“Hello, everyone! Are you still up?!”

“Don’t go to sleep yet, because it’s time for the New Years’ Live!”

“Let’s bring in the New Year with a bang!”

“And who will be the winner this time? Will the White team continue their reign of victory?”

“Or will the Red team succeed and break their cycle?”

“To kick things off, representing the Red team, here is AKIRA-san!”

…..

The pink haired girl peeked out from the corner, looking at a certain idol walking cheerfully down the hall.

“Why is the princess wearing that?” Momo said as she looked inside the dressing room and saw Mako looking at herself in the mirror.

“I am so cute~” she said, praising herself. “I’ll be sure to steal EVERYONE’S hearts. Hehehe.”

Momo then realized something. The look in her eyes, that smile, her laugh. It wasn’t the way Mako was.

Moreover, Mako doesn’t have devil horns and a tail.

“Could it be… that succubus, Watanabe..!”

She then looked and noticed a small book that belonged to Miyuki. It was her dark spell book, which she often used before she became a good devil.

She saw the page it was .

“Personality switching spell...”

Momo grinned, showing her fang.

“I see. The succubus switched her and the princess’s personalities. Interesting~”

She hid the book in her pocket and walked up to Mako.

“Um, Kojima-san.”

“Hm?” Mako took a look at the short girl. “Who are you?”

Momo actually felt a bit hurt, since she had literally ran into Mako not too long ago, and she didn’t recognize her. Then again, disguised in her human form, she probably wouldn’t recognize her as an Akuma anyways.

“I’m Pink-Momo. You ran into me earlier, remember?”

“Oh yeah~. I thought you looked familiar!”

“Um, I was wondering… I heard you say you were going to steal people’s hearts. How are you going to do that?”

“Mm~ that would be… with my sheer cuteness. Ufu.”

“Damn, that succubus is a narcissist.” Momo growled in the back of her mind.

Then, she smiled.

“Well, I wanna help. I know a way you can steal all the hearts of Tokyo, no, all of Japan!”

“Honto?!”

“Yes.” Momo took out a sheet of paper and copied off one of the spells in Miyuki’s spell book. “Just, sing these lyrics.”

Mako looked at them for a second, then she smiled. “Okie-dokie~”

Momo grinned evily as she left the room. The “lyrics” she wrote down were a mind control spell, that would be sure to take full control of Japan, including Tentomu chu and the others.

“Soon, we shall find it.”

…..

“Where’s Mako?” Nana said as she paced the room.

Everyone was waiting, but Mako still hadn’t come back. Their performance was at the end of the show, but they were still very worried about when she would return.

Just then, someone knocked on the door.

“Hiya~” The door opened and revealed two girls, both in matching outfits.

One of them had her hair in pigtails, along with a cat ear headband and sparkles in her hair. The other had her hair down and was the cool beauty of the pair.

“Ah,” Sayanee got up, smiling at the two. “Reina! Marina-san!”

“Yo, Sayaka.”

“*LoVendoЯ’s live just ended, and it was a BLAST!”

“You’re about to go on in a while, right?”

“Yup. I made sure to bring both my acoustic and my Scarlet Angel.”

Reina winked. “We’ll be cheering you on backstage, kay?”

“OK~” Sayanee was about to let them leave, but then called them out once more. “Oh yeah, have you seen Kojima Mako-chan anywhere?”

“Kojima Mako?”

“Wait, was that the girl we saw earlier? The one with the frilly white dress and the devil horns.”

“What?” All of them heard Reina’s statement.

“We ran into this girl earlier. She had devil horns, wings, and a tail. I don’t know why, though. They didn’t really go with that dress. Haha.”

“She was mumbling something, too. ‘Now, I can steal all the hearts of Japan!’ or something like that.”

“Do you know where she went?”

“Probably somewhere to practice alone.”

“Hey, we gotta go. Good luck with finding her,” Reina giggled as she hugged Sayanee and waved to the others one last time. “Bye bye bi~”

As she shut the door, Sayanee turned to everyone.

“Mako has devil horns, wings, and a tail?”

“That can’t be. The only one of us here who's a devil is...”

