karenthefourth:

It was a little of both, really; Tochi did her best to keep up with Jurina, but it was more like she was being dragged along. She just wasn’t as athletic as the older girl! Not for a lack of trying or anything, Tochi just… couldn’t get into sports all that much. At all. Still, she kept any protests to herself, if she had any, as in the end, the fact was that they were going to sneak out and have fun! And obviously Jurina knew just where to go.

As they passed through the shopping district, Tochi craned her neck to try to get a good look at some of the displays in the shops they passed by, but ultimately found it to be a lost cause. She wasn’t really sure why they were passing up all these other shops (didn’t they get an income of sorts?), but her friend apparently had something in mind, so…

When they finally stopped, Tochi had to blink a few times to make sure she was seeing things correctly; she didn’t have anything against thrift shops, but… what was special about this place that made Jurina want to take her here? Finally, the older girl explained, and it all made sense. “Oh! I get it now,” she exclaimed, nodding, “So you shop here alot?”

Jurina grinned. “All the time!” She pushed the door open with a flourish, hoping to surprise her friend.

The inside was nothing like the outside. Whilst the exterior made people look away from the shop by giving the feeling of being run-down, the inside was anything but that - in fact, it would give plenty of the designer stores they had passed by before a run for their money. Everything almost sparkled - the clothes were all lined up nicely on the racks, the displays were neat and professional, and there was an extremely wide range of clothing to choose from. The only thing missing was customers…The shop almost seemed like a ghost shop, save for a single clerk standing behind the desk who gave the two girls a bright smile. For some reason, she was wearing a maid outfit. Jurina waved to her, returning the smile.

“Hiya, Eri-chan!”

She once again grabbed hold of her friend’s hand, not waiting to see Tochi’s reaction to the bizzare contrast between interior and exterior or the maid, dragging her through until they reached a door which was locked shut.

“This section is locked for a reason - the clothing in here is super special and rare! I…think you’ll like it, To-Karen-chan! It’s not the kind of stuff you can find anywhere else!”

She pulled a key from her pocket and opened the door dramatically, revealing the inside.

Row by row, from ground to ceiling, there were AKB uniforms. From Uza to Beginner, River to Heavy Rotation, even the lesser known songs - if there was a costume for that particular song, it was there. They were organised by song and by member, each having their own little taste added in for extra effect.

“Ta-dah~!”

karenthefourth:

jurinathesecond:

On the other hand though, Jurina personally got along very well with Yuko. Jurina was very touchy-feely with some of the younger girls who she thought were cute, and Yuko always seemed to be around to take embarrassing photos of their reactions. A mutual sort of alliance had been formed between them from this weirdest of relationships.

Rooming with Yuko however, was definitely not an experience that Jurina imagined she would enjoy.

Jurina suddenly sat up, eyes twinkling with a mischievous glint that spelled trouble. “Let’s sneak out! I’m not sure where Seika is though…” She pouted a bit there - their different schedules really clashed at times like this. Seika was still on the KKS schedule, while Tochi and Jurina were on completely different ones as well due to the times of their succession - Tochi’s schedule appeared to have settled down into a norm by now, but Jurina’s was still changing around a lot due to Tsubasa trying to fit her in with the other successors.

Fitting in wasn’t exactly something she was good at though.

She shrugged it off. “Whatever, we’ll kidnap her later. Let’s hit the town and have some fun!”

“Sneak out?” Tochi repeated. She didn’t have any practice scheduled for today, but she imagined Jurina did. Still, if Jurina wanted to sneak out, then Tochi wasn’t complaining. “I don’t know where Seika is, either, but…”

She’d hate to have Seika miss out on the fun, but certainly, she had no idea where her friend was, or where to even begin. And she didn’t want to miss out on the fun herself because she spent all day looking for her, either…

“Ah! Yeah, we can text her later,” Tochi agreed, nodding, “Let’s go!”

Jurina fortunately didn’t have practice until the next day, hence why she suggested sneaking out…Although she did practice a lot by herself like all of the successors, she had decided to take the evening off for once. ‘Gotta have some fun once in a while, right?' she thought. Not like practice wasn’t fun, she actually really enjoyed sweating and dancing - but she wanted a different kind of fun.

“We’ll take lots of pictures to make her jealous that she didn’t come!” Jurina giggled. “Come on!” Grabbing the other girl’s hand, she almost flew towards the exit, not looking back to see if Tochi was keeping up or if she was literally being dragged along.

There were lots of places she wanted to go, and seeing how familiar she was with Akibastar, she was already headed towards the first destination - the shopping district! Because what girl didn’t like to shop? She ran past a bunch of designer brand clothing shops, not even sparing them a glance, before stopping very abruptly in front of what looked like a run-down thrift shop.

