Idol Gunner [Yuri Villainess LitRPG]

“Don’t take what Takahashi said seriously.”

The next morning, by the time Kana got to the gate of the resort, Nobuko Kimura had already cornered her. Accompanying her leader was Megumi Ishida, who wasn’t giving off the best impression with her messy hair and drooping eyelids. In stark contrast, Nobuko looked so fresh and ready to Kana that it was like the girl did not feel the need to sleep at all.

“Where’s the beret?”

“Huh?”

Kana looked at the girl’s head and shook her own. For so long, a beret had always been on Nobuko, by default. So much so that Kana had stopped noticing it. But now that it wasn’t there, it was like the girl was bald.

She, too, clearly did not realize her mistake. Holding her head, she felt around, and then went red at the lack of her beloved cap.

“Ishida! Go get it.”

“Ehhh?” Megumi yawned, scratching her head, “Sure, boss.”

As the girl slowly walked back into the mansion, Nobuko cleared her throat and crossed her arms.

“Alright, Ms. Saturday Morning Cartoon Villain. What do you want?”

“Shut up, Minami. Keep it to yourself. I’m just trying to save you some time since you were so kind trying to save me yesterday.” Nobuko rolled her eyes, “Though I am sure it wasn’t without some malicious reason, good deeds must be reciprocated. That’s why I said…don’t take what Takahashi said seriously.”

“And what part would that be? The one where I am the prodigy of the generation? I can see why you’d hate that, I guess.”

“Well, that too, but I was thinking more along the lines of Akiko-chan. It’s really no secret that she’s a Healing Class, and that all of her abilities are at Level 1. I mean, you could ask anybody, and they’d tell you that. But Takahashi exaggerates when speaking of how dangerous she is. Because…she isn’t. Not at all.”

“Hmm.” Kana noticed Megumi returning with the beret in her hand, and right behind her were Marie Iwata and the rest of Nozoki Neko. For now, though, she returned to the one in front, “Alright.”

“Huh?”

“Alright. You tell me she’s not dangerous, and I accept it. Thanks for letting me know. Makes a lot of sense.”

“No! I…”

“Yeah, yeah. You wanted to throw me off by making me more confident, and you thought I would make mistakes because I think Akiko Hara isn’t all that strong, and then I’ll die. Or something along those lines, I guess? So, I’ll give it to you. That very much tracks. The only issue is that I never considered her to be all that strong anyway, so I think we’re in the clear, no matter what.”

Nobuko’s face went red as Megumi brought the beret and directly placed it on her head. Even though her head was shrinking and face fuming, the little pat from the beret made it bounce just a bit. Kana laughed, but then regained her composure.

“You’ll just be an asshole to the end, won’t y-”

“Minami-chan!”

Marie raised her hand and waved. Noticing the three of them coming closer, Nobuko grabbed Megumi’s hand and pulled her away to where everyone else was waiting.

Nozoki Neko, in the meantime, took their position. All three girls smiled and greeted her before Kana had to swat her hair aside and put on a grim expression.

“Yeah? And what do you want?”

“Ah, I see.” Marie whispered, looking at her team members to explain, “Minami-chan needs to maintain a certain air, so I think it’s better if we don’t trouble her too much. Isn’t that right?”

“Mhmm. So just get to it. What do you need?”

“She’s really convincing at that.” Hiromi, the one with the twin hair buns, put a finger on her chin as she nodded in surprise, “Minami-san, can you give me some acting lessons sometime? It would be really helpful! I’m getting cast for this variety series, you see.”

Kana glared at her up and down, twisting her face to look uglier by the second. If Fluorescent Angels were to see them talking, it wouldn’t end well, after all.

“Yes, yes! Exactly like that. I wanna be that kind of character!”

“Hiromi…uh, let’s go…” Marie nervously laughed and started walking away.

“Wait, Iwata.” Kana called out to her before gesturing towards all of the girls who were standing and waiting near the entrance, “Do you have any idea what this big announcement is?”

“Not really.” She shrugged, “They told us to come, and so I did. Where’s the rest of your team?”

“Oh. Well…none of your business. Get out of here.” Kana shooed her off, making excessive hand movements to attract attention. Then, with a whisper, she added, “My room in the evening.”

With them gone, Kana was forced to actually confront that question. Where, indeed, were Jina and Kelsey? Emi wasn’t allowed to be here since they only needed the idols, which made the wait even worse. On top of that, all of the other groups were already present, except Ruby Passion. At a time when more hatred from the others would put them in trouble, those two were causing even more to fester.

She started pacing, humming tunes that she had been coming up with for future songs to pass the time. And right as she had started to consider a silver lining to it all, it was snatched away from her.

Until now, the fact that the Coalition wasn’t here to explain what was going on had been her happy place. But once the dozens of cars started to pull up one by one, she was kidnapped from that place, and effectively shot twice in the head. Biting her tongue, she ran up to blend in with the crowd.

As many people with cameras and mics began to pour out of the vehicles, so did the Coalition representatives. They weren’t wearing their usual suits anymore, which was probably because the cameras were running now. With every major broadcasting network setting up its feed in real-time, it was probably for the best.

In the distance, Kana noticed Aiko talking to the white-haired man who had announced the hiatus of the competition. And then, from right beside her, walked away Akiko Hara, Sachiyo Tanaka, and Yuko Suzuki. She clicked her tongue and made way for them. Her blood boiled, wondering why these three were here, but her own team wasn’t.

