Idol Gunner [Yuri Villainess LitRPG]

“Now, ground rules.” Kana declared the moment the car stopped. “If my mother’s inside, we ignore her. There’s no need to give her any unnecessary attention. You do not tell Keiko about any of the more…dangerous things. Do that, and you’ll become a story for me to tell as a warning to people in the future. Got that?”

“W-why are you being so aggressive about it, KanKan?”

“Yeah!” Jina opened the door on her side in the back and stepped out before anyone else. “It’s just you, me, Emi, Yamazaki. He didn’t even bring his wife, so it should be ay okay!”

“Ay okay?” Emi followed her, confused, “Is that really a saying?”

The door was closed behind them, leaving Kana and Yamazaki all alone. She looked at him, and he smiled. She wanted to smile back, and she wasn’t really angry at him for treating those two lightly, but she still didn’t end up doing it. Instead, she just gave the man a nod and both of them got out of the car together.

Kana looked up at the apartment complex that she had left behind so long ago. It would have been welcoming, and she could have looked forward to it…if it hadn’t been for her mother. That woman’s existence alone made her unsure of her decision to come here. It was going to happen eventually, one way or another, but she really would have preferred to invite Keiko to their place instead.

That idea had been very quickly cancelled, though, once they realized that the press would probably be all over Katsuhara Apartments. The last thing Kana needed was for Keiko to get dragged into the drama and find out things she didn’t need to. That was primarily why Jina Ohara had been granted the privilege of coming with them. If the media saw all of them travelling by car, they would automatically assume it was business.

Out of the car, Kana led the others up the stairs that went to her apartment. Even though about a month and a half had passed since she was last here, it did not look like much had changed. After everything that had happened to her in that time, it had become difficult to imagine that there was a world like this out there. One where six weeks were not enough to cause major upheavals. Where they passed by in the mere blink of an eye.

Before she could press the buzzer, Emi did it for her. Stepping forward, she rang it with a smile on her face, and then kept the expression up as Keiko opened the door.

“Emi-chaaaaa…Kana!”

Ignoring the person who had originally rung for her, it did not take Keiko much thought to jump out of the door and wrap her sister in a hug. As the warmth of her presence washed over Kana, she had done the same to Keiko in the very next second. Six weeks, and she still smelled just as comforting as she always had.

Or…had she ever? Kana wasn’t sure. Maybe just two months ago, this same warmth would have carried some annoyance with it. But not anymore. Not right now.

Pulling back, Keiko took a long breath, smiling as she held Kana’s hands. Then, before she could turn to acknowledge Emi, she noticed the other two people who had also been watching them. And the moment she did, her hand slipped out of Kana’s.

“J…Ji…Ji-ji…Jina Ohara!?”

“Eh-?”

Keiko moved at Olympic-athlete levels of speed in the very next second. Leaving her sister hanging, she grabbed Jina’s hands and brought them up, jumping in joy at the very sight of the girl. And as the confusion on the other side reached new peaks, so did Keiko’s head in the air. Refusing to let go of the idol’s hands, she kept making gibberish noises that were loud enough to wake up all the neighbors.

“Jina Ohara. Yayayayay. Jina-chan! I am holding hands with Jina-chan. Oh my god, it’s re-”

“Alright, that’s it for you.”

Kana grabbed her sister by the collar and pulled her away. She wasn’t sure if the ‘loud’ part of Keiko was what had ticked her off, or if it was the ‘she liked Jina more’ part. Either way, she dragged a whining Keiko back into the house, and they were followed by the other three with uncomfortable expressions.

Back in her previous home without much of a grand entrance, she tossed her sister on the living room couch. As the girl rolled around the slightly hard, very small piece of furniture, Kana took her time to stand in the corridor and cover her exit. She wasn’t going to get to Jina again any time soon.

“It’s ok, Kana.” Jina gave her a pat on the shoulder, stepping forward to wave at Keiko. “He…hello! Nice to meet you, younger Minami-san.”

“Younger? Yes! Yes, yes. I am the younger Minami!” Keiko’s eyes shone, her hands up to her mouth in admiration of the girl in her living room.

“Yeah, isn’t that funny?” Kana added in a monotonous voice. “You call her the younger Minami as if you’ve ever had the manners to call me by my last name.”

“Well, respect goes to those who deserve it, right?” The goth girl replied, tilting her head with a knowing smile as Keiko grabbed her hands and started fangirling with a barrage of questions once more.

Kana turned away to look at Emi and Yamazaki, who seemed to have been reveling in the scene unfolding before them. Once she saw that, though, she could not bring herself to smile. They really should not have been smiling.

“Don’t do that.” She warned. “Don’t encourage her behavior, please. She’ll get out of hand.”

“Is that so?” Emi laughed. “I wonder who she gets that mean streak from…”

“Oh, you shut up.”

“Or what…you’ll make me like before?”

Kana’s face immediately went red as her blood rushed up. Trying to hide the sudden embarrassment, she immediately stomped on Emi’s foot, which elicited a quick groan of pain.

“Shush! Don’t go around saying…uh…such stupid stuff in front of Yamazaki-san. Got that!?”

“Eh, eh, what?!” Jina turned as soon as she heard his name, grinning at the opportunity. “Yamazaki? What did they tell you, Yamazaki!? I bet it was something disgusting, wasn’t it? These girls are getting out of hand…”

“Wha-wha?” Keiko’s vocabulary could barely keep up. “Emi-chan? You’re…yeah. You’re back with sis, aren’t you? What did you say? Say it again! Yes, yes. Say it again cause I wanna hear it t-”

A fist came down on Keiko’s head with extreme prejudice, shutting her up in an instant. Fuming, Kana pulled Keiko down from the couch and left her on the floor. Then, gesturing at the now-empty seating area, she asked the others to sit down.

As they did exactly that, she looked at her wincing sister.

“You. Go get us some water.”

“O…Ok.”

_____________

The rest of the visit was spent in relative peace. Once all of them got settled down and took their seats, Keiko had no option other than to calm down as well. Bringing them some water, juice, and snacks, her first order of business was to calm Kana down and assure her that their mother was not home.

“She’s been outside quite often these days,” Keiko explained, chomping down on some rice crackers, sitting with her shoulders pressed against Jina’s. “No idea what she’s up to, but she hardly ever comes back home sober. Not that she treats me badly or anything, though. I just feel bad for her.”

“Well, if it helps, I feel nothing. Feel free to feel bad enough for both of us.” Kana ignored the rice crackers to drink some orange juice. Passing some to Yamazaki, for old times’ sake, she tried thinking about what her mother could have been doing. But no matter how much she tried, she couldn’t bring herself to care.

Jina, who had been quietly eating without participating in the conversation, raised her eyebrows at Kana’s answer. Emi, on the other hand, listened to it without interruption. Having been in this exact place before, she knew better than anyone else how deep Kana’s hatred for her mother ran. Especially after everything that had happened with her father.

Kana’s team member, however, let her lack of information shine.

“Isn’