She turned to Tochi, eyes sparkling. “This is my favourite clothing shop! They don’t do designer, but everyone’s really friendly and their sense of style is the best in Akibastar, in my opinion! They also have a rather unique section of clothing that…Ah, you’ll see when we get to that!”

karenthefourth:

“I do, too!” Tochi exclaimed, agreeing with Jurina, “It really sucks that we all have different schedules now, and had to move- now we don’t don’t get to hang out as often anymore.”

She hoped that this would change for her birthday- it would majorly suck if all her friends were too busy to do anything with her- but she also knew she wasn’t the one calling the shots. That was Tsubasa’s job, and although she seemed lenient at times, Tochi still didn’t expect her to be going about granting special requests like this.

“We really need to find some day when we can all get together and watch a movie or something- the three of us, I mean,” she mumbled, suddenly feeling a bit down about the situation.

On the other hand though, Jurina personally got along very well with Yuko. Jurina was very touchy-feely with some of the younger girls who she thought were cute, and Yuko always seemed to be around to take embarrassing photos of their reactions. A mutual sort of alliance had been formed between them from this weirdest of relationships.

Rooming with Yuko however, was definitely not an experience that Jurina imagined she would enjoy.

Jurina suddenly sat up, eyes twinkling with a mischievous glint that spelled trouble. “Let’s sneak out I’m not sure where Seika is though…” She pouted a bit there - their different schedules really clashed at times like this. Seika was still on the KKS schedule, while Tochi and Jurina were on completely different ones as well due to the times of their succession - Tochi’s schedule appeared to have settled down into a norm by now, but Jurina’s was still changing around a lot due to Tsubasa trying to fit her in with the other successors.

Fitting in wasn’t exactly something she was good at though.

She shrugged it off. “Whatever, we’ll kidnap her later. Let’s hit the town and have some fun!”

karenthefourth:

“Eh? Really? Well, okay, then I’m gonna keep calling you Miyuki, then,” Tochi decided, nodding. It might have seemed natural to others to start calling a new successor by their new name, but Tochi… wasn’t as…

Well, she had less exposure to 0048 than some of the other girls, in the end, so what was standard to them was weird to her. Oh well, she’d probably get into the habit of calling Miyuki ‘Jurina’ eventually… probably sooner than she’d get used to being called ‘Karen’.

At the question of sharing a room with Jurina, though, Tochi’s thoughts drifted back towards the present, and she considered the offer. Ideally, she wanted to be roommates with Seika and Miyuki again, but Seika hadn’t succeeded yet, and successors generally were two to a room. 

Realizing Jurina (Miyuki) was probably wating for an answer though, Tochi finally spoke up. “That’d be great!” she said, thinking that rooming with at least one friend would be better than rooming with Yuko.

“But we’d have to run that by Tsubasa-san first, wouldn’t we…?”

Jurina smiled. It was obvious what plagued her friend’s mind - everyone knew by now that Tochi still responded more often to Tochi, rather than Karen. She wasn’t like Jurina or Mariko, who had almost instantly accepted their new names as their own.

Jurina clapped her hands in excitement as Tochi agreed to the offer. “Awesome! Of course we’d have to run it by Tsubasa-san first, but I’m sure she wouldn’t mind! After all…” Jurina lowered her voice a little, as though not wanting to be overheard. “I don’t think anyone but the former Nyan Nyan could room with Yuko and bear with it.” She winked and giggled. “Don’t tell Yuko I said that though!”

She sighed and looked up at the ceiling blissfully, the expression crossing her face that was rather common nowadays for her - a rather in-her-own-world one, her friends liked to call it. It was one trait she didn’t appear to share with the original Jurina - although they both had a rather unique cheeky smile and were both extremely energetic, the original was always sharp and on-target, impressive considering her age when she first became a centre. On the other hand, Jurina the second was rather…Airheaded.

“It’s been really busy these days,” she murmured. “I miss spending time with you and Seika and the other girls of our generation like we used to.”

karenthefourth:

jurinathesecond:

Now that Jurina had finally succeeded, it was natural for the spotlight to be on her…Seeing as she was the first to succeed the name. But she was tired of being followed around by the media. Sick and tired of the same questions, over and over again, all the same interviews.

How does it feel being the first to succeed Jurina? It feels great, of course. I’m really honoured.

Does it mean something that you succeeded so quickly? Of course not. I think every girl will succeed if they are meant to, regardless of when they do so. And I think you guys are also forgetting that Karen succeeded much earlier than me.

What do you think your standing among 0048 is now? *laughs* Still fresh off being a kenyuusei, aren’t I? Doesn’t matter who I succeeded, I’m still a junior.

And so on.

By now, Jurina had already memorised all the questions that would be thrown at her with each interview, and the answers she would give. But there was still something that really ticked her off from the interviewers questions.

Why do they talk as though she’s the first of the 78th generation to succeed?

That was just disrespect to Karen, who was her friend. And whoever disrespected her friends…Got a death glare from Jurina as a result.

‘Ah, now that I’ve succeeded…I have to move, don’t I? I wonder who my new roommate will be…’

Spotting Karen gazing intently at a puzzle with a pen in hand, Jurina sidled over to her quietly…And hugged her from behind.

