Idol Gunner [Yuri Villainess LitRPG]

Eight years ago, when Kana was twelve years old, she had been forced to confront a reality that she did not want to. Not a reality she had been trying to run away from, but one that she never asked for. What was worse was that she wasn’t alone in that hellhole. She had Keiko with her, and that meant she couldn’t let weakness reign.

To keep herself sane, and to keep her sister’s mind off what had happened to them, she turned to the one thing Keiko had a passion for – music.

“This one, right?” Her sister switched to a different album with an almost devious smile on her face. “Everyone in school listens to this one. They say it’s the best!”

“Hmm…” Kana tried to close her eyes and pay attention. Not even once in her life had she been personally interested in music. She had never cared about these random sounds everyone was so passionate about. But since this was the only way to keep Keiko distracted, she had to act like she knew what was up. “I guess it doesn’t sound bad. Does the singer look hot or something?”

“Huh!?” Keiko shouted. “No! And anyway, I don’t care about stuff like that. That’s disgusting. Who cares what someone looks like? You need to focus on the song, got it? The music is where it’s at.”

Ah, that was Keiko’s age, wasn’t it? She probably thought that boys were gross and music was all about how cool it sounded. Little did she know that these songs probably weren’t famous because of the music at all. She could see the album cover, and it was a shirtless guy wearing a black leather jacket. Even if all the songs on here with someone grating metal, they would be popular.

Even without any knowledge about music, Kana knew that this wasn’t for her. Who knew if Keiko even liked it. She was barely responding to the song itself, and was mostly taken by the fact that she was listening to the ‘popular thing’. It was so easy to get carried away by hype alone, after all.

That was when Kana noticed another album cover in Keiko’s library. One that felt much more interesting to look at. A white background with just a strawberry in the middle. She scrolled to that one and clicked on it.

“What’s this?”

“That? You don’t know?” Keiko laughed and clicked the play button. “It’s Ruby Passion. I thought everyone knew about them. Even you.”

She was not wrong. Kana had heard about them. She just hadn’t cared enough to actually read up on them and their work. The group seemed to have been formed two or so years ago, and had gained an insane amount of popularity in that time. They had broken every single record in the industry in record time.

Keeping that in mind, Kana had to admit – she was quite disappointed.

“This is…it?” She asked.

“This is it, yeah.” Keiko nodded along to the beat as the singing kicked in. “You agree, don’t you? Probably the best in the business right now, and it’s not even a competition.”

“Y-yeah.”

Her goal was to keep Keiko happy, so she just nodded and smiled. But the truth, of course, was that she did not get it. If this is what the best music in the country sounded like, then it was no wonder that Kana hated it. There was nothing interesting about it. It didn’t make her feel anything. It didn’t make her want to listen to more.

Or was it just because she was incapable of feeling anything else right now? After everything that had happened over the last week, she hadn’t even visited Aharu. Just sitting in her room took all of her strength. Just walking out to have her meals fatigued her every muscle. As the memories started to flood back in, and the weight of thinking about it began to crush her, Kana shook her head and focused on the song.

It was the song. It was the song’s fault for being so bad. If she believed that, she did not need to think about being in this house. She did not need to think about her mother, or her father. If the song itself was horrible, she could happily blame it all on Ruby Passion. Kana herself was still capable of enjoying things like music. It was just that this particular group did not know what music was.

“What happened? Do you not actually like it?” Keiko asked, almost worried at the prospect.

“It’s fine.” Kana took the earphones off and yawned. “Anyway, I promised Aharu I would call her soon, so I was focused on that. Let me talk to her for a bit, and then we can listen some more, alright?”

“Sure!”

Kana bounced over to the other side of the bed and picked up her own phone. There were so many missed calls from Aharu, but she did not have the strength actually respond to them. She had just messaged her recently, promising that she will call soon. That had mostly stopped the relentless notifications and rings.

Even now, though, Kana did not want to actually call her. She wanted to keep to herself and not have to deal with anyone else in the world. But since she had lied to Keiko already, she pretended to tap around a bit and put the phone on her ear. One fake conversation and her sister would feel like everything was fine.

