MaHiKaren

MaHiKaren is the poly ship between Karen Aijo, Mahiru Tsuyuzaki and Hikari Kagura from the Revue Starlight fandom.

Revue Starlight: The Movie
Hikari enters the revue following a red line that said it led to Karen. She is super lost when Mahiru is there instead. So she keeps asking her where Karen is. But Mahiru isn’t confused at all, she’s been expecting Hikari. But instead of answering any questions, she starts to perform on stage. And Mahiru is in complete control. And while Hikari is super confused when she enters the set, Mahiru doesn’t miss a beat when she enters and immediately does her introduction, but in line with an Olympic oath, to show that she is already on this stage.

Hikari is super worried about Karen since the giraffe gave her that cryptic warning, so she’s in a rush to get to her. But Mahiru insists that they perform together anyways. Because Mahiru knows that Hikari can’t help Karen get to the next stage as she is now. And Mahiru says that, by saying right now it's the two of them on stage, so she can’t focus on anyone else right now. As is tradition for all of Mahiru’s revues, it starts with the opponent running for dear life while she chases them.

The two of them are not on the same page at all, with Mahiru insisting that Hikari compete with her, and Hikari asking Mahiru to stop. But Hikari does perform with Mahiru. She and Mahiru put on outfits for the various sports they compete in. While Mahiru is in character for all these, Hikari keeps breaking character, pleading with Mahiru to listen to her so that they can stop performing. The song stops, and since Hikari lost her button, the revue should be over. But since this isn’t an audition, the same rules don’t apply. So they’ll decide when it ends.

Mahiru confronts Hikari over the fact that she won’t act despite claiming to be on stage, and the stadium dims as it loses its shine, since it looks like the performance is over. But then Mahiru starts singing in the background again. Their Revue isn’t done yet. And since Mahiru has been in complete control of this set so far, it shows that the dimmed lights aren’t because the show’s over, but because Mahiru isn’t trying to make those she cares about smile anymore.

Mahiru shows she means business by decapitating the Mr White cutout Hikari came in with. So Hikari flees from the stage. She runs away backstage. But Mahiru calls her out for that. That she’s running away, just like she did from Karen and their promise. And she wants to know why Hikari is running. She also asks Hikari why she really left for London, calling Hikari a liar for saying that she left in order to make sure Karen didn’t get too spoiled, since that’s also a way of running from the truth.

And in order to escape, Hikari runs to the elevator, heading up from the 99th floor to the 101th. She eventually comes to the elevated platform backstage, but it’s a dead end. And now there’s nowhere left to run on this bridge, so Hikari is forced to stop running from the truth and confront the real reason she’s left Karen. This is also the moment Mahiru corners Hikari, meaning that Hikari can no longer run from either Mahiru or Karen anymore. And since Hikari can’t answer Mahiru, she pushes Hikari off the stage. As Hikari falls, she has flashbacks of many significant moments with Karen. Flashbacks of the first time she met Karen, the last time she saw Karen before moving, and the moment Karen gave her the star hair pin, the moment they solidified their promise. And all this is very similar to what happened to Karen in episode 1 when (dream) Hikari pushed her off Tokyo Tower.

Eventually, Hikari lands safely on a giant Mr. White, because Mahiru doesn’t actually want to hurt her because this is all an act. Lying down in the fetal position, Hikari is symbolically reborn as she admits that Mahiru was right and she had been running from Karen and their promise when she went back to London. She cries and admits that she was scared and she’s sorry that she avoided Karen after they fulfilled their promise by going back to London.

Fanon
is one of the most popular poly ships within the Revue Starlight fandom. Some people ship the trio as friends, but the poly ship is usually shipped romantically. Most fanworks, thus, reflect this, portraying the three in a polyamorous relationship.

Fandom
FAN FICTION

TWITTER

Variations

 * HikaMahi refers to the ship between Hikari and Mahiru
 * HiKaren refers to the ship between Hikari and Karen
 * KareMahi refers to the ship between Karen and Mahiru