Idol Gunner [Yuri Villainess LitRPG]

The short drive back to Sakai Entertainment was spent in silence. Not only because Kana had absolutely nothing to say about what had just happened, but also because if she did open her mouth, only hurtful things would come out. Tanaka had not been very nice with this decision, and she intended to make him pay back in full.

Kelsey clicked her feet in the front seat, restlessly looking out of the window. There was no music playing, as Yamada hadn’t dared to turn the player on. Jina, sitting beside Kana, had drifted off to sleep. As expected, if there was one thing this girl was good at, it was sleeping, no matter what the situation was.

At least that meant there was peace for some time. For the small time until they got to Sakai Entertainment, Kana thought up seven different ways to embarrass Tanaka in front of everyone. And then she decided against all seven of them. Not because they went too far. The problem was that they didn’t go far enough. She could do so, so much worse.

But her thoughts were cut short when the car stopped. All three of them got down, followed by Yamada, and then walked into the building. It was eerily quiet, for some reason. Most of the lights had been turned off, and every single step they took echoed through the massive main hall of the building.

Quietly making their way to Sakai’s office, the girls found him sitting in a dark room. With the back of his chair turned to them, the only bit of movement beyond his desk was the smoke wafting off a dying cigar. The President of Sakai Entertainment clicked his tongue and moved his hand, gesturing at them to sit down.

That was when Kana noticed that they weren’t the only five people in the room. Sitting on one of the couches, in his full black suit, was Jun Yamazaki. He gave Kana and Jina a nod of acknowledgement as they sat down. She wanted to ask him about Naomi and what had happened back at his house, but now was not the time. Kana just hoped she didn’t forget about it by the time this meeting was done.

“What the fuck happened?” Sakai whispered once all of them had taken their places.

Nobody replied.

The man turned around. His entire face had creases all over, and he was sweating despite the air conditioner being at full blast. Sakai smashed his hands on the table, “Speak up! What the hell happened in there? What do they mean that the System shut down!?”

“It did.” Kelsey replied first, as bluntly as possible. Her changed behavior towards the manager had been getting more and more obvious as the days passed. Ever since the man had dismissed RiRi’s death that day, it was like something in her had awoken. Unfortunately, it didn’t change the fact that she was still Kelsey.

Kana followed up, not wanting to hear her voice any more than necessary. Narrating the events of the field-spanning horde and the giants, she stopped with the announcement.

“And what about next week? They’re gonna tell us that it’s still not open and keep looping!?” Sakai screamed, his spit flying all over the room as the fat on his chin shook with every stress letter, “What then? What are we going to do when that happens?”

“I fail to see how screaming at us is going to solve that, Sakai-san.” Kana sighed, leaning on the couch and yawning.

Sakai stared at her. His knuckles trembled on the desk, and then he curled both hands into fists. Hitting the table once more, the man let out a deep breath and straightened himself.

“I’ll work on talking to the Coalition about it. I’m sure they’ll provide Velvet Beats a stage for the weekend. If they don’t, then we’ll try to buy one ourselves. The payment from last week has not been cleared yet, though, so it might take a while to do that.”

“See, wasn’t that easier? Helps so much not to be pissed off all the time.”

“Minami!”

“What?” She groaned, rolling her eyes, “It’s always ‘Minami!’ this, and ‘Minami!’ that. I’m tired, all right? We were the ones fighting there today, so at least shut up. If you’ve got such a healthy throat, then go show it off to Tanaka instead.”

“Oh, I intend to.” He cleared his throat, “But that does not mean you get to speak to me like that, got it?”

Jina looked at the floor, twirling her fingers and sighing at the command. Waking up so quickly and being forced into a shouting match hadn’t done her any favors. Kana softened her voice and waved the President off, mumbling vague promises about how she wouldn’t do it again.

“We have someone who has been doing work, though.” Sakai looked at Yamazaki, “Go on. We’ve waited long enough, and they’re here now. What was that you said? You couldn’t have pulled this off at a better time? We’re all ears.”

Yamazaki nodded and looked at everyone in the room once before beginning. With all the lights still turned off, this had a much more sinister feel than Kana had expected. For once, it felt like they were actually plotting something evil.

“The Fair Play Committee.” He explained, “It was a bit of a hassle to get to how it is set up. It’s not even worth all the secrecy, to be honest. But it is meant to be a way to ensure there is no unnecessary internal faction-forming. And as expected, all of it is meant to benefit Tanaka and Lilac Shower in one way or another.”

“Just get to it, man. I did not send everyone else home to listen to you preaching about all this. I got it. Tanaka’s a little bitch and will do anything he needs to make sure nobody can knock him on his ass. Great job. Just get to it!”

Yamazaki did not say anything, but shot Kana a single glance. She shrugged, and he cracked a smile.

“It is made up of the agencies that have the top three positions in the rankings. Putting three people who are basically always at each other’s necks together to ensure the game remains fair? It is a good idea. That is why the Committee was formed without any issues. They keep arguing amongst themselves, and it benefits everyone in the process. That was how it worked. For almost thirty-six weeks, that is. Until last Friday.”

“And? What happened last Friday?”

The answer appeared in front of her, and Kana vocalized it to the oblivious Sakai. A shot laugh echoed through the closed room as she did. “Ruby Passion Jr. got third place. Isn’t that something? Now out of the top three groups, two are owned by Lilac Shower.”

“Yeah, but there should be an override, shouldn’t there?” Jina asked, finally out of her sleep-induced low IQ, “Surely the rules state that it is the top three agencies, and not the top three groups?”

