For now, she didn't dare consider taking on a role that clashed with her own image just to test her acting further.
She could only do as everyone else did and pick a role suited to herself.
Honestly, if you really held things to a high standard and emphasized accuracy to the source, someone like Jōmae Saori, who was skilled with guns, or Ling, whose martial skill was peerless, would both be hard roles to pull off.
But the Service Club pursued perfect fidelity to the source, everyone basically went without makeup, so all she could do was pick a role whose air and looks suited her own, and then put in the work on the acting side.
That happened to be exactly where her strength lay. None of the other idols had backed down, so naturally, she couldn't run from it either.
"Next up... B Komachi! Will all of B Komachi's members come over here."
After Kurokawa Akane, Nanakusa Hazuki adjusted everyone else's order of appearance again, moving B Komachi's members up to shoot their cosplay photos earlier.
Arima Kana, the very person who'd come up in Hachiman and Kurokawa Akane's conversation, was right there on the scene.
Unlike Kurokawa Akane, though, Arima Kana wasn't on her own. She belonged to the B Komachi group.
B Komachi as a group was originally supposed to come later, once the afternoon wrapped up and things were about to move into the evening's Play segment.
"Hello, Producer. We're the members of B Komachi."
At Nanakusa Hazuki's direction, B Komachi's five members came forward together to stand before Hachiman.
"My name's Arima Kana. My cosplay character is Nilou from Genshin Impact. Please take care of me, Producer!"
Starting from the left, the red-haired girl dressed in an exotic dancer-style outfit stepped forward and bowed to Hachiman, then looked up at him, unable to quite hide the nervousness on her face.
She was the very Arima Kana that Kurokawa Akane had just mentioned, the child-prodigy actress she'd looked up to since childhood, the reason Kurokawa Akane had gone into acting in the first place.
Having debuted as a child star, she had some dance training under her belt too, so cramming a dance that fit the character's setting had still come together looking the part after some quick practice.
Though what she'd really wanted to cosplay was Lupa, the wolf girl from Wuthering Waves, flame-red hair worn in twin tails, a personality that was warm, direct, and full of wild energy.
A character like that would let her show off her acting and also give her an excuse to say some charming lines to the Producer.
But since her figure wasn't quite the right fit, she'd had to settle for cosplaying Nilou, the dancer from Genshin Impact, whose demands on figure weren't as high.
Of course, right now she was far more nervous about why Hachiman had specifically brought her up while shooting Kurokawa Akane's cosplay photos.
Hachiman had never once sought her out. The only time she'd been involved with the Service Club's concerts, playing background music, she'd only run into one antenna-haired girl with a fang tooth who'd asked her for an autograph...
"Hello, Producer! I'm MEM-cho. My cosplay character is Ryza."
"I'm Hoshino Ai. My cosplay character is Raiden Mei. Please take care of me, Producer!"
"Tendouji Sarina, stage name Hoshino Ruby. My cosplay character is Kiana Kaslana. Thank you so much, you and Miss Shion! I'll work really hard, I won't let you down, Producer!"
After Arima Kana, MEM-cho, cosplaying the plush-thighed Ryza, and Hoshino Ai, cosplaying Raiden Mei, both introduced themselves in turn.
But compared to their by-the-book introductions, the fourth member, Tendouji Sarina, seemed noticeably more worked up, stepping forward out of the line of five on her own, dropping her knees to the ground, bracing both hands on the edge of the pond, and craning her head forward, as if trying to make sure Hachiman got a good look at just how much she'd changed.
"So Shion's the one who brought you into the club... Good. From now on, I'll call you by your stage name, Ruby. I hope you'll do your best, Ruby."
Looking at Tendouji Sarina, her hair dyed for her Kiana Kaslana cosplay from Honkai Impact 3rd, Hachiman couldn't recall ever having met her before, but from the adoring worship overflowing in her eyes and the mention of Shion, he immediately understood the reason behind it. He reached out and patted the head of a visibly excited Tendouji Sarina, soothing her with a smile.
These days, plenty of the idols at the agency had been recruited in his name for one reason or another, things like, "the Producer likes your smile," or "the Producer thinks you've got real potential as an idol."
Either way, it was all just setting him up for an assist, making the idols they recruited grateful to him from the bottom of their hearts.
After all, he was the one in charge of so many idol projects. There was no way he could really just be a figurehead.
