DISCLAIMER I DO NOT OWN AIKATSU NOR THE SONGS USED

*Namida no Ondo (Temperature of Tears 涙の温度) by Chrome Dokuro (Satomi Akesaka)

Momo's POV

I hung up the phone, ending the conversation with Charlotte. I sighed feeling a bit bad that I couldn't help her this time. Though I had to believe that she would be able to figure it out by herself. She had what it takes to be a great idol after all. She needed to work on her self-confidence and stop comparing herself from to Char. As a friend I had to only support her from the sides.

I looked behind me as the water foundation that I took a seat by turned on. I smiled seeing how the sunset glistened the water. With all the hustle and bustle of the Aikatsu world I valued moments like this where it was nice and quiet.

It was a simple contraption that had the same cycle of water running through. It was nothing special nor complicated once understanding the mechanisms. They say that the evolution of humans caused us to be drawn to sounds of running water as a survival means. In theory it was our ancestors' way of finding clean water able for drinking. Maybe that's why I felt so at peace right now. That or having the water vapour fill the air next to me gave a refreshing feeling.

I turned my head hearing a camera shutter. A middle aged woman stood a few feet away from me with a relatively fancy camera. Judging by the way she positioned herself it looked like she had taken a liking to this foundation as well. I stood up approaching them. "Good afternoon. Was I in the way of your photos?"

She was surprised looking down at her camera. She came a bit closer to me. "Ah! I was caught up with taking the picture that I forgot to ask permission. I'll delete it now don't worry!"

I shook my head. Normally I wouldn't allow pictures to be taken but this person was genuinely not trying to take my picture. I was merely in the way of them at the fountain. "No it's fine. I would actually like to see it if possible."

"Sure!" She happily walked up beside me to show off the picture she took. I was turned to the fountain, slightly looking upwards at the top. Unbeknownst to me that there was a rainbow above my head that stretched through the image.

"What a beautiful photo you have taken. I am honoured that I am a part of it."

"Thank you. Though I do feel like I have invaded your privacy by not asking beforehand. Especially since you look so young." She looked over my uniform to see indications of my age. "Oh how strange. I don't recognize this uniform. Are you from a different prefecture?"

"Not quite. This is a Starlight academy uniform."

"Starlight? I don't think I know- Oh! The idol school? That's the one Hime runs, right?"

"That is the correct school but we recently changed headmistress' to another idol named Kiriya Aoi. Though I take it that since you are referring to her as Hime, were you perhaps a fan of Masquerade?" Hime was a shorten form of the name of half of the pair of Masquerade. Most people referred to her nowadays by Orihime as it's been so long since I heard someone call her by the stage name.

"Yep! Finding someone my age that wasn't a fan of Masquerade would be easier. Though I do admit that I found out about them a bit too late as they soon disbanded afterwards. I only got to see them live once at their first and last tour."

"It's amazing you managed to get a ticket though. If I'm remembering correctly those sold out in a matter of 3 minutes. Over 10, 000 tickets all at once. It was a record at that time for the amount of stops they did. Remarkable to even think about."

She was surprised. "That's right. That was over 40 years ago and you know that? Are you a fan as well?"

"I suppose so. Despite my age, I grew up with their music. I would have to say that my grandmother is more knowledgeable than I am on the subject." I giggled to myself knowing my grandma's secret.

What the general public didn't know was that my grandma was actually Miya, the other half of Masquerade. Even I didn't know it for a while. After hearing a lot of their music I was able to put the pieces together myself. It wasn't that they were forcing me to keep it to myself. Grandma was just as proud of her past as my mom and dad were. I just didn't tell to keep the mystery alive.

Fans enjoyed to speculate what happened to Miya afterwards. Some say she went abroad or started teaching at Starlight. I don't think I've seen anyone guess that she became a bento shop owner.

"It's been so long since I talked to someone about them. I was such a big fan that having them disband was such a big shock to me. Now it's almost impossible to find a fan that is willing to talk about them."

