Aikatsu Crescent! BRIGHTEST☆STARS || アイカツクレセント！Season 3

「Phase 137」Even if my Wings Disappear

The door slammed and the girl hid behind it, breathing heavily. Her heart was racing and her palms were sweaty, just barely able to grip the handle. She slid down to the floor, propping herself into a sitting position.

Their yelling was loud.

So loud.

In a desperate attempt to block it out, she covered her ears yet it seeped through.

Haunting her.

But out of the corner of her eye, something shimmered. Yelling for attention, promising to provide safety and happiness to the distraught girl. So, plugging her earphones in and playing her favourite music as a further attempt to block out the noise, she crawled over and picked the magazine up. It featured many idols from her birth country: Japan. All shining brilliantly, showing off beautiful clothes and pulling poses full of life. The kind of thing the girl wouldn't even dare to do - something only girls with confidence and their lives put together could do. On her phone, she typed in an idol's name and pulled up a performance. As she watched the idol reach perfect high notes and pull complicated choreography off, she smiled. It was like nothing else mattered - idols were here for her.

They were always there for her.

Whenever she was sad and upset and scared, she could always rely on idols to perform their songs and make everything okay.

So, Akiyama Akemi made a vow to ensure idols would always be able to thrive and continue on.

─── ｡ﾟ☽: * .♤. * :☾ ° . ───

"Goodnight, Mai-chan," Sachiko softly whispered, planting a dainty kiss on her forehead. Mai was sound asleep in her bed, her expression finally relaxed. Sachiko smiled, then backed out of the room, giving her girlfriend space to relax. She walked over to the living room, where Nico Hiyori was looking through documents, with a can of lemon flavoured chuhai next to her.

"Nico-san?" Sachiko quietly called, her hand resting on the doorframe. Hiyori looked up and turned around, so Sachiko continued. "She's in bed now, still fast asleep."

"That's good. Thank you, Sachiko-chan."

"Thank you...?" Sachiko whispered to herself. She shook her head. "No, it's nothing." She paused, biting her lip. "Actually... Nico-san?"

"Hm?"

She took a seat next to her girlfriend's caretaker, looking down. "Is it okay if we talk for a bit?"

"It's more than okay," Hiyori said. "But are you sure you want to talk with an old person like me? I'll probably just bore you to death."

"I'm sure you won't." Another pause. "How does the system look right now?"

Hiyori pursed her lips together, then took a drink of the chuhai sat next to her. "It's not looking so great."

'"Is it not?"

"Nope. It's pretty solidly dormant and refusing to wake up, whether for the sake of returning to its old state or for the sake of the update. Right now it looks unlikely that either will happen any time soon."

"Is that so?"

Hiyori nodded. "But they're making progress on the update. They say it's still looking certain to happen eventually." She shrugged. "I'm not sure. Twelfth branch isn't involved much so most of the details I've received kinda conflict." She took another drink. "If anything, I'm mainly worried about how badly Mai-chan's taken it all."