Idol Gunner [Yuri Villainess LitRPG]

“When I was a kid, my aunt asked me what I would be when I grew up. Back then, I really didn’t know. I said I would be a scientist and discover the cure to cancer. My grandfather had it, you see, so I thought it would be nice to help him out. But then I got old, he passed away, and I realized I really wasn’t that smart. Being a scientist was off the table. Singing? That wasn’t even in my periphery.”

The car made its way through the still-bustling streets of Neo-Edo. Yamazaki had decided to take it slow this time, which felt right. Sanada, looking out of the window at the people passing by, had started speaking all of a sudden. As they passed the multicolored lights, massive promotional billboards, and occasionally flickering lights of the many wards, nobody interrupted her.

“I tried my hand at writing, but that didn’t work out. I was terrible with numbers and barely had any patience, so my father had already warned me to never get into an office. I think…the first time I tried singing was when I was fourteen. It was at a relative’s birthday party. I had been writing poems in my free time, but nobody ever read them. But a cousin of mine had been taking singing classes, so everyone wanted to listen to her.

She sang. Then someone else started, and then a third person decided to show off their skills. Everyone clapped and told them how good they were. I was sitting in a corner. Nobody wanted to read poems, after all. Some skills are just not as obvious as others. It took time and effort to appreciate written stuff. You didn’t need that for singing. So, in their busy eyes, my cousin was a million times more talented than I was.

That’s why I sang, too. I was a huge fan of this particular duo from way back when, but it had never occurred to me to sing along. That night, I just picked a song I liked and tried my best to copy it. That night…my cousin cried a lot. When everyone praised me, and she was forgotten, she locked herself in her room and sulked all night. I was…happy. It made me feel like I was special, after all.

Now, I think I should have tried to talk to her. I understood her, after all. I knew what it felt like to have people ignore your hard work. I…what’s that, Kelsey? It wouldn’t make a difference? I guess. She wouldn’t care to hear me out. But I think, some nights. I think. If I had decided not to sing that night, or if I had tried to comfort her, would she have continued her classes? Would she be singing, instead of working in a travel agency?”

Sanada paused as they crossed a hearse. Looking out of the window, she touched the glass and closed her eyes. Whispering a small prayer, she bowed her head just a little. Nobody else moved. She didn’t know the others’ reasons, but Kana personally couldn’t bring herself to get sad about someone else’s death. It was objectively sad, but she wasn’t going to pretend that it personally hurt her.

Once that car got out of view, the vocalist rested her head. Closing her eyes, she took an extended pause. The seconds passed, and Kana started wondering if she wasn’t going to continue. As the thoughts were racing through her mind, Sanada cleared her throat and started once more.

“Being an idol is a pain, to be honest. I don’t really like dancing, which is about fifty percent of the main job. I hate acting cheery all the time to keep the fans happy. The tours are tiring, and our seats never even sell out. It’s just way too much effort for worthless returns. I mean, I’m sure Ruby Passion would have different things to say. But for people like us, it’s just a regular job, isn’t it?

I don’t even know why I became an idol. Looking back, I guess I don’t know why I did most things, right? Makes me look like a complete idiot. But I already told you I’m not smart, so it’s fine. I was just thinking about it all last night, so it comes back easily now. My singing was naturally good, and my grades weren’t. So, to not worry my parents too much, I got advice from a friend. Upload covers online, she said. And I did.

One day, RiRi-chan contacted me out of nowhere. She wanted to make original music, but only had a passable voice. Sanada-san, won’t you please sing for me? I’ll give you fifty percent of the profits! That’s what she said. That sounded like a lot, so I said yes. Turns out RiRi-chan was an incredible person, so we became friends easily.

It was fun making songs with her. Then she brought you in, Kelsey, and it was even more fun. Writing lyrics we weren’t sure of, making music with rented instruments. That might have been the happiest I’ve ever been. I could live with both of you and be myself. For maybe six months after we got signed by Sakai-san, it was still probably fun.

N-not that’s it’s not fun now, Yamada-san! Not that…it’s…who am I kidding? I haven’t had fun doing all this in the last three years. Somewhere down the line, it wasn’t enough to keep making music. At some point, every trill, every turn, every riff became calculated. One day, I realized that I had started referring to them by those terms instead of just singing without a thought.

