Arc-2 Ep-46
66
“──With this result, tenth-place Moyu Kawakami-san will take the nickname Ceres. Eleventh-place Nozomi Nanazawa-san will take the nickname Haumea.”
“The nicknames for everyone else remain unchanged.”
“Yes, that is correct. ...Then let us continue with the announcements!”
“Now we finally enter the single-digit ranks, the top of the vote count!”
“Yes! From here on, the members who are called will belong to the inner group ‘Sistema Solare.’”
“Any fan who has made it this far probably already knows who is left, but the exact order is still exciting, right?”
“So exciting~~~!!”
“Hurry up and announce it!!”
The fans in the audience urged the playful MCs to move forward. Since the event was being broadcast live on BS, they had to accommodate commercials and conclude precisely on schedule, which made timing tight.
“Understood. ...Then, for the Fifth Sistema Solare Reiteisai popularity poll, ninth place is!?”
“Ninth place is!?”
“...For the second year in a row, ninth place! Third-generation member, Neptunus — Rio Kitado-san!!”
“Uoooooo!!!”
“Rio-chaaan!!!”
The cool-type member whose name was called stepped forward into the central spotlight. The popularity poll had finally reached its decisive stage.
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“...Then, for the Fifth Sistema Solare Regular Grand Festival popularity poll, sixth place is!?”
“Sixth place is!?”
“...Up one spot from last year! Second-generation member, Saturnus — Suzuka Kiyota-san!!”
“Suzuka-sama~~~!!!”
“Kyaaaaa!!!”
The name of Kiyota-san, Sushu-Solar’s top cool-type idol, was announced.
Kitado-san, who had placed ninth, drew strong support from male fans, but Suzuka-san’s popularity was almost entirely among female fans. She was also well-liked by the other members, making her the opponent I secretly regarded as a rival.
Though, of course, she probably did not see me that way. Our main fan bases were largely separate: men for me, women for her, so our support never truly overlapped.
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The announcements proceeded up to fifth place, yet my name still had not been called.
“Well now... we are truly in the home stretch.”
“Yes. Let us continue. ...For the Fifth Sistema Solare Reiteisai popularity poll, fourth place is!?”
“Fourth place is!?”
“...For the fifth consecutive year! Second-generation member, Jupiter — Erika Wakisaka-san!!”
As expected, Erika-san’s name was called among the remaining top members. She glanced briefly at me, then walked lightly toward the center of the stage.
“Erika-chaaan!!!”
“Fourth place, congratulations~!!!”
Receiving the audience’s cheers, she waved cheerfully at the fans in the venue and at the TV cameras with a radiant smile.
“Congratulations, Erika-chan!”
“Yes! Thank you very much!”
“You’re back in fourth place, same as the third poll.”
“No, really, I thought my rank would only keep dropping from now on.”
Having stayed in the single digits since her very first popularity poll, Erika-san handled the conversation with the MCs with complete ease.
As expected from someone consistently in the top ranks from the beginning—her composure was remarkable.
“──I plan to continue doing gravure work as well, so please keep supporting me♪”
“That is exciting news for the fans.”
“Indeed. ...Well then, thank you very much. That was second-generation member, Jupiter — Wakisaka Erika-san!!”
After heating up the crowd with her gravure continuation announcement, her turn ended, and we finally approached the reveal of the top three. The remaining members were last year’s first- and second-place superstars, Rina-san and Tomomi-san, along with the rising rookie: me.
As almost everyone had anticipated, it had come down to a three-way battle for the final positions.
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“Here we go—the top three announcement at last!”
“Last year’s top two plus the highly anticipated rookie. Three people it is impossible to rank clearly.”
“How did all of you fans decide?”
“Then shall we announce it?”
“Uoooooo!!!”
“Tomomi-chaaan!!!”
“Rina-ri~n!!!”
“Mikuri~~~!!!”
The audience erupted at the male MC’s words. Fans watching nationwide on TV were probably getting equally excited. But then the female MC dropped a merciless line.
“Yes... or so I would like to say, but first—commercial break!”
“Eeeeeeh!!!”
“No waaay!!!”
This year, the event was broadcast live nationwide on BS. Naturally, commercials had to be inserted partway through. From what I had heard, most commercials featured Shusu-Solare members. This was likely the result of ff・fortissimo sales team working diligently.
Hopefully, the fans would appreciate it more than the long, shopping-channel-style commercials typically seen on BS.
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“Commercials... well, there’s nothing we can do about it.”
“There’s the live BS broadcast, after all. Last year we didn’t have to deal with that.”
[T/N- Japan has three main kinds of TV broadcast systems: 地上波 (terrestrial broadcasting), BS (broadcast satellite), and CS (communications satellite). Both BS and CS are via satellite, but BS is often used for nationwide broadcasts.]
“This is also proof that Sistema Solare’s popularity has risen.”
“Exactly. I am already looking forward to a terrestrial live broadcast next year.”
“That would be great. Let’s do next year’s MC gig too, okay? President.”
When the male MC called out to the president watching from the upstage wing, laughter broke out at various spots in the venue.
“I would like to request that as well. ...Anyway, the commercial break is almost over.”
“Then let’s get back to work.”
The MCs received the cue from the floor staff and switched their expressions for the post-commercial segment. Finally, we had reached the greatest climax of this year’s Regular Grand Festival.