Odd Interview

The girls, Aya, and Tomokazu arranged the studio's chairs around me and remained dead silent, staring at me. I took multiple deep breaths before Ceruty spoke.

"Thirty seconds. You'll hear me talking to my Watchers once it starts, but they won't hear you. The signal for your entrance will be when I introduce you; pretty obvious."

"Got it," I replied.

I needed more and more deep breaths the more I waited. Aya rested her hand on my shoulder, sitting on my left to be able to give me instructions quickly if needed. Aki sat on my right and, although her head wasn't bowed, she stared at the floor. I can't comfort her now. I hope she's fine. Who am I kidding? She'll be fine.

"Ten. Nine," Ceruty started counting.

My heart threatened to beat uncomfortably fast, but I was able to calm down.

"Five. Four. Three…."

Her voice faded out, worrying me if something had gone wrong. But no, she did it for the introduction of her live stream. I saw nothing of it, but I didn't need to.

"Hello, my lovely Watchers!" she exulted. "As expected, I'm here on time. What do you mean it's a miracle? Do you want to get banned?"

As expected, she's aggressive.

"Anyway," she continued. "I would chat a bit more with you, but I have a surprise for you and I don't want to keep him waiting. I also can't hold in my excitement."

I closed my eyes and breathed as normally as possible when I realized. I didn't think of a greeting. Oh, no. What should I say?

"Alright, my Watchers, please welcome one of the most popular figures in Japan for the past week behind the most controversial event in a decade: the manager of Blostars!"

"Hello," I greeted without thinking. "I'm Kaito Miyahara, Blostars' manager. Thank you for having me."

"Thank you for coming. I did not expect to see a message from you at all. You said you watched my latest live stream and decided to approach me?"

"That's right. I must admit you appeared to be quite blunt at first, but you seem like an authentic person that only wants the truth to be known. The same applies to your Watchers."

"Did you hear that? He thinks well of you, so be good and behave. It's good you think that, Mr. Miyahara, because they will eat you alive as soon as they hear a lie."

"I understand as much."

I saw a movement down on my left: Aya gave me a thumbs up. Such a simple action raised my confidence significantly. It also helped that the girls and Tomokazu smiled and nodded at me.

"Good," Ceruty continued. "Let's get started, then. Blostars consists of five girls: Aki, Astra, Risa, Sanae, and Umi. For obvious reasons, the controversy was centered around Risa and Sanae Okazaki, but there were two other minor situations; we'll start there."

"Shoot the questions," I said.

"I like that attitude. Alright, for the people that don't know, idols weren't allowed to have romantic partners back in the day because it would distract them from work, but the main reason was that fans would stop liking them because they were already taken. Is that right, Mr. Miyahara?"

"Spot on."

"So, what made you ignore that and decide to date Aki?"

"We just like each other. What you said was true a thousand years ago; idols have been long gone since then. We have the opportunity to build the trend again, so we'll leave that unhealthy side behind."

"But are you aware that dating her will make a lot of people not like Blostars?"

"We are. We also understand the Humas' part in the society, they are an important factor in our decisions."

"Interesting. Talking about Humas, do you plan to launch your own Humas line?"

Even though it was my own company, I didn't know how to respond. I glanced at Aya and Tomokazu, who shrugged their shoulders. Aya then shook her hand and I understood that as a maybe.

"We don't discard it, but there are no plans for that in the foreseeable future," I answered. Aya gave me another thumbs up.

"Did you get that, my Watchers? You better start saving if you want one. I see some of you are doubtful about idols not being allowed to have a partner, but it's true, you can look it up. Let's just say it wasn't healthy. Also…"

She stayed silent for a moment before stuttering, "I… Let's continue."

Is she okay?

"The second thing the hacker leaked is that Astra is an alien. Did you know about this before it was revealed?"

