Idol Gunner [Yuri Villainess LitRPG]

The next day, once the scheming had been done and the plan prepared, went by without any issues. Emi helped them practice for the next song, which was well underway on the writing side of things. That was what they continued polishing once the dancing was done. Kelsey worked on helping them commercialize the song while Kana continued to push the lyrics into a deeper, more artistic side.

By the time the day came to a close, they ended up getting no time to get into the pool or check out the rest of the resort. At night, everyone had dinner in the hall, during which every member of Velvet Beats made sure to ignore Nozoki Neko as much as possible. Shoko Takahashi did not even attempt to reach out and discuss strategies.

That was a common thread that Kana had noticed between every group. Nobody was sitting with the team members who had been assigned for the competition. Either that, or every single girl here had been having a late-night meeting twelve hours ago. Which one was true, Kana thought, would only show itself the next day.

And when the next day rolled around, she found herself beginning to believe that this would go better than expected. There was a complete lack of acknowledgement between all the idols. As they reached the massive room in which multiple dark blue pods with virtual reality equipment had been set up, everyone got into their own seats without a word.

At this point, as Kana waved to Marie before getting in, she wasn’t sure if she was missing something or if Tanaka’s plan had been a bit too successful.

She was supposed to lie down in the pod, so that was what she did. A soft, comfortable cushion-like material let her relax as she got on her back. The system chip on her neck connected with a plug at the bottom of the pod, immediately sending a small electric shock through her body to ensure it was working. After pressing a prompt to confirm that it was, a part of the pod’s roof moved down over her head.

Screens popped out of the descending mechanical part, and she adjusted her head to wear them. Gloves with motion sensors, which she had already worn, were then paired with the screen. So were the rough socks that she had been given alongside them. Once all of that was connected and working, Kana finally found herself in the game.

Despite knowing that she was lying down in the pod, the system chip did wonders. Using its existing technology to tap into her brain, it convinced her body that she was in a waiting room instead. Standing there with Marie and Shoko, the three of them waited for everyone to connect. After that was done, a timer counted down the final minute before the game started.

The rules were simple. There were monsters you could kill for points, but you could also hunt down the other teams. The first round was three hours long. The top four out of eight teams with the highest points would qualify for the second round. Alternatively, the round could end early if four teams were eliminated within those three hours.

As impressed as she was with the technology, Kana was not going to not complain about the weight of the machine on her head. And so, she planned on hitting that four-team kill limit before the time ended. It was only fair to try for it, since they had been given the option.

The one-minute timer ended, and the screen went dark.

_____________

“Aww, you really didn’t have to…” Kana mumbled once the map loaded.

In front of her was not the bland battlefield she had expected. Instead, there were the insides of a mansion. Tall ceilings, windows everywhere looking out into a black void, and an almost labyrinthine structure lay out before them as the battleground. It wasn’t a half-assed map, either. It had been meticulously detailed. Despite having a cell-shaded, animated look, every texture felt like it had weight to it.

Beside her, Marie Iwata and Shoko Takahashi stood with their class weapons, too. The leader of Nozoki Neko carried a Howa Type 20 that was decked out with every attachment imaginable, down to a laser sight. Carrying it as if it weighed nothing, the girl was just showing off how used to that Assault Class she had become by being Rank 4 for so long. Shoko Takahashi, as a Healing Class, smugly stood there with empty hands. She had no reason to be active right now.

“What is this?” Marie asked, tapping her ears and mouth, “Proximity chat?”

“Something like that.” Shoko replied in her usual, conceited tone, “Teammates get specialized controls, though. Check your right ear, and you should feel a tactile button. You can use that to radio your team if you’re far away. Everyone else is proximity-only.”

“Know quite a bit about this, do you?” Kana asked, “How many times have you been in this?”

“Uh…” The healer tilted her head, “Once every week? Something like that. Lilac Shower developed the tech, after all. They just decided to share it with the Coalition for the competition. So just stick close, and you’ll be fine.”

“You know the map, too, then?” Marie asked, smiling, “We were lucky to get you as a teammate, weren’t we? Thanks, Takahashi-san!”

“Don’t be.” Shoko started walking through the polished dark oak floor first, “I might know the map, but it's not my strongest suit. On the other hand, this is Akiko-chan’s favorite area to practice in. She’s in a team with your lackey, isn’t she, Minami? I guess Velvet Beats can cling along for a victory with her, then.”

