After barely managing to calm Neru down, I had them listen to the other songs Maestro had provided.
Perhaps because they'd already hit rock bottom with the title track, no one showed any particularly noticeable reactions... but Neru's silent scream as she clutched her head blatantly revealed her rejection.
"Neru-chan, you can drop out if you don't want to do it."
"...What? For real? You're not joking, right?"
"Of course, you're free to drop out☆"
"...What's the catch? Why are you letting me off so easily?"
Neru's eyes narrowed, her suspicion meter maxed out as she glared at me.
"Hm? There's no catch. I was just planning on saying in an interview after our debut that the reason our six-member group became a five-member one was because one member was a weakling who couldn't even handle the training process. Yes, it's no big deal, right?"
"Kyaaaaaaah!!! And you have the nerve to call yourself an angel?!"
"Ah, sorry. I've long been tainted by these cute little devils here..."
"...Damn you."
Besides, just because you're an angel doesn't mean you're unconditionally good. Angel, devil, whatever—in the end, they're just different species.
"Alright, does anyone else have anything to say?"
"Um. I have one question. I'm not confident with high notes, is that going to be okay...?"
"We can solve that by distributing the parts well, so don't worry. We'll be doing vocal training continuously, not just before our debut but after as well. The part distribution will sort itself out during that process."
After the songs came the choreography videos. For me, the situation itself was so hilarious that they provided endless laughter, but for the other girls, they might leave a slightly different impression... so it was probably best to give them a warning beforehand.
"I'm going to show you the choreography video now, and the person in the video is our producer. He looks a little unusual, so just try to look past that☆"
The moment Maestro started dancing in the video,
"Pfft... Pffft. Ahahat! What is this! It's hilarious but also cool!"
Asuna burst out laughing. It was a completely different reaction from the other girls, who wore unreadable expressions.
The parts divided by member were danced by what seemed to be dolls created using mimesis, and I wasn't kidding when I said it was bizarre.
"...It's a little creepy, I must say."
"No, with this unnecessarily heavy atmosphere, I can't even tell if this choreography fits the song..."
"I don't know where you found this producer, but his skills seem to be the real deal, at least."
Regardless of their mixed reactions, I had no intention of reversing a decision that had already been made. We had seen the work we needed to complete, so now it was time to introduce our otaku... I mean, Maestro.
"Due to our producer's circumstances, most of the training will be conducted remotely. He'll be overseeing both the dancing and the singing. Oh, and you only need to show him the bare minimum of courtesy."
From Maestro's perspective, most students were beneath his notice anyway. So it was best to keep the relationship strictly professional.
When I initiated communication with Maestro through the disk, his hologram immediately appeared before our eyes.
[I am the producer who will guide you until the moment you metamorphose into butterflies, Maestro. Feel free to call me Producer, or Ma-P.]
As the girls hesitated, unsure how to react to Maestro's bizarre appearance, the one to break the ice was, as expected, Asuna.
"Wow~! It's great to work with you, Ma-P! Oh, and we just checked out the songs and choreography! The songs were all great to listen to, and the choreography was impressive, with its energetic movements and moments of restrained brilliance..."
[...Ahem. Fortunately, there is at least one gemstone here who can communicate. Good. I shall polish you into a jewel worthy of standing by my Muse's side!]
"Muse...? Whoa, so Angel-nim is your muse, Ma-P?!"
Hmm, I had a feeling that, if no one else, those two would get along just fine.
Aside from Asuna, the others just gave lukewarm "nice to work with you" responses, but Maestro paid them no mind and immediately began to check our basic skills.
[We'll have to polish your fundamentals from the ground up. Still, you're not tone-deaf, so if you put in the effort, you'll be able to meet the standard. I shall provide a perfect training plan that won't damage your throat. All you have to do is follow it. I will not tolerate you holding back my Muse in her endeavors.]
[Hoh. Your vocal tone is clear and excellent. Your vocalization is also quite stable. At this rate, with just a little polishing, you will be more than enough to support my Muse as a sub-vocal.]
After Hina and Noa received their evaluations, and Asuna was told her singing was average but was praised for her rapping...
[Are you tone-deaf? No, that cannot be. Looking at your voice alone, you are clearly a fine gemstone... but your sense of rhythm seems to be a mess. I cannot make heads or tails of this. Let us start by completely overhauling everything, beginning with your vocalization.]
...Haruna was told that he didn't know where to even begin with her, so he'd just fix everything from scratch, and...
[...You. What do you think art is? If you are not going to show even a minimum of sincerity, then get lost!]
"Hah? You think I'm doing this because I want to?!"
"Neru-chan, like I said before, if you want to quit, you can quit right now☆ If you're so pathetic that you can't even handle this, then it can't be helped, can it?"
"...Ah, this brat is really getting on my nerves! Dammit, I just have to do it properly, right?!"
...Neru was called out for her bad attitude and ended up confronting Maestro.
