Another Reboot

This is an old fanfic I put together for Ochawan but she never needed to use it, I suppose I'll repost it lol.

Why They Sing

Foreword-

AKB48 are a Japanese Idol group who were created so that fans may get to interact with their idols, they have frequent events where you have the chance to meet your idols and their live shows are an intimate affair. However I have never been good at reviews or dealing with the reality of the matter so choose instead to write a small piece of fiction revolving around some of the central girls.

Follow up:

Cast –

The primary cast are based on members of AKB48, the surrounding female cast also mostly consist of AKB48 members although they shall have significantly lower roles in the story. However I shall not be using AKB48 as a single idol group at all, there are just too darn many to create anything meaningful or interesting.

Kojima Haruna – Team A

Oshima Mai – Team A

Ono Erena – Team K

Minegishi Minami – Team A

Komatani Hitomi

Genre

Drama/SciFi/Girls Story

Okay this ended up only being half the story I intended to right, but writers block and deadlines mean this is the story I wrote in the end. Hope you enjoy it.

Why They Sing

Laying on her side she gently squeezed at the cat patterned quilt as she pulled her knees up to her midriff and sighed. Her fringe had flopped away and the bangs that normally framed her perfect face instead obscured it. Her ear poked out slightly from her thick full mane, the small black studs of her earphones baring the BI logo. She looked at the back of her hand for a moment and then slowly covered her face with outstretched fingers. She stared at a stuffed toy cat sat on a small chair next to her makeup dresser.

She was number one. The lead singer of the most popular idol band in New Europa, so why was it she felt so empty. She asked herself that time and time again. She was able to smile on demand but couldn’t ever remember smiling for herself. She loved to sing though, that alone compelled her to go on. Yet she didn’t know why, she put up a façade to hide herself completely from even the closest of friend…

She dropped her hand to the side her head and rolled onto her back. The ceiling was plain and uninspiring. The track playing through her ear phones was a compilation of recent instrumentals the composers had compiled for her and the group. The same nondescript stuff they always sent, her mind rapidly formed ordinary lacklustre lyrics that would sate the bland corporate masses that made up the proportion of their audience.

“When did it change?” Her voice chimed quietly.

She flicked the switch on her music player, sat up and looked at her alarm clock, it was a brand new Hansai holographic projector model. The time, projected onto a soft background covered in kittens and clouds read ten past eight am. She was late again.

Beep. Beep. Her music paused and a message appeared in front of her eyes “incoming call – Hiichan” she let out a groan and fell back into bed answering the call.

“Haruna – where are you?”

“At home, laying in bed. Why?”

“You’re supposed to be at the studio. The marketing guys are really angry.”

“Heh, my heart bleeds – it really does.”

“Haruna…” Hiichan sighed, she was Haruna’s best friend and fashion adviser to the group. Haruna frowned and looked at the clock again.

“I’ll be there soon.”

“You’re a star!”

click

“Don’t mention it.” Haruna answered but Hiichan had already hung up.

She was already dressed, a long loose white dress with intricate lace decorating the low cut collar and thigh high light pink stockings. She stood up and unruffled the bottom of her skirt and shook her head and flicked her hands through her hair in a single flawless action so that it fell back into place. She grabbed her pink cardigan from the back of her chair, opened her shoe cabinet and looked for her white ankle high boots amongst the hundred or so pairs of shoes within. Finding them took a moment, she put them on carefully and tied the laces, finally picking up her SongBird bag and leaving her room.

“Haruna! Your agent has been phoning since seven! Why didn’t you open your door when I knocked!” Her father shouted as she walked past ignoring him entirely. Her step mother was stood by the door scowling like an old witch.

“You should be more responsible.” Her stepmother hissed.

Haruna opened the door, then turned to face the house and put on her best smile.

“I’m going now. Have a nice day.” She then turned and walked out.

