FeatherHATS

The FeatherHATS, written フェザーハッツ and read Fezāhattsu, is a band assembled by Makoto Tsukauchi under the sponsorship of the Marukane Department Store. Its lineup draws entirely on young talent from Naruhata: East Naruhata High Dance Squad, the rock outfit Mad Hatters, an indie idol in Pop☆Step, and the Feathers, a duo of twin idols named Miu and Yu, with the two namesake acts supplying the combined name. Sisters of Saint Lila's Academy joined later. Nobody dresses to match, a direct result of how differently each act arrived.

Marukane serves as their base and the site of their performances at the Naruhata Festival, and the store keeps a conference room set aside for them as a dressing room and a place to sort schedules with their manager. Where the band stands now is unclear, since Rokuro Nomura, the manager who succeeded Makoto, was exposed as the villain Number 6.

The group exists because of a repair job. After the Instant Villain Ryuichi Gojiyama wrecked the Marukane Department Store, management planned a rooftop concert to mark the reopening and went hunting for local amateurs and independents cheap enough to fit the budget. Pop☆Step made the invitation list and promptly panicked, used to performing alone on the street rather than on a professional stage and terrified of botching it. Koichi Haimawari called in Makoto, who read the offer on her laptop, pointed out that a 300-capacity rooftop with no ticket sales and a lunch-hour audience was closer to a dinner show than a concert, and rebuilt the event from scratch. Running the Captain Celebrity Corporation as its chief manager, she entered Captain Celebrity himself, converting a glorified karaoke afternoon into an indie festival where each act would perform its own arrangement of the store jingle.

Rehearsals ran two weeks. Makoto gathered everyone in a hall at Marukane, set Pop to work on her singing, and put the Feathers under the dance squad for basic steps and stage movement, holding off on final positions until she could see the results. The twins objected to being arranged around a singer they considered weaker than themselves; Makoto conceded the point on vocals and countered that Pop's stage presence outclassed both of theirs. A week out, Miu sprained her ankle in training, leaving her able to appear but not to move much. Rather than cut her for a Pop and Yu duet, Pop proposed centering Miu so she barely had to move while the other two danced around her, playing to everyone's strengths, and the staging was rewritten to suit.

The festival itself went sideways. Pro heroes attended as guests, Present Mic hosting, and everything held until the FeatherHATS' slot, when Eraser Head's fight with Teruo Unagisawa knocked out power across the area. Midnight told Makoto there was no electricity anywhere nearby and cancellation looked likely; Captain Celebrity turned up and was dispatched for generators. With the heroes on standby against a possible villain attack, Koichi went home as The Crawler and returned with Pop's microphone so she could take over hosting duties. She fumbled at first, then found her footing, explained the situation to the crowd, had her fans raise their glow sticks to mark out an emergency exit, and performed until the lights came back. The band then played its remix of the Marukane jingle and was called back for an encore.

The performers are Pop☆Step, whose real name is Kazuho Haneyama; the Feathers, meaning Miu and Yu; and Sisters of Saint Lila's Academy. The Mad Hatters, an unnamed leader alongside Daiki, Hiroto, and Akira, are former members, as is East Naruhata High Dance Squad with its unnamed president and three unnamed dancers.

Among the associates, Makoto Tsukauchi created the band and managed it before Rokuro Nomura, secretly Number 6, took the role. Koichi Haimawari acts as Pop☆Step's manager, and Christopher Skyline, Jube Namimaru, and Ichimoku Samazu round out the group's circle.