I think RiRi-chan noticed that. She kept fighting back once in a while, asking Sakai-san to allow me to do what I wanted. But it wasn’t enough. It could never be enough. There are so many jobs on the line, after all. I am not singing for myself anymore. I am literally singing with thousands of lives on the line. I can’t start experimenting out of the blue. I am sure you understand that better, Yamazaki-san, Yamada-san. Don’t you?”

The air traffic control towers became clearer in the distance. A flight taking off whirred past their car as Yamazaki pulled into the final stretch of the airport. This was it. A few hours from now, Sanada would be dead on paper. Nobody would know where she went or what she was going to do from now on. For the better, Kana thought.

Yamada, or Yamazaki, did not reply to her question. It was rhetorical, anyway. Sanada wiped a few tears from her eyes and forced herself to smile. Looking at Kelsey, she chuckled.

“Sorry, Kelsey. I didn’t even give RiRi-chan enough time, did I? I ended up making it all about myself. Sorry. I just…”

“You don’t need to apologize.” Her friend replied, “I get it. I’m not going anywhere, though, so I’ll remember her enough. For you and me, both.”

“Maybe someday, she will forgive us. Don’t you think so?” Sanada asked, “That would be nice. Maybe she will come in a dream. Or maybe she won’t. Maybe we’ve already messed up too badly for her to like us anymore.”

“Get out of here and disappear. That’s all she would’ve wanted from you.”

Another chuckle, much livelier this time, “That’s a hurtful thing to say, Kelsey. Watch your mouth!”

“You watch yours.” Kelsey looked away from the girl, burying her face closer to the window in an attempt to hide it, “Don’t start humming in whatever countryside you go to. They’ve got songs over there, so someone might recognize you.”

“We weren’t that famous, Kelsey. Just barely.”

“Yeah, yeah. Get out. The airport’s here, and the security is annoying. Go before you miss your plane.”

The car came to a stop near the terminal entrance. Kana looked out. There wasn’t much of a rush, which tracked since it was about two in the morning. Sanada sighed, her hands moved to the handle. Yamada made her stop, almost jumping out of his seat before actually opening his door and jumping out. Wrapping around to her side of the car, he opened it and gave her a bow.

“Please don’t, Yamada-san. I’ve had enough of this false nonsense.”

“Nothing like that, Sanada-chan.” He smiled, still bowing, “I am sorry you didn’t like your time at the agency. I can’t change that, no matter what I do. But all of your hard work kept my family happy for so many years. I’ll always be in your debt.”

“And I might actually be in debt since I can’t use my bank account anymore.” Sanada laughed, “You can cover that, then.”

“Gladly.”

“I was joking. I withdrew it all in cash.”

“That might be a problem with security.” Yamazaki looked back through the rearview mirror, adjusting it.

A silence took over the car.

“Gosh, read the room, Yamazaki!” Jina cried out, but Kana pulled her back. Speaking as if she herself was good at doing exactly that. This wasn’t their place to be opening their mouths, and here this birdbrain was.

Another bout of silence followed as Sanada stepped out. Then, turning back to look at all of them, she smiled one last time.

“Kana-chan. Your song was amazing. That one, I did have fun with. Thank you for that. Jina-chan. Thank you for being yourself, even when you were trying to dismantle our whole group from the ground up. Or, well, succeeding at it. It was a joy to know you. And, uh, Kelsey…?”

The one addressed did not look in her direction. Still staring at the mirror with her legs pulled up to her chest, she gave a slight nod.

“I know I said I had a very boring three years. And I am not going to lie, they were horribly boring. But, you know, Kelsey? There’s nobody else I’d rather be bored with. Thank you. For so much more than everything.”

Mari Sanada turned, grabbed her suitcases, and started walking. She did not look back.

_____________

Sakai was furious. Expectedly so.

Kana, Jina, and Kelsey did not pick up his calls or respond to him until they were back home. Yamazaki and Yamada, in collaboration, lied to protect their aliases. Sanada had canonically gone to the Monster Dimension all on her own and gotten killed. Kelsey’s bribe to Ruby Passion Jr. ensured that they wouldn’t breathe about it either. The secret was buried forever.

