Idol Gunner [Yuri Villainess LitRPG]

Kana did not move. At all. Standing right in front of the main doors of Katsuhara Apartments, she found that she had no reason to go back home. Even after she had been dragged out crying and eventually wiped her tears, she wasn’t sure if there was any point in continuing.

She could just go back home to Keiko. She could apologize to her mother and then go back to university. Bury her stupid dreams and forget any of this ever happened. It would take long, and she would be way behind other people her age, but she wouldn’t have to remember any of this.

Jina tried to pull her in, but she decided to turn back. Yamazaki was still standing with his car, leaning against it and waiting for her to go in. Now, she could ask him for one last favor and disappear. She would never be forgiven for what she had done, but at least she could take away everything from herself. Kana could punish herself for her transgressions.

Walking straight back to the car, she got in without a word. Before it could close, though, Yamazaki put his hand in between and looked in.

“Minami-san? What happened?”

“Do you know where my house is?”

“Yes. It’s right there. You just walked away from it.”

“Stop kidding around. I mean my real house. The one where I belong.”

“Kana, what the fuck?” Jina gasped, clearly tired of it all by now, “It’s still here, alright? You belong right here. Get back in, come on. I am really sleepy.”

“If you’re sleepy, then go back home and sleep. I’m sure you cleaned your bed up before we left, didn’t you? It should be waiting for you.”

“Yeah, I did. But…ugh!”

Leaning into the car, the goth bitch grabbed Kana by the shoulders and shook her. Kana decided not to respond to any of it. She left her head rattling in the cold breeze of the night and waited for her roommate to get tired of it. But she did not. Triggered by the lack of a response, Jina pulled her hand back.

Right as Kana thought she was free of her curse, she landed a slap on her face. It still didn’t hurt. It never hurt. How many times had she slapped Kana now? Even now, she was just as bad as back then. It was like Jina was averse to the concept of learning and growing, for some reason.

“Yamazaki-san, please. I’ll guide you, so just take me back home. I’m tired.”

“You don’t get to be tired, Kana!” Jina grabbed her once more and tossed her deeper into the car.

Her back hit the other door; the handle digging into her spine. Kana winced, but maintained her posture. As she tried to push herself back up, she realized that her ankle had been sprained, too. It had bent at a weird angle. Grimacing, she somehow got herself back on the seat.

“Say something!”

“Yamazaki-san. Please.”

The man stood in the background. That’s all he did. Just like Jina’s slaps, that was all he ever did. He just stood there and listened to her. Sure, he had a bit more energy now than he did before, but he hadn’t changed at all. Had he? Kana sure didn’t think so. She leaned down a bit, waiting for him to respond.

Standing behind a heaving Jina, though, he looked at the ground. What was wrong with him? Had something fallen down on his shoe? She could make out that he was shaking a little. Maybe he was crying. He had a wife and kids, so maybe he was used to crying about everything. That’s how people like him worked.

“KANA!” Jina screamed, crawling into the car herself.

Kana instinctively pushed herself deeper towards the other side of the car. Suddenly, Jina had stopped annoying her. Now, she just wanted to get away from this goth asshole. Even now, she had that ugly black eyeliner on. Even her better, natural hair couldn’t save it. Kana just wanted to be left alone and taken back home. She didn’t need all this. She didn’t deserve it.

“Yamazaki-san!” Kana shouted as well, hoping that he would start moving soon. Jina was getting closer and closer with that dangerous look on her face.

She got up to her face and started snarling. Every inch of the girl’s body was shaking with anger, and yet, her eyes seemed like they were about to tear up. Of course. She had known RiRi, too. Kana hadn’t been thinking about that. It must have hit her hard as well, but she was trying to run after her. Why? What a waste of time.

“Kana…you...!”

“You…”

The one who had joined her from the back was Yamazaki. He had finally stopped shaking. And without a word, he slammed the door behind Jina shut and opened the door on his side. The second he got in, he turned the key, and the car roared to life. Jina fell off the seat and clawed up to his seat, getting right next to his ear.

“Yamazaki, what are you doing!? We can’t let her go. Stop!”

“I know.”

Kana had thought that she would feel sad about it all. That it would be tinged with some bittersweet memories, some regret, and maybe even some satisfaction. When the car started moving at speeds that she had never seen this man hit, she felt an emotion that she hadn’t expected – fear. Had Jina not been enough, that she was now scared of this man, too?

“Yamazakiiii!”

Jina screamed once more as she lost her balance and slammed into the seat, looking at Kana with the same fear adorning her face.

