AKB0048: The Fallen Idols of Injustice

Chapter 7: Meeting the survivors!

Inside the new AKB0048 base...

"The Idols will arrive at any minute..." the disabled Tsubasa sighed as she recalibrated the frequency of the warp transporter.

"You still haven't told us why you're in this state, Tsubasa-sensei..." Kanata worryingly replied.

The blonde sighed. "I will reveal it when they arrive."

Beside the former seventh Mariko Shinoda was the once tenth Sayaka Akimoto, Akira Igrashi. There were scars on her eyebrows and her left cheek. Her once green eyes became pale green and her face slightly paler than before, as if her battle-hardened spirit seemed to be deflated.

She was wearing a black suit with black jeans, but even that failed to cover up the slash and gun wounds seen on her arms and even legs.

Her long, dark purple hair was long, but ragged. She had a diamond-shaped lining on her hair, and her eyes. However, it did not give of the usual sparkle as it did back in the days.

After the portal transferred the recipient over, Kanata, Sonata, Akira, and Tsubasa's eyes widened.

"What is this? Why are Tomoyo, Tomoka, the Chancellor Maiden, and the Servant of the Chancellor Maiden here? This is a trap, ain't it?" Akira frowned, her fists clenched at the sight of the four 'accursed' figures.

"Akira-san! Don't mistake our Chris-sensei as the Chancellor Maiden in your world!" Chieri stepped out to defend the Maiden of Absolution and the Maiden of Wind.

"Enough lies, you all step aside if ya all don't wanna get hurt! I want to get rid of these traitorous fucks!" Akira screamed as she charged towards the Chris, Alito, Tomoyo, and Tomoka.

Despite her initial surprise, Chris's eyes glowed instantaneously, held out her hand, and reflected Akira's lunge in an exceedingly powerful shockwave. The counterattack threw Akira off guard as she was thrown to a lampshade and on a wall.

"Akira, what happened? Why are you suddenly turning against us? We're not your enemies!" Chris shot out.

"Don't you pretend you don't know what the fuck has happened over the past five years!"Akira gritted her teeth as she charged headlong once more into the fray.

"Chris! You have to stop Akira! Her mental stability isn't going well for the past five years or so!" Tsubasa cried out trying to move her wheelchair out of harm's way.

Chris knew that whatever the case, the Chancellor Maiden was responsible for indirectly affecting this world's Akira badly.

"I need to knock her back to her senses. " Chris frowned as her Project Tundra collected data about the alternate Akira.

The Maiden of Absolution disappeared into thin air almost instantly as Akira's long sabres nearly connected with the former's body.

Akira's eyes widened as a chill went down her spine. She broke into a cold sweat when she turned around and saw Chris appearing in front of her!

"Eiszapfen Burst: Fang von Ice!"

Chris sent the tenth Sayaka flying and brought her down to the floor with a wolf-like upper jaw with icicle fangs. The fangs sunk in deep into both Akira's hands and as the jaw shattered, it left a small icicle orb which exploded on her body and damaged her further.

The purple hair woman tumbled a few feet from Chris and co., shreds of cloth could be seen on her black suit and jeans as blood begin seeping out.

"Look, Akira, we're trying to help you! We're not your enemies, and I am not the Chancellor Maiden!" Chris begin parrying and blocking every attack dished out by Akira's sabre swings and brandish with ease.

"Then prove it, ya fuck! How am I supposed to know that you're not just another attempt to get me to join the Chancellor's side?" Akira growled.

Chris forcefully dealt a tie breaker by doing a cross-slash with all of her might. grabbed both Akira's arms, and activated her rune-imbued left eyes once more.

"Project Tundra: Arcane Ice!"

Chris rushed towards the tenth Sayaka and disappeared shortly after. The latter knew that the Maiden of Absolution will appear behind her back and so swing her sabre in her presumed direction, only to realise that Chris was on Akira's left and was hit by a flurry of ice-imbued attacks.

