While their senpai stirred up trouble on Friday afternoon, the Prodigy girls were hard at work preparing for their big membership stream in the Prodigy lounge.

Yuri glanced at her phone, reading the latest message from Uncle- *Manager* Kai.

Shu stopped in the middle of checking her VR headset and said, "Did Manager-san need something?"

Yuri shook her head and said, "No. He just wanted to say that he'll be a bit late to the start of the stream, but that we can go ahead."

Suzume walked over and set down a freshly brewed pot of tea on a nearby table. After that, she started placing around tea cups and said, "In that case, shall we relax before we begin?"

Yuri nodded and sat down at the table. After that, she glanced over at Chihiro, sitting in the corner of the room with a tablet.

"Are you being awkward again by yourself over there, Chichi?"

Chihiro huffed and then closed the case cover on her tablet. After that, she adjusted her glasses and said, "Some of us have homework to do, Miss Dropout."

Yuri raised an eyebrow and said, "Homework that involves drawing? You're not in some special arts university, Chichi."

"Shows what you know about me, Riri." Chihiro walked over and sat down next to Yuri. "I might be a secret genius artist online."

"Aaah." Yuri nodded. "So that's why you're so arrogant. We should get John to show you what it means to really be an artist."

Chihiro rolled her eyes and didn't bother responding.

At that time, Shu and Suzume gathered around the table as well.

When everyone was there, Suzume started pouring tea.

Yuri grabbed a cup and then looked around. "So everyone remembers the plan, right?"

Shu sipped on her tea and then set it down before punching a fist in the air. "Yeah! We're smacking monsters today!"

Suzume smiled and sat down with a cup of tea. After that, she said, "Well, we may be doing that. It depends on how the story unfolds, does it not?"

Chihiro sighed and said, "I still don't get why you guys want to do a VR game for our membership reveal stream."

Yuri glanced at Chihiro and said, "It's to get rid of the nervous energy. After all, there's a lot of venting we need to do, right, Chichi?"

"Heh." Chihiro smiled at Yuri and said, "Careful, Riri. If PVP's on, I might just decide to spawn camp you."

Yuri blinked and then said, "Spawn camp?"

Chihiro gave Yuri a blank stare and then let out a deep sigh. "Right. Everyone here's a normie except for me. Haaah..."

Yuri nodded and said, "Of course. As always, you're the odd one out, Chichi."

Shu gave Chihiro a thumbsup and said, "Don't worry, Chi-chan! Even if you're weird, you're still our Chi-chan!"

Suzume nodded and said, "Yes. And it's as I read online." She paused and placed her index finger on her lips. "What was it... Ah!" She looked back at Chihiro and said, "Normal is overrated in any case."

Chihiro looked around and said, "...Sometimes, I wonder why I'm even in this group."

Yuri reached over to pat Chihiro's shoulder and said, "Don't worry. We can be a band of misfits together."

"Hmph." Chihiro huffed at Yuri's gesture, but didn't brush off Yuri's hand. Instead, she looked at Yuri and said, "Speaking of bands, you made sure to practice your songs, Riri?"

Yuri froze and then pulled her hand back, clearing her throat. "T-That is... It'll be fine?"

Shu's eyes lit up and she said, "Right! Manager-san said he wanted us to do a practice rehearsal for our Mystic Bouquet senpai to critique."

Suzume sipped on her tea and then said, "It will be useful to have professional feedback on our performances."

Chihiro hummed and said, "True. And I'm curious if John's been teaching us right. I mean, Alphy Senpai is a natural, Asako Senpai already knew martial arts so it should be easy for her, and then Rin Senpai..." She paused and said, "I guess she works hard to make up for it? She's pretty good too though..."

Yuri nodded. "Rin senpai is definitely hard working... Although she seems a bit more childish recently." She paused to think and said, "I remember her being more meek and shy when we first met..."

Chihiro hummed and said, "It's probably the fame. It can get to you pretty easily."

Yuri gave Chihiro a pointed look.

"What?"

Yuri shook her head and said, "Nothing. Anyway..." She pulled out her phone to check the time.