She lived on the seventy second floor of the Skylight Residential District, the accommodation was provided by MediaSense her management company. Three years ago her and the other members parents had convinced the group that signing the MediaSense contract was the best way forward. Skylight was a high class corporate district, only the wealthiest people and the most critical of corporate assets were permitted. Everything was bright and well maintained – the cyber interface terminals and virtuality net projectors were all cutting edge, fresh from the corporate labs at Orbital.

It took her just over a minute to reach the monorail station door, the entrance system scanned her on arrival, checking her security clearance and directly charging her credit account. When the train arrived it was full of men in black featureless suits with silver virtuality studs and brief cases. The woman wore equally featureless black dress suits, or company uniforms the sort warn by door staff and tour guides. Bland and featureless. There were no students on the train at this time as schools tended to start at half past seven, students she found were the last rare glimpses of colour she came across in Skylight. She walked in and held onto a support bar and stared out of the window as the train shot past other, less wealthy residential zones, where hundreds stood on platforms waiting for the slower and fuller trains.

She took a moment to flick over the in transit advertisements; her mind drifted to memories of small theatres crammed with jumping cheering fans singing their own heart felt lyrics at her and the other girls. Their intensity and dedication, the silly little gifts they’d spent hours picking and spent hard earned money on. The memories became more and more vivid as the train descended into the scrawl, dilapidated buildings, former corporate high rises converted into rag tag malls, virtuality billboards and advertising projectors decorated every possible surface with promotional material for just about everything.

Quickly the scene changed back to sleek lines and well lit streets.

“Now docking with MediaSense excitement plaza. Please enjoy your stay – and have a productive day.” The pitch perfect announcer stated.

The doors next to Haruna opened and she shuffled out with a number of other passengers into the vast open dome, the sky latticed with walkways, suspended platforms and monorail stations. Advertisements streaked through the sky and holograms danced amongst the lights. She could clearly make out herself amongst the dancing images with her fellow band members. “Lily Garden” had shot to fame with the support of MediaSense and their vast advertising network.

As she walked up to the record company office she took in the grandeur of the architecture reminiscent of things she’d seen in holo-novels about the era of antiquity. The security guard smiled as she walked in and nodded,

“Morning Miss Kojima, how’s you?”

She smiled and tilted her head slightly “I’m fine, and you?”

“O same as always Miss Kojima, same as always – they’re waiting for you on the twelfth floor.” He said pointing at the lift.

“Thanks – see ya.” She said as she walked into the lift. She took a deep breath and stretched as the lift ascended to the correct floor.

The doors opened and she walked out into a corridor with a door at the far end and a door on either side half way down. She walked through the furthest door into the planning room two girls sat on one side of the table, facing a trio of furious looking men in suits.

“You’re here!” An over excited Erena leapt at Haruna from the side, hugging her tight. Erena looked up and as Haruna looked down into her wonky eyes she couldn’t help but smile.

“Of course I am.” She petted her twin tailed head and Erena stood back, she was a good head shorter then Haruna.

“What do you think you’ve been up to!” One of the men stood up and faced her.

“I over slept.” Haruna said with a smile, as she took Erena’s hand and lead her to a seat beside Mai.

“Over slept! Do you think this is some kind of holiday camp?” The older man with shades exclaimed with a scowl, he was the marketing director for the group.

“You seem to be losing your focus.” The producer said, a younger man with bleach blond hair.

“I’m sorry. It wont happen again.” She said with a bow.

“Indeed. Make sure of it.” The marketing director commanded.

“So have you had a chance to think of some lyrics for the new instrumental?” The producer said leaning back.

“I trust you received the new guidance on acceptable material I sent you all?” The Marketing director said taking a moment too look at sales charts on his portable.

“I read them.” A note of disgust evident in Oshima Mai’s response.

“I’d been thinking about the lyrics and may have something in mind.” Haruna replied.

“Oh – good, our guys over at the New Bradwell labs had a few suggestions too.” The producer said happily.

“I bet.” Oshima Mai strummed her fingers on the table.

