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When Mizuki heard the light clink of metal hitting the ground, they let out the breath they didn’t know they were holding in.
“How?” The voice came from the person on the floor, clutching onto the cape as if it would go back on her shoulder. “How did you beat me?” She faces Mizuki, showing the barest hint of emotion on her face.
“So you don't like to lose, do you?” Mizuki whispers. There’s a flicker of anger on Mafuyu’s face, and suddenly it’s gone.
“How did you do it? Would you really go so far as to—“ and the voice was gone as the curtains fell in the space between them. Mizuki held their own star shaped button under their index finger and thumb, making sure that this was real.
In front of them, in front of the blinding stage lights, stood the Giraffe.
“Is it dazzling?” He asked them.
“It’s dazzling,” they can’t stop the reply flooding from their mouth.
“Congratulations, Akiyama Mizuki for winning the auditions,” the Giraffe’s mouth doesn’t move when he speaks, which always struck Mizuki as unnerving. But they had no choice but to put their trust into him. He promises that he can give them everything they ever dreamed of.
“Now that you are the top star, have you decided what Stage of Destiny you would like to stand on?” He asks. Mizuki takes a second to think it over, as if they hadn’t already been decided since the auditions began.
“Nightcord’s first live. A repeat performance of our first time sharing the stage. It still shines so brightly. Days that shine like gemstones, nights brighter than the daylight.” They’ve been staring at their feet, but then they tilt their head upwards to make eye contact with the creature in front of them. “I want to go back. Even now, that stage is dazzling.”
“Very well,” he said. There was a slight clang at Mizuki’s shoes and there appeared the star tiara, their spoils from the constant revues. They watched it, poked it with the top of their toe, and reached down towards position zero to grab hold—
“So, are we going to do this or not?” Ena’s voice sounded crunchy over Mizuki’s low audio quality headphones.
“Huh?” Mizuki couldn’t help but vocalize. They’re in their room, in the middle of the night, with considerably less photos on the wall. Something is wrong, yet everything is perfectly normal. “Ena, what do you mean?”
“Uh,” Ena’s voice cracked, “how do you know my name?”
Oh. Oh . It all comes back to them. The auditions. The revues. The Stage of Destiny.
This… this was their Stage of Destiny.
“Oh, um, haha!” Mizuki awkwardly fumbles through a fake laugh, “I’m sorry Enanan, I was just shortening your username! That’s just like you to make your username based on your real name though… Didn’t have any better ideas?” Mizuki knows she went completely red with the way she stuttered incoherent noises.
“That’s enough out of you, Amia!” She yelled into the mic. Mizuki laughs and Ena starts to swear even louder.
“Well,” Kanade, ever the voice of reason, spoke up. “If we plan on doing this live show together it would be good to know each other’s real names… as we will be working in person very soon.”
“Are you sure it’s a good idea to have a live, Kanade? Will people even show up?” Ena sighs out. Kanade hums into her microphones.
“I don’t see why not. It won’t be a while until we actually perform. We need to make more songs.”
“I think it would be really fun!” Mizuki interjects. They’re starting to fit back into their role, where they should naturally be in this point of Niigo’s existence. They even feel giddy. It’s a feeling they want to share, to DM Ena saying, ‘Hey, we get to relive this fantastic few months again!’
“I think it could be worthwhile,” Mafuyu joins in.
“Well, if everyone is on board, then I guess I am as well,” Ena huffs. Mizuki feels their smile reaching their eyes.
They get to prepare for their live show, meet in person for the first time, discover the Sekai, go on the mystery tour, go on the picnic, and have Ena confess to them on the Kamiyama rooftop once again. They can have Ena kiss them for the very first time, again. They can perform their live, the perfect culmination of their group, and do it over and over and over.
They can’t tell them. Ena would probably slap them. Ena would definitely slap them, actually. She would be angry that she would be stuck at the same art level, never improving. She would be angry that she wouldn’t be allowed to move out of Mizuki’s life, something that she will surely do. No one ever stays. Not for Mizuki.
She doesn’t understand. None of them would. Mizuki has the chance to keep them safe, to keep them from the terrors of change, of growing up, of growing apart. None of their precious friends will ever have to go through more hardship than they already have, none of them will have to suffer any pain. If Ena understood Mizuki’s reasoning, surely she would understand. She wants Niigo to be as safe as Mizuki does.
If they can just keep winning the auditions, Mizuki can truly keep Niigo in their life, forever.
“If we’re going to do this, let’s officially meet,” Mizuki speaks into the microphone, forcing their voice to not sound like they’re about to cry. “I’m Akiyama Mizuki. It’s nice to meet you.”