2 PM. An hour before their stream was scheduled to start on Miya Musashi's channel.

Yuri nodded and said, "Should we log in and play around for a bit then to get used to things?"

Chihiro drained her tea and then stood up, cracking her knuckles. "Hell yeah. Lemme show you normies how a REAL gamer plays."

Yuri chuckled. "We'll see. Right, girls?"

Shu finished her tea as well and then stood up. "This will be fun!"

Suzume quietly sipped on her tea and then said, "Just remember what Mikata-sensei said."

Chihiro tilted her head. "Mikata-sensei?"

Suzume finished her tea and nodded. "Mmhm. The weakness that accepts death becomes the strength of wanting to live."

"...What?"

Suzume smiled and then stood up. "Come. Let's ensure everything is working one more time and then log in as Yuri said."

xxx

3 PM.

John had just finished showing Kai around all the upcoming tech that would be used in future Project MirAIs events to give the girls a more traditional idol experience as well.

Now that he was finished doing that, John was headed over to pick up Little Xuan and Little Wu from his sisters' house to catch up and spoil them a bit since he had been neglecting the twins for a while.

Really, juggling being a Father and businessman was hard as an ordinary person. He was already cheating a bit by not needing to sleep, but the number of things he needed to do seemed to keep piling up.

Like Rin's latest situation.

He needed to have a chat with her about what and what she couldn't do as Hana, especially since Project MirAIs was taking center stage in the world.

But in any case...

John's office.

He had decided to stop by for a quick check-in to see if Jenny left any reports or documents for him to read. After seeing there weren't any, John did his duties as CEO and responded to email inquiries regarding various upcoming projects while making some cold calls for other future plans.

All of that finishing just at 3 PM when the Prodigy girls would start their membership announcement collab stream.

...Which would take place in a VRMMORPG that was totally not based off of a certain floating island in the sky where the final boss was the developer who would fly in on a crystal dragon after betraying the players.

John sipped on another cup of coffee from the collection that his lovely wife was building for him.

And then his phone rang.

John blinked and slowly pulled it out. "That's weird..."

There were only a few people who actually called him in recent days.

The first was Jenny, who was doing the lord's work running logistics since Bai and Qing were slacking and sometimes made a quick phone call instead of leaving documents.

The second was Alphy, whose calls had become a happy tradition between father and daughter to catch up and bond in the morning.

And the third was Kai, who was taking his new job as manager of Prodigy seriously.

The girls all had his direct line since he left that open if they had an emergency or needed to talk, but the ringtone wasn't the one he had saved for any of them.

Then there was his family (including Titor and Amadeus).

But John had set a personalized ringtone for everyone in his contacts.

For example, when Kai called, a certain Yakuza song about being a fool played.

But the ringtone was a generic one that played for an unknown number.

That was confusing... until John saw the caller id.

"Ah... Right. I never did set a ringtone for her."

[Call from <Sakura Hibana>]

And considering what had just happened with Rin...

John sighed and picked up the phone call.

"Hello?"

"Hello, John. Would you mind giving me my daughter's work phone number? It seems that she thinks she's gotten too big to answer her mother's phone calls now. And mature enough to make decisions that impact the lives of everyone around her."

Sakura's voice sounded relaxed and light.

To an average person listening, it would seem like she was happy to chat about the weather.

But from John's long, long, LONG experience with irritated women... including mothers, he knew that was far from it.

"Of course, Miss Hibana. I'll text it right over."

"Appreciate it, John. And let's catch up soon. I think it's about time to have some discussion about my sweet daughter's future."

"...Of course."

"Take care. Ah, and tell Yue that we need to catch up soon. I'll take her out for lunch and we can chat about taking care a baby daughter and stuff."

"Will do."

*beep*

The line went dead as Sakura ended the call.

John quietly slipped his phone away and then sighed. "...Sorry, Rin. Can't save you from this one. But anyway..."

John turned off the lights in his office and then walked off to the parking garage. "I think Mintendo Land should be open right now... The twins should like that, right?"