I was able to start on this chapter a bit earlier than I thought, which is the reason this chapter is out earlier (and it's also the longest chapter yet!)^^ I hope you enjoy^^
DISCLAIMER: I do not own AKB0048, or it's characters.
Chapter 4: Battle of Akibastar
Click. Snap.
Yuko put down her camera and looked at the photo she had just taken, and she smiled. It was a good picture. "Perfect!" She said, and the kids turned around, and ran away from her, smiling, waving, and laughing.
"Bye-bye, miss! See you!" They called in unison.
"Thanks for posing for me! Bye!" She called back. Looking around, for her next item for photo, a thought… No, a memory, ran through her mind.
Yuko, protect the radiance of Akibastar.
Acchan. She had said all that, but did she really mean it? After all, only a few concerts later, she disappeared to who-knows-where.
Why? wondered Yuko. Why have all the previous Centre Novae disappeared… Well, except for Miichan, but, she ran away before that could happen. So, what purpose does the Centre Novae serve, except for being the centre of AKB0048?
Sighing, she went on one of the boats of the Akibastar-rivers. Standing there in thought, she didn't realize that she took her next picture. The concert hall of Akibastar. Looking at the picture, she realized that Akibastar was her favourite place in the world.
I'll be a Centre Nova with an even greater radiance than Acchan the 13th! And even after I become Centre Nova, I will not disappear!
The words rang through her head, as clear as they had been that day, on that stage.
I said that I won't disappear, but how can I know that? All the other Centre Nova failed with doing that. How am I going to make sure that I won't? Is the only option to run away? I don't want to run away…
The sound of Aitakatta rung through the concert hall, and looking at the fans, one could immediatelly tell that it was the successors preforming. Mariko seemed more upbeat than usual, and that improved her dancing, and it seemed that it rubbed off on the other successors - especially Yuko.
As the song ended, the successors ran off stage, and the understudies flew out on their flying boards, as Niji no Ressha started to play. Even they were more radiant than usual, and the cheers of the audience did almost match the successors'.
"Hurry up!" Kanata said, waving at the other understudies. "We'll miss the train!"
"Right!" came the answer from the other uderstudies. They were about to leave the garage, when a new voice cut in.
"Wait for me!" Mariko came running towards her friends, causing them to stop puzzled.
"Mariko?" Asked Nagisa. "Why are you here? Don't the successors get cars?"
"Then if you do get cars, why do you want us to wait for you?" Yuka asked.
"I'm going to take the train with you." Mariko stated matter-of-factly. "Is that not allowed?"
"Ma-ri-ko." Kanata said, walking over to the successor. "You shouldn't. It isn't good for a successor to worry too much about the understudies. Besides, your schedule is way too full for you to run off and joi-..." She quieted as Mariko put a finger on her lips. Mariko knew fully well that Kanata could go on for hours about what was right and not for an understudy, and now, of course, a successor.
"Ka-na-ta." Mariko said, mimicing Kanata's intonation. "You know fully well that I, Shinoda Mariko the 8th, am the only one to decide what I am and am not going to do. I will do what I very well please. Or am I not your friend any more?"
Mariko smiled as she knew she had hit the exact point where Kanata wouldn't be able to argue against her. "That's what I thought. You really should stop telling me what to do, Kanata, because Mimori's a grown-up girl now. I don't need Mommy's wise words." She winked, and Kanata herself did not know what to say. Makoto walked over to the former Mimori, followed by the other understudies.
"I think I'm seeing the sadist in you," Makoto said. "Mariko-sama."
"That gave me goosebumps!" Suzuko said, and put down her phone, from recording the conversation (she had had a feeling something interesting would come up when Mariko came running.)
"No fair! Mimo-mari!" Sonata came skipping over to Mariko hugging her. "Tease Sonata too! Tease me! Tease me!"
"C-come on, Sonata!" Mariko said, a bit embarrased by the situation.
As they were on the train, everyone managed to relax, mostly talking to each other about the concert, and other things.