“Well, when do you think you can have your lyrics available for us?” The marketing director asked staring Oshima.

“I have to discuss them with everyone, maybe tomorrow.”

“Well I’ll bring the ideas over from the labs too. Now you girls have a heavy schedule of practice and a signing from three till five the limo will take you to Prospect Heights.” The three men stood up and left the room.

“Man they really get to me.” Mai said just after the door had closed.

“Did you read the new rules?” Minami asked with an annoyed pout.

Erena idly flicked through a magazine on the table only half paying any attention to her surroundings at all.

“Yeah.” Haruna answered as she stretched across the table and laid her face flat against the fake wood.

“Well?” Minami probed.

“They’re as annoying as the last set of rules.” Haruna sat up and stroked her hair.

“Well we did all agree to this, and we are reaching more people.” Mai suggested.

“At least we don’t need to worry about getting electrocuted by dodgy wiring anymore.” Erena said looking up. “I’m hungry.”

“You’re always hungry.” Haruna smiled, stood up, walked over to the cupboard and pulled a box of jam donuts out. Erena’s eyes lit up.

“I guess that’s true.” Minami said reaching for a donut as Haruna sat back down at the table placing them in front of Erena.

“And we get to live in Skylight.” Mai said. Minami smiled a Cheshire cat grin.

“Have any of you been to Cerise? It’s an amazing store!” Minami asked whilst picking at her donut. Erena’s eyes lit up; however she didn’t say anything as her mouth was blocked by her own jam donut.

Mai got up and walked over to the schedule board, her tight denim shorts accentuated her incredible legs, her boots reached half way up her calf and she had thigh high light green socks and a loose pink jumper with a hood the cords on the hood had big fluffy bobbles on.

“Hmmm, another video shoot tomorrow. Then more dance practice, more dance practice, then the concert at the Star dome.” Mai traced her finger across the board.

“Ahh that’ll be good.” Minami stood up and walked behind Mai, suddenly bear hugging her.

“Hey Miichan!” Mai yelped as Minami tickled her.

“That looks fun!” Erena took her attention away from the donut and lunged into the Mai tickling frenzy. Haruna watched and smiled. Laughter filled the room.

“Harunyan, help me!” Mai begged from beneath a carpet of tickling.

“Come on now, we have to get to dance practice.” Haruna fingered her music player for a moment and then stood up the her dress swaying perfectly.

“Awww.” Erena pouted, even her twin tails seemed to droop. Mai let out a sigh of relief as Miichan helped her up.

“If the wind changes your face will stick like that.” Haruna said nodding. Erena looked shocked a moment and then puffed out her cheeks, the other girls laughed.

Erena was wearing a dungaree dress, a light blue blouse, white socks and blue trainers, her eyes crossed, her nose and mouth were small and cute.

Minami was elegant but casual.

Practice was long and hard as always but they didn’t mind, in fact they enjoyed practicing, maybe even more then writing and performing live. During practice there was only one rule, and that was practice hard.

The handshaking event was bland, the only interesting fan had been filtered out by security before he got a chance to reach them, it ended up the usual monotonous affair of bland people who didn’t love them. She longed for a screaming mad man to express his love, or a quiet geek covered in photos of the band.

The girls smiled, shook hands and signed CDs surrounded by holograms of their latest single.

When they finally got back to the record label office it was night the artificial sky glittered with fake stars as a elegant white moon gracefully rose.

“Remember when that used to be fun…” Erena said looking sleepy.

The other girls looked at her but said nothing, Haruna stroked her hair and Erena leant on her.

“Are you all getting picked up?” Haruna asked.

“I am.” Erena chirped.

“Damian arranged us a lift.” Mai said indicating her and Minami.

“Do you need a lift?” Minami asked.

“Huh? Oh no – I just wanted to make sure you girls were already sorted. I’ll make my own way.” She said with a bright smile and waved.

“See you tomorrow!” They all chimed and waved each other off.