Every blow creates a mini-icicle shock wave which froze part of Akira's veins. The cold temperatures of Chris's strikes led Akira to become more and more lethargic, and thus nearly lost her co-ordination.

It was too late however, Chris managed to spot an opening when Akira was stumbling with her attacks and within seconds, the Maiden of Absolution managed to slash Akira the same way that she did to Tomoyo and Tomoka earlier.

Chris clenched her right fist as the burst of sword energy materialised to become icicle swords and stabbed Akira on her thighs, her shoulders, and parts of her belly.

Akira's eyes widened as she screamed out in pain, and she fell to her knees. Chris, however, managed to catch the tenth Sayaka Akimoto before she collapsed on the floor.

"Look, Akira...We're trying to help you. We have just known about the Chancellor Maiden from Chieri of my dimension, and I know Kanata and Sonata. So please, trust me...I have rescued your fellow friends Tomoyo and Tomoka, so...is that enough of a proof?" Chris softly replied as she extended her left hand.

Akira's eyes teared up and wrapped her arms around Chris as the former buried her face in the latter and cried hard.

"Thank you...thank you for rescuing two of my friends..." Akira cried.

Chris looked at the idols present and nodded gently, while Tsubasa heaved a sigh of relief.

"Thanks...Chris. I know instantly that you ain't the Chris of our world..." the blonde smiled wistfully.

Ten minutes later...

The seventh Mariko Shinoda sighed. "We're the one who sent you all into our dimension."

Chris, Alito, Nagisa, Chieri, Suzuko, Kanata, and Sonata's eyes widened.

"What? You brought us here?" Chieri gasped.

"You brought us here via that portal generator, right?" Kanata wondered.

Tsubasa nodded.

"That explains it...I have seen my evil version of myself hours earlier!" Chieri frowned.

"They aren't evil. They were just misunderstood because most obey the Chancellor Maiden out of fear...or they believe she's right and have lost perspective..." Tsubasa explained.

Tomoyo and Tomoka sighed.

After Chieri, Chris, Alito, Nagisa, Suzuko and Tsubasa told one another about their findings...

"I can't believe this. Taking away the freedom of innocent beings and even placing a ridiculous curfew that completely crumble the meaning of the word 'freedom of choice' away? The Maiden has become what AKB0048 has fought against!" Kanata frowned.

"Getting rid of DES and DGTO is one thing...but to completely rule over the human race, giving them no sense of freedom at all, and punishing even just a tiny infraction with death...This isn't what AKB0048 is pushing for!" Chris gritted her teeth.

"Hold on, you have promised to tell us about how you got yourself into this state." Kanata wondered.

"The Chancellor's Maiden as Tomoyo have already stated, has gone way out of hand. I attempted to explain to her that her methods are wrong, and that there were other ways to maintain the serenity and peace within the Akiba Galaxy System. Cut to the chase, I was blasted all the way to one end of the mansion, to another...My back slammed hard against a concrete wall hard enough for the doctors to diagnose that my body is disabled from the waist down..." Tsubasa's tears welled from her eyes.

"Damn...that's...brutal..." Alito looked at the disabled blonde sadly.

"Nearly every members of the AKB0048 members, be it Kenkyuseis, Senbatsus, or even the graduated members, were forced or coerced into joining the Chancellor Maiden's regime. Of course, some of us questioned about her motives shortly after, and most of them who did that...were killed." Akira shook her head.

Chris looked at Akira and sighed. "Akira...I'm sorry."

The tenth Sayaka shook her head. "No. You're not the Chancellor Maiden in any way, despite having the same name. Your Chieri is right; compared to the Chris in our world, you did not give in that which is your darkness despite its many attempts to consume you. I should be the one who should apologise for being such a dick to you. And besides, thanks for knocking Tomoyo and Tomomi back to their senses...I'm really grateful for that." Akira smiled wistfully.

"Rest assured, Akira, we'll get the rest of the AKB0048 back into the side of good as soon as we can. I bet that's why Tsubasa and you called us, right?" Alito smiled, while Chris frowned and nodded along.

