#paruru8th

♪:   I've put all of my songs on shuffle- now I have to write a drabble involving our muses with the next song that comes on.

Chieri often wondered how different being an idol now was to being an idol back on Earth. Of course, apart from being a defence squad, surely there wasn't much difference? 

Not everyday was sunny, despite the fact that that was their goal. Sunshine and rainbows for everyone, right? But until then, on days that they felt they couldn't keep going, they had to push forward regardless. For themselves, for AKB0048, for Akibastar, for the galaxy. 

AKB0048 was at a handshake event, much like her first. She had her own lane now, with Paruru across from her in her own lane too. The planet they were on was small, and their defence force minuscule - as awful as it sounded, Chieri couldn't really say she was surprised when she heard the alarms sound. 

Paruru caught her eye and they went to work instantly. "Get to safety!" "Don't push, everything will be fine!" "Please be patient, everything will be okay, theres no need to panic!" 

Once the people in their lanes were ushered off, mixing in with the crowd trying to make a hasty exit, the successor and centre nova turned to their own swarm. 

"This is something only we can do! This planet asked for us - we can't let them down!" Chieri nodded in response. 

After taking down a soldier, he spat at her, angrily demanding why she thought she was right, why she persisted to fight. "You've already lost your father! You'll only continue to lose! Whats the point in fighting when you'll never win?!"

"To protect the fans who risk everything to come to see us is our goal. To give them dreams, to strengthen the will for peace and freedom. It's corny, but the strength you get when you believe in something, when you're brave enough to go for it.." Chieri smiled slightly. "With that, theres no way we could possibly lose!"

The sun had gone down by the time the mess had been cleaned up. A few fans had hung around, watching and recording the fight, but most had left, rightfully fleeing, so the handshake had to be rescheduled.

"Paruru-san, you aren't hurt, are you?" The successor smiled slightly, exhausted but safe. "Not at all." They made their way to the dressing rooms, getting drinks along the way.

"You know, Chieri, we're free to do what we please. We don't follow the rules the DGTO lays down, creating our own way to live. Our goal isn't an easy one, taking us far across the galaxy and into danger more often than not." Paruru smiled and sat at the table, opening her drink. "But I think thats important. Its a way to grow, to really find what you believe in, to create yourself by defending those things."

"The self that we're building to protect people.... When I joined, I just wanted to be the best, to be the strongest... Thats.. not entirely wrong, is it? We need to bring down DES, but perhaps it isn't by physical strength, but the strength of passion and determination?"

The successor nodded. "Being determined in our belief will make us strong. A weapon without being a weapon, in a sense."

The conversation lulled and the drinks were finished. AKB0048 stayed in a hotel that night, with the handshake again tomorrow. Being across from each other again, Paruru and Chieri smiled at each other before the first fans were let through. 

At this point, Seika was starting to wonder if she was going to succeed or not. Of course, she loved AKB. She loved all the 48 Groups. She loved AKB0048. She loved Aanya. 

But what if that wasn't enough? What if she was going to be a kenkyuusei forever? Kaotan was, but that was her own choice. The originals were different. But to stay a kenkyuusei forever now... It was heart breaking.

Yuko wandered around Akibastar, camera in her hand at the ready. She loved the scenery and the people around here, and her weekly trips around to take photos hadn't stopped even after she had succeeded.

"Oshima Yuko, huh," Yuko said to herself, and laughed. It would take a while to get used to her new name.

Right now, 0048 was firmly entrenched in the 'Acchan the 13th' era. Noone had been able to wrench the Center Nova position away from her, and despite valiant efforts in every election, even Sasshi had fallen short. Yuko, on the other hand, had just succeed her name. Despite how prestigious it was to succeed the name of the Oshima Yuko, she was determined she wouldn't also end up like the original. She didn't want to spend her entire idol life living under the shadow of Acchan.

Yuko had her camera on her like always. She had planned to take some sneak shots of Karen while she was sleeping, but the other girl had somehow escaped the room before Yuko woke up. She wandered around the dorms, humming to herself and taking snapshots of the girls who walked past. Pretty much all of the successors were used to it by now, and she didn't capture many surprised expressions on their behalf. The interesting ones were the quick shots of the kenkyuusei. She chuckled as she cycled through the photos, then heard a noise from the door beside her. She grinned and readied her camera, and burst through the door, shouting "Cheese!"

Tsubasa sat in the dining room. It was after midnight sometime and she'd come down to get something, having been in a meeting when dinner had been on and then simply not getting anything earlier.

She had with her her iPad and was lazily flicking through some items when the door opened. Looking up, she spotted Paruru. Tsubasa smiled lightly at the sleepy look on the successor's face.

Akibastar had a weather system to keep things under control. Most of the time, it was pretty nice - the sun shone brightly, there was enough wind to keep you cool but not to blow things around, and it wasn't too hot or cold. But obviously the weather man had gone on vacation.

Chieri had gotten up early to practice and had practiced hard, but was currently lying on the floor of the practice room with the air conditioner going at full blast. If someone came in, she'd probably just roll to the other side of the room, enjoying the coolness of the floor. (Okay, she wouldn't because she liked to think she had a cool image but hey)

*I've made Chieri's relationship page~ I've never done one before, so its a bit awkward still but I hope you like it anyway! Tochi's img is being a little bugger so I'll fix that later  (If you'd like to be added, please send me a message~)*

To Seika, all members of the group, both original and past successors, were wonderful. But the fact was, some members were just more popular than others.