“Ah, Kana-chan!!”

“And where the fuck were you?”

Jina pulled up, panting. Behind her stood Naomi Yamazaki, also panting.

“Sorry, Akiko-san kept an…emergency meeting. And, uh, then we went to look for Kelsey and she…”

“I don’t care. She’s not here, that’s it. Naomi-san, you’ll take the information to her, I assume?”

“Yup!”

“That’s alright, then.” Kana sighed and turned her attention to the many cameras that were now pointed at all of them. Turned on, they were recording already, which meant that it would be a bad idea to do anything stupid now.

To the left, Taira gave the white-haired man a pat on the back, and he nodded. A second later, he looked at some folded paper in his pockets and walked over to the main center of the little semicircle the cameramen had created.

Clearing his throat, the man started, “Alright, so…we have made some changes to the format of the recreational retreat we had going on. As you might see, our friends from the media have graciously decided to cover the event for us, which led us to make some changes ourselves.”

“Hmm.” Kana ignored the man and snuck a peek at the reporters standing all around them, “Read. They found out that the Coalition was hiding something, and now we’re scrambling to cover it up.”

“Uh, Kana, volume…”

THE POP-JO, who were standing directly ahead of them, looked back at her words. Kana found their faces too ugly, however, so she ignored all four. The white man, who had clearly taken some public speaking classes after last time, continued his explanation.

“So, as all of you might know, and personally experienced…becoming an idol takes a lot of hard work! There is no clear way to become a famous idol, and there is no correct path to winning. I’m sure that everyone here can relate to the feeling of being unsure about how they were going to break into the industry and make a difference!

“And that’s why we’ve decided to add a completely new aspect to this retreat! And that is what our friends from the media will be covering live over the next few days. To, uh…explain that further, I will let Aiko Taira-san take my place.”

Scrambling to hide behind the cars, the white-haired man thus ended his second stint as an announcer. Taira, whose expressions suggested that she was not really supposed to be taking over, stepped in with an uncomfortable smile. Clearing her throat, she looked at all of the cameras and picked up where he had left off.

“Yeah, we have arranged for some talented young girls to join all of you at the resort for the rest of the week. One girl will be under the guidance of one idol each, and you’ll be expected to teach them everything you’ve learnt over time. And of course, you’ll help clear their doubts and maybe set them on a path that will lead them to stand right beside you all in the future.”

“Oh, son of a bitch.” Kana whispered.

Jina nodded, “Yeah, exactly. Kelsey’s not here. Her trainee will feel so bad!”

“Shut up. Nobody cares about Kelsey and her trainee! That’s hardly the biggest issue here!”

Ayaka Tamura looked back with a sour expression, “Can you shut up for once, maybe? Holy shit. We’re trying to pay attention to what is going on over here!”

“Ayaka Tamura-san!” Taira called out, “I’d appreciate it if you gave us some attention, please. Just a few more minutes and we’ll be done.”

Embarrassed, the member of THE POP-JO, who had been a maniacal force of destruction in the competition less than a day ago, murmured a curse like a child and looked away. Taira gave her a smiling nod, and then waited as a large group of girls – one for each of them – got out of a bus and calmly stood behind the cameras.

“Nice assist, Taira-san!” Jina gleefully whispered, but only until Kana bonked her head for speaking up again.

The girls who had gathered were clearly from the training centers. Since they were disguised as minor talent agencies anyway, the cover there would probably be quite solid. All of them, as expected, looked good, too. That would ensure that the discussion never moved past that and into their personal lives.

Audiences or the media did not come after your personal life if you looked good enough. Not in a malicious manner, at least.

One by one, Taira started to take names. Every girl was assigned to the care of one of the idols, and they appeared to be going in alphabetical order of their first names. Akiko Hara, being one of the first to be provided with a trainee, got the most people excited to find out who it was going to be. The lucky girl, as they called her, jumped in joy and gave the leader of Ruby Passion a tight hug before walking away with her back into the crowd.

And so on, names were taken until they finally got to Kana. Being relatively unknown and without a fan base, most of the members of the press seemed uninterested as the girl assigned to her stepped forward.

She looked so young that Kana wondered if she had lied about being of age. But with her long, silky brown hair and twinkling green eyes, it wasn’t difficult to see why she had gotten here. In her baggy trousers and oversized t-shirt, however, she would have to target a very particular niche.

“Chitose Yono!” She introduced herself, putting on a wide smile, “Nice to meet you, Minami-san.”

“Hmm. Welcome.” Kana quietly walked away, letting her follow as she pleased.

Chitose hadn’t done anything wrong, obviously. But to Kana Minami, having anyone follow her around was not something she could afford. She knew precisely how to keep this girl away, and that unfortunately meant not catering to her expectations.

Jina welcomed her much more warmly, introducing her to the girl who had been assigned to her. A little bit after that, Naomi went over to explain herself and bring over the girl who was assigned to Kelsey. And so, Kana stopped paying attention.

For everyone, except one. Because when Nobuko Kimura’s name was called, she was assigned Risa Ueno. Far from the confident, brash, or downright sadistic people that she usually surrounded herself with, her trainee was the shyest of the bunch. Keeping her head down and refusing to look her in the eye, Risa quietly greeted her before following the leader.

It almost made Kana laugh, but she controlled herself. Only for the sake of Ayaka Tamura, of course. It would be too bad if Taira were forced to shout at the girl for disturbing everyone again.