That said, the Tendouji Sarina standing before him now, so overflowing with gratitude, did in fact seem to be someone he himself had actually arranged.
Earlier, upon seeing Arima Kana and Hoshino Ai in the same B Komachi, he'd found himself wondering just what the situation was with Hoshino Ruby, Hoshino Ai's daughter in the original work, and had later happened to mention Tendouji Sarina in passing in front of Shion.
It seemed Shion had been working hard behind the scenes this whole time too, managing to track down Tendouji Sarina, who'd been getting treatment at some hospital nobody even knew of. She just hadn't gone out of her way to take credit for it with him.
"Mm! Producer, Ruby will work hard!"
Seeing the flicker of confusion cross Hachiman's eyes, Tendouji Sarina didn't suspect anything. She just nodded her head firmly, utterly earnest in wanting to live up to Hachiman's expectations.
She knew just how much she'd changed over this stretch of time.
Before, she'd been bedridden with a serious illness, her body unbelievably weak, even her hair all shaved off for treatment. It was the Producer who'd had Miss Shion find her, giving her a new lease on life in such a short span of time.
The Producer was practically a second parent to her. She even found herself wanting to give her whole self to him.
Still, her physical condition wasn't fully back to normal yet. Miss Shion had told her she still needed to keep taking medication for her final round of treatment, and it would be another couple of days before she was back to full health. Otherwise, she'd have already volunteered herself for when Himemiya Elisa, Satsuki Botan, and Kujou Sakura went into the water.
"I believe in you, Ruby."
Feeling the fervor of Tendouji Sarina's fan-like gaze, Hachiman smiled and patted her little head again, but rather than press further on the back of her gratitude, he let his eyes settle on the fifth member of B Komachi instead.
Arima Kana, MEM-cho, Hoshino Ai, Hoshino Ruby.
*In the original work, the second-generation B Komachi was only supposed to have three members. Now there were already four, and somehow there was even a fifth...*
"Hello, Big Bro Producer. I'm one of B Komachi's members too now. My cosplay character is Ling from Zenless Zone Zero."
Seeing the speechless look in Hachiman's eyes, the antenna-haired girl cosplaying Ling from Zenless Zone Zero flashed an adorable smile and pulled out a few boxes of videotapes.
"Big Bro Producer, want an action tape?"
"If you get five right now, I can give you a special discount."
———
"What's going on here..."
"What's her name? Why does it look like she's so close with the Producer?"
"No idea. Looks like she's a new member who just joined B Komachi."
Watching this Ling cosplayer who'd joined B Komachi alongside Tendouji Sarina, the idol groups watching from not far off all exchanged glances, murmuring among themselves as they realized none of them knew who this newcomer was.
Even though today's convention was meant to center on each of their cosplay characters' own styles, meaning a little bit of untoward behavior around the Producer was fine, and the Producer would actually appreciate how well they stayed in character. Who really had the nerve to actually go that far? Kurokawa Akane, interacting with him while getting her photos taken, already counted as pretty bold.
In a corner they didn't even know about, Kuroba Ayako, cosplaying Firefly, hadn't dared to really lean into her character's nature to tease Hachiman either. All she could do was cry out while being obediently tied up and taught a lesson.
That the girl cosplaying Ling from Zenless Zone Zero would actually dare speak to the Producer in such a flippant tone made them all instinctively assume she had to be someone out of the ordinary, quite possibly the young lady of some top-tier conglomerate family.
B Komachi's original members, MEM-cho, Hoshino Ai, and Arima Kana, had taken part in the Service Club's Late-Night Service Games before, and had performed alongside the other idols in the background-music concerts, so the three of them actually knew a bit more.
Aside from the newly joined Tendouji Sarina, both Hoshino Ai and MEM-cho had seen with their own eyes, backstage during a performance, this Ling cosplayer asking Arima Kana for an autograph.
But... that was all there was to it.
Before, Arima Kana and the others had just been guessing whether this fan of Arima Kana's might be some young lady from the Service Club, but now, not only had she joined their B Komachi group as its mysterious fifth member, she'd also shown up at today's hot-spring convention cosplay party, and they couldn't for the life of them figure out what was actually going on.
If she really were some young lady from the Service Club, then why would she be here alongside small-time idols like them, playing cosplay with the Producer?
"Zenless Zone Zero... little sister Ling... maybe we should get her to come down here and let us take over keeping Lord Club President company instead?"