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‘Alright, let’s do this! With a burning passion, Morisawa Chiaki will do his best at this job!’ The brown haired idol clenched his fist with determination.
Looking down at his phone, Chiaki took one last look at the message sent to him by idol agency Starmaker Production's (StarPro’s) president Tenshouin Eichi on HallHands a week ago. The idol had forwarded the message to the Ryuseitai group chat and asked them to arrive at the meetup location as soon as they could, with four different variations of yes messages pinging his phone screen.
Apparently, it was a job offer for Chiaki, or by extension, Ryuseitai, to have a collaboration with the popular troupe performers on Wonder Stage, Wonderland x Showtime. Attached below the message was a long detailed report of what to do, together with each of the four members’ names.
The announcement collaboration came as a bolt out of the blue, as the higher-ups (or rather Eichi himself) had worked very hard to give Ryuseitai this particular job. Chiaki could easily spot the single line written by the man after the extremely long-winded document provided, ‘Do your best, Ryuseitai.’ Chiaki himself had no clue what was going on, but he briefly remembered that it was somewhat related to a live event called [ASTRO FES], which was going to be held at Ensemble Square (ES) sometime soon. Of course, he trusted Eichi had his best intentions in mind before giving the proposal to him after all.
After all, this was beneficial to Ryuseitai as well.
‘Thank you for this opportunity, Tenshouin. We Ryuseitai have been doing fairly well recently, and this can give us an additional boost for our activities! I’m sure Nagumo, Takamine and Sengoku would also use this as a chance to grow in experience!’ Chiaki did a fist bump into the air. He was ready. With that, the man ran as fast as he could to the destination.
Upon arriving at the entrance, he stopped to stare at the famous amusement park.
‘So this is Phoenix Wonderland…’
“Morisawa-senpai!” A familiar voice shouted from behind him, stopping his train of thoughts. Turning around, he could see his favourite juniors sprinting towards him.
“Tetora-kun, there’s no need to keep running, Morisawa-senpai’s right here…running makes me depressed…” The yuruchara lover sighed.
“But Midori-kun! We shouldn’t give a bad impression by arriving late.” The black haired junior protested. “Besides, Morisawa-senpai told us to arrive as soon as possible for this ssu. Let’s try not to make a bad first impression by arriving late, alright?”
“Fuhahaha, well said Nagumo! Spoken like a true hero! And Takamine, don’t feel depressed! Here, I’ll cheer you up! Hug ☆”
“Argh, get off me Morisawa-senpai…it’s suffocating…Shinobu-kun, please come help me…”
The ninja sniggered quietly at their antics but relented, “Morisawa-dono, please let go of Midori-kun ~de gozaru, he’s struggling.”
Very reluctantly, the senior Ryuseitai member released his grip against the boy. The boy mentioned sighed in relief and sent Shinobu a nod of thanks.
“Where’s Kanata?” Chiaki asked, confused, turning his head left and right to search for their missing member.
“Shinkai-senpai asked us to arrive here first, he said he had some business to attend to…”
“puka puka” Chiaki instantly could recognise the voice of his closest friend, “im here…!”
“Kanata…! ☆”
“chiaki…! ☆”
Without hesitation, the two pulled themselves into a hug, followed by a little twirl. The three juniors eyed each other at the display, all wearing tired but fond smiles at their seniors’ actions. They knew the seniors were always busy and could not hang out with each other as often as they liked so they were (temporarily) excused for their rather hyper actions.
After breaking away from the hug, Chiaki gathered them around and spoke confidently “Alright everyone, this is a rare opportunity for us to do a collaboration with others, we can do it if we have the flame of justice burning within us! Let's do our absolute best together, as we always do, Ryuseitai! All for one, one for all! ☆”
___
“Nene-chan, Nene-chan! I can’t wait to meet them! We would all have a super, duper wonderhoy time with them ♪” The pink, short haired girl exclaimed as she bounced up and down, eyes shining in excitement.
“Right…” The purple eyed girl smiled.
“Fufufu, I was quite shocked when Keisuke-san told us about this collaboration, but I think we would get along well.” The tallest member in their troupe had his signature cheshire cat grin on his face.
“Rui, please don’t frighten them with your robots…” Nene sighed.
“Of course not!” The smirk on Rui’s face showed that he was going to do the exact opposite of his words. Nene eyed the boy warily.
“Rui, as much as I like your machines, you can't use them as test subjects!! As performers, we have a reputation to uphold!! Personally, as a star, I must make sure our new guests feel welcomed!” The self-proclaimed star shouted with vigor. The four troupe performers gathered around in a circle, certainly both intrigued and excited in the prospect of collaborating with the idol group.
‘Ryuseitai huh…’ Tsukasa thought. ‘They’re relatively popular idols in the country, aren’t they?’ He had researched upon the hero-like idols in his spare time and watched their stage performances. And he was definitely blown away by the sheer power of it all. ‘I wonder why they would like to work with us…oh well, there’s no point dwelling on this, I’ll do my very best as usual! That is the duty of a world future star!’ The boy clenched his fist in determination.
“Look, that must be them!” Emu pointed to the approaching group of five.
