Idol Gunner [Yuri Villainess LitRPG]

Yamada did not have much to say when he dropped the girls off at the ruins. Kelsey, who had decided to sit in the front, had been kind enough to explain everything to him before he was forced to ask Kana. So, after they got down at their destination and confirmed that the System was still working, he quietly wished them well and left the scene.

The scenery before her stung Kana in a fashion she had never expected or felt before. There was, of all things, regret. Not for the fact that she hadn’t been able to become the better person she had resolved to be, but rather for even thinking about it in the first place. She regretted wasting time wondering about how she should behave with other people.

Jina kept bothering her with more questions, but she ignored them and started walking to the gate. She did not need anyone. She did not need these girls to be by her side, really. Kana could take down Akiko all on her own, in fact. It was her destiny to do it. It was what she had been born to do. Kana Minami was going to rule the world one day, and that meant committing regicide first.

They got inside the ruins, since the gates had not been closed yet, and walked in silence.

The Monster Dimension still carried that calming effect for Kana. Her ears worked so much better in here, and it was awfully apparent from the moment she stepped back in. Even without her realizing, the sound around her had slowly dampened when she had gone back outside. But now that she was in here, that sudden, now familiar pop reminded her of how loud things could really be.

Kana wondered what the reason behind it all was, but not for long. She could see her destination in her mind, and nothing would stand between her and Akiko Hara this time. Not even her own scientific curiosity.

“You’re sure Sachiyo is in here with her?” Kelsey asked.

That made her turn back in wonder. Had she said that? She did not remember saying it. But then again, she did not remember anything about the ride here. These two had been so overbearing with their doubts and worries that she had wiped those memories already.

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?” Kelsey snapped, grabbing her shoulder. “You got me in here because you promised that Tanaka was with Akiko. And now you don’t know!?”

“I didn’t drag you in here. Leave if you want.” Kana sighed, pushing her hand away. “There is a chance that Sachiyo followed Akiko in here. There was clearly a plan, since Yuko wasn’t surprised to see Akiko talking to the demons in the first place. Is it so wild to think that Sachiyo might have been in on it as well?”

“So, uh, wouldn’t Kenji-san be with them?” Jina brought up a good question.

A good question, Kana thought, but a stupid one.

“Obviously not. Kenji and Akiko were famously not getting along recently. You think he had some secret plan to work here with them?” She scoffed. “It’s human nature to want to connect two disconnected things. Kenji Tanaka’s disappearance probably didn’t have much to do with Sachiyo’s. They just so happened to leave at the same time.”

“Where did he go, then? Hell, why would he leave at such a critical time?” Kelsey asked, showing her interest in a topic she hadn’t been invested in before.

“He left because it was a critical time. Kenji Tanaka is not some genius, after all. He probably saw the shitstorm that awaited him after this incident, and decided to make a run for it. Probably save his face way more than sticking around and being exposed for the hack that he is.”

“Kenji Tanaka? Not a genius?” Jina raised her eyebrows.

“You’re tripping, Minami.” Kelsey supported her doubt. “Just because you don’t like the guy doesn’t mean he is incompetent. Don’t forget that he got where he is by manipulating the Coalition. I mean, by being the Coalition, really. Not just anybody can pull it off. The man has more brains than you give him credit for.”

Kana could not believe what she was hearing. Even after everything that they had been shown in the last few days, these two still wanted to stick to the original narrative. Wasn’t it about time they updated their facts?

“Was it really him? Or was it Akiko? Think about it. Kenji could make all the evil plans in the world to get more money, but none of it would work until Akiko was charming enough to make people swoon. Kenji Tanaka being a genius? What a fucking joke. But Akiko Hara being a siren? You better start subscribing to the truth.”

And that was the end of that conversation. Once Jina and Kelsey were given enough proof that Kana’s conviction was far too strong to break now, there was no point in putting in any more effort.

The three of them made their way through the desolate wasteland to reach the rock that led to the underground city. What surprised them most was how big the place actually was. Without the adrenaline that was created by running around and hunting for points, and without all of the monsters running around, the emptiness of it all was overwhelming.

If Kana had to guess, the entire area that she had seen until now was probably about half as big as Neo-Edo. It just became easier to talk long distance because they did not have millions of buildings as a reference for distance. Without anything to compare it to, their brains accepted this place as a game map first, and actual physical location only second.

Unfortunately, it had become quite clear that that’s what this place actually was. A physical location somewhere else in the universe. Either an actual separate dimension, or a completely different planet that they had somehow connected to.

At the location of the rock, the first thing they noticed was the bodies of the three girls. They had not been moved yet, which was to be expected. The Coalition was probably still reeling from the information. With Kenji Tanaka missing, it would take them some time to gather themselves and launch an operation along with the government.

“What the fuck?” Kelsey whispered at the sight, but was quickly reminded that this was nothing new for the other girls.

Kana walked straight down the stairs without batting an eye, and Jina quickly followed. The latter did look at the girls and mumble a prayer, though. Together, they did not give Kelsey enough time to take it all in. Wanting to keep up with them, she hurried down the stairs too.

“Sword,” Jina whispered as they reached the end of the stairs.

