Starlight

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"Speech"

"[Different Language] - Speech"

'Thoughts'

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Kil was currently having his morning run as he could be seen going through the city, wearing a pair of comfortable casual clothes, along with having a small towel hanging over his right shoulder and a bottle of water present in his right hand.

Just like he always has done, he was just finishing up his ten-kilometer run for the morning. He had to always get up pretty early in the morning to make sure he had enough time to finish the run, along with resting and cleaning himself up afterward, getting ready for school.

He was around six kilometers into the run so far, and was sweating slightly, though not too much. After all, doing this sort of thing for a really long time now had granted him quite a lot of stamina. He kind of got used to the distance.

He always stayed particularly focused whenever he was running, usually ignoring most of what was going on around him. Not to the point that he would disregard everything and possibility causing accidents, but just enough for him to stay focused on his goal to finish his run.

However, as he was running, he ran past another person who seemed to be out for a run as well. The person seemed to widen their eyes quite a bit before coming to a stop and turning around, when they did, they saw Kil running off.

"W-Wait, isn't that...!" The person seemed to mutter to themselves as they gazed at the hooded individual that was running off. "Excuse me...! W-Wait, excuse me, the one with the hood!"

"Eh?" Slowly coming to a stop, Kil blinked as he heard a voice being projected in his direction. He turned around to see if whoever spoke was addressing him in particular, and when he did, he saw the person jogging over towards him. 'Was it her?'

The person that supposedly called out to him looked to be the same age as himself, although shorter in height compared to him. The girl had long white hair tied into pigtail buns, along with having a pair of deep pink eyes. She was wearing a short-sleeved pink shirt, along with a pair of short black and pink sports shorts.

"Can I help you?"

"K-Kil?" Said person blinked in confusion when his name was announced. He looked at the girl that seemed to look up at him with a look of expectance, along with what looked to probably be hope as well. Did she know him? "It's you, right?! I recognize that hood from anywhere!"

"Do I... know you?" Kil rose an eyebrow in confusion as he muttered this question. It was obvious this girl seemed to know him from somewhere, but where? Though... looking closer, she did appear kind of familiar. Maybe it was the cheerful aura around the girl that seemed familiar.

"So it is you! Take off that hood already!" The girl seemed to shout, and before he could even react, she reached forwards and pushed back the hood he had on. He blinked in surprise by the sudden action, not quite sure how to react. "It really is you! I can't believe you can't remember me!"

"E-Excuse me...?"

"It's me, Chisato! Chisato Arashi!"

"...Eh?"

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Chisato Arashi is one of the few friends that Kil actually had in the past, having met her during elementary school, along with another individual. They really hadn't been in touch at all ever since probably around the second year of middle school.

The main reason for this was that Kil didn't have the time, he was studying the entire time in preparation for the Ashun entrance examinations. He still went to school, but just never had the time to really have fun at all with others.

At the current time, Kil was walking alongside Chisato as they were both eating what appeared to be some kind of red-bean sweet treat. Something that they had bought from one of the nearby street shops, around the general area where they had initially bumped into one another.

"To think you actually made it into that school..." Chisato muttered with eyes widened full with surprise. Kil could only chuckle a bit as he saw the reaction, his hood back up as he took a bit from the treat in his hand. "You still could have at least messaged us... Kanon thought you just ditched us for no reason."

"Yeah, sorry about that..." Kil sweatdropped as he apologized. He was honestly just glad she didn't seem too angry about it, more understanding about his situation. If there was one thing about Chisato that Kil had learnt over the time that he had known her, it was that she could prove to be decently scary whenever she was angry. "Speaking of Kanon, how is she?"

"She's doing well, though kind of under pressure right now. Along with Keke..."

"Keke?"

"She's a fellow student from our school." Chisato explained simply as Kil nodded his head in response. Chisato then added. "They're both wanting to be school idols, but they need to win an upcoming competition if they want to continue doing so... you can probably guess what's wrong."

"School idols, huh?" Kil repeated in a simple tone as he heard this. He knew of what school idols were, though he never really paid much attention at all to it. Now that he thought about it, was there one at Ashun? Meh, whatevs. "Stage fright, right? I'm guessing that she still can't deal with singing in front of people?"

"Yeah..." Chisato sighed as she took another bite of her treat, chewing for a bit before swallowing. "I want to help the both of them, but I'm not really sure how I can even hope to do that. Nothing we have done is really helping out too much with it all..."

"Well, Chisa-."

"Call me Chi!

"Right, Chi... Well, maybe try putting her under some kind of other attention pressure. It's obvious that the pressure of having so many people watching her is her main issue, so try to help her get used to that in some way." Kil suggested. While he never had any stage fright at all, he could at least give some helpful tips. "Maybe some kind of work setting or something."

"That's... a great plan!" Chisato nodded her head as she held her chin in thought. "I knew you would know how to help! You did play on a large stage at some point in the past, and you said that you joined a music club as well! Maybe you can help them out with the music aspect as well!"