Then, they all realized.

“Miyuki...” Sayaka looked over at the girl who was about to escape. “What did you do?”

“Uh...”

“Miyuki!”

Miyuki immediately surrendered when she heard Sayaka’s tone.

“Oh, okay~! I… I used a personality swap spell on Mako!”

“Haa?!”

“I-I was jealous because I thought you liked Mako more than me… so, instead of telling you, I cast a spell on Mako, and it switched our personalities. Now, she’s acting like me, and I’m acting like her. That’s why I feel so guilty. I’m so sorry!”

“Okay, calm down, Miyuki.”

“Now, don’t cry.”

“Also, since the spell had to switch our hearts in order to transfer our personalities into each other, that pretty much means Mako is a full-on succubus, and now I feel really, REALLY bad!”

Miyuki fell to her knees and started crying.

“Ah~ Miyuki, don’t cry!”

“Don’t worry. We can fix this, right? Y’know how to reverse this, right?”

“Yeah… I just need to cast a reverse spell.”

“That should be easy.”

“But…” Miyuki’s head lowered. “Since Mako has my devil powers, only she can cast it.”

“So we need to convince Mako to cast the reverse spell.”

“Un…”

“But, you heard what Marina-san said. Mako was planning to steal all of Japan’s hearts…”

“What does that mean?”

Yuria stood up. “Guys. You find Mako. I’ll stall the audience.”

“Eh?”

…..

“Next is from Akihabara48 industries, Kizaki Yuria!”

As the lights went down and the techno pop music started playing, the audience went wild as Yuria came out and started her performance.

Dear J! Furimuita kimi wa
You’re J! Utsukushisugite

Sayaka went backstage so she could prepare, while the others continued searching for Mako.

“In any of you find her, try to convince her to cast the reverse spell,” Miyuki said. “I need to find my spell book.”

“OK!”

They all split up and started searching. Miyuki looked at her hands, remembering what happened after she cast the spell.

When she tried to pick up the book, it burned her, probably because her powers were transferred to Mako.

“I hope this works…”

Just then, she accidentally ran into someone.

“Ah, I’m sorry!”

She looked and saw a girl with pink pigtails.

“Momo!”

“Are you okay, Watanabe-san?”

Miyuki pretended not to notice who she was and smiled. “Yes, I’m okay.”

“Is something wrong? You seemed to be a bit panicky.”

“Oh, I was looking for something. I could use some help.”

“Okay. What is it?”

“It’s a small notebook, um, and it has a gold lock on it shaped like a heart.”

Momo grinned inside. She reached in her pocket and took out the spell book.

“Is this it?”

“Ah, yes!” Miyuki grabbed it, but felt herself being burned again. She retracted her hand.

Momo chuckled. “I knew it.”

Miyuki looked at the Akuma.

“Momo… I made a mistake. I need that book so I can turn Mako and I back to normal.”

“Oh, I don’t think she wants to.”

“Eh?”

“Momo-chan~” Miyuki saw Mako coming up, her tail twirling happily. “Thanks for this.”

When Miyuki saw her hold out the paper, she had a bad feeling in her stomach.

“Oh, Milky,” Mako walked up to her. “I want you to watch. Soon, everyone is going to fall for me.”

“Mako, this isn’t right,” Miyuki hissed in her ear.

Mako simply pouted. “Hm~ says you.”

As she walked away, Momo cracked up at the sight.

“See? She doesn’t want to change back.”

“She wouldn’t… She couldn’t possibly--”

“Don’t you see? This is what she wants now. You lost.” Momo giggled. “Now I can just sit back and watch the fun.”

“Momo!” Miyuki went to grab her, but she teleported out before she could do anything.

Miyuki looked back and saw Mako spinning as she walked, the happiest look on her face.

“No… Mako..!”

…..

Almost an hour had passed, Sayaka had finished performing, and now, all of them knew that Momo had planned this so the Maou could take over Japan.

“What do we do?”

“If Mako-chan performs that spell, we’re in trouble, right?”

“Un.”

Sayaka walked over to Miyuki, who had been silent since she came back in.

