Chapter 16: The Idol restart

In the end, even though I healed her, apparently she was just forcing herself. While she was sick, they were preparing to retrieve Nastassja and all of her research from the ruin she was in, which is ironic, if you ask me. Her life is on the line, but people are still greedy. This is good, though, since we have no way to go to space to retrieve Nastassja ourselves.

While we can go to space without Symphogear, Nastassja would die in the vacuum of space. In the end, I never suggested that idea, and letting the United Nation research staff go was the right choice. Still, to think I was inside the rocket with Hibiki and the others.

(Indeed, my relic is already back, surprisingly, but still, this is a bit much for my return mission, don't you think?)

"Mei, are you ready?"

"To be honest, I just finally managed to recover. To think, when I woke up, we were a group, and now I'm being put on an important mission that, if we succeed, will make us a new group? Seriously, you guys are really pushing me hard. Even more so, why am I here? There's Kanade and Miku, right?"

"Well, Kanade, Miku, and Serena still need a linker, while Kirika, Shirabe, and Maria are being detained, so there's not much we can do about it."

"Oh, Mei, here I thought you would be okay as long as it's to rescue people?"

"Chris, I'm not that kind. Besides, if you want that much kindness, go to Hibiki."

"Hmmm...? What is it?"

"You're not even hearing us."

"Well, I'm nervous, Mei. This is the first time I'll go to space."

"Funnily enough, I'm glad Symphogear exists because if a normal human went to space using our method, that person would die with all the stuff here. Somehow, I feel like I can sue Genjuro for breaking human rights laws now."

"What's a human right? I've never even heard of that."

"It's basically a law to protect people," Tachibana thought. "With the members we have, I think we've been breaking that law for a long time now."

"Oh, looks like it's our turn."

"Finally, they managed to get permission. Waiting in this small space is killing me."

"Well, it can't be helped, Yukine. This is the only way to get there fast."

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean I can't complain about it, Senpai."

"Seriously, I really need a break. What's worse, I have to attend that conference as well," he thought. "Luckily, Kanade will be attending with me."

"While I understand Kanade is allowed to be with you at that conference, why am I not?"

"Why are you sulking now? Seriously, sometimes I wonder who the older one is here."

"Ahahaha, she's been like that for ages, Mei."

"Oh yeah, I forgot to mention it, Mei, but I can't wait for you to finally release the songs. Even Chris is saving money to buy them."

"Damn it, you idiot! Why would you tell them that?"

"Heh, I see Chris can't wait as well."

"Now you see what you've done, you idiot! Mei is probably grinning like a madman by now."

"Well, Yukine, that was rude to Mei."

"It's okay, Tsubasa. Hearing that our lovely Chris supports me is enough."

"Tch, just focus. We're launching now."

Listing all the problems is only giving me a bigger headache. What's worse, the shaking inside this thing is so horrible that I want to get off this instant, but we're only allowed to go out when we're out of the atmosphere. I think to be exact, we were in the mesosphere the last time we heard anything, and the spaceship had already entered the thermosphere.

The reason we were taking this goddamn rocket in the first place occurred to me as we neared it. The pilot was starting to give up, thinking we were a missile aiming at them. Funnily enough, because the shape of this rocket resembled a missile, I didn't blame them.

After nearing it, Hibiki reassured the pilot. We started singing while Chris sent two rockets, first for Hibiki and Tsubasa, then another two for me and Chris.

"This is really wild, like Yukine," Tsubasa said.

"Then show me how you handle me, Senpai," Chris replied.

"I'm more surprised you guys are just winging it. I already have a problem controlling this thing, you know."

While Tsubasa and Hibiki controlled their rockets surprisingly well, my ride was so rocky I felt like I would be thrown off if I wasn't careful. But sure enough, maybe because it was her rocket, Chris was surprisingly relaxed. After boarding, both Tsubasa and Hibiki proceeded to stabilize and slow down the airship, making it easier for me and Chris to board.

Just as planned, Hibiki used her arm rockets to anchor herself to the spaceship. Tsubasa created a huge wing blade that further slowed it down, and Chris used four rockets. I was making a huge, rather light but durable shield to catch the wind to further slow down the spaceship.

Of course, while singing, I could hear the pilot's conversation. The older pilot calmed the younger one, while I could hear a voice in my communication device saying that if we kept doing this, we somehow wouldn't crash, but the landing would be too rough for the already dying Nastassja.

I tried to make the shield even bigger, but I felt like it would rip the spaceship apart. So instead, I spawned a lot of surfing shields with a flat front to help push the spaceship. Seriously, this was the most dangerous thing I had faced since I couldn't stop my hand from trembling like crazy.

Then, the voice from the command room said that if this continued, we would manage to land it, but the terrain around here was so uneven that the landing would be bad.

"Seriously, what kind of trial is this?"

Chris stopped her rocket as she threw some kind of bomb at our planned landing site, wiping out some trees. I went to the front of the ship and created a large shield, hard on one side and soft on the other, with the soft side facing the spaceship.

Somehow, the pilot was skilled enough to use the rocket boosters to help stabilize the spaceship, and we managed to land it. Looking at the forest, though, I felt bad about the deforestation we had caused. I hope this doesn't lead to flooding in any nearby settlements.

