Thankfully, for both Honoka and Tsubasa, the next day after their karaoke date had been a Sunday, so they had ample time for plans to be prepared and strategies to be formulated. They agreed to meet again to discuss ideas on how they could potentially return their world back to its original state, if that was even possible in the first place. Instead of returning to the karaoke room or the lakeside bench spot, Tsubasa told Honoka to meet her under the bridge in the southwest side of town, between the residential area and the train station. It was safe a spot to convene as any. Honoka agreed to meet the other girl there, although when she was told it had to be very early in the morning, Honoka realized she had to set her alarm clock earlier than usual to make sure she arrived on time. Even in a world that had been turned completely upside down, Honoka still wanted to be able to sleep in on Sundays. She worked hard enough to deserve that right, she felt.
However, there was no way she could turn down a request from Tsubasa either. So early she awoke, and she hurried to meet the other girl under the bridge, taking her laptop with her just in the case of necessity. She didn't stop to eat pancakes (her mother wasn't awake yet anyway) or to see if her fluffy sister was still checking herself out in the mirror like she had been last night. When she went outside, she was hit with the left-over freeze from last night. Winter was coming, and it was getting colder as they moved through Fall. Wearing a coat and scarf, Honoka dashed for the rendezvous point.
Ayase Eri walked over the bridge with a heavy step in her walk and even heavier eyelids. She started to yawn, but she stopped to reach up and gingerly touch her cheek, which was still throbbing. Luckily a bruise hadn't been left, that would have been difficult to explain to her parents or her friends. She had gotten into a minor scuffle while waiting for the midnight release last night, arguing with another girl about some minor pairing from a certain swimming anime, and it had ended after one of them was dragged off by the police and the other left with a stinging slap on their cheek. Eri didn't understand how some people could act so irresponsible when it came to their fandoms. In any case, she had spent the entire night and the morning up until now out and about, now it was time to finally go home and spend the rest of the day sleeping and building.
'At least I got what I went there for,' Eri thought. She had a plastic bag slung over her shoulder. Inside of it was the latest Gundam model to be released at the store, the 'GAT-X105+AQM/E-X01 Aile Strike Gundam, O.M.N.I. Enforcer Mobile Unit', and she had been looking forward to it for a very long time. It was not the newest model, but it had been the first time it was released at her favorite Gunpla store, and it was at a far cheaper price than anything she could have bought online. She had even bought several more models that she hadn't owned until now just because she had been in such a good mood last night, a mood that not even being slapped by a rampant fan-girl could spoil. Eri yawned again. She wondered if anyone would be awake at home by the time she returned. She could hardly believe she'd been out so long; it wasn't right for a high school student like herself to be keeping up through the night or so the adults would say, but thankfully her many midnights of watching anime and playing video-games had helped train her to become a near-insomniac. A few hours of sleep and she would be good to go to start putting the new model together. She could hardly wait.
"Glad you could make it, Honoka. I hope you slept well."
"...Huh?"
"Honoka, you need to wake up. It's time that we begin discussing matters. Important matters. I have information about your friends that's going to be extremely helpful for you!"
"...Wait, what? Info? On my friends? How did you get it so quickly?"
"Here, take a look at this."
Eri stopped. She only just managed to catch the voices of two girls rising up from above the bridge. The blonde wandered over to the edge of the bridge and peered over, spotting the top of Honoka's head.
It must have been fate or destiny or something else entirely, as Tsubasa had picked this time of the morning and this particular day because she knew that there were be very few people crossing the bridge so early. She had no idea that one Ayase Eri would have been staying out past her bedtime in Akihabara to buy a Gundam plastic model.
"Minami Kotori, a second-year student in Otonokizaka, member of school idol group muse, 16 years of age. Seems to be suffering from a split-personality disorder, one side of the personality being that of Kotori and the other being another persona named 'Minalinsky', who has a peculiar inclination to dress herself as a french maid and is known to behave rather obsessively toward those that she deems to 'like'. This issue has been prevailing in Kotori's life since childhood, and her mother had her enrolled into Otonokizaka, of which she is the principal of, so that she may continue to keep eye on her child. Potentially dangerous to others."
Honoka looked up from the papers and gave Tsubasa a hard stare. Tsubasa offered her an apologetic nod.
"Keep reading." she said.
