Chapter 198

"I miss you every day.

It's so nice

あなたと歌うわたしが

Ichiban Beauty

"I hope we can get a bye in the first game." Fujimaru Ritsuka watched the performance on the screen, muttering to himself that the random result of the program would favor them. "Although I have made all preparations, I still hope that luck will favor us - but fortunately, the semi-finals and finals are based on popularity rankings..."

——Although Chaldea is not fully staffed after the explosion in the control room, even with the reinforcement of personnel from the El-Melloi classroom, it cannot be said that there are not enough people at the same time... Because Servants are also an important part of Chaldea's members, so even if there is a shortage of manpower, they can still ask the Heroic Spirits, which is currently integrated with Chaldea, to add members who can manifest in the form of Servants.

——Like at this time, numbers have become a resource that needs to be fought over.

——And the others in the singularity were unaware that there were so many people in Chaldea who had never appeared before them.

——Excluding Chaldea from the anomaly, the total number of idols including backstage workers is nearly two hundred; and Chaldea does not take into account the heroic spirits recorded in other worlds that it has passed through before, and the original spirit base atlas records a total of three hundred.

——These three hundred items do not include the group of musicians who attended Clover’s concerts during this period.

"You look sinister, Ritsuka." Kadoc passed by the TV screen after getting some water and glanced at Fujimaru Ritsuka's expression. He shuddered subconsciously. "That plan has been circulated throughout Chaldea and the Throne of Heroes. Now that the semi-finals are in progress, what are you thinking about?"

"Eh, a sinister expression? Ritsuka?"

Pepeloncino, Ophelia, and Mustard Seed, who were resting on the sofa in the back, came over with great interest.

"Even sinister expressions can be good-looking or bad-looking." After seeing Fujimaru Ritsuka's expression, Mustard Hinami said pertinently, "Instead of just making a random expression, it's better to learn from the expressions of the astronomy department 'Animusphia' when they are plotting against people - at least when they are plotting against others together, even Roman's expression is within the acceptable range."

"At least he's better than that witch's descendant—although I think he's been dead for so many years, you should have forgotten him long ago."

"Thank you for mentioning him, Mustard Seed." Cadoc put down the water cup in his hand, his expression twisted, "I'm starting to have a stomachache."

"Hey! Are you saying that my expression just now is like his!?" Fujimaru Ritsuka came back to his senses and turned to look at Akuhashi Hinako who first proposed this point of view, "Akuhashi Hinako-senpai!!! I'm not holding back at all! I just thought that our plan is a blatant conspiracy against the competition system!!!"

"But the expression you made just now was really similar." Peperoncino smiled and looked at Fujimaru Ritsuka who was sitting in front of the TV, "Although the six of us should have forgotten that face a long time ago--"

"What are you talking about?"

Kirshtalia, who had gone out with Mashu to feel the atmosphere of the scene, just came back with Mashu. As soon as she came back, she received accusing gazes from her junior.

"They said my face looks like that witch's descendant!" After omitting the causes and consequences and a bunch of prepositive adjectives, Fujimaru Ritsuka directly complained to Kirshtalia about what the former Group A members had just done.

"Even if you want to make a long story short, this is not an abbreviation!!!" Kadoc, who was sitting at the table, finally couldn't bear it anymore and crushed the plastic water cup in his hand.

"That's a stereotype." Kirshtalia, who had extracted the main information from the chaos, concluded, and smiled as she tried to comfort the noisy team members. "Mustard just meant that she thought you wouldn't do such a thing - after all, this kind of thing is the exclusive domain of magicians..."

"Now that the situation has come to this, don't always treat me as an ordinary person." Fujimaru Ritsuka put his hands on his waist and looked at the seniors who had calmed down in front of him with a puffed face. "Besides, when I was burned by the fire, I could already make my own battle plan - I didn't use assassination, it was just that the situation at that time was really inappropriate!"

"This doesn't mean I will only arrange head-on confrontations!!!"

"To overcome such a desperate situation, you can only do it by using all possible means. I am a savior who has overcome despair many times. Although I don't want to say this to my seniors, please don't forget this. I am no longer an ordinary person. We are already on a road that can never turn back."

"If we don't have that kind of awareness, we will die on the road."

"Yes, we understand."

Just as everyone in the new A group was becoming serious, there was a knock on the door of the lounge.

"Group A of AMP48, please go to the pre-stage area and wait." The voice of the backstage staff came from outside the door to remind them.

"Yes! Thank you for your hard work! Let's go now!"

