Chapter 4: Deep in Akihabara

It was the end of the school day for Kousaka Yukiho and Ayase Arisa. Instead of going home, they both rushed to the nearest Internet café in Akiba. The results of the Love Live preliminaries was out, and they were both anxious to know the results.

"Oh, let's hope they make it!" Arisa clenched both hands and held them close to her chest.

"Let's see…" Yukiho began scrolling through the list of winners on the web page. "First is A-RISE." She shrugged. "Well, that's to be expected."

She continued scrolling down. "East Heart. Then… Midnight Cats."

"Oh, this is getting intense." Arisa couldn't help but nervously fidget about while Yukiho scrolled down to verify the fourth team.

And then they both turned and hugged each other with joy. Their sisters and µ's made it to the next round of Love Live!

After leaving the café, the girls decided to call it a day and head back home. They did not get to carry out their plan, however, because Matcha and Paka both started to chatter excitedly.

"It's somewhere here-chichi!"

"I can feel it too-popo!"

"It must be nearby-chichi!"

"Hurry up and find it-popo!"

"Slow down, you two!" Yukiho held up the clamshell phone that was Matcha in disguise. "What is it?"

"It's a Heart Fragment-chichi!"

"We can feel it-popo!"

Yukiho felt like another long, eventful day was going to happen. "Alright. Which way is it?"

Yukiho and Arisa walked on and on, but no Heart Fragment was to be found.

"Isn't it this way-chichi?"

"I thought it was that way-popo."

"But I felt something over there-chichi."

"I must have just been your imagination-popo."

Yukiho was getting visibly frustrated with the two fairies. Arisa simply smiled and tried to reason with her friend. "They're so cute when they get all worked up like that, don't they?"

"You're being too nice to them. Hey you two, are you really sure there's a fragment somewhere around here?"

"We're sure of it-chichi!"

"It's just a little difficult to find-popo."

Yukiho was not satisfied with their answer at all. "Maybe we could like… ask for directions or something?"

Acting out her frustration, she walked up to a random street vendor. "Hey, I don't suppose you have any Heart Fragments for sale?"

The indian merchant gave Yukiho a blank stare at first. Then, in a very obvious indian accent, he spoke. "No, but I have motherboards. Graphic cards. A-RISE DVDs. µ's action figures. Posters of your favourite idols. But no Heart Fragments."

"Horosho!" Arisa stared excitedly at the action figures of her sister.

"I didn't know they made those," Yukiho said, staring at the little plastic doll of her sister Honoka. It was a Nendoroid-style figure – big head, small body, cute pose. It didn't seem well-polished though; there were visible seams on the plastic and poorly coloured edges. Then it dawned to her. "Hey, wait a minute, these are bootlegs, aren't they?"

"I don't sell the footwear. But these are good quality product. All made in China."

Yukiho facepalmed. "This is getting nowhere." She grabbed Arisa's hand and started to walk away, pulling a protesting Arisa along.

"You don't want special A-RISE bikini poster?" the man continued to advertise, but the two girls were already on their merry way.

They continued to trudge on. As they ventured deeper into the heart of Akiba, someone caught Arisa's eye. It was a small girl walking along the sidewalk, coming towards them. She had short, black hair tied into a side ponytail. She wore a white jacket and orange dress, with a red handbag slung across her body.

"Hey Yukiho-chan, isn't that Nico?" Arisa was, of course, referring to Yazawa Nico, another member of µ's and also a third year like her sister Eri.

"Eh, I don't think so. She's too small." The girl was indeed quite small, perhaps even as small as a pre-schooler.

"You're right. Though she does look a bit like her."

The little girl became aware of Yukiho's and Arisa's attention. She stopped and stared back.

Yukiho struggled to find something to say. Arisa quickly said the first thing that came to her mind. "Um… I don't suppose you know where-"

"You're fans, aren't you? Or paparazzi perhaps?"

"Eh, what now?" Puzzled, Yukiho and Arisa stared blankly at each other, and then back at the little girl.

"I knew it! In any case, you're not going to find Super Idol Nico so easily!" With that, the little girl turned around and sprinted away before the girls could react.

"What… was that all about?"

Arisa simply smiled and shrugged.

"It's definitely here-chichi!"

"I can feel it nearby-popo!"

"I feel something else too-chichi!"