Somehow, Tsukasa’s eyes were drawn to the first person leading the group. There was something…special about him that Tsukasa could not place his mind on. He knew his name of course, Morisawa Chiaki-san, but seeing him in the flesh made it so much more different.
The person stopped directly in front of him and stretched out his hand. “You must be Tenma-kun right? Nice to meet you! I’m Morisawa Chiaki, a hero of justice! I hope we can work together during this collaboration! Don’t forget to call me for help when needed, fuhahaha ☆”
‘’It’s nice to meet you too, Morisawa-san! I have heard many great things about you!’’ The blonde said as he shook the other’s hand. Wow, this guy really had a firm handshake. Impressive. Tsukasa didn’t know much about Chiaki besides his idol activities, but he couldn’t say he didn’t like what he saw so far.
“Well–GAHH?! NENE, WHAT WAS THAT FOR?! This star is hurt!!” Tsukasa was interrupted by the elbowing Nene gave him. The girl however, stayed silent, glaring at him. Tsukasa could only respond with a confused “huh?” before she facepalmed, giving him an annoyed look, using her eyes to gesture at the boy’s pocket.
“O-oh right!” The blond hastily pulled out a folded booklet out of his pocket. They had worked hard on this script with Miku and the others back in Wonderland Sekai and Tsukasa had nearly forgotten all about it. He mentally berated himself for such a silly mistake unbecoming of a star before clearing his throat.
“Ehm…WELCOME OUR ESTEEMED GUESTS, RYUSEITAI, TO PHOENIX WONDERLAND!” Tsukasa said, maybe a little too loud for one’s taste. Clearly, the sentiment was shared among the Ryuseitai juniors, who all jumped at the sudden spike in volume. The older two luckily remained unaffected by the outburst. “IT IS I, YOUR VERY OWN TENMA TSUKASA, WORLD FUTURE STAR!!!!!” After that, Tsukasa did one of his poses, one arm on his hip, the other raised and one finger pointing to the sky.
He noticed the tallest one in Ryuseitai whispering a “Oh no, he’s the Morisawa-senpai type isn’t he…argh…what a pain…” Tsukasa heeded the conversation no mind, excitedly continuing his impromptu speech.
He cleared his throat once again and spoke with his usual volume, “First off, we have our charming play director, Kamishiro Rui!” The mentioned boy did a bow.
‘’And here we have our beautiful and graceful songstress, Kusanagi Nene!” Tsukasa said as he gestured to Nene, who did a polite little wave.
“Lastly, we have our energetic and bubbly actor, Otori Emu!’’ As he said her name, Emu jumped up from behind Tsukasa and yelled ‘’WONDERHOY!!!’’ Some winced at the rather loud remark.
“Okay at the count of three…” Tsukasa nodded his head at his friends. “Thank you all for taking your time to collaborate with us!” The Wonderland x Showtime members all said together..
As they finished the intro, the Ryuseitai members broke into rounding applause. Chiaki smiled, “Well that was a very warm welcome! I thank you for your nice introduction, Tenma-kun and friends!”
__
“I believe it is time for our, Ryuseitai’s, introduction!” Chiaki announced proudly. His words were met with varying levels of enthusiasm. “Just as we practiced all the time! I’ll start first if you guys don’t mind!”
The brown haired idol raised his hand into the sky and clenched his fist with the other, clearly copying Karmen Rider 1’s signature pose, proclaiming, “The red flame is the mark of justice! The sun of life, burning bright red! Ryusei Red, Morisawa Chiaki…!”
“the blue flame is the mark of mystery. I have come from the blue sea~ ryusei blue— shinkai kanata!” The sea lover smiled.
“Nice one Kanata!” The former high-fived the latter.
“The green flame is the mark of compassion! The great nature, growing infinitely! Ryusei Green, Takamine Midori…!”
“I hope this is enough…” The boy muttered under his breath. His two closest friends gave him the thumbs up in response to his worries.
“That was good, Midori-kun! The yellow flame is the mark of hope! A single miracle shining into the darkness! Ryusei Yellow, Sengoku Shinobu…!”
“Ossu! The black flame is the mark of effort! The burning fighting spirit, stained with mud! Ryusei Black, Nagumo Tetora!”
“With the five of us together, we are Ryuseitai!” the five idols said in unison
‘Everyone, we did well with the introductions! My teammates are so reliable…all their hearts are shining with the spirit of true heroes….!’ Chiaki thought with a wide grin, mentally holding himself back from bursting into proud tears at how much his unitmates have grown.
The others broke into scattered applause. Noticeably, Emu clapped the loudest amongst them.
“WOAH!! THAT WAS SO WONDERHOY AND COOL! YOU GUYS ARE LIKE THE REAL LIFE POWER RANGERS!!!!” Ryuseitai could almost see the stars in her eyes.
“OTORI-SAN, YOU WATCH POWER RANGERS TOO!? WHO IS YOUR FAVOURITE ONE?” Chiaki’s eyes sparkled at the mention of the super-sentai show.
Before the conversation could get even more heated, Tetora stepped in, “U~myu, I’m sorry if I’m interrupting your conversation, but can we get back on track?”