Kana groaned as she pushed past the healer and took the lead. She was going to let Shoko take them around, but just hearing her say those words had pissed Kana off. The game had not even started, and she was already admitting defeat. Not that Kana had any intention of winning…

“Minami-san!” Marie ran forward to keep up with her.

Shoko, on the other hand, maintained her slow pace, “Don’t get worked up, Minami. Just look at the environment and smile. Appreciate the design. That’s all you can do. Akiko-chan is…”

“What?” Kana turned, “Akiko Hara is what? Untouchable? Unreachable? How are you going to glaze her this time around?”

Shoko rolled her eyes, checking the remaining time on her palm, only to be disappointed at the fact that only five minutes had passed. Then, she looked at Kana and replied in a dead serious voice. A reply that Kana Minami could not have expected to come out of a Ruby Passion Jr. member’s mouth in a million years.

“She’s a monster.”

_____________

The sounds of guns, grenades, and sword swings filled the mansion relatively quickly. Kana and her group – Team 1 – made their way through the corridors with ease while ignoring most other teams. Even though she wasn’t exactly looking forward to the outcome of what she had planned, it was what it was. Fighting the actual enemy was more important than winning the game.

So, shooting and blasting enemies away while getting the occasional boost from Shoko Takahashi’s abilities, Team 1 continued to move across the corridor, looking down into the courtyard. Shoko was the one who had led them across this path, since she claimed the algorithm made more monsters spawn here. Yet, even though the monsters were pretty good, Kana was glad for a whole other reason.

In the tight courtyard below were Team 2 and Team 3. It was a fun upper-number team reunion. The former featured Sachiyo Tanaka and Neptune, along with one of the girls Kana didn’t know. The latter was Nobuko Kimura’s team. And with her were Atlas and THE POP-JO’s Ai Suzuki. It was also a fun domestic violence reunion between Atlas and Neptune, then.

Kana ignored them. By having Nobuko on their side, Team 3 was already the winner. There was nothing to be done about it. On top of that, Team 3 making it into the winners was precisely the outcome Kana needed by the end of the round, so it worked out well. Even as the other attacks echoed through the walls and rumbled through the floor, Kana just waved her grenade launcher around to deal with the AI monsters.

“What’s with that drum-like sound?” Marie asked, pressing the trigger as she spoke.

“What drum-like sound?” Kana asked, looking in the direction she meant. To their right, past the many walls, Marie claimed that someone was fighting with a very distinct weapon. One that Kana had never seen or heard of.

The leader of Nozoki Neko did not answer because she had no clue either. Shrugging, she continued to focus on the fake enemies and prioritize points. Their plan would not kick in until the end, when it was least suspicious. Kana agreed with this, too, and switched to the Portable Landmine to see if it would even work with wooden floors.

Shoko Takahashi, however, stopped moving. A quick yelp, and she made her teammates stop as well. Looking straight at the monsters ahead, she asked them to continue shooting. But they were not to move forward, under any circumstances.

“Coming.” She gulped, “Actually, move back even further.”

“What’s up? Who’s coming?” Kana asked, hands on her hips. She had had enough of this girl already.

“Uh, the sounds are quite far away, though.” Marie added, moving back as ordered even as she asked more questions, “We should be fine if we make our way through the place quickly, right? Even with all the monsters, it shouldn’t take more than a minute!”

“Dampeners, dumbo.” Was the answer, “The walls have audio dampeners on them for realism. Everything sounds softer through them. And to be honest, I didn’t know what they were thinking, shoving twenty-five people in here. This mansion is not really that big, you kno-”

The drum-like sound became more obvious. It became louder than ever, accompanied by more splintering and shattering. It was like someone banging on one of those massive drums and letting the sound blast through the air, over and over. Right as Shoko was about to finish her sentence, it reached its loudest, and a crack appeared on the wall to their right.

Then, it widened. It spread. A horizontal crack covered the entire wall. And finally, it burst open. Between the wood flying everywhere in the wide corridor was a body. Thrown through the newly opened hole in the wall, the very recognizable Megumi Ishida’s unconscious self flew in the air. Behind her appeared a girl that Kana could barely recognize, but one that she knew she had seen before. Probably a member of THE POP-JO.

