Honoka hesitated.
"Well, you see…"
All the others were looking at her intently now.
"I came from the future."
To her statement, everyone gasped in shock. It should be inevitable to be taken aback by that statement.
"Whaaat!?" Nico said in surprise. "Are you kidding me?"
"Of course not, Nico-chan! Plus, you just saw me pilot a giant robot. Come on, it's pretty obvious!"
Rin was thinking. "Then… are you from the future as well?" She looked at Honoka's family.
Honoka's father shook his head vigorously, while Honoka's mother spoke. "No, no! I assure you we are not!" She looked at Honoka. "Please give us a proper explanation! None of this makes sense! You are not from the future! I remember giving birth to you, raising you. If you are from the future, how come I have all those memories?"
Tear started rolling down Honoka's cheeks.
"I'm sorry, everyone. Those memories… they were all fake."
"I'm sorry, what?" Yukiho said. "Onee-chan, what nonsense—"
Their talk was interrupted by the opening of another portal. Just from the dark forces coming out of the portal, Honoka sensed it.
"More DES forces…"
Honoka ran towards her LAS, closing the cockpit and taking off.
She hit the playlist button again, chose a song, and started singing.

Please, don't anymore...
Shutting yourself away all alone
Will just make you sad, won't it?
I want you to call out to me

Honoka fired at the rushing DES machines. She expertly dodged the bullets fired at her before retaliating, bringing down two DES machines. Another DES LAS started chasing her, and Honoka was forced to run.

Please, don't anymore, okay?
You pretend you want to be alone
Because you don't want to be hurt, isn't that right?

"Please remember me," I murmured
As the stars shined brightly through the night

"I can't run forever!" Honoka dropped down, letting the LAS chasing her get ahead, then swooped right back up. Now she was looking at the LAS's back. She fired her gun, taking it out. She turned immediately and fired at another DES LAS that was closing upon her.
There were more coming.
"This seems to be their full force…" Honoka said to herself.

There'll be times you want to cry; We can be together then
You may not be able to find any words, but as long as we're together, isn't that fine?

Yes, I know what you mean...
Whenever you bottle up your feelings,
You end up torn up on the inside, don't you?
Why not try talking about how you feel?

Yes, you understand, don't you?
If my heart had wings,
I'd want to send to you an "I love you"

"Is it over?" Honoka could keep fighting, but soon she'll run out of bullets.
She laughed at the song of her choice. "Mou Hitori Ja Nai Yo." You're no longer alone.
But she always had been alone. Her entire life on this world was based on a lie.
Finally her gun ran out.
"Is this it?"
Honoka got hit by a DES LAS. The right arm of her LAS took damage. Honoka tried flying away, but they were swarming her.
"This must be it for me…" Honoka muttered as tears streamed from her face. A small, sad smile could be seen from her, as she muttered her last words.
Goodbye…
The last thing she remembered was seeing another portal, a bright light, then nothing.

AKB0048 SHIP KATYUSHA-SICK BAY

"Don't worry, she'll be fine…"
Honoka was slowly waking up. She groaned as she felt pain on her head. She felt that it was bandaged around, so she guessed she was injured. Her left arm was covered by more than just a blanket, so it seemed that arm was bandaged, too. Otherwise, she was alive and fine.
Where am I? That voice sounds familiar…
As she opened her eyes she realized who it was.
"Ayako?"
The girl she saw first was wearing a white doctor's coat. "Oh, Honoka, you're awake. We've been waiting for you to come to."
Honoka blinked at Ayako's statement then turned her head and saw her friends, the members of Muse, gathered around the small room. Her parents and sister were there too.
"You're on the sick bay of the Katyusha. Your friends have been with you since we rescued you."
"Rescued… then—"
"I guess your friends could tell you more about that."
The other people in the room had started to notice that Honoka is already awake.
Ayako smiled at her. "You have good friends. I'll leave you now. Also, one more thing. I go by Yuki Kawshiwagi the 6th now."
"Yuki Kashiwagi… you've inherited the name of Yukirin!?"
"Later, Honoka. For now, you have to talk to your friends."
As Yukirin left, Umi rushed to her bed. She stood right beside Honoka's bed and looked at her friend with deadly serious eyes.
"Care to explain what you said earlier?" she said. Honoka could feel her friend's intense stare at her.
"Well… have you been briefed about AKB0048?"
"Yes," Kotori answered. "Tsubasa-san and Takamina-san came here earlier and explained it to us. They came from a future where entertainment is banned, and they fight using guerilla concerts."
Nico shuddered at that. "Imagine that! Entertainment banned! No more people getting their daily dose of my Nico Nii!" Of course, nobody even cared to look at Nico, and the latter fumed at this.
"So, what does this have to do with you?" Nozomi asked Honoka.
"You see… I was a member here. Before. Formerly, I was known as Yuko Oshima the 6th."
"So, what happened to you?" Maki asked. "How did you get to our time?"
"I became the brightest among my generation," Honoka replied. "I was named as the Center Nova."
"They told us about that too!" Hanayo said. "They've told us that whenever a Center Nova achieves a certain condition, they disappear. Apparently they go to an alternate dimension where they could perform forever, safe and sound from DES."
"It's true," Honoka confirmed Hanayo's statement. "But for me, it was different. I was sent to that alternate dimension, yes. But I was told that my place wasn't there. I was sent back to the past. I found myself in the home of the Kousakas; somehow they had memories of me being their daughter. It was the same for the two of you," Honoka said to Umi and Kotori. "You gained memories of me."
She continued her story.
"My LAS mech and weapons were somehow transported back in time with me. I hid them under the house to avoid any suspicion that someone had indeed come from the future." She paused. "And… that is why my life is a lie. Almost everything is fake. I… I'm sorry for deceiving you all."
"When were you transported back?" Umi asked.
"About our first year of high school," Honoka replied. "During that time, my love for Otonokizaka grew, and I was genuinely worried about it closing. I had fun doing idol activities with you all. But…"
Umi slapped Honoka hard.
"Don't give us your excuses!" Umi shouted. She held Honoka's shoulders and clutched on them like a vice. "No matter what, to me you're still my friend. You're the one who pushed me… pushed all of us… to greater heights, even to places we've never had the courage to approach! You may come from the future, the past, or from outer space for all I care! To me you're still Honoka Kousaka, my friend, the one who is always clumsy, loves bread, lazy, but can persevere when she puts her mind to it. So I'm telling you… you're not alone. We're here with you."
"Umi-chan…"
Kotori joined in. "It's true, Honoka-chan. I still consider you a friend."
"That's right! You're the one who gave more excitement to me and Kayo-chin's lives!" Rin said.
"That's right. You helped me break out of my shell," Hanayo said.
"Well... I can say that I was indeed happy that I met you," Maki said, twirling her hair.
"The great Nico-Nii acknowledges you to be her friend! Consider it an honor," Nico said.
"You reached out to me when I thought no one would," Eli said.
"You're still our leader, and we wouldn't dare leave your side," Nozomi added.
"Everyone…" Honoka was on the verge of tears.
Honoka's mother stepped up.
"Mom…"
She approached Honoka and hugged her. "You're still my daughter," she said. "Yukiho is still your sister, your father is still your father. We'll never leave you."
Honoka didn't say anything, speechless.
Truly, now she wasn't alone.

