Manack, Clover Hearts (2nd OP Vers).

There's been passionate heartbeats in my heart before I knew it,

I know now they were born from my love for someone and someone's love for me.

I'm not afraid of hurting each other,

When I gaze into your eyes, I want you to gaze into my eyes without turning your eyes away.

You can feel my love, can't you?

Don't carry sadness all by yourself: I'm here with you.

Say what you think. My take hands,

Tell me about you.

Clover Hearts.

You were at a loss alone with no way to touch others,

You shook off my hands, I reached out.

Clover Hearts.

Even if you think of me as being selfish,

I wanna touch your broken heart,

I wanna overlap our passionate hearts and nurture our love.

Kaleido Stage: Legendary Reverie

Chapter 01: My Amazing Late Entrance!

Wednesday 15th January 2020 | 11.45am | 35 .F (2 .C)

The International Airport, San Francisco, California.

Sora's flight from Tokyo to San Francisco had landed late. Worse is she only had a little over an hour to get to the Kaleido Stage for her audition. If the travelling and layover hadn't been stressful enough, this was simply anxiety inducing. Stepping out from the plane, the chill of the cool weather immediately drove her to shiver. Even the weather was seemingly against her! Sighing, her breath transformed into a cloud of vapor as she climbed down the steps. It wasn't all bad though, was it? Swinging her messenger bag across her throat, she rested it against her hip. She was definitely unpacking her coat when she retrieved her luggage.

"Thank you for flying with us." A flight attendant smiled as Sora set her feet down onto concrete.

"Thanks!" She replied enthusiastically. Following the herd into the airport, Sora wearily craned her neck above them towards the queue. Ugh. This was going to be a drag.

After what felt like an eternity, she had reclaimed her luggage. Placing the blue suitcase down, she sat atop it as she checked herself over.

Light pink converse? Check. Jeans rolled to reveal her white, low cut socks? Check. Long, black-sleeved shirt? Check. Grey quilted coat? Check. Jumping up, she casually lifted her arms into the air and then lowered them to angle by her head. She didn't notice the odd glances thrown her way, clenching her hands into fists to then spin on her heel. Oh, how she had wished she could've just somersaulted down the plane aisle and squeezed through one of the port holes! Alas, she hadn't.

Kneeling down, she unzipped her suitcase to make sure her checklist was complete. Passport? Check. Immigration files and identity documentation? Check. Phone? Check. Audition papers? Check. Clothes? Check.

Pulling her coat sleeve away from her wrist, she quickly spied her fitness tracker. Alright, it's 11: 23am. Taking her phone, she quickly booted it up and calculated the distance from the airport to the Stage. In response, her face paled. Sixty minutes by taxi?! B-but the traffic's rough, right? Could she run for it? Could you even walk over the Golden Gate Bridge? Ah, what the hell?! She'd figure it out once she got there! Bolting, she quickly turned around moment's later, having almost forgotten her suitcase.

"E-excuse me!" She warned the zombified crowds as she rushed out of the airport. Rocketing to a stop outside, to her disbelief she couldn't see any footpaths leading from the airport. Was the motorway seriously the only access point?! In a state of panic, she spotted a shuttle bus; full steam ahead, she bounded towards it. Its sign said Mission Bay; where is that?! "Ahh, how close do you go to Angel Island past the Golden Gate Bridge?!" She asked the driver who eyed her for a moment.

"We're going to Oakland Bay Bridge, kiddo. The Golden Gate Bridge is on the north end."

The door swung closed in her face, causing Sora to glance around sharply. Spotting another shuttle, this one was fortunately marked for Golden Gate Bridge. Hopping onto it just as the doors closed, she sighed a breath of anxious relief. But this reassurance was soon converted into apprehension by just how God forsakenly slow this thing was. Why were they going at the pace of a snail?!

