"Alright everyone. Let's take a break."

With that, the nine muses nearly dropped to the ground, tired and hot from their practice.

"Great job girls!" Their energetic leader gave everyone a sweaty thumbs up for their hard work before sitting down to drink some heavenly water from her bottle.

"We're making great progress!"

"This... dance is pretty... hard." The rice lover huffed as she sat down on the blanket.

"It really is, nya." The orange haired first year agreed as she sat next to her best friend, handing her a water bottle.

"But you guys are doing very well." Their blonde choreographer complimented, to which the group's lyricist and second choreographer agreed.

"She's right. You two have improved greatly! All your hard work is really paying off!"

"Really..?" The two first years smiled brightly at the praise from their upperclassmen.

"Thanks so much!"

The ash gray haired second year giggled as she joined the everyone. "Hey everyone, I'm almost done with the costumes. I think they look really cute, and I hope you all like them too."

The shrine maiden of Muse simply smiled at the tailor.

"Your outfits are always cute, Kotori-chan. And we always love them, so why should this time be any different?"

"Just make sure you make mine stand out more!" The 'Number 1 School Idol, Nico Nii' puffed out her chest with a confident smile, to which group's composer rolled her eyes, as she twirled her hair with her finger.

"Kotori, why would you doubt yourself like that? You've been making great things all this time. There's no reason you should start now."

"Aww, look at Maki being so sweet."

"Nozomi!"

Maki turns her head to hide her pink face, which was no thanks to the shrine maiden.

In the distance, Honoka is simply resting as she watches her friend's silly antics.

"They're the same as always."

With a light chuckle, the ginger gently shakes her head, a warm smile on her face.

...

"We did it, you guys!"

"We sure did, Honoka-chan!"

The second years giggled as they hugged and praised each other for the performance they all just gave. Meanwhile, Hanayo was trying to keep herself from crying.

"K-Kayo-chin, why are you crying?" Rin hugs her arm with a wide smile. "We were amazing, nya!"

"I-I can't believe we just did that..! They loved us!"

She held a hand to her chest, still huffing a bit after their dancing.

"Nico Nii made sure to do her best to stand out for her fans!"

The raven haired member did her signature pose and smile.

"And you all did super great yourselves!"

The others chatted on while Maki stood by herself, twirling her hair as usual but with a caring smile on her face. "We were pretty awesome out there."

Eli and Nozomi were too hugging out their excitement and happiness, but that was short lived, for they all heard something coming from outside the stage. They then stopped their celebrating to focus on the sounds they heard.

After a moment, Kotori was the first to speak. "Is that..?"

"They are..." Everyone's attention turned to the shrine maiden, who appeared to be on the verge of tears, but their attention changed once again. To their leader, who surely was crying. A hand gripping at her chest.

"They loved us... They really loved us..."

Next, it was Hanayo's turn to finally cry with her childhood cat friend crying into her arm, and one after another, everyone let their tears fall. Tears filled with their hard work, their love for Muse, and their thanks for the support of everyone out there cheering. They continued crying as they all hugged each other, listening to the audience chant one single word:

"Encore..."

"Encore..."

"Encore..."

...

"Alright everyone! This is our biggest performance ever! Look at all the school idols here!"

The ginger happily bounces in place as they all look around at the many girls in attendance ready for the big performance, including Yukiho and Alisa. The second year then feels two people coming and taking each of her hands in theirs.

"You're right, Honoka-chan. We're all here together." The fashionista gently squeezed her leader's hand.

"Yeah. To think. This all started. With the three of us." The archer smiled at her friends.

"To think I was too scared to do any of this."

Honoka smiles at her two best friends before turning to the others. "And then, we met the rest of Muse!"

The first years could be seen together, Rin bouncing as she held onto her friend's hands.

"Yeah! Let's do this, nya!"

The rice lover smiled shyly, nodding to her redheaded friend.

"Are you ready Maki-chan?"

Instead of acting all stoic and cool, the composer smiled wide and nodded. "Yeah. I'm ready."

