The news had relayed exactly what Tsubasa said it would.
"The letter sent to Otonokizaka revealed just yesterday has been inspected and proven to be a fraud." The news faded out of Honoka's mind as she continued to ponder the situation. There was no reason for Otonokizaka to be closing other than this. Everyone's been telling her the whole time that she was being delusional, that she was just lying to herself and denying the reality that the school didn't have money.
But Honoka knows that isn't true. Love Live! wasn't just a temporary boost in students entering, it would be immortalized into the history of Otonokizaka for generations. Why would it stop generating income just months after µ's success? It just didn't make any sense.
"I'm off!" she called back to her parents as she walked down the road to he school. She looked into the eyes of both Kotori and Umi as they rendezvoused at their usual spot. Just like the past week, Umi remained silent. Kotori did as well, but mostly out of fear of Umi. In the end, the whole group was silent. In a huff, Umi took a step forward, urging the others to follow her. Their routine journey to school was now just like a regular commute in public transport. They were individuals just so happening to be walking in a group, rather than being the three friends that always talked and had fun, even if it was just walking to and from school.
"You guys...heard the news?" Honoka timidly says. Umi kept her eyes forward, a frown plastered onto her face. Kotori defensively glances at Umi and then back at Honoka before looking down at her feet without saying a word. "UTX says it's fake, but, you might guess by now that I don't exactly believe them." They stop together and form a line parallel to the street before crossing it shortly after. Still, not a sound came out of either Kotori's or Umi's mouth. "Don't you think-"
"You said you'd never mention UTX again," Umi spits curtly. "You said that before your raid at the office." Honoka falls silent. "UTX says it's a fake, end of story."
"Don't you think it's weird how the chairwoman has nothing to say about this?" That's all Honoka said before falling silent again, awaiting Umi's barrage of berations. In spite of it, everyone was now deep in thought, even Umi.
The rest of the day went on without event. Everyone was troubled, even the other students. "So...does that mean we're not shutting down the school?" Kotori asks her mother, Honoka beside her. The chairwoman looked on at their faces of determination, as if they were waiting for an answer they knew they weren't getting.
"It's...a little more complicated than that. S-Sorry, Kotori, but I have an interview scheduled soon," the chairwoman leaves the pair by themselves expecting them to go on their own from there.
"Interview?" Honoka says with a raised brow.
"All these local news stations have been asking for interviews. They're everywhere, Honoka. I even saw a reporter hiding across the street last night." Kotori's voice shifted to a harsh whisper. Honoka, you shouldn't've done that-"
"I didn't file it!" Honoka replies with the same tone. "I don't even know who did, but it wasn't me!" Kotori wanted to believe her, but who else could it have been? Honoka was the only one in µ's dedicated enough to try something like submitting the picture to local news, but that raised another question, was the letter even real? The news insisted that it was a forgery, but why would the school be still closing down?
"It...it just..." Kotori began to tear up, thinking of everything they've worked up on until this point. Everything seemed to be beyond her control, like hidden organizations and agents were lurking within the shadows, setting up every action and step they take.
"...doesn't make sense, doesn't it?" Honoka puts her hand on Kotori's back. "Look, we'll find out sooner or later, okay? Trust me." Kotori knew Honoka was just saying that to make her feel better. In fact, she probably said it to make herself feel better too. "Come on, I'll walk you home."
Honoka waves back to her friend, who wiped her eyes with her sleeve and returned the farewell. Across the street of her house, Kotori seemed small and fragile, almost engulfed by the large building looming over here. Honoka mused on the wonders of having a such an unnecessarily large house. Her thoughts were interrupted when light yet noticeable footsteps clicked on the sidewalk behind her.
It was Kira, by herself and in her UTX uniform. It looked like she had just gotten out of school as well. "Good afternoon, Honoka," she says formally, standing in front of the sun. The eclipse she created with herself was threatening and ominous, as if she had commanded the sun and led it behind her on a leash.
"H-Hi, Kira..." Honoka still couldn't shake the feeling of suspicion from her. Kira was by herself with seemingly no one else around the street. The road was empty and rather narrow, most likely built for the houses that it ran alongside it, rather than the other way around. Maybe it was the dead end that hung behind Honoka's back.