DES BATTLESHIP GUSION-HANGAR
The mechanic, a man named Yamagi, looked up at the strangest mech he's ever seen. It was discovered when DES was patrolling an area of space known as the Shoal Zone, an place full of asteroids and debris.
With heavy armor and standing taller than any LAS, it seemed like a force to reckon with. It was also where this ship got its name.
"I think it's time to bring this out."
"Captain!" Yamagi saluted. "Sir, what about a pilot? Will Lieutenant Kanzaki-"
"No, we have a volunteer." Nakajima called out. "Bring her out, boys!"
Held at gunpoint was A-Rise's leader, Tsubasa Kira. "What do you want from me? Where are my friends?" She shouted while looking at everybody with seemingly fearless eyes.
This girl… I'll watch her break pretty soon, Nakajima cursed, unbeknownst to his crew.
"Oh, don't worry, little girl," the captain replied. "They'll be safe… as long as you do me a little favor..."

AKB0048 SHIP KATYUSHA-SICK BAY

"By the way, guys…" Honoka started. "Back then, I was about to get swarmed by DES mechs. How did I survive?"
"Ah, that time…" Eli said as she backtracked her memory to that time. "Another shiny thing –a portal, if I can guess—appeared, and then beams started shooting at the mechs."
"Come on, Elicchi. You gotta be complete with the details after the whole thing has happened," Nozomi reprimanded. "Anyways, it was Katyusha which was shooting at the mechs. After that, colored mechs came out from the ship's hangar, and they participated in the battle. But in the end, you still crashed, so here you are, injured."
"But luckily, nothing else touched you, so I'm guessing it's a minor injury," Hanayo continued. "And then, music bursted out from the mechs, so it seemed that their mechs were the same as yours. The music was dead awesome, you know!"
"… Gotta admit it myself, it was indeed great," Maki said. "They sang while operating the robots as professionally as you did, and then many of the enemy mechs were suddenly destroyed."
"Lastly, the members took you away along with your mech and here we are," Umi finished.
"… Yeah, thanks for telling me," Honoka turned away as she forced herself not to laugh at each of her friends' faces. She looked again and saw each of them still in their uniforms. Her expression changed drastically, from happiness to straight out fear. "H-Hey, seeing we're all still in our school uniforms, that means we had school today, right?"
"Yeah, what about it?" Eli confirmed, then asked right after.
"Could it be that you're worried about school?" Umi asked to confirm. "Giant robots attacked, us, and you're affected by not going to school? Just what—"
"N-No, it's nothing like that!" Honoka denied. "U-Umi-chan, we have a Math quiz scheduled today, don't we? D-Damn, I'm dead if I don't get that quiz!"
"I-I see…" Umi muttered, and her eyes started to burn. "How about we take a remedial? And this time we'll make sure you pass. Getting a perfect score is must, though." Umi beat her fists together as she smiled devilishly as the thought.
"Oh no! Stop her!" Rin panicked as she pleaded the others. Unfortunately for her, there was no one who could stop an academically passionate Umi.
Even Honoka knew what would happen. "U-Umi-chan in her demon coach mode! Nooooooo!" So she shouted, but nobody was there to hear her plea.