The emerald eyed third year giggled as she grabbed the hands of her two closest friends.

"It's almost time to spread our message everyone! I don't need to look at the cards to know that this'll be a performance to remember!"

The quarter-Russian smiled, squeezing her hand.

"Definitely!"

"Don't forget to pull out your best Nico Nico Nii guys!" The short third year used get free hand for her pose.

"Let's make sure we all shine today!"

Everyone shouted an agreement as they all cheered and readied themselves as Honoka grabbed the megaphone, using it to speak to the large crowd of school idols, the nose dying down.

"Okay everyone! Once again, thank you so much for coming out and being a part of this performance! We couldn't have done this without each and everyone of you helping us make this dream a reality! Look at all the school idols here! There's so many!"

She gestured a hand towards the massive crowd of high schoolers, (and two middle schoolers) each with a big smile and ready to go.

"As we all know... This song, is our message to the world! We all hope that this song, will let everyone see just how amazing school idols are! We all hope... that through this song... anyone listening can feel our love for school idols! Feel our hopes... our dreams... all of our hard work! We all made this song together! This song... is our school idol anthem, and we are the only ones who can let it be heard! So let's make this the biggest and greatest performance in school idol history!"

With that, everyone cheered as they all got into their places. It was time to perform. Time to let the world hear... their school idol anth-

...

"-noka! Honoka!"

"Mmm..? What is it..?" The ginger in question opened her eyes to see outside, sitting under a tree. Oh, that's right. She was studying with two of her friends and fell asleep.

"Thanks, Mika-chan. My homework is finished." The bread lover stretched and let out a yawn, waking herself up in the process.

"Cool. Saiko-chan and I finished as well. Just in time for Professor Miyazaki's quiz."

"Hey..." The second friend looked at Honoka with concern.

"You were crying in your sleep. Did you have a nightmare or something..?"

"Huh..? I was crying?" The girl in question reached up to her face, definitely feeling the wet traces of tears. But... She didn't have a nightmare. No. It was quite the opposite really. It was... rather joyful... peaceful... even full of memories. The former school idol shook her head, a warm smile on her face.

"No, it wasn't a nightmare." She then looked up at the sky, watching a flock of birds fly overhead.

"It was actually the best dream I have ever had."

The two friends smiled, glad that everything was okay, and after gathering their things, the three headed to the class, awaiting yet another quiz from their professor.

But once Honoka rose from her shady spot, she noticed a tiny white bird fly down under the tree before a bigger one, probably its mama, flew down to help the tiny creature back into the air, a small white feather now in their place.

With a knowing smile, Honoka reached down to gently grab the feather and place it in her folder to keep for as long as she could. Thanks to the dream, memories were flowing back to her. All of them. The good. The bad. The scary. The silly. Even the sad ones. But that was okay. Honoka is a girl who'll want to remember everything. All memories are precious to her. It just shows that with all those experiences, she grew as a member of Muse, as student council president, as a friend, and as a person. And she wouldn't have it any other way. Of course she misses being a school idol. But if she were given another opportunity to become one once more, she would decline. Nothing can replace the time spent with those eight girls.

Those moments were as precious to her as the tiny feather she had just picked up. Sure, it was only one feather, but the creature it comes from is so amazing. Just like memories. You remember many little things in life. But add them all together, and you get something truly amazing. You get a story. An amazing one at that. And while it all took place in a small amount of time called high school, it was one of the greatest things to ever occur in the book called life. And with friends like Muse, Honoka was certain that they all felt the same. Sharing her joys, her angers, her silliness, her sadness. Those were some of the things that make up the story of Muse.

A story they achieved together...

Hi everyone! Recently, I've been really emotional over Muse, and after listening to Bokutachi wa Hitotsu no Hikari, Moment Ring and Sayonara e Sayonara, this baby was born. Hope you guys liked my story, and thank you for taking the time to read it.

Please rate and review!

ยต'sic forever!