Haruna stood in front of the train door and looked out of the window. There was a loud noise followed by a sudden jolt then screams of other passengers. Haruna looked around urgently as the train came to a stop just outside the Port Down station. She could see panicked people around her but she stayed calm, after a moment a voice came over the intercom,

“There has been a slight technical fault – if you could all please wait and a secure transport shall arrive to transport you to the Skylight terminal.”

Haruna looked out of the door again.

“Okay. Let’s go.” She said to herself as she pressed the door control and walked onto the platform. A stark contrast to the bright halls of Skylight, the platform was dimly lit and the vending machine had a protective grate over it. She walked towards the exit gate taking her phone from her bag and swiping it over the archaic sensor pad. The gates opened and she walked through onto the street rain pouring from the sky. Of course it wasn’t rain in the old fashioned sense but vapour that condenced on the air purification systems above that dripped down. An old man stood hunched over a box of umbrellas, she put her hand in her bag and fished out her purse then walked over.

“I’ll have an umbrella please.” She said dropping a two credit piece in his cup. The old man grunted and pulled an umbrella from the box passing it to her. She lifted it up and pressed the release button, it popped open without any problem. She stepped out onto the street the pitter patter of rain above, neon lights lined the tall buildings and people bustled back and forth. Moving through them with practiced grace her nose picked up a sent that lured her towards it and after a moment she found herself standing in front of a food stand. She stared at the colourful array of meats and after a moment decided on what to eat. She handed over some change and took the food in a plastic tray with her as she wondered down the path.

Skylight was over an hours walk away but she didn’t mind she was used to walking through the run down streets of the sprawl. She could see the beautiful lights of Skylight towering into the sky like a beacon, behind her stood the equally impressive MediaSense archology a massive commercial hive.

“Hey baby, you wanna party?” Haruna almost bounced off the huge chest of some guy. He was wearing a red jacket, black shirt and a baseball cap on sideways. He had a trimmed beard and shades. Stood either side of him were other guys that she didn’t get much of a look at as she leapt back.

“Yeah, you’re cute, come play with us.” One of the other guys – wearing a blue and white bomber jacket with large white trainers motioned to her moving closer. Her heart began to race. The backs of her hands went cold.

“Yeah, lets party.” A third truly huge guy with an afro and an arm of metal said a sickly grin. A sharp terror spread through her as she shrugged them off and made a move to dart between them but they immediately blocked any escape and surrounded her. She couldn’t count them but there had to be at least five, panic rose in her heart.

“No…” She whimpered.

“You don’t sound to convincing, hey come on lets go.” The guy with the red jacket grabbed her shoulder.

The other guys laughed as she felt someone push her from behind, she turned to see another of the guys grinning he wore a bandana with a skull on it. “Let’s go party kitten.”

“No, I don’t want to!” She felt hot tears running down her face, her umbrella pushed tight against her body.

“You shouldn’t lead guys on!” The one in red yelled.

“Yeah!” A chorus of voices yelled out. Haruna felt pressure from all sides as the guys pushed her, filthy rain dropping from the sky. Their rain soaked hands staining her white dress. She’d lost all sense of time, her hearing dulled, she was being pushed along. She didn’t notice the explosion or the falling masonry, the flying bullets, the screams of others, the street erupting into bloody chaos.

She was on her knees sobbing, her dress dirtied from the brown rain and filth covered floor, her bag and umbrella had been kicked aside. Through her tears she could barely make out the figure before her, just gentle fingers on her cheek and something soft wiping away her tears. The gentle touch calmed her and seemed to suck away the fear. As her eyes dried she could make out the face of the girl tending to her, bobbed black hair with long bangs, chocolate brown eyes, red painted lips, and a soft complexion.

“You’re okay.” A soft musical voice, a reassuring smile, and deep compassionate eyes. Haruna still felt weak and vulnerable, but then the girl leant forward, wrapped her arms around her and held her closely. “You’re safe now, it’s okay.”

Haruna finally collected herself and the girl let her go, “Thank you” she said weakly.