Wearing massive iron gauntlets in her hands, she put on a wicked smile and hit Megumi in the stomach. The body hit the other wall and broke it, too. Racing through the air, the mini-missile made of flesh and bones hit the floor of the courtyard to interrupt the skirmish in there. As the Ruby Passion Jr. member’s artificial body went bloody and limp, the rest of the team who had killed her followed.

First was Jina Ohara. Running behind the member of THE POP-JO in a hurry, she quickly jumped down along with that one. At the very end, with her hands behind her back, came Akiko Hara. Looking at Kana and her team for just a split second, she smiled and mouthed something before gracefully jumping down through the open hole as well.

Now, the courtyard had three teams.

“Ai…” Kana looked down in a panic before composing herself and clearing her throat. Considering that everyone down there had someone from Lilac Shower in it, the fight would probably not get very heated.

On the very edge of her vision, a pop-up appeared.

Eliminated – Team 5

“All of them?” Marie looked down at where Megumi’s dead avatar was. Then, in a panic, she ran to the right wall and looked deeper into the line of holes that the member of THE POP-JO, Ayaka Tamura, had created.

Somewhere between the fifth and sixth was one of the girls who had refused to talk to Kana earlier. Further down, where the broken wall opened out into the void, was Hiromi Kitani’s body. Covered in blood, the girl with the twin buns had been killed without remorse.

“Hiromi…” The leader whispered.

“She’s not really dead?” Shoko groaned, “Come on. We should get out before one of those idiots in the courtyard decides to involve us as well.”

“Y-yeah.” Marie nodded.

Kana wasn’t sure how to respond. She knew how this was all supposed to end today, so she would have to put herself in danger’s way somehow before the three-hour mark. But was it late enough by now? The way she made plans had shifted a lot in the last few weeks. Strong-arming people into doing things for her would not work anymore. She needed to make people believe in themselves so much that they did not even consider her.

The question, then, was simple. How quickly would Kana Minami jump into battle in a situation like this? Would she take her time and run away, or would she hop in and try to kill them all herself?

And when it was put like that, the answer was obvious. Wasn’t it more suspicious if she was playing it safe?

“Oi, eyes over here!”

Down in the courtyard, Ayaka Tamura punched her gauntlets together to attract attention. The person she was talking to, Atlas, scowled and turned her axe in her direction. Kana ran to the edge of the opening into the courtyard and held her breath.

Jina was fighting Neptune, for some reason. Thrashing her sword against the assault rifle that the Fluorescent Angels member was trying to block with, she didn’t look like she was doing much damage. Not until the crack of the gun’s metal ripped through the air. Akiko Hara, who was still standing in the corner with a smile on her face and her hands behind her back, smiled at the development.

Team 4 had entered the courtyard, disrupted the fight, and was now fighting against both Teams 2 and 3. In the meantime, the remaining members of those teams were still fighting against each other. Nobuko had ignored Akiko completely and was fighting Sachiyo Tanaka, who was using her Vanguard Class to defend against most of her revolver shots. Ai Suzuki, another POP-JO member, was fighting that boring girl from the lower teams.

“Akiko Hara…” Kana whispered, looking at Shoko, “What class is she?”

The Ruby Passion Jr. member cracked a smile, “Who do you think you are, Minami? You might be on my team right now, but I still work with her, you know? As if I’m gonna tattle. Now, let’s get out of here.”

That was fine. Jina could tell her later when the round ended. It was only a matter of time. For now, she needed to ensure that nothing happened to Ai Suzuki. Despite fighting the nobody who probably only had a Rank 2 weapon, the poor girl was still struggling. Her fellow POP-JO member, on the other hand, clearly had no such issue.

The moment Ayaka Tamura jumped up in the air and brought her gauntlets down on Atlas’ axe, their clash sent a shockwave through the courtyard. The girls stumbled for a second. All of them, except Akiko. Still standing her ground, she kept a smile on her face and witnessed as Ayaka landed a second attack. This one, causing the handle of the axe to crack, split the weapon into two.

