MARI: "Our new dance moves are getting a lot more in sync. I can't wait until they're perfect!"
AKI: "Yup. Especially the pose everyone strikes at the end. When I saw you all land it at the same time, I got chills!"
DIA: "Thank you very much. Practice felt more like we were doing a real performance because you took time to come watch us."
KANAN: "Having someone watch really does help us get in the zone. Oh yeah, and that pose at the end was Mari's idea!"
AKI: "It was? It turned out great!"
MARI: "Thank you so much. I wanted to make sure our Aqours appeal was turned up to the max. I'm glad that came through."
KANAN: "Though, other than your last idea, everything else you suggested was way over the top and got rejected."
DIA: "One of your ideas was to have us stand on each other's shoulders and backflip off each other starting with the person on top. That's more like acrobatics than dancing."
MARI: "But wouldn't it have been great if we could've pulled that off?"
AKI: "If the pressure of everyone standing on top of each other isn't enough to snap your ankles, the fall from the top most definitely will be."
KANAN: "See? *Sigh* Since we first met you've always come up with the craziest ideas, Mari. Both as kids and school idols."
AKI: "Oh yeah, didn't the original Aqours start as you three? I've been really curious as to what those times were like.
Did you always discuss everything together like this, even back then?"
MARI: "We did. We always strove for the shiny glory at the end of a new winding road, and every day we pushed each other with shiny, devoted passion!"
KANAN: "We always chat and have a good time like this now, but at the start we weren't like this at all."
AKI: "Really?"
DIA: "For starters, Mari had no idea what a school idol even was at the beginning. Kanan and I taught her as much as we could."
MARI: "Thanks to them my body and mind were completely rebuilt from the ground up."
KANAN: "That's a weird way to put it."
AKI: "So that means...Aqours wasn't Mari's idea to begin with? That's not what I expected. She seems like the type of person who'd come up with such an idea first."
MARI: *Chuckle* "Surprised? I was too when Dia and Kanan invited me to join. Being an idol at school wasn't something I ever considered.
But once I started practicing, I became obsessed. I loved singing and dancing so much. I wanted to keep performing as Aqours, but..."
AKI: "That's...when it happened, right?"
DIA: "Yes. Aqours actually broke up at one point. The Aqours we have today is made up of the members Chika pulled together. A brand new Aqours."
AKI: "You touched briefly on it at the Joint Solo Live Show, but... What actually happened between you?
What was so bad that it broke you apart for two whole years?"
KANAN: "Well... A lot, actually."
MARI: "Kanan had to cover for me about some things, Dia hid some things behind her back, a lot of stuff."
KANAN: "You tried to perform on stage with an injury and turned down a study abroad opportunity to be a school idol. How could we not worry about that?!"
MARI: "I was fine with it so why do you care?! Besides, if you were so worried about me then you should have said something. Why did you have to keep quiet?!"
DIA: "That is quite enough you two! Yelling at each other like that is a public nuisance!"
AKI: "S-So you girls have a lot of history too, huh.
However, I think you should ask yourselves this...
What if you'd never broken up? What do you think Aqours would be doing now?"
MARI: "Well, we probably would have just kept it to the three of-
No... I bet we still would have met Chika-chi and the others, and we still would have ended up as nine."
AKI: "I see... If you say so, then I believe you. But I think, that if you didn't go through all of that, then Aqours wouldn't be what it is today. It's okay to admit that your fight was an integral part of your life. Because that's being human.
But hey, that's just a thought I'll leave you with."
MARI, DIA, KANAN: "..."