Yamazaki shook his head, “No such luck. The wording is quite clear. The agencies representing the top three groups are the ones that make up the Fair Play Committee. And because nobody else in the Coalition knows this, they don’t realize what has just happened. Tanaka has 66% control of the Committee now, which means whatever he decides on is ‘fair’”.

Sakai shook his head, covering it with his palms, “No, that shouldn’t happen. I mean, who was number three? Shouldn’t they be complaining abou-”

“Nozoki Neko.” The ex-manager, now corporate spy, answered, “The group that was replaced by Ruby Passion Jr. was Nozoki Neko.”

The room went quiet for some reason. Sakai clicked his tongue and looked at the ceiling with a look of defeat. Kana didn’t quite understand why, and Jina seemed to be in the same position. Kelsey, on the other hand, was just meekly smiling at the situation. She was in on the knowledge, and so were Sakai and Yamada. What was it, then? What made Nozoki Neko unable to speak up?

Kana had heard the name before. She had even heard their songs once in a while. But not because she wanted to. She just didn’t have a choice. They were one of Keiko’s favorite groups. Her little sister used to play them all the time back when she first got introduced to their discography.

So, why….

Of course. That was why. Keiko had always been quirky like that. It probably ran in the blood. The reason she liked Nozoki Neko was quite simple. One that even Kana could respect.

“Who are they, Yamazaki?” Jina asked, clearly unwilling to put in the same amount of effort to deduce the answer.

“Nozoki Neko…” Yamazaki looked at her as he narrated, “They were an underground idol group for the longest time. But then one of their songs became an overnight sensation. It topped basically every chart for a short period of time, which got them enough clout to climb up to more official, premium stages. When the Coalition was being formed, their agency just happened to be one of the most popular and successful around. The invitation was sent by an automatic bot, and they accepted out of desperation.”

“H…uh?” Kana had guessed that they were an indie group, but that hadn’t been on her bingo list. The Coalition had sent its curated invitation emails via an…automated bot? It almost made her cringe at the level of incompetence she was looking at.

Yamazaki continued, “Yes. Tanaka never intended for them to be there, but now they knew. He noticed too late. And thus, they were in. It is an agency purely dedicated to them. That is because it was created after the group was formed. That is why it is called Bobtail Felis. They lean very deep into the cat imagery. As you can guess, their smaller circle of influence made a lot of the bigger agencies in the Coalition quite angry.”

As he said that final line, he looked at Sakai, who was gritting his teeth. Of course, he must have been one of them as well. To a man like Sakai, a random agency made to represent a single group without any investment and history was probably a glitch in the matrix. To him, Kana guessed, they were just pretenders.

“So, they won’t speak up.” Kelsey yawned too, looking at Yamada. The manager smiled and left the room in an instant. Once she had gestured whatever she wanted to him, she finished her thought, “The president of Bobtail Felis is the aunt of the group’s leader. To her, being in this world is a blessing she doesn’t believe she deserves. To her, this was a fluke she took advantage of.”

“She thinks speaking up would mean not appreciating her position?” Kana chuckled, unable to understand how people like this even managed to exist.

“Something like that.” Yamazaki sighed, “And the other remaining agency won’t complain, either. MidoriLIVE, representing THE POP-JO. They’ve had way too big a rivalry with Nozoki Neko and Bobtail Felis to care about their removal. Their president is also good friends with Tanaka, so the two of them will be quite happy being in the Committee all alone.”

Sakai rubbed his forehead, murmuring something under his breath about big mistakes and backstabbing assholes. He looked back up at Yamazaki and asked in a whisper.

“How sure are you of this information? Where did you get it?”

“I’d stake my life on it.” Yamazaki straightened his glasses, “My source is anonymous.”

Aiko Taira, then. If there was one person that Yamazaki could have gotten good information from, it was that woman. Kana wondered what their relationship looked like right now. As much as she didn’t want to doubt the man, there was surely a bit of drama in store for him if he kept hanging out with her too much.

Sakai laughed and smacked his thigh, “And you’re telling me to believe an anonymous source? People who hide their identities have something to run away from. If this person trusted what they were doing, then they wouldn’t be in the shadows!”

“Surprisingly profound of you, Sakai-san.” Kana nodded.

“Minami!”

“Yeah, yeah. I apologize for my rude behavior.”

She stretched her arms as the door opened and Yamada entered once more. Giving Kelsey a short nod, he took his place once more. Kana decided that it must have been about the car. She had called him only after yawning. The blonde was dying to get home and get some sleep.

“You can trust them if you want. You are also free to think everything I said is a lie, if it helps you sleep better.” Yamazaki leaned in, “But I would say that I’ve got some very good proof to confirm their validity. Something you can’t make up.”

“And is this proof in your brain? Something you’re gonna tell me again?!”

“No.” He shook his head, “It’s in your laptop, Sakai-san. You should open it now. Nine minutes ago, according to my source, you got an email from the Agencies Coalition. This email contains the detailed plan for the collaboration event that the Coalition has planned. It is being used as an apology for the System crash, but it still follows the script Tanaka always wanted it to.”

Sakai scoffed and pulled his chair closer to the desk. The moment he opened the laptop, though, the man’s smile vanished. He had no choice but to accept the truth now. Yamazaki and Taira were right, and there was no doubt about it. Kana straightened her posture and got ready to listen to what was coming.

Ever since Taira had warned her about this, she had been giddy to figure out what this master plan was meant to be. She had a couple of different ideas already, and now she would find out which one was correct. Sakai clicked a few buttons and opened the mail. All he read out was the subject, and it was enough to throw her off.

“Invitation to the Coalition Recreational Friendship Meet at Hiroyama Resort.”

The…what?