"Is it really that hard?" I grew up in an environment where idols were the number one topic. Even now in Starlight everyone knew about big idols like Masquerade.

Though thinking back to my non idol school days, idols like mom and sometimes Mizuki were the talk of the town. It made sense considering a generation gap and the difference in how big idols were. Nowadays looking up any idol can give truck loads of information. Meanwhile during grandma's time there was a more talk through mouth than online. During mom's time Masquerade was already disbanded so it didn't surprise me that many kids my age didn't know. People of her age though shouldn't have been too much of a trouble. A bit of a difficulty since there weren't as many meet ups and such. But it wasn't impossible if you know where to look.

"I'm an adult. Hard to find adults that are willing to talk about idols. They consider it childish to focus on people that we barely know. What do you say about that?" The way that she said it sounded rhetorical. Like a question that she didn't really want me to answer but wanted to express how crazy it sounded out loud.

"I believe that anyone that thinks like that is truly the childish one. Admiration over someone is natural. Humans are meant to be social creatures. We learn and strive from others around us. In this new age an idol or even a fictional character can fill that role just as comfortably as a real person in their lives."

"You're just saying that as a fan yourself. Once you become an adult you'll see what I'm talking about." I wasn't in a place to say anything as she stated but I had felt that I had to. Perhaps I was too young that I couldn't see the issue with being fans of idols.

Luckily as I was thinking I heard her stomach grumble. She blushed as I chuckled a bit. "Are you hungry? If you're interested my family runs a bento shop. I can get you a pretty good deal there. To brag my family's bento shop is one of a kind and is sure to satisfy your hunger."

She sniffled a laugh. "You're like a robot with how formal you are "

"I'll take that as a compliment. So about my offer?"

She thought about it. "Alright. Lead the way Miss. Idol."

I led the two of us back to the bento shop. For the most part we avoided the topic of Masquerade. I didn't have to force the conversation onto a different topic. We just found that we had other things to talk about. Though it never left the back of my head that she didn't immediately bring it up as it was the easiest thing to talk about.

Frankly I could understand her without much of a problem. She had a professional air around her but when she spoke she had this underlying enthusiasm of a child. It matched the tone of her talking about Masquerade from earlier. I could tell that she was holding back going on tangents for her work as well. She would try to steer it away from herself and onto me. Unless I dragged her prides out of her, she was reserved to not talk about them. So I didn't get to learn a lot about her other than she was a freelancing photographer that occasionally sold her prints at art shows.

"Are you sure that your parents won't mind you bringing such an older friend over?" She questioned as we were arriving at the shop.

"Right now only my grandma is home. My parents are on a date night but they won't mind at all. And on the contrary, you are the second friend I've ever brought over. You don't exactly have a lot of competition to compare to in this case."

"Only your second? Don't kids your age do stuff like sleepovers and go to karaoke? I would think that you as an idol would be out there. I mean you literally invited me over so easily."

"Well as much as I would like to be out there as you say, I actually had trouble making friends for a long time. It was when I started my Aikatsu that I started to be a bit more open with people."

"I would have never guessed. Was there a reason why?" I walked up the steps leading into the store.

"Kind of a long story." I opened the door hearing the familiar store bell ring at our entrance. "I'm home!"

"Welcome home!" Grandma popped out from the kitchen to greet me when she saw my guest. "Oh hello there. A friend of yours Momo?"

"I suppose you can say that. We were talking a bit when we got hungry and I thought what better place to take her than my own family's shop. The best form of promotion is by word of mouth after all."

"You're right about that. So is there anything that I can interest you in? It'll be on the house."

The lady became flustered at grandma's offer. "I couldn't possibly do that. I can pay for it."

"No no no, it's the least I can do for a friend of Momo's. Besides it's almost closing time and it's better for food to not go to waste. Please anything you want." Grandma didn't even care if they seemed close in age. If I called her my friend then she was all for it. Who she was didn't really matter since grandma knew that there had to be a reason why I brought her here. It would have been more surprising if I did make a friend outside of Aikatsu come to think about it.

