Quick Author's Note
Time: Season 2/Maji Love 2000%
Original Author: Kawaii Dream (Original: This Is My Fate)
Adopted Rewrite: Mythia-san (received permission!)
Notes: This story can and will be adjusted so that you can vote on a different route than the original! I have some ideas for this, and that's why I have wanted to get ahold of this story immediately.
HOW IT WORKS: For every other chapter, there are choice chapters. You as the reader are given a choice at the end of each choice chapter, in which you determine one of the character's actions - which in turn determines Nanami Haruka's fate. You must vote in your review, and only through your review (I won't take PMs, sorry!), and whichever choice gets voted most is written on the following chapter - the result chapter. That chapter will either reveal a good ending or a bad ending. So choose wisely :)
Disclaimer: I gain no profit from this story! The characters belong to Uta no Prince-sama and its respective owners, while the plot up to Natsuki's choice chapter is mostly Kawaii Dream's ideas. I am, however, the one who's writing this myself, and what I earn from it is more writing experience and improvement. I will also continue where the original author left off, in which the plot ideas are mine.
There was an unexpected chill in the room, as music producer Shining Saotome told STARISH to meet in a private room. There was only a couch with a table in front of it, with three boxes of tissues on it. The room was a bit dark, and rather simple to some of their refined tastes as idols, but Aijima Cecil leapt onto the couch nonetheless. He didn't seem to notice the dark atmosphere, though he hid it well if he did.
Kurusu Syo, eyeing the couch suspiciously, stepped back when Cecil suddenly yelped. The foreign prince's eyes turned a bright shade of green, as if to glow in the darkness, and stood up only to grab the thing he sat abruptly on.
It was a TV remote, probably for the flatscreen television on the wall.
"Give me that," Syo snapped, exasperated, as he snatched the remote while Cecil howled in pain and rubbed his sensitive butt. The door was shut behind them, and none of them assumed that they could get out, until they watched what was on the now-glowing screen.
It instantly turned on to the news. The bright screen made STARISH's eyes dilate and squint, only for their sight to focus squarely on the headlines.
'STARISH COMPOSER NANAMI HARUKA FOUND DEAD...'
STARISH was silent, initially finding the sight ridiculous but then worrying that they needed to get their eyes checked. Strangely enough, Cecil narrowed his eyes at the news, but then his body shook at the realization.
"What... what a joke," started Ichinose Tokiya, not believing it for a second in his mind, but his heart felt heavy. He resisted to give into this false belief in his heart. Ittoki looked over the conflicted man, feeling the same way, but finding himself unable to verbally express it.
As everyone's attentive and alarmed minds watched and listened more carefully, the details were described. Haruka died several days ago, and yet no one found her until recent. STARISH assumed, from what she said prior to her murder, that the late composer was going on vacation back to her grandmother's house for several days, and yet...
"This looks too real - but - " Syo utterly refused to believe it. "I mean come on! Prez probably is doing this to show our crying faces and release it into the crazy fan world - "
"Syo-chan, I don't think..." From his cracked voice, Shinomiya Natsuki was the second attention. Hot tears formed in his confused, green eyes, and he tried to hide them under the cloudiness of his glasses. Syo, nearly giving in to the heart attack in his chest, was taken aback at Natsuki's expression.
"This is real," Cecil finally said. "We cannot deny it, everyone! This is - it can't be, but - it is - !"
Natsuki's dam of tears finally crumbled and gave in.
Jingugi Ren and Hijirikawa Masato, silent this whole time, glanced back at Natsuki simultaneously before exchanging concerned glances at each other. Their eyes focused back on the screen, finding no dead body shown but the murder location of a secluded warehouse airing.
A click was heard from the door, and Saotome stepped in with a rather grim look. It wasn't the normal Saotome, who would've entered in a dramatic, grand entrance, so STARISH almost didn't believe it was him at all.
"STARISH," he began, slurring unenthusiastically (and rather gravely), "as you can see... Miss Nanami is no longer around. I cannot say this any other way, so bear with me."