"I-I'm sure Kanon will do fine in that department, she is a very talented singer. It's more her stage fright that you should be more concerned about." Kil assured as he looked at Chisato. "When is this competition anyway? I might have the time to come and check it out."

"It'll be in a week from now..."

"Okay, that's not a lot of time..."

"It really isn't... Though, could you also come and help us with making a dance routine for them? I'm already helping them with that, but I wouldn't mind an extra hand in the matter." Chisato requested with a hopeful look in her eyes, Kil just gave a small sigh when he saw this.

"I don't mind... but, I don't think I'm that good at dancing."

Chisato seemed to twitch when she heard this, to which she then gave him a blank look as she spoke. "If you're not that good, then what does that make me...?"

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After saying their farewells, both Chisato and Kil went their separate ways to get themselves ready to go to school. Kil had decided to meet up with Chisato tomorrow so he could help out with Kanon's issue, at least try to help that is.

Anyway, aside from that whole situation. School went by as usual, with Kil going to his numerous different classes, same stuff. At the present time, he had arrived not too long ago at the club room as only he and Aoko were currently present. Ryu messaged them saying that he would be a bit late.

"What's this?" Kil blinked in confusion as Aoko presented an iPad to him, displaying some kind of website on its screen. He was currently playing the guitar as she brought it to him, his hood also being down as he was in the room. He had gotten comfortable enough here in the room with both Aoko and Ryu that he didn't mind too much about wearing his hood.

"It's the official website for the Starlight Grand Festival!" Aoko exclaimed as her eyes became starry, making Kil raise an eyebrow in confusion due to her unexpected enthusiasm. "It's a massive tournament, even bigger than Love Live! It's the biggest, and It's for all kinds of musical talents!"

"No idea what Love Live is... But, it's basically a music competition?"

"Not just any music competition, it's THE music competition!" Kil flinched heavily when Aoko glared and shouted at him. Whatever this Starlight Grand Festival was, definitely seemed to be something Aoko admired. "It's THE biggest music tournament in the entire world! How do you not know about it?!"

"I-uh..."

"Hey, guys! I'm here!" Both Aoko and Kil turned their attention to the door as they both saw Ryu walking in with a smile on his face, though they rose their eyebrows in confusion when they saw someone hiding behind him. "Allow me to introduce you guys, this is Kiara. She wants to join the club."

"H-Hello..." The person hiding behind Ryu was a girl wearing, obviously, the female school uniform. She had slightly pale skin along with middle-lengthed blue hair with turquoise streaks, along with a pair of matching colored eyes. Speaking of her eyes, she was darting them around the room nervously, along with peaking glances at both Kil and Aoko.

She was obviously very shy if her position wasn't evident enough...

"Nice to meet you, Kiara. My name is Shinmara Kil, you can just call me Kil."

"A new member, huh? Welcome to the club, my name is Kumegawa Aoko, feel free to call me Aoko." Aoko gave a smile as the nervous girl seemed to relax a bit seeing how friendly they were. "If you don't mind me asking, what kind of instrument do you play?"

"I-I like to play the piano or the keyboard, I'm not sure if I'm really any good though..." Kiara stuttered slightly as she answered the question. Aoko nodded her head at this, they already had a piano set up in the room, and there were definitely some brand new keyboards in the boxes somewhere. "Isn't that... Starlight?!"

"Oh~, you know about it?!"

Kil and Ryu blinked in surprise when Kiara bolted right over towards the iPad that Aoko was holding, her having been able to see what was on the screen due to Aoko having been faced backward to the door. Both boys blinked in surprise as both the females were chatting away about the website.

"That was... unexpected." Kil stated bluntly as he walked on over to where Ryu was standing. The latter nodding his head in agreement with the statement as they continued to stare as both the girls were excitedly speaking about whatever the Starlight Grand Festival was.

"At least she's already getting comfortable..." Ryu chuckled nervously as he saw how Kiara had lost her previous demeanor and was now talking about with energy. Ryu then looked at Kil. "So, any idea as to what it is they are even talking about?"

"Well, something called the Starlight Grand Festival. Aoko told me just before that it was apparently the biggest music competition to ever exist, didn't get to tell me anything else before you two came in." Kil explained simply as Ryu nodded his head. "Aoko seems ecstatic about it though."

"Wonder why..."

"There is a lot to be excited about it!" Aoko suddenly appeared in front of them with the iPad shoved in their faces, Kiara standing behind her with a determined look on her face as well. "Kiara has already agreed to try, so now I'm waiting for the both of you!"

"Hold on!" Ryu waved his hands in front of himself as he gestured for them to calm down. "Let us get this whole thing straight, you basically want to enter this competition, don't you? I'm all for it, but what's so special about it?"

"Hoho~, so naive. Take a seat and listen to Aoko's presentation of sta-guh!"

"A-Aoko?!"

Kiara seemed to go into a panic as when Aoko turned to walk up to one of the elevated platforms within the room, she accidentally bumped her leg against a speaker, causing a crack to sound as she fell to the ground in pain. The boys just deadpanned at her action as they had gotten used to it at this point...