“Right, sorry Nagumo and others! I got a little too carried away…”
“Me too…I’m sorry!”
“Nah, it’s fine ssu. So what should we do now?”
“If I may, could we show you around the park? It is your first time here after all. It is a star’s duty and honour to show the way!” Tsukasa waved around the paper script in his hands, showing the very detailed introduction of the tour. “We did plan on this after all…it would be a waste not to use it.” he added sheepishly.
“Of course, Tenma-kun! Thank you for your hospitality!” Shinobu bowed to the blond.
“After you…” Rui became a gentleman in a blink of an eye.
__
“Thank you for the tour, I truly learned much about Phoenix Wonderland!” The senior idol said. “Also I hope Kanata didn’t cause much trouble by his ‘puka, puka’ in the fountain…”
“phoenix wonderland has such ‘pure water’, its very nice to Splash into…i havent had such a good ‘bath’ in a while…” The mentioned idol hummed in delight.
“It’s our pleasure senpai! And there are no visitors since the park is closed early in the morning so there was no trouble…” That must have been the greatest lie of the century as Tsukasa’s jaw had dropped to the ground the moment Kanata had suddenly cannonballed himself into the fountain.
“Fufu, I think Midori-kun liked the fountain too, and the little mascot on top, since it looked kind of like yuruchara.” Shinobu flashed a look at his unit mate.
“It's my first time seeing the famous phenny mascot up close, and it looks cuter when I see it first hand than it did in pictures!” The tall boy gushed.
“There's some phenny merchandise sold at the souvenir store right over there,” Nene added, “I think you can get one small plushie if you want to bring it home.”
“I will do that, thank you Kusanagi-san.”
“So what now?” Everyone pondered hard at the question. Silence permeated the air.
“Hey… I have an idea… Why don’t we try splitting up? It would be a good way for us to get to know each other better…we can go anywhere and meet up back here… If you don’t want to, it's fine too–” Midori spoke up, to the surprise of everyone.
“Excellent idea, Takamine! You’ve grown so much, the old you would have never done something like this. There, there~ ♪” Chiaki affectionately ruffled the boy’s head, earning a loud “Hey!!” from him. “We should split up, in which each team at least has one Ryuseitai and one Wonderland x Showtime member!”
“Duos!” Tsukasa was getting fired up for this.
“Tsukasa, there are 9 people here…” Nene sighed again.
“Then we should have three groups of 2 and one group of 3!”
Everyone nodded in agreement with the suggestion.
“If that’s the case, could I pair up with you, Shinkai-senpai?”
“of course, rui~”
“Emu! How about you pair up with Sengoku-kun?” Upon hearing her name, Emu nods enthusiastically and immediately bounced over to him. “HALLO! NICE TO MEET YOU! I LIKE YOUR HAIR! IT REMINDS ME OF A NINJA ♪ WOULD YOU LIKE TO TEAM UP WITH ME?”
“Nin nin~ you really think so…? I would love to team up with you Otori-san…!” he blushed at the praise.
“I think we should team up, Morisawa-san. I would really appreciate it if you could teach me more about your way of doing things!”
“Fuhahaha ☆ No problem, Tenma-kun!”
“So it’s just left Midori-kun, Kusanagi-san and me right? We’ll team up then, ossu.” The black haired boy nodded at his partners.
“It’s decided then! Everyone, remember to come back by 5pm! And also, relax and enjoy time with one another! That’s the most important thing!”
With that, the 4 teams split up into different directions and off they went.
__
“Where should we go first, Morisawa-san?” Tsukasa asked.
“How about we try one of the rides?”
“Hmm…how about doing some simple rides first…like the Carousel? I can see you staring-”
In his humble opinion, Chiaki was definitely not staring at the fantasy-focused ride. It did not take long for one to know that he definitely wanted to ride one of them, especially on the hero mascot.
“W-we should…!” Chiaki hastily replied in a failed effort of self preservation. He grinned sheepishly when Tsukasa looked at him cluelessly.
“I was going to say that you had good taste in rides as it’s also one of my favourites…but oh well.”
Since there was no one there at the particular ride, the two got through the non existent queue pretty quickly.
Naturally, both rushed to their favourites. Chiaki with the hero mascot, and Tsukasa with the pegasus.
The ride began smoothly.
“Hero, we will triumph!” Chiaki had shouted in a spur of the moment.
“Let’s do our best as well, Pegasus!” Tsukasa soon joined in the friendly camaraderie.
It did not take long for them to repeat word after word, sentence after sentences of lines.
It would probably be comical to everyone who saw what was happening, especially if the looks were directed at the employees, who were looking absolutely slack jawed at the two shouting phrases from television shows towards some non-existent, invisible, evil fictional entity. Saying that the employees were confused would have been an understatement.
To make matters worse (or funnier), Tsukasa had asked one of the employees to increase the speed of the ride with every phrase they said. What was meant to be a fun, cute, magical ride with ponies and superheroes turned into some sort of death match, with both boys holding onto their respective rides like a lifeline.
When the three minute timer finally hit, the boys fell to the ground immediately with a resounding thud, groaning in pain.
