Idol Gunner [Yuri Villainess LitRPG]

By the time Kana got to the ground floor, she could barely think straight. Marie Iwata and Hiromi Kitani, who were waiting for her in front of the main gate, did not register in her brain. Walking past them, completely blind to their presence, she only stopped once Jina Ohara appeared in front of her.

Standing in front of her room in her competition dress, yawning, the girl had taken off her pink wig for some reason.

“Ah, Kana!” She called out, waving her hand.

“Give me your phone.”

“What?”

She did not wait to answer. Reaching into the small bag the girl was carrying on her shoulder, Kana took her phone out and shoved it in front of her face. A small vibration confirmed its unlocking, and she quickly scrolled to the contacts list.

Kana herself had never considered noting down the singer’s number, but she knew without a doubt that Jina would have. Leaving her confused and hanging, she turned around to the main gate. This time, Marie’s unsure expression caught her eye. She raised her hand, gesturing for the Nozoki Neko girl to wait while she handled this.

Past both of them once more, she left Hiroyama Resort’s main gate and stopped in the cool evening air outside. Staring at the cloudless, starry sky above her, she found herself slightly shocked. One did not get a view like this in Neo-Edo, so it was definitely something to look twice at.

“Uh, hello? O…hashi…san?”

“Don’t be calling people chopsticks, you idiot. That’s no cover.” Kana scoffed, “It’s Minami. What do you think you’re doing, walking around without a care in the world, wherever you are?”

“Eh…eh?” Sanada stuttered, clearing her throat before she continued, “What do you mean, Kana-chan? What happened?”

“Masaru Abe. Recognize the name, or is he some overexcited newbie?”

“Ah…Abe-san. Yeah, I know him. More like everybody knows him. He got me, did he?”

“It’s a blurry photo, and doesn’t show you in detail, but…mostly. Anyone who’s seen you even once would know it’s you. So, I ask again, what the hell have you been doing walking around without some kind of cover? Do you just want us to get into more trouble?”

“That’s not it, Kana-chan. It’s just that nobody here actually knows me, so it’s a breath of fresh air. And they don’t really get a lot of visitors or tourists here at all, so…I got careless. But it’s fine, right? It’s just a blurry picture, you said?”

“A blurry picture that tells anybody with a drive your exact location. Either start relocating, or…something. Figure it out. You can’t stay wherever you are staying right now, got it?”

A new voice called out from behind her, followed by a set of pattering footsteps that stopped right beside her. Jina panted, grabbing her knees to gather her breath before angrily turning up with a frown.

“Kana! It’s not nice to steal other people’s phones!”

“Jina-chan?” Sanada’s cheery voice cried out from the other side, “How have you been!?”

“Ah!? Sana…you? What are you doing?”

Kana groaned, putting a hand on Jina’s mouth as she dealt with the current situation without having to control a goth gremlin.

“Look, Mari. Do us both a favor by moving away. This Abe guy did not look like he was going to buy my stupid stories, anyway.” She looked at the empty, closed third-floor windows, and then turned back to the phone, “You’ll do that, got it? Use some of that money you’ve saved up or whatever.”

“No, I kinda spent it all.”

“What the fuck? You’ve been gone maybe a couple of weeks!”

Jina chimed in, grabbing the phone back with a laugh, “Good job, Sanacchan! Get those luxury shoes, got it?!”

“Don’t get those luxury shoes, Mari. Are you being serious right now?”

Sanada laughed, causing both of the girls to stop fighting over the phone, “I’m just kidding, Kana-chan. Of course, I haven’t spent all of it. I mean, I barely know what to do with so much. Don’t worry. I’ll start looking for good properties on the other side of the country.”

Kana felt a curse rising in her throat and bit her tongue to stop it. “Fine. Whatever. Travel by local cabs only. Keep switching them. No proper tickets that can be tracked or documented. And do it by the end of the week.”

“Yeah, I got it.” She sighed, “And to think I was finally getting comfortable with things.”