The first meeting between the producer and the members who would be spending a long time together... well. I guess it went by just fine.
***
After checking their singing skills, the next step was, of course, teaching them the dance. Maestro demonstrated the choreography part by part and had them follow along. Exactly two hours later, he clapped his hands and spoke.
[You two, if you do not wish to hold the group back, you had best practice like your lives depend on it from now on. I will not tolerate you being a hindrance to my Muse's work, let alone being of no help.]
As I had worried, Noa and Haruna couldn't avoid being called out. Noa seemed like she could manage with practice, but Haruna definitely had two left feet. It was probably a good thing that Haruna had the most time to invest in practice.
Come to think of it, was Haruna the only one who got criticized for both her singing and dancing? This might dampen her spirits a little.
[The other four of you, just keep doing what you're doing. Especially you, red-head.]
"What, now! What is it!"
[...I was about to say, 'You can do it if you just try.' Tsk. My Muse, it would be wise to make sure that temper of hers does not cause problems.]
"Ahaha... Her skills are good, though. We'll just have to guide her as we go along. You worked hard today, Maestro."
[I shall prepare a vocal training plan for next time. You must remember that you need to consistently practice the choreography and basic vocal exercises to meet the deadline.]
"Bye-bye~, Ma-P!"
"Thank you for your hard work."
Maestro ended the call with a creaky farewell, and I clapped once to get everyone's attention.
"So, what did you all think of the first practice?"
"Dunno."
I figured Neru would be grumbling no matter what.
"W-Well, it wasn't as bad as I thought. But that's just 'as I thought,' so don't get any funny ideas!"
Anyway, I wasn't too worried about Neru, who, despite her grumbling, worked hard once she got fired up. It felt like if she just kept up the momentum, she'd do fine on her own.
"As for me... phew. The dancing is not easy, but I will do my best to utilize my personal time. And I never imagined I had this kind of talent... perhaps it wouldn't be so bad to dream of becoming a singer-songwriter. Fufu."
"The dancing is a bit of a concern, but... I can trust you, Noa-chan. A singer-songwriter... I think the composing would be more of a problem than the lyric-writing, but I'll cheer you on anyway!"
Noa's clumsiness seemed like it would be a bit of an issue, but her expression didn't look too bad. She had plenty of willpower, so I could look forward to her future improvement.
As for being a singer-songwriter... Noa couldn't possibly be unaware that being a good singer doesn't translate to talent in composing, so she was probably joking.
Next up was Asuna, the owner of a friendliness that had shocked even Maestro.
"Aha! Angel-nim, how were my skills? Hm? Weren't they amazing? The best, right? Yep, yep, I know!"
"...Um, Asuna-chan. I've actually been wanting to say this for a while. Can't you just call me by my name like a normal person? Being called 'Angel-nim' feels a little weird."
Total Lucifer... Ugh, my head.
"Then should I just call you Mika? Or Mika-chan? Hmm, either one seems fine, so I'll just call you Mika♪"
"Yes, please do. You worked hard today too, Asuna-chan. You're a really good dancer!"
...After somehow ending the conversation with the golden retriever whose energy levels I could never hope to match, I approached Hina and Haruna.
Hina just needed to focus on her singing skills for now, but it was hard to bring up the topic with Haruna, who seemed to need to work like crazy to master both.
And it didn't just end with learning them; she had to sing while performing the choreography. The choreography also required coordinating movements on stage, and to perform multiple songs, she would have to memorize and internalize all the dances without fail.
"Mika, I'm fine, so please check on Kurodate... no. On Haruna."
"Ahaha, Hina-chan... how could I do that?"
"Ugh, wait a second. I probably smell like sweat right now..."
When I suddenly hugged Hina, she started saying strange things, perhaps out of embarrassment. She hadn't broken a sweat at all.
"You worked hard, Hina-chan. I know it's a bother, but let's do our best together from now on. He said you just need to polish your singing, so I know you can do it."
"Mika, um. Can I ask you a favor..."
"Hm?"
"...It's nothing. I'm going to head out for today."
Before I could react, Hina got up and left to get her things. It felt like she wanted to say something but was too shy to. Hmm, maybe I'll question her about it later.
Now, only Haruna was left, but I was a little hesitant. Where should I even start to console her...
"Mika-ssi. This won't do."
"Hm? What won't?"
"The curry place we talked about earlier, let's go right now. Then we'll come back and practice again."
...I was realizing it anew, but Haruna was a much stronger person than I had thought.
"Ahaha! That's a conclusion very much like you, Haruna-chan. Alright, let's go eat together."
"Fufu... I feel a sudden surge of energy. There's truly no better stamina food than this."
"...Curry is stamina food?"
"It's troublesome when you pretend not to understand, you know. Now, let us depart together. To the world of gastronomy. Fufut."
The road ahead was still long, but the S.S. Totally Serious☆Straight had finally left the starting line.
***