After a very short water break, Chiaki and Tsukasa had both regained their energy and headed for the next location.
____
They had bumped into Emu and Shinobu on the way there. The two were each holding pink cotton candy, albeit in Emu’s case, an extra large sized one while Shinobu had the regular sized one.
“Tsukasa-kun, Chiaki-senpai, let’s go on that super duper swirly whirly rollercoaster ☆” Emu pointed at the large rollercoaster in the distance, eyes all sparkly.
“Uh… isn’t that the Doom Spiral of Terror?” Tsukasa said, nervousness starting to creep up on him.
“Aha… that sounds like a super scary name…” Chiaki’s sweat dropped.
“I’ve gone on it a 100 times before, it should be a piece of cake!” Emu said as she grabbed Tsukasa's hand, “LET’S GO GUYS!!”
“Otori-san, wait,” Shinobu called out.
‘Sengoku…!’ Chiaki cried out, grateful that his junior was so thoughtful, ‘I knew I could count on you!’
“We can’t go on the roller coaster because…we can’t bring food onto it de gozaru….” The ninja lover stared at the duo apologetically. The words ‘You two are on your own now.’ went unsaid, probably for the better.
‘Sengoku…! I trusted you…’ The senior winced at the betrayal.
“I think it's best if we—“ Objection was on the tip of Tsukasa’s tongue. He effectively shut his mouth when Emu stared at him with teary eyes.
“Tsukasa-kun, please? I’m sure you’re gonna have the time of your life! I’ll go right after you, I proomiseee.”
The two stared at each other with doomed expressions—They couldn’t say no.
“I’m sure we will be able to do this…right Tenma-kun?” Chiaki asked with fake enthusiasm.
“A-absolutely right, senpai!” The two did a very forced cheer in front of the girl.
Luckily, she did not seem to notice and patted them on the back, sending them off. Shinobu waved goodbye as well, mouthing an ‘I’m sorry’ towards the duo.
As the boys slowly ascended the stairs, dread started to sink in. Their only lasting hope was that the queue was quite long, and that it would take some time before it was their turn.
In their defense, the ride looked extremely terrifying. There were at least more than five different spirals, as well as a 400 foot descent downwards and the ride also went backwards twice. The worst part? Three huge consecutive loops that you had to endure before the ride ended. Tsukasa and Chiaki gulped very audibly.
The boys glanced at each other and swallowed nervously, accepting their fate that they were to cast their lives to such a horrifying ride.
__
They were never ever going to ride roller coasters ever again.
It turned out that the long queue was a huge scam, as it became their turn after just a few minutes.
The first part of the ride was the 400m drop. As the cart started to make its slow ascend up, it gave Tsukasa plenty of time to think about how all his life choices had led up to him riding the rollercoaster of his death. On the contrary, though, a 5 year old girl behind him had the happiest smile on her face. How could she even be excited for this drop of death?
At the top, he could already feel the strong winds blasting onto his face, along with the very nice view of the entirety of Phoenix Wonderland.
After that, everything was just a blur. The cart went at speeds that he didn’t even know was possible. He clinged onto the handlebars as hard as he could, fearing that if he let go, he would just fall straight onto the ground. Every time the cart went upside down, he could feel all the blood rushing to his head instantly.
Though everything was a blur, he could not help but notice the brown haired guy next to him was screaming RIGHT INTO HIS EAR at every turn. The blond felt his eardrums on the verge of bursting at every scream. Not saying that he didn’t do the same, he very much did, but in his opinion, in a much more respectable manner. At one point, Chiaki even gripped onto the other’s arm, which the action was well reciprocated back with open arms.
Luckily they haven’t eaten anything heavy before the ride, as he was confident all of the consumed food would have already come spilling out from all the twists of the ride.
They were literally one of the oldest people on that ride, but they hugged each other and screamed the loudest.
When the ride finally concluded, Tsukasa felt like he had indeed fallen through a spiral vortex. He patted his pocket and sighed in relief when both his wallet as well as the script was still in there, before looking over to the guy beside him, and realised that he was still holding onto him; literally, shoulder to shoulder, hand in hand. Both were also shivering rather intensely.
‘Must have been because of the monstrosity we just experienced mere seconds ago…” Tsukasa winced.
‘’A..ha… sorry Morisawa-san–’’ Tsukasa cringed as he pulled away from Chiaki.
‘’Yeah… no problem! I’m glad I am able to provide you support at your most dire moments!” Chiaki said, even though he probably needed as much support as Tsukasa did himself.
Before they left, the same 5 year old girl ran up to them. He looked back and saw her mother running behind her, shouting “Sayano, wait!”
“You guys might be the loudest people I’ve ever heard!’’ The girl said, no sign of malice in her voice.
“I-um–what?”
“Sorry about that, kids just being kids, you know,” her mother then took her arm and immediately turned around to leave.
That comment had stunned Tsukasa so much he just stood there. Blinking a few times to ensure he was not dreaming, the blonde slowly turned his head to meet that of his senior's and realised that the latter was also doing the same thing as him, with an equally confused expression.