"Be careful, it's not safe-popo!"

It didn't take long for the girls to realize what the fairies had meant. The Storm Apostle Windgeist appeared before them, clutching a pink glowing Heart Fragment in his fingers.

"Ah, I didn't think I'd be so lucky to find this fragment and the two of you at the same time."

"That belongs to Matcha and Paka. Give it back!" Yukiho commanded.

"I think not. I still have that revenge business between us to attend to." The apostle drew power from the fragment and cast it on the first random object that caught his attention – a six-foot tall scale model of a pink ZAKU mobile suit. It soon grew into a three storey-tall robot with single baleful glowing eye trained on the two girls.

"Quickly transform-chichi!"

"Hurry up-popo!"

The girls quickly held hands and transformed. "Dual star halation!"

"Dashing forward, full of love and courage, Cure Brave!"

"Shining brightly with the light of hope and determination, Cure Star!"

"Servant of Chaos, return from whence you came!"

"Nazuuma!" The ZAKU activated its back-mounted jets and lifted off the ground. Soon, it was hovering in midair. It continued to glare menacingly at the Precures. They prepared for the worst, taking up a defensive stance to withstand whatever attack it had in store but in the end, no attack came. Finally, it turned off its thrusters and landed.

"Stop fooling around! Destroy the Precures immediately!"

"Nazuuma!" The creature swung a spiked ball and chain at the Precures. They both raised their hands to counter the weapon, but the force of the blow sent them reeling. It then proceeded to take swipes at both girls with sharp claws on its left hand. Brave back-flipped several times to avoid the blades and to keep her distance while Star leapt into the air, intent on landing a kick.

The Nazuuma swung its ball and chain again, and this time it hit Star and sent her crashing into the wall of a nearby shop.

"Star!" Brave charged at the Nazuuma, ducking under one of its horizontal swipes and then leaping up to throw a punch to the chest, creating a small dent in its armour. For that, she was rewarded with a knee to her midsection and a swift backhand slap that sent her tumbling away.

"It's surprisingly strong," Brave commented as she got back up on her feet.

Star nodded in agreement as she crawled out from the rubble.

"Give it up already," the apostle taunted. "There's no way you can beat me. Nazuuma, crush them once and for all!"

"Nazuuma!" The creature extended its right hand towards Star, as if reaching out to her. She quickly realized that she was staring down the barrel of five guns – one for each fingertip. She instinctively rolled aside as machine gun fire strafed the area, barely missing her by a hair.

"We're not gonna lose!" Brave ducked past a volley of bullets, rolled towards the Nazuuma, took a short leap into the air, and then slammed down hard on the street with her fist, cratering the ground underneath them both. The Nazuuma stumbled as it tried to maintain its balance.

Star quickly followed up by rushing the Nazuuma and executing a sweep kick, completely knocking it off balance and sending it crashing into another nearby building.

"Finish it off now-chichi!"

"You can do it-popo!"

Holding each other's hand tightly, the Precures gathered their power.

"I sing the song of Courage!"

"I sing the song of Hope!"

"Together, fill the void of chaos and darkness with our light… PRECURE STARLIGHT DASH!"

Overwhelmed by the Precure's attack, the Nazuuma made one final wail of anguish before turning back into the scale model ZAKU. As the dark shadow lifted, the Heart Fragment fell and landed at Star's feet.

Thwarted once again, Windgeist thought to himself before disappearing.

The day was almost over. It was getting dark, so the girls quickly rushed to get home.

"Such a busy day." Yukiho cupped her face with her hands as they both walked through the streets of Akiba.

"Well, at least we collected at another fragment." Arisa smiled to herself.

"What are you so happy about?"

"Don't you remember? µ's made it to the nationals."

"Oh you're right! Tonight I'm gonna give my sister a big, hearty congratulations!"

"Hey, about that… isn't that them over there?" Arisa indicated towards a small square a short distance away, where about eight girls had gathered.

"You're right, Arisa. But they look like they're in the middle of a discussion. Let's not bother them now."

"Okay. Besides, I need a bath. Then practice!"

"Practice what?"

"Singing, of course!" Arisa was suddenly bursting with energy.

"Haha, of course. To be good enough to join µ's when we enter Otokizaka next year." Yukiho shared Arisa's enthusiasm, and together they made their way home without further incident.