“Ah!” Keiko exclaimed, turning to her once she started to talk. “Tell Aharu-chan that I need that hairband I gave her, ok? It’s important! I need it for this event we’re having day after tomorrow.”

“S-sure.” Kana gulped and asked the non-existence on the other side to do as asked. That satisfied Keiko, who drifted back into her world of songs.

After three or so minutes of talking about food and makeup, Kana ‘hung up’ the call she was on and turned back to Keiko. Time to listen to Ruby Passion again, since she had opened that can of worms.

She wondered why people even listened to these girls, when they had no actual talent. All three of them had gotten so popular for no reason at all, and were now raking in the cash. By the time Kana came back to Keiko and put the earphones on, she had already started to believe that. She had successfully taken her time to convince herself everything was alright.

_____________

“Where are we going?” Jina inquired, looking out of the window at the rather unfamiliar scenery. She probably remembered seeing this exact general area before, but Kana knew that she hadn’t pieced together the answer yet.

After the gate had been closed, Kelsey had been the first to leave. She had accepted her defeat, called Yamada, and then decided to leave once and for all. Sanada would hopefully take her in, she had said. The car had arrived, she had gotten in without any pomp, and that was that.

The girl had just contacted her former teammate, gotten her location, and decided to go and live with her. It was probably for the best, too, given that the police were probably hunting for her. Meanwhile, Kana had booked a cab herself for a destination she believed would be perfect.

It hadn’t been easy to do. It had taken a lot to accept that she had just been delusional over the last few hours. What destiny? What fate? Regicide? It made her laugh. Of course, none of that was going to work out. She had just arbitrarily decided that she was meant to be someone grand, and then started acting like it.

That was not how the world worked.

The way it actually went down was that Emi left you. Emi left you, then your apartment burned down, and then you got shown your place by someone clearly more talented. That was the truth, and she could no longer argue with it. What a bad joke. Kana wanted to scream and laugh and cry at the same time, but she kept quiet. It would be a bad idea to do something like that in public.

“Is that…?”

Jina’s eyes widened as they finally reached their destination and the cab stopped. Kana paid for it and got out in front of the mansion she had led them to.

Akiko Hara’s mansion.

“She doesn’t need it anymore,” Kana mumbled and started walking. Or perhaps it was more accurate to say dragging. Kana dragged her body and opened the main gate before pulling herself to the door.

“What are you doing?” Jina asked.

Kana did not answer. Instead, she took out her grenade launcher and started slamming its butt against the locked door. She hit it over and over until the wood groaned and gave in. The door flew open, revealing the darkness within. Kana walked in, and closed the door behind her, before Jina could follow.

Her teammate was left outside, which was good. She sat down against the door and took a moment to breathe, bringing her legs up to her chest to curl her body close. Behind her, Jina knocked on the door in a panic.

“Kana! Open the door. What are you doing!?”

What was she doing? She did not know.

Emi was gone. Naomi was gone. Akiko and Sachiyo were too strong for her to beat. She did not want to talk to Keiko. She definitely did not want to see her mother again. As much as she wanted to explain it all to Jina, she did not have the will to do that. Jina was smart enough, anyway. She would figure it out and do something.

“Go away.” She managed to blurt out.

“What? No! I am not going anywhere. Open the damn door.”

“Just…go away.” She groaned. “I’ll talk to you afterwards.”

“Yeah, that’s fine. You’re not allowed to be here, th-”

“Taira will handle it. Now, leave me alone.”

Kana stood up and let the door open behind her. She was sure that Jina was looking at her as she walked, but she also knew that the girl wouldn’t follow her. That was for the best.

Making her way through the mansion, she reached Akiko’s bedroom and opened the door. It was a lavish place, even in the dark. The many shiny statues and wall decorations were enough to show her just how much luxury this woman had had. To think that Kana wanted to believe she would live in a place like this someday.

She wouldn’t. She would never. Not unless she just stole it like this. So, that was what she was going to do. Kana was going to steal it.

Closing the door, she went up to the bed and lay down.

It was over. It was all over. This was how it came to an end, and she was more than willing to accept it.

She pulled the blanket over herself and closed her eyes. Kana wished she could drift to sleep and wake up from this dream.

It had been an interesting one.