Eri's comment on the moon was a confession of her love, though the other interpretations were appreciated. :D And yes, Honoka didn't get it at all. She still doesn't.
Ah...Love Live is ending...and I still have yet to go to a single live. Well, even if Muse disbands, they'll continue to stay together in my heart and mind and stories. ^-^' But I'm getting sidetracked. Without further rambling, this is episode 10 of the first season.
Disclaimer: don't own Love Live.
"Onee-chan, you're going out in this weather?!" Yukiho called after her sister as Honoka attempted to put her jacket on, pull her boots on, and walk to the door all at the same time. "It's raining heavily out there! A NEET like you'll get sick!"
"I'm not a NEET!" Honoka retorted, settling for zipping her jacket up first before stepping into her boots. "I'm a school idol. Plus, I'm really behind the rest of my group so I have to practice on my own in preparation."
"I don't get it. Where did my lazy and useless sister go? It was so much easier to look good in comparison back then." Yukiho sighed, turning to go back to her bedroom.
"So it was your fault mom and dad kept nagging at me to do something with my life!" Honoka complained, though she personally didn't mind Yukiho's comments at the moment. If she hadn't been constantly nagged at, she didn't think she would have even considered joining the school's filming project. And she wouldn't have met any of her current friends, which she now considered worse than losing all the free time she had for playing before. Not that she'd tell any of them that. "I'm off!"
"Yeah, yeah. Don't catch a cold now." Despite her sister's unenthusiastic response, Honoka grinned and headed out into the rain. She looked up at the sky with the same smile on her face, enjoying the feeling of having water roll down her cheeks.
"Okay! I'm gonna give it my all for this live!" She shouted, then took off down the sidewalk. She needed to increase her endurance to keep up with the dance. It was going to be the last one they would ever need to practice for after all.
~A Few Days Earlier~
The entire cast had just been handed the scripts for the last few episodes, a strange event as they had never been prepared ahead of time for the roles they needed to play. The earliest was receiving the next script the day they finished filming the episode, and they had never gotten scripts for two or three episodes into the future.
"But...ending it because Kotori needs to go to Italy to take an opportunity as a fashion designer seems like a bit of a lame ending. No offense to you, Kotori." Maki added the last part in a hurry.
"No, I agree with Maki-chan. It's not interesting. And we don't even win Love Live." Kotori looked a bit down at that part. "I mean, the Love Live we were aiming for in this show isn't the real deal, but still…"
"We don't even manage to compete our place as the 19th most popular idol group. The script says we're going to end it because of Kotori and because the third years are going to graduate. 'Everyone is saddened and refuse to perform afterwards, ending Muse as a school idol group.' Who would want an ending like that?" Eri complained, flipping through the pages of her script. "And then the next two episodes are sending Kotori off and then moving on with our own lives."
"It does seem a bit rushed to be a proper ending." Umi said as her input on the subject. "But...there's not much we can do. This can't go on forever."
"We're not real idols after all. Just a bunch of students that happened to be at the right place at the right time to be brought into this project." Rin sighed, flattening herself onto the table in front of her. "Still…"
"I don't want it to end." Hanayo finished for Rin. "That's what you were thinking, right?" The two first year girls smiled at each other; they had become better friends through the project.
"I do." All of them looked at Nico, though it wasn't as if they were surprised by it. She always put her siblings first, even when the project took her away from them. "I can't keep leaving them at home by themselves."
"That's true…" Eri mumbled. "I haven't spoken to Arisa that much since starting this. Since everyone is needed on set even when we aren't in the scene."
"So it's going to be the end of Muse...after this." Nozomi said, and each of the girls turned their gazes to her instead.
"Why don't we just make our last performance the greatest we've ever done?" Honoka suggested, speaking for the first time. She flinched as all the attention was turned towards her, but continued. "I mean, the episode title is 'The Greatest Live Performance', after all…" She trailed off as some of the cast shook their heads sadly.
"We don't have to keep trying anymore. After No-brand Girls, it's straight acting and then it's over." Nico said harshly. She had been the one most opposed to practicing together from the beginning and Honoka couldn't blame her for it. Honoka hadn't even wanted to continue after she realized the amount of cheer that would be required for her to play her part. And yet…
"I think Honoka is right." She glanced up, surprised that someone would verbally support her. Eri looked at each of the members in turn. "We put all our efforts into our last song, and any complaints can be made to the producers instead of us for doing a bad job." The blonde looked at Honoka with such intensity that the leader of their group had to look away, slightly red-faced. "We've worked too hard to be burdened with the responsibility of a bad ending."
"Well...if both Honoka and Eri think so then…" Maki shrugged. "It wouldn't be that much trouble to do good on No-brand Girls. We've been practicing for so long after all." Slowly the others followed her lead, voicing small agreements to go along with making No-brand Girls their greatest performance yet.
Honoka kept their promise in mind as she jogged down the wet sidewalk with no destination in mind. She just needed to run and build up stamina for the dance. She could already sing and dance with a smile on her face, but she lacked the amount of energy to maintain it for the whole song as No-brand Girls kept them in constant movement. And she didn't want Umi to make an entire training schedule just for her, so she decided she would do her best by running every day until the day of the performance.
~The Day of the Live~
Honoka sat up in her bed sluggishly. Her brain was numb, and she barely remembered needing to turn off the alarm clock before heading to the bathroom to wash up. Moving around hurt too, even though she was sure she hadn't strained herself while training for the live. She looked at the mirror, too tired to be startled by her disheveled appearance. "Ah...is this...a fever?"
She had Yukiho test her temperature, feeling too out of it to trust her senses at the moment. Her sister read the numbers and sighed. "It's definitely a fever. You'd better rest for today." There was no point in arguing when she felt so tired so Honoka took her medicine and allowed Yukiho to lead her back up to the bedroom. But as soon as her sister left the house-she saw her through the bedroom window-she got up and put on her uniform. It was going to be the greatest performance, and she refused to let her fever hold the rest of her group back from it.
"A NEET like me can't catch a cold anyway. If I do it right...they won't notice." She slipped out the door; her parents were busy with the store and wouldn't check on her until later. She stumbled a bit, then regained her balance and walked quickly in the direction of her school. The medicine would hopefully clear the effects of the fever long enough to let her perform.
As the production crew readied the stage, Honoka kept herself busy by talking with Kotori and Umi. She could feel the gaze of another person on her but she refused to let it bother her today. She couldn't afford to, as every minute that passed as a minute closer to the time when her body would shut down on her. Any unneeded action would hasten the time, so Honoka focused on the conversation she was having and ignored the stare.
When they finally ascended the stage, a large group of Otonokizaka students had gathered to watch their last live. Just a few more minutes of strenuous activity and she could give her body the rest it wanted. The medicine was wearing off; she had taken it in the morning and it was now afternoon. She hadn't been able to get any rest, as doing so would tip off that there was something wrong to the rest of her friends. She pushed the fatigue threatening to knock her out away. She wouldn't let the fever take their live from her.
The dance came easily to her, after the many hours of practice she put into it. But it was now raining, and the cold drops did nothing to cool her heated body. As she held hands with the two next to her to bow, she became grateful that they were wearing gloves and couldn't feel her extra heat directly. Even so, she couldn't stop the wave of blackness that came from nowhere. She was only vaguely aware of the cries of shock that came following the initial darkness. It swallowed her up completely and she lost all connection with her awareness, floating freely in the fevered dream.
Next time: Friends! (I forgot to do this last chapter.)
