Chapter 29 – The Grinding

The sight of the Aegis of Light's overwhelming power and their terrifying, flawless coordination had shattered my girls' confidence. The walk back from the waterfront that night was dead silent, heavy with the weight of what we'd just seen. Akane didn't crack a single joke. Miki didn't even try to lighten the mood. Even I felt the chill of that cold, knowing smirk from the Oracle. The message from Gemgem was blunt: We would be slaughtered if we dared to challenge them. The next morning, Aoi called an emergency meeting. This wasn't the gentle, guiding Aoi who planned karaoke trips, but Aoi the Commander, stripped down to her ruthless, logical core. "We are outmatched," she said, her voice flat. She projected the Aegis's profiles onto the living room wall. "Their individual power levels are higher. Their teamwork is seamless. And their Oracle's ability to see the future makes any ambush suicidal." "If we fight them now, we will be annihilated." A grim silence filled the room. For the first time, Akane didn't argue. Homura was pale. Miki, usually so full of life, just sat there, clenching her hands in her lap. "So, what do we do, Aoi-nee, Master?" Akane asked, her voice barely a whisper. "We train," Aoi replied, her sapphire eyes burning with a cold fire. "We push ourselves past our limits until we break, to turn our weaknesses into strengths. The Master and I have already created a new training regimen." My job was simple: I would become the bad guy. Aoi designed the drills, the tactics, the endless, brutal repetitions. I, with a little help from Gemgem, would be the unbreakable wall, the impossible obstacle, the relentless pressure designed to simulate a fight we couldn't win. The next few days were hell. Miki and Aoi's idol training with Kyoko didn't stop. If anything, it got harder. They'd leave the studio exhausted, their faces plastered with professional smiles, only to come back to my apartment, where the real pain began. Aoi's new regimen was designed to break them. Every drill targeted their biggest weakness and pushed them until they snapped. Akane was forced to spar endlessly against my tentacles, which moved with a speed and precision she could never hope to match. I pushed her until her body screamed, until she was a gasping, bruised mess on the floor, only to drag her back up for another round. She cursed, she cried, but she always got back up. Homura was put through containment drills and focus training. Her gravity fields were pushed to their absolute maximum as she tried to repel multiple, unpredictable attacks from my stealthy tentacles. Chiyoko's healing was the only thing that kept them going, mending their strained muscles and aching bones, allowing them to endure what should have been impossible. But it was Miki who had it the worst. She was our psychological weapon. Her real power was in manipulating emotions. Aoi, in her ruthless analysis, had decided that Miki's physical ability was not only the most important, but also the weakest link in the chain. So, Miki's training was all about endurance: Keep weaving her spell of despair even when her body and mind were failing. I designed a series of drills for her, not combat-oriented like Akane, but more about pure, relentless pressure and stamina improvement. She'd run brutal obstacle courses until her lungs burned, then immediately have to sing a perfect vocal scale. She'd perform complex dance routines with heavy weights strapped to her ankles, then have to hold a focused beam of despair for five minutes straight without breaking concentration. "Again, Miki-chan!" Aoi would command, her voice like ice. "Faster! Louder! Your light must never waver! Your charm must be absolute! Even if you feel like you're dying!" Miki would push herself until tears streamed down her face. Her idol smile would crack, her voice would waver. For a terrifying second, I saw that frightened girl from the rooftop again, the one I first corrupted. "I... I can't..." she'd gasp, collapsing, her skin slick with sweat and tears. "I'm so tired... I just want to sleep..." "Get up, Miki-chan," Aoi would say, her voice empty of sympathy. "If you fall on stage, your career ends. If you falter in battle, we all die. What would Master think if his precious idol was a failure?" It was cruel and brutal. But it worked. Every time Miki thought she had nothing left, Aoi would use her vanity and her desperate need for my approval to dig out a new reserve of strength. And every time, Miki would, somehow, get back on her feet. Meanwhile, Kyoko's marketing campaign for Miki's debut went into overdrive. Her face was everywhere. Giant billboards in Shibuya showed her dazzling, confident smile. Her song, "Heartbeat Paradox," was on every radio station, its catchy beat worming its way into the city's brain. Commercials for everything from soda to smartphones featured her energetic dancing. The internet was a storm of Miki-mania. YouTube was flooded with dance covers. Social media was a constant scroll of her name. MikiFan01: OMG MIKI-CHAN IS A LITERAL ANGEL I CAN'T WAIT FOR THE CONCERT!!! PopLover22: Just pre-ordered ten copies of the album! My wallet is crying, but my heart is singing! #MikiDebut Anonymous: I heard Stardust Knights are trying to debut on the same day as Miki-sama. LOL. Good luck with that. Miki-sama is going to own the charts. The pressure just kept building. By day, Miki was the perfect, smiling pop star. By night, she was pushed to her physical and mental breaking point. One evening, after a full day of dance rehearsals, followed by three hours of Aoi's stamina drills, Miki finally collapsed on the apartment floor. She didn't even have the energy to dematerialize her Dark Heart Princess costume. She just lay there, a whimpering, trembling mess of pure exhaustion. Aoi, who had pushed her the hardest, knelt beside her with a towel. "You did well today," she said, her voice softer than it had been all week. Miki took the towel from Aoi's hand and just buried her face in her own hands, her shoulders shaking with silent sobs. "I... I don't know if I can do it," she whispered, her voice broken and raw. "The concert... the Aegis... I'm so scared that I'm going to fail the team. I'm going to disappoint you, Master." This was her breaking point. The training had stripped away her mask, her confidence, leaving behind the raw, terrified girl who just wanted to be loved.