"W-well if you insist I'll just have whatever is your top seller. I'm not too picky with my food."

"Coming right up! Please take a seat while I make it." I gestured for her to one of the tables. We both took a seat as grandma went back to the kitchen.

The lady kept looking around the store from our seats. "Your grandma is very lively. She has this kind of familiar vibe to her as well that I can't quite put my finger on."

'Perhaps that's because my grandma is one of your idols.' I thought to myself. "The world is a small place is not a meaningless phrase. It wouldn't be unlikely if you have crossed paths before. I say ignoring the actually calculations of probability for meeting a stranger again on an unplanned basis of course. Unless you do want me to calculate that. If you're curious I would be more than willing to explain the parameters that would go into such."

"Can you actually calculate it?" I almost jumped out of my seat.

"Of course I can! Taking the population of Japan by prefecture over recent years, along with the possible events that would cause an overlap. Then considering other statistics during those times it would be roughly..." I ran through a few numbers in me head for the union of events. I did know that they essentially did meet as she was a fan but I ignored that as that would skew the results to 100 percent. I had plenty of other data that I could have used regardless. "Roughly 25. 3 repeating, percent of meeting her before within the last 30-ish years."

"Wow. I have no idea if that is true but somehow I don't think you're wrong. To do be able to do that all in your head as well you sound like a math prodigy."

"I'm no way a prodigy. I just enjoy my studies in all fields. Though math and sciences are relatively easier for me than the mass majority would claim for themselves."

"I don't mean to intrude but is that why you said that you said that you difficulty making friends earlier? Because of your studies?"

"Partially. It is true that I devoted myself to researching into subjects that I'm interested in. The main reason for my reclusive behaviour in my childhood would have to be because of my own selfish desires. I found that I didn't want to associate myself with those that belittled my work. Much like yourself I don't find any happiness in letting my efforts in things I find joy in."

I could see her eyes widen slightly. "I'm slowly getting better at understanding people so forgive me if I'm wrong. Right now I theorize that you withhold yourself of fully enjoying things like Masquerade because of the criticism of others that believe it to be childish. Am I overstepping my boundaries by assuming such?"

When I heard her speak it reminded me of myself when I started studying on my own. While some teachers praised me, others found that I should have tried to explore my youth more. We were both limited by our age. If was older no one bat an eye at me being so involved in my education. If she was younger she would have been able to watch things like idols without anyone questioning it. Now she had to focus more on 'real life'.

"No. You're pretty much spot on. I'm selfish and unwilling to grow up. This may be sudden but can I tell my story with why I don't talk about Masquerade often?"

"Please do."

"When I was younger I did talk about them all the time. Them on stage, watching them on shows, hearing them give advice. There was so much about them that inspired me. I was always an artsy person. As I continued to watch them I found myself never really having an artist block. They were different from everyone."

She let out a sigh as she removed the camera from around her neck. "When they disbanded a lot of that inspiration just... stopped. I continued my work but nothing was clicking. I created so many things but in the end I always found that something was missing from it. And when I tried telling others around my age it didn't make sense. Basing my work off an idol was unreliable and I needed to grow up."

I felt angry listening to her. So many people thought that the idea of idols was only meant for kids. "Photography was the only that I could continue but even that had its problems every once in a while. I think the only reason I managed to keep this going was because I wasn't the one really creating anything. I was solely capturing the scene and polishing it."

"I don't think the problem was in your lack of inspiration. I think it was your mindset. You didn't solely take an image. With a precise eye you were able to snap landscapes in a new view that people haven't. Its not as simple as pressing a button and I feel like most people don't realize that."

I looked around the shop. "I can study all that I want but I'll never be able to create a bento as great as my grandma nor snap a picture as beautifully as yours. However, I also understand losing a passion when something negative strikes. Masquerade disbanding took a toll on so many people. You were not the only one and you shouldn't have to feel like you are. Regardless of your age or your priorities in life, no one really has the right to judge the reason for you stopping your hobbies."