At the same time on the stage, Soleil's performance, which was competing with Kanzaki Mizuki, had come to an end - this was also the last performance of the semi-final group.

The results of the three matches will determine who will qualify for the final.

"No matter who wins the third match, Masquerade has already been eliminated." After checking the results of the first two matches on the TV screen, Fujimaru Ritsuka stood at the side of the stage and watched the three idol groups in the semi-finals being invited back to the stage. "Because it is a crucial match, the three groups in the same stage system have adopted the same strategy."

"Both Kanzaki Mitsuki and Soleil's physical strength supported them to complete the strategy of 'continuously displaying the special effect 'Special Appeal'', but Masquerade ran out of energy and made a mistake in the first match. Although they did not make a mistake in the second match, their opponent Kanzaki Mitsuki displayed more special effects 'Special Appeal' than them, so they also lost."

"Now it depends on whether Soleil or Kanzaki Mitsuki will advance."

"The popularity statistics for the third match are complete." Bi Guan He Huan stood in the center of the stage* and announced, "The results are now announced. The victory or defeat of the third match will affect the final promotion results--"

"Three, two, one."

As Bi Guan He Huan's voice fell, the different colored statistical columns representing the popularity of both parties on the big screen began to grow - and then after one of them stagnated, the other continued to move forward.

"...Semi-final group one, the final winner is Soleil!" Biguan Hehuan announced loudly, and the lights on the stage fell on Soleil and the other two at the same time. Then the members of semi-final group two were introduced. "Next is semi-final group two. Please invite AMP48's Group A, Mankai Theater's New Winter Group, and QUARTET☆NIGHT to come on stage to confirm the round-robin arrangements."

After the three groups of people found their positions and stood still, the big screen changed to the random program interface for assigning opponents in the round-robin tournament - and then began to scroll randomly, deciding the round-robin opponents for the second group of semi-finals, as well as the starting order of the three games.

"First match, QUARTET☆NIGHT VS Mankai Theater's new winter team."

"The second match is between the new winter group of the Mankai Theater and the A group of AMP48."

"The third match, QUARTET☆NIGHT VS AMP48's Group A."

"Now let's decide the order of the first show." Bi Guan He Huan once again tossed the coin in his hand and announced the rules to the people standing on the stage, "The front side says QUARTET☆NIGHT will go first, and the back side says Man Kai Theater's New Winter Group will go first - the back side, Man Kai Theater's New Winter Group will go first."

"Please go to the backstage to prepare for the new winter group of the Mankai Theater Company, and please go to the audience seats nearby, and please go to the A group of QUARTET☆NIGHT and AMP48."

"This is really a very unfavorable start for the Winter Group." After leaving the stage, Fujimaru Ritsuka glanced at the six-member group walking in the opposite direction and told his companions his opinion, "Even if the objects whose popularity will be calculated are all members of the special point, we will try our best to abandon the influence of subjective feelings...but the popularity system is simply a voting system, and as long as the voting objects are human, they will definitely be affected by the atmosphere on the scene."

"Soleil also put a lot of effort into song selection in order to win over Kanzaki Mizuki." Mashu, who was walking behind Fujimaru Ritsuka, touched his chin and supplemented her unfinished words, "Soleil's song selection for the first show was actually quite conservative, it was "MY STARWAY" used in Love Live. But Kanzaki Mizuki's song selection for the third show was "Precious" in order to take advantage of the atmosphere left over from the second masquerade show..."

"And to break that atmosphere, you need a song with a relatively strong melody—"

“That’s why Soleil used their debut song, Diyamond Huppie, in the third game.” Fujimaru Ritsuka looked towards the audience area that truly belonged to the non-contestants, and found a seat in the empty seats provided for the contestants to rest. “They can’t handle this kind of atmosphere, and they can’t suppress it—and QUARTET☆NIGHT must have noticed this…”

“So they will continue to choose songs of this type to stir up the atmosphere.” Kirshtalia concluded, “Although it doesn’t matter whether we go on stage first or last, if the Winter Team gets to go on stage first again… they will be eliminated early like the Masquerade.”

At the same time, the backstage channel appears.

"...If there's no problem, we'll choose this one." Tsukioka looked at the five team members in front of her, "The winter group's suite or performance song would only be at a disadvantage at this time - but our troupe is united after all. Although the summer group's style is very suitable for such an occasion, I think this song is probably the most suitable for our winter group at this moment."

"Then let's go!!!"

Then, the six members of the Winter Group stepped onto the stage under the dazzling lights.

『Hora

Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter

くるりとひと回りすれば

MANKAI! Oh MANKAI! 』