The next day was turbulent. News agencies had to be contacted, and the Coalition had questions too. With a lot of investigation, and some snippets of truth from Ruby Passion Jr. (as asked by Kelsey), spread the story of the vocalist’s death. The announcement of RiRi’s passing away had not been very long ago, and now they were giving them another. It would be a lot for the fans to handle.

“What the hell happened?”

Sakai asked the three girls and two managers, who had gathered in his office. He slammed his hands on the desk, eyes on the floor as he cried.

“Sanada was…erratic.” Kelsey explained, “RiRi’s death hit her harder than me, and she was looking for revenge. Not against any humans. Not like me. She wanted revenge on the demons. Nobuko Kimura and her group apparently saw her die at the hands of one of those special demons.”

“I heard! I heard all that from the Coalition. That is not what I want to know. What will I do with the facts, huh!? What will I do with the information?! I need to know what happened. Why didn’t you stop her, Kelsey? What is wrong with you?”

“I was angry.” She somehow made herself choke up. Kana wondered if it was really fake, though. Surely some part of her did start to weep if she remembered both of her lost team members, “I wasn’t talking to her, so I didn’t question it when she left the apartment. That was my mistake. I will have to live with it my entire life.”

“So, you were home, were you? Why weren’t you responding to our calls, then!?”

“Do I need to explain that to you, Sakai?” She raised her voice, “How goddamn old are you, huh!? If you need a detailed report on it, then you must have been dealt a good hand and never lost someone. Do you need one, do you!?”

“Alright. Hey, sit down. I’m sorry. I’m just a bit shaken.” He shook his head and adjusted his blazer to look clean. Hand on his head, Sakai groaned.

An uncomfortable silence followed.

The only thing on Kana’s mind was the performance. It was three days from now, and the audience was expecting both Pink Beats and Velvet Choker to put something on. It hadn’t been cancelled, since Sakai Entertainment could not afford something like that. They had to somehow change the choreography to fit just three people now.

At least Kelsey had had a spare mechanical leg at her house, so she could actually participate. The only one who would be actually stressed would be Emi. She had to start the positioning from scratch. For someone who had never done this before, it was probably going to be a headache.

“The performance.” Sakai gulped, “I know all of us are sad. I know all of us have a lot going on recently. But we cannot just ignore it. We don’t have the financial freedom to do that. I am sorry for forcing you girls, but now is the time to show just how strong you are. For both RiRi and Sanada, you need to put this one on in style.”

He had been thinking the same thing, then. He, who wholeheartedly believed that Sanada was dead. Disgusting.

“Of course, we cannot have two groups anymore. We will have to completely dissolve Pink Beats. Kelsey cannot perform alone. Let’s do a thing. We will merge her into Velvet Choker. That gives you a proper three-person group, and the audience has enough choices to divide fandoms over. Everyone wins. Is that alright?”

None of them said a word. Kana was ticked off by the prospect, while Kelsey was probably starting to question this man’s priorities. Jina just weakly nodded, since she was the unofficial mouthpiece in this situation.

“I also don’t want to forget the two we have lost, so we will not be going forward with the name Velvet Choker. I apologize, Kana and Jina. I know you worked hard on the name, but we need to cancel it. If you really like it, then merge it. But we need to represent Pink Beats in some way. It wouldn’t feel right without it, after all. The fans will be furious if that name just disappeared.”

With that, Sakai let them go.

Kana and Jina did not want to talk to Kelsey, and Kelsey did not really want to talk to anyone. Yamazaki and Yamada, stuck in between, became the third-party communicators between them. A thankless job, but an important one. All three of them were fine with the decision, but it took a few hours for that to be communicated.

Then, before the day ended, they also needed to come up with a new name for the banners to be printed. The commercials would also be changed, and the branding would have to reflect on every product they made. It was a tedious process that would now be fast-forwarded.

Via their middlemen managers, once more, the three of them thus reached a consensus.

By Thursday night, Sakai Entertainment updated its profile in the Coalition to reflect the changes. The two previous groups were officially dissolved and replaced with the brand new one. It did not have a logo or proper branding yet, but just a name. One that was already starting to reflect throughout the company.

Velvet Beats.