"Ah!" Sonata exclaimed, interrupting everyone else as she turned to the window. "It's Yuko!"
"Yuko-san?" Nagisa said, and was immediately by the window beside Sonata. Her friends sweatdropped. "Where?" She asked, looking around.
"Right there! By the turbine!" Came the cheerful answer. Before anyone could say anything else, Nagisa had dragged them all off the train, and were pulling them along towards the turbine. Then, she suddenly stopped, and moved her hand to her ear in order to hear better. Then she started dragging them all closer again. Finally, they got to a bush, behind which they hid; it was the closest possible place they could get to Yuko, without her noticing.
"Nagisa..." Orine asked. "What are you-..?" She got stopped by Nagisa who hushed her, and moved her hand back to her hear.
"Her voice is as amazing as always." Nagisa said. The others moved their hands to their ears as well and closed their eyes to see if they could hear anything themselves.
"If I do try… I can hear her… I think..? Maybe..?" Makoto said, after a moment's silence.
"Nagisa, don't tell me, you heard her all the way from there, over the sound of the turbines as well?" Yuka looked back at the point where Nagisa had first stopped. She sighed when Nagisa nodded.
"I can't believe we can still hear her over the turbines. She has a powerful voice."
"It is definatelly Yuko's voice. It's her." Suzuko added.
"Yuko sings with so much emotion." Nagisa said after a while. "It's like they are pouring out with her song, instead of her forcing them to show."
"What do you mean?" Makoto asked.
"Yuko ranked first in the general elections, but that alone was never her goal. She desires greater heights, just like she said in the General Elections. Her goal all her time in 00 has been Centre Nova, and she's going to get it, no matter how." Nagisa replied, and groaned. "She's so cool! It really was a waste to remove my posters of her." She fell down on the ground. "Perhaps I should put them back..."
"Stop!" Ushiyama called. "Kojiharu, you're falling behind. Mariko, pay attention to your surroundings!" They both replied with a 'Right!', and Ushiyama looked like he was about to say something more, when Yuko ran up front, with her hand upstretched.
"Ushiyama-sensei!" Yuko called.
"Yes, Yuko?"
"Can I go practice on my own?" She asked.
"Are you saying my lessons aren't tough enough?" Ushiyama asked, slightly offended.
Yuko bowed. "I'm sorry. They're way to easy." She rose up again. "Anyways, I'm off!" She said, and ran out of the room.
"So the ace runs off during practice! This might be fun! The perfect shot could pop up anywhere!" Miichan said, after snapping a photo.
"The nerve of that girl..." Ushiyama said, looking at the door as if it was something ugly. "She just has too much energy for her own good."
"Yuko-san..." Yukirin trailed of, and Takamina put a hand on the taller's shoulder.
A little out of breath after running through the whole 00 dormitories looking for Yuko, the pair of Takamina and Yukirin ran down the stairs outside. They heard the constant steps of someone practicing dancing, and Yukirin was already past the corner when she noticed.
"Ah, Yuk-..." She got silenced by Takamina, who grabbed Yukirin's collar, and, with a hand over Yukirin's mouth, pulled Yukirin back behind the corner.
Takamina removed her hand from Yukirin only moments before they heard a 'thud' from the place Yuko was. They turned their heads around the corner, and saw that Yuko had fallen. However, she got up quickly, even though she clearly should take a rest.
Miichan sat in one of the hallways of the 00-dorms, looking through the pictures she had taken, when she heard someone hum to Korogaru ishi ni nare. She turned her head, and saw Yuko enter the hallway from her dorm-room. As the successor didn't notice Miichan, she snuck up behind Yuko, and put her hands on the successor's sholders, while singing one of the songs she had done so many times before.
"Scorched by the sun..."
Yuko jumped, and turned around, at the sound of Miichan's singing, as well as the latter's hands on her shoulders.
"Miichan!" She exclaimed. "You scared me!"