"Did you see the news? See? I told you it was a fraud." Honoka gripped the sling on her bag tighter and began to hunch over in a defensive stance. Kira started to wander in a circle around her with her usual air of confidence. It was one of the most cliche things Honoka had seen her do, pacing innocently around Honoka as if Tsubasa were a predator analyzing her prey and observing her weaknesses from afar. Kira skids herself to a stop, the heel of her shoe echoing throughout the lazy street. "Honoka, I have something to ask you." The redhead perks up, looking at Kira with a cold sweat. "What do you think of UTX?"
Honoka gulps, gathering her courage to speak as if it were scattered about a messy room. "U-Uh...what do you...mean by that?"
"I was just wondering how you felt of our establishment."
"You did j-just, take a school, didn't you?"
"Three, actually. One in Shizuoka, one in Kanagawa and one in, Tokyo. They were, struggling schools..." Here Kira pauses and coughs into her fist. "It couldn't be helped, I suppose. UTX steps in and asks if they need help and, if they agree, we consolidate them. There they have the hand of UTX guide them with our state of the art technology and..." Kira stops herself and giggles with emotion between mischief and sheepishness. Her unpredictability continued to terrify Honoka. "Sorry for rambling, heh. Anyways, what do you think of UTX?"
Kira was clearly covering something up, even Honoka could see that. Kira's execution of her in-depth explanation of the consolidation system probably didn't help her case any either. "It's...just another school," Honoka lies, looking down at the pavement. She pretended to be interested in a rock stuck between where the road and the sidewalk curb met, just so she didn't have to look at Kira's intimidating demeanor. "Right?"
"I'm glad you don't think of us as any less. Anything else?" Honoka swallows nervously again, waiting for something, anything to save her from this confrontation.
"I don't...have a particular opinion on it, no..." Kira smiles with fake sincerity, looking at something in the distance. Another silence filled the air. Honoka's mind was racing with questions of fear. Was this a part of the plan? What was going to happen to Honoka, her friends, the school? Honoka's attempts to look normal were clearly not working, and they both could tell.
"Sorry. I know this was sudden, but I had some other things in mind to talk to you about. We'll have to do that later. See ya!" Kira walks past Honoka, the former trying her best to hide the urgency of her destination. When Honoka looked off to the end of the street to see if there was a car or an escort waiting for her, there was nothing. What was Kira looking at?
Just then, a door closed, and Kotori ran onto the street. Her school uniform was still on, and her face looked worried sick. Honoka was glad to see someone familiar by her side. "Honoka! Are you alright?" The redhead replied with a simple nod.
"Did you see what happened?"
"Y-Yes..." Kotori looked around as if she was checking for people that might be watching despite being all alone on the street. "I was...watching from inside. You looked so pale and scared..."
"Wh-Why didn't you come out?" Honoka asks, holding Kotori in an embrace of fear.
"Because..." Kotori returned the hug and looked out to where Kira went, but nothing was there. Not even a shadow was left behind, proving her initial presence here. "Someone else was watching."
Maki hung up her phone and fell face first onto the couch of her living room. 'Another late shift...' she thinks to herself, taking in the fragrance of the recently cleaned furniture. For once, she just wanted to forget her work and just lay there, not only disregarding the responsibilities of school but also the responsibilities of physical movement. 'I wish I could stay here forever.' Rolling over so that she was on one side, she faced the huge TV that mounted the wall across from her. After mindlessly staring at the colors dancing around the screen, Maki heard the doorbell indicating that someone was outside the gate.
"It's 9:56..." Maki groans, forcing herself up. "Who's up at this hour-"
The speaker connected to the gate sparks to life. "Hello? This is Sonoda Umi, one of Maki's classmates. I'm here to tell her something..." Without even bothering to hear the rest of the message, Maki throws on a coat and runs out to the gate. Outside stood Umi, blanketed in a trench coat two sizes too big. "Maki-"
"What are you doing up this late?"
"Please, I need you to hear me out."
"Why didn't you call me?"
"I..." Umi trails off before gathering her thoughts. She was still panting from what Maki presumed was a rather lengthy jog from wherever Umi came from. "I think Nozomi needs our help."
Inside the living room, Umi crumbles down onto a chair, not bothering to hang up her coat or worry about posture and etiquette. She had used up nearly all of her energy to run here. "What happened?" Maki closes the door quietly, momentarily leaving to get a glass of water.
"Nozomi...something happened to her."
"What, what happened?" Maki caught herself acting like a parent, bringing the glass over with an anxious look on her face.