“A bit too comfortable, clearly. Now go and start looking. Bye.”

“Uh…wait!” Sanada cried out, and a loud thud made its way through the receiver. The girl on the other side groaned, as if recovering from an injury, “Fell…from…bed. Also…where is Kelsey? Is she there?”

“Kelsey-chan is currently participating in the-” Jina started to explain, but was shushed by Kana once more.

“Watch the TV, dammit!”

With that, she cut the call.

_____________

Sitting in complete civility with equal distance between them, the four girls quietly waited for someone to start a conversation. Kana’s room, as she herself noted, had already become a public meeting spot, so there was no point in being angry about that. To a certain extent, she could even understand Kelsey’s frustration with the same.

Being the one who got uncomfortable quickest, however, she decided to be the one to break the silence.

“So, what the fuck are you doing here?”

“Wow, Minami-san! You’ve got such a cool style of speaking!!” Hiromi nodded with a smile.

“Don’t pick it up…” Marie sighed.

Jina smiled, inching slightly closer, “So, so, if you actually came to watch the competition, you would probably know. But the second round is divided into two main matches. The first was between our group and Saturn-chan’s group, right? And we basically destroyed them in five minutes flat, so here I am!”

“You mean Ayaka and Akiko destroyed them that quickly, and you sat there and waited for it to happen?”

“Now, Kana-chan, don’t forget. The best way to get rid of your enemies is to wait and let them do it all on their own. Don’t you agree? That’s how it should be, and that’s what I’ve learnt. Hehe!”

“Don’t hehe it, you sloth! You just sat there, that’s all. Did you at least get some information on the two of them for later!?”

“Ahh…kinda? I mean, they basically did the same thing as before, so there wasn’t much to note.”

“Yeah, and you never cared to expand on the earlier part either, so you can still share!”

Hiromi laughed, almost clapping her hands, “They got along well, don’t they, Marie?”

The room went silent. Jina’s face, beet red, flipped down in embarrassment. Kana, for some reason, found herself feeling the same sense of having been caught red-handed. Still, she greeted her teeth and prepared to do what she did best.

“Kitani-san?”

“Yeah, Minami-san?”

“Shut up!”

“Ah…okay…”

The Nozoki Neko member looked down as well, mirroring Jina, though she puffed her cheeks in addition to that. And once the room was silent once more, Marie finally gave her friend a pat on her head and weakly smiled.

“Don’t put your nose in other people’s business, alright? Now, stop sulking, Hiromi. And, uh, Minami-san? I would appreciate it if you did not let your sharp tongue extend to my friends. Kitani-san is like a sister to me. To you, she is nothing more than an acquaintance as of right now. Please don’t try to get too comfortable and familiar.”

Kana gave her a short nod, “Yeah. Sorry. It got out of hand. But…let’s focus on the important stuff again. We got that paper, so we’re golden. We just need to hand over the information to an unrelated, rival news agency to get the story printed.”

“Paper? What paper?” Jina jumped, hoping to get some intel.

Instead, she got a snappy reply, “I’ll tell you later. Just sit down, already.”

“Ugh…fine.”

“Yeah, Minami-san. You’re not wrong about the idea, but it will take some time. Even if they appear to be rivals on the surface, information is shared between news agencies all the time. They might be competitors, but the self-preservation and camaraderie run deep in their souls if the scandal is this big.”

“Marie’s right.” Hiromi nodded, “They’ll happily let it all slide if it means keeping general trust in the industry alive. If you are the one sending the information, in particular, they’ll just try to strongarm you because of your newcomer status.”

“You mean they will try.”

Marie snickered, “That’s why we like you, Minami-san. Not a lot of girls have that attitude in this line of work. But that attitude is not going to help in this particular case. The media faces arrogant people who don’t budge every day. To them, you’re just another nuisance instead of an actual object. If you don’t take their advice, then maybe Ohara-san will.”

“No, I won’t! Come on, don’t make me the collective punchbag of the day, alright? I mean, I just won the round.”

