After climbing up on top of the red machine, and with a boost from Makoto, Nagisa had managed to grab hold of the edge of the open hatch. She climbed out and lay on her stomach, reaching down for Makoto. The other girl also climbed on top of the machine then jumped up and grabbed her arm. Nagisa gasped in pain and almost fell back in, but managed to hold on. She couldn't pull Makoto up, leaving it up to Makoto to climb up her arm. Once she had a grasp on something other than Nagisa's arm, Makoto finally managed to pull herself up and onto the top of the elevator.

They looked around for a moment, quickly realizing they were not in an elevator shaft but rather a large room like a warehouse. There were several other elevators all sitting on the floor side by side, not suspended even and inch in the air. Beyond the elevators, the room was largely empty save for three colored doors on one wall, and one large door painted with the number nine on another wall.

Nagisa sulked. "Don't tell me we're going to have to escape from here too."

Makoto stood up. "Hey… there are people over there."

Nagisa looked up, her mood brightening just a little. "Where?" Following Makoto's gaze, she saw four others standing in front of the elevator at the end of the row, in the corner. They were all girls like them. Only one mattered to Nagisa right then. "Orine!"

Makoto watched as Nagisa climbed over the side of the elevator, dropping down to the floor and running over to the other girls. One girl, with the fluffiest pink hair Makoto had ever seen, started running to meet Nagisa. They embraced, getting the attention of all the others very quickly. Makoto quietly followed, but was well aware that everyone had spotted her as well. She was surprised to see a fifth girl leaning up against the elevator in the corner, where she couldn't have seen from on top of the elevator.

Nagisa hugged her friend, glad she wasn't alone with strangers. "Orine, I'm so happy to see you!"

Orine was nearly starting to tear up. "Me too! I was really scared, but…" Breaking apart, Orine turned back to the others. "But Kanata helped me get through alright."

Nagisa blinked, looking over the four other strange girls. The fourth stranger, who she hadn't seen earlier from the elevator, wasn't exactly a stranger either. "Wait, is that…" She shook her head. "Um… who's Kanata?"

A red-haired girl with a messy ponytail waved to them. "That's me. Orine and I woke up in the same elevator. After we were told it was about to fall, she started freaking out. But now it looks like we had nothing to worry about."

Makoto finally stepped up to Nagisa's side. "What about the rest of you? Were you all in the same elevator?"

"Oh, no." One girl, who looked like the oldest of the group, smiled innocently. "We were each in a different one. I'm Mimori. I was in this one right here." She patted the elevator in the back corner, at the far right end of the row. "I was the first out, too. Chieri was next, and she came out of the one on the other end, and then Kanata and Orine came out of the one beside mine."

The girl leaning against the elevator sighed indignantly. "Right. I was the second out, and Kanata and Orine got out right after me."

The last girl adjusted her glasses. "And then me. I'm Suzuko. I was in the elevator two over from Chieri's, and right beside yours if I'm not mistaken."

Nagisa looked back at the elevator she and Makoto had come from. "Yeah, I think so. So the one me and Makoto were in was between Chieri's and Suzuko's. Right?"

Kanata nodded. "Exactly. And that means there's still one that nobody's come out of yet."

Chieri walked over to Nagisa and Makoto. "Show me your wrists."

Makoto held up her wrist without a question. "You're looking at the watches, right?"

Chieri nodded. "You too Nagisa. I think I might have figured something out." Nagisa held her arm out to be inspected. Chieri didn't take long looking between the two to confirm her suspicions. "They both say 'pair' and have the number three. And it's green."

Makoto took hers back, looking around at the others. "You all have them too?"

Kanata grinned, holding up her arm to show her bracelet. "Yeah. Mine and Orine's both say three and 'pair', but ours are blue."

Beside Kanata, Mimori showed hers as well. "Mine, Suzuko's, and Chieri's all say 'solo' instead of 'pair', because we were alone in our elevators. Mine is green just like yours."

Suzuko added, "Mine is blue."

Chieri held her arm out for Nagisa and Makoto to see. "And mine is red."

"Red?" Makoto shook her head. "But… no, wait… if yours is red, then… wait, no, I don't know what that means."

Kanata pointed at the unopened elevator. "It means this one, between the one Orine and I were in and the one Suzuko was in, has two people in it. The 'red pair', is my guess."

Suzuko knocked on the door. "Maybe it's empty."

Mimori pointed to the side of the door. "Look at that. It looks like one of those things that you swipe a card through."

Orine nodded. "Yes. All the doors have it. But we don't have any cards."

Though it had been meant as a simple observation, Orine's words caused all of them to stop and search through their pockets for any cards. None of them came back with anything, but Nagisa found it interesting to watch. Each of them were really nothing more than confused girls who only wanted to find out why they were here and to escape this place.

Then the hatch opened. Everyone was quiet, listening to the pair of voices that came from inside the last elevator.

"No, step up on that! Don't step there-ah! That's my face! Stop it! Get down!"

"Hey! You said I could go up first! Liar! Stop climbing! Liar! Liar! Liar! You were supposed to help me up first!"

Kanata groaned. "Oh, geez…"

Orine looked at Nagisa. "That sounded like Yuka."

The arguing voices continued.

"Fine, okay! Look, climb up and maybe we can get out."

"No! How do I know you won't drop me?"

"Why would I drop you?"

Chieri turned to Kanata. "Give me a lift. I can help them get out of there."

Kanata nodded. "Alright, Mimori, help me."

Together, they managed to hoist Chieri up onto the elevator. She then turned around and reached down. "Kanata, come on."

