CH. 35 Music Festival
The group has spent their three days practicing for the musical showdown between Miku and Shiori. Miku has at least kept her word on the men being involved from the underground camp. She had them install a massive screen in their living quarters with a voting mechanism for each one of them. Shiori has decided on her three songs, Cyan Rose, Starduster, and Lunar Crescent. The only ones going to the concert in person is the Spirit Children and no one else. The group doesn't want to risk Shido being recognized, and they can't predict how powerful Miku has become.
The ship crew will watch through the monitor with the screen muted and wearing ear plugs for an added caution and they have taken out their communicators, except for Shido, but he can't help very much due to everyone else wearing earplugs. The band leaves for the stadium, but two boys have a risk of being discovered. Without proper technology, they can't be helped due to the ship not getting feedback from below.
As they walk the rest of the way to the stadium, Akane walks up to Shiori and asks out of concern.
"Are you sure you can do this?"
Shiori takes a deep breath and nods without saying anything. Akane is especially worried as they have no countermeasures for Miku cheating during the competition. Shiori's heart isn't quite in it as she doesn't feel like she's going to do a fun show, but just a competition. Aki and Hiro are simply walking through the motion. Miyuki, on the other hand, simply looks excited as she gleefully walks with her older half siblings and hums a happy tune. Shiori notices this, and asks the younger girl with a genuine smile.
"What are you so happy about?"
Miyuki hasn't realized that she is humming and comes back as she blushes a little and answers without Yoshinon interfering.
"I had so much fun playing the tambourine with Yoshinon, and I get to do it with tons of people watching us."
The others are surprised to hear Miyuki being excited about performing in front of a crowd as they were certain that she would have some stage fright. Shiori pats Miyuki's head and replies.
"I had fun playing too. I really want today to be fun."
Yoshinon rises up and announces.
"When Yoshinon is near, excitement will appear!"
Miyuki and Yoshinon both appear to have great enthusiasm which rejuvenates Shiori's performing spirit. Shiori recalls a concert she once did with her mother as a special show. It was when Shiori was starting out and she got nervous because Hibiki had to back out of performing with her and take management. Miku came to cheer her on, and ended up performing with her daughter. Shiori and Miku smiled together as they sang in front of a huge cheering crowd and that gave Shiori the greatest feeling she's ever known, but now she feels a little sad. She has to face a crueler version of her mother. Hiro would say something, but he can't risk any of the women in the city hearing him as there could be some people listening to them.
Now approaching the stadium, the group can hear a crowed of roaring women with an MC announcing that the concert will start within an hour, but that Miku is more than ready to give a fantastic show. Shiori is carrying a duffle bag with her costume in it and her own special mic. They are nervous, except for Miyuki, who doesn't seem to know what is going on, but ready to defeat Miku by some way.
They get inside without any trouble as the guards are welcoming of Miku's interested prospect. They even get a private dressing room where Shiori changes into her stage outfit, with the boys having their eyes turned away. Plus, some confections from Miku's personal chef, who is this world's Tohka.
Miku is in her own dressing room with her Astral Dress on with the Spirits watching her as she smiles while looking at outfits she plans to have Shiori wear when she loses. Miku even brings up a more disturbing notion when she says.
"I think maybe I'll have her be my companion for the night."
Shiori looks in the mirror and gets ready for the show she really doesn't want to do. But she takes a deep breath and puts on a smile while her friends get some confections from their tray. As Shiori puts on her fake smile, she sees her mother in the mirror with an assuring smile on her face. Shiori turns around hopping to see her, but nothing is there.
Aboard the ship while the concert is ready to begin, Shido says in quiet tone.
"Good luck, Shiori. Show her how wrong she is."
Shido would like to be involved with this, but the danger is just too great. Miku is already sure about Shiori's gender, so she's relatively safe for the moment.
Outside in the skies, a portal opens up as a figure emerges from it, just a single person. They look below and see the city with a clear objective in mind.
Inside the stadium, the two groups are ready for their competition as they meet each other before entering the stage. Shiori is putting on her best smile, while Miku gives a more flirtatious smile as her face clearly says "I have such plans for you". It also doesn't help that she starts looking at the others, completely ignorant to the two boys in disguise. Shiori, still maintaining her smile, plainly tells Miku.