At least it was better than in the anime, where they didn't just cut down some trees; they shortened a mountain and destroyed buildings in a nearby village. The good news is that no lives were lost during that blunder. Still, compared to our landing, that landing at least looked good in photos, while ours looked like a plane crash, which couldn't be helped since we tried our best to soften the landing.

Too bad there wasn't a spicy scene like when Chris mounted Hibiki, giving her a close-up view of her stomach and enjoying her thighs. Why am I thinking like this? At least we managed to save the pilot and Nastassja. Luckily, since the pilot was busy, I lightened her burden a bit by healing Nastassja.

After a month-long mission, I was finally at a press conference with Kanade. I announced that I would pursue an idol career while revealing that I had been working with S.O.N.G. to protect Tsubasa. We also announced that Kanade's death had been faked because she was terminally ill, but after a long recovery, she was planning to return to idol activities.

The most frequently asked question was, with Kanade's return, what would happen to Scheinen Wings? I immediately stated that I would be going solo, explaining that Tsubasa's only true partner was Kanade, and I was only a temporary replacement. Kanade made a scary face, but I decided to ignore her.

"Why did you say that, Mei?"

"Well, you and Tsubasa were a duo that I was a fan of—though not as hardcore as Hibiki. I liked your duets with Tsubasa, so I was only bringing it back. Besides, my past is still there, and people will always try to use that against Tsubasa, so I think this is the right time to step back."

"Can you say that to Tsubasa?"

"Well, recently she's been getting too close to me. While it's fine for us, it doesn't look good to others; they'll think of it as a betrayal to Kanade."

"That's what she said. Tsubasa, what do you think?"

"Is that really what you think, Mei?"

"Well, I don't want to be a burden to you."

"BUT YOU'RE NOT A BURDEN TO ME."

"Wow, as I thought, you two are really close. I'm so jealous."

"Geez, Kanade, please don't tease me right now."

"Okay, okay. Besides, Mei, it's already too late for you to do that because after this, I'm doing a solo interview. Just prepare for the news."

Looking at Kanade, who was grinning, I had a bad feeling. But when I looked at Tsubasa and Shinji for answers, they only smiled at me. Somehow, Tsubasa's smile was kind of scary, and Shinji was taking out a memo, looking at it intently.

"Don't worry, Mei, just relax."

"Why do I feel like I'm going to be dragged into something troublesome?"

"Well, you still need to release your song, so just focus on that."

"You know that isn't really the song I created, right?"

"Yes, but that was in a parallel world, right? Here, no one's chasing you for it, so for me, it's fair game. Besides, you have a lot of songs you can bring here, right?"

"Yeah, but all of them aren't idol songs, you know? I never even heard an idol song in that world until I came to this world."

"It's okay, it's okay. This is a solo song, after all, so we're all good."

"You know, Shinji, the way you are sometimes, I feel like you're a fanatic about this type of stuff. But, well, it helps a lot since I don't know how to create a song in the first place."

Shinji was nodding as I looked at the three songs I was planning to release. All three of them had somehow hit me the hardest back in my previous life. Still, the composer was amazing; just hearing me sing the songs, they somehow managed to create almost the same melodies. I felt like I'd be sued for copyright infringement if the original creators reincarnated into this world.

My first song was "Unfinished" by Kotoko, my second was "Imperfect" by Masayoshi Oishi, and lastly, "Kokuhaku" by supercell. These three songs had a major impact on me in my previous life, but funnily enough, I was a single guy, so it was funny that "Kokuhaku" hit me so hard.

Let's just say I was releasing these songs without much hope. With all the scandals following me, and the fact that almost none of them were idol songs, I didn't think they'd hit that high. While "Unfinished" could somehow be made into an idol song, I didn't think you could do the same for "Imperfect" and "Kokuhaku."

But I was proven wrong. A couple of months later, they hit all-time highs, with "Kokuhaku" hitting number one, which rather surprised me. "Unfinished" was around 15th, while "Imperfect" surprisingly managed to reach 7th place. What was even more confusing were the news stories I saw.

Somehow, I was portrayed as a tragic heroine, and the songs I released told my story. I felt like a lot of it was made up, but somehow, if you didn't know the truth or the details, it kind of made sense. For example, the story for "Unfinished" was about how I met Tsubasa. "Imperfect" basically told the story of how I tried to catch up with Tsubasa's fame, and lastly, "Kokuhaku" was basically the story of how I was left alone when I was young because of the accident where my parents died.

Wasn't this a bit much? The team knew it was a lie, but Chris and Tsubasa were becoming kind, especially after I said those three songs had a huge impact on my life. This confused me even more, but when I asked why they were acting like this, they wouldn't explain it.

Then, somehow, it spread to the whole team. Even Fine started to be kinder to me, which made me want to shout and ask what was going on. In the end, I decided to give up because the next event, Carol's attack, was almost here. Genjuro said there was a signal that appeared briefly before disappearing. I heard this from Fine as well, as she was intrigued by the signal.

Seriously, things can't calm down for me, can they? Remembering how Fine is still herself, combined with Elfnein's Ignite module, we can basically upgrade our relics. Though in my case, I'll probably have to use the replica, since I don't know how we can do it otherwise, as the relic inside my body is special, according to Fine.

Still, two relics inside this crystal is big news for me. Apparently, the only ones who know about it so far are Fine and Genjuro, which makes me wonder how dangerous the other one is. This just gives me a headache.