"Haven't you seen the news?" Umi points at the TV, still on the same channel Maki had left it at. It was a news program she wasn't even paying attention to, covering a protest in Tokyo demanding a government audit on UTX High School. "This just started...this afternoon," Umi adds, pausing to take a greedy drink of water. "Thanks, Maki."
"What do..." Maki stops herself, realizing that this was why her parents were working a late shift this time. "Who do you think..."
"Half of them are students," Umi says, recalling the facts she heard on the local news before she left. "The rest are just ordinary folks, I suppose." Maki sits back down with concern on the same couch she was so slovenly lazing on just minutes ago.
"Anyways, why did you come here?" Maki asks, breaking the droning of the late night news anchor.
"Right!" Umi gets up from her slouching position and faces Maki. "Nozomi. Some news outlet covered a story of Nozomi. It's slander, Maki, I'm telling you. It's defamation, it's a libel...it's..." Umi trails off again, her head swirling. Not being used to covering a short distance in that amount of time, mild nausea also started to set in. "It's not good, but I can tell people are eating it up. I'm just...I'm just scared of...scared of what they'll do...what people will think about...Nozomi..."
"Who wrote it?" Maki asks, rushing to get a laptop. This couldn't be good.
"I don't know, I don't care. It's easy to find...I just..." Maki could tell that Umi was tired and sleepy. She seemed loopy, irritable and not herself. With relative ease, Maki finds the article. It was one of the trending searches.
"Nozomi, former member of school idol group µ's, possibly connected to enjo-kosai..." Maki's voice fades. "No, that's not true. That...that can't be her, right?" Maki calls. She knew it couldn't be true, but there was always a little bit of doubt...
Umi yells from the other room. "It's obviously not her. I texted Nozomi myself and she's denying it. Everyone else heard about it, and they all know that it isn't her. She said she's never even been to that town."
"But why would they target Nozomi in particular?"
"Because...well...you know..."
"Her...physical features."
"Y-Yeah."
"I get it. Couldn't Nozomi sue whoever wrote it?" Umi sighs.
"I wish it was that simple, Maki." Maki closes the laptop and looks at Umi, trying to get a hold of herself in her chair with her elbows on her knees and her fingers on her temples. "I wish it was..." Maki sits back down on the couch, looking on in morbid curiosity at the fire and broken glass that was laid at a busy street. She wondered if her parents were going to come back safely, but quickly put the thought away, not wanting to needlessly worry herself further.
"Why would do all of this for school idols?" Umi's face grew serious. Closing her eyes to gather her thoughts, she takes a moment before responding.
"It's...not just about the school idols. It's about UTX as a private school." Interested, Maki tuned out the sound of the television and listened to Umi. "Rumors of their connection to the black market and how they're also a school. Something along those lines. I don't know too much about the details, but these people are scared of their children, of the children UTX will be taking under their care soon."
"Right. Because of..."
"Because of their 'consolidation' program." The TV was the only sound any of them could hear now, and they weren't even fully paying attention to it in the first place.
"So, why did you come to my house?" Umi looks up and leans back against the chair, letting her weight sink down into it. Having caught her breath and recomposed herself, she starts talking, but still continued to face her feet. Her face had the more mature and determined look Umi usually held, now that the adrenaline was beginning to drain away.
"I came here because I know we're in danger," Umi said with utmost sternness. "Have you ever heard of doxxing?" Maki's eyes went wide.
"You don't mean..."
"It wouldn't be difficult, wouldn't it? I don't know if I've been targeted yet, but, I...I just know your house is safe." Maki set aside the economic basis Umi was judging this on, wondering if the other girls knew about the threat that now hung over their heads. "People are thinking that µ's is the one responsible for the protests, just because our school was put on the headlines."
Neither of them have truly felt fear until now. Apprehension was one thing, but genuine resistance to see tomorrow was different. No one was safe anymore.
Maki thought to herself, watching protesters bash themselves against a row of riot shields. So far they've experienced nothing but the bright side of being renowned. They got deals all over Japan from almost every idol corporation, promising millions of yen for just standing in front of a camera for a few minutes. Maki was always the skeptic of the group, always waiting for the one thing she could use to leave idolling, but she had grown to love it, and now, she was seeing the dark side a little too late.
"Is being famous worth all this?"
Sorry if this is a slow start. I just want to make their transition from school idols to organized criminals as smooth as I can. More conflict soon.
Thanks anyways,
-DWalkthroughGuy