"Yes, Alito...Somehow, due to some miscalculation, we also brought some members of the 77th Kenkyuseis here. Besides...it isn't just me and Akira alone." Tsubasa replied.

"Huh?" Sonata wondered.

"Not at the very least. Tsubasa-sensei and Akira-san ain't the only ones helping with the Rebellion."

"Unfortunately, among the entire rebellion race, only six members remained."

"That voice...Rie!" Kanata gasped.

"And the eighth Sakiko Matsui..." Chris's eyes widened.

The ninth Rie Kitahara still have long, black hair, except that she had two buns on her head. She wore white pinafore with a chequered orange and brown skirt. She sported as having light blue eyes. She has small nose and a slightly thick mouth.

The eighth Matsui Sakiko sported a white dress with a thin black waist belt. She has a straight, black hair on the head in front which curled into a curly hairstyle as it was let down. On her back is two golden hilt sabres that glowed with combinations of yellow, red, and blue.

In addition to the two brunettes that Kanata and Chris mentioned, there were also three woman who appeared along the two.

One of the women had long purple hair, wide purple eyes, scars upon her eyebrows just like Akira and on her arms. She wore a light purple dress covered with a white, translucent veil dress, and a white skirt.

"I'm the eighth Haruka Shimazaki. One of the few remaining survivors who of AKB0048 who aren't defected yet."

The other woman wore a grey shirt with black stripes and long sleeves. She had magenta hair, a small mouth and small nose. Her magenta eyes was slightly smaller than the purple hair woman.

"Chris? Alito? Nagisa? Chieri? Suzuko? Nagisa? Kanata? Sonata? You're all from the other dimension, right? Ayaka Umeda the 7th here! So glad to have you all gals back again!"

Another woman had long, dark blue hair with dark blue eyes. Her hair extends long onto her knees, tied up into two long wavy ponytails. She wore a red chequered suit with magenta skirt.

"Haruka Katayama the 5th here." she smiled gently.

The last woman was also a brunette with olive-green eyes, two thin feeler-like hair strand on her foreheads. She wore a white woolly shirt jacket with a dark red dress with a light red strap tied into a ribbon.

"More than relieved to meet you all again. Yui Yokoyama the 7.5th is my name." she bowed.

"Wow...so only six members are left excluding Akira and Tsubasa...That's harsh." Kanata's eyes widened.

"Most were either killed...or joined the Chancellor Maiden's madness." Rie sighed.

Sakiko frowned as she glared at the Maiden of Absolution.

"Sakiko, are you okay? We have to go over the plans in attempting to bring down most of the Chancellor's mad plan..." Rie worryingly said.

"Why're we sending her and her lover into our world? This world doesn't need any more Chris and Alito!" Sakiko interjected.

"Look, Sakiko-san, our Chris isn't the Chancellor Maiden! She's the Maiden of Absolution!" Chieri shot back.

"Please, you have to trust us. There's not much else that we can do if we can't co-operate with one another!" Nagisa agreed.

"Trust? Who can I trust? My friends were either dead or defected to support the Chancellor's mad policy! We can't afford any more losses, and we can't afford any more risks!" Sakiko snarled.

"Well, what about the fact that she brought back two of our former AKB0048 members, the two Tomomi Itanos?" Akira stood up and replied.

"Shut up! They just might not have their slaving protocols disengaged or whatsoever! They might be spies, and we'll all be wiped out probably by the next few days or so!" Sakiko shot back, clenching her fists.

"Look, you're going to have to work with them, whether you like it or not! We have been monitoring them throughout the five years! We couldn't throw up our hands and say, 'Screw it!' right? besides, they won't destroy you all; the slaving protocols from the Tomomis have been completely hacked and removed. Isn't that proof enough?" Tsubasa scolded.

Sakiko Matsui the 8th could feel her veins bulging out of her temples as she gritted her teeth, let out a sharp cry of discontent, and stormed away back to her room.