Honoka continued aloud. "Sonoda Umi, a second-year student in Otonokizaka, member of school idol group muse, 16 years of age. Raised in a strictly conservative and formal family setting, Umi was apparently taught by her parents to behave similarly like a proper young man in both manner and attitude, but her discovery of her own sexual identity resulted in her completely overriding all of their teaches and developing hypersexuality to the point of being problematic. The Umi of middle school and the Umi of high school are nearly capable of being considered two different people. Potentially dangerous, higher level of risk to one's safety than Kotori/Minalinsky. Look into further for any potential acts of sexual harassment against students and faculty alike. Unknown if she has actually had sexual intercourse or not in spite of her actions."
Honoka didn't want to read any more. She looked up again and tried to hand them back. "This...this is too weird..."
"It's useful information. You should hold onto it."
"Where...where did you even get this? Is this for real?" Honoka asked.
"Got it right out of UTX's databanks, through my computer."
"...Why does YOUR school have information on MY school's students? And these sort of details? Does it have information on me too? And why are they considered 'dangerous'?"
Tsubasa frowned. "...I'm not entirely sure why...but it's helpful, isn't it? At least we have it in the first place."
Honoka didn't really think that helped answer anything at all.
"Why don't you read it over? I'd already looked at it all last night, but I want us to exchange ideas on how to fix things."
Honoka sighed. She didn't like reading this sort of private information about her friends, but if she was going to have to put her brains together with Tsubasa's (as nice as that would sound otherwise), she needed to know as much as she could. She hoped that her sub-par studying skills wouldn't end up failing her like usual as she flipped through the pages. Eri was an avid anime fanatic, Nozomi had issues with her sexuality throughout her childhood, Nico had been exceptionally tall and experienced more growth spurts than an average woman in a very short span of time. Honoka had known most of this from her very first meeting with them all, but the only things that seemed new to her was Hanayo and Rin having been friends as children and that Maki grew up in a poor household in this universe as compared to an abundantly wealthy one. Apparently some point during their childhoods, Hanayo had turned to delinquency, but Rin gradually became more and more feminine, distancing herself from the girl she'd known since kindergarten. Honoka frowned; knowing how close those two had been in her original world, this new past of theirs was actually quite sad.
"I don't know what to do with any of this..." Honoka said.
"Hmm, I can understand that you're overwhelmed, Honoka, but we need to put our heads together and think to figure out what to do next here."
Honoka sighed, the papers about ready to drop out of her hands. "This is...agh, it's so crazy...how can we turn all of THIS around...I mean, we can't fix Maki's financial situation! My family still hardly has any money at all!"
"We need to at least try to be supportive. Maybe suggest to her parents to try and go back to school for their doctorate degrees. We could secretly slip fliers to medical schools into their postbox."
"Whoa." Honoka was impressed by Tsubasa's plans, but whether or not they would succeed was another matter completely, and it was not a matter that she was about to debate on, for the sake of her poor, addled brain. None of these seemed like any sort of actual ideas a normal teenage girl would ever suggest, but then again, Tsubasa was Tsubasa, both a top student in the famed UTX Academy as well as an experienced school idol. She was in a league all of her own. The 'Super Cool, Super Awesome, Super Sexy' league, to be exact.
"Hey! Honoka! Good morning!"
"Oh...well...it looks like we've been found out. Very unexpected." Tsubasa smiled wryly.
Honoka gasped. Eri was making her way down the incline leading under the bridge, waving over at them with her Gunpla bag strapped over her shoulder.
"Good morning." Eri said again as she approached the two girls.
"Eri...what are...what are you doing here?" Honoka asked. Was Tsubasa right about them potentially being watched while they tried to solve the mysteries of this world? Was Eri actually a spy coming to apprehend them? Honoka braced herself.
"I had thought that I overheard you two, but I couldn't be for sure until I saw you in person. What are you two doing here, this early in the morning and under a bridge? This wouldn't happen to be the sort of 'secret rendezvous' that you'd only expect to see in a cliche romance anime these days, is it?" Eri teased with a wink and a coy smile.
"Ah...uh...whuh..." Honoka's face flushed red and her lower jaw hung agape, whereas Tsubasa simply looked curious at what the older blonde could possibly be referring to; she hadn't seen this sort of scenario used in any cliche romance anime for a long time now.
