"Woah, it is a bit warmer in Tokyo," Tadashi commented as they exited the Sendagaya Station in Tokyo. "Yeah, it is. Let me call Ari-" "Well, well, well. Look who we have here." Haneul slowly turned to look at who it was, along with Tadashi, whom was ready to throw hands in case it was a pervert of some kid. However, her face lit up when she saw Bokuto and Akaashi standing just a few feet behind them. "Akaashi-senpai! Bokuto-senpai!" The white haired boy grinned at her and patted her head. "Well if it isn't little libero and Tsukishima's friend!" "They're Kazama-chan and Yamaguchi, Bokuto-san," Akaashi corrected. 

"What are you doing all the way over here?" The black haired setter asked, slightly smiling at them. "We have a performance camp to go to..." Tadashi sheepishly smiled, scratching the back of his head. Before they knew it, the four of them were taking a picture, and Bokuto sent it to "The Five Powerhouses" group chat. "Hey, maybe if you guys are done early, you can come over to see our team practice," Bokuto said, and Haneul nodded. "We'll see. See you!" the duo waved at their upperclassmen as they left the station. 

In a matter of seconds, Haneul called Keishin's cousin, Ari. She was in charge of them, and worked with the company that is hosting the camp. A black SUV showed up soon afterwards, parking in front of them. A window rolled down to reveal a blonde woman with pilot shades and dark red lipstick, whom Haneul knew was Ari. "Ari-san?" the brunette asked, just to be sure, gaining a nod from her. "Get in. The driver will take your luggage." A man appeared aside them, dressed in a tuxedo and causing everyone around them to stare.

--

Tadashi was definitely having second thoughts about this trip. Haneul was a little too comfortable to be picked up by a woman that looked like an idol in a black van for his liking, and she noticed. "Tadashi, this is Ari-san. Keishin's cousin," Haneul motioned to the woman, "She's a music agent for MAPS Entertainment. Ari-san, this is my partner, Tadashi." Ari proceeded to take of her glasses, revealing a pair of eyes very similar to their coach's. 

"Nice to meet you! Sorry about that shady pick up, bubs," the blonde grinned, crossing her legs. She continued, "Since the Spring National Performance is such a big event, every single contender has fans one way or another, and can be very troublesome." Tadashi nodded in understanding, letting his stiff shoulders finally relax. Ari suddenly chuckled, and said, "You two are by far the most normal contestants. And that's not really a good thing." This caused the duo to look at each other with questioning expressions, with Haneul shrugging at Tadashi. "What do you mean, Ari-san?" The brunette asked, causing their guardian to look at them up and down, analyzing them.

"Well, as you know, at the end of the camp is the actual competition. The way to win is for the audience to cast your vote, which means you'll need fans. To do this, you need to create an image for yourself, a name for yourself, and promote your talent. You can also team up with other contestants." Haneul was taking a mental note of what she was saying. "Well, um, I'm a little popular on Instagram-" "Oh? How so?" Ari leaned forward, and Tadashi as well, to look at her profile once the brunette took out her phone. "20k followers?!" Tadashi asked, taking her phone to see her feed. It was full of really well taken photos, with Kei appearing here and there, but most of them were old, having her with her long wavy hair in them. 

"That's more than the preferred contestant! How do you have so many?" Ari asked, very much intrigued. "W-well, I haven't really told anyone, b-but..." the brunette scratched the back of her head nervously, saying, "Before I came to Japan, I stayed with my paternal uncle in Seoul. He's a department director at Pitch Entertainment, and he let me train to be an idol for a short while..." Both Ari and Tadashi were in awe. This small and shy brunette actually trained to be a performer in a very big agency. Ari coughed, leaning back in her seat. "Okay, amazing. Juts- amazing. I'll be your assigned advisor, so I have to help you both gain a following and... Change your image. But that'll be a piece of cake."