"Loneliness is always the price of freedom... Say, Yuko. Would you be willing to pay a great price to stand there?" Miichan asked.
"Eh?"
"The place where no one will get in your way. The place you desire. The sacred Position 0."
Yuuko gasped. "Position 0?"
Back at the concert hall the following day, Heavy Rotation started to play, with, as usuall, Yuko as centre. It was the successors performance, and the understudies stood by the side of the stage on standby, since they were going onstage after.
"Whoah!" Nagisa exclaimed, and it was lucky her mic was off, otherwise she'd crash the whole concert. "Yuko-san's so radiant!"
Orine nodded. "She might actually make it happen! Yuko-san could be Centre Nova!"
"But… If she becomes Centre Nova..." Yuka said sadly.
"It won't happen." Orine replied, smiling. "She won't disappear. She promised us… No, not us. All of Akibastar! At the General Elections, remember?"
Time seemed to slow down, as the memory of what Miichan had said flew through Yuko's mind.
"To become Centre Nova, you must be accepting of loneliness."
"Loneliness?"
"That's right. Those who shine the brightest, are always those who are haunted by the longest and darkest of shadows. They'll envy, target, and try to manipulate you. She who stads in Position 0 must bear the burnt of those winds. However, once you've made even those shadows your own, you will find yourself standing there, in the place you want."
As the moment ended, Yuko saw in front of her with new light.
Nobody is there. Back then... she thought. Back then I could always see Acchan standing in front of me. Perhaps her presence had been shielding me from those powerful gusts… But now… Nobody is there in front of me. Am I really ready..? Yes. I think I am.
Just as the song ended, a siren went off, and the screen behind the preformers turned red. In the speakers a voice sounded, and it silenced all the confused and angry voices.
"Emergency alert! All Akibastar residents, evacuate to shelters immediatelly."
"What happened?" Takamina asked in her earpiece, knowing that Tsubasa had her on as well.
"Everyone, listen up! A DES batallion has broken through orbital defences and is advancing towards us! The understudies and the rest of the successors have already launched. You girls get out there too!"
"Roger!"
The flying boards in the ground flew up, as the successors jumped up on them, and they flew to their waiting LAS. The flyingboards turned into the small space-shuttles, and they connected to the LAS, only for the flying motors to start immediatelly.
They left the ground in the same moment as it shook from DES breaking open the 'roof' of the underground city.
As the idols already out and in LAS' fanned out in order to quickly engage DES, the light level suddenly dropped, and the 'weather' changed completely from sunny to stormy.
"What's going on?" Makoto asked, and Suzuko popped up on a hologram screen.
"It's possible that the climate control system has been hacked. Though I do not know why DES would do that."
"Akibastar's all rumbly!" Sonata called, very scared. "This isn't the Akibastar Sonata knows!" A hologram screen appeared beside her, and Kanata's voice sounded in her capsule.
"Sonata, it will be if we defend Akibastar. now put your hands back on the controls, or you're going to lose control and crash!" Sonata winced, and nodded - she hadn't realized she had let them go.
The 'roof' of the underground city suddenly exploded, and five DES mechas entered the underground city.
"They're here." Yuka said. She was the closest one to the explosion, and had been the first to notice that they had broken through.
"Everyone! Let's go!" Takamina's voice sounded in all of their mics. "It's time to protect Akibastar!" She and the other successors had gotten out of the concert hall just in time. The DES split up, and each targeted one of the LAS. They did each engage in a fierce battle which actually looked a lot like a dance.
In the beginning, it was 3 to one, in 00's favour, but as more DES robots entered the city, the idols had to fight hard to not become outnumbered.
Nagisa was one of the ones being targeted by one of the DES robots, and she did manage, after a while, and with more luck than skill, destroy the one who had targeted her.
Now that she hadn't got someone on her tail, she quickly looked around the area, and saw one of the LAS being attacked by 2 DES at the same time. She quickly flew towards the three, and shot one out of the air, because she had surprise on her side.