"Please leave them out of this."
Miku returns her gaze to Shiori and replies in an equally straight tone.
"When I win, you won't really have any say in the matter."
Aki and Akane suddenly get a cold sweat, Hiro maintains his composure, and Miyuki is just playing with the tambourine she practiced with.
The stage is in a very cheery mood as they begin cheering profusely as their beloved idol Miku makes her way to the stage. Despite the crowd not changing volume when the Spirit Children make their way, they know that Miku is the focus of their cheering. Miku waves to her beloved "fans", but Shiori is simply disappointed that Miku has to resort to using her powers. Miku then explains the voting system to the crowd before the show starts. She does this in a very energetic manner.
"Here's how it works, ladies…and men….me and attractive rival will each sing three songs each. When we both sing, you will all press a button on the remotes in front of all your seats. Yellow is for me, and blue is for Shiori. The votes will be tallied in percents. With all that said, let's start this showdown!"
The crowed naturally begins cheering loudly as Miku takes the first song with a band of her own with Tohka as her guitarist and the others being somewhat professional performers. The song is happy, energetic, and full of energy. The crowd adores it as Miku sings dances. Shiori notices that her song, while happy and energetic, is rather empty, like Miku is just doing the same thing over and over again. Sure, she's smiling, but it feels forced. Miku ends her song, and the crowd's clapping can be heard in a grand scale as it feels like they are getting all of their cheering out.
Miku waves to the crowd as she walks backstage and smiles as she passes by Shiori, who realizes that this is going to be harder than she thought as the others are ready to give it their best. Shiori gets her mic ready along with her guitar and the others get into position with their instruments. They get ready to play the song they decided they should play first Lunar Crescent. The song is similar to Miku's, full of energy and happy, but Shiori is more full of genuine care. Her performance catches a little attention from Miku as she lightly taps her foot at the singing and dancing just a little. After some time, the song is over and the crowd cheers a bit, but not nearly as much as Miku. Miku casually walks out to the stage to check the tallies, but is a little shocked when she sees the results. Much to her chagrin, she only has 79% of the overall votes. This causes her to bite her nail as she had high expectations for 100%. However, she blames the men in the underground camp for this.
She is tempted to not let the men vote this time, but still goes with it as she did win this round. They take a short break to get prepped for the next song and get some water. Shiori doesn't want to admit it, but she knows that Miku cheated by using her powers during the first round as she wouldn't be irked unless something didn't go according to plan. Aki approaches her from behind and suggests.
"Shiori, maybe you should use your powers to give ourselves a better edge."
Shiori is about to say something to disagree, but Akane reinforces this by telling her.
"Cheating isn't cool, but we've got little choices outside of violence in this case."
Hiro clenches his fist at the thought, but Akane looks at him immediately tells him.
"Hiro, we can't make mistakes here. Miku has the city under her thumb. We have to stop her. But I won't let anybody kill her. That is something I won't forgive."
Hiro lowers his hand but still has visible discontent. Shiori realizes that she needs to use her powers to aide in their victory. To this end, she assumes her Spirit form and equips her electric guitar and readies for the next song.
Miku's next song is similar to her last, but a little more somber and with a gentler beat. Again, the crowd is in an uproar of cheer for Miku. She goes back to behind to let Shiori go on, and compliments her Astral dress.
"That's a very pretty dress by the way."
The next song they plan to sing is Cyan Rose. They start the song like they did before, but Shiori is feeling more uncomfortable as she feels like a legitimate cheater. This causes her distress as she begins making mistakes and hitting the wrong notes. Naturally, this causes the crowd to boo at her. She misses the great feeling her performances gave her before she came here. Even though she has only done two songs so far, it feels horrible to even think of cheating. Shiori then begins remembering her performances with her mother, the times she saw her clapping, and just in general the good times they've shared together.
