Idol Gunner [Yuri Villainess LitRPG]

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Jina Ohara

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“That’s not…it.” Jina rolled her eyes. How many times would she need to explain the same thing to this man? “Dad! I told you a million times that it’s not about sex. And, you know what? Even if it was, what’s your problem with it!?”

“My problem with it is that you are releasing a song like this for everyone to listen to. What will they think of you, Jina?” He made the same argument for the tenth time. “They will think that you left that group of yours, and now you’re writing all of these stupid songs that have no shame!”

Jina took a moment to calm herself down. Adjusting the photo of the once-popular Velvet Beats on her table, she shook her head. It would not do to get angry. She needed to explain herself properly and set the record straight.

“Alright. Dad, the lyrics have nothing dirty about them. It’s as simple as that. I am sorry if you thought they were, but that was not my intention. If someone is to read them in a particular manner, then that says more about them than it does about me. Don’t you think so? I wrote a nice song about going to the amusement park and having fun on the rides. It’s for a literal collaboration. How do you think they’ll feel if I added double meanings to it?”

He did not have an answer to that. Of course he did not. She had indirectly called him out for being the lecherous one here. It was true, too. He was the one who had cheated on her mother before the divorce, after all. Now, he definitely did not deserve to be the one telling her what shame was. At least Jina had the decency not to put that into words, and use euphemisms instead.

“Well…” He cleared his throat. “Fine. That was my fault. But why did you leave that group anyway, huh? That was a good group. I saw you on the TV every day. Now you’re not even there once a week. They don’t even play your songs on the channels.”

“That’s because we stopped paying them to, Dad. I told you this before. We’re relying on online plays and streaming. After…look, we don’t have the budget for TV rights. Now can I please go? I have work to get to.”

“Yeah, yeah. Take care, ok? And how’s your mother been doing?”

Now he was crossing the line.

“Bye, Dad. That’s none of your business.”

She cut the call and put the phone on the table. The date flashed back at her with what felt like evil intent – January 18. It had been three whole months since the day everything had happened. In the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t a long time. But in the world of entertainment, three months were like three years.

Her schedule had turned upside down once the others left. Kelsey had disappeared off the face of the earth, and Kana was…she did not want to think about her. The official reasons given to the fans had simply been that they burnt out and left. It was a common thing, after all. Idols often just…quit. Not all of them could handle the pressure.

The entire ordeal had left her in a very bad position, though. She did not have the legacy of Kelsey or the quick boost to fame of Kana. She was just the third member who happened to look cute. Despite having her dedicated fans, she had clearly never been the main draw of Velvet Beats.

Her phone rang once more, and she picked it up, legs crossed on the table.

“Taira-san. Yes? Should I swing by the office?”

“No, actually.” Aiko Taira replied. The temporary president of Sakai Entertainment. Popular vote had allowed Nanoka Iwata to take over the duties of Kenji Tanaka, which had made her the de facto head of the Coalition. That left only one job for Taira to do. She spoke casually, “Most of the work is ahead of schedule, so it’s all good. You can rest for the day.”

“It sure is simple when you don’t need to coordinate your moves with two other people, isn’t it?” Jina yawned and put the Velvet Beats photo frame down.

“And…do you prefer that?”

She tapped on the upturned wooden frame, thought about putting it back, then stopped herself. “I guess. It’s definitely less hectic than before when it comes to practice. But there’s so much to do with the lyrics.”

“You can still hire someone to do it for you, you know?”

“Ugh, no. That last thing I need is to lose all personality. It would take a week flat for Sakai Entertainment to drown.”

Taira chuckled and grunted in agreement. “Sure. Let’s not think about it. Rest up for the day, and I’ll make you overwork tomorrow.”

“Oh…no,” Jina replied in an exaggerated monotone. “The horror…”

Her president clicked her tongue and cut the call.

Jina wondered if Taira was still in the office. She liked the place and had even started to sleep there. Once Bobtail Felis had been forced to expand due to Iwata’s new position, Sakai Entertainment had bought their underground office for operations. With the loss of two out of three idols, the company just did not have the funds to maintain the building Ryu Sakai had once run.

Getting off the chair, Jina stretched a little and decided to leave. It was fun to be home, but she did not feel like it today. No, today she felt like visiting Yamazaki for a while. She could grab some lunch and have it with him. Well, both him and Abe. That second name was not very pleasant to her, but he had become useful over time.

For various reasons, of course.

Jina left the apartment and walked down to her car. There was no elevator anymore. There was no luxury to be had. She had decided to settle for a normal studio apartment to sustain herself. Realistically, she did not need anything more. The large one back then had always been Kana’s thing. Never hers.

Getting into her blue sedan, which she had purchased with her own money, she turned on the engine. As the car roared to life and the air conditioner turned on, Jina looked at the navigation panel. It was still set to the last place she had been – the mansion that was formerly Akiko Hara’s. Changing it to the location Yamazaki was at, she pressed the gas and set off.

The songs on the radio were too boring, so she connected it to her own phone and played her own stuff. Some of it, quite literally her own. Somehow, Jina had never been averse to her own voice. It was even a little endearing to hear something she had worked hard to produce. Of course, the playlist did not do her any such favours, though.