I slowly loosen her hold on the camera. "It's not about being an adult, an idol or a fan. When it comes down to it you're an artist with a bit of an obstacle in the way. I believe that when you get that inspiration again, you'll be able to speak your mind once more without fear."

She went between a smile and a shocked face. I understood that in a sense I was throwing all this touching dialogue at her. In the end she wasn't as separated from others as she thought. Adults like auntie Aoi and dad continued with Aikatsu as much as they did as their younger years. If it wasn't for them, students like me wouldn't get a chance to be an idol.

The problem with this lady was that she couldn't find her spark again. And it sounded like she didn't have anyone try to reignite it. She covered her eyes as she leans back into the chair.

"You know when you speak you're so formal. Doing these high end calculations in your head and such. Now you're showing off your aura." I felt proud that she could see my aura. It was a sign that I meant my words. "It's actually been so long since I even thought about Aikatsu besides Masquerade. But if there's amazing idols like you out there, I'm interested in looking into them."

"Will you do it with confidence?"

She thought about it a little while nodding. "Slowly yeah. I don't know, after hearing you speak so easily it feels nice to try again. Almost like my worker is telling me that it's okay."

"I feel like you're just saying that because of how I speak." We shared a small laugh together.

I looked back hearing grandma step out from the kitchen. She held onto a bento box for her. She came over, handing it to her. "Thank you very much. It seems like I keep receiving things from this family even though we only met today."

"You're welcome but there is one more reason that I brought you here besides bentos and advice. I told you that my grandma is a Masquerade fan. You said that you haven't gotten the chance to speak about them in a long time. Grandma, as you can see, the store is empty right now. Would you like to join in our conversation? It's been a long time since I've talked about them too."

Grandma giggled knowing that I was playing a bit with or new friend. "I would love to."

We talked for over an hour about Masquerade, photography, idols, and basically anything that came to mind. After hearing my advice she slowly loosened with the idea of being more open to her likes. We had three people with such different age groups but we had no difficulty communicating.

We had to slowly had to ease her out of apologizing for talking about herself. Finally I was starting to the real version of her. One that wasn't trying to hide a part of herself for the sake of others. I didn't care what idol she followed but with such kind eyes, I believed that anyone would be proud to care her their fan. That was the feeling that I could read off of grandma each time she praised Miya and Hime.

In the middle of my sentence I cut myself off as a ding went off in my head. "Grandma, the store's alarm is going to ring soon."

As soon as I said that the store's tiny alarm signaled that it was time for closing. I was constantly aware of time passing that I knew the store hours by heart. Or time in general. "Oh! I didn't even realize it got so late."

"Me neither. I'll have to take my leave now so that you can close up your shop." She moved to stand up when grandma interrupted her.

"Actually I do have one thing I would like to give you." Grandma went to the back. I shrugged my shoulders as she was confused as to what she could be bringing her.

Grandma soon came back with a Shikishi. "I got this when I was a fan. I have a few autographs so I don't mind giving this to you. Hopefully you're okay with only Miya's signature. Consider it a thanks for treating my granddaughter well. And trust me, I know that Miya would want you to have this so don't even say no."

She took it with shaky hands. The lady didn't say anything but we could see the apparent happiness practically radiating off of her. Her mouth was wide open, her hands shaking and she looked like she was holding back her screams of joy. She held it at a distance so that she couldn't damage it.

"I-I ca- I-" Suddenly she turned to me. "M-may I have your autograph as well?"

"Me?" I was surprised that she suddenly asked. She did just get a Masquerade signature. To compare mine to them I was under the assumption that I wouldn't even be a thought.

"You are an idol yourself. I would love to get an autograph from you too." Grandma handed me a permeant marker and another Shikishi for me showing that she was prepared for this to happen. Due to my parents' fans constantly visiting the store we kept an abundance of them in storage. No doubt that she had signed this autograph seconds before for her.

I quickly, but cleanly did my signature for her as I've practiced many times before. I handed that to her with both hands. She chuckled a bit when seeing it. "Can I ask how you designed this?"