“It’s fine.” The girl looked Haruna up and down. “You should come back to mine to get cleaned up.” Haruna nodded. They were both soaked through from the rain once they arrived hand in hand at the girls flat. The block she lived in was run down, a burnt out bed jammed one of the corridors, a old washing machine blocked another, the lifts were broken and only a quarter of the lights worked. The two had had to dodge smashed syringes and old nappies in order to finally reach the door.

When the door opened and they walked in Haruna was shocked, everything was tidy, the surfaces gleamed, and most surprising were the posters of her on the wall from before she joined MediaSense. The girl seemed to blush a moment but then seemed to focus on the task of getting Haruna safe and dry.

“Okay…” She rushed into a side room as Haruna stood shivering in the hall of the flat. “Here use this to dry yourself.” The girl handed her a towel.

“Thank you.” The girl darted into another room as Haruna started to rub herself down with the towel, her clothes and hair were a complete mess but she felt safe and secure as the girl reappeared holding a pile of clothes.

“And these should fit you.” The girl bit her lip then smiled as she waited for Haruna to take the clothes. “And you can get changed in here.” She opened the door to the bathroom, a small room with a shower and a sink. Haruna nodded and went in.

She started changing, drying herself after removing each piece of sodden clothing.

“You’re pretty lucky, not getting hurt during the fight between the security forces and the lowjacks.” The girl said from the other side of the door. “What were you doing here though, aren’t you living in one of the high class arcs now?” She pried.

Haruna finished dressing, the t-shirt the girl had given her had a bunny on the front and the pyjama bottoms were decorated with cats. She opened the door and the girl was standing opposite yellow pyjamas.

“Sorry I didn’t have anything better to give you but I don’t think most of my stuff would fit, and the stuff that would wouldn’t keep you warm. You should get your management agency too pick you up.” She smiled and handed her a mug of chocolate.

“These are fine, and no, I don’t want to go back just yet.” Haruna said taking the chocolate and then walked into the living room, she smiled as she saw the holo-concert disks, the posters, the light sticks. “How long have you liked Lily Garden?” The girl looked down and shuffled a moment on the spot.

“Ever since I saw you all performing at the food court in the Twycross multiplex.”

“Eh?” Haruna was shocked, as the girl nodded.

“You were all so determined and your songs were all so exciting and edgy. I remember the crowd that formed to watch you all, you were even prettier then the Skylight then.” She sat down on her sofa next to a large teddy bear.

“Have you seen any of our shows?” Haruna sat next to her.

“Of course, from then on I saw everything until your promotion to the big league. The Zeitgaist Apollo show was incredible when you first song Cherry Blossom and Streetwalk Rebel.” The girls eyes were glistening. “You inspired me to become a singer.” She smiled and nodded in the direction of a poster. “Hikari – Starlight of the Sprawl.” The poster had the girl singing in the centre and flanked by pillars of orange light, at the bottom you could see a crowd bearing light sticks. At the top stars.

“Wow, are you popular?” Haruna asked focusing back on the girl.

“I guess – nothing compared to you guys though, I could never make it in the big leagues. Not that I think I’d like too anyway.” She settled back.

“Why?”

“Well… I couldn’t see my fans anymore. I couldn’t share jokes with the people who’ve come up from the same place I have, I couldn’t bring happiness to people who don’t have happiness.” Haruna felt a twinge of guilt sat before this girl who just beamed a happy purity that she didn’t feel able to even aspire too.

“You’re right… Once you join a media corporation you lose your voice.” Haruna looked down at the hot chocolate in her hands.

“Song birds shouldn’t be caged. Infact no bird should be.” Hikari stood up and walked over to a wall, her nimble fingers activating the media centre. An image flashed up onto the screen, it was the Apollo.

“What’s this?”

“A bootleg of your concert just before you joined MediaSense, it’s my favourite. I was right at the front, my mate took this.”

