“New Years’ Live?!”

“You booked us a gig at THE New Years’ Live event?!”

“Yup!” Miichan said proudly.

“Holy cow! That’s awesome!”

“Yuria, too.”

“Eh? Really?”

“Of course. You’re our ally, so we need to have you close by.”

“She’s right,” Nana stated. “We still don’t know what will happen or when, so we need to make sure Yuria is safe.”

“Have you remembered anything?”

She scratched her head. “I do remember this big black thing in the sky. It had blood red eyes and a huge, evil grin.”

“It must’ve been the Maou.”

“He must’ve broken the seal and escaped.”

“But how?”

Ryouha thought of something and spoke, “The Butterfly effect.”

“Eh?”

“What’s that?”

“It’s when even the slightest, smallest change triggers a series of events that lead to a huge catastrophe. It’s also known as the Domino effect, and is one of the most dangerous kind of paradoxes.”

“So, the Maou did something, probably something small, but it somehow was able to release him from his seal…”

And that’s why he destroyed New Eterna in the future.

“Don’t worry, Yuria. We’ll find out what it is and fix it. Then, you can go back.”

“Un.”

“Let’s get to the studio,” Miichan said as she got her bag. “We’ve got a whole lot of rehearsals waiting for us, so let’s make this the best show we’ve done yet!”

“Hai!”

…..

“Good morning!” We greeted ourselves to the staff as we arrived at the studio. As we expected, the stage was bigger than anywhere else we’ve been before.

“This is awesome!”

“Alright, girls! Let’s start rehearsals!”

We all got up on stage and started running sound tests on the microphones. All around us, different members of the staff were setting up for the show.

This is big. Just as I thought.

As we were rehearsing, I heard a voice call out and saw two familiar figures walking towards us.

“Mako-chan~”

“Mako!”

“Ikoma-chan! Naanya!”

“What are you guys doing?”

“We came to watch you guys perform.”

“We’re not appearing in the live, so we thought it’d be good to support you guys.”

“Thanks.”

“How is rehearsal going?”

“Good. But, our time on stage might almost be up.”

“We’ll have to go backstage and--”

“*AKIRA-san is here~” One of the staff called out.

All of us looked and saw a handsome young man coming out on stage. His outfit looked like a gothic, almost vampiric prince, and some of his hair was long and dyed blonde.

“Who is that?”

“AKIRA-san… I believe.”

Nagisa tapped my shoulder. “Guys, look at Ikoma-chan.”

When I looked at Rina, she looked completely different. Her cheeks were turning bright pink and her eyes were sparkling.

Eh? Is she a fan of AKIRA-san?

“A-a-a… AKIRA-sama.” She called out, catching the man’s attention.

“Oh, Ikoma.” He came forward to the girl. “How are you?”

“I-I’m good..!”

“Did you come to see the show?”

“Yes. I did.”

He smiled and patted her head, making her blush more.

“You’re a nice girl, Ikoma.”

“I’ll be cheering you on during you’re performance, AKIRA-sama.”

“Thanks. Jyaa,” he waved goodbye before going back to his position.

Rina looked like she could burst into tears and her face was completely red.

“Are you okay, Ikoma-tan?”

“So beautiful~ Like a prince~”

“Maybe Ikoma-tan’s in love with AKIRA.”

“He is pretty ikemen.”

Rina shook her head. “AKIRA-sama is a girl!”

“Eh?!”

“A GIRL?!”

Huh… now that I get a good look, AKIRA does look like a woman. And, when I heard her voice earlier, it sounded a bit different than what a guy normally sounds like.

“That’s amazing. I didn’t even give a second thought.”

“AKIRA-sama has the beauty of a man and a woman! And she has the heart of a prince and respects and loves her fans! She is too amazing~”

“Alright, let’s do a screen test!” One of the staff said.

On the screen, a shot of AKIRA came up.

“Okay, AKIRA-san. Face the camera and strike a pose.”

AKIRA smiled and spun around before flashing a cool pose at the camera. With it being shown on the high quality screen, Rina squealed and suddenly fainted in Naanya’s arms.

“Ikoma-chan!”

“Are you okay?!”

“A-AKIRA-sama~…”

“I’ll look after her,” Naanya said. “You guys go backstage.”

“Okay.”

We all headed back to our dressing rooms. I believe I remember hearing from Rena, who is also a fan of anime like Rina is, that she loves girls who dress in danso, so she would often go to danso cafes, and even cosplays as male characters herself.

But, to think that she loved AKIRA so much, she fainted… that was something beyond my imagining.

What Rina told her was, “Girls who dress in danso are the most beautiful.”

As we made it to the dressing rooms, we saw Sayanee practicing on her own with her guitar.