A few seconds later, self realisation struck both boys as the same thought ran through their minds at the same time as they stared at each other—
‘Did we just get bested by a 5 year old?!’ Both boys turned bright red as their faces burned in embarrassment.
“The ride was superrr funnn, wasn’t it ☆” Further embarrassment was prevented due to Emu running over to them, with Shinobu trailing behind her. A close call, as they were both 5 seconds away from dunking their heads into the phenny fountain located a few metres away.
“Yeah…very fun…” The two strained their smiles once more, already prepared to make a run for it if Emu suggested riding the coaster again.
__
After bidding farewell to their juniors, (they had saluted Shinobu who was dragged by Emu onto the ride, with the former giving a weak thumbs up.) Tsukasa and Chiaki were stumped on what to do next.
“What should we do now?”
Tsukasa glanced up at the clock located at the corner of the park, “It’s around lunchtime now, so why don’t we go have a meal? I hope we don’t do anything strenuous after it though…” Both boys shivered again at the reminder of their previous activity.
“Good idea, Tenma-kun!! I’m actually feeling quite hungry, and we can replenish our energy as well!” Chiaki did his signature laugh, patting the blond on the back.
“I know a place that sells good food! Shall we?”
“Lead the way!”
It didn’t take long for them to arrive at the place. The usually busy tables outside the stalls were quite empty today, so finding a seat didn’t pose a challenge for them.
“There really is a wide variety of food here, what should I choose?” Chiaki asked.
“I always order the ginger fried pork, it’s one of the best!” The blond exclaimed, pointing at the menu.
“You can order first, Tenma-kun! I’ll head over to the other store to get some fries.”
Tsukasa nodded. After a short while, they both got their meals.
“I’m back~” Tsukasa said, placing his plate of Ginger Fried Pork on the table.
“Looks good—AHHH!!!” Chiaki flinched back, eyes blown wide, dropping the french fry he was holding onto the table.
“What’s wrong, Morisawa-san?!” The blond sprung into action, looking left and right to find anything that caused such a reaction from his senior.
“A-a-are th-ose…” The older one pointed his shaky finger at the purple vegetable.
“What? These..?” Tsukasa used his chopsticks to grab the thinly sliced food. “You mean the eggplants? What about them? Why are your eyes shut so tightly!?”
“P-please…! Could you hide those densely purple coloured disasters away…and if possible as far away from my sight…! Have I done something so bad until I went to hell on earth…!? Uuuuuu…!” The self proclaimed ‘hero of justice’ exclaimed with terror. Ironic, given that he had been defeated by the mere sight of an eggplant.
“Wait, no! A hero cannot succumb so quickly when in danger…I must resist…” Scratch that, the hero of justice was having a self identity crisis at the moment.
“I’ll just eat them then…” The shorter boy quickly shoved the eggplant slices down his throat, complementing it with some rice, still very confused about the outburst.
‘He’s sort of like me,” Tsukasa thought with a smile. ‘I’m glad to see this side of Morisawa-san, he doesn’t look as high above as he does on stage…’
Chiaki heaved a long sigh in relief after seeing the now-eaten eggplants gone and smiled sheepishly at the blond, “I hope I did not cause so much trouble for you, Tenma-kun…I’m just terrible with eggplants…”
The hero shook his head, “Actually I used to have a way of dealing with them but Takamine gave me an earful the other day about it the other day, saying, ‘Don’t quote Imagins from Den-O on live television while saying my name…I almost spoilt the remote…’” he rambled on.
Tsukasa’s curiosity was very piqued. The reference was completely lost on the boy but he decided not to pry. That would not be very star-like of him to ask.
“Don’t worry, it’s totally okay!! Morisawa-san, I didn’t know you have been on live television before, that’s amazing!”
__
After a few more minutes of conversation, the two had finished their meal. While walking away, they came to a stop at the nearby map, which showed the whole view of the amusement park.
“Hmm…so we’re here…” Chiaki pondered aloud.. Suddenly, something caught his attention.
“THERE’S A HERO SHOW HERE?!” he shouted, attracting the attention of a few passerbys. “LET’S GO SEE IT!” His voice lowered by a few octaves after his momentary outburst. “If you don’t mind of course, but I would like to take this chance to learn more about how things work around here!” The brown haired energy had returned in full swing.
“OH! There is! The next showing should be…ah here! The next showing is at 2pm!” The blond replied.
Chiaki glanced down at his wristwatch.
“It’s 1:50pm now, I don’t think we’re gonna be able to make it in time…”
“Fear not! I know a shortcut!”
__
Well, Chiaki definitely didn’t expect ending up in some dingy alleyway behind the
amusement park’s restaurants. As he followed Tsukasa along, he scrunched up his nose to the smell of the odour coming from the many trash bins surrounding him. Out of all shortcuts, was this really the quickest option…?
Suddenly, he noticed 2 figures crouched beside one of the bins. The two were “whispering” to each other rather loudly and trying hard not to laugh. Whatever they were doing was not a good sign, or rather, it was very clear that their victims would not have a good time. Something that caught Chiaki’s eye was the two having very distinct hair colours, making it instantly recognisable who they were.
