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.
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.”