A few minutes later, they finally arrived at the camp venue: the MAPS Entertainment HQ. Ari told them that the driver would be taking their luggage into their room, while she gave them a tour and took them to the welcoming ceremony. The blonde showed them around the big building, telling them that they'd be using the first floor up until the fifth floor. Haneul, scared of getting lost, held on to Tadashi's arm, not that he really minded. There were lots of other people there, to which Ari mentioned that there were around forty contestants just roaming around the building. 

There were rooms for everything. A costume room, a makeup room, a salon room to do whatever you want with your hair, a food court, a mini theater, a common room, quite a few dance rooms, and around six recording studios. Finally, they made it to the main room, which was a huge dance studio centered in the middle of the building, going up four floors from which you could look into. The contestants were already there, just lurking around the stage, and the shy duo said goodbye to Ari, whom had to go back stage to take care of some things. 

Haneul looked around, noticing what the blonde had mentioned about image. There were girls there that looked like models, some boys with well-put looks, immaculate fashion sense and eye-catching makeup. Meanwhile, the duo looked like their normal teenage selves. Tadashi had been wearing a black turtle neck under a jean jacket with grey jeans and a pair of Vans, and it went along with Haneul's outfit, but even so, they looked like they didn't belong there. 

A few minutes later, the ceremony began, with the company's CEO giving them a proper welcome and explaining what they were going to do. Every three days, they were going to host the competitions to examine and judge each contestant, which will be divided in four groups of twelve, and in the last day, they will reveal the winning group, who'll perform at Nationals. Not to mention that the performances would all be televised. Haneul looked at Tadashi as the CEO began calling the mentors and dividing everyone into groups. The last group, deemed "Team Clover", included a group of six boys from Chiba, who's group was named "Voyage", a group of four girls named "Cosmic Girls" from Kyoto, and the shy Miyagi duo who had named themselves "Devoted Sky". Like she had said, their mentor was Ukai Ari. 

After the ceremony, the duo found themselves in a meeting room in the third floor, along with the other contestants in their team. Ari was standing in the head of the table with crossed arms, looking at them. Tadashi and Haneul were seated close together, both of them probably internally panicking. The boy group was messy and loud, exchanging memes and acting like none of them were there, while the other girls were looking at them with very serious looks. They reminded Haneul of the girls that bullied her: looking all fierce and unbothered.

"Sit. Down." Ari glared at the boys, who all rapidly scurried to sit at the sight of her glare. The blonde was now chewing a piece of gum as she leaned over the table, putting her arms on the table as she did so. "I'm Ari, your mentor. I want you to get acquainted, since you'll be working together to reach your dream. Now, names." She said this last bit looking at the boys over at her right. They all stood up and bowed to the others. "My name is Hideyoshi, I'm the leader. These are Akihiko, Kichiro, Masami, Hikaru and Yori. We're all second years, and it's our second time here. We performed at last year's Nationals," the tallest one said, and they all sat back down.

The girl group stood up, and bowed as well. The girl on the edge of the table spoke, "My name is Michi," she then smiled widely, "And these are my girls, Haruka, Kazumi and Yasuko. We played in the Interhigh opening ceremony." Finally, they all looked at the duo, who tensed up. They stood up and bowed, with Haneul saying, "H-Hi! My name is Kazama Haneul, but you can call me Ha-chan o-or just Kazama. This is my partner, Yamaguchi Tadashi. We're both first years and our first time here." Tadashi and her flashed small smiles and sat back down.

Ari then smirked and began to explain. "Now, this team is very much elite. Last year's National Champions and the Interhigh performers ended up mixed up with a fresh duo. Now, this might seem to be just to balance up the energy in the team, but I actually chose you for a reason. I want you guys to look at each group's audition tape so you can get a feel of who you're working with, and try to think of what to do for your first performing act. After this, you'll get the rest of the day free."

Ari turned off the lights and set up the projector. The first video she put was of Cosmic Girls, where they did a rendition of BlackPink's "Lovesick Girls". The reason Haneul saw them as very wild and intimidating turned out to be because they were a rock group. They danced and sang to rock versions of songs. Next up was Voyage, whom were a type of pop group. Their style was very similar to K-pop, which Haneul really liked. They had done a rendition of "Open Arms" by Journey. Finally, Ari put up hers and Tadashi's audition tape, which was a cover of "Arcade" by Duncan Laurance. 