“Surprise!”

As involved in her own thoughts and the puzzle at hand as she was, Tochi hadn’t heard Jurina approach, and was caught offguard by the surprise attack hug. With a small shriek, Tochi dropped the pen in her hand, panicking, before realizing the owner of the voice. Once she realized it was someone she knew, and not an enemy, she relaxed…

… A little bit.

“Ah! Miyu- um… Jurina??” Tochi exclaimed, not quite accustomed to calling Miyuki by her new name yet (Tochi didn’t quite understand the concept of abandoning your old name upon succession and simply thought of ‘Karen’ as her ‘idol persona’).

“When did you get here?”

“You can still call me Miyuki if you want, Tochi-chaaan~” Jurina said, snuggling against her friend. “I’ve been hiding in the shadows for hours now!” she joked. Jurina for one had embraced her new name - although she hadn’t thrown away her old one, she was proud of the fact that she had succeeded the Jurina name, and intended to use it whenever possible. She didn’t just want to be a successor of the original, she wanted to be remembered as an individual Jurina as well.

Well, it made sense in her mind.

Letting go of Tochi and lying her head down on the younger girl’s lap, she looked up at her friend’s face contemplatively. She felt as though they hadn’t had the chance to catch up in ages, ever since Tochi had moved into the successor’s rooms…With Yuko. Jurina felt a twinge of pain on Tochi’s behalf - it was well known that Yuko liked to tease her kouhai, and living in the same room as her, Tochi must have her own set of troubles to deal with.

As for Jurina, she was rather lonely. After having succeeded, she had moved out of the kenkyuusei rooms, and into an empty successor one…Which meant she was yet to get a room-mate. She was aware that Yuka would succeed soon, but she still wanted to share a room with one of her fellow 78th generation friends.

'So what about Tochi?’

The thought ran through her mind, and she smiled brightly up at the other girl from her lap. “Hey, Tochi! Wanna be room-mates again?”

karenthefourth:

New years, schmew years.

Although Tochi was happy that the focus had shifted off her, now that Miyuki had succeeded and Mariko had won the janken tournament, she couldn’t help but feel bummed. Already it was like people had forgotten that she was the first of the 78th gen to succeed, instead marveling over how ‘fast’ Miyuki had succeeded. It was such a big deal that Miyuki was supposedly the first to succeed Jurina, sure, but Tochi admittedly missed being in the spotlight, even if she was, well, the fourth to succeed Karen (who wasn’t exactly a big name). Why did her ‘fifteen minutes of fame’ have to end so soon, huh?

More importantly, though, Tochi had something else on her mind. She wanted to visit home, Destinystar, despite having spent a good portion of her kks days trying to avoid being sent back. She supposed it had to do with her parents being back from vacation- she hadn’t seen them in awhile, but maybe also because her birthday was coming up in a month. But Destinystar was so far away, and it was doubtful 00 would ever perform there- Tochi had a better chance at begging Tsubasa to assign her to another room so she didn’t have to live in constant fear of Yuko’s antics.

Which was something else she had been thinking about, too, but still.

Chewing on her pen thoughtfully (she had been working on a crossword puzzle), Tochi frowned, wondering why idol life had to be so hard sometimes. It was a lot of work, and while she wasn’t as terrible of a slacker as Mariel, she still had her moments.

Heaving a (perhaps exaggerated) sigh, Tochi returned her attention to the puzzle, aiming to get that done before she maybe went to go look for Tsubasa to plead her case.

If she could be said to have any New Year’s resolutions, ‘getting a new roommate’ was at the top of the list.

Along with, maybe, ‘become more famous’.

Now that Jurina had finally succeeded, it was natural for the spotlight to be on her…Seeing as she was the first to succeed the name. But she was tired of being followed around by the media. Sick and tired of the same questions, over and over again, all the same interviews.

How does it feel being the first to succeed Jurina? It feels great, of course. I’m really honoured.

Does it mean something that you succeeded so quickly? Of course not. I think every girl will succeed if they are meant to, regardless of when they do so. And I think you guys are also forgetting that Karen succeeded much earlier than me.

What do you think your standing among 0048 is now? *laughs* Still fresh off being a kenyuusei, aren’t I? Doesn’t matter who I succeeded, I’m still a junior.

And so on.

By now, Jurina had already memorised all the questions that would be thrown at her with each interview, and the answers she would give. But there was still something that really ticked her off from the interviewers questions.

Why do they talk as though she’s the first of the 78th generation to succeed?

That was just disrespect to Karen, who was her friend. And whoever disrespected her friends…Got a death glare from Jurina as a result.

‘Ah, now that I’ve succeeded…I have to move, don’t I? I wonder who my new roommate will be…’

Spotting Karen gazing intently at a puzzle with a pen in hand, Jurina sidled over to her quietly…And hugged her from behind.

“Surprise!”