"I'm just kidding! I...I actually was up all last night buying this. I only happened to pass by on chance." Eri said, holding up the bag she was carrying. "Honoka, it's been a while since it's just been the two of us, and I wasn't going to be doing much else today, so since we've met up so suddenly, would you like to come back to my place for tea? Oh, Tsubasa, you can come too, of course!"
"Tea? At your place?" Honoka had never been to Eri's house even in the original world, but if Eri was an otaku now, she could only imagine what her bedroom must have looked like.
"You're not tired at all?" Tsubasa asked.
"I've developed some mastery over the ancient art of insomnia! Ha ha...I'm pretty good at staying up late at night, really..."
"Impressive. I wouldn't mind possessing such a skill myself." Tsubasa remarked. She slapped a hand down on Honoka's shoulder. "If you really don't mind at this time of the day, we'd be very grateful to have tea with you this morning, Ayase Eri."
"Ah! Horosho! That's good to hear...!"
Honoka turned to the other girl. "Tsubasa?"
Tsubasa whispered into her ear, "Honoka, let's just go. We can't keep talking here if Eri knows about us. Besides, you should get to know her a little better in this new world, and what better way than by going inside her very own bedroom?"
Honoka nodded. Tsubasa had a point. "Okay, Eri! Let's go~!"
The Ayase household was perfectly contemporary, and it seemed like a perfectly normal place up until the three girls arrived outside of Eri's bedroom.
There were at least four rooms on the second floor of Eri's house. Her parents' bedroom, her sister Arisa's bedroom, the shared family bathroom, and Eri's own bedroom. The door-sized Gundam movie poster plastered over one of these aforementioned doors made it admittedly easy for Honoka to pinpoint which room belonged to her friend. Tsubasa smirked. Eri twisted the knob and pushed the door open, ushering them inside.
"I apologize for the mess, I had not been intending guests, but please, make yourselves at home."
"Thank you very much. Please pardon the intrusion." Tsubasa bowed her head.
Honoka gaped. Eri's room would have made most nerds blush out of envy. She had several shelves stocked full with various Gunpla models, fully-articulated figurines of popular anime characters, and tiny chibi figures. There were posters of beautiful teenagers battling flesh-hungry giants, posters of beautiful teenagers wearing scantily-clad sailor uniforms as they duked it out with giant scissors, posters of beautiful teenagers playing card games or firing ki blasts, posters of beautiful teenagers playing tennis and throwing footballs, posters of beautiful teenagers doing just about everything a normally beautiful teenager would never be expected to do in real life. Stacks upon stacks of manga, art-books, gaming guides, programming books, Gunpla pricing and construction guides and the occasional middle school textbook mixed in, they were all shoved into tightly-packed bookcases. DVDs and Blue-rays were relegated to a special shelf all their own. A Pikachu plush sat on its tummy atop her bed. A Nintendo 3DS, a PS Vita and a PSP sat circled around her high-end laptop. On the highest shelf, too high for even anyone to reach without a step-stool, stood a lone figurine of a rather busty, curly-haired ninja, as if it were a coveted jewel, so precious that not even its owner was allowed to touch it. There was still everything else you would expect in a high school girl's room, from a closet full of cute outfits to make-up sets lying haphazardly on her computer desk, but everything else was exceptionally 'anime' about the place.
"Whoa..."
"Yes, I had been meaning to reorganize and make this room look much nicer, but with idol practice and everything else, I haven't been able to find the time." Eri sheepishly admitted. She reached underneath her bed and produced a pair of pillows for the girls to sit on.
"Ah! Sis! You're back!" Arisa suddenly poked her head into the room, breaking out into big smiles when she discovered her older sibling had returned.
"Oh, Arisa! Good morning!"
"Horosho!"
"Arisa, do you mind helping me get some tea and snacks for our visitors? It's Honoka and her friend Tsubasa from UTX."
"Oh!" Arisa looked especially surprised to see Tsubasa over Honoka. "Y-Yes, of course! Of course! Let's prepare a big breakfast feast!"
"I'd rather just have tea, actually." Tsubasa said.
"Ah...okay..."