They burst through the streets of Ward B and past Ward C. Every move he made, and every time his hands moved, it was like he was trying to show off just how good he was. In that silence, Kana started to reconsider her decisions. Mainly because she wasn’t sure what he was trying to do. Well, not until he finally started speaking as they entered Ward D.

“You see that building to the right?!” He screamed, spit flying out of his mouth as his rattling glasses started to slip off his face, “Do you see it!?”

“Y-yes!” Jina answered, “Yes, yes! We see it, Yamazaki.”

His voice lowered, but without any loss in intensity, “That is where my mother lives. She’s been divorced ever since I was eight, and had to work three jobs in a single day to keep me alive. When I finally came of age, she personally asked me to get out of the house. That day, she said she felt like she could breathe a little for once!”

Why was he telling them this? Kana wanted to ask him, but she did not have the strength to do that. In fact, she did not know when it had happened, but she had stopped being scared. Sometime in the small timeframe between Yamazaki starting to speak and now, she had burned through all of her adrenaline. So, Kana started looking out of the window again.

Yamazaki stopped speaking until they were at Ward F. What he said there finally made her see the larger picture. His behavior and route started to make sense. He wasn’t taking her home, of course. No. He was taking himself home.

“That diner over there is where I got my first job. I had to clean tables and serve them food, but the pay was dirt cheap. The more I got people to eat, the more I was paid as a bonus. Forcing people to buy what they didn’t need, every single time they came here, I killed them one dish at a time. Three months later, I quit!”

She slammed against the window next to her, and her head started to ring. All she did in return was glance at Yamazaki, who pushed his glasses back into place. Then, taking another turn, started speeding into Ward H. His face was completely red and covered in sweat, even though the air conditioner was on.

“I had to walk an hour to get to that diner, and I still did it! That’s because I was not alone. I had my younger sister with me, who had decided to tag along when I left the house. Our mom? She did not question it at all. Not even a single word of defiance. She was more than happy to leave my sister in my care. As if I could take care of someone just two years younger than me!”

“Yamazaki, stop complaining!” Jina screamed, trying her best to pull herself forward using his seat as support, “Can you stop already? Why am I being involved in all of this? Just let me out, and you can take Kana on your trip down memory lane.”

“You are involved, Ohara-san.” Yamazaki replied, “You were involved the day that you started working with Minami-san. You were involved the day you sat there with us and spied on the Pink Beats girls. I have been involved since that day, too. So, if I am gonna tell something, I’m gonna tell it to every single one of us!”

Pulling into Ward I, his speed slowed down. Then, preparing the car one button at a time, Yamazaki finally came to a stop. Hitting the brakes right in front of a fairly shady part of town covered in neon signs, he took a deep breath. Then, he pulled every window on the car down, turning to look out of his side.

Hand out of that window, he continued to speak, “My sister managed to get through university, and even got a respectable job at a pharmacy. It wasn’t much, but it was something. By then, I had gotten work as an intern at a small-time music agency. That was where I met both of them. First, Aiko Taira, and then my current wife.”

“Huh? So, they know each other? Why didn’t you tell me about this bit of lore!?”

“I’m not trying to feed your romance drama here, Ohara-san! Point is, I eventually married my wife, and she moved in with me. By then, my sister had gotten too used to being taken care of by me. The house was small, my wife wanted some privacy, and she asked my sister to leave one day. I wasn’t at home. And she went. No argument, and no calling me. My sister just moved out.”

There was finally movement outside the car. Through one of the rusted metal doors underneath all the bar signs, a group of men and women tumbled out. Leading them was a man with black hair that had grown way below his nose. Behind him were people who looked like they were from various walks of life. The only thing common between them was that every single person, without a doubt, was high.

“The one with the purple hair.” Yamazaki did not look at the group at all, and Kana turned to do exactly that when he started speaking. Sure enough, one of the girls near the man with the long black hair was wearing a shiny minidress. Her gruff, dry purple hair contrasted it very heavily. Like the rest, she was sweating like crazy and stumbling around in her heels. Before Kana could guess in her mind, he answered, “That’s my kid sister.”

“That…” Jina trailed off before she could make any comment.

What was he trying to do here? Kana did not want to hear it. Surely, he was just going to try and make her feel bad in some way. The long-haired man put his hand around her shoulder and pulled her closer to him. For some reason, it disgusted Kana. And not just because Yamazaki’s sister was clearly not in the state to even walk, let alone kiss. It was because the long-haired man was not high. He was completely sober and clean.