Atlas grunted and tried to sidestep the next punch, but wasn’t fast enough. By the time the pieces of the axe even registered in her mind, Ayaka had already started moving her other fist. The one that would be the end for the Fluorescent Angels member. Hitting Atlas in her stomach, she smashed the girl into the wall to the left and broke it apart, too. Akiko, who was standing in that corner, merely moved aside as Ayaka walked to her downed prey.

Then, without any grace, she landed another punch on the girl’s face, killing her instantly.

“Wow.” Kana sighed, crouching down.

“We should go.” Shoko shook her head and looked around, “She’s bound to be around here somewhere.”

“Who?” Marie asked.

Their team had been quite passive until now, and that was true. But there were other teams that hadn’t shown up, either. Kelsey’s, for example, was nowhere to be seen. Neither was Saturn and her group. Kana wondered what they were doing, especially if the mansion was as small as Shoko claimed.

She wondered, looking around, until a sudden gasp brought her attention back to the courtyard.

In the few seconds she had not been looking down, Akiko Hara had moved. Standing right beside Ai Suzuki, she had her hand lodged into the girl’s stomach. Blood gushed down without pause as her dead body flopped on Akiko’s shoulder. Taking her blood-stained hands out of her, she let the girl fall to the floor and looked up.

Her eyes met Kana, and she smiled once more before starting to walk towards Nobuko, who was still busy trying to break through Sachiyo’s defenses.

Kana cursed under her breath. That was that, then. There was no changing direction now. She looked at Marie, and the two of them shared the same conclusion. They couldn’t let Nobuko die. They needed a reason for Team 3 to remain in the competition tomorrow, and the leader of Ruby Passion Jr. dying would ruin those chances.

“And what are you two thinking, huh?” Shoko crouched down too, still as insufferable as ever. Kana ignored her and jumped down. As the healer yelped and screamed at her for ruining it all, Marie followed and got into the courtyard as well.

Screaming at the Nozoki Neko leader to handle Ayaka Tamura somehow, Kana took her Portable Landmine out and shot it into the ground. Through the courtyard’s rocks, the mine made its way straight to where Akiko was about to step. At the same time, before she could even get there, Kana continued to rush towards the oblivious Nobuko.

Behind her, Marie caught Ayaka’s attention and started snarling at the thought of getting to go all out against a member of their group. As Ayaka jumped forward with her fists ready, Akiko kept walking. Marie took her rifle out, and started shooting at Ayaka’s gauntlets, which she used to protect her head. The clang of metal against metal underscored the fighting in the courtyard.

Akiko took another step and landed on the mine. A simple sigh escaped her as the bomb went off and covered the entire room in smoke. Kana kept running, rushing through the smoke to get closer to Nobuko. She could disguise it as a personal, petty revenge. She could act like killing Nobuko was her only goal, and in reality, help her get out of Akiko’s range.

Team 3 needed to survive. If this were to go well, they needed to live.

Nobuko’s position became clearer, and Kana stretched her arm out to reach her. The smoke settled, and for some reason, Akiko continued to stand exactly where she had been. Completely undamaged, the leader of Ruby Passion just looked at Kana with that creepy grin as she reached Nobuko Kimura and put a hand on the girl’s shoulder.

“Huh!?” Nobuko looked at her, scowling.

“You bitch!” Kana screamed, raising her fist to land a punch on the girl’s face.

“Not fucking again!”

Nobuko raised her revolver, aiming it at Kana’s head and getting ready to push the trigger. Kana’s fist got closer, too. Every inch of progress took a year off her life. Every breath in her hoped that she didn’t die before confirming Nobuko and Team 3’s safety. Kana was throwing her pride away to do this, so the least she could get was a good outcome.

But then the bullet left the barrel of the gun.

Cutting through the air, it found its target and killed her instantly. One bullet, shot from the mansion’s third floor, blasted through Nobuko Kimura’s forehead and blew it up. The blood, flesh, and bones from the head got all over Kana’s face and dress as she gasped at the outcome. Her heartbeat somehow grew faster than before, and she let the girl’s body fall to the ground.

That was who Shoko had meant. The one who was most suspiciously missing, and the one Kana had not even thought about.

Akiko changed her target instantly, turning away. Kana looked up at the third floor as she tried to catch her breath. Right there, crouching on the window still as she prepared her sniper to shoot once more, was Yuko Suzuki.

Eliminated – Team 3