."  

Homura knew that Eli's parents were both abroad, and the only family she had in the country was her grandmother.  

However, since her grandmother ran a restaurant, she was always too busy to be at home.

"Well, it was pretty easy for me to get permission. I already stay over every week, after all." Kotori recalled her mother's reaction and told Homura.

"Umu, that makes sense." Homura nodded with a smile. "I bet the others probably had a similar situation."

"By the way, today's Saturday, right?" Maki changed the topic while twirling a strand of her hair around her finger. "When we passed by Manke Bookstore, there was already a long line outside."

"All of them were chatting, right?" Homura asked with a knowing smile. "Probably chatting about Love Live."

"Nyaa? How'd you know, Homura-kun?" Rin asked curiously.

She didn't think Homura would go out early just to eavesdrop, so how could he know?

"Just a guess." Homura shrugged casually. "With the alternative story still ongoing and the Love Live tournament coming up, Love Live's popularity is through the roof. And since the main story hasn't caught up with the alternative story yet, the fans are surely curious and wanna discuss it."

"It'll take another half a month for the main story to catch up to the alternative story." Nico complained. "You know, that's gotta be torture for them."

"Well, nothing I can do about that..." Homura shook his head. "Even if I did one chapter a week, I wouldn't have enough content. I can't just make it all random daily life chatter, can I?"

In fact, doing that wasn't entirely impossible, but it would stray too far from the idol theme, so even though the wait was frustrating, they had to endure it.

Nevertheless, considering how much content they had managed to put together in such a short time, both Muse and Homura still did a great job and deserved a lot of credit.

"Oh yeah, how many days until the Love Live tournament starts?" Elf asked.

"Next Sunday. One week left." Homura replied while rolling his eyes.

He had already told Elf this before, but it wasn't surprising that she forgot.

"And when's our game releasing?" Elf asked again.

Homura stroked his chin, thinking.

At this point, the only thing left for Kanon was the voice acting, which would take about three or four more days to finish.

After considering it for a while, Homura finally spoke up.

"Let's delay it. Considering this month is Muse's busiest time, everything else should make way for them."

Upon hearing this, Honoka was about to say something, but Homura cut her off.

"Don't start with that 'we can handle both' nonsense again, okay? You wanna overwork yourselves and drop out of the competition, Honoka? You already made it past the school festival. If I end up dragging you into another crazy plot that happened in the alternative story just because of my schedule, your fans are gonna kill me."

Honoka: "..."

"Just think about your schedule this month. Early on, you were prepping for the school festival, and right after that was yesterday's concert. Afterward, you have the Love Live tournament coming up, and after that is the signing event for Love Live."

Homura started counting on his fingers, but Umi cut him off.

"Signing event?" Umi asked, looking surprised. "Isn't that your thing, Homura-kun? Why do we have to go too?"

Homura spread his hands.

"Actually, I was thinking of bringing Chiyo along as a surprise for the signing event of Monthly Girls before, but sadly, I don't have the ability to bring a fictional character to reality."  

Girls: "..."  

If Homura did manage to pull that off, it would go from a surprise to outright shock.

"So, you want us to come as a surprise for Love Live's fans? How come we didn't know about this?" Nico asked while frowning.

"Heh, don't even talk about you girls, even Ayano doesn't know." Homura shrugged with a smile.

Now, they were all speechless.

Didn't this mean Homura was secretly planning this on his own?

Seeing the expressions on the girls' faces, Homura chuckled.

"Okay, just kidding. Anyway, since the signing event is still over half a month away, there's no need to tell Ayano so early."  

Once Homura said this, the others couldn't help but roll their eyes at him.  

"However, since I've already told you, I'll just go ahead and tell Ayano." Homura said, pulling out his phone.

Before long, the call connected.

"Homura? What's up?" Ayano answered the call.

"I'm calling to have you come over for a free meal."

Upon hearing this, the girls were all confused, like, why did it suddenly turn into a free meal invitation?

"And then?" Ayano's tone didn't change.

"After you've had the meal, that's when I'll start bothering you." Homura said with a mischievous chuckle.

"I knew you'd only call me for something bad!"

"Bruh, I usually invite you over just for a free meal, and you never come. Now you finally got a reason to mooch a few, and you're still complaining?"

"Alright, enough fooling around. What's the deal?" Ayano said helplessly.

"It's nothing big—just about the signing event of Love Live. I had some new ideas."

"Go ahead. We haven't even started preparing yet, so changing plans is no big deal." Ayano sighed in relief, thankful this really wasn't anything serious.

"We talked about releasing the alternative story as a separate volume, right?" Homura continued. "Turns out the alternative story's plot is almost enough to fill a whole volume, so by the time the signing event starts, the main story's plot will connect perfectly with it—perfect timing."

Upon hearing this, the girls immediately caught on.

If that were the case, the sales of the alternative story would definitely be boosted!

"Now that you mention it, the alternative story is really going to be released, huh?" Ayano chuckled, sounding genuinely happy.

She couldn't help but feel like the timing really was too perfect, almost as if Homura had planned it this way.

Could it be that Homura really did plan this?