Haruna watch as the crowd exploded when Lily Garden came on, the crowd surging forward, the chanting, light sticks flailing, the synchronised jumps, claps and calls. Haruna watched the whole thing and hadn’t realised that tears were dropping from her eyes. Hikari wiped away the tears with a giggle.

“You do cry more then I imagined you would.” Haruna smiled sheepishly.

“Sorry, it’s just that, I’ve not seen something like that in a long time.”

“Why did you join MediaSense?” Hikari asked, they were sat next to each other now.

“So that we could sing to larger crowds and spread our music.” Haruna sighed.

“Do you enjoy it?”

“No, sure we play to large crowds, but we aren’t singing our songs anymore, we’re singing the marketing department songs.”

“That sucks, but at least you aren’t poor and living in the sprawls.” Hikari smiled as Haruna rested her head on her shoulder.

“I don’t know, I didn’t hate the sprawl, and compared to the corporate archs it’s so lively.”

“Heh, yeah that’s one way of putting it, but it’s also filthy and dangerous.”

“Danger makes life interesting though doesn’t it?” Haruna looked up.

“Yes it does, I can’t imagine those giant cages holding anything that could really inspire you.”

The night drifted into morning and they kept talking until they both fell asleep curled up on the sofa.

Haruna was woken up by a beeping in her ear; she sat up and looked around slightly confused until she remembered what had happened the night before. The smell of stir fry and toast whiffed from a door and she could hear Hikari humming to herself. Her attention focused back on the beeping. She had turned the message centre to silent but her MediaSense handlers had put a remote in it so they could turn it back on if they wanted to talk to her.

“Dammit.” She murmured. She turned to the wall behind her and answered the call. “Hello.” She chimed in her best “nothings wrong” voice.

“Where are you?” A disarming male voice. It was one of her handlers.

“Oh, I’m at a friends house.”

“Why didn’t you call us?”

“It got late and it slipped my mind, then I thought it was too late to call.”

“It’s never too late to call, you know that, we’re always here to help.”

“Sorry, I just didn’t want to cause a problem.”

“That’s okay. We’re sending someone to collect you now, they should be there any minute.”

“Excuse me?” She was shocked as there was a bang on the door.

“Ah they’re there already – we have to take good care of our assets Miss Kojima.” Haruna’s shoulders slumped. Hikari opened the door oblivious to the call; she was holding a large stun baton.

Three men stood at the door, all of them over seven foot tall they barged past a shocked Hikari pushing her to the side,

“Out of the way.” One barked.

“Miss Kojima it’s time to leave.” Hikari cast her a glance and then shot her a tender smile.

“It was fun.” Hikari said. Haruna smiled then ran over to her and coiled her arms around Hikari’s slednder waist. The guards didn’t notice as Haruna slipped an id tag into Hikari’s Jeans.

“We’ll see each other again.” Haruna and Hikari gazed at each other a moment, then Hikari blushed and giggled.

“Go now - you’re embarrassing me.” Hikari’s hand had however clenched Haruna’s t-shirt tightly.

“I promise.”

“Make sure you do.” Hikari looked up “remember to sing free songbird.” She let go of Haruna’s t-shirt. As the three men ushered Haruna out of the door. Hikari leant back against the wall and stared at her ceiling. “Oh boy…” Her heart was pounding.

Haruna sat in the maglev car and stared out of the window; she watched the sprawl change and vanish. Her mind full of thoughts of their old fans, the ones that queued for hours outside of run down theatres and abandoned arenas. Driving around the outskirts of the great dome looking for stadiums that hadn’t fallen down. Rigging up make shift generators and concerts lit with glowsticks and light sticks.

She was still thinking about it when she reached the changing room the next day, the other girls didn’t even get a chance to probe her before she started talking.

“Remember when we stayed on stage singing at the evergreen stadium even though it was raining and their was no roof?”

“Haha we were soaked!” Miichan laughed.

“Wasn’t that where you got the idea for Steampower?” Mai asked Miichan.

“Yeah! Haha the steam coming off the crowd was just insane.”