"Wh - What?" Ittoki whispered, barely finding his voice. STARISH's minds were overheating at the fact that they couldn't comprehend.
Nanami Haruka is... dead?
Saotome let a moment of silence linger in the air, mustering up proper words for why he came. "From this tragic news, we will appoint a new composer," announced he. "However, I have released all of you from your contract, so you may step down as idols and retire early. I will have someone to take care of the mess if that were to be done."
Syo, unable to think, desperately clawed at his locks, with his hat and red clips bluntly plopping to the ground. Natsuki and Ittoki could hardly fend off the trauma already invading their minds and bodies. Cecil looked very lost, as if he was trying to translate it in his head, but he knew the Japanese he was hearing very well.
The calmer idols of STARISH were in similar states inwardly. Tokiya's mind flashed back to all the memories he had with Haruka, all at once, giving him a headache. Ren's heart was pounding irrationally in his chest, his throat constricted and his lungs begging for air. Masato's everything stopped, his mind a blank sheet.
"STARISH," said Saotome, jolting each and every one of them. "Your music shall not be the same without Miss Nanami. However! If you do decide to leave because of that, then think about living life with all of the disappointed fans that were counting on you. You must also think about what you'd do with your life now that you've left your dream."
For a moment, they thought of it. But Syo cried, "Oh, screw with it," and threw the TV remote at the television. It left a bright light for a brief second, with the screen's light making lines of different colors, but it reverted to its normal programming soon after. The blonde continued to pull at his hair, making loud, strained noises.
"Saotome," Tokiya started, his breath heavy, "Nanami-san... she's really dead?"
"I'm afraid so, Mistar Ichinose."
The room was deathly silent upon hearing this. It was as if saying anything would cause the tension to burst into chaos, and everyone would sob at that second, including Saotome.
So Saotome turned on his heel, sniffing. "Well, I best be going! Goodbye, STARISH!" And with that, he was gone.
Natsuki bawled, with Ittoki following not a minute after. Syo was screaming gibberish, and Cecil began speaking in his foreign language. Tokiya fell on his knees, clutching at his locks from the pain, while Ren repeated the question in his mind, Nanami Haruka is really dead?
Masato slowly took the remote from the floor in his pale hands, and turned off the television. The room felt distant from the light and love that once shined and poured out.
None of them believed it in their minds, but they all could feel the truth pouring out of their tears from their hearts.
Ittoki Otoya couldn't stop crying, even when he had no tears left.
Piles of blankets stacked up and surrounded his trembling body, as he wept in his room. Tokiya decided to go outside, not wanting to see Ittoki's lack of usual cheerfulness.
The redhead instantly missed Haruka, with her wondrous music, her soft, rose hair... her honey eyes... he missed it all. His heart had a huge, irreplaceable hole in it.
"D*mmit!" he cried, shoving his face in his bed. "Where was she when this happened!? What was she doing in a warehouse in the middle of - d*mmit, just d*mn it all!"
The world felt like it was spinning, as Ittoki doubled over and lurched and swung his body to and fro, as if trying to ease out some humanity in him. It didn't feel real, and yet it was served cold in his trembling hands. All of a sudden, he felt dirty. For what reason, he didn't know.
Life felt pointless. What was life without Nanami Haruka, the girl who brought new colors into his monochrome world? Who made snow seem so much more beautiful and fun to play with that winter day when they first met? The thing about her that made him feel so comfortable with her calming presence, in the midst of insanity and silliness?
Now, the silliness had ceased, and the old insanity that was fun to join in was replaced with a new insanity that bullied the very depths of Ittoki Otoya's fragile soul. The way it was fabricated was way too delicate and unmanly, to his chagrin.
Life was dangling Haruka on puppet strings and decided to sadistically yank her away, to a place she didn't belong to just yet. Ittoki was left floored, and not in a good way.