After some more sour notes, Shiori's body begins to glow a little, and then two things emerge from Shiori's back and begin to form into two dancing silhouettes and then they take full forms that appear like Miku but wearing unique outfits consisting yellow robe-like dresses tied to their bodies by indigo laces to keep the robes in place as the two dance. Akane stops playing for a second as she notices the two are clearly guardians, but not just one like her and Aki or Saori. Shiori suddenly feels a jolt of warmth as she suddenly plays a lot better and the two dancers are even providing backup vocals that sound exactly like Miku singing herself. Miku and the crowd are shocked beyond belief as two Mikus' are on the stage now. The song then begins playing out a lot better. When it ends, the crowd is standing and cheering loudly as the votes immediately come in with Shiori taking 82% of the votes. This causes Miku to become nervous for many reasons. Moreover, she believes Shiori to be some kind of mimic.
She wants to scold Shiori, but instead decides to up the ante herself. She smiles and approaches Shiori's band mates individually, and asks them to come with her using Tohka and Kotori as her personal escorts. This gets Aki and Hiro to go with them out of concern, Akane follows them to keep an eye on them, and Miyuki is bribed with the promise of sweets. The two new guardians both hug Shiori from the back on each shoulder. They won't listen to anyone at all, and Miku wants to ask about them, but waits for her answers as she plots to win by underhanded means.
Miku has the four other Spirit Children in her dressing room with a rack of maid outfits ready with a smile as she commands.
"Put these on."
The four look at the dresses and in this order, Hiro shakes his head, Aki replies
"No way, I don't like lacy stuff."
Akane simply answers.
"Not a chance in hell."
Yoshinon answers for Miyuki.
"Miyuki is too cute for that frilly thing."
Miku tries this again, but gets a relatively similar response. She is now officially feeling like she's having a weird week as she now has four people who won't obey her commands. She then opts for the next idea, she exits the room and has the door sealed shut as the others attempt to break out without giving up their guise even though it is mostly blown.
Minutes later, Miku is performing her third song, and Shiori is lost without her friends, but her two guardians are still materialized, so she asks them.
"Can either of you play an instrument?"
The two guardians look at each other and then look at Shiori again and nod as one of them plays an air piano which produces actual noise and the other plays an air guitar that also produces noise. Shiori thinks that would freak people out, but she can just give them actual instruments before going on. She explains her next song to them while Miku is performing.
The crew aboard the ship is ignorant to the dilemma behind the stage, but is shocked at Shiori's double guardians. Shido has his own theory on why this is but isn't a hundred percent sure on this. Ellen realizes that if Miku gets violent, they may need backup, so she grabs Mana and asks for a favor.
The Spirit Children are thinking of a way out as Aki and Hiro are banging against the door, but it is sealed and won't go down. Akane could just burn it away, but that would give away their powers further. Miku can't know about their full powers unless it's an absolute emergency. They at least have a TV in this room to watch the remainder of the concert.
Shiori is ready to go on as she has her next song ready. The song is purely Shiori singing with her guardians play the instruments. Her song is very mellowing, calming, and overall sad since this song is about love being lost in the dark. She sings the song very well and the crowd cheers very fairly this time. Shiori's song even gets some of the audience crying. Miku herself is a little emotional to the song and is impressed with Shiori's singing, but is a little disturbed over her doppelgangers.
When the scores come in, the two singers are a little nervous and the final results are….50% for both. Both singers earn the same score for a tie. Miku takes the mic and makes her announcement.
"I'm afraid since this is a tie, there can only be one solution. We must do one more song each and break this tie. What do you all say?"
The crowd begins cheering loudly as they love the show. Miku then has one last trick up her sleeve as orders for the feed in the men's camp to be cut so that they can't vote anymore. They also call for a ten minute break to prepare another song each, and Shiori doesn't know what to pick since she has so many to choose from. She goes to her dressing room, and her follow her as she thinks thoroughly of her next song.
The others aren't having much luck breaking out either. Miyuki is simply playing with her tambourine still. Shiori then has a bright idea as begins to quickly remember something.
The next round begins, and Miku sings a classic song, the one she sang years ago at the school festival and beat Shido. Like before, it is amazing and the crowd continues with their profuse cheering. Shiori takes a deep breath as she actually decides to give a little speech before singing her song. She gently holds her mic and says to the crowd.
