Tokyo: To reiterate, this is not a dating system.

A high-end residential area in Honkomagome 6-chome, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo.

Saki Izumo was half-reclining on the sofa, her fingers scrolling through the tablet in her hand.

Because she has recently become obsessed with music and even bands, she searches for band-related videos on the platform in her spare time, so the platform now recommends related videos to her.

I randomly clicked on a bass solo video, and it featured a long-haired, masked, and seemingly gentle woman playing a slap solo.

Intrigued, Saki Izumo stood up from the sofa.

I picked up the bass guitar that was standing upright to one side, set up the tablet on the stand, and started practicing while watching the video.

About ten minutes later, the video paused, and the empty living room fell into a brief silence. Then, a low-frequency, deep bass sound tore through the silence in the room.

"This time, I need to control my strength."

Saki Izumo took a light breath, and her fingers, which had been casually plucking the strings, began to learn the powerful techniques from the video.

"Snapped!"

A slightly muffled, heavy strike broke the warm tone.

Immediately afterwards, she hooked her index finger onto the high-pitched string and pulled it up sharply—"Bang!"

A crisp, sharp, metallic bass boom echoed through the empty room.

The string isn't broken!

Once she got the hang of it, she didn't hesitate any longer and started imitating the rhythm in the video—

The thumb strikes the bass note, while the index finger hooks the treble note. Although the technique is still a bit rough, the unique rhythm with a slap is already pulsating with enthusiasm.

After practicing for about half an hour, Izumo Saki felt that she had grasped the essentials.

She then put down her bass, seemingly satisfied, finally finding some release for her pent-up energy.

"It still feels...too easy?"

Exit video.

I casually refreshed the platform's homepage again, hoping to find something else to amuse myself with—at this time, Genji Aoyama was usually doing his homework.

After the tablet's interface refreshed, it displayed a new batch of content. Izumo Saki glanced at it briefly and found it too boring.

Just as she was about to close the software, she was drawn to a particular piece of work.

【The World's Number One Princess [Original]】, labeled as original music.

The video is only 30 seconds long, and the cover art is cute.

The video only had a few hundred views and a dozen or so comments.

These were not enough to attract Izumo Saki; the main thing was—the name of the video creator.

Hatsune Yuuko_official.

Her hand, which was about to swipe up to close the app, stopped on the tablet, and she quickly swiped away.

"Yuuko?"

Even without clicking on the preview thumbnail, you can see a lively, anime-style girl with bright green twin tails.

She has a delicate and lovely appearance, wearing a princess dress, with a flat chest and a very slender figure.

Despite the difference in temperament, Izumo Saki immediately reminded people of Asahi Yuko.

"They look very similar!"

She couldn't resist clicking on it.

The video plays automatically.

Clang, clang, clang—the rhythmic, crisp drumbeats rang out, instantly raising her expectations.

As the lively rhythm of the background piano music played, the girl in the princess dress in the picture danced lightly.

At the same time, a singing voice, as if synthesized virtually, began to play.

"World's No. 1 Princess"

"そういう扱い心得てよね" (Treat me like a princess - you have to know it!)

The music in the video only has two and a half lines of lyrics.

Moreover, despite being a virtual synthesized voice, it is surprisingly pleasant to listen to, with intonation and even emotional tension.

After the slightly arrogant "you" at the end, a perfectly timed instrumental performance was inserted.

The electric guitar sounds bright and cheerful, the steady electronic drum beats are precise, and the virtual singer in the video dances to the rhythm.

The girl is both proud and energetic, which is very endearing, and the music is also very catchy.

However, the video abruptly ended just as it was about to begin the verse.

The contrast between the high expectations and the sudden drop-off is very strong.

For some reason, Izumo Saki reminded me of Cunzhi.

After watching the 30-second video five or six times, Saki Izumo finally remembered to check the video description.

【The World's Number One Princess [Original]】

Singer: Hatsune Yuuko

Lyrics/Composition/Arrangement/Tuning/Mixing/Production: AG

PV Production: Jinghua Studio

LIVE2D Production: Jinghua Studio

Special thanks to: Yuuko

Brief introduction: The PV for the new song is being released for 30 seconds first, and the full version will be released soon.

Saki Izumo had some general guesses in her mind.

Think back, the voice in the video just now sounded like it was digitally synthesized, but it did sound somewhat similar to Yuko Asahi's real voice!

"AG... Genji Aoyama?"

"Yuuko Hatsune is Yuko Asahi?"

The next second, Izumo Saki took out her phone and started bombarding Aoyama Genji on LINE!

◇

"Buzzing—"

The phone on the table was vibrating continuously.

Genji Aoyama looked up from his homework and glanced at the phone—it was someone calling.

"It's already past eight o'clock..."

He picked up his phone, first glancing at the notification bar. Besides a bunch of platform messages, the top one was a notification from LINE.

Unsurprisingly, the only person who would bombard him with messages like this is Izumo Saki.

[saki: Sharing link] (Nico Nico Nico Douga)

[Saki: Did you post this?]

[saki: AG is your abbreviation (Aoyama Genji), and it also comes with Hatsune Miku Yuuko, which immediately reminds me of Asahi-kun!]

[Saki: Aoyama-kun is a bad guy!]

[Saki: I'm secretly hiding something good from you! Saki wants to bite you!]

It's only 20:10 PM now, just over ten minutes after it was posted. Izumo Saki's online activity level is quite high.

