ID Chapter 10

# Chapter Ten - "A Vision of the Future"

### Rinko

    *Everything was dark - completely dark - but despite that, somehow, I knew exactly where I was. Voices, hundreds or maybe thousands, rumbled somewhere close… close enough that I could feel the rhythm of them chanting in my chest. It got louder and louder, a sea of rainbow colored pen lights flickering in the darkness, until the stage lights came on and the roar tapered off into nothing but excited whispers. Suddenly the brightest light I'd ever seen shone directly on me, joined by another, then another, and even more until the stage was awash in a golden glow, the girls around me - nearly a dozen - each basking in their own pillar of light. The audience came alive once more, yelling and cheering for us. I took a few steps forward to the front of the stage, and the cheering once again stopped. All those people, just waiting to hear what I had to say. When I spoke it wasn't just as myself, but as a choir of voices, each in perfect unison.*

*"Hello everyone! WE! ARE!"*

    "Inmng… we… are… eh? Junko?!"

    "Morning, sleepyhead."

    "Good morn… oh no! Did I sleep through it?" My roommate chuckled lightly as she pulled off my blanket, revealing the full schoolgirl-style costume we were wearing for our street promotions. Once my eyes adjusted to being awake, the answer should have been obvious since Junko was wearing the same thing, rather than pajamas or our blue and gold Mizoroge uniforms.

    "No, silly. You just fell asleep right after changing from all the ways you've been overexerting yourself lately, and you were too cute to wake up until I had to. But now we really do need to hurry to meet everyone."

    "Then let's go!" I rolled out of bed and directly into a sprint toward our door before stopping and regrouping myself, smoothing out my costume, and checking my hair in our mirror. Junko's been making sure I always look "put together and made up, like an idol should be" before I leave our room lately, and I guess the lessons are starting to stick. Before I could start moving again she caught up to me and gave me a pat on the head, for which I gave her a quick hug.

    "Thanks for always looking out for me, Junko. I really appreciat-oh no! We have to get going right now!"

    "You're welcome, and I made sure we had a few minutes so you won't have to run around and exhaust yourself even more."

    "Dam-Bi's gonna hate me! I was supposed to help her get everything ready for tonight! Come on!"

    I dragged my roommate by the arm out of our room and down the hall. I appreciate the nap, I really do, but I must not have mentioned that Dam-Bi and I were going to be getting all of the flyers ready for today's canvassing. Instead I took a nap like a layabout, and even worse I made her do all of that work on her own. As we ran to the elevator, Junko was doing a pretty good job keeping up with me in the wedges she had chosen for tonight, though she was starting to look pretty red by the time we arrived, which is why I fought my instinct to just dash up the stairs and actually waited for one of our super slow elevators to arrive. After a short ride upstairs - during which she reclaimed her arm for herself - and a quick rush to the commons area we arrived to find Dam-Bi waiting for us along with our two most junior members.

    "IMSOSORRYIFELLASLEEPAND-"

    I'm pretty sure Dam-Bi blocked out most of my apology, unless it was able to make it past the fingers she quickly shoved in her ears.

    "S-Sorry! At least we aren't last? What can we do?!"

    "Hi Hanarin! Juney! Don't worry about it at all, Chiyo and Kanon helped once they finished moving." I looked at the two girls - sitting together on the short side of the table - slightly confused, but happy that Dam-Bi hadn't needed to do the entire thing on her own.

    "Momo helped too!"

    I let out a small squee as Chiyo held up my favorite hamster in her outstretched palms.

    "Really?! How did she help? Did you teach her how to sign your autograph for you?"

    "No! But we-"

    "Mostly she helped with flyers…" Our silver-haired cutiemuffin held up about half of a sheet of paper, its edges well-gnawed and chewed on. Even Junko giggled at how cute it was.

    "Ok you two, go put Momofuwa away before you leave. The cold out there isn't hamster friendly."

    "Right! C'mon Kanon, let's go pass out a million flyers!" Chiyo ran off down the hall like a green-tailed comet, and was practically out of sight before Kanon even started moving. The girl left behind just shrugged it off, grabbed two of the large I MY ME tote bags full of supplies, and walked rather normally after her buddy for the evening.

    "Make sure to wear warm socks. And take a break if you get too cold. Do your best!" My roommate hurled progressively louder advice at the girl walking away, who turned and gave us a smile and a nod of her head. I had a thought that made me laugh loudly.

    "Junko, you're the group mom! You take such good care of all of us!" Our ravenette found this as funny as I did, a quick laugh erupting from her lungs before she could hold it in. Junko turned red as a tomato, fighting to say anything in response. "Or maybe the big sister? You're our onee-san, Junko."

    "Isn't Juney younger than you though? Doesn't seem very nice to tease her like that."

    "Only by three weeks, and she's the responsible one, so she's actually more like a…"

    *Oh right. I actually am a big sister…*

    "Sorry, Junko. Ready to get going?"

    "Y-Yeah." She grabbed one of the totes and turned directly back toward the stairs.

    "Thanks again, Dam-Bi! And I'm still sorry! I'll work extra hard to make it up to you!" I grabbed the two bags sitting on the table and slung one over each shoulder. It would mean handing out double the flyers, but that would be a piece of cake. As I hit the stairs I paused and stopped to wish Dam-Bi a good evening before rushing to catch up with Junko.  "Have fun with Megumi and Eimi!"

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