But the most uncomfortable thing is love. Seeing Ash attacking Makoto without any scruples, seeing the bad things he did, and also worrying about Ash's love, I just feel heartache.
"Ash, what you do is so mean!"
"Oh Duo, if you say that, you are a bit unfair to me." Ash explained unhurriedly in the face of the girl's increasingly angry eyes. "I just gave a chance, but I wasn't the one who started everything?"
What does it mean?
The girls could not understand his words, and Ash had no intention of explaining.
"The rule of this game is to knock down this Jikochu before the sun sets tomorrow." Throwing the finished dinner plate aside, Ash wiped his mouth with his gloves and continued, "If you can't do it, Makoto's voice will be completely taken away at that time."
"If you defeat it before the sun sets, I will return Arisu to you. Otherwise, if you fail to do so, I will come and collect my prize."
"Just use your power of friendship and love and work hard."
Chapter 100 The first clue
"I look forward to your performance."
This feeling of confrontation is really heart-pounding!
Ash After taking the things and having a meal, Shi Shiran left. No one came forward to stop them. They didn't even know what to say.
After a long time, Makoto clenched his fists and his voice sounded extremely aggrieved due to the low tone.
"It's too much..."
Even if she had the idea of retiring, even so, it did not mean that she would give up singing just like that, stealing her voice without saying anything.
"Obviously, I still like singing...!"
It was simply... a mockery of her.
"Ash Is he completely our enemy?"
Rikka thought more. This time he stole Makoto's voice, but what about next time?
To this day, Rikka still remembers the pain of a broken back that he suffered in the beach battle. Compared with before, Ash now seems to have no idea of holding back at all.
If he wants to play the next game, will he go further?
"That person actually did this kind of Daby to Makoto!" The most angry person was Makoto's partner Daby. She couldn't wait to jump on Ash's face and hit him hard in the face.
As Poker Kingdom's long-standing partner, her relationship with Makoto is deeper than that of other partners. She doesn't know how Makoto gave Princess a true voice, and how important her singing is to her.
And Ash actually took Makoto's voice away!
"We must let him apologize to everyone properly Xia Lu!"
"But can he still do it? Now he..."
"Stop talking!"
A voice stopped the discussion among the elves, and they looked at Ai with a tangled face in surprise.
She wanted to believe in Ash. In the past, she had seen Ash gradually change his attitude towards them, so she really wanted to believe in him.
But is her one-way wish still correct?
No, now is not the time to think about such things! Ai shook his head, trying his best to get rid of the influence of the idea taking root in his heart.
"Ash left us a time limit. If we want to regain Arisu and Makoto's voice, we must defeat Jikochu before then, so we have no time to waste!"
Ai, who couldn't think clearly, could only choose to turn all his energy to this "game" first. After all, he had said before that he must win this game and bring Arisu back.
"However, we have no clues about Jikochu, and we don't know where Ash hid it. How are we going to find it?"
When everyone was at a loss what to do, the bell on the top of the door Oink Tail Tei was pushed open. It was obvious that a guest had come in. Even though he was not in the spirit of entertaining guests at the moment, Ai still forced himself to smile to welcome the visitor.
"Welcome, what would you like... ah, it's you!"
This time it was an acquaintance who came, it was Madoka Aguri, the elementary school student Pretty Cure who saved their lives on the beach.
"Um, Miss Cure Ace!" The three girls who repaid their kindness bowed to Aguri, who was even younger than themselves, and thanked her. "Thank you so much last time!"
"You're welcome, but besides the battle name of cure ace, my name is Madoka Aguri. Just call me Aguri."
Aguri, who is a head shorter than everyone else, teaches the big sisters who are junior high school students, especially Aguri who looks very adult-like. With her elementary school body shape, such a contrast still makes people laugh.
"I heard your conversation."
Of course, the conversation was overheard secretly, but Aguri also noticed that Ash glanced at her when he was talking, but he did not choose to expose her, so he probably did it on purpose.
"He is definitely a difficult opponent. I have thought so since the first time we met. His game cannot be judged based on common sense."
"But even Aguri you say so."
Rikka's expression looked a little forced. After all, what Aguri said was simply the most useful nonsense. It was as if the commander said to his soldiers, "The enemy is very powerful this time, so be more careful!" But for soldiers who are already careful, being more careful is like a double rule.
