Dessert Maniac: A-Rise balances each other pretty well, so I tried to make that happen in this way. But it ended up with Tsubasa yelling at Honoka… Sometimes I forget that they're kids (and accidentally have them use words that they wouldn't know at that age), so my attempts to patch that mistake is having Maki, Rin, and Hanayo play with their imaginations. I'm glad it worked out. :D
TsundereHeavyCruiser: I will hint at some pairings, but they won't be main focus of the story.
Who else is hyped that Love Live Sunshine is finally airing? After watching the first episode...Aqours have captured my heart as well.
No, I have not forgotten Muse. If I did, I would have to quit fanfiction out of shame. And because then I would have no writing that I could be proud of. MUSE FOREVER!
*awkward coughing* Anyway...back to the story.
After a breakfast at the dining hall, Honoka and her friends stuck close to a wall while they awaited the meeting mentioned on their schedule. She saw Tsubasa and waved to the three girls in the trio. Anju waved back, as did Erena, but Tsubasa scowled in their direction. Honoka wondered what she did to the other girl to earn her hostility so quickly.
Allowing bottom level access. The girls closest to the center of the room had to scramble to the sides to avoid being lifted up by the floor. Similar to how they had descended down from the room their parents had brought them to, the floor lifted up to reveal a staircase spiraling downwards. The screen appeared on the far side of the room and Honoka had to move so that she could get a better look at it. Not that doing so would have helped her, the screen was nothing more than a moving line. Take the stairs down. After stating the message, the screen vanished again.
"Let's go?" Honoka suggested, moving towards the new opening.
"What if we can't come back up?" Umi fretted, considering how the stairs had been retracted into the ceiling after they descended to their current floor the previous day. Kotori took her more scared friend's hand, smiling bravely.
"I'm sure there's a reason we have to go down." The brunette said, pulling Umi gently to where Honoka was waiting. "Don't be scared, Umi-chan. We'll be together."
"Y-You say that but…" Umi still glanced backwards at the top of the staircase as she descended the steps, led by Kotori.
Honoka stared at the staircase, half-expecting it to go back up like it did the previous day. When it didn't, even after all of the girls had climbed down, she got bored and started looking around the room they were now in. Unlike the central rooms in the two upper floors, this one didn't branch off into different hallways. Instead, many doors lined the wall that made up the boundary of the round room. As she looked around, and noticed that her friends were doing the same, three of the doors opened. Then the screen appeared, projected onto the doors where it normally appeared on the wall on the room above.
There are three rooms accessible to you at this moment: the Library, the Classroom, and the Playground. The Classroom is where you go for class, as marked on your schedule. At the mention of the schedule, Honoka looked at her arm, then up as the door indicating the direction of the classroom lit up with a green light. The Library is where you will study. The light over the Classroom door died out and a different doorframe lit up with the same green light. The Playground is where you can find games and toys for your enjoyment. That is where you will go during Recess.
"What does 'enjoyment' mean?" Maki asked Nozomi, tugging on the older girl's arm to get her attention.
"I think it means 'fun'." Nozomi whispered back. The redhead nodded, and directed her attention back to the screen.
You may spend your time during the 'Up to You' section of your schedule wherever you please. Follow your schedules. The screen vanished, but signs appeared above each of the opened doors to remind the girls where they were supposed to go.
"Well, we have class first." Honoka commented, checking her schedule once more.
"Both Yukiho and Arisa have 'Up to You' as their schedule until dinner." Eri said, reminding her of her job of taking care of her little sister. "What do you think we should do, Honoka?"
"Hm...Yukiho, Arisa-chan, what do you want to do?" Honoka asked, kneeling down to the two girls' height.
"Play!" Yukiho cheered.
"Ah, ah, Arisa too!" Arisa chimed in.
"Play it is." Honoka stood back up, looking at each of her friends. "I'll take them to the playground. Everyone else go to class first." She took Yukiho and Arisa by their hands and started to the door that would take them to the room with the toys, according to the screen.
"Nee-chan, when's mama and papa coming to pick us up?" Yukiho asked as they walked down the hallway. The door was a lie, it led to another hallway, not a room.
"I-I don't know." Honoka admitted. When her parents were going to pick her up wasn't the biggest question in her mind. She had enjoyed the new situation of being without adults and with her friends, new and old alike, that she hadn't given it much thought.
