Chapter 740: A Big Deal

Some of the fans inside the small theater had already begun to have some preliminaries. They lifted their hands upwards, silently and consistently from the bottom up, and repeated it many times.

Not too long after, five young girls in performance costumes appeared one by one from the backstage on top of the front stage. With smiles on their faces, they each began to make a self-introduction, causing the fans under the stage to let out a burst of cheers.

As the music started, they began to sing and dance. The fans cheered and waved their glow sticks in support of the girls.

The strange man standing beside Masayoshi Kishimoto was infected by the atmosphere and unconsciously got high along with everyone else.

Kishimoto Masayoshi felt in his heart that everyone was quite cute. Although it was a relatively cheap entertainment activity, and not accepted by the mainstream society, but in the happiness above is not a penny less.

For ordinary people, wasn’t living just about having a good time? And in the dimly lit small theater, joy was everywhere.

The five young girls standing on top of that near stage finished one song, then another. They were full of energy, bouncing around and occasionally making a cute dance move.

After they finished their second song, they went into an interactive session of chatting, which was a way for them to be able to take a little break from it.

The strange boy whispered to Masayoshi Kishimoto, “If you like someone, you can support them, then buy more products related to them. If you spend enough money each month, even the operations will listen to you carefully.

Did you see that one man, he is a notorious spendthrift in our area. Every month he spends six hundred thousand yen for that one love interest he likes.”

Of course Masayoshi Kishimoto understood that 600,000 yen per month was definitely a big spender for the average Japanese. In Tokyo, people who were considered good on top of their monthly income would be around three hundred thousand yen.

An ordinary young man graduated from university and just joined the workforce for one, two years. He just works in a small and medium-sized enterprise, after deducting taxes, he can get his hands on a salary of about two hundred thousand yen.

That’s not much if you take away the cost of living for personal food, clothing, and transportation. Of course, for the elite of the upper middle class, 600,000 yen per month is completely normal personal consumption.

As for the upper class, spending more than six hundred thousand yen a night in a club or a cowboy parlor. In their eyes, it wasn’t a thing at all.

“You guys know each other?” Masayoshi Kishimoto asked casually.

“Sort of! If you’re interested, after we’re done here, some of our fans will organize a drink at an izakaya not too far away.

Where everyone will not only be able to talk, but also exchange some relevant information. As their fans, we naturally hope that they will be able to stand on a higher stage.

If they really get to perform on a higher stage one day, it means that they are gradually moving away from us.

It’s as if the distance between orthodox idols and their fans will never be as close as it is between us and the underground idols now.” The strange man said calmly.

Justice Kishimoto understood, this was a social platform where they went from complete strangers to befriending each other. They came together over interests and hobbies.

Masayoshi Kishimoto blurted out, “That’s called ambivalence!”

“It’s such an ambivalence. However, as their fans, it’s still their greatest hope that they can go up to the top of a higher stage.

The biggest enemy in the aisu business is age. When they get older, they have to retire on their own. No one wants to see an Obasan bouncing around on stage like she did just now!

As a woman, the older she gets, the less cute she becomes in the eyes of men. Furthermore, there are also many competitors.

In Akihabara alone, there are many small theaters like this one. Each little theater has more than a few girls.

There were as few as a dozen, or as many as dozens, in various large and small teams or combinations. And, of course, there’s also a single one.” The strange man said slowly.

Masayoshi Kishimoto didn’t expect that he would be able to learn so much from an unfamiliar man. The current Aizens were the most grueling, promoting themselves in a relatively single way, after all, there was no such business as online video streaming to draw in fans and generate additional income.

“You like the one on stage?” The strange man asked with a sense of purpose.

“The second from the left.” Justice Kishimoto suddenly thought that one of the girls on stage looked rather familiar, and couldn’t recall that he had ever seen Dao there before.

“You’re talking about Shoko! I’m not going to lie, I’m also one of her fans. It’s really fate that I was able to meet you today.” The strange man had a few moments of excitement Dao.

Masayoshi Kishimoto said bluntly, “Isn’t her full name Nakagawa Shoko?”

“Could it be, that you know her?” The stranger asked curiously.

When Masayoshi Kishimoto said “No”, he himself even said the other party’s full name. When he said “yes”, it was all a personal memory from a previous life.

He suddenly remembered clearly. On December 31, 2007, AKB48 made their debut as the “Akihabara Circle” in the 58th NHK Red and White Song Contest, along with Shoko Nakagawa, Leah, Dizon and others. AKB48’s total of 43 members appeared together, making it the largest group to appear in the competition.

AKB48’s Takahashi Minami and the others recalled that at first they were overjoyed to be featured in NHK’s Red and White Song Contest, which meant that they were accepted and recognized by the mainstream media.

Then, they realized that they were not the only AKB48, but they had to perform with many others. They were only allowed to perform for half a song.

For this reason, they had to be labeled as the “Akihabara Circle,” which was humiliating, and they were still not accepted and recognized by the mainstream media.

Masayoshi Kishimoto told a well-intentioned lie, “I went to elementary school with Shoko Nakagawa.”

“So that’s how it is!” The strange man immediately said with envious gazes as he stared at him.

Masayoshi Kishimoto was a bit uncomfortable when he was looked at by a big man like that. In his own mind, he thought, as far as that goes?

“Since you and Shoko used to be elementary school classmates, can you tell me something about her past.” The strange man said with a sincere expression.

Masayoshi Kishimoto had originally told a lie, but he was being pressed by such a loyal fan of Shoko Nakagawa. He was not nervous, but instead had an axiom: “Fans and love beans should keep a good distance between them. If you get close, it’s not good. Far away, also not good. Don’t you think so?”

The strange man had a kind of dawning realization and nodded his head, “You have a point.”