Eri ushered her sister out of the room, and the two Ayase siblings hurried downstairs to begin putting things together. Honoka and Tsubasa took this time to soak in the atmosphere, and what an atmosphere it was. Honoka felt like she was being watched by a dozen eyes, with all of these figurines and posters of people staring directly back at her, never blinking, never moving. Shivering a little, the orange-haired girl turned her gaze over onto Eri's work desk. She had a board hanging on the wall over it, adorned with various photographs, pins and memorabilia from her time as a member of her school idol group. Honoka sniffled; she was touched. Not only that, she was also relieved. Inspecting the photos closer, she saw that the majority of her memories were not entirely fabrications, like Tsubasa had suggested. Even though Nico was a giant and some of the other girls looked differently, not much else had changed; there were photos of them playing on the beach, practicing their dance routines on the school roof, performing to a crowd of students in the auditorium. They had done all of those things...except for winning the Love Live. How much was exactly like Honoka remembered it, and how much of it was different?
"So we really were all as close as we had been in the original world." she said.
"Isn't that interesting, considering from what you've said, they did nothing but fight...maybe losing the Love Live started the rift..." Tsubasa muttered.
When Eri and Arisa returned, they brought in trays of tea and cream-puffs, but they seemed to be deep in discussion over something important.
"I just started on a new fanfic, sis! It's a crossover between Gundam series! Gundam Wing and Gundam SEED Destiny to be exact! Let me tell you about it!"
"Wait a minute, Arisa," Eri stopped her. "Don't you remember what year Gundam Wing came out?"
"Um, 1995?"
"What about Gundam SEED Destiny?"
"It came out back in 2004!"
"That's a long gap of time you're playing with there, almost ten years between the two series when they were broadcast! You need to keep in mind that things were very different in the Gundam verse within those two series, especially with the context of the years they were created taken into consideration! Not to mention, didn't you say you've only gotten to see a few episodes of Gundam SEED Destiny so far? Don't go trying to write about something that you hardly know anything about yet!"
Arisa frowned, but she didn't try to defend her case, especially when she knew that her sister was right in the first place. Eri placed the tray in front of the other girls and apologized on her sister's behalf for her foolishness before taking a seat with them.
"I hope you enjoy them."
Tsubasa ate one of the cream-puffs. "Mm...cream-puffs in the morning...not something I had ever considered before, but I can't say that I don't like it."
"Horosho! Although, I admit, we didn't really have much on hand to be considered snacks to share with guests." Eri said.
Tsubasa shook her head. "You have nothing to apologize for. Honoka, what do you think of them?"
Honoka was already shoveling cream-puffs into her maw by the handful.
"She likes them too." Tsubasa relayed to the blonde.
Eri chuckled. She looked around her cramped, overburdened room full of physical representations of her favorite shows and games, every single fandom that she followed and adored every single day, and she flashed a sheepish smile. "I do hope...that this isn't too much...for someone from UTX like yourself, Tsubasa..."
"Sis says that as long as she doesn't own a body pillow, she's still 'normal'!" Arisa proclaimed.
"A-A-Arisa...! Be quiet!" Eri shrieked, her face flushing bright red from every corner. She grabbed a cream-puff and shoved it into her little sister's mouth.
"I think it's pretty cool! And look, you still have all those photos of us that we took together!" Honoka spoke up and she pointed over at the collage hanging above Eri's desk. She was so happy she could cry; there was still a chance, a real chance, that they could all be friends again. Memories like the ones they'd made as a school idol group couldn't be forgotten easily, much less tossed aside.
"Heh...those photos...they were a lot of fun, those times..."
"I still remember it all like it was yesterday! Eri, you still think we have a shot at being the top-ranked school idols, don't you?" Honoka had to ask this question. There was no way she couldn't. This was as important as fixing the world was to her.
Eri nodded, and now she was blushing for a whole different reason. "Horosho, yes, it's a good thing that you mentioned those photos, because...well, I'd been meaning to talk to you after our last meeting. Heh, I'm going to need to be really serious, because I'd thought this over so many times, I already know what to say by heart, so sorry if it seems silly, Honoka. I know that we lost the Love Live, but like you said, we still have another chance at it in the winter. A number of our friends are starting to drift away, but I believe that you'll know how to bring them back. I mean, think about it, you got me, someone who was willing to sink all of the rest of her time into the world of 2-D, to actually put on a frilly dress and dance with a bunch of girls I've known for less than a year in front of an audience of strangers. I've come to love it. I want us to get to the Love Live more than anything right now, even more than I want to see my dream pairing become canon. I'm willing to support you and the rest of muse, so please...do what you can. Help Nozomi and the others understand that so they don't have to give up. I know it's a lot to ask, and it may even be inappropriate because of our status, but this is my one and only request to you as an upperclassman to her underclassmen."