“I remember when we came up with Streetwalk Rebel, some government types had been spying.”

“They call it profile apparently” Miichan scoffed.

“Spying on us and other school mates, man that day we burnt down the local police HQ.” Mai said shaking her head.

“Jeez I remember that, three whole days of riots… didn’t we do like five shows?” Erena asked.

The conversation rolled on until Haruna finally asked,

“Why are we still here?” The other girls shuffled in their seats.

“Well… we’re on contract.” Mai said.

“My parents would kill me!” Erena moaned.

“What do you want to do?” Miichan asked, her eyes a blaze. Haruna smiled.

“I say we leave and do a concert in the sprawl again. We’ve still got friends there and fans.”

“We’re supposed to do a MediaSense concert on the 23rd.” Erena worried.

“Then we’ll do our own instead! We’ll sing our songs.” Haruna declared.

“MediaSense will pull the show instantly!” Mai noted.

“Only if we go to their concert.” Haruna smiled.

“Eh?” Erena looked confused.

“The Pi dome superplex was shut down last month, it’s huge…” The other girls eyes went wide and their mouths dropped until suddenly Miichan burst into laughter.

“I’m in! I hate this place anyway.” Miichan smiled and wiped a tear from her eye.

“What got into you anyway?” Mai asked.

“I went back to the sprawl and realised that we had lost ourselves here.”

“We’ll be poor and living in dumps.” Erena sighed.

“And we’ll probably be in breach of contract…”

“Yeah, but we’ll be singing our own songs and to our audience.” Haruna smiled.

“And we can spark a fire again.” Miichan smiled, she looked like she was running through new lyrics already.

“So, it’s decided – we play the superplex!”

“Ah hell… of course.” Erena smiled and hugged Haruna, Mai smiled and nodded while Miichan looked lost in thought.

The 23rd rolled around and at the MediaSense super arena men screamed at one another, secretaries scampered, an audience mumbled. While in the run down superplex a huge crowed yelled and leaped as Hikari whipped them into frenzy. She’d spent all of her time in the last few days making sure everyone in the sprawl knew that an incredible event was to take place at the superplex, for the small small admission fee of five credits. She’d also let a rumour slip about who the main act would be, the rumours spread like wildfire everyone taking the chance that not only would they get to see Hikari live but Lily Garden to.

“She’s pretty incredible.” Mai said from behind Haruna. Looking at Hikari parade across the stage.

“Well, she’d have to be to drag our Haruna back to her senses.” Erena said cheekily.

“Hey you little imp, you need to get to your place on the other side.” Haruna chimed with a smile. As Erena slipped an impish smile and skipped off.

On the stage Hikari finished her final MC,

“And now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for, the return of the sprawls favourite idols, Lily Garden!” The crowd erupted into cheers and the four girls ran onto stage hi fiving Hikari as go.

“Hello everybody!” Haruna.

“HARUNYAAAAAN!!!” The crowd screamed.

“We’re back!” Erena twittered holding her hand in a v pose next to her eye.

“EREPYON!!!” The crowd cheered, glow sticks waved. The audience glowed ultra orange.

“Don’t forget me!” Mai bounced around waving.

“MAIMAI!!!” The crowd was going mental, cheers exploding left right and centre, the girls hearts raced.

“Have you all been good whilst we were away?” Miichan said with a jump.

“YEAH MIICHAN!!!”

“Well we’re sorry it’s been a while, but we’ve come to say sorry and give you all a really special night!” Haruna.

By the end they’d remembered why they did it, they needed the fans even more then the fans adored them. Most of them were far from perfect but they were pure of heart in one matter – that of their devotion and as Hikari said what inspiration do you have when you and those around you already have everything?

The five left the stadium to get drinks, Skylight didn’t seem so impressive anymore.

“So how about a new tour?” Erena asked as they walked past the hoards of sweaty fans who stared dumbfounded.

“One step at a time.” Haruna said poking her in the ribs. “One step at a time.”