There was a knock on the door. It was Shibuya Tomochika, sloppily wearing ripped white jeans, a cheap gray tee, worn ankle boots and a blue jacket.
"I..." Tomochika held up a plastic bag of ice cream and a spoon. "I just thought, that maybe, you'd like some of this."
Ittoki glanced at the ice cream with puffy eyes, then at Tomochika's eyes. Her face was pale, her magenta eyes dilated, her makeup messily applied, her hair scruffier than usual. There were red rims around her eyes. She was crying too.
"You can have it, Shibuya-san," he mumbled under the sheets, tucking himself away. The room was awfully dark.
Tomochika scowled, holding back tears. "You are the most cheerful of STARISH. For you to sulk like some d*mn coward..." She sighed, and breathed in shakily. A manicured hard rested at her temple. "I'm sorry. We're all going through the first stages of trying to cope here. Just life without... never mind."
She dropped the ice cream and spoon on the table beside Ittoki's bed, and left. Ittoki lifted his head to see Tomo-chan's fleeting back. Her hips didn't sway like they normally did, and her positive and sassy atmosphere was utterly crushed like it never existed.
Nanami Haruka's effect on them all was heavy. Ittoki would never forgive her.
That's why I need to bring you back, Nanami. Or else I'm a dead man.
Aijima Cecil stood up, wiping the staining tears from his eyes. "I've had enough."
Camus lifted his head from the classic novel he was reading. He hadn't been crying, but he did give in to the depressing atmosphere quite a bit, and rewarded himself with a few days of respective peace. "Enough of what?" he questioned, upset at the ruined peace.
Cecil glared at his senpai. "Don't play dumb! I've had enough of Haruka being dead!"
Camus arched a brow. "What do you mean, you crazy fool?"
"What I mean is," Cecil said, as he lifted up his glowing necklace, "that it's time we save Haruka and bring her back."
The room was far from silent afterwards. Camus watched as Cecil bolted out of the dorm room with a yank of the door handle. His frantic, fleeting figure flashed before Camus' icy gaze. He didn't know why, but he heard a soft, muffled voice as time seemed to slow. Cecil's shouts were sounding quite hazy.
Before he realized it, the count could no longer feel the book on top of his hand, nor could he read the words on the pages. He blinked for clarity, but instead found something staining the book. Tears? he wondered, smiling bleakly. Since when did she have an effect on me?
He closed the book slowly and closed his eyes. He cracked an eye open, glancing at the cup of refined tea beside him. He reached out, sipped it, and wondered why it was still so warm.
Nanami Haruka, I respect your effect on them. I respect your effect on us all.
"You're crazy, you know that?"
"I've been told!" Cecil exclaimed. "But dear STARISH, what if I told you that I knew how to save our precious Haruka?"
The room froze. "Excuse me?" Syo spoke, aghast. The rest of STARISH had similar thoughts.
"I don't understand why you guys haven't started believing in the things that I say when you've seen me do many supernatural things," Cecil grumbled for a moment, before pulling the necklace from his head.
"Maybe it has to do with your Japanese? Maybe you said something wrong, huh?" Syo offered, before growing eerily silent. The necklace glowed to the point where the room was blinded by the light.
"Give that to me." Ren reached out and snatched the necklace, covering its light. The amulet, thankfully, wasn't as hot as it was bright.
"So... you're saying that we can save Haru-chan?" Natsuki whispered, feeling the waterworks sporting a few leaks into his hopeful green eyes.
"Of course," Cecil claimed with a determined look. "The muses have sent me a message, saying that Princess Haruka is the only one who can make our music shine. Without her, STARISH would cease to exist."
"STARISH wouldn't even exist to begin with," Masato muttered, the horror struck to them all far too late.
Aijima Cecil then delivered the driving point: "The muses have granted me power to go back in time. We will change Haruka's fate."
No one felt like crying at all at that very moment on. Their minds were blank and empty and full and clear, all at the same time, and they all looked at Ren's hand with the glowing necklace. Ren opened his palm, and the necklace was back to normal, with its teal-indigo hue.