As the minutes trickled by, Sora's heart hammered inside of her chest like the San Andreas Fault itself. The traffic here was just as notorious as Tokyo's. The road rage from passing drivers was going to drive her insane at this rate. Let alone that she had twenty minutes to somehow get to her destination! That, and it took over an hour to get to Kaleido Stage? In vain she attempted to calm herself down with breathing exercises. But when it became quickly obvious this was failing, she decided she had no choice. "Sorry, I've got to leave this stop!" The driver surprisingly had the courtesy to quickly open the doors, and she vaulted out with her suitcase. Disorientated, she looked around her to only witness the chaos of blocks upon blocks of buildings. This was the inner workings of the city, and—oh! Isn't that the Golden Gate Park?!

In a hurried pace she entered the Park. This was, huh. Well, it was extremely anti-climatic. The entire main road she was following into the Park was covered by a treeline so she couldn't even see anything. Right at that moment, the wind was knocked from her lungs and she fell flat onto her face. Shocked, she gasped for air as she quickly pulled herself up. Wh-Her suitcase is gone? Staring beside her where it had been a moment prior, she diverted her attention in front of her. In the distance a man was running for it with the suitcase lifted above his head.

She… what? Sora stared in disbelief for a moment, unable to absorb what had happened. Then, she got up calmly, set her fingertips against the pavement and braced herself.

"WAAAAAAAAIIIIIIITTTTT!" Sora screamed as a blast of adrenaline supercharged her sprint. Gradually enclosing in on the thief, Sora begged him; "Please! It's all I have in there!" The whole ordeal might've been comical if it wasn't serious. Who on Earth carries a suitcase above their head? Lunging for the man's ankles, she wrapped her hands around the limbs and he smashed into the pavement.

Alike the Butterfly Effect, it couldn't get any worse as a police car pulled up. Quickly standing, the colour drained from her face maybe for the uptenth time that day. A gigantic black man exited from the car and towered above her. Sunglasses hiding his eyes, he was clad in San Francisco's standard black officer's uniform.

"I-I can ex-"

Brushing his chunky fingers into his beard, he cupped his chin curiously as he glanced between Sora and the apparent suitcase thief. "Hm…" Activating his radio against his chest, he said: "The suitcase thief from last week has been found. I'm bringing him in."

Eh?

"You're from Japan? That's a long way to come without having a place to stay." The large policewoman remarked as she flicked through Sora's immigration paperwork.

"Like I said, I'm joining the Kaleido Stage!" She was completely late as it is. What is she going to do now? Unless some miracle happened, then… Stuck inside the police headquarters, it wasn't like she had a choice in the matter. Unless…?

"Your parents must be worried s-"

The room was awestruck as Sora picked herself up onto her hands against the chair. Flipping up into a handstand without sending the chair flying, she said: "Don't mind me, I'm still listening! I need to practice for my audition!" Swinging her legs downwards, a round of applause was sent her way from all sides of the room. Spinning around within her handstand, she blinked upside down at the officers in confusion.

"What?"

After her details were taken, Sora was finally able to leave. Her miracle must have been answered, because the hulking police officer was personally driving her to Kaleido Stage.

"I'm actually a great fan of Kal—whoa?!" Having a leg shoved into his face, the officer nearly outright slammed the brake down.

"Please don't pay attention."

Chaos ensued inside the car as they pulled off from the Golden Gate Bridge, Kaleido Stage finally coming into view across the San Pablo Bay. Sora quickly noticed this and rolled back into her sitting position. Gluing herself to the window, her anticipation grew out of control. Finally! She was so close to arriving!

A/N: This has been a long awaited story that I and Beth Cyra have been planning. We have so many ideas for this story that I'm literally bursting with excitement right now. It's a great change of pace considering I only write serious stories these days (not like this won't be, but it has lots of comedy mixed in its tone). Anyway, we placed Kaleido Stage in San Francisco because the setting looks close to this in the anime. We've also pushed it to 2020 to modernise the series. This is going to boost the story's potential because it means the Stage effects are going to be ridiculous. An example: many stage performances now use the Unreal Engine for real-time rendering. Imagine watching the anime and it's constantly buffering and lagging your device. Now imagine watching it in HD on your fancy TV with no interruptions. That's the power of a game engine rendering the graphics, baby. Legendary Reverie will also be changing some more things up that we deemed either strange, annoying or needing more work. So expect more stage performances, Layla and Sora actually dating and all that.