However, Tsukasa did not share the same sentiment.
“Oh, hello Tsukasa-kun.” The purple haired said, chuckling.
“GAAHHH!!-- RUI! WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!” The blonde stumbled back from just pure shock, mouth wide open.
“I should be asking you the same question, why are you here?”
“Oh, we’re going to see the hero show, since Morisawa-san wanted to go see it! Just a little shortcut wouldn't hurt to get there faster!” Tsukasa boomed.
“as expected of chiaki~” The cyan haired senior smiled, “aiming to be the Best hero~”
Tsukasa’s voice then strained, “But seriously though, what are you two doing here?” The blond raised his eyebrows in suspicion. “Is it another one of your tricks again, Rui? Why are you involving Shinkai-san in your antics?”
“Fufufu, it's a secret…” Rui smirked, making an eerie expression almost identical to the :3 emoji. Kanata nodded as well, “secret~”
“That is not helping your case, in fact, it's making it worse!! Spill the beans, Rui!!”
While the younger two were playfully arguing, the two best friends stood together.
“I'm really glad to see that you're spending quality time with Kamishiro-kun, Kanata!”
“it seems like chiaki is Having fun too…”
“I’m learning quite a bit from Tenma-kun!”
After what seemed like a million years and thousands of seconds later, (the onlooker duo had to stifle a laugh when Tsukasa, in the spur of the moment, grabbed Rui’s shoulder and shook it rigorously, making the latter go forwards and backwards continuously) the other two had finally stopped bickering.
“Tsukasa-kun, isn’t the hero show starting soon? You guys should get going or you'll miss it.” Rui smoothly switched topics, even though he was still dizzy from all that spinning.
“Okay, fine! You better tell me all about it after that though! Salutations then, Rui, Shinkai-san!”
When the two left, Rui shared a glance with Kanata.
“I can’t believe all that just happened in a span of 7 minutes…I do hope they have fun though fufufu~ Shall we continue?”
__
By some sort of miracle, they made it 1 minute before the show started. The two boys scurried to the best empty seats they could find, and sat down.
Chiaki was practically bouncing from how excited he looked.
They probably looked bizarre just sitting there, as most of the audience there were little children accompanied by their parents. Nevertheless, that did not faze the 2 teenagers there.
“Look! The show’s starting!” Chiaki pointed at the stage
When the curtains unveiled, there was a person dressed in a superhero costume on stage, with a night city backdrop behind him. Aesthetics, after all.
“As a hero, it is my duty to protect everyone against the Dark Knight! Believe in me, as I will find him and bring justice to the city!” The hero proclaimed with confidence as he held up his sword in the air.
“Ohoho, do you think you can defeat me this time?” The Dark Knight walked onto stage, paces slow and menacing.
Cue some random dialogue before the actual fighting. In Tsukasa’s opinion, this was actually a pretty well-written story. Narration wise, the story flowed well and the action scenes were particularly entertaining. The two stared intently at the flurry of movements happening on stage, fully enamored and glued to their seats. They were evenly matched. As someone who was familiar with this line of work, he held respect for the actors themselves, as it was not easy to act so naturally while acting.
However, the hero had not anticipated an attack from behind him, and fell onto the ground. His hero transformation had worn off.
“Down to your breath, huh? Let me finish you off! Say Goodbye!” The Dark Knight cackled, inching closer to the fallen hero. The hero was shakily trying to get back up, albeit the pain.
“Oh no, the hero’s in trouble! What should we do?” The narrator exclaimed.
“Naturally, cheer them on, of course!” Chiaki stood up from his seat. “Hang in there, hero! Don’t lose faith!” he shouted. “Tenma-kun, let's cheer together with the kids!”
“Stand up, Hero! You can do it!” Tsukasa rose to the occasion, joining in.
“That's the way to go!”
‘Awesome, the hero's transformation looks much cooler! When in peril, a hero never gives up and protects everyone. That is the true spirit of the heroes I admire so much! Go Hero!!’ Chiaki cheered.
Standing up with his newly awakened power, the Hero used his upgraded super powers and shined them on the Dark Knight. The anguished screams of the Dark Knight were heard for a brief second before he was completely stripped of his destructive powers and vanished.
“With the help of the people’s support, the hero manages to swiftly defeat the Dark Knight, bringing justice across the land!” The narrator ended his speech, indicating the ending of the show. The crowd broke into applause.
“That was…SO COOL!” Chiaki all but yelled.
“I’m glad you enjoyed it, Morisawa-san!”
“The hero’s moves were so awesome!! Like this!” Chiaki excitedly raised his hand to his eye level and striked a pose. “This one was my favourite! I’ll be sure to use it during the next Ryuseitai hero show! The kids would love it!” The boy closed his eyes and did a small fist bump.
“Oh yeah, you sometimes organise hero shows in amusement parks right, Morisawa-san? I think I have seen a video of your performance before…” He took out his phone and scrolled through SekaiTube and showed a video to Chiaki. “I actually haven’t visited the place for a while, so I was quite surprised when I saw that they have added some new scenes that I have never seen before.”
“Which was your favourite pose, Tenma-kun?”
