Happy New Year's Eve Everyone! Idk if u celebrate it now, but I do hehe~ I have another chapter ready, so tomorrow will be the last chapter I give out on my streak. Anyways, have a good holiday!
I do not own Aikatsu Stars!
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When Yozora next woke up, the bus was still. She looked at her Aikatsu Mobile to check the time. It was six in the morning. She nodded in internal approval and climbed out of her bunk.
She grabbed her track suit from her bag and entered the bathroom to quickly freshen up and change. After doing so, she exited and stood at the end of the bunks, where Yume, Laura, Mahiru, and Ako still lay asleep.
Yozora knew she couldn't call them all up personally, so she took out her mobile again. With a few presses, a loud alarm sound played.
The four jumped awake.
"What's going on?" Yume cried.
"Huh?" Ako muttered.
"What is that?" Laura asked.
Mahiru rubbed her eyes and looked out of her bunk. "Big sis? What?"
"Rise and shine, ladies." Yozora announced. "Let's get ready for an early morning jog!"
The girls stared at her, slowly comprehending what she was saying.
Mahiru and Laura were the first ones to get up, followed by Yume and Ako.
The four quickly dressed and used the bathroom. When they stepped out of the bus, they found the adults already outside.
Yozora went towards Ms. Ran. "Good morning Miss Ran. I'm taking the girls for a jog, if you don't mind."
Ms. Ran nodded at her. "Got it. Go ahead. Make sure you get back in an hour though."
Yozora bowed. "Yes. Thank you." She turned back to the other. "Okay, let's go."
~0~
Yozora led the four of them down a path, where they jogged at a steady pace. While doing so, they consistently continued their chant of "aikatsu!"
As they ran, they soon began to hear other sounds. It was deeper than the sounds they were making themselves and coming from ahead.
Yume glanced at Laura in confusion, who stared back at her.
"What's that sound?" Ako asked.
Yozora slowed down, causing the rest of them to follow after her. She stopped near a bench on the side of the path they were on and stood by it silently while catching her breath.
Yume, Laura, Mahiru, and Ako stared at Yozora, waiting for an explanation.
Slowly, as the sounds got louder and clearer, four figures appeared in the distance.
It was M4.
It seemed that they too had decided to go for an early jog in the morning. What they heard was their chants of "aikatsu!"
In the front, Subaru spotted the girls and slowed down. The boys stopped their chanting and all of them gathered around.
"Looks like we had the same idea, Yozora." Subaru said.
Yozora gave her sweet laugh. "Of course. It's a nice morning."
"Good omens then, I hope?" Asahi responded.
"Hopefully." Mahiru replied.
Asahi pouted at her. "Oh don't be like that, sis!"
Mahiru rolled her eyes. "You can't judge the day by looking at the weather!"
Yozora smiled at Mahiru. "That is true. But doesn't a clear day just make you want to be like it? Like the sun radiating on everyone?"
Subaru nodded in agreement and let out a gentle breath. "It feels great out."
Asahi laughed. "Enjoy the sunshine, Mahiru!"
Nozomu went up towards Yume and Laura. "Hello, good morning." He smiled.
Yume grinned back. "Good morning!" She stretched her arms. "It feels nice to be out of the bus for once, right Laura?"
Laura nodded. "Yea. It's nice and all, but kinda cramped."
"I agree. It's always nice to be let out." Nozomu said.
Laura laughed nervously. "When you say it like that, it makes it sound like we're some kind of animal..."
Nozomu laughed. "Sorry. I didn't mean it like that. But it did sound like that, huh?"
Yume grinned. "It's okay. We get it."
"It doesn't matter," Laura said. "Either way, we'll be ready for our next show!"
"Yea!" Yume cheered.
Nozomu grinned. "That's the spirit."
Kanata glanced at Ako through his fogged glasses. "Good morning."
"It was." Ako muttered at him. She turned her gaze to Subaru, lovingly. "Of course Subaru would come out to run!" She swooned.
"We all got out to run." Kanata informed her bluntly, speaking about the girls as well.
Ako hissed at him. "Don't you dare think you're any close to how great Subaru is!"
Kanata took off his glasses, uncaring about her comment, and started wiping them with the bottom of his track jacket. "Mhm," he hummed. "But you do know that I work with him all the time?"
Ako stared as he looked down blindly with his glasses off. She gazed at his unfocused eyes, feeling the world slow. All she could see was the green shade that radiated from his irises.
