Mafuemu

"Someday, I'll definitely bring a smile to your face just like the one you had through our show... I'll do my best!"

- Emu to Mafuyu in "A Gentle Spell" second side story

Mafuemu is the femslash ship between Mafuyu Asahina and Emu Ootori from the Project SEKAI fandom.

Canon
Mafuyu is a third-year student at Miyamasuzaka Girls' Academy. Emu goes to the same school, although she is in her second year. Mafuyu is a part of the music circle called 25-ji, Nightcord de. (shortened to Niigo) while Emu is a member of the theater troupe Wonderlands x Showtime. Though they are not in the same group, they have quite a few interactions, such as their multiple menu lines and the sports festival event, where they first met each other.

Mafuyu is known and admired for being a "good girl", but in reality that is a mask. Mafuyu seems to have a lack of emotions. Emu is extremely cheerful and impulsive, and wants to make everyone around her smile. Emu is aware that Mafuyu isn't really smiling when she smiles, and has made it a goal to make her smile for real. However, she is also extremely terrified of Mafuyu's fake smile.

Run! Sports Festival! Committee Rush
When meeting, Emu asks Mafuyu if they've met before, while Mafuyu ignores the question, introducing herself. Mafuyu says it's nice to meet Emu, and she says the same back. Mafuyu's fans and friends cheer her on, and one of them proclaims that Mafuyu is perfect at everything, causing Mafuyu to get subtly irritated. She says she and Emu will do their best, in which Emu is spooked seeing her fake smile to respond, calling her scary in her mind. Later on, Mafuyu tells Emu to do her best, and the two begin racing. While proceeding forward, Mafuyu asks if they can go faster, and Emu cheerfully tells her she can. Mafuyu then tells her they will keep up the fast pace they're going at. When the race is over, Mafuyu smiles at Emu and says she couldn't have won without Emu, causing the latter to think she is genuinely smiling, but after Mafuyu's friends run over and put her on a pedestal, Emu gets scared by her smile again.

After completing the event story, three area conversations are unlocked between the two. In the first one, Mafuyu asks why Emu sometimes looks as if she's intimidated while interacting with Mafuyu. Emu responds saying she's really scary, but before she can finish that sentence, she freaks out and tells her she's nervous instead. Mafuyu tells her they shouldn't think of the senpai-kouhai formalities while talking to each other, and Emu cheerfully tells her she can do that. She then thinks to herself that Mafuyu looked a bit genuine while telling her that. In the second one, Mafuyu greets Emu and asks if she has club activities. Emu tells her she's got practice with both handball and swimming on that day, and tells Mafuyu it's not too physically taxing for her when the latter asks. Mafuyu then mentions she will come check her practice at the handball club some day, and Emu enthusiastically tells her she'll come to watch Mafuyu's archery practice in exchange. In the third one and most popular one, Emu does the Wonderhoy♪ pose at Mafuyu after asking about her theater troupe, and giggles and gives her fake smile asking what Emu is exactly doing. Emu is terrified and screams in her mind how badly her plan to make Mafuyu flash a real smile failed. Emu then tries explaining it's a greeting, Mafuyu tells her it's cute and Emu ends the conversation by nervously laughing.

Mafuyu also talks about Emu in her 3* card's second side story, while telling the other Niigo members about the sports festival.

Mafuyu's Birthday card (2022)
In the second side story, Mafuyu finds Emu hiding around the corner. When asked why she's hiding, Emu replies that it's because it's Mafuyu's birthday and she asked someone from one of the troupes at Phoenix Wonderland about a comedy skit that would definitely make Mafuyu smile. She performs it and makes the pose Tsukasa taught her, but Emu's plan fails and Mafuyu only lets out a fake laugh. But she says that Emu is a very good cast member, since she was able to pull off two roles at once and that she enjoyed it a lot. Emu is upset that Tsukasa's comedy skit didn't really make Mafuyu smile and says that she will definitely try her best on Mafuyu's next birthday. Emu runs away, and Mafuyu mutters that she can't understand Emu at all.