"Hm~ Maybe you can ask!" Yukiho pointed at the interface that was in the room. The room was filled with plush toys and board games, but Honoka paid them little attention as she turned to the machine placed next to the entrance of the room. Her little sister and Arisa ran off to play with the new toys. She had to head back to class, but with the question so fresh in her mind, she stepped closer to the machine and pressed the button on its side.
"When are our mama and papa going to get us?"
"In the end, Honoka didn't come." Nico muttered. They had just been released for recess, which would be followed by lunch. Then the six year olds would return to the classroom for more lessons, while the five year olds visited the library and the four year olds were allowed to do whatever they wanted. "I don't blame her. It was no fun, sitting in there."
"I learned lots!" Rin said, bounding around the small hallway connecting the classroom to the central room. Nico snorted, crossing her arms. The class had covered things like counting and basic kanji, commanding the girls to practice the strokes over and over again. She and the other older girls already knew how to write, and consequently found it boring. "Rin can write Rin's name now nya!"
"I can too!" Maki shouted, not wanting to be outdone. Nozomi patted her 'little sister' on the head, not wanting the two to have another competition.
"But where's Honoka-chan? I didn't think she would not come to class." She was addressing the ginger's closest friends as she, like the majority of the group, didn't know Honoka all that well.
"Maybe she's with Yukiho and Arisa." Eri suggested, leading their group to the playground. Despite the number of girls that had gathered in the room following the end of the class, it didn't take long for them to find the toddlers. Or rather, for the toddlers to find them.
"Nee-chan!" Arisa hugged Eri. As the blonde tended to her little sister, Umi and Kotori scanned the room for the tell-tale orange of their friend. "Let's play, let's play!"
"Yukiho-chan, where is Honoka-chan?" Nozomi asked the other toddler, who seemed to be looking through their group for her older sister.
"Dunno! Not here! Where is nee-chan?" Umi and Kotori exchanged troubled looks. For Honoka to leave her sister and not attend class, something much be seriously wrong. They had to find her.
"We'll go find her." Nozomi said, giving the younger girl a smile to reassure her as Yukiho was starting to look worried. "Maki-chan, Rin-chan, and Hanayo-chan can stay here."
"Okay!" The three four year olds chorused. They weren't that concerned with where Honoka was with so many things they could play with in front of them.
"And watch Yukiho and Arisa for us!" Eri added, raising her voice as the three girls were already running off. Arisa gave chase, prompting Yukiho to follow her.
"So now we have to look for Honoka? What a pain." The five girls left the playground, knowing that they were not following the instructions given to them. But no repercussions seem to come immediately, so they ascended the stairs to the second floor in search of the missing girl.
"She might be in our room." Kotori suggested, leading the way down the hall. She almost didn't spot Honoka, curled up in a ball in the corner of the room, behind the bunk beds.
"Honoka, what's wrong? You missed class." Eri asked, placing her hand on the other girl's shoulder. She felt the younger girl shiver before turning to see who had touched her. Eri nearly fell backwards at Honoka's face, made red from constant rubbing. The girl had been crying, and for quite some time from her somewhat haggard appearance.
"Eriii-chaaaan…" Halfway between a whine and a cry, her name sounded desperate coming from Honoka's mouth.
"What's wrong?" She repeated her question, wrapping her arm comfortingly around the other girl's shoulders. The rest of the group leaned in, wanting to hear.
"W-When I took Yukiho and A-Arisa-chan to the playground-" She hiccupped, fresh tears streaming down her face. "Y-Yukiho, she asked me...-w-when our mama and p-papa are going to pick us up. I didn't know. And there was a machine, l-like that one…" She pointed towards the interface. It hummed quietly, indicating it was still on. "S-So I asked it...what Yukiho asked me…"
"And what did it say?" Eri asked, her stomach sinking even though she didn't know why. Part of her wanted Honoka to stop talking, yet her conscience told her that Honoka should let it all out.