Genji Aoyama replied to her with a smile.

[Aoyama: Okay, it really was me who posted it. What does Saki think?]

[Saki: Hurry up and hand over your back! Otherwise, if Saki can't sleep tonight, she'll keep bothering you!]

Saki Izumo is like that; she says what she thinks directly, and Genji Aoyama doesn't dislike that kind of personality.

It would be even better if they didn't have that extraordinary physical strength and energy.

Just as Genji Aoyama was considering whether or not to give the video to Saki Kumo, she sent him another message.

[Saki: I just shared this video with my band members, and they all said they wanted to hear the full version.]

[Saki: After seeing something this good, who could resist?]

[Saki: It's practically like stopping in one inch!]

"..."

A helpless smile appeared on Genji Aoyama's face.

[Qingshan: Okay, I'll send it to you now]

[Qingshan: Video]

He eventually sent the video to Saki Kumo.

Otherwise, he sensed that Izumo Saki was about to say something incredible, or send some amazing photos or videos.

After receiving the video, Saki Izumo finally calmed down.

After thinking for a moment, Genji Aoyama also sent the video to Yuko Asahi and Haruka Minazuki.

After all, this song is related to the two of them.

One is the prototype of the songstress, and the other is a future collaborator.

After sending the message to the two people, Genji Aoyama waited a while longer, but didn't receive any reply. Instead, his phone's notification bar was flooded with notifications from various platforms.

He began to check the release information on several platforms.

The response from Nico Nico Douga and Nico Nico Douga was relatively stable. Although they have unknowingly accumulated several hundred fans, they have not replicated the phenomenal popularity of the "Omotesando Handsome Guy" era.

Aoyama Genji clicked in and took a look. A dozen minutes later, the number of views was over two thousand, which was higher than expected.

It's reasonable that there were over twenty bullet comments and notes.

However, when Aoyama Genji opened the short video platform, T-site, which he had not originally intended to use as his main battlefield—the platform where he previously responded to the Omotesando handsome guy incident—was the one he had started using.

Here, the song's pre-release promotion has already generated a strong response, just as he expected.

"Circumstances are beyond our control."

Genji Aoyama smiled, opened the video's comment section, and was surprised to find that the ID at the top of the list looked somewhat familiar:

Although the sound is full of mechanical and electronic synthesized notes, it doesn't affect the overall sound at all. In fact, it unexpectedly fits the electronic rock arrangement of the whole song, and the virtual vocals do a very good job in expressing emotions.

Those first 30 seconds were amazing! I'm already getting excited! —@鹭巢士郎]

The number of replies to this comment is increasing.

Genji Aoyama opened the profile and discovered that this Shirou Sagisu was actually a top musician in the industry.

The appearance of Shiro Sagisu even brought a large number of viewers to the video.

The people who originally followed him were just netizens who came for the popularity of the handsome guy from Omotesando.

Now, even more music fans, drawn by top-tier musicians, have flooded the comments section of the video.

The number of views has increased noticeably, and even the trending topics [Omotesando Handsome Man's Work] and [World's Number One Princess] are constantly rising in the rankings.

Of course, the number of comments under the video also increased.

[Eh—I thought it was him singing! What a pity~ But the melody is really amazing! I can't wait for the sequel! I'll support the handsome guy from Omotesando! —@OmotesandoResidentJK]

[The trigger was Shirow's comment, but after listening to it, I was overjoyed! —@ShirowLuNest, a 10-year longtime fan]

[Huh? Even the title of the work reflects the author's personality! How arrogant is that! This kind of electronic synthesized music is a desecration of music! —@User with English and number name]

There were quite a few replies under this person's comment. Aoyama Genji was initially quite interested in this kind of negative review, but when he clicked on it, it showed that the comment did not exist.

I don't know if I deleted it myself or if it was reported too many times.

"reality."

Genji Aoyama muttered a complaint and continued scrolling down.

[30 seconds is way too short! Listening to this kind of music at night and not being able to hear the rest is definitely going to keep me up at night! —@Professional Music Fan]

[I sincerely repent to the handsome guy from Omotesando. This guy is a god! Release the full version soon!! And Hatsune Miku Yuuko is so cute! I'm a fan now! ——@LikesAnime]

……

The expected results have been achieved, and with the influx of more and more music fans, the results are even better than he had anticipated.

All that's left is to wait for the hype to build up further, and then release the full version at the right time.

Aoyama Genji exited the video interface with satisfaction.

I just received a LINE notification that he has a new message.

Switching back, Asahi Yuuko and Minatsuki Haruka didn't reply; the message was still sent by Izumo Saki.

[Saki: Aoyama-kun, please join our band!]

?

Does that mean he, a boy, should join a band made up entirely of pretty girls?

Let me clarify, Genji Aoyama has no interest in bands, and even less interest in pretty girls!

◇

Previous chat history.

[Aoyama: Thank you for Asahi's matter, and... I'm sorry for addressing you that way today.]

[Saki: I'm not thinking about it anymore. Just remember to come to the activity room often.]

[Aoyama: Yeah, it'll be over tomorrow]

[Saki: You absolutely have to come! I missed you so much today when you weren't here!]

[Qingshan: Okay. If there's anything else you'd like to do with me (besides Sesame), feel free to let me know.]

[Saki: I'm so happy! I won't bother Aoyama-kun for now~ If you have any difficulties with your homework, I can help you~]