Mafuyu's Birthday card (2023)
In the second side story, Emu runs again to Mafuyu. Emu stops her upperclassman, thanks her for her time, and tells her that she's been looking for a hilarious joke that's sure to make Mafuyu smile. Emu performs a skit this year, too, leading to Mafuyu letting out another fake laugh. Emu gets scared, and Mafuyu makes a comment about this joke. Mafuyu asks if Emu just came up with it, Emu explains that she saw this joke in a book at the library. Emu wishes Mafuyu a happy birthday and says that she will try her best to make her upperclassman smile someday. Mafuyu says that Emu can talk to her anytime. They say goodbye and wave to each other, leading to Mafuyu thinking that it's interesting how their school's library has books about jokes as well.

Later, at the family restaurant, Mafuyu mentions Emu and the joke she had made to her groupmates. Everyone asks Mafuyu to tell the joke. She does so, and everyone makes their comments about it.

April Fools 2022
In the alternative universe which was shown during April Fools, Emu and Mafuyu are part of the troupe "Happiness Sentai Sunny-Sunny ☆ Wonder". During their area conversations, Emu is shown to be nervous around Mafuyu, and tries everything she can to make Mafuyu smile for real. Mafuyu scares Emu by showing what vibe she would do for a villain character for their upcoming performance.

Quotes
"(Wh-What is this?! She's smiling but it doesn't feel like she's smiling... Sh-She's really scary...!!!!)"

- Emu in Run! Sports Festival! Committee Rush Chapter 4 - With My Senpai

"(She doesn't really know me, and yet...) What a strange girl..."

- Mafuyu in "Super Exciting Three-Legged Race" first side story

"...I hope Asahina-senpai can enjoy the festival too."

- Emu in At This Festival Colored by Twilight Chapter 6

"I hope my senior can find what she most want to do someday."

- Emu to Rui in At This Festival Colored by Twilight Episode 10

Fanon
Mafuemu is heavily overshadowed by ships in Mafuyu and Emu's own groups, such as Mafuena and Kanamafu on Mafuyu's side, and Emunene and Emukasa on Emu's side. Despite this it is not a rarepair, as it has over 400 works on Pixiv and a steady flow of fanart on Twitter. On AO3, it currently has over 70 works in total. People enjoy the dynamic of the usually cheerful Emu being terrified by Mafuyu's smile, as well as the dynamic of the cheerful one and the depressed one. They also like the way Emu tries to make Mafuyu show her true smile. At the same time some find it unhealthy because Emu is afraid of Mafuyu on a certain level.

The first Mafuemu Ship Week was held on July 3-July 9, 2022 under the. The prompts for the first day were "first date or date night", the second day was "summer or firework festival", the third day was "fairytale or royalty (or other AUs)", the fourth day was "sad or angst", the fifth day was "different fashion styles or crossover", the sixth day was "confession or Valentine's Day" and the seventh day was free choice.

Fandom

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Trivia

 * Mafuyu is the only character Emu is scared of.
 * Their ship is referred to with the "❄️🍬" and "🎭🍬" emojis.
 * Their Kizuna Rank titles are: "She's Smiling But Also Not?", "A Three-Legged Pair In It To Win It", and "I'll Make You Truly Smile Someday".
 * One of their Cheerful Carnival Team names is "Strange Juniors & Seniors".
 * In one of her winter in-game lines, Mafuyu tells Emu she is happy to see her being energetic but also tells her not to run in the hallways.
 * In an area conversation, Mafuyu asks Emu why she always seems to be intimidated around her, saying that she doesn't need to feel that way, and that she actually enjoys conversing with Emu. In which Emu finds that those words were genuine, and that she does indeed like talking to her.
 * They have dialogues for each other's birthdays. For Emu's birthday in 2021, Mafuyu didn't prepare a present, but wanted her to accept the congratulations. Emu for Mafuyu's birthday in 2022 wanted to tell a joke she heard from Tsukasa, and was sure that "she would explode with laughter when she heard it".