Out of everything it could have picked, it decided to start with Jenga. And out of all the girls singing in that song, the first one had to be Sanada. It was almost nostalgic to hear her voice, but Jina wasn’t sure if she was up for it. Biting her tongue, she whispered a small apology, “Sorry, Sanada-san.”

And skipped the song.

One of Nozoki Neko’s songs took its place, and that was fine. She could live with that. It was always a joy to hear Marie singing, and Jina had slowly grown to appreciate Hiromi’s drums. The more she made her own songs from scratch, the more she could understand the craft and skill that went into all of her works. In fact, Jina had even asked Hiromi to feature on one of her songs once.

That had gone about as well as could be expected. Marie, sweetest girl though she was, was not in the business of sharing her musicians.

She had only just started humming along with the song when she was rudely interrupted by another call. That was the thing with working so much without managers. There was always someone calling you.

Jina looked down and held her breath. She stopped the car and immediately turned it around to change her path. Picking up the call, she prepared herself for the worst and changed the destination on her navigation screen.

“Keiko-chan?” she asked, “What’s up?”

“Uh…” The voice was hesitant, which only gave her more confidence in having decided to head to her place. “Ohara-san…?”

“It’s me, yes. Did something happen?”

“I…I could not reach my sister, so I was wondering if you could let me talk to her. Do you know where she is? Or if she is with you, then can you please give the phone to her?”

“She isn’t with me, unfortunately. But what happened? Please, tell me. I think me handling it would be faster than having to call Kana.”

“Actually, my mother left.”

“What?” Jina pressed harder on the gas. She was aware of the precarious situation at Keiko’s house, which was why she had been quick to change her mind. Kana’s mother was not someone who could be trusted to always do the right thing, to say the least. “What do you mean she left?”

“She just left,” Keiko explained in a rather subdued voice, almost as if she was trying to bury her true emotions. “I woke up this morning, and she was gone. There is no letter. There is nothing. But, um, her room is empty. There are no clothes and none of her stuff. She just packed her bags and left.”

“Without…telling you? What the fu-”

Jina controlled herself, holding the curse back. She did not want to catch slack from Kana for using bad language in front of her sister. However, she was also confident that Kana probably did worse herself.

That theory proved itself true easily when Keiko just laughed instead. Cutting through what should have been sorrow, she just burst out into a fit of laughter and confirmed what had happened once more.

“That is why I wanted to know where Kana was. I, uh, I don’t know what to do. I have college, but I decided not to go. I don’t know if I should be going. My mother is missing, so I think it would be bad.”

“It would be really bad. Look, Keiko-chan. Stay where you are, alright? I’ll be right there, and we can figure it out.”

“O-ok.”

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Jina pulled into the small alley where there was space to park her car, and got out in a hurry. Looking up at the shared balcony outside their doors, she noticed Keiko already standing there. The younger sister waved at her, and Jina waved back. She looked a lot calmer than expected.

Walking up the stairs, she reached the door and quickly found Keiko wrapped around her, giving her a hug. Jina comfortably hugged her back and got into the house.

“Here.”

Keiko led her to their mother’s room, and it was just like she claimed. There was nothing to be seen in there. If someone were to walk in right now, they would probably think it was a guest room or something. But Jina knew quite well that this was where their mother had lived.

She had been over once or twice in the last three months on Kana’s requests to check on Keiko. Every one of those times, their mother had been conveniently gone. But now that Jina thought about it, maybe there was a chance that she usually wasn’t at home anyway. The house looked the same as it had a month and a half ago, which was an impossibility in a house where an adult lived.

All of them had a bad habit of changing furniture positions every three weeks, after all.

“You did not even hear her leave or something? Maybe you woke up and thought it was a rat?”

“No. I take sleeping pills, so I am basically dead for eight hours when I go to bed.”

Sleeping pills? This was one fucked up family, Jina thought. Keiko was definitely not the age when someone should be taking sleeping pills, but it was somehow not surprising. You might as well have told her that she was also…

“Plus, the antidepressants on top of that.”

Jina sighed and gave her a pat on the head. How was she going to do her job like this? All the way in the beginning, she had held this delusion that she could help people. She had believed that she could become a better, reliable person if she forced herself to try. But when the world itself was this twisted, what was to be expected of her?

Was it really that much of a shock that she had given up?

At least her love for Kana had not vanished. That was something she cursed herself for every day, but it was the truth. She did not like denying her emotions, so it was something that she just lived with. Even after everything, she was the one who was stocking her groceries and ensuring she did not just die.

Perhaps she had not given up after all. Her priorities had shifted into selfishness.

“Come with me.” Jina put a hand on her wrist and pulled her along. Stopping at Keiko’s room, though, she let her go. “Grab whatever you need and pack your bags. I’ll take you in for some time.”

“Take me in? Like, uh, living with you!?”

“Y-yeah. Is that alright?”

Keiko’s eyes lit up, and she joined her hands in glee. Jumping up and down with her teeth sticking out, she glided into her room and got to work.

“Not at all~!”