“It didn’t take her long to stop returning my calls. None of us knew where she was. Turns out she had started off with good intentions. Started living at a homeless shelter to gather some money. But eventually, she got in with this crowd. The one time I bumped into her a few years ago, she was on four different drugs at once. She didn’t even recognize me.”

“Yamazaki-san…” Kana finally spoke up, gulping, “I…just want to go home. Please.”

“You won’t!” He grunted, looking down in shame, “That day…”

His voice quivered, but he managed to get it back in control. Kana looked at him, and only him. The group with his sister started to get away, but she couldn’t care less. Right now, she was looking at Yamazaki’s eyes, and they were the only thing that mattered.

“I’ve been trying to get some money together to get a bigger house. But I’m still paying off loans on my current one, so it’s going to take a while. Forever, I’ve been doing the same thing, Minami-san. Hoping that…one…one day, when I have enough space in my house, I’ll be able to bring her back. That I’ll be able to save her life for good.”

“Then let’s get her back right now.” Jina opened the door on her side, but stopped there, “She can live with us. Is that what you want, Yamazaki?”

“Minami-san…” He choked up on his words, “That day…when you asked me why I didn’t dream big, I started to question myself too. Every day since then, I’ve looked at you and found a way out. Every day, I’ve had hope that I can actually save her for once. And I did everything to make sure you got me there. Everything, Minami-san. I’ve begun hacking into accounts and stealing confidential information.”

“Yamazaki-san…I don’t care. Let me go.”

“Then why the fuck did you start it!?”

He thrashed his hands against the steering wheel. As silence reigned in the car, his grating voice was the only thing that triumphed over it.

“Why the fuck did you make me dream!? If you were going to stop because one person died indirectly, you shouldn’t have begun in the first place. Did you think that all of this was going to work without errors? Did you think that everything would get wrapped up with a pretty bow!? That nobody would get hurt, and nobody would lose something important? Did you!?”

“I…”

Kana wasn’t sure what to say to that. Of course, she knew that she was going to hurt people eventually. She had been hurting people all along, and she had been fine with it. She just…hadn’t expected someone like RiRi to die. No. That wasn’t it. She just didn’t want someone like RiRi to die. If it had been Kelsey, she was sure that she wouldn’t have batted an eye. But RiRi…

“You must finish what you started, Minami-san!” Yamazaki declared, looking back at her with a fire in his eyes, “I…I’m going to get my sister out of this mess, and you’re the one who is going to help me do it. Do you get it!? You don’t get to quit now. You don’t get to walk away and laugh it off someday. Rie Rin is dead because of you. You’ll need to accept that, and continue moving forward!”

Own it, she had told Keiko. A year and a half ago, she had said these same words to Keiko. Now, what had she made of them herself? Looking at Yamazaki and then at that group of addicts behind her, she wondered. Her heart began to beat again. She wasn’t a hypocrite. No. She wasn’t. She couldn’t be. Kana wasn’t like this. Yamazaki’s sister had both of her hands wrapped around that man now and was being carried by him.

Her lips started shaking, and she opened her side of the door.

“Kana, where-”

Aharu. Kana remembered her as she put her first foot out of the car. Yes. What would happen to that girl’s memory if Kana gave up now? What would she think? The way she had been burnt by Akiko Hara that day, she would be burnt by Kana a second time. That was unacceptable.

Yamazaki. She thought of him with the second step. He had been right. Every word that had come out of his mouth had been factually correct. He had just repeated to her what she believed in anyway. Just something she had forgotten, for some reason. But the way he had done it had been so roundabout. It had wasted so much of her time. And now, he was making a big deal out of such a pathetic situation.

Jina. By the time Kana got out of the car, she wished she could get that annoying bitch out of her mind. Even now, she was eating her ear out, asking endless questions. What would it take her to shut up?

Kana wrapped around the car, and Yamazaki pulled his window down. Before he could say a single word, she looked at him and scoffed.

“Yamazaki-san. Never call me a hypocrite. And don’t act like you’re better than me if your motivations are so simplistic. Saving your sister? What kind of stupid story is that? If you want to sit in this car, then you better start dreaming big, or else you’ll be the one dealing drugs for a living tomorrow.”

She turned and looked at the group. Their stumbling hadn’t taken them far. Good.

Turning her system on, she pressed a single button. What was the Coalition gonna do? Come after her? Let them. Hell, if she didn’t show them what she thought of them. Grenade launcher in hand, she stomped her way towards the little group of the high Pied Piper and his rats.

Yamazaki was worried about this? He had the gall to question her over this? She was going to solve it in a minute flat.