"However, even he was negligent!"
And I've seen it!
Aguri greeted Lai Ai and asked her to turn on the surveillance camera in the store. At this time, the girls also discovered that the surveillance camera in the store was facing the position where Ash was standing before.
"That's it, zoom in, zoom in!"
"This is the photo of Jikochu on Ash's phone?"
Fortunately, Ai's camera was a recently upgraded model, one that could clearly see every pore. Ai pointed the surveillance camera at the photos on her cell phone and zoomed in to the extreme. Ai immediately understood Aguri's thoughts.
"Yes, this is a photo. If we can identify the specific location of Jikochu through the background of this photo, we can find it all the way!"
"But, is it that easy?"
Rikka couldn't help complaining. When they were not transformed, they did not have the precise dynamic vision of Platinum Star. It was so easy to identify the background of the photo.
"No, I recognize this place!"
Makoto suddenly spoke and choked back Rikka's next sentence. She looked at Makoto with an incredulous look. She couldn't imagine how she recognized him. Does an idol still have this level of ability? As expected of Kenzaki Makoto from the Poker Kingdom!
In fact, the reason why Makoto can recognize this background at a glance is not because she has awakened the substitute Platinum Star, but simply because this background is so familiar to her!
"The floor-to-ceiling glass window behind this Jikochu is the famous department store Oogai City, and the building opposite to the department store and about the same height is——!"
At this point, the other people almost understood what Makoto was referring to, and just because they wanted to understand, their expressions now became a little embarrassed.
The one that meets this condition is Oogai City's TV station, which happens to be the place where Makoto's main work is filmed!
Yes, is it just a coincidence?
No one dared to neglect, and after an afternoon of contact, the station finally agreed to Makoto's request to show people around, and the appointment time is tomorrow.
Early the next morning, everyone arrived in front of the city TV station. After Makoto led the way, no one stopped them as junior high school students. The TV station could see various novel props and performances that dazzled the girls. However, now was not the time to visit, so everyone still focused on searching for Jikochu.
Except for not finding any clues about Jikochu, the journey went very smoothly. It was so smooth that Aguri started to wonder if this was a trap that the enemy had lured them into.
However, I didn't encounter any traps. Instead, I met another girl dressed as an idol. Judging from the change in Makoto's expression, she must be an acquaintance.
"I said who is this? Isn't this the big star Kenzaki Makoto?"
The beautiful brown-haired girl with twin tails raised her brows when she saw Makoto, with a rather proud expression on her face. She put on a arrogant look, which made Rikka and Ai beside her a little unhappy.
"..."
Makoto did not reply. Firstly, her voice had become weaker and weaker. Secondly, she had no intention of quarreling with this "acquaintance" now.
Seeing that Makoto didn't answer her, the girl became more energetic. She laughed and her words became more and more unpleasant.
"What's wrong? Didn't you say you wanted to retire? Why did you come back to the TV station this time? Could it be that you suddenly wanted to go back on your word?"
"As expected of a big star, you can come and go when you want, but with your half-hearted attitude towards singing, you can't possibly beat me now! If you don't have motivation, just get out!"
"Your era is over. The next top star will definitely be my Tachibana!"
Chapter 101 Tachibana's song
Makoto had a low face. She didn't want to argue with Tachibana now. Finding and defeating Jikochu and regaining her own voice and Yotsuba Arisu were their main goals now.
"Please get out of the way..."
But it can be seen from Makoto's clenched fists and slightly trembling shoulders that she doesn't care as much as she shows.
The Daby hidden in her pocket was also very angry. If she hadn't considered that she needed to deal with the Jikochu that might appear at any time, so it was the best choice to stay in the elf state and transform at any time. She would have transformed back into a human form to teach this little girl a lesson about truth.
"Huh——?" Makoto's voice was weak. Seeing the appearance of his opponent who was originally competing with him in terms of ranking, Tachibana attacked with a more aggressive attitude.
"It's just such a little sound, who do you want to hear?"
"Not only are there rumors about big star Kenzaki Makoto retiring, but you've even rejected the recent release of new songs, right? What's wrong? When I'm in the limelight recently, you don't dare to compete with me. Are you scared?!"
"That's not right!" Ai couldn't bear it anymore, and she immediately spoke up for her friend. "You have no idea, MakotoP, how did she—"
"Mana..."
