Blostars

Destroyed, we walked out of the courtroom. The lawyer immediately bowed and apologized for not being able to do better, but we were happy that he stayed despite knowing there wasn't much to do; despite knowing it was going to taint his resume as much as mine.

There was a sea of reporters already waiting for us outside the court. The lawyer walked away and Sanae, Risa, and I took a taxi back to the studio. Since the taxi didn't want to go into the Trading District, we had to walk for five minutes with the annoying reporters following us.

We spent the next four hours together. I told everyone what happened at the court; we were all sad, but we knew it was the best outcome. Then Sanae and Risa told us what happened at the president's home. We decided what to do about the performance that was scheduled for the next day and we chatted about many things. Miraculously, the mood lightened up a bit.

Almost at midnight, we decided to return home. Sanae and Risa stayed, while the rest of us walked to Saitama. We worried about Astra going home alone and she seemed scared, so Aki let her stay at her apartment for the night.

I barely got any sleep. I kept checking the news until it finally happened: the president stepped down. The news was everywhere. Probably all over the world. He told the truth and received a lot of backlash. I felt bad for him, but at least I knew he was happy about Sanae and Risa.

The girls and I arrived at Kiku's café in the afternoon, a few minutes before the performance. There were a lot of reporters outside, so we struggled to get inside.

"Welcome back, guys," Kiku said. "With all that happened, it feels like you haven't come in ages."

"I know," I giggled. "By the way, I told some detective that I probably got hacked by using one of your computers."

"I know. A group of weird-looking people came yesterday and took the computers away."

"What? I'm really, really sorry."

"It's totally fine. I wouldn't keep them after knowing they were hacked anyway."

"I see."

"And it allowed me to free some space for your performances. Just take a look."

"Eh?"

I looked at my side. The girls stared at the interior of the café, which was completely crowded. And since there were no booths anymore, the place also seemed bigger. I started to get nervous. The girls probably were about to pass out.

"Come on," I said.

I approached the crowd first and the girls followed me. They left a space for us to walk through. I connected the speakers and the girls stood in the middle of the café. They weren't wearing their costumes; they were speaking as themselves.

"H-Hello, everyone," Sanae giggled. "You probably saw the news and already know who we are, but we will introduce ourselves anyway. I'm Sanae."

"I'm Risa."

"I'm Aki."

"I'm Umi."

"And I'm Astra."

Even I could notice that the majority of the crowd stared at Astra, but she kept smiling, not looking nervous at all.

Sanae said, "We want to clarify a few things about what happened yesterday. Yes, Risa and I are the president's… ex-president's daughters."

Risa continued, "We understand you are curious about it, but it's a sensitive topic for us and we want to ask for privacy regarding this personal matter. We hope you understand." She and Sanae bowed.

I was expecting a negative reaction from the crowd, but they seemed okay with it.

"And about me," Astra said. She deactivated her HoloForm and revealed her real appearance. "Yes, I'm an alien. We know you'll be curious about it, so it's better to show you now. It was my decision to leave this appearance in the past because I want to start a new life on Earth. That's it. There are no special reasons."

She reactivated the HoloForm and a few people surprisingly clapped.

Sanae continued, "Lastly, we need to tell you that we won't be able to do any activities as Blostars for a while."

"But wait for our comeback," Aki added. "I promise you it's going to be worth it." She winked.

Umi added, "Meanwhile, listen to our songs and watch our past performances on the QNet. Make sure to follow our social media if you like them because our return is going to be even more awesome."

"We hope you wait for us," Sanae finished.

They all bowed.

The crowd remained silent for a moment before they slowly started clapping. A couple of seconds later, practically the entire audience was clapping and cheering.

"We love your songs!" a guy shouted.

"And your performances!" a girl added.

"We want more of Blostars!"

I couldn't help but get emotional. And the girls clearly got emotional too. Astra cried and I was sure that I saw Umi sweeping her tears away with her arm.

"Thank you!" Sanae said.

They walked towards me, we stepped into the storage room, and we all hugged each other. We couldn't believe what happened. It was a bittersweet feeling. We didn't know when we were going to be able to perform publicly again, but it wasn't a goodbye.

We stayed in the storage room for a while, taking our time to breathe. Suddenly, someone knocked on the door. I opened it and a man and a woman stood behind it.

"Yes?" I said.

"Can we come in?" the man asked.

"Sorry, but we don't know—"

A portion of the man's face revealed: it was Mr. Okazaki, using HoloForm.

"Y-Yes! Please come inside."

"Thank you," he smiled.

Once they stepped inside, they deactivated their HoloForms. The woman was Mariko, Sanae's and Risa's mother.

"Mr. President!" Aki, Astra, and Umi shouted.

They stood up and bowed.

"Please, I'm not the president anymore; I'm Satoshi Okazaki. Call me Mr. Okazaki."

"And I'm Mariko Tanaka. Please call me Mariko."

"We are Sanae's and Risa's parents, but I guess you already know that."

Starstruck, Aki, Astra, and Umi stared at them.

"Anyway," Mr. Okazaki continued. "Even though we expected you weren't going to be able to perform, we wanted to watch you. We listened to your songs and watched the videos of your performances and we loved them. We became fans."

Mariko nodded. "We want to see more of Blostars already."

"And to satisfy our selfish request, we are going to give you a hand. Kaito, you're going to receive a notification in a second."

"Eh?"

Just as he said it, a message appeared on my glasses telling me that I had been transferred one million terras.

My legs became jelly and I fell to the floor.

"Kaito!" Aki shouted. She approached me. "What's wrong?"

"I… We…"

"I just transferred a million terras to his account," Mr. Okazaki answered for me.

"Eh?!" the girls uttered.

He laughed. "Remember, I did it to satisfy our selfish request." He winked. "We shall go before someone finds out we are here."

"See you soon," Mariko smiled.

They left through the emergency exit.

Aki helped me stand up.

"Kaito, did they really give you a million terras?" Sanae asked.

"Yes…"

Sanae, Risa, Astra, and even Umi gasped and hugged each other.

"We can pay the fine!" Risa said.

"We can improve our equipment and hire more people," Umi added.

"We can even travel to other planets if we want!" Astra continued.

"Hold on there," I interrupted.

"What?" they asked at the same time.

"Yes, we can do all of that, but let's take small steps. We need to work hard to learn, build a fanbase, and assure a steady source of income before worrying about becoming galactic. Blostars is just beginning to blossom, but we are going to make the greatest impact of all."

Smiling, they cheerfully replied,

"Yes!"