"In the world of music, there is something that I believe very strongly. When someone writes a song from the heart, they understand the lyrics better than anyone could. Today, I will sing a song that was written by somebody who lost someone close to them, and understood the feelings of those around her. She knew how painful this loss was, and wrote this song to help them and herself cope with it. I cannot fully understand the lyrics myself, but I have experienced loss. To be more appropriate, I have made changes to the lyrics to show my understanding. I call my take Ali Del Ricordo"
Shiori decides to let her guardians simply watch as she sits at a keyboard and sets it to a regular piano setting. She begins playing a very sweet melody; this instantly gets Hiro's attention from the dressing room as he watches the TV. Shiori then begins singing in Italian in a very soothing, sad, and heartwarming manner. The lyrics cannot be understood by the majority of the crowd, but the message is clear. The song is so personal to Shiori that she is the only one can truly understand and read the lyrics. Hiro remembers the day when he heard Miku sing the original song. The day that they put his Tohka and Yuzuru to their final resting place; he remembers that Miku cried for the majority of the song as she deeply cared for them as her friends.
Shiori is doing the same, and the crowd can't help but be moved by the sweet song, and Miku herself is moved by the song. Shiori ends the song as she bows and the crowd remains silent and then begins their clapping. Miku joins the stage, and Shiori has gained 68% of the votes making her the winner. Miku applauds Shiori's song as she was moved. Shiori appreciates the sentiment, but has to bring up in a somber tone.
"I won our contest, so I get one wish, right?"
Miku nods and asks.
"What do you want?"
Shiori plainly requests.
"I want you to let the men out of that horrible camp, and stop with the brainwashing. Start over with a clean start, and sing for the smiles."
Miku clenches a little, but puts on a mischievous smile as she replies.
"No, ask for something else."
Shiori shakes her head and tells her.
"You said that…"
Miku interrupts by adding.
"I said "within reason" and I find that isn't within reason."
Shiori continues to argue by bringing up.
"Why are being so stubborn? Men aren't the beasts you make them out to be. Men are wonderful. There can be women who are worse than tons of men."
Miku simply approaches Shiori while explaining.
"You don't know anything. Humans are all bad, especially men. You are just a little ignorant, but that's okay. I can reeducate you and make you see my way."
Shiori backs up a little and reinforces.
"I won, so you have to do what I want."
Miku snaps her finger and asks.
"And what do you want? You can pick any dress from my wardrobe, then we'll eat anywhere you'd like, and then you can pick which sheets will go on our bed for the night."
Shiori is officially disturbed.
The Spirit Children see this on the TV and decide that enough is enough as Aki and Akane assume their Spirit forms, Hiro equips his arms and legs with armor, and Miyuki still plays her tambourine.
In the skies, Ellen flies to the stadium with ALEXANDER equipped with her services needed in a little bit.
Miku snaps her fingers again and Shiori is surrounded by the Spirits under Miku's control as they assume only partial forms with their angels summoned. Miku smiles more mischievously as she says.
"We can do this the easy way, or the hard way."
Shiori's guardians rejoin her as she prepares to defend herself despite not having command over any attacks at the moment. Luckily, the others show up in time and Miku immediately notices Aki and Hiro's wigless heads and sees their men as she freaks out a bit as commands the Spirits to attack them while Akane shows up and manages to put up a blue flame wall as she joins her friends. Aki is ready to fight with his sword as he asks.
"Is anyone else really uncomfortable about doing this?"
He is uncomfortable about fighting the Spirits, but knows it needs to be done. Akane nods and says.
"Yeah, this really isn't right."
Hiro doesn't respond. Instead, he puts away his dual blades and sits on the ground and answers.
"I'm not doing anything. I won't the Spirits."
Miku grits her teeth as she is very unhappy that men are in her city again as she suddenly lets out a ultra sonic shout which Akane and Aki dodge by jumping, but Hiro takes the full force which takes off his female clothes. He blown to the end of the stage and he assumes his sitting again. The fight is going to be difficult as it is incredibly uneven. Someone smiles in the shadows, the figure from earlier is on their way to the stadium, and Ellen is almost there.