I let out an embarrassed laugh knowing that it wasn't the usual flashy idol like autograph. "I'm not too creative with these things so its composed of math functions. A mu symbol representing a function to the power of six. An o with a line crossed through for an empty set. A lower case m for mass. A big o notation that is used for measuring speed of growth. Finally, a small peach which is probably the only creative part to it."

The meaning behind my choice in functions? One in million, having a clean slate that does not weight me down, growing to near infinite rate. When I was tasked with creating a signature I could see others adding on things like flowers or stars, I could only think about writing my name alone. Not to mention that my drawing skills were subpar at best. So rather than trying to force all the little details I made it so that it was something with value based on the literal meaning.

"You really are something special. I've never seen an idol put math in their signature. Thank you very much Momo-chan." She smiled brightly looking at it.

"You're very welcomed."

The lady stood up with both of the autographs and half eaten bento box in hand. "I think I'll be taking my leave now. I thank you both for the interesting day."

"Likewise." We both escorted her out the store waving her goodbye.

We went back inside, Grandma locking the door behind us. "It's too bad that I couldn't tell her that I was Miya. I would have signed her name too."

"Ah! I forgot to catch her name!" I rushed out the door to see that she was long gone. "How could I forget such a basic introduction element? I wanted to see if I could find her photography online too!"

Grandma laughed, patting me on the shoulder. "Don't worry Momo I'm sure you two will meet again."

"Really?"

"Yeah. People like that, you'll meet again for sure." I tilted my head wondering what she meant by that. However, she just went back inside to start cleaning up the shop.

I held onto my textbooks as I was returning them to the library. "Peach-honey!"

I turned around to see Mr. Bepp dancing his way over to me. Behind him was Auntie Aoi and dad. He stopped right in front of me giving a signature pose. He presented an envelope in front of me. On it was my name. "Letter for you."

"A fan letter?" I graciously took it. I flipped it over finding the sender. It was stamped with an official seal that brands had. "Once More?"

"Do you know about it?" Dad asked.

I had to think about it. It was a rare occasion where I felt that I did know it but had to really dig through my brain to retrieve it. I was sure that I heard that name before but there was such limited information that I couldn't even think that it was an incredibly reliable source. It must have been months since I heard that name in the smallest section in a textbook.

"Once More. A cool brand founded roughly 40 years ago I believe? I don't remember what happened afterwards though. As far as I'm concerned they didn't release news about stopping but just never released anything."

The brand logo was plain on first sight. The words were written in simple English cursive in two rows. Random items of popcorn, eggs, fireworks and balloons spread out across the words. There were a lot that made it look somewhat cluttered. With the items it took a second to see the patterns between them. All of them, once broken or finished with their purpose could not go back to the original state.

"Correct Momo-chan. They are quite a mysterious brand. No one has even met the designer before so you definitely must have done something to catch their attention." I carefully broke the seal off. The first thing that caught my eye were four coord cards.

I picked them out. The top card had a see through, loose forearm sleeves made up of pale pink, white and yellow lacy layers that were attached above the elbow. I could only imagine how fluid it would move when danced in. On the fake collar was a thin black ribbon that had no form to it. The shirt was violet changing to white gradient with some white ruffles running down the middle. Even with the dark and light contrasting I could see that there were a few coloured gems sewed in patterns of wind running around the sides of the shirt.

The skirt was the same motif. But rather than having an equal length hem across the dark fabric was pointed and longer in certain sections. The shoes were high knee boots with a short heel. It had less gems but had gold plating around the top and the toes.

The accessories card was meant to be the main point which was unusual. Most of the time designers would make it that the accessories card could be swapped between coords so they didn't make them too attracting. It was meant to be a way to tie in the outfit further. For this one it was a headband with a small hat with a rose made of different coloured gem petals on the band.

What was even more unique was the small net like feature that covered the left eye. Normally designers wouldn't place anything in front of the idols' face. Anything that draws people's attention away from the idol was considered to be impractical. What this designer had in mind really was an overall image. There was no room for change from what they wanted. Yet I could already picture how something like my gold eyes would be way more visible through it than some others.