“What?” Kelsey asked.

“They were killed by a demon sword.” She reached a conclusion. “Not a System weapon. I guess…these are not lethal to us, then?”

Kana’s ears pricked up when she heard that. It was a good explanation for why they had not been hurt by the explosions. Yet, it did not explain why the building had been affected by it. No matter what material those purple cubes were, an explosion was still an explosion. How did you justify a human body surviving such a massive exothermic blast?

Or was it an exothermic blast? Kana selected her grenade launcher and looked at it. Every time it appeared, it took a second for the purple blocks to turn into the weapon. Because this wasn’t an actual weapon, after all. It was high-effort, expensive mimicry at best. At the end of the day, this was a science-fiction gun before it was a real one. It was made out of those purple blocks, and not any actual metal.

The underground city came into view, and so did a group of demons. They looked at the girls and hissed, running forward with swords in their hands. Since she had it out anyway, Kana launched a grenade in their direction and waited for a second for it to explode and kill them all.

It was fascinating, she had to agree. This was highly lethal to these demons, but hadn’t scratched anyone in Katsuhara Apartments at all. Whatever this purple material was, the people working on it must have worked hard to make it inert to humans. How had they achieved something that insane? She could not say.

“Kana…”

Jina’s soft gasp caught her attention immediately. She was looking up at the mansion in the distance, so Kana did the same. She had expected to see those tentacles again, but they seemed to have withdrawn for now. Instead, the only person standing and looking out of the window was the human who had temporarily controlled them.

Akiko Hara was looking right at them. They were too far away for Kana to be able to make out her exact expression, but she could feel the woman’s gaze on her. Even with the space between them, Kana knew that their eyes were locked on each other. Her grip around the grenade launcher tightened, and she gritted her teeth.

Kelsey had other ideas, though. Spawning her sniper, she aimed for the window and shot without warning. The bullet whistled through the air and hit the exact spot Akiko had been standing in, but it was a bit too late. In half a second, by the time Kana turned to look at Kelsey’s weapon, Akiko had disappeared from the window.

The sniper exhaled with disappointment and put the weapon back. She did not say anything else. Maybe seeing Akiko there, standing with the demons, had been more than enough proof for her to let go of any reserves she might have had about it all.

“When we get in there, you handle the others.” Kana looked at the other two. “I’m going for that bit-”

“Don’t embarrass us, girls.”

She was rudely interrupted by someone she had expected to be here, but still caught her off guard.

Sachiyo Tanaka appeared from between two buildings to their right. She was wearing jeans and an oversized blue shirt. An unexpected outfit that contrasted harshly with the reddish city of rock around her. Playing with her hair, twirling it around her finger, she walked up to the middle of the street and looked at them with contempt.

“Why are you here?” She asked with the exhaustion of a host who felt annoyed more than threatened.

“Get out of my way.” Kana raised her grenade launcher and pointed it at her.

“Oh, dear.” She rolled her eyes, moving up without fear and pushing the barrel down. “You haven’t figured it out yet? Those things can’t hurt us. We’re just not built like that.”

“Tell that to the bullet which split Akiko’s head in half.”

Kana switched to the railgun and pushed it against Sachiyo’s stomach. Because that had happened, hadn’t it? All of their theories went to shit when you took into account that Marie had been able to destroy Akiko’s head with her assault rifle. It was possible to hurt human beings with these things, and she had seen proof of it not long ago.

The railgun hummed as it charged up, growing brighter by the moment. In response, Sachiyo smiled and stayed as she was. Did she know something that Kana did not? She must have been aware of the exact mechanics of the purple cube-like material if she was this confident in her abilities.

It should have scared Kana a little. It should have stopped her from wasting her railgun shot. But it did not. Instead, she widened her eyes with sheer hatred for these women, and pressed the trigger.

The weapon’s barrel glowed brighter than ever for a split second and let out a massive energy beam. It touched Sachiyo’s skin, and it worked. The power of the beam pushed Sachiyo back, ripping her away from Kana and sending her flying back with her boots grinding on the ground.

Shining through the city, the attack only stopped when Sachiyo had been sent out of view. A short explosion of dust and rock close to the mansion confirmed that the woman had hit the wall, and probably died. Kana hoped that she had died. She did not have the time to deal with flies like these.

“She was mine.” Kelsey frothed.

“Take it out on her body or something.” Kana clicked her tongue and turned to Jina. “Now, as I was say-”

A small flash lasting for just a moment was all Kana saw. In the next moment, Sachiyo Tanaka was standing beside her once more. Her hand rested on Kana’s abdomen; fingers spread across her stomach.

“And as I was saying.” She declared. “Don’t embarrass us in front of our hosts.”

She gave her a slight push. Her hand exerted just the smallest force on her body.

Kana Minami lost all sensation of the ground. Before she knew it, she was floating in the air, ripping through it backwards as she reached the stairs that she had come down a few minutes ago. Stopping there would have been devastating enough. But there was yet more. She did not stop at the stairs. Her body kept going because of the amount of energy that Sachiyo had released.

It kept going until she had tumbled all the way up the stairs and blasted out of the city, back onto the wastelands of the Monster Dimension.