After an equally long wait, here's the next chapter of "Shocked."

Not much else to say about this, other than I think there's only three chapters left before the story ends.

Anyway, to the chapter!


Mako slowly opened her eyes, with her blurry vision quickly clearing up to show her she was no longer at the organization, or Maki's house, or... really, any place she recognized.

"Where... am I?" she asked as she looked around.

"You're in the hospital, silly."

The girl promptly turned around and saw the girl next to her was none other than Nico, who smiled as she said:

"My name is Nico Yazawa, and I'm your roommate."

"N-Nico?" Mako repeated, her eyes widening as she realized what the name meant. "S-So, you're Maki's partner in Otonokizaka High School?"

"Well, since we're nine, Muse's split into three teams of three, so Maki and I aren't the whole team," Nico answered with a chuckle. "But, in terms of relationships, yeah, we share a strong bond. I guess you could say we're partners."

"I-I see..." Mako looked back at the ceiling. "I'm happy Maki has a friend like you."

"And I'm happy she had someone to call a friend before coming to Muse," Nico sighed. "To be honest with you, I thought that she was completely friendless until she joined the idol group: I never saw her with other students, and her personality, at least at first, didn't make it seem like she was one to just up and strike a conversation."

Mako rolled her eyes. "Well, Maki has always been the reserved kind of girl."

The duo shared a laugh that lasted for a few seconds, before they both calmed down, and Nico frowned, saying:

"You know, the original purpose of creating Muse was to stop our high school from closing down. You know, because of the declining birth rate and several other factors."

"Yeah, I heard about that," Mako sighed. "I also heard that the building itself wasn't in the best state when the group was formed."

"And you know what's more stressful and frustrating than forming a group who have little experience, all to save your school?" Nico asked, answering before Mako had a chance to even guess, "To have the school face the exact same trouble around a year later, when you thought things were safe for now."

Mako's eyes widened. "W-Wait, Otonokizaka is in danger of closing again?!"

"No, but I've heard that students are being transferred from there to other schools, and the impersonations has also given it bad rep," Nico shook her head. "So, I wouldn't be surprised if it ends up with the same problem it had over a year ago."

"Ugh, dang it."

Hearing Mako say those words caught Nico's attention, which made her look at the girl as she then asked:

"Mako, how would you feel if Otonokizaka were to shut down? Do you think you'd have Maki by your side?"

"No, I wouldn't, not knowing that I helped things get so bad," Mako sighed. "If the school were to shut down, I don't think Maki would ever talk to me again."

Then, the brunette chuckled. "You heard what I said, right? A bunch of girls are going to lose their education, several adults are going to lose their jobs, and the one thing I'm most worried about is whether Maki will talk to me again or not. I'm pathetic, aren't I?"

"You could say that," Nico shrugged. "But as far as I know, you didn't neglect your own friend's feelings just to satisfy your own dreams."

Mako's eyes widened and she turned to look at Nico as the girl added:

"And thus, they didn't tell you to your face that they were done with your nonsense, and then left you all alone to wallow in your grief as you realized your mistake."

"Nico..."

"But, there's a good thing in all of this," the idol remarked. "And that is the fact that your mistake still hasn't blown up completely in your face: You can still help make things right, and stop the school from shutting down."

Nico gave the girl a thumbs up. "And one way or another, if it becomes necessary, I'll help you with that too."

"You're right..." Mako smiled with hope for a moment, before she frowned as she realized, "But we're both currently hospitalized, so, who knows if we'll have enough time by the time we get out of here?"

Nico raised an eyebrow. "Well, when does your boss' plan actually begin?"

Mako fell silent, almost as if she knew the answer, but was too worried about Nico's reaction to tell her...

Meanwhile, with Yukiho and Alisa...

The younger sisters of Honaka and Eli walked together down the streets, heading for the Kosaka household so Yukiho could confront her impostor.

"I can't believe a pair of girls impersonated us," Alisa remarked as she sighed with frustration. "And one of them even tricked me into coming here so they could force me to join them!"