While I was staring at the cards dad pointed out that there was something more in the envelope. He took out two more things, handing me the paper first.

'Dear Miss. Suzukawa Momo,

This may come as a bit of a shock as it may seem out of the blue. As a designer I was constantly spewing out ideas but there was always something missing. That one element to make everything work. The ones that I did release were the ones that I was most proud of. And I know that was because I had a great inspiration. When that disappeared so did a lot of sparks to create.

Finding out about you I found myself feeling that way once again. Watching you on stage, reading about what you've done, your personality, all of it was so unique. I have to thank you for reminding me why I loved designing so much.

Once More, if you had a chance to repeat something would you? Rather than focusing on what if, why not create a new opportunity and improve it to an even better outcome than anyone could imagine. Be the unimaginable more than once.

That is my brand. It all comes down to the idea that we are constantly changing how we are looked at but never changing who we are. Right now you're only a rookie. In the future I know that you are going to be an amazing idol. To pay you back for the advice and the bento I present to you the Rainbow Crystal Coord.

Thank you,

Asuka.'

I took the other item out of my dad's hands. It was the photograph that the lady took over the weekend. With a bit of her polishing on the image the rainbow from the fountain was way more visible. The same fountain that I sat at was entirely different in this one picture. From the way she was positioned there was a clear view of how relaxed I was. It almost resembles old paintings of people in open fields. She really did a great job capturing how natural everything was.

I held the cards seeing how they matched the photograph. "What a laudable theme."

I held the cards in my hands in front the Aikatsu changing booth. Cards that were made with me in mind. "Asuka-san, I hope that you watch my stage well."

I started with my hands open palm covering my eyes as the music played.

Hitori fukai yami no hitori hate wo I kept my face straight as I moved my hands away
Akiru kurai ni mitsumeteita no I had to control a lot of my breathing as the technique required was meant to be very airy

Kaeru basho mo wakaranakute
Tatazundeita mayoi ko no youni I didn't have to think much about how I moved as I this wasn't meant to be a super powerful song. The image my mind was almost like a ballerina

Nukumori no imi sae With how loose the outfit was I felt like I was floating on the stage

Uso ni naru youna kako wo
Omou namida no ondo setsunakute ...

Sayounara tsugeta no wa obieteru kinou no watashi
Kakedasu hikari no kanata e

In front of me appeared three buttons. I figured it to be the Once More special appeal. I pressed each button from left to right having a popcorn kernel pop each time. Knowing the meaning of the brand I gathered the popcorn, throwing it up into the air. Each one of them exploded creating a firework show above me.

Arigatou wo tsutaetai taisetsuna hito ga iru

Kanashimi koe

Mamoritai itsumademo I sat down on the floor with my legs folded to the side. I raised my arm to cover my face with the long sleeves making sure that the hat was the last thing that people could see.

With this stage I felt a sense of responsibility for representing Asuka's brand after so long. It was like she was testing if I could be her brand muse. With such inconvenient add-ons to the coord it felt like she still was looking for exceptional idols like Masquerade.

This has been the image on me since I was born yet now, she was looking at me. A brand revamped because of me with high expectations that I could hoped that I met because I was me. Now that I finished a stage with these clothes I knew for certain that this was going to be my brand.

Trivia: Finally revealing Momo's brand! I found that I wanted her brand designer to be someone that didn't know a lot about her and vice versa for Momo. I went through a few different names like Twilight Eclipse, Moon Rainbow, Red Star and these kinds of themes. There's only Shouta's brand left as Fumiko is getting an already established brand. Anyone have any guesses on what that brand would be?

Have you folks seen Aikatsu Planet yet? I have to say I was a bit worried about the hybrid style but I really enjoyed it so far. Plus, Hana/ Mao have such a nice voice and the songs are good. I'm looking forward to what happens next. Only two episodes are out but I like Ruli right now.