"I didn't. I was just as shocked as everyone else, but that went away quickly. I didn't get angry or disappointed, I was just surprised. Her talent and personality won't disappear just because she's from another planet. She made the decision of becoming Astra Celeste for personal reasons and everyone in Blostars respects that. Everyone should."

"I agree with that," Ceruty replied. "Everything else makes sense. Why would people care about it? She's the same person. I understand why people would be curious, however."

"I understand that as well, but we need to respect her privacy, her co-workers and I included."

Sitting, Astra danced with her legs and grinned at me. I smiled back at her.

"Totally," Ceruty added. "Now what everyone was waiting for: Risa and Sanae Okazaki. I know this is a very sensitive topic for you and Blostars, but I, my Watchers, and everyone else want to know more about it."

"I know keeping silence may harm our reputation even more, so I will tell you as much as I'm able to."

"I hope that is enough to satisfy everyone's curiosity. First question: did you know anything about it before it was revealed?"

I took a moment to process what to say. "No one knew, not even ourselves."

About to continue talking, Aya grasped my arm and signaled me to stop with her hand. She was right, it was better not to say anything more than needed.

Ceruty asked, "Didn't you think something was wrong when you started working together?"

"I thought about that, yes. The plan was to solve it quickly, but everything happened so fast. Who would've thought a famous hacker would target us this soon?"

"Fair enough. Word is that you were the one that leaked everything to gain popularity. What do you have to say about that?"

"Nothing much, really. No matter what I tell you, it's up to you to believe me or not. I'll just say no, we didn't. Why would a famous hacker collaborate with us? He surely takes satisfaction in stealing the information himself, it wouldn't make sense for him to accept something like this."

Ceruty didn't say anything for a moment. "One of my Watchers says that it was a trade; you both earned a stupid amount of reputation."

"As I said, it's up to each person to believe us or not."

"If you didn't leak the information, how did the hacker get it?"

"We have no idea. The government is investigating. Hopefully, they will find the answer sooner than later. I don't want it to happen again and I'm sure the government doesn't want that to happen again either."

"Talking about the government, what do you think about the now ex-president quitting his job?"

"He did something wrong and I agree with him leaving the presidency as a punishment. I just hope he's doing alright; everyone makes mistakes."

"Have you had any contact with him?"

Here it comes. I didn't want to lie, but saying the truth is going to attract more attention in a bad way.

"No, we haven't."

"There are rumors floating around, saying that you reunited with him and that he even gave you the money to settle your fine. You've also been spotted going to your studio more frequently lately, meaning you also have money to keep working."

I looked at Aya, who was just as shocked as me. How the hell do they know this much?! What am I supposed to say?

"None of that is true," I replied. "We simply had enough savings in case of emergencies like these. But it was a big blow; we'll have to work a lot to recover."

"Meaning Blostars is coming back?"

"Just wait and you'll see. Is it okay for me to share our social media in the chat?"

Ceruty remained silent. "What do you say, my Watchers? Should we let him do it?"

I didn't have the live stream open and I didn't want to open it. Still, I was sure the girls, Aya, and Tomokazu were watching it.

The silence continued for an eternity until Ceruty finally talked. "The majority seems to like you, so send me the link and I'll share it."

"Thank you," I replied.

I sent the link to our social media through the chat of our call.

"There you go. Watchers, make sure to follow them. I think it's fair to say they at least earned your interest. Mr. Miyahara, thank you for coming and giving us a closer look at the situation."

"Thank you for the opportunity."

"I hope we can collaborate in the near future. Bye-bye!"

"Have a good live stream and a good afternoon, everyone."

Ceruty ended the call and everyone around me started clapping.

"How was it?" I wondered.

"Could've been better," Aya answered.

"It was perfect," Aki added.

"Kaito!" Astra shouted. "Didn't you have the live stream open?"

"I didn't. Why?"

"The viewer count jumped from ten thousand to two-hundred thousand when she introduced you."

"What?!"