"Yeah, now that you mention it, you have a plane to take to go back to your studies overseas, right?" Yukiho inquired.

"Actually, I'm thinking about staying a little bit longer," Alisa answered as she twiddled her fingers. "Who knows, I might even become a student in my sister's school... assuming it's still open by then, that is."

Yukiho smiled. "I'm sure it'll still be standing by then. Just you wait, our sisters will find a way to save their school."

The duo stopped, and Yukiho grabbed Alisa's hands as they exchanged looks, and she proclaimed:

"They did it once: Surely they can do it again!"

Alisa, seeing her friend's confidence, smiled and nodded in agreement, before they noticed they were at the household already.

"Well, this is where we stop," Yukiho said as she separated from the foreigner. "I'll take it from here."

"Are you sure you'll be able to handle this on your own?" Alisa asked.

Yukiho smiled. "Just watch."

Yukiho kicked the door open, and saw her impostor and mother having tea together, before they noticed her and reacted appropriately.

"M-Mom, look out!" Not-Yukiho exclaimed as she clung next to Mrs. Kosaka. "It's one of the impostors!"

"I'm afraid the impostor here is you," Yukiho stated, pointing at the impostor. "Yu Watanabe!"

Meanwhile, at the Principal's Office...

The remaining members of Muse were at the office with Principal Minami, who rubbed her forehead as she said:

"Okay, so, good news first. We now know the impostors' plan to ruin all idol groups in Japan, and we managed to retrieve Mrs. Tojo from their clutches."

"What are the bad news?" Umi asked.

"Because of the intense trauma Mrs. Tojo suffered to turn into this Cataclysm Tsunami, we believe it might take weeks before she can return to Muse," the woman answered.

"Yeah, I kinda expected that," Eli said, folding her arms. "Nobody could be able to just walk out of what Nozomi went through without a few scars."

"Still, with Nozomi currently out, that leaves us with a worrying question," Honoka said, before asking the question itself, "How many members do we have left for each sub group?"

"I'm the only active member of Lily White right now," Eli answered.

"Rin and I are the only ones left on NicoRinPana," Hanayo remarked, with a nod of agreement from Rin.

"BiBi was complete until Nozomi... Well, you know," Umi said, scratching the back of her head. "Going by this, it seems the only sub group that still has all its members is Printemps."

"Me, Kotori, and Hanayo," Honaka said as she lowered her head. "I guess... hmm..."

"Is something wrong, Honoka?" Kotori inquired.

"I want to say that, since printemps is the only full team left, we should focus on writing a song for it so we don't fall to obscurity," Honoka rested her chin on her palm. "But, I can't take my mind out of what I saw at that place."

"Yeah, I haven't been able to stop thinking about that either," Umi folded her arms and looked away. "Just the fact that they had not only impostors for all of us, but also multiple impostors just in case... it's honestly disturbing."

"And the one who's behind everything, as you've told me, is an impostor of Mrs. Yazawa herself," Principal Minami remarked, earning the attention and nods from the girls. "There has to be something more to it than that."

"Couldn't have said it better myself."

Muse turned around and saw none other than the members of A-RISE enter the room, each sporting serious looks on their faces.

"A-RISE?" Honoka asked as she walked to Tsubasa. "What are you doing here? I thought you'd be busy practicing your songs or something."

"An impostor attacked us at our hotel, we infiltrated an organization in order to find out what's going on, and we found out that not only you're not the only ones being impersonated, but there are several backups just in case one impostor is taken care of, and you expect us to ignore all that and focus on our idol business?" Tsubasa replied, putting her hands on her hips. "I'm sorry to say this, Honoka, but we have priorities. And stopping the impostor Nico's plan is definitely the top one right now."

Honoka's eyes gleamed with a sense of hope, as her smile widened until it was ear-to-ear, followed by her hugging Tsubasa with pure joy.

And so, with newfound detrmination and confidence, Honoka grabbed Tsubasa's arm and nodded, exclaiming:

"Let's work together to expose that brat, and put an end to this once and for all!"