EE Chapter 23

# Chapter Twenty-three - "In the Name of Idols Everywhere!"

Match One

    It was barely one full minute out from the buzzer before Yume managed to run around the right perimeter of the arena and circle back to attempt an ambush on her opponents' starting position. Much to her surprise the less enthusiastic team had agreed to put in a legitimate effort - there are, after all, few things more embarrassing than being upstaged by the other members of your own group, and the newest ones at that - and in that short time her quarry had fanned out away from their initial location.

    *It's not a complete loss*, reasoned Yume. *I know that I must be behind them.*

    Ducking low to the ground - lower than any of the other girls could manage - she stalked back the way she came, hoping to catch one of the other girls unaware. A mere few steps into her hunt, Yume heard the soft footsteps of another idol just behind her.

    *A trap!*

    She spun around, clutching her phaser in both hands and pulling the trigger as quickly as her tiny fingers could manage, but found herself facing an empty stretch of ramp leading to an equally empty section of high black wall. Suddenly the same sound of tiny footsteps could be heard behind her again, from exactly where she had just been focused. Yume spun again, completing her circle, firing wildly into nothingness. Confused, she pressed onward. The arena was deathly quiet, a sign that none of her friends had managed to land a successful hit yet, though this only made Yume more anxious. She wanted to beat Akira to the punch and secure bragging rights by scoring the first hit.

    A third run of footsteps made Yume spin to her left. For a third time she found herself looking at nothing but the arena, until she noticed a sliver of orange peeking above a pile of black foam rocks. An orange distinctly different from the pink and green fluorescent paints splashed against every other surface in the arena. The exact same orange as the trademark cap worn by one of her new group mates.

    Yume snuck up on the other girl's hiding place as quietly and as quickly as she could and took a deep breath.

    "Found you!"

    In one fluid motion she stepped around the obstacle and pulled the trigger of her phaser in a frenzy, aiming where she assumed the girl's vest would be. She was shocked to discover, instead of her group mate, nothing at all except an orange hat pulled over one of the foam rocks. Before it could even register that she had been fooled, Yume's vest started flashing along with the lights in the ceiling. She had walked right into an ambush, and with it allowed the first points of the match to be scored by the enemy. Looking around in disbelief, she hadn't been hunting Kanon at all. Instead she had been *hunted*, by none other than her new green-haired group mate, who was laughing and pumping her fist in the air at scoring the first shot. Yume bowed and smiled before Chiyo ran back off into the darkness.

    *This is going to be a lot more interesting than I thought…*

The Moon Idols - 1100 points

Les Cinq Belles - 0000 points

Match Two

    "I found you!" Rinko shouted, giving up any element of surprise she may have had. She pulled the trigger of her phaser wildly, though none of her shots found their target.

    The girl she had found jumped backwards and shouted back. "Hanarin! Don't shoot! I'm not ready yet!"

    "Sorry! What's wrong?"

    Dam-Bi struck a pose, her feet planted apart, one arm across her chest and the other clutching her phaser above her head by the stock like a sword or hammer.

    "In the name of all the idols who came before me, I will be victorious! Moon Idol Magi-Powers TRANSFORM!"

    Rinko stood confused as her friend spun and danced in circles, her long black skirt billowing around her as she waved her phaser about like a wand. When she stopped moving, striking the same pose as she had before her transformation started, her violet-colored cashmere cardigan had been removed and retied around her neck as a cape.

    Rinko clapped the best she could with her phaser in her hands. "That was great! I wanna try too!"

    "Thanks! I learned it from an anime! Go ahead, I'll wait!"

    "In the name of idols everywhere, Magical Moon Metamorphosis ACTIVATE!"

    Rinko stood on one foot and raised both arms above her head, then danced around in place, twirling a few times and ending with a large kick to her side, which she held as Dam-Bi applauded. Immediately, the lights on Rinko's harness started flashing.

    "Whuh? Dam-Bi!"

    "I didn't do it! I don't even know how to make the thing work!"

    "I got one!” Megumi shouted, standing up from behind one of the arena's barricades in a flash of atypical passion. "I'm sorry, Ms. Hanazawa. But I believe you and Ms. Han may have forgotten the goals of the game."

    "Ah!" Dam-Bi got startled by everything going on and thrust her phaser in Megumi's direction, accidentally setting off the trigger. Rows of flashing red lights flickered across Megumi's chest, the victim of friendly fire. "Sorry, Megumin!"

    Rinko laughed as the two teammates got in a small tiff before she had an idea. A second later Dam-Bi's harness lit up as well.

    "Hanarin!"

    "Sorry, Dam-Bi! Good luck! Gotta go!"

    As Rinko ran back the direction she had come, Dam-Bi and Megumi exchanged a glance and a frown and chased after her.

The Moon Idols - 1400 points

Les Cinq Belles - 0750 points

Match Three

    *I was hoping it would be you.*

    Akira laughed as she snuck up on the other team's farthest corner. This is what Akira had been fantasizing about from the moment she knew what they were going to be doing today. Alone, up against the back wall of the arena, stood Eimi Inagawa, one foot gingerly kicked back to rest against the wall.

    "Like taking candy from a-whah?!" Akira gasped as the blonde turned her head and made sudden eye contact.

    *How did she know I was coming this way?*

    Eimi slowly stood up straight and lifted her phaser, turning to face Akira directly.

    "Just turn around and go after someone your own speed, okay? You're as outclassed here as you are on the stage." Eimi flicked her phaser sharply to the right, maintaining eye contact as she pulled the trigger once. The unmistakable sound of a sensor vest's penalty lights could be heard in the distance as the lights above us flashed rapidly, accompanied by a confused cry of disappointment.

