Yeah, the only way this chapter makes ANY sense at all is if the director is her mom.

No, that makes even less sense. When Miyako disappears you'd expect her mom to think to check out the vacant property her family owns on the outskirts of town, that she herself was living in until recently. Or ask Granny, who knew where Miyako was the whole time.

I love this manga with all my heart and soul but this story line is going to give me an aneurysm. The premise seems to be that Miyako is somehow the first top idol ever to quit her group and as a result her management company is all at sea. AKB48 somehow manages to run a conveyor belt with members joining and quitting all the time, but somehow that's all Dark Magicks to ELM's management..

It is established in the story that Miyako negotiated her exit from the group, which means that the management had plenty of time to promote someone from their trainee program or come up with a good story on day 1 of how the group would go forward with just the four members. They could have done some press availability with Miyako where she give a happy story about how she wanted to focus on her new career in real estate management, and then give her a proper graduation concert. This would have avoided all the problems they're trying to deal with now.

I accepted the whole quit-the-band-suddenly premise as a maguffin to set up the story and why she's trying to be anonymous and all. But now that the maguffin has become the "A" plot line it's shown up for how ridiculous it is. No professional idol management company would screw up something this basic so badly.