The pianist threw back her other sabre on a wall, fell to her bed, and took a look at her photo...

The photo of her with the other successors. Ota Aika the 12th, Shiori Arisawa, Aki Takajo the 10th, the WMAtsui sisters Matsui Rena and Jurina the 17th, Miho Miyazaki the 7th, and Hikari Kimishima...

Tears welled up upon her eyes. They used to be great friends to one another, just like how the other members of AKB0048 treated one another. Until the Akibastar incident have to tear their bonds apart inside out...

"No...We will take care of her. We can't just run away from the problem, can't we?"

Sakiko Matsui could hear the concerned voice of both Chris and Alito outside of her room.

Before Sakiko could even have time to respond, Chris managed to hack into the security lock of Sakiko's room and entered it with a worried look on her face. Alito followed along.

Sakiko held her sabre close to her neck.

"If you so want to see me dead, Chancellor Maiden, then I'll die right in front of your eyes! At least I won't have to serve under your filthy hands!" the pianist cried.

Alito raised her left hand and struck Sakiko's sabre away with her razor wind.

"Sakiko, we're trying to help. We're not the Chancellor Maiden that you accused us for..." Chris spoke softly as she slowly approached the brunette.

The pianist closed her eyes, thinking that she was done for as she was defenseless. However, instead of expecting a sabre up her guts, she received with a warm embrace...

"Look, Sakiko...I know your troubles too, and I want to help this world return back to its former state. That's what your leader wants us for, right? She trusted us, and are willing to place their beliefs on us. I really mean no harm, Sakiko." Chris spoke softly.

Alito placed her left hands on Sakiko's left shoulder and nodded.

Without much to hide, Sakiko poured out her tears like Akira, while the two maidens consoled her.

Minutes later...

Nagisa and Chieri joined in Chris and Alito's conversation with Sakiko Matsui the 8th.

"The Chancellor's methods were reasonable at first...But, as Tomoyo mentioned, it became far too much for us AKB0048 members to handle. We're becoming more like the DES - taking away their freedom instead of bringing music into people's hearts, which is AKB0048's aim. My friends and I joined Tsubasa's Rebellion, but the Chancellor's is far too strong..." Sakiko sighed, and continued.

"Slowly but surely, my friends, the ones you see at the picture I have taken with my friends except for Hikari Kimishima, were either killed...or were forced to join the Chancellor's regime out of fear or brainwash. Eventually, I'm the only survivor left in this group of friends..Seeing them dying in front of my eyes, or even fighting against me in the next. It's like as if the Chancellor was bringing me down to her level as well..." Sakiko shook her head.

"You're fighting a losing battle up to this point...right?" Nagisa replied sadly.

"What else could we do? All of us saw what happened here! How the Chancellor basically stepped in and declared herself 'The Saviour of the World', the Queen that will free the entire Akiba Galaxy from the bans of entertainment and the next minute, BAM! Most of our friends were either dead, or coerced to join the Chancellor. There's nothing we could do except to fight to the very end...If only my remaining group of friends could return, I'm sure that it will be a battle worth fighting for..." Sakiko cried again.

She then shook her head. "I'm sorry...you just look like the Chancellor Maiden, so...so I thought that you will be as twisted, paranoid, and...and just downright heartless..."

Chris knew that nothing could be done to curb that which is Sakiko's distrust for her...

Who could blame Sakiko for that? She had seen much, and could not take it anymore throughout the five years in her dimension, yet she did not want to become what she was fighting against all along.

Chris clenched her fists, her promise to help rekindle the bonds between friends or families in any ways possible burned stronger than before...

The Maiden of Absolution looked at Alito, and both nodded; they knew what to do...

"Sakiko...tell me who's the remaining friends who joined the Chancellor's regime against their will." Chris frowned.

Sakiko wiped off her tears and blinked several times. "Huh?"

"I will help you, Sakiko..." Chris nodded in confidence as her eyes glowed blue.