    Akira straightened herself up as well. If this is how Eimi wants to play it, she would be happy to oblige.

    "What's your problem anyway, huh Eimi? You're making it kinda hard to like you, ya know? Being cute won't excuse bad manners."

    "What do you know about manners? Aren't you some kind of street dancer?” Eimi sneered, somehow managing to even make that look cute.

    "Not anymore. Now I'm a super cute idol, just like you. So come on, Eimi! Let's just be friends! I bet I could help you lose those few stubborn pounds if you want!"

    The blonde sputtered indignantly at Akira's backhanded compliment and started walking toward her angrily. They ended up face to face, practically nose to nose, exchanging a glare.

    "I do NOT need to lose any weight!"

    "Maybe you're right. You do carry it all pretty well!"

    "Why you carrot-colored delinquent!" Eimi raised up on her tiptoes to better look Akira in the eye, only to discover why heels are a terrible choice for laser tag. She grabbed at Akira's strong shoulders with her free hand to steady herself, managing to take hold of a fistful of fabric and pulling both of them to the ground in a heap.

    "Get off of me, you weirdo! Jeez!" Eimi raged at the girl who had landed on top of her, even though it was entirely her own fault.

    "Gladly!"

    Akira was able to get to her feet easily. She extended a hand to the fallen idol only for Eimi to slap it away when she started laughing.

    "What's so funny?!"

    Akira pointed at the flashing lights covering Eimi's torso.

    "You shot yourself for me! I knew we were gonna be good friends."

    While Eimi was scrambling to her feet, Akira leveled her phaser and fired once. She wanted the arena's computers to remember who emerged victorious today.

The Moon Idols - 1975 points

Les Cinq Belles - 2215 points

Match Four

    Being generally small comes with its fair share of drawbacks, many of which are encountered on a near daily basis. Tall shelves, for example, present a particularly common problem. Cabinets too. Even walking can be irksome, if you're attempting to keep pace with someone with a significantly longer stride. This isn't to say that there are no advantages to being small. Taking up less space can be a good thing, especially when you have so many friends who want to do things all together, and it's an incredibly convenient way to save on blankets, closet space, even laundry - smaller clothes mean fewer loads to finish on wash day. At times like this, being aggressively small offers a similar mixed bag of benefits and drawbacks.

    The chief benefit, as near as Kanon could tell, is that being a bit of a waif meant that she was also a smaller target than most of the rest of her friends. In the sometimes cramped hallways of the arena, it also afforded her a measure of stealth, allowing her to move obscured from behind a small pile of faux boulders to a short stack of old spray painted tires a few paces closer to her quarry. The unfortunate downside to her diminutive stature is that Kanon has been relegated to practicing guerilla tactics, striking from the shadows only to melt back into the scenery before going on the run and striking again.

    All this sneaking and running is positively exhausting, and Kanon wondered if perhaps it wouldn't have been wiser to practice strength in numbers. In much the same way that a hive of honeybees can overwhelm and fend off a wasp by working together, perhaps scoring points against a larger foe would be more effective in a swarm, or a pack, or whatever the proper nomenclature is for a collective of idols.

    *A troupe? That's what dancers are called, and we're a type of dancer, I guess…*

    A short distance ahead - about fifteen meters, if Mrs. Shinsato's geometry lessons were any good - stood Kanon's quarry. When the group of girls had been split into teams, a plan had been hatched immediately by Kanon's teammates. The premise was simple. A certain blonde idol on Kanon's team felt it would be fun to show the new girls what a group of seasoned idols could do. To further her idea, Eimi had put forth an additional bet alongside the wager for this afternoon's snacks.

    *"First one to score a hit on the newest girl gets free desserts for a month!"*

    Kanon felt no malice toward Kazue. Quite the opposite, in fact. She found several things to like about the girl, despite barely knowing her. She liked her short blonde hairstyle. She liked that her clothing looked to be rather comfortable - a quality which Kanon considers in her own wardrobe quite mindfully. However, as much as Kanon believes she may come to like Kazue as a new group mate and friend, Kanon also couldn't deny that she was quite fond of the desserts at the group's favorite bakery. And given a month of free desserts, Kanon was positive that she would be able to tame any guilt she felt about stalking the girl.

    Slowly, Kanon inched forward from her hiding spot. At last she had lined up a clear shot and, breathing calmly, she gripped her phaser with both hands and gently pulled the-

    "Non!"

    The lights crisscrossing Kanon's chest started blinking a bright crimson.

    "Do not sneak up on Mademoiselle Kazue. It is très rude."

    "Aww…" Kanon could taste all the desserts she wouldn't be eating slipping away. The other girl, Kanon's intended target, ran over to them, pulling her trigger wildly, though it had no effect. Kanon's sensors had not reset yet.

    "Did I get her?" Kazue asked, still not entirely sure how the game was meant to be played, but enjoying it a great deal more than she had expected.

    "Oui! Excellent job!"

    "What do we do next?" Kazue asked excitedly. She still wasn't sold on ever becoming an idol, but she had warmed to the idea of occasionally spending time with others. Perhaps once or twice a month, if all her schoolwork were completed, something like this wouldn't be the worst possible use of her time and energy.

    "I have an idea…" Their captive - at least in spirit, as Kazue and Anette both found themselves training their phasers on Kanon as she spoke - had an idea. "We should all go find Eimi…"

    Anette and Kazue shared a wordless glance, exchanging all that needed to be communicated.

    "Oui! Let's find Mademoiselle Eimi at once! We should find Yume too. She'll think it's très funny."

    "Chiyo too…"

Final Scores:

The Moon Idols - 3450 points

Les Cinq Belles - 8265 points

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