Nico couldn't take any more. That her beloved Maki-chan was going to torpedo her dreams, and destroy what they'd all worked so hard to build, over something that wasn't even real, was just too much. Furiously, she approached Maki. She didn't know what she was going to do. Scream at her? Fall to her knees and beg her not to do this? It wasn't like she could ever bring herself to slap her. Maki had become too sacred for Nico a long time ago.
At any rate, Kousaka Honoka showed, again, why she was the leader of µ's. With everyone else staring in shock at the confrontation between the exes, Honoka rushed over and grabbed Nico in a hug. Over her shoulder, Nico was firing angry questions at Maki like a quiver full of Umi's arrows. Maki was frozen, blank-faced, and stoic. Honoka was soothing Nico the entire time. Suddenly, Nico broke. Instead of anger, she let her complete heartbreak show on her face. Maki couldn't avoid seeing how lost Nico was. How hopeless. How despairing. If she thought the girls had been making her feel bad before, she now knew it was nothing compared to something like this. Nico's face had a nakedness, a childlike sorrow that was heart-wrenching to see. Nico collapsed, and Honoka gently lowered her to hard concrete surface of the roof. Her girlfriend-of-the-week Umi decided there was no point tiptoeing around Maki any more. She gently lifted Nico and let her rest her head in Umi's lap. Maki turned and left, but now it looked more like fleeing than marching off.
Hanayo looked determined even through her tears, but Kotori looked almost as stricken as Nico. The rest of them were still stunned into silence. Finally, Hanayo stammered out: "E-even if we can't do well in Love Live! I read on the forums they might have two this year. Maybe things with Maki-chan can ... can ... possibly be fixed?" She squeaked out the last part faint-heartedly, even for her. To everyone's surprise, Kotori cleared her throat.
"Everyone. There's something I haven't talked about. I didn't think it would matter after the Love Live!" She looked down. "Hanayo, Nico, everyone, I'm sorry. I think I have to leave school early this term. There is a clothes-designing I applied for, in America, and a couple days ago, I learned I am accepted. Their school year is different, and they want me to leave Otonokizaka early."
Nico's eyes opened. Surely, surely this was some sort of nightmare. It felt like a typical one. Was everyone she loved and trusted going to destroy her? She felt all her ambition and resolve snapping inside her. Nothing was left but jagged wounds and despair. Nothing but ...
Kotori looked down at Nico and shuddered. "There may be an option to delay things, though usually there isn't. If there is, by some chance, I will stay and leave a year from now. But I don't want to give false hope, and that won't fix the Maki-chan situation. Still, I will ask. ... "
... Nico held Maki tightly. "They are," she said. "They're all important. My dreams. My career. That's why I've sacriiced a lot to them. But so are you. I guess you always will be. I don't want a µ's without Maki-chan." Somewhere in this whole sad, soul-destroying process, Nico had stopped caring if Maki saw her tears, so she let them go.
"Bad dream, huh?"
Where was she? That almost sounded like Umi's voice, didn't it. Nico felt like she wasn't home, but she also wasn't on a futon. It was confusing. Was this a sleepover at the Sonoda house, and they'd run out? Nkco had no idea what was going on. Fearfully, she opened her eyes. It was Umi, alright. And to her surprise, she gave Nico a hug. Was Umi into hugging? She looked around the room, wildly. She gathered her courage to ask where she was, why she was there, and what was going on.
Umi just held her closer and said, "shh, it will come back to you." After a few minutes, it did. How embarrassnig.
Umi could tell by Nico's expression she'd remembered "the project" and all it entailed. Time to comfort her.
"Was it about Maki-chan, Nico?"
"Yes ... well, sort of. Her and Kotori, really. And Love Live. And Honoka and Hanayo, and ..."
"Do you want to talk about it? We have time before we have to get ready to train."
"Well, I assume you know about Kotori's scholarship."
"I do. She put it on hold for us."
"Yeah but in my dream, she had to leave early."
"Well, you're remembering correctly. But she negotiated finishing out next year here and mailing work back and forth so she can leave early next year and join the program without missing any time. She's going to have a very busy end of term and next year."
"Ah." Nico pondered that for a while. "That's a relief. She really is very giving."
"She is. I think we'll end up together. I'm glad. But that wasn't all, was it?"
"No, Maki quit completely and everyone was saying we couldn't do Mu's anymore, especially Love Live. Hanayo was crying and I was so furious with Maki that Honoka had to calm me down to keep me from screaming at her. It was horrible. And then I don't remember how it got there, but I was telling Maki she was more important than all my dreams."
"To be honest, I can easily hear you saying that. But it would not be a good thing, almost in any way. Very shortly, if you subordinated your life to her so totally, Maki would feel pressured and want another break, and you would resent her. It's ironic, but even assuming your main goal was getting her back, which I hope we've persuaded you not to make it, your best bet would still be to do things for yourself. Maki's changed since you got together, and, frankly, I think as bothered as she is by the whole project, it's nonetheless the thing that might make you interesting to her, the way she is now, over the long haul."