“Miyuki…”

“I’m sorry. This is my fault.”

“No, it’s not.”

“It is. It’s because I was so jealous…”

Sayaka sat down and patted her head. “Hey, don’t worry. We’re going to figure this out.”

“But…”

Miyuki felt her kiss her cheek softly, making her blush.

“Just relax. Maybe it’ll all work out somehow.”

She then remembered what had happened when she saw Mako. She knew that look on her face all too well. It was the same she had when she…

“Wait… does that mean..?”

“That’s it!” Miyuki said suddenly, standing up.

“What?”

“Don’t worry, everyone! Mako definitely will NOT perform that spell!”

“Huh?!”

…..

“And now, we have a special performance by Tentomu chu’s Kojima Mako!”

Everyone went backstage as Mako’s performance was starting. They all saw her walk out and start singing as the music began.

Kyou no BAGGU nandaka omokute
Sou dareka ni motte hoshikatta
Dakara chotto atama wo shibotte
HAATO wo tsutte mita

“Miyuki,” Sayaka spoke again. “You’re sure Mako won’t cast the spell?”

“I’m sure.”

Amai tameiki hitotsu
Chirari to mite
Onedari suru no
*Makoki~

Meanwhile, Momo had come back to watch her plan unfold. She grinned as Mako performed, just waiting for the moment when she cast the spell.

“All she has to do is say the incantation, and Japan will belong to the Maou. Then, the world will fall to darkness.”

Miyuki happened to see the devil hiding and grinned.

“Mako… absolutely won’t cast the spell.”

Mako smiled at the audience.

“Hello everyone~”

“MAKOOO!!!”

“There’s something Mako wants to tell you…”

Momo smiled widely. “Here it comes~”

“Mako… loves all of you!”

“WOOOOO!!! MAKO-CHAAAAN!!!”

“What?! Why?!”

“That’s one thing about me,” Miyuki said with a sly smile. “Mako has my personality, and one thing I know about me is, I don’t like taking orders from anyone. Especially an Akuma like you.”

“No!”

Kinniku wo sawarasete yo
Dore kurai katai no?
Onna no ko ni wa kyoumi shin shin

Takumashisa mitemitai no yo
Donna kanji nano ka?
Waku waku eru wa
Jouwannitoukin tte SEKUSHII da ne
Zenbu motte

The audience cheered at the little devil. Truly, she had stolen the hearts of Japan.

“She didn’t do the spell,” Sayaka said. Everyone cheered.

She looked at Miyuki, who simply smiled.

“You were right.”

“Of course. The only person who knows most about myself is me…” She looked at Sayaka a bit, blushing as she smiled again. “And you~.”

“Oh, you.” Sayaka kissed her girlfriend as the song came to a close.

Mako saw her friends and ran to them backstage.

“Hi guys~”

“Hey, Mako.”

“Did you see? I was SO cute! Nee, was I cute?”

“Un. You were really cute.”

“Thanks!”

Miichan came in and saw the girls.

“Hey, how did it go?”

“Hi, Miichan~” Mako waved at her.

When Miichan saw the devil horns and tail, she realized something was wrong.

“What happened?”

“It’s a long story,” Miyuki simply put.

Momo growled angrily, gripping her fist.

“Fine! I’ve got more important things to do!”

She looked at Yuria, then grabbed her collar.

“Where is it?” she said to the girl.

“Eh?”

“Where is it?! One of you has to know!”

“What?!”

“Don’t act dumb! I know that you all have the second half!”

“Second half?”

“Tell me!” She gripped harder and pulled Yuria closer to her face. “Where IS it?!”

“I… We… Uh...”

“Milky, what’s going on? Why is the pink haired girl mad?” Mako asked.

“That’s another long story.”

“Tell me!”

“Um… We...”

“We hid it!” Miichan yelled out suddenly.

“Eh?!”

“What?”

“Yeah, we hid it! Somewhere you’ll never find it!”

Momo let go of Yuria, then glared at Miichan as she walked to her.

“Where?”

“The only place it would be safe. Inside the Chosen one.”

