The new generation
“What do you mean, humm-” she stopped as she realised she had started dancing again. “Oh, that! Of course I can control it! Watch!“ She stood stone-still for a few seconds, then seemingly got distracted by something outside the window and started dancing and humming again. She looked back at Lovetan. “See? Told ya I could control it,” she said proudly, not aware that she was doing it again.
“Ah! But I wasn’t an idol back then,” Miyuki said, grinning cheekily. “And at least she didn’t get what my history teacher got…" She said, reminiscently. “I don’t think he appreciated my…err, birthday gift to him. Especially when it bit him.“ She had put the baby tiger that she was raising at the time in her teacher’s room, but had made sure to clip its claws beforehand. She had taught it not to bite too hard so it didn’t penetrate the skin, but apparently the sight of a tiger chowing down on his arm was enough to make her history teacher faint. “The best was the pack of skunks during assembly though,” she said thoughtfully. “Boy, did that get me in a load of trouble. For some reason, they immediately suspected me.“ She was deep enough in thought that she didn’t notice Lovetan trip up and almost tell her something she didn’t want to.
"Well, I guess it helps that you have a babyface then!” Miyuki said. “Even the original Lovetan had a babyface…And yeah, I already feel like a grandma!“ Miyuki said, exasperated. “I’m pretty sure I’m the oldest kenyuusei right now, and I just joined 0048! I’m older than everyone in the 78th, 77th and 76th generations, and I might be older than the 75th too if Kanata is younger than me!” To be honest, she was going to audition for the both the 73rd generation when she was 12, and the 74th generation back when she was 13, but had pulled out at the last second because she had felt the time wasn’t right.
As soon as Miyuki started humming again Lovetan smiled mischievously.
“I admit she might have a nice basis knowledge of AKB songs and dances already but she needs to get rid of that as soon as possible. Even though it’s too funny!”, she thought to herself while nodding in Miyuki’s direction. “I see now! You can control it perfectly!“, she said with a trace of irony in her voice. The small successor realized that there might be no use in trying to make her aware of that humming again.
Lovetan sighed in relief when she noticed that Miyuki didn’t catch her words. Normally, she would get badly annoyed in case someone didn’t listen to her, but in this specific situation she was more than glad. It doesn’t bear contemplating what would have happened if she told someone that she was the one responsible for some pretty nasty “jokes” put on other members and even staff members.
Anyway, listening to the pranks Miyuki had done to some of her teachers she didn’t feel that bad about her own anymore.
“Man she is really good in playing pranks on people…and I thought I was mean…”,after getting a hold of herself she smiled at her under and continued in a not very serious lecturing manner: “Fine,fine. Whatever you have done back at school stays back at school! Better you don’t play a prank on any of your teachers here, understood?“, even though she intended to lecture her, everyone could tell that she wasn’t pretty serious about what she said.
Innerly she really wanted Miyuki to play pranks on other people so that she wouldn’t get suspected in case she herself decided to do so again sometime. But she couldn’t possibly tell her that as a senpai. "But playing a prank on Sashihara-senpai would be unforgivable in any case…”, she thought to herself;seriously nodding while having an image of Miyuki playing pranks on several staff members in her mind.
“Hm… let’s see.I think Idol’s come in a lot of variation though. There are the ones who look more mature and the one’s like me with your so-called babyface.”,she grinned. “Even in the real AKB there were kenkyuusei joining at your age and even older, so as long as you act like an Idol would and capture your fans heart’s it should be fine!“, with those facts she intended to cheer Miyuki up a little as she noticed that her age kinda bugged her.Originally she wanted to tease her a little further, but this clearly wasn’t the best time.
"The original Shinoda Mariko was 19 when she joined AKB! I don’t really see why something trivial like your age would become a problem for you.You’re here now and you passed!”, she added with a gentle smile.
“Yup!” Miyuki replied happily, unaware of the irony in Lovetan’s voice as she continued to dance and hum. She had gone on to ‘Aitakatta’ now, which looked rather silly as she did all the seemingly random running around and waving, all the while trying to talk to Lovetan at the same time.
“Oh, of course not!” Miyuki said. “I think I’ll love the lessons here, as well as the teachers! Ushiyama-sensei, Sassh- Uh, Ritsuko-sensei…Especially Tsubasa-san!” Her eyes twinkled as she brought up the general manager of 0048. “She’s amazing, and I highly respect her!” She looked thoughtful for a second, then giggled. “Well, I say 'of course not’, but that just means I won’t play any major ones on them.” What she didn’t say was that Miyuki was the type who was hell-bent on driving a teacher out if she felt that they weren’t doing a good job - hence why during her years at high school, her classes had always had several teacher changes per year. The reason was always the same, or on surprisingly similar lines: 'that damned red-haired girl!’ They had never been able to pin any of the pranks on her which was why she had never been suspended, but everyone had their suspicions. Nevertheless, her classmates had helped her more often than not. It was a form of entertainment for them, and they also knew that the teacher was a good one if Miyuki hadn’t chased them out within a 2 weeks. However, because of her ways, Miyuki also never really had any female friends - all of them were guys who also liked to play pranks.
“Act like an idol, huh…” Miyuki said thoughtfully. Her life before hadn’t exactly prepared her for being an idol, even though she had lived on Akibastar. Pranks on teachers at school, playing sports all the time (mainly with guys), running a lemonade stand, living by herself…She realised with a little bit of a shock that despite having studied and watched all those hours of 0048 videos, reviews, profiles, Miyuki had never really taught herself how to be an idol. She knew how the others acted, but all of them had their own unique way of reaching into a fan’s heart, ways that Miyuki couldn’t copy no matter how hard she tried. As for looks…Miyuki glanced herself up and down, and raised an eyebrow. “I think the only thing I have similar to the original Mariko-sama is the height. She was older than me when she joined, but she had that supermodel face, that beautiful smile, and…” Miyuki glanced down again, this time at her own chest. She gestured at it. “She actually had a chest!”