“Sayanee!”

“Oh, hey, girls.”

“Are you performing in the live, too?”

“Yup. I made sure to bring my Scarlet Angel so we can nail the performance. Did y’all just come back from rehearsal?”

“Yeah.”

“Y’know, I was talkin’ to Miichan earlier. She said she wanted you,” she pointed at me, “and Nana-chan, and Miki-chan to do something together.”

“Eh?”

“Like what?”

“Somethin’ just for y’all to do, for publicity, I guess. Like, a pre-show performance during the MC.”

“What’s something that we can do?”

“Yea, do you suggest anything?”

“Hm...” Sayanee looked at us, smiling. “How bout a comedy act? Like a skit.”

“Skit?”

…..

“Okada Nana desu!”

“Kojima Mako desu!”

“Nishino Miki desu!”

“The three of us together are...”

“*NaMakoHime desu!”

Okay, let’s see how this goes.

“3, 2, 1...”

“This is a story about NaMakoHime~”

“‘Interview.’”

“Okada-san, what’s your favorite food?” I asked as Miki pretended to take pictures of Nana.

“That is, the hamburger my mom makes. But, it’s a very special hamburger. See, the onions are beautiful, so when she cooks it in with the meat, they both get cooked very well. And, hamburgers were first made in Germany, I believe, and--”

“Are you serious?!” Miki stopped. “Switch!”

We switched positions. Now it’s my turn.

“Kojima-san, what’s your favorite food?”

“Eh~? What should I say~? There’s a lot. Just one, right? Eh~, what do I do~?”

“Relying too much on her smile,” Nana interrupted.

I made a pouty face as a response, the others laughing.

“Switch!”

Next was Miki.

“Nishino-san, what is your favorite food?”

“I LOVE MACARONS~~~”

“Your movements are too big.”

The others laughed again as Nana spoke, “All of our characters are different~”

“3, 2, 1...”

“This is a story about NaMakoHime~”

“‘Backstage.’”

“As we’ve mentioned before, Nana is a very diligent, serious girl. So, whenever a problem rises, she is the first to resolve it.”

Miki spoke in an annoyed voice, “Ah~ I’m bored. I’m so hungry~ Mou~”

Nana walked up, facing Miki at a very close distance. “What did you say just now?”

“It’s nothing, okay. Whatever.”

“It may be ‘whatever’ meaning nothing right now, but we’re about to go on stage soon, it’ll be bad for you to say stuff like that. Okay? Be more careful, okay?”

“Okay. Sorry.”

“By the way, who was that?”

“That was, when very tired and hungry and in a bad mood...”

“Tomonaga Mio-chan desu~”

Mio blushed and sunk her head into her hands in embarrassment.

Forgive us, Mio-chan…

“3, 2, 1...”

“This is a story about NaMakoHime~”

“‘Rival.’”

Miki stood at one side. “Ikoma Rina-chan of Nogizaka Pro.”

Nana stood at the other side. “Owada Nana-san of Full Moon’s Shinjuku Girls.”

“What some people think our relationship is like.”

We all got close to each other and stared angrily at each other, growling like dogs.

“What our relationship is ACTUALLY like.”

We all smiled and hugged each other.

“We’re actually really good friends~”

As we separated, we all looked at each other one last time, and…

“3, 2, 1…”

“This is the end of our story~”

The others applauded as our performance ended.

“That was good.” Sayaka said as she stood up.

“Really?”

“Yea. I think the audience will like it.”

“Hm, but I’m not so confident I’m that good.”

She giggled and patted my head. “Don’t worry. We’ll be watching you from backstage, so you’ve got our support.”

“Haha, thanks.”

“Sayaka..?” A voice rose up. It was Milky.

“Ah, hey, Miyuki. I didn’t see ya there. Did you see the skit Mako and the others were working on?”

“That’s so unfair...”

“Eh?”

“You’re so mean, Sayaka-chan!” Milky ran off suddenly.

“Oi, Miyuki!”

“What happened?”

“I don’t know...”

“It’s probably nothing. You’ll see. She’ll come back and will have completely forgotten about what made her mad.”

…..

“You’re so mean...” Miyuki said softly as she was crawled in a ball. “Sayaka-chan, you idiot. I hate you...”

She remembered seeing how friendly Sayaka was to Mako, the two of them seeming very close, and the bright smile on her face.

“You like her more than me, don’t you..? I bet if I was more like Mako, you’d love me...”

She looked at her hand, pursing her lips.

“Fine.”

A purple flame appeared in her palm and turned into a small book, clasped closed by a lock.

“I never thought I’d open this again…” she said as she took a key that looked similar to the lock and unlocked it, making the book open.

