In The Lap Of The Muses

**In The Lap Of The Muses** is a fanfiction on Archive of Our Own written by thisissparta789789. It chronicles the future endeavors of not only µ's, but also Aqours, Saint Snow, and A-RISE as they four groups spearhead a sudden surge in popularity of Asian pop/rock music in the Western world in the 2020s and beyond, akin to the British Invasion of the 1960s. Focusing mostly on µ's, the story features the idol group transform into a rock band as they climb their way to the top, all while dealing with triumph ad tragedy along the way.

## Background

In 2013, µ's broke up following the graduation of its third-years. In the intervening years, all 9 of its members graduated high school, and while they began to go their separate ways, all 9 maintained regular contact with each other. In late 2017, however, the 9 decided to give a shot at being professional idols, and in 2018, they reemerged onto the stage to much success. Behind them was their manager, Toru Hosono. He had signed the girls on a joint recording-publishing deal in December of 2017 for two albums.

However, as 2019 came around, the band began to intensely dislike their manager and his brother. Among the issues they cited were low pay, uncalled for interventions in their personal lives, stifling of creativity, and a lack of care for events in their personal lives that could affect their performances, such as when he showed no care for when Maki Nishikino was disowned by her parents for coming out as bisexual. After the end of their second tour, the band fired Toru and his brother, and Maki suggested the band do a cover of Death on Two Legs to publicly call him out without naming him. This cover idea would later snowball into their third post-Otonokizaka album, *Shove It,* which saw the band pick up instruments on stage for the first time and saw them tour North America as well. It also saw them chart at #1 in Japan on both the Oricon and Japan Hot 100 charts for the first time with their hit song "Warning From The Heavens," an 8:30-long epic written by Maki about a dream she had of the Great Flood from the Bible.

## Characters

### Maki Nishikino

Born on April 19, 1997, Maki Nishikino is currently the primary pianist and one of three lead vocalists in the band. She graduated Otonokizaka Girl's High School in 2015, and then attended nursing school. She originally had plans to become a doctor later on, but halted them to further her musical ambitions. Often referred to as the "frontman" of the band, despite her insistence that the band has no frontman, she was the original composer for the group in its high school years. She has had no formal music training aside from the piano, and instead learned a majority of her ways by herself through trial-and-error.

She is a huge fan of the British rock band Queen, and attended several concerts by Queen+Adam Lambert in her younger years. In early 2021, she became an ascended fan after touring with Q+AL in North America, meeting the band (minus Freddie Mercury, who had died of AIDS in 1991) for the first time personally. She was unable to join them for the rest of their tour around the world due to a tour by µ's at the same time. In fact, the first non-classical song she ever learned on the piano was Bohemian Rhapsody, which would become a staple of µ's' setlists from 2020 onwards. A curious fact to note is that Maki was born on the 22nd anniversary of Queen's first ever concert in Japan. She has written several original songs for µ's, including the hit song Warning From The Heavens.

Like in canon, she is rather reserved in private. However, on stage, she is very talkative, and loves to engage the audience with a variety of calls-and-responses, ranging from simple "repeat-after-me" chants similar to Freddie Mercury's own improvisations to handing off lines of songs to the audience. In 2020, with the social climate in the United States heavily charged due to the upcoming elections, she surprised many in Japan when she openly stated on several tour dates that she was deeply opposed to American president Donald Trump for his treatment of LGBT+ persons, and lead the band into a few one-off covers of Eminem's White America.

She is openly bisexual, something that earned the ire of her parents in 2019 and saw her get disowned. In that same year, she began dating Aqours pianist Riko Sakurauchi, with whom she would stay with until they broke up in 2021. Her closest friend in the band itself is guitarist Nico Yazawa, whom she has known since 2012. The two work together frequently on songs and in the studio, despite also having a tendency to disagree during rehearsals and recording sessions.

### Rin Hoshizora

Born on November 1, 1997, Rin Hoshizora is a primary vocalist and secondary pianist. She graduated Otonokizaka Girl's High School in 2015, and graduated with a bachelor's in Sports' Management in 2019. Aside from music, her other activities and hobbies include fitness and sports. Her first hit song she wrote was You Go Crazy, a song from the album *Spread Your Wings*, which hit #1 in Japan, the United States, and the United Kingdom in 2021, making it the band's first #1 outside of Asia.