By the end of it, everyone else applauded them. "Wow, you guys really do give off 'rural area' vibes," Masami said, only to be elbowed in the ribs by Hikaru. "Ignore him." "No, no," Haneul laughed. "He's right, though. We were going more for 'dreamy' vibes," Tadashi smiled. "Well, you got a good set of pipes there, Kazama," Kazumi said, getting up with the rest of her group. Haneul and Tadashi then left the room, going with Ari to their new dorm. Like she had said, their things had been placed inside, and they were going to be sleeping in bunk beds. 

Ari then left them be, only for Haneul to plop down in the bottom bunk. "Everyone's so intimidating..." She exasperated, taking out her phone to see a missed call from Keishin and another from Kei, with over 100 messages from "The Five Powerhouses" group chat. Rapidly dialing his number, the blond coach picked up the face time call really quickly. He was on his lunch break with Shimada, Takinoue and Takeda, whom all appeared on the call. "Hi, Keishin! Sorry I didn't call earlier, but it's all been really overwhelming..." "It's okay, Hanie. Don't worry about it. Is Tadashi with you?" as the blond asked that, Tadashi plopped down on the bed aside her. "Yep! Hi, coach!"

"Tadashi! Hope you're practicing!" Shimada said, causing Keishin to prop his phone against something so the four of them could be seen. Haneul did the same, propping it down on one of the vanities while they sat on some very comfy chairs. "Um, this is a performing camp, Shimada-san..." this caused the ravenet to laugh. "How's it going? Any trouble?" Takeda asked. "Everyone here is so different," Haneul sighed, and Tadashi continued, "And crazy talented. But we're in an elite group!" This caused them to get all surprised. "Really?! That's great!" Takinoue said, and Haneul nodded vigorously, "The first competition is in three days. It'll be televised too! I dunno what we're gonna do, though..." The group of men told them not to worry and to just do their best, and that they'll be happy to see them in the final competition. 

"Oh! I saw that photo of you guys with Fukurodani's ace and setter! Are you gonna met up with them?" Shimada asked, and Tadashi said, "Yeah, they invited us to their practice later. They're super nice." After a little while, they hung up, and the duo went over to the cafeteria for lunch, where they sat with the Voyage boys. Haneul was eating with chop sticks, since Daichi and Kuro taught her how to eat with them back at the training camp, while sitting next to Tadashi. 

"So," Hideyoshi started, pointing at them with his chopsticks, "how did you come up with Devoted Sky?" Tadashi smiled and said, "My name means devotion and loyalty, and hers means sky. What about you guys?" "Music is a Voyage," Yori mentioned, revealing his deep voice. Haneul slowly nodded as she ate her food. "Hey! Ya guys free later?" Haruka appeared, leaning against them on their table. "Depends," mumbled Hikaru. The girl rolled her eyes, and Yasuko appeared behind her, saying, "We were gonna check out some nearby stores, if ya wanna come."

"Thanks, but Tadashi-kun and I are going to meet up with some friends later," Haneul gave them an apologetic smile, only for Yasuko to stare at her for a few seconds. "Pink hair would totally suit you," she suddenly said, causing her to blush. "E-etto... I can't dye my hair unnatural colors.""Oh? Why not? Akihiko asked, only for Yamaguchi to reply, "They won't let her play in matches if she does. We need our extra libero to play."

Due to this, they all started to surround her, asking her questions about how she plays for a boys team and what rules she has to follow. Soon after, they left to go shopping, and Haneul received a location pin from Akaashi, telling them that he'd be waiting for them by the entrance. Bokuto then sent her a text saying that they could practice with them while they're in Tokyo. And so, the duo went up to their room to get changed into their tracksuits and later headed out. 

--

If anyone is interested, this is what Tadashi and Haneul auditioned with:

https://youtu.be/Jyu26mUQIFU