Momo’s eyes widened, and she grabbed Miichan’s collar, pulling her down. “You put half of Muse’s heart inside a human body?!”

“Not just any human. The one most worthy. *The Chosen one.”

“You… aren’t serious? You mean...”

Miichan nodded.

She picked up Momo off the ground. “So, do you really want to risk being defeated by her again?”

Momo growled as she was set back on her feet.

“This isn’t the end. I’ll find where it is. Then, this world will end.”

Momo teleported out, leaving the others a bit shocked.

Mako looked on the ground and found a small book, picking it up. It was Miyuki’s spell book.

“She dropped this...” She opened it up and read aloud one of the spells. “Cuore buon, cuore malato, ritorno alle origini.”

When she said that, Mako was surrounded by a purple aura, and Miyuki a white one. The two auras switched, returning their hearts back to normal. Miyuki also regained her devil horns, wings, and tail from Mako.

…..

I blinked a bit, looking around.

“Huh? What happened?”

“Makocchi, you don’t remember?”

I shook my head.

“You were Makoki~” Mio said.

“Makoki? What is that?”

Milky patted my shoulder. “We’ll explain everything later.”

Yuria sighed. “Thanks for making that up, Miichan. You saved my bacon.”

“Eh?” Meru tilted her head.

Miichan shook her head. “No. I didn’t make it up.”

“What?”

“I know what she’s talking about… they have half the heart of Queen Muse.”

What?

“Uso!”

“It’s true. We were able to preserve the other half and hide it somewhere the Maou wouldn’t think to look. We placed it inside the heart of a Chosen one, the reincarnation of the Hero that was worthy of defeating the Akuma once and for all.”

“Could it be… that Hero..?”

“She stopped the first war between angels and demons centuries ago.”

“Woah...”

“So, now we need to find her and get the second half of Muse’s heart from the Maou.”

“W-what’s going on?” I asked.

“Um, we should probably explain everything to Mako.”

“Yeah. She probably doesn’t remember anything from when she was Makoki.”

Mou~ what on Earth did I miss?!

…..

“3… 2… 1!”

“Happy New Year!!!”

“Yes, everyone, 2015 has started!”

“Thank you all for joining us on this big night!”

“And now, the moment you’ve been waiting for.”

*Drumroll*

“The winner of this year’s New Years’ Live is…!”

“The Akagumi!”

“Congratulations, ladies! The men of the Shirogumi’s reign has ended! Yes, this is truly the beginning of a new era!”

“Once again, thank you for joining us! Good night, everyone!”

…..

“I see…” I sighed as everyone had finished explaining to me what just happened.

“It’s no surprise you have no recollection of what happened. When your personality was separated from your body, your mind temporarily shut down until the real you was regained.”

I nodded.

“So… the Chosen one has half of the Queen’s heart.”

“Yes. And it’s extremely important we find her reincarnation. Centuries ago in Eterna, she and the Savior were the strongest angel knights. The two created a seal using the Hero’s blood and the Savior’s Holy Blade to banish the Maou’s soul from his body and seal him into the Abyss.”

“So, now the two of them have reincarnated, and the Hero has half of the Queen’s heart inside her body…”

“We need to find them as soon as possible.”

“But how?”

“Well, there’s a likely chance they haven’t regained their past memories yet. We just need to find the person who would most likely be the Savior or the Chosen one, and look through their memories.”

“But there’s so many people in Japan, including us…”

“How can we possibly find them?”

“We just need to take our chances.”

I gulped nervously, gripping my pendant.

First, it was the painful search for me and Naanya as the lost princesses…

Now, an even more intense search for the two strongest angel knights…

Things are about to change…

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

Footnotes

*1. LoVendoЯ – A rock band lead by Tanaka Reina, former Morning Musume member. She, along with Okada Marina, are lead vocals, and Uozumi Yuki and Miyazawa Mari are the lead guitarists.

*2. Makoki – When Mako performed Warukii, she changed the lyrics as a parody of her name.

*3. The Chosen one/The Hero – A Light angel knight who fought against the Maou in the first Great War against the angels and demons. She used her blood to seal his soul in the Abyss.