"Hold on..." Tokiya stepped forward, and all eyes were on him. "You mean to say that we can time travel?"
"Only to moments when Princess Haruka was alive, yes," Cecil responded. "The muses have tried with all of their power to achieve this."
"What about the consequences to time traveling? Paradoxes of meeting our past selves? Going all together at once?" Tokiya questioned. Ren inwardly tensed, becoming conscious of these questions.
Cecil shook his head, rubbing his tanned neck. "We're not going all at once. We're actually going one at a time. Also, you're going into your past self, so whatever you were doing then, you'll be going to where you were doing what you were doing," he tried to explain, which just led to more questions.
"What if we meet our past members?"
"I'd advise you to try not to run into them as much as possible. Also, we should avoid telling anyone that we're from the future."
"What if our past members know about what happens in the future?"
"Then it'd cause our memories to be altered now. We don't know what would happen afterwards."
"What if we save Haruka? That would cause a time paradox, wouldn't it?"
"It won't. Yes, we will lose our memories of the incident altogether. However... the one who saves Haruka will not forget, and neither will Haruka."
The room fell silent once more. Then, Cecil spoke, "The muses are giving us a time span of three hours into the past, and no more. It's difficult to bend time and space to that moment, and it won't always be accurate, so it could be a few hours or days before her death, even a few weeks. The muses say that we have three chances each."
Three chances? Ittoki sniffed, his breathing heavy. What if I use up those three chances and I don't... no. Three chances is more than enough. Surely I can save her. Nanami, I will see your smile again and everyone else! So give me a chance!
Why is my heart heavy? Ren sighed quietly, running his hand through his long, golden locks. When he opened his eyes, he braced himself. Little Lamb, stay strong and wait for me. I shall save you, for you... you are the beat of my heart.
Who killed you? Natsuki was far from ready, but he had to face the challenge given to him. Otherwise, he'd never see her again. He only wanted what's best for her, and death surely wasn't it. Haru-chan! I will make sure you live a happy and peaceful life, so don't die on me!
Where did you go? Masato sucked in a deep breath, and exhaled. His feelings were an eternal prison in his heart until her death. He never even told her the things he thought he had a lifetime to say. Nanami-san... please don't die on me. Grant me my wish for you to come back.
How can you disappear like this? Syo was upset. D*mn right he should've been. Her death was nowhere near justified, it wasn't time for her. Someone took her life away, all too quickly too. Nanami, I will protect you always at all costs. So don't leave us! Don't leave me!
What makes you think you can die on us? Tokiya tugged at his hair. His mind was scattered, but he was desperately willing to pick up his pieces and save his princess. Nanami-san... you don't deserve death. I will do my best to prevent it all from happening.
When will you be back here? Now? Cecil took the necklace from Ren, and gripped his own hand, lifting the necklace up to his forehead. Wait for me, my Princess Haruka. I won't let you leave us alone.
You are our life, you are our breath. You don't know it, but we will tell you. So stay with us.
Each and every one of the guys believed that they would bring Haruka back, even if it could cost them their lives.
"Failure is not an option, everyone," Cecil said seriously.
"That goes without saying," agreed Tokiya, nodding and preparing to leave. STARISH dispersed. Half of them still couldn't wrap their minds around what they were thinking and saying, but their hearts spoke for themselves. They needed their other half with them. Living without a leg, arm, and half a heart was as despicable as living undead.
Cecil mumbled his prayers before he stepped outside. The air felt fresh. He knew he heard the whispers of Haruka in his mind, as if she were still beside him.
Good luck, Cecil-san, was what she'd say. Tears pricked his bright eyes, as he clutched his shirt over his heart.
We're coming. Wait for us, Nanami Haruka.
Notes: This is not a choice chapter. Also, please support Kawaii Dream's fanfics if you haven't already! :)
Originally written on: June 2, 2014
Revised on: April 19, 2016