She flipped through the pages, until she found a spell she was looking for.

“This...”

She closed the book and stood up, peeking out as she saw Mako by herself, looking through the outfits. She created a purple flame and whispered a spell into it.

“Cuore buon, cuore malato, personalità trasferimento.”

She shot the flame into Mako’s back, making it go inside her. In its place, a white flame came out and shot Miyuki’s chest. It went inside her heart and she felt a strange pulse in her body.

When she opened her eyes, she saw nothing had changed, which made her doubt the spell had worked as she planned.

“Oh~ I knew getting out that book was a bad idea!”

She saw the small book in her hands, and screamed, dropping it on the ground.

She slowly bent over, and touched it, but it burned her hand. She kicked away the book and started walking back to the dressing room.

Meanwhile, Mako was still looking at the outfits, until she found hers. However, she felt something was different. She looked at herself in the mirror, and made a disgusted face.

“Cute, but not my style...”

She looked through again until she found an outfit that instantly got her attention. She smiled and picked it up, looking at the mirror again.

“Now, this is more like it.”

…..

Miyuki made it back to the dressing room, seeing everyone together eating lunch. The staff was generous enough to pay for everything, so they could eat to their heart’s content.

There was a big cake that everyone shared, and Miyuki felt tempted to eat it, but she felt something stopping her from asking.

“Miyuki, come have some cake.”

“Oh, no, thank you.”

Sayaka got choked a bit, surprised at the girl’s response. “Say wha?”

“I’m not really hungry.”

“What? That ain’t like you, Miyuki.”

“Sorry, Sayaka-chan...” Miyuki bowed in front of her. “Also… I’m sorry I got so mad earlier.”

“Oh, that? It’s okay, just forget about that.”

“But, I’m really sorry! I… was jealous.”

“Haa?”

“You were having so much fun with Mako and being so nice to her… I got jealous because I thought you liked her more than me.”

“Really…?”

Miyuki nodded, hiding her face.

Sayaka smiled and patted her head. “Hey, it’s okay. Besides, you know there’s no one I love more than you.”

“Eh?”

“No matter who comes across, you’re the only person I’ll ever truly, deeply love.”

“Sayaka-chan...”

“C’mon~ have some cake and you’ll feel better,” Miki chirped as she fed the girl a piece of her cake slice. “Ah~”

Miyuki smiled and ate the piece of cake.

“See? It’s good, right?”

“Un!”

As they smiled and ate more cake, Sayaka noticed something was different about Miyuki. Something in her eyes, her smile…

Something changed.

This can’t be a good sign…
…..

“We’re live in five!”

One of the staff managers panickly started looking around for someone.

“Where is Watanabe-san?”

He went through the hallways, asking people if they had seen her, until he passed by one dressing room.

“Kojima-san?”

There was Mako, except, she was in Miyuki’s outfit. A frilly, white outfit like an angel, but she also had devil horns, wings, and a tail.

“Kojima-san, why are you wearing Watanabe-san’s outfit?”

Mako turned and when she saw the staff, she got a sneaky idea.

“Oh, Milky said she didn’t want to perform.”

“Eh?! Th-that can’t be!”

“She said she wasn’t in the mood to be Warukii.”

“Oh, no…” He held his head. “What do we do? The fans will be disappointed…”

“I know~ How about I do it?”

“W-what?”

“I’m perfectly capable of performing in her place. Besides, I already have the outfit on~.”

The staff manager looked at Mako. Indeed, she looked like the cutest little devil, and for some reason, his heart was racing just looking at her. The flirty eyes, the sweet tone in her voice. It was as if she was Miyuki.

“C’mon, please~” She batted her eyes and gave a wink. “I promise I’ll do good.”

“Uh...”

“I’ll make sure I steal EVERYONE’S hearts~”

Suddenly, the staff was completely under her spell and smiled.

“Okay. Sure! Kojima-san will perform in Watanabe-san’s place.”

“Thank you.” She took his hand. “Fa-n ser-vi-ce.”

With a wink, the man’s face completely turned red as he left, smiling like an idiot.

Mako giggled.

“Looks like I got him.”

Then, as she left, she ran into someone.

“Oops, ‘scuse me.” She said casually as she passed the figure.

The girl she had ran into, who had small pink pigtails and an idol outfit, took another look back at her.

“The princess?”

================================

Footnotes

*1. AKIRA – A Japanese model and music artist. She has modeled for magazines like KERA, is a solo artist as well as the lead vocalist for the rock band, DISACODE, and has been featured in movies and stage plays. She specializes in danso(men’s fashion).

*2. Reference to this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jAqu8i33Dg