AKI: "Don't just stare at me like that..."

SETSUNA: "What am I going to do?"

AKI: "I'm sorry, Setsuna... I've just messed things up for you completely, haven't I?"

SETSUNA: "No, you're not the one who's trying to overthrow me."

KASUMI: "Still, I never knew that you had a mean streak like that, Senpai."

RINA, AYUMU: "..."

AKI: "I'm sorry lost my temper, but that girl... That girl just irritates me so much with her high and mighty attitude."

KARIN: "Sounds like you've got some problems with her."

AI: "Yeah, how do you even know her? Like, I never heard of her until now, y'know?"

SHIZUKU: "What also shocked me is that she told us about your family."

KASUMI: "Yeah, that was totally uncalled for!"

AKI: "I brought up her father first, so it's only reasonable that she brought up mine."

AYUMU: "It's not fair for her to tell everyone something so personal about you."

AKI: "You knew it already, Ayu. Setsuna already knows through the council. But I should have told everyone long ago.
It's true, that Takehiko Suzuki is my father. It's also true that he would severely disapprove of my love for School Idols. I've kept this secret hidden from him and my mother."

AYUMU: "I wondered about that..."

EMMA: "To think there are people out there that hate school idols..."

KANATA: "Yeah, what gives? What's so bad about school idols, anyway?"

RINA: "If you want to, can you tell us your story?"

AKI: "My story? It's long overdue, but gather around people. I've gotten to know all of you better, so... I think you should get to know me better, too."

...

It all started when I was born. My parents were both politicians who shared an interest in music.

My father was a member of the diet, my mother was a spokesperson in the surrounding area.

When I came into their life, my mother had to focus less on her career and more about me. While my father increased his work efforts to provide for us. The three of us lived in an apartment in Odaiba. Which I still live in today.

Eventually, I attended Kindergarten. I never had friends before. The only other person I would talk to is my mom. So, it's only natural that someone easily impressed like me would be lured into to wrong crowd.

Ryu Kuroda made an effort to recruit kids into his gang. Because he wanted to be the big kid in the school. He said I was pretty cool, and it felt nice to have friends to call my own.

For a year I would spend my time as part of his gang. I didn't know any better, I could tell that what I was doing was wrong but I didn't want to lose my only friends. He made me attack Shiro Kosaka this one time, poor kid became scared of me until now.

We continued together until a new girl started attending. She was shy and didn't have any friends. But Ryu didn't recruit girls, he wanted to let her know who was in charge.

She wasn't doing anything wrong. Just a shy girl playing off to the side with her toy giraffe. Until, Ryu snatched it off of her.

He brought her to tears, but that wasn't enough for him. He wanted more, so he told me to rip its head off. But I refused.

Instead, it was me who got the beating. However, had that not have happened, I wouldn't have become friends with Ayu.

She wanted to become friends with me. But I refused at first because of our opposite genders. Until I realized that we were the only friends we had.

I thought I didn't have a choice and let her follow me around. At first it was irritating, having this girl by my side for no reason at all other than the fact that we had nobody else.

I found out that she was part of the family that moved into the apartment next to ours, it felt like fate. Since our moms became friends we got to talking more and spending most of our time with each other. We did everything together, we were inseparable.

Well...most of the time that is. I was enrolled into piano classes from an early age and had access to the best tutors possible. Dad thought that it would prove to be a great opportunity for extra credit and achievements.

I disappointed him. I didn't win a single recital, so he wanted me to put 100% into politics. That's why my piano classes stopped, and now I rely on taking extra classes to pursue it. I love playing piano and nobody is going to stop me.

KASUMI: "But Senpai, how do you know Mifune?"

AKI: "I was getting to that."

Once upon a time, Dad cared about family life. He wouldn't miss a single school event. I miss days like those, like field day at elementary school. But it wasn't until Middle school that he got a promotion.

When he got a taste of success, he longed for more. He would do anything to guarantee success. Even use his son as a weapon.

SHIZUKU: "A weapon?!"

AKI: "No, no! Not literally! I'm not some highly trained fighter or super human or something like that. I was just me, a normal middle school student."

Which made me just what he needed to climb higher. They say it's good to have friends in high places, so he wanted to form a relationship with Shioriko's father.

To get on his good side, he brought me to their house a lot. While they would discuss business, he wanted me to become friends with Shioriko.

However, we didn't click at all. In this situation, opposites didn't attract. We had nothing in common, we would just argue. It's a lot like a cat and dog.

EMMA: "I understand that. Back home the herding dogs would go crazy if a cat showed up."

SHIZUKU: "My Ophelia wouldn't hurt a fly."

AYUMU: "My Sasuke is so cuddly, he's nothing like other snakes."

AI: "...What?"

AKI: "I'm using cats and dogs as a metaphor here. Where was I..."

I didn't want to go but my dad made me do so. 'but she's not my friend! She's always so picky.' I would say. But he would just respond with 'You know there's other people in the world other than the Uehara daughter, right? You can have more than one friend Akihiko!'

I hated it. Me and Shioriko eventually got into a big arguement. By that time my father had everything he needed. He decided to blame me for the dispute to look good for the bigshot.

Sometimes I think I'm nothing more than a disappointment to him. Like I'm a waste of space.

SETSUNA: "..."

But I don't care anymore. I've found exactly what I love. But you see... The Mifune's are only happy when they can control everything. They see something and they want the final say.

So for Shioriko to graduate from Middle School and immediately run for High School President? I'm not surprised at all.

If her father sees something under his control that he doesn't like, he'll seek to destroy it. He will buy it and put it out of business.

RINA: "That's terrible..."

And now, Shioriko has seen the School Idol Club. Something she sees as pointless, and she wants to destroy it.

SETSUNA: "But what do we do? She's already gotten permission from the board of directors."

AKI: "We're going to war."