"'They are never coming.'...it said." Honoka dropped her face into her hands, unable to look up at her friends to take in their expressions. Her imitation of the machine's emotionless voice was so close that Nozomi actually looked at the interface before taking in what Honoka had said. "A-And then I ran...I didn't tell Yukiho... or Arisa-chan…"
"They're...never coming…?" Eri repeated in a stunned tone. Her chest hurt, and her vision blurred as hot tears arrived. "No...no…"
"Mama...isn't going to come?" Kotori stared at the ceiling, as if doing so would open a tunnel between where they were and the surface. "No! I want to go back!" The brunette took off, running out of the room in a mad dash for the central room. She reached the room and looked around for a way back up, but the only stairs led down, deeper into the earth. "LET ME UP!" She screamed, pounding her fists against the wall where the screen normally appeared. Nothing happened, and she bit her lip, tears running down her cheeks. They fell to the floor, where they glistened under the fluorescent lights of the room. "Mama!" She sobbed, hitting the wall again. She continued to pound her fists against the wall until someone grabbed them and stopped her. Turning ever so slightly, she was faced with Umi. "LET ME GO!" She shouted backwards at her friend, wrenching her hands away from her friend. Umi stood there silently, not saying or doing anything. "Umi-chan, help me! We can find a way out!" Umi shook her head, still not saying a word. "Why?! Why won't you help me?! WHY UMI-CHAN?!" She froze as Umi stepped towards her. Panic gripped her, and she instinctively backed away from the bluenette. "No...No, don't come any closer!" With speed that only Umi possessed, she closed the distance and enveloped her close friend in a hug.
"We...can't go back…" Umi mumbled into her ear. "I know, Kotori-chan…" Kotori's shoulder grew wet from Umi's tears as the girl cried silently. "I want my mama too...but...we can't. Not anymore…"
Kotori's sobs echoed down the halls, to where the six year olds were still huddled in the room with Honoka. Nico, no longer irritated, was forcing herself to comfort Honoka so that she wouldn't break down crying. She knew her parents; they wouldn't just abandon her for no reason. Which meant that she was there for a reason, and her parents wouldn't come for her because they couldn't. It didn't mean that they didn't love her. A wail threatened to come out of her throat, but she forced it down, concentrating instead on stopping Honoka's tears.
The other two had stopped crying as well, taking the news with relative ease. In Eri's case, she was more concerned about Arisa than before, now that she knew no help would be coming to them. Nozomi was used to being alone at home more often than not, and though she would miss her parents, crying about it wouldn't help. They would have to tell the younger girls, and sooner was better than later.
Honoka sat down in front of Maki, who was seated on her bed, hugging her teddy bear for comfort. In the other two rooms, Eri and Nozomi were breaking the news to Hanayo and Rin. Why she had been chosen to tell Maki instead of Nico, Honoka would never figure out.
"No! No! I don't believe you!" Maki shouted, angry tears forming at the corners of her purple eyes. Honoka closed her eyes, having feared this reaction.
"Maki-chan, listen-"
"NO!" The girl clasped both of her hands over her ears. "Mama will come for me...that's right...she'll come for me…" The rest of Maki's mumbling was lost to Honoka's ears. She had to make Maki understand their situation and accept it as reality. With nothing else coming to mind as to what she should do, she hugged the younger girl. "...coming for me…"
"She's not." Honoka almost lost her hold as Maki hit her with the teddy bear that she had. "Maki-chan, you have to listen to me."
"I DON'T WANT TO!" The girl wailed, smacking Honoka's head again and again with the teddy bear. Honoka kept her grip on Maki's body, hugging the girl close. She could hear the redhead's heartbeat speeding up. "YOU'RE LYING! I HATE YOU!" She stayed silent, enduring the blows to her head. Slowly, but surely, the attacks were weakening. "Mama...mama…where's mama…?" Honoka lifted her head cautiously to find Maki staring at her. The four year old sniffled, wiping without success at her tears.
"She's not coming." Maki nodded, whimpering still. She held her arms out, releasing the teddy bear and Honoka responded by hugging her close. "No one is coming. For me, for you, for anyone." Maki's sobs intensified against her chest but Honoka's eyes were dry. She saw her next plan of action now. "Listen, Maki-chan. Me, and Umi-chan-"
"-and Nico-chan and Eri-chan-" Hanayo sniffled, trying to hold back her tears to listen to Nozomi.
"-and Kotori and Nozomi and Honoka-" Rin looked up at Eri with tear-filled eyes.
"...we'll all be a family from now on."
My experience with writing feels is usually not good.
This is the last chapter with them at their beginning age.