"I don't know if I can," Honoka had to be honest. She couldn't lie to someone when they were being so straight-forward to her, especially not if it was one of her best friends.
"I know you can, Honoka. You're one of the coolest real people I know, and you're a year younger than me! I dunno what that says about me, but it does say a lot about you."
Honoka blushed. Tsubasa tried not to let her internal frustration scuttle its way onto her face, a scowl just waiting to make itself known. Arisa made an 'o' with her lips as if she'd just sucked on a lemon and a lime at the exact same time.
"Sis, are you...are you...?!" Arisa let out a squeal.
"This isn't a love confession, Arisa! Now..."
Eri did not manage to finish her words, as she suddenly, and abruptly, collapsed onto the table. Honoka cried out. Tsubasa jumped to her feet with intent to help the girl on a moment's notice. Oddly enough, Arisa, the one who should have been the most afraid for her sister's condition, did not seem alarmed at all. She simply rubbed Eri's back a few times. No one said a word, Honoka's and Tsubasa's breaths clinging to their throats. Soon, the silence was punctured by the sound of Eri's gentle snoring.
"She finally conked out. I wonder when that would happen. She has abnormal sleeping patterns, because she stays up late a lot." Arisa explained to the clearly confused Honoka and Tsubasa.
"Eri..." Honoka could not think much to say, her thoughts preoccupied with everything else that Eri had just told her, from her wish to see muse make it to the Love Live to her 'confession' on how cool she thought Honoka really was. She'd never been this touched before. The Eri she knew in the original world had been a wonderfully sweet young woman who had grown to be one of her closest allies, but she probably never thought of her the same sort of way that this Eri did. This Eri admired her despite their difference in age.
Tsubasa sighed.
"I suppose we should leave then. Not polite of us to hang around in another family's home when our host is fast asleep."
Honoka and Tsubasa said farewell to Arisa, thanking her for the cream-puffs, and stepped back out into the chilly morning air. Honoka shivered.
"Ah, I had forgotten how cold it was after being inside so long! Why can't the whole world have a built-in heater? And then maybe switch it out for an air conditioner in the summer!"
Tsubasa reached out and readjusted the scarf that Honoka had been wearing. "You just need to wear this a little tighter."
"Th-thanks." Honoka's cheeks flushed. She hadn't been outside long enough for the cold to do that yet.
The two girls walked without conversation for a time.
"Eri is interesting in this world." Tsubasa said in the least-enthused tone of voice she could have used.
Honoka nodded, and she replied, staring straight ahead, "I decided something."
"What's that?"
"I'm not going to try and change things back to the way they were. At least not know."
"What I'm going to do is try to help everyone as they are, right now, and get us to the Love Live all over again."
"Honoka..."
"I know they're not the way I'm used to seeing them, but they still are 'themselves', in some way, right? Eri seemed happy the way she was right now. Even if she likes anime or plays games instead of running student council, she's still my friend. I'm sure the others are the same. I can't take that away from them, so...I'm going to try to work with them as they are! Maybe the reason we're here is to pass some sort of test, and this is that 'test'! It could be possible, right, Tsubasa?"
Tsubasa smiled, although that smile did not reach her eyes. "So that's your decision, Honoka? Alright, we'll try and make it happen, then. Maybe helping you helping them is what I'm supposed to do too."
Honoka nodded. She thought of something else right away.
"You know, Arisa and Eri didn't seem to think much of you as a member of A-Rise. I mean, you guys did win the Love Live in this world, didn't you?"
Tsubasa shook her head. "We lost too."
"What." the center of muse gaped.
"Actually, to be accurate, according to the records I read online, we didn't even manage to be qualified."
"That's...that's impossible..."
"The ones you're going to have to deal with...are the Mutant Girls."
Honoka blinked. For a moment, all of the gears in her brain shuddered to a stop.
"The who?"