The Goddess of Music [UtaPri fanfic]

Chapter 24: Miyako's Complication

The next few days passed quickly, and the duel live was now right around the corner.

Haruka woke up to the bright sun in her eyes shining through the window that was slightly ajar. She slowly rose her upper body to find her upperclassmen at her desk. This did not surprise Haruka much as Miyako was regularly up first and lately, she was almost always at her desk by the time Haruka was greeted by the morning. Haruka could only see Miyako's back from her bed but she could still feel the immense amount of concentration that radiated from the petite figure. Quietly, Haruka got out of her bed and walked over towards the pink haired female, careful not to cause a ruckus. Over the idol's shoulder, Haruka could see papers either sorted into piles or scattered around, and sticky notes everywhere: on the desk, on the papers, and even on the wall facing Miyako. Upon a closer look, Haruka noticed that all of these notes and papers were about the duel live. After scanning through the papers, Haruka turned her attention towards Miyako who was completely absorbed in her work, a sky blue mechanical pencil in her right hand and a small note in her left. She was in the midst of sketching what seemed to be a plan of her stage and performance as she alternated her attention between the note in her hand that had a list of her songs and her rough layout.

"Sorry, did I wake you?" Miyako asked the orange haired girl without looking up. Her voice was calm and soft, almost as if she was talking to a newborn baby. The idol's long hair was tied into a loose braid that hung over her right shoulder nicely and she was still in her pyjamas, consisting of a comfortable pair of red cotton shorts and a thin white sweater. No matter how many times Haruka saw the same thing, she could not get used to the fact that this girl in front of her, who seemed cute and quiet, literally changed 180 degrees as soon as she was on a stage, a cool and charismatic aura enveloping her.

"No, not at all," Haruka replied shaking her hands to show that she really was not bothered by anything, although she could not tell if Miyako actually saw her gesticulations.

"If that's the case then I'm relieved," Miyako paused as she set down her pencil and post-it note and leaned back in her chair before she looked up at her underclassmen, giving her a warm smile.

"Are you preparing for the duel live?" Haruka asked, intrigued about Miyako's papers.

"Ah, this," Miyako looked down at her scribbles before returning her gaze to Haruka, "Yeah."

Haruka noticed that there was something wrong. Miyako seemed troubled and her voice wavered, although it was almost unrecognizable in the short response.

"Is it...not going well..?" The short haired female asked carefully with a concerned look on her face.

"I wish I could say yes, but I would be lying if I did," Miyako gave Haruka a smile even though she knew it would not be the happiest one, hoping to ease up the tension of her friend, even if it was ever so slightly. "It's about time that the others got up. Shall we go down to get breakfast?" Miyako suggested as she realized that her smile just made the orange haired girl look even more worried. Haruka agreed and the two quickly made their way down towards the dining halls.

After a filling breakfast of toast, scrambled eggs and cream of mushroom soup, Miyako excused herself first to go prepare herself for another busy day. Haruka stayed back to clean up the dishes before heading back to their room.

On her way out of the dining halls, she ran into the STARISH members and their mentors. They got a chance to exchange morning greetings and the males soon noticed that there was something on Haruka's mind. They wasted no time in asking what was troubling her and the petite female looked down, unable to think of a way to explain the situation.

"Actually, it's about Miyako-senpai..." She begun speaking after a short moment of silence.

"Miyako?" Reiji and Ranmaru repeated simultaneously, and the female's troubles started to worry the two as well.

"I saw her at her desk this morning as soon as I got up," Haruka paused once again, hesitant about how to deliver the next words.

"That's not a surprise. She usually spends a lot of time at her desk before a live. She is the one that plans all of her stages, including her songs, outfits, and performances, after all," Mikaze stated.

"But this time, it was different. Normally, when she plans her concerts, she always seems confident and ready to take over the stage at any given time, but today, she seemed as if...she was hesitating about something. I don't understand why but if only I knew... If so then I would do whatever I could to help her!"

The STARISH members had a puzzled expression, trying to understand what was going on, along with Haruka who looked down once again in deep thoughts. On the contrary, the Quartet Night members glanced at each other before letting out a harmonized sigh, confusing the others further.

"Where's Miyako?" Ranmaru asked, his arms fixed over his head like always.

"In her room getting ready for her work," Haruka replied, and before she could ask why he asked, he was gone. The small girl turned to the other Quartet Night members for help in explaining the situation. "Do you know the reason why Miyako-senpai is like that?" She asked at last, receiving three quiet nods back.

Upstairs, Ranmaru was speed walking through the hallway towards Miyako's room. He spotted Miyako as she was leaving her room, dressed up in black shorts, a grey t-shirt with a cute fake pocket on the left chest, comfortable black flats, and a black leather shoulder bag, hung over her right shoulder, holding her belongings. Her hair was tied into a messy high ponytail, her bangs swept to the side, revealing her magenta orbs. The female turned around to meet the silver haired male with a rather disappointed expression.

"Do you need something?" Miyako tilted her head sideways, trying to analyze the male's expression. Ranmaru simply let out a sigh, not knowing where to start.

"I heard that you were hesitant about the duel live against TriHime," he started, his eyes meeting Miyako's.

"Ah, don't worry abou-"

"You're not hesitating because of that, are you?" Ranmaru interrupted Miyako with a rather harsh tone, surprising the female. Although Miyako regained her calm quickly, she could not reply because she knew what the male meant and that he was right.

Around the same time, Reiji was explaining the situation to the others downstairs, although there was not much to explain.

"We knew Miyako would hit this wall as soon as we heard the conditions to the live," he spoke, referring to the four members of Quartet Night.

"Is it because if she loses, you upperclassmen have to move to TriHime's agency?" Tokiya presumed.

"Nope. If that was the problem, then Miyako would have had no problem getting everything ready," Camus answered.

"The probability to succeed in bringing down Miyako using a bet where she would have to stake something of hers would be exactly 0.00001%." Mikaze added, using accurate facts.

"Then what in the world..." The others were lost deep in thought trying to figure out the problem.

"The other side's bet." Reiji pulled them out of their endless contemplations.

"Wait, what?" All of the STARISH members and Haruka had the same expression of confusion and incomprehension.

"Miyako has always been the type that couldn't handle something unfortunate happening to anyone even if they were her worst enemies. And I'm pretty sure TriHime took advantage of that," Reiji continued.

"Which means..." Haruka realized the truth, along with the other males who looked at their upperclassmen with surprised reactions.

"Yeah. Miyako...doesn't want TriHime to disband."