With a little help from Mimori, Kanata managed to grab onto Chieri's arm and climb up beside her. They then disappeared from everyone's view. A few moments passed before another girl stood up on top of the elevator. She was much younger than anyone else. Kanata guided her to the edge where Mimori was waiting.

"Chieri has the other one. Mimori, take care of my sister." Kanata then dropped the girl into Mimori's arms.

Mimori looked up at Kanata. "Your sister?"

The smaller girl grinned. "I'm Sonata."

Nagisa approached the two, speaking to Sonata. "You're Kanata's sister?"

Sonata shook her head. "No, Kanata is my sister." She squirmed her way out of Mimori's arms. "Where are we? What's going on? What happened?"

On top of the elevator, a familiar girl with yellow pigtails appeared at the edge. "I hope someone knows how to get her to stop talking. She's been driving me crazy since she woke up."

Nagisa and Orine looked up and chorused together. "Yuka!"

Climbing down, Yuka landed between them. "Yup. I'm here to save the day. What happened? What's going on? Where are we?"

Dropping down beside Yuka, Chieri grabbed her wrist and inspected it. "Red pair. Just as I thought."

Pulling away, Yuka looked to Nagisa and Orine. "Is that…?"

Orine nodded. "It's Chieri."

Yuka sighed. "I don't suppose that's a coincidence."

Chieri shot her a glare. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Yuka looked about ready to give an angry response, but quickly calmed down. "That's not what I meant, Chieri. Think about it. We met you once, years ago. Now, someone has kidnapped us and you. Out of all the girls they could have gotten, how'd they choose us and you?"

Chieri blinked, surprised. "Kidnapped… that's right… we were…"

Kanata landed beside her. She brushed off her hands and looked between Yuka and Chieri. "Huh? You all got hit by that white gas too?"

Yuka shook her head. "I went to sleep in my bed and woke up in this… non-elevator. So maybe, but I wasn't awake for it."

Orine nervously turned to Nagisa. "Um… white gas?"

Sonata jumped up between them. "I bet it was nighttime on your planet when you got got."

Kanata grabbed the back of Sonata's shirt and pulled her back. "That's not how planets work."

Instead of waiting for the opportune moment when everyone else was quiet, Nagisa decided it was best that she just interject. "I was awake."

Yuka and Kanata turned to her at the same time. "You were?" "Really?"

She shuffled her feet. "Well… I was in the kitchen because I was thirsty, but the water wasn't working. Then that… white gas came out of the tap instead. I couldn't stay awake after that."

Chieri nodded. "Yeah, it knocked you out. They got me with it too. I think it came from the ventilation in my room, but by the time I noticed there was so much it was hard to tell."

"You weren't sleeping?" Orine sounded concerned.

Chieri rolled her eyes. "It was the middle of the day. I was… er, practicing."

Mimori suddenly seemed really interested. "Practicing? What were you practicing?"

Chieri backed away from the older girl. "What? Why is that important? It's none of your business. A-anyway, why are we focusing on me? What about you?"

Suzuko smiled knowingly. "Mimori and Kanata were likely kidnapped together on Akibastar, as they are AKB0048's only remaining seventy-fifth generation trainees. It makes sense that they were likely in the same room when it happened."

Kanata was taken aback. "Wait, you recognize us?"

Suzuko adjusted her glasses. "As AKB's number one fan, it is my duty."

Chieri glanced over at Sonata. "Kanata, if you were with Mimori, then how did your sister get here?"

Sonata grinned. "I was on my way to audition for AKB0048 when, suddenly, a mysterious white cloud appeared in the ship's electrical maintenance compartment I was hiding in. Then I fell asleep."

"Amazing." was all Kanata could say.

Yuka turned on the younger girl. "What were you doing in a ship's electrical maintenance compartment? And aren't you a bit young to join AKB?"

Before Yuka could get an answer, Orine interrupted. "We were going to audition as well. What a coincidence!"

Makoto pointed dramatically at Orine. "You were auditioning too?"

Chieri scowled. "Figures. We all… Suzuko, were you going to audition as well?"

Suzuko nodded. "As a matter of fact, yes."

Chieri took a deep breath. "…uh oh." She looked at everyone gathered around her for a moment. "I think I know what we all have in common. We all want to be in AKB0048."

Sonata started absentmindedly listing off other similarities between them. "We're all girls. We've all been kidnapped. We're all underage."

Kanata cut her off. "You're the only one here who's underage."

Sonata pointed accusingly at her sister. "You're only fifteen!"

Makoto shouted in surprise. "You're only fifteen!? I thought for sure you were, like, eighteen or something! I'm sixteen!"

Yuka eyed Kanata suspiciously. "I'm pretty sure the rest of us are younger than you, so… please tell me that doesn't give her seniority."

Mimori raised her hand. "I'm seventeen."

Sonata moved her pointed finger over to Mimori with a sweeping motion. "That's still underage on a lot of planets!"

Kanata clamped her hand over her sister's mouth. "That's enough. No one kidnaps girls because they're underage." There was an uncomfortable silence among them. "Okay. That came out wrong. What I mean is… well, Chieri's right, essentially. There's only one reason I can see that anyone would go to this much trouble for us all. It has to have something to do with AKB0048. Maybe the DES or someone with similar beliefs. You understand what I mean?"

The silence that followed was uneasy. Each girl took a moment to truly contemplate where they were and why, each coming to their own terrifying conclusions. These conclusions ranged from a vague concept of bad guys to one particularly overdone impression of gigantic space aliens. None of them were prepared for what happened next.

Mimori's hand shot up in the air. "I'm in charge! Seniority!"

Kanata facepalmed.