Takamina's face turned up on a hologram screen beside her. "Thanks, Nagisa." Nagisa nodded, and avoided a bullet sent by one of the DES. "I don't think I'll be able to do it again..."
"One time might be enough." Came the reply from Takamina, before the screen shut down, and Nagisa engaged another DES robot which was aiming for one of the 76th gen's LAS.
She managed to shoot it down, but hadn't noticed the one which had crept up behind, and her LAS got hit. She managed to eject before the LAS exploded, taking the DES robot down with it, and Nagisa flew away from the scene. She didn't get that far, before Tsubasa's voice rung through everyone's earpieces.
"Tomochin, Kojiharu! Everyone from the 76th generation understudies! Get to the temple, and protect it! Tomochin and Kojiharu knows where it is." She said, and only moments after, the reply came.
"The temple?" Tomochin asked.
"If something happens to Sensei-Sensei, 00 will… No, 00 and all of Akibastar will be done for! Hurry!"
"Right!" Everyone whom Tsubasa spoke to replied in unison, and headed for the temple, or in the 76th generation's case, following Kojiharu and Tomochin while shooting down every DES that tried to follow them, while Tomochin and Kojiharu dealt with the DES who were in front of them.
Nagisa turned the space-shuttle back to it's board-form, and she could hear the panicked screas from the inhabitants of Akibastar below her.
It hurts… This rain… Pounding down… The train we took to the concert hall… The city where we had fun. Where we all sang…
"I can't take this anymore!" Nagisa screamed, and for a brief moment, all of Akibastar was illuminated by the light of her Kirara. This did, of course, attract the attention of all the DES soldiers, and a lot of them was shot down, as their attention of the fight with 00's LAS wavered.
Then, that moment ended, and the DES closest to Nagisa, who unfortunately hadn't got a LAS to fight, reached out, and grabbed Nagisa, only to be forced to let go as a LAS came crashing into it. Before Nagisa fell back down on her flying board, she managed to catch a glimpse of the driver. She did not look happy.
"Yuko-san?" She asked, and turned the flying board into it's shuttle-form. A hologram screen opened up, and viewed Yuko. "Thank you!"
"No worries." Yuko replied, a shadow of her trademark grin on her face, buth then her face changed to one of seriousness and anger again. "The Centre Nova must, and she will, bear the gusts of any storm to protect the other members!" She said, before kicking herself free from the DES, and shooting it down.
"Nagisa, are you all right?" She asked as she turned around. Nagisa nodded through the hologram screen, and let a yell pass when Yuko got shot by the same DES as she had shot down. It had fired one last bullet, before it had shut down. The hologram screen shut down, and Nagisa realized the bullet must've hit something vital for the comunication system.
Yuko gritted her teeth, as she fought to get her LAS back into the air, with the same thoughts running through her mind over and over again.
Can I not protect them? Am I not radiant enough?
Yuko was about to give up, when she she noticed a pink light, and she saw that the concert hall was rising up, shining brightly. And the song playing… Korogaru ishi ni nare.
"This song..." Yuko whispered, before turning on her earpiece mic. "Everyone! Listen up! The concert is not over!"
"The concert? Yuko-san?" Nagisa asked.
"We are AKB0048. We don't fight. We sing our love, we dance, and protect."
"Right!" The others called, and Yuko ejected. Everyone who had lost their LAS joined in on dancing, and those still with LAS stayed there. They used their micsabers, and the blade flicked to life as they started singing.
Akibastar, the hometown of our hearts. The people who live here battled to obtain freedom.
As she thought this, another memory came to the top of her mind.
Yuko. Protect the radiance of Akibastar.
"You don't have to tell me twice!" Yuko yelled, before flying over to a DES, which she helped take down by throwing one of her two micsabers at it's head, where it stuck, and Yuihan the 7.5th took the DES down by getting a clear shot. She 'killed' another one by, using her own radiance, multiplying the power of the Micsaber she had left, and slicing straight through the DES, making it explode when she was out of reach. She was on her way to a third, pulling out one of her reserve micsabers, when Tsubasa's voice called in her earpiece.