Makoto's voice was very small, but it was still heard by Ai. He turned around and saw her shaking her head at him.
"Please get out of the way...!"
"Oh, you——"
"Mirai, almost done!"
A man's scolding from behind stopped Tachibana Mirai's unreasonable troubles. The plain-looking man pushed down his reflective glasses with his index finger. The badge on his chest showed his identity as the producer of Tachibana Mirai.
"Mirai, don't you have the recording work of O-Pictures's song next? Why don't you get ready quickly? What do you think of Makoto looking proud of her like this!"
"Tch... I know." Mirai turned her head away, moved out of the way and walked to the other side. It seemed that she still respected her producer.
"I'm sorry, Miss Makoto and her friends. I feel very sorry for Mirai's rude behavior just now - I'm sorry!"
Seeing the producer bowing to them, the girls looked at each other, and the anger in their hearts dissipated a lot..
"Well, Mr. Producer, you should get up first."
The producer of Tachibana Mirai was very friendly and talkative, which left a good impression on the girls. He apologized to the girls while telling them the story about Mirai. With the addition of Makoto, everyone roughly understood the cause and effect.
"Well... that is to say, Mirai has always been the second most popular idol, surpassed by Makoto's popularity."
Ai clicked his chin, finally understanding what the inexplicable hostility of Mirai was all about.
"Well, Mirai she has indeed been threatening to surpass me." When talking about this matter, Makoto was quite embarrassed.
In fact, in the past, Mirai used the popularity of new songs as a competition project. This is not the first time that Makoto has challenged Makoto, but every time it was a disastrous defeat.
"In fact, it is precisely because of this that Mirai's singing level has improved by leaps and bounds recently during the period when you stopped your business at Makoto. Even professional music critics said that her current level is not lower than yours, so she is a little... um, too extreme this time."
Having said this, the producer once again bowed and apologized to Makoto.
"That's why Mirai she was so excited when Makoto you said you were going to retire. After all, she has always wanted to truly defeat you."
"Even so..." Understanding is one thing, but agreeing is another. Tachibana Mirai went too far. Just because something happened to Makoto, he added insult to injury. Not to mention Makoto's own feelings, the girls watching from the side were a little unable to accept it.
If the producers hadn't worked hard to explain it to her, even if the girls could forgive her later, the bad impression would still have remained.
"By the way, this is a rare opportunity. Do you want to come and see the live performance of the songs my Mirai recorded today?"
"Hey, is it okay? This doesn't seem to be exposed, right?" When he said this, the girls immediately became interested, and even Makoto cast her gaze over. After all, she also wanted to know what happened to the opponent who had always lost to her, and would take the initiative to laugh at her with a face.
"It's okay, just consider it as compensation."
"???~"
It has to be said that the current Tachibana Mirai is completely different from her previous arrogant appearance. Standing in a professional recording studio, she has a serious expression after entering the state, and there is no trace of the impact of what happened before on her face. The girls outside, ranging from laymen to experts, can't find any problems.
"Missing piece Come back to here [Lost piece Come back to here again] "
"ラストはじゃない [The end is not now] "
The girl's body movements also swayed unconsciously to the rhythm of the song. She closed her eyes and bent down. She was not just yelling with her vocal cords torn apart, but she was making sounds from a deeper place in her body so that she could better express the sound.
It seemed that she was recording a burning song. The emotion in the girl's singing was equally fierce and sincere, and she was obviously putting 100% of her heart into it. Even the girl outside looked at her infatuated expression and could feel her love for music.
The most important thing is that even if it is the original version without post-tuning, the girls still think it sounds great!
"Mirai Is she already so powerful?"
Makoto opened her mouth unconsciously. She had never heard Mirai's songs before, but she didn't expect that her voice had already improved. She only left for a while because of frustration, but she had already caught up to this extent.
"How's it going? Isn't it awesome?" When talking about Mirai, the producer's voice was filled with pride. "This time I'm recording a song for Kamen Rider Wizard, who is currently popular on TV. I heard that someone has seen the real Kamen Rider. The Rider series of tokusatsu dramas with O-Pictures has also become very popular. This time, Mirai has also been exposed."
Speaking of this, the expressions on the faces of the girls were a little stunned. This fact about Kamen Rider is indeed true, and they can testify.