“There were so many good moves, all worthy to rival the essence of a star, it’s hard to choose one when I liked them all…” Tsukasa trailed off as he fell silent, pondering on the matter deeply. His eyes lit up the moment he thought of the best pose. “I feel like this was something completely new, a good addition to my growing list of star poses!!” Tsukasa demonstrated the said pose accompanied with a little spin, earning applause from his senior.
“That one was nice!”
The conversation had soon evolved from discussion of poses to doing actual poses in public and being extremely loud in general. Clearly, being a nuisance was not in the boys’ vocabulary. They had a great time though, laughing heartily.
Of course, they got the autographs of the actors before leaving.
—
It was now about mid-afternoon, and the crowds were starting to get larger as more people poured in. As the duo passed through some attractions, Tsukasa noticed a little girl who was standing by the side, clutching a soft teddy bear. What was more concerning of which, was that she was wiping tears from her eyes. He scanned the surrounding areas and saw that she wasn’t accompanied by any adults. That must have meant one thing.
“Wait- Morisawa-san, I think that girl is lost, we have to go and help her!” Tsukasa said as he tugged on the other’s sleeve, stopping in his tracks.
“You’re right, Tenma-kun!” Both boys nodded at each other, turning their bodies and taking bold steps towards the girl.
“Ah, hey little girl-” Tsukasa thought back to the time back in America where they encountered that lost child. No, he wasn’t going to make the same mistake this time round. “Where are your parents?”
“M–Ma…” The girl sniffled as she hugged her teddy bear tighter. “I c-an’t fin..d my mommy…”
“When was the last time you saw her? We can search around so we can find her!” Chiaki calmly asked.
“Just now… I saw bubbles then i- i let go of her hand…and when i looked back- she was gone..! There were so many people… I-I didn’t mean to..!” She burst into tears. “Wahhhh~!”
“Shh~ it’s okay! We’ll help you reunite with your parents soon… don’t worry!” Chiaki’s voice seemed to calm the girl as she immediately stopped wailing, wiping her eyes with her sleeve.
A light bulb went off Tsukasa’s head.
“HAHAHA THE HERO HAS ARRIVED!” Tsukasa shouted loudly, striking a pose. The girl flinched a little, but calmed down after seeing his radiant smile.
Chiaki must have understood the hidden meaning, as he nodded, discreetly passing him a miniature figurine. Tsukasa must have looked shocked as he then whispered, ‘I always keep one in my jacket, looks like it came useful for times like these!’ Feeling determined, the blonde clasped the figurine tightly, eyes shining brightly.
It seemed like Chiaki was as excited as he was for the mini role play, as he immediately jumped into action. “WAHAHA! If it isn’t Pegasus! You have something that belongs to me!” Grabbing the girl gently, he tugged her towards him. “I am the Emperor of Darkness. You people of light, shall vanish into eternal darkness.” He spoke, quoting Ultraman’s famous villain, Alien Empera. Chiaki then lifted his right hand straight and upwards to what seems like an imitation of the Kyurangers.
Tsukasa continued, “Stop right there! Your reign shall end now, Emperor of Darkness!”
He looked at the girl, ‘’You there, you have the power to save the world before he takes over! Quick! Use your bear to attack him!” She seemed to be hesitant at first, lifting her bear up slightly as if questioning whether she should follow the words of the hero.
“M..my bear?”
“AHH! That’s the most powerful amulet in the world… if she has it then… she can easily defeat me in just one swoop!” Chiaki pointed at the bear, eyes widened, backing away slowly.
“Come on! On the count of three, use your bear to point a laser beam at him! In three… two… one…FIRE!!” He held up the miniature sentai figurine. The girl closed her eyes, holding up her teddy bear the moment Tsukasa counted “FIRE!!”. As a result, this caused an imaginary chain reaction, in which the invisible beam hit Chiaki and the ‘Emperor of Darkness’ fell backwards, groaning and cursing.
“HAHAHA! The Emperor of Darkness has been defeated! We have triumphed!” The blonde pumped his fist upwards with glee, patting the girl on her shoulder for a job well done. Tsukasa smiled when he realised that the girl seemed to be in a much lighter mood now.
“You two really got me there! That was great! I hope I can play the hero the next time we do this though!” The brown haired exclaimed.
“It's all thanks to Morisawa-san that this went well!”
After that, the two boys bought the girl a vanilla flavored ice cream before walking to the lost child centre, where they made a report to the local staff.
A few minutes after the announcement was made, a woman came rushing through the door.
“Oh goodness, thank you so much for bringing her back, I was worried sick! Is there any way I could repay you guys?” The mother said, holding her daughter in a tight embrace.
“It’s no worries at all! We’re just happy she managed to return to you safely!” Chiaki smiled and gave her a thumbs up.
“Mama–!! I defeated the evil villain with my super-power bear!” The girl told her mom with great enthusiasm.
The two boys chucked and whistled sheepishly as the mother looked at them utterly bewildered.
Chiaki cleared his throat, “Well, you see…”
Tsukasa watched the conversation unfold while thinking hard on himself.