She was shaken out of it when he moved to place his glasses back on his face.
Ako jumped in surprise, her cheeks getting a hot with a splash of pink.
Kanata raised an eyebrow at her in confusion of her strange reaction.
"O-oh!" Ako exclaimed, getting back to their conversation. "So what?"
Kanata was about to reply, but was interrupted.
"Okay guys, time to keep going," Subaru told the boys.
They nodded at him.
Yozora faced the girls. "We need to catch up."
The girls nodded at her, and each group resumed their running in their opposite directions until it was time to get back.
~0~
The group had successfully completed their first show without a hitch, and had gotten on the road again to the second stop of the day.
After arriving, they were given their lunches and were allowed to rest while the crew prepared for the performance. As the girls waited, they walked around the backstage set. They were enjoying the scene, but soon noticed some ruckus happening.
Confused, the girls went over to see Ms. Ran speaking with some of the crew with worried expressions.
Yume stepped forward. "Miss Ran, what's wrong?"
Ms. Ran looked up at the girls. "Oh... well the sound crew just ran a test and found out that the speakers aren't working properly."
The girls gasped.
"Oh no." Yozora said.
"What's going to happen?" Laura asked.
Ms. Ran glanced around. "Well, the crew will have to find the problem and fix it, or we'll have to get someone else to come."
"How long will that take?" Mahiru asked this time.
Ms. Ran sighed. "It could take ten minutes, it could take hours. They don't even know where the problem is."
The girls shared worried glanced.
Yume frowned. "What do we do?"
Ms. Ran shook her head. "You girls can't do anything. I'll go see if we can get some quick replacements, or something. You ladies stay tight, okay?"
They nodded in response and Ms. Ran scurried away to find a way to fix the problem.
Their expressions turned solemn.
"We have to do something!" Yume shouted suddenly.
Laura clicked her tongue. "Yume, what are we going to do? You don't know how to work an audio system, and the show is too large for us to perform without a speaker system!"
Yume flinched and nodded. "Y-you're right..." She trailed off in thought. "What if we go talk to some of the audio crew and see if there's something we can do?" She asked the others hopefully.
Yozora smiled softly. "It wouldn't hurt to try."
Mahiru, Ako, and Laura murmured in agreement.
They all scouted forward to find the cluster of people working around the audio table.
Yume walked forward, hoping to grab someone's attention. "Excuse me..." However it didn't work, since she was ignored.
A woman noticed from beside them. She had short dark hair tied into a ponytail and had a short stature. She had khaki shorts and a red tee shirt on with a tool belt around her waist with many trinkets and papers. She approached Yume. "Hi, what's up? Can I help you?"
Yume looked up at her and smiled. "Actually... we were wondering if we could help!"
The woman blinked in confusion. "Uh..." She looked around and the crowd of crew surrounding them. "Let's move away first."
The girls followed the woman to a clearer spot.
"So what's this I hear about you wanting to help?" She asked.
Yume nodded. "Ms. Ran told us that there was an audio problem, but you don't know where it is..."
The woman nodded. "Yes, that's true."
Yozora bowed her head. "We would like to offer our assistance, please."
Yume, Laura, Ako, and Mahiru followed in suit.
The woman laughed nervously. "O-okay. I'll tell you what I know. Although, I'm just a newbie here."
Yume jumped. "What's your name, by the way?"
"Oh! I'm sorry, my name is Chiyo Misaki. It's nice to meet you girls personally."
The girls smiled, realizing that Chiyo knew them.
Chiyo pulled out a paper from her belt and unrolled it to show the girls. "This is what the inside of a speaker looks like." It was a blueprint. "However, since all of the speakers are nonfunctional, we think that the problem is coming for somewhere in the front of the connection. You see, the current that powers the speakers flows through from each one. But when one of them have a problem, the rest of them won't work." She laughed nervously at her bad explanation. "Do you get it?"
The girls blinked at her.
"Not- uh, not really..." Yume answered awkwardly.
Chiyo sweated. "Ah, I thought so." She frowned for a second. "I got it! Think of a water dam! When it's open, the water will flow through to all the ponds and rivers behind it. But when you close it, everything from it stops!"
Ako snapped. "I get it now."
The other girls smiled in agreement.
Chiyo smiled happily. She took out another roll of paper. "Here is the blueprint of this stage, and where the speakers are laid out. Since all of these," she motioned to a majority of the speakers on the paper, "Aren't working, the problem is somewhere here." She pointed to the other speakers. "Now, the problem is either inside the speaker, or outside of it, in the cable. Like when your phone charger rips at the end and you can see the wires."