"Everyone, can you hear me?"
"Tsubasa-san?" came Kanata's answer.
"We're withdrawing from Akibastar!"
"What?!" All the fighting idols exclaimed. Then various voices started to asking questions.
"Why?"
"Akibastar is our home! We belong here!"
"We can't betray the residents of Akibastar! I absolutely refuse to!"
"You can't be serious! Why?! Tell us!"
Tsubasa sighed, and quieted them by saying:
"The enemy is after us, not the residents of Akibastar. Any further combat will only result in more casualties. For the time being, we must retreat on the Flying Get."
"But Akibastar is-..." Takamina protested.
"This is an order!" Tsubasa interrupted her, and then sighed. "It's not like we're giving up. We will come back."
"...R-Roger." Takamina said, even though it was clear that she didn't want to. She, as well as all the other idols flew up towards the opening that opened, where the Flying Get would depart.
"...Why..?" Nagisa asked as she followed the other Idols. "Why did it come to this? It's not what I wanted..."
Yuko's grip on her micsabers tightened.
Position 0.
The phrase rang in her head.
The place where only the true centre may stand. Nobody is permitted to stand in for you. Nobody's position is in front of you! The world seen from there…
Yuko smiled as she made up her mind, and started singing again.
"To give up would be the same, as turning your back.."
"Yuko-san?" Nagisa asked, and the others had similar reactions. In their earpieces, Tsubasa's voice sounded.
"Yuko? What are you doing?!" When she didn't get a reply, she continued. "Yuko! Get back here!" She still didn't get an answer. "Please, Yuko! Come back to us!"
"I'm sorry, Tsubasa-san, but I promised Acchan. That I'd protect Akibastar. And that's what I'm going to do!" Yuko replied, and her orange glow intensified.
"Yuko!" Tsubasa yelled, but she got no more answer from the idol in question.
I want to become Centre Nova, but there is only one possible way for that to suffice. I must become Centre Nova! I have to stand at Position 0! I just have to!
Yuko blocked flew over to a DES machine, and X-sliced it, in order to get through to the next. She swirled around, and cut a robot in three pieces, the next she fooled into shooting it's own 'teammate', and then cut off it's both arms.
Even if that means being alone!
She started to shine brilliantly, as the song neared it's end. She was surrounded by DES robots, and they all took aim, and shot. The smoke from the explotions hid Yuko from view, and several despairing shouts could be heard from her fellow idols.
As the smoke disappeared, they coud see Yuko, very much a live, and protected by a bubble of light.
"Yuko-san!" Yuka exclaimed, seeing it as she shot down a DES that had come too close for comfort.
"What's that?" Nagisa asked.
"That radiance..." Takamina exclaimed.
"The Kirara's light is protecting Yuko!" Everyone heard Tsubasa say.
"Stop it!" Sonata yelled, when the light expanded. "Yu-nee's going to blow up!"
"Look!" Takamina exclaimed, pointing at a swirling light, directly above Yuko. "A gate!"
As Yuko sang the final phrase of the song, the light bubble around her intensified, and grew. The light engulfed everything in the underground city, and when it faded, two things were missing. The gate.
And Oshima Yuko the 9th.
As reality sank into the idols, Nagisa's scream of despair echoed in Akibastar, signalizing the disappeance of Yuko.
"Yuko-san!"
In the anime, I thought Mimori was a rather meek Mariko. Sure, she was the bigger sister-figure for the understudies, but we never saw the 'Mari-troll' (which, by the way, we almost never saw with Tsubasa either...).
It's the same as always: If you miss any dialouge, it's because I don't feel it's important to the story, or it's between staff, as I do mostly write in the idol's perspective.
If you'd like to have one of your OC's in one of my stories (and haven't applied already), please read AKB0048 the 200th Generation chapter 1 for details.