Aikatsu Crescent! ~A Flower's Promise~ || アイカツクレセント！Season 2

「Phase 53」Reaching For A Light

"Aikatsu! Aikatsu! Aikatsu!"

Mai ran through the school grounds, on her daily morning run. A peaceful time of day, where the grounds were typically quiet and she could just... think.

Ever since Sachiko had invited her, the thought of leaving for Rosebud Academy hadn't left her mind. It was such a pretty school, with so much knowledge stored inside. Yui, Emi and Akira were all nice and...

...Sachiko was there too...

On the other hand, Celestial had so many precious friends. Rina, Aya, Minako, Asuka, Yoshi. Kotone. Hinata. Tsubaki. She had made so many precious memories in the last year; she couldn't just discard them so easily!

In the end, it was so complicated...

Why couldn't they all just attend one or the other? It'd be so much easier that way. Then there wouldn't be all this stress about one school potentially becoming irrelevant, either. Surely it would be better... Mai didn't understand. It was so unfair.

For now, she decided to just focus on training. She still had a long, long, long way to go if she ever wanted to dream of joining the Stardust Idol Festival, after all. On the day before graduation, Midnight had promised to try their best to make it in, so she had to. She couldn't just let them down. Those three had been for her so much.

As usual, Mai stopped when she saw a familiar girl singing her song. She stood there, eyes closed.

Listening.

Thinking some more.

"Mai-chan," Kotone said, turning around, "Good morning."

"Good morning, Kotone-chan," Mai greeted, "You sounded incredible there."

"Thank you."

So, the two talked for a while, as they always did. About their plans for the day and what they hoped for Midnight to achieve.

Sometime in the middle of it all, Mai received a message.

─── ｡ﾟ☽: * .♡. * :☾ ° . ───

A couple of hours later, Mai exited the academy van, looking out to the usual cafe. Since her first visit, it seemed a little livelier. As she entered, this became even more apparent, with the volume of laughter and an overall warmer atmosphere. It was comforting, even calming Mai's racing mind down a little.

It would all be fine.

Just one thing at a time.

So, Mai went up the stairs, to the first floor. Then, she knocked on the door.

"Excuse me."

On the other side of the door was Shiraishi Ai, the top designer of Mai's preferred brand: Pastel Macaron. A cute brand, which used many pastel and warm colours to create a homely feel, full of love. Mai originally met Ai before the brand had even become public, requesting to perform as its debut. Although Ai had her doubts, they eventually realised that they both wanted to share a feeling of love to the audience. Since then, the two had relied on each other a lot, both working to bring them up to greater heights.

To think, that was a year ago.

"Good morning, Mai-chan," Ai said, "Sorry for the short notice."

"I don't mind at all," Mai replied, entering the small office. As usual, it was filled with all sorts of different concept sketches, along with fabrics and scribbles Mai couldn't entirely decipher. It was all somewhat an organised mess.

"Pastel Macaron will be holding another event soon," Ai explained, "There, I'd like to unveil our new Premium Rare," she made eye contact with Mai, smiling, "Would you like to do the honours?"