A childhood friend of drummer Hanayo Koizumi, she was the first of the first-years to join µ's back in high school. Likewise, she was also the first of the first-years to be on-board with reforming the group. Maki Nishikino taught her and group founder Honoka Kousaka how to play the piano around the same time. In 2013, soon after the band first broke up, she and Hanayo met a student at UTX named Takao Matoi, whom Rin would later develop a relationship with. He also taught Rin several things on the piano, and stayed by her side even as Toru Hosono tried to get the two to break up under the guise that "idols cannot date." In 2020, they married and had a daughter together. Her relationship with Takao has shaped her songwriting to an extent, and also led her to do a cover of the song "You Take My Breath Away" by Queen during the Shove It Tour in 2020. Takao in fact proposed to her after a performance of the song in Mexico City, to which she said yes.

She donates regularly to animal charities, and has a fondness for cats.

### Honoka Kousaka

Born on August 3, 1996, Honoka Kousaka founded µ's, and is currently a primary vocalist and a secondary pianist. She graduated Otonokizaka Girl's High School in 2014, and graduated with a bachelor's in music production in 2018. After the band split ways with Toru Hosono, she has also become the band's primary producer, though production credits are given to the entirety of the band for all releases past *Shove It.*

A lifelong friend of guitarist Umi Sonoda and keyboardist Kotori Minami, it was these three that first created the band, debuting in 2012 with the song Start Dash (stylized as START:DASH!!). After leading the band to victory in the Love Live competition in 2013, the band broke up. Over the next 4 years, she maintained close contact with all 9 members of the band, but especially with Kotori, Umi, and guitarist Nozomi Toujou. It was these four that decided to give a try at reforming the group in 2017.

She is shown to have been very protective of her younger sister, Yukiho Kousaka, when she and her had an argument over the fact that Yukiho had begun dating a boy from UTX who was the same age as Honoka (by then, Honoka was a third-year and Yukiho was a first-year). The two eventually reconciled following an intervention by Nozomi. Yukiho would later join Saint Snow as the bassist of the band in 2020, with her best friend, Eli Ayase's younger sister Alisa, joining as the drummer.

As with Maki, she has also been described as a "frontman" for the band. Also like Maki, she is very reluctant to describe herself as such, claiming that µ's was, is, and always will be a team effort, and that it cannot properly function without its 9 members.

### Nico Yazawa

Born on July 22, 1995, Nico Yazawa attempted to start an idol group in her first year of high school to no success, but struck gold as a member of µ's. After graduating in 2013, she turned her attention to music production, graduating with a degree in it in 2017. She was the first person outside of the "core 4" that wanted to reform µ's in 2017 to be on-board.

A close friend of Maki Nishikino, she currently is one of three guitarists in the band, and the first to learn the guitar. She was taught by her now-deceased father, a fan of American rock band Van Halen, and as such uses his copy of Eddie Van Halen's famous Frankenstrat guitar on stage. She taught both Nozomi and Umi how to play on the guitar. She also is the designated acoustic guitar player on stage, and is in charge of acoustic sections of µ's concerts, introducing songs and the singers for them. She is known for often including the guitar riff from Unchained by Van Halen and the ending guitar lines from Floods by Pantera in her solo spots when she, Umi, and Nozomi do improv on the guitar.

She still will use her catchphrase of "Nico Nico Nii" when introducing herself, often to much applause. Her family consists of her mother and her three siblings, Cotarou, Cocoro, and Cocoa, all of whom would later enter in the music industry. Her parents were rather young when she was born, hence why there is a significant age gap between her and her oldest sibling, Cocoro, whom would later join A-RISE as a secondary guitarist in 2020, using her father's second guitar, an old Stratocoaster that he had bought when he was Nico's age.

### Nozomi Toujou

Born on June 9, 1995, Nozomi Toujou is a guitarist. After graduating in 2013, she completed a bachelor's in 2017.

*MORE INFO COMING SOON*