‘Morisawa-san is truly amazing…he can already do so many things even though he's only just two years older than me. His voice may be loud, but it's obvious that he puts his heart and 100% in everything he does. He helped me through so much, I don't even think I can repay him back…he carries the true presence of a star, and what I'm aiming for…!’
‘So that's why I…’
At that moment, Tsukasa only knew one thing.
The performance with Chiaki that day would be stellar.
__
“Morisawa-san, everyone’s ready!”
“Great! Just to confirm, Shinonome-kun is with Sazanami, Sakasaki with Kamishiro-kun, Aoyagi-kun with Sena and we’re paired together right?” Chiaki said, fastening the last belt on his outfit.
The blonde nodded. Chiaki flashed the boy a grin.
It was finally the day of ASTRO FES, the long awaited final day of their collaboration, a live performance by idols. I guess you could call Tsukasa an idol now. Temporarily just for this day, but still an idol.
‘I wonder what Shizuku would say, since I have taken up the work of an idol! And a star!’ The guy puffed up his chest proudly, self determination and a tinge of nervous filling inside him.
He looked around. Besides Chiaki and himself, he could see Akito and Toya talking to Izumi, most probably asking for last-minute advice on the upcoming performance. Natsume and Rui were adding some little tweaks on some sort of magic trick they were doing, (fortunately it was safe of course!) both nodding at each other.
Jun suddenly burst into the room. “Hey guys, Anzu-san asked us to get ready, we’re about to go on stage soon.”
Commotion erupted after that. The boys stood up one by one, hurriedly checking if they had missed anything. “Leo-kun’s music is set right?” Izumi questioned. Jun gave him a nod in response. “Good. Someone needs to keep a leash on that guy. Somehow, his “Inspiration~!” has been spoken much more lately. Sooo annoying~” The gray haired heaved a sigh, accompanying the blue haired out with him.
Of course, Tsukasa stood up, following them. Before he could exit, a hand touched his shoulder.
“Tenma-kun, wait,” Chiaki pulled the blonde aside. “I want to tell you something, before we go on stage and perform for everyone.”
“Morisawa-san…? What’s the matter?” Tsukasa had never heard such a serious sounding tone from him before. “Is there something wrong with how I’m wearing the outfit? Or has anything else been unsatisfactory that caught your eye? I must apologise, it’s—”
“There’s nothing wrong with your outfit…sorry if I came out a little too strong.” Chiaki smiled sheepishly.
“Then what’s up?” Tsukasa’s brain tickled with both curiosity and confusion.
Chiaki took a deep breath. Somehow, Tsukasa’s heart raced in nervousness from just that one inhale.
“Tenma-kun, these few days have been an absolute wild ride. We spent so much time together, and created lots of great memories with each other. From the carousel, to the roller coaster, to helping that lost girl find her parents, and even that amazing performance we did back at Phoenix Wonderland, I never regretted the decision to join you.”
Tsukasa’s eyes widened as the boy continued, “I really enjoyed my time with you, Tenma-kun. Really. You were a joy to be with, I have never been able to connect and relate to anyone as much as you before. It felt like you could understand me on a level no one else could, and that's…important for me. I heard from Kamishiro-kun that your mission is to be a star, right? That's very admirable of you, and I want to support you fully and as much as I can.” Chiaki locked eyes with the troupe member and walked forward, before closing them again.
He grabbed a hold of Tsukasa’s hands and clasped them together with his own, “So let’s shine as brightly as those stars in the night sky for our fans! I’m relying on you, my equal in every way,” Chiaki opened his eyes, those illuminated, bright little orbs, and grinned widely at him, “Star-kun!”
Tsukasa’s worldview shattered. ‘Star-kun…?’
‘Am I really worthy to be called a star…?’ Somehow and someway, a particular nasty voice rose to his head, lurking and leeching off malice and insecurity, something Tsukasa had buried deep underground, resurfaced into his mind. He trembled slightly.
Chiaki must have sensed his doubt, as he continued, “You may not believe it yourself, but what I did couldn't have been done without your help. You truly helped me a bunch, and now I want to help you too, should I fail this task, this hero would be too ashamed to utter a word!” He ended off dramatically, which made Tsukasa let out a chuckle.
He grinned, “A smile fits you much better than a frown, so what do you say? Ready to turn the audience into the cosmics?”
Tsukasa thought back to everything they did for the past few days. He glanced back at Chiaki’s face, there was no hidden pity, only understanding and genuine concern for his well being behind his brown eyes.
For another time, he let go of all his troubled emotions.
He took Chiaki’s hands and placed them in his own, “Deal! Chiaki-san, thank you for everything…” his gaze turned watery. “Truly.”
“Everyone, this is the collaboration of all the eight of us!” The blonde exclaimed as the duo stepped onto stage, hand outstretched.
“Please keep your eyes peeled to the very last moment!” Chiaki shouted as loudly as he could, holding Tsukasa’s shoulder.
It was the show of a lifetime, one that was meant to be treated with utmost importance. But they knew that even if they were separated, gone on different paths, never met each other again, it didn't matter. Because…
When an idiot meets another one, that makes two of them. And those two would be friends forever.