“You mean Akiko won the round…” The leader of Nozoki Neko smiled, “I know how she fights, Ohara-san. The only reason Ayaka was allowed to go wild is that Akiko respects her. You, however…”

“Iwata-san?” Kana smiled, focusing her gaze on the girl, “Same rules apply to my people. Please don’t disrespect my friend like that.”

Jina’s face headed down once more as she shuffled in her chair. This time, her face looked closer to a tomato to Kana.

“Sorry.” Marie laughed, “I also went too far there. But I hope you understand that we are very happy with this partnership. To be honest…you are one of the few people in this resort who can understand our struggle, so I am glad to know you’re on our side.”

“And as I said, I have things to gain as well. MidoriLIVE’s fall is more about our rise. One less competitor means we can force Sakai to put in the money and buy THE POP-JO to be under our banner. We enter the Fair Play Committee through them, and then try to change the rules to bring you back in, too.”

Hiromi tilted her head, “Is that…the plan? You know it won’t work, right? Kenji Tanaka would never let an indie group be on the Committee. The time we spent there was more than enough proof. Just the fact that we don’t have a big multi-floor office building and our President is Marie’s mother is more than enough to tick him off.”

“Your mother?” Jina asked, “Aww, that’s sweet! My mother…didn’t really like me doing all this.”

“Uh…yeah.” The reply was soft and calm, “She’s a very good person. So, even though she does not know all the details just yet, I’ll convince her to keep up once we meet again. She’ll be fine with it. And also…I’m sorry, Ohara-san. Maybe you can find pride in the fact that you made it here anyway.”

“Yeah, yeah. Got it. Lots of mommy issues going around.” Kana yawned, “What are we going to do about the news, then?”

“We’ll figure that out, Minami-san.” Hiromi answered, “Don’t worry about it! I’m quite good at this stuff, so time is all I need, really.”

Kana liked that. If time was all this girl needed, then she was in luck. Given that they had found the necessary papers on the first try, she had all the time in the world to wait and watch. So, as long as this girl was able to pull something off, she would wait as much as she was asked to.

Marie and Hiromi stood up, bowing down and thanking them for their time and help before moving to leave. The second match of the second round was about to begin soon, and they wanted to support their last remaining member in the competition. So, taking their leave, they quietly left the room.

Jina took a while to finally speak up, trying to fight off the embarrassing thoughts that came to mind given the situation. Kana stood up, hoping to change and go to sleep, but was interrupted when her partner finally voiced her thoughts.

“We should go too, Kana!”

“No.”

“Please? Come on. I mean…Kelsey might win, you know?”

“Uh…good for her?”

“Ugh…” Jina rolled her eyes, only to quickly look back at her friend and find the correct sentence to say, “Yuko Suzuki is the opponent. I bet she’s gonna have her ass handed to her if Kelsey does well…”

Kana’s hand stopped on her necklace, fiddling with the locking mechanism for about two seconds before deciding not to take it off. Without looking back at the goth girl, she quietly turned to the door and started walking.

“What are you waiting for? The match is going to start.”

Jina stifled her laughter before joyously standing up and saluting her as she followed, “Si, yes, sir!”

Kana opened the door with a smile. She knew that she was easy, but she hadn’t expected Jina to use her cards so well. Even if it was a weak play, she had decided to fall for it. The idea of seeing Yuko Suzuki lose a sniper duel was way too satisfying to ignore. She trusted Kelsey enough not to go down without a fight, at the very least.

The moment she stepped out, though, she saw a figure in the distance. From the middle of the corridor beside them, looked Emi Kitamura. Almost confused, she whimpered right there, watching as Jina came out saluting with a laugh. The girlfriend’s face twitched, and the indecipherable expression on it became louder. Kana raised her hand, ready to call out to her.

But before that could happen, Emi quietly turned and walked away.

“Eh…Emi-chan? What happened to her?”

Kana didn’t know what to say. It wasn’t like she had the answer either.