The girls nodded.
Ako lifted her hand. "If you know the area where the problem is, how come they can't fix it yet?"
Chiyo sighed. "Well, like I said, I'm a newbie. They haven't really heard my thoughts."
"Then let's go check it out!" Yume cried out with determination.
"I suppose we can go scout around there and try to find the fault..." Chiyo muttered.
"We'll do anything to fix this!" Yume interrupted.
Chiyo gasped and looked up. All of the girls held the same determined expression.
"We have to do it for our fans!" Laura continued.
"If you say that there's something we can do to help, we will." Mahiru added.
"We won't let this stop us." Ako concluded.
Yozora smiled at the younger girls and at Chiyo.
Chiyo closed her eyes then opened them again with a smile. "Alright! Come on, we'll all go."
She led them around the stage to another area. "It's somewhere here. I'll check the insides of the speakers."
Yume and Laura nodded at each other. "We'll help you with that." Yume said.
Ako, Mahiru, and Yozora started following the cables on the ground, trying to spot any irregularities.
Chiyo opened the first speaker box and started surveying it.
Yume and Laura paired up to check the others, Chiyo had given them the schematics of the wiring so they could make sure they were set properly.
When Chiyo was checking her fourth speaker, Yume and Laura opened their third one. They immediately gasped.
Chiyo looked up. "What? Did you find something?"
Yume nodded quickly. "Yes! It's... the wires- they..."
Chiyo went over to see. She gasped. "Oh my gosh."
Many of the wires were ripped up some in places, some clean through.
Mahiru, Ako, and Yozora came up behind them.
"How did this happen?" Mahiru gasped.
Chiyo surveyed the box. She caught a glint of something on the bottom. "There!" She exclaimed. She reached in, and pulled out the item. It was a broken piece of a sharp blade.
The girls gasped.
"But how did that get in there?" Yume asked.
"And how would that be able to cut everything like that if it was just sitting here?" Ako added with suspicion.
Chiyo shook her head. "I don't know, but I have to go tell the rest of the crew now!"
They all nodded and ran back to the audio crew.
Chiyo rushed up to a man. "Mister Izumi! We found the problem!"
The man looked over at her. "You did?" He asked in shock.
"Yes!" Chiyo answered. "The wires in speaker nine were all cut up. I found this in it." She held up the blade piece.
Mr. Izumi took it into his hand and inspected it. He then looked up. "Jiro, Kenta, get to speaker nine and fix it!"
The two men saluted and ran off.
"Now, who found this?" Mr. Izumi asked.
Chiyo gestured to the girls. "They offered to help, and together Yume and Laura found the dysfunctional speaker."
Mr. Izumi frowned at the sharp object in his hand. "How did this get in there?" He muttered. He shook his head then put the piece down. "Never mind that. I need to go see this problem and we need to get it done fast." He was about to run off, but then stopped to look at Chiyo. "Good job, young lady."
Chiyo blushed. "Thank you, sir!"
He took off after.
Chiyo grinned and turned to the girls. "Thank you, to you girls too!" She leaned over to hug them tight. "This might get me noticed by Mister Izumi now!"
The girls smiled at her.
"You deserve it, Chiyo!" Yume said.
Laura nodded. "Yea! You're super smart!"
"You had it coming anyway." Ako said.
Chiyo blushed again. "You're all so great." She glanced at the time. "Hopefully we can get this fixed soon and you girls can perform!"
Before anyone could say anything else, someone called out.
"Chiyo! I need you over here!"
Chiyo straightened. "Coming!" She faced the girls. "I have to go. Good luck on your show!"
They girls smiled and thanked her, wishing her luck as well.
They moved away from the ruckus of the audio crew to the side.
Yume let out a deep breath. "Man, that was exhausting!"
Mahiru nodded. "I can't believe that that little speaker could've ruined our whole show."
"That's how it is." Yozora said. "Everyone and everything has to work together to get it done."
Yume sighed in wonder. "That's so amazing."
The others agreed.
"Alright! This gets me going!" Laura cheered. "Let's put on a great show, everyone!"
Yume put her hand in the center. Laura, Mahiru, Ako, and Yozora followed her lead and did the same.
"Okay! Aikatsu!"
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Wow, another long chapter. Thanks for reading! Leave a review!