After Aoko recovered from her little pain situation, she connected the iPad to the screen set up in the music room as the website was now displayed on the big screen. Ryu, Kil, and Kiara all sitting on chairs in front of the screen as Aoko stood up at the front.

"Alright, Kil and Ryu. Kiara obviously knows what the Starlight Grand Festival is, but I'll give the both of you the rundown!" Aoko smiled as she then pointed at the screen. "Starlight is the biggest music competition to ever exist, and the last time it was held was seven whole years ago! It's a competition for bands, solo singers, and idols alike!"

Kil blinked his eyes in surprise at this, and Ryu was no different. Big competitions typically occurred once every year, that's how they keep their reputation going. Hearing that the last time this music tournament was held was over seven years ago, was a surprise. Adding to the fact that it was probably incredibly famous still spoke volumes of the reputation it held.

"You can't just sign up and expect to get on the stage, you have to earn your way in!" Aoko stated as she switched the screen to display what looked to be a list of rankings, though it was completely empty as of right now. "It hasn't started yet, so there obviously aren't any rankings. However, in each country, only ten will be able to make it into the ranking list."

"Will the winner of the competition be decided among those ten?"

"Yes and no. If you manage to make it into the rankings, you will then compete to see who the number one ranked is. That number one group will then be able to move onto the actual tournament, facing off against all the other groups who managed to rank first in other countries! You will compete to see who's the best in the entire world!"

"Okay, that does sound incredible..." Ryu muttered with a surprised look on his face. Kil could only nod in agreement to that statement, being the best in the entire world was no joke at all. "Who were the ones that won the competition last time?"

"The one's that claimed victory previously was America, the people that won were a band called True Harmony. The runner-up was Siphon, a male idol group from Britain." Aoko explained as they all nodded their heads. "It's generally easier for idol groups to win, so it was incredible how True Harmony managed to outclass Siphon."

"They must have worked really damn hard..." Kil frowned as he heard this. He could guess that the reason why idol groups had an easier time was that the judges most likely took into account things such as how difficult it is for each group to prepare, and idol groups had to prepare a dance routine along with a song, instead of just a song alone. "What are we going to do?"

"Well, Aoko and I were hoping to see if we could form an idol unit. If we do that, then there is a higher chance we may be picked!" Kiara chimed in as Ryu and Kil looked at one another. They both just stared for a second before shrugging their shoulders.

"Sure, let's do that then. That means we'll have to compose a song, along with creating some kind of dance routine to go along with it. I assume that all the songs that we'll be submitting and performing have to be original pieces, right?"

"That's correct. We can't do covers of already existing music compositions, we also have to have our own unique dance routines to go with them." Aoko clarified. "If we manage to submit a performance that gets us into the ranking list, then we may have a chance to even compete against the world!"

"Don't get ahead of yourself, it won't be easy from what you've told us." Kil stated calmly as he looked at the big screen, which displayed a number of different pieces of information. "How are the rankings determined exactly? Any specific?"

"Well, the videos that are submitted to the official website are all sent to the officials at the Starlight building. They then determine whether or not you make it into your respective country's list, determining if they see it as good enough or not. Sometimes, a country may not even get any people onto their ranking list."

"Jeez, that's rough..."

"When at least two groups or more manage to make it into the ranking list, the additional tournament to decide who's the best in the ranking list happens. The competition is usually held in person instead of over the web through video submission. If only one person or group manages to get onto the ranking list, then they automatically go to the world stage."

"Interesting..." Kil nodded as he held his chin in thought. That was quite a lot of information, but he did remember everything. This competition, Starlight Grand Festival, was a whole lot bigger than he initially thought when Aoko first mentioned it. "When does this whole video submission thing start?"

"It officially begins in a week, that is when people will submit the videos they've made to the page. It's better to get your video in as fast as possible as they usually get the most attention." Aoko explained as they all nodded in understanding. "I should also mention that people can vote for the best videos out of the bunch, and the videos with the most votes are the ones that are placed higher onto the list that the officials will look at."

Kil narrowed his eyes at this as that meant that it would be best for them to try and get a video in as soon as possible, though he was conflicted if that was the best thing to do. Should they focus on trying to make a video as good as possible, or have that initial advantage by having an early bird video?

There were many things to consider for such a big competition such as this one, and there wasn't that much time left before it officially begins. So, they would need to start as soon as possible if they want to get a video in on time. "Then we should start thinking about what song we'll perform and what kind of dance to go with it."

"I completely agree." Aoko nodded her head, though she then switched the screen on the iPad to show a screen that was asking for her to input some kind of name. "However, before we even begin with that. We need to finish up setting up our account, and the final step we need to do is think of a name for our group! Any suggestions?"

"H-How about True Star?"

"Nah, maybe Over Top?"

"Eternal Wonders?"

They all started listing off a number of names that they thought could go well with the new group that they'll be performing as, though the only one that didn't seem to chime in at all or give a suggestion was Kil. The others noticed this as they turned to look at him, with Aoko speaking next.

"Kil, do you have any suggestions?"

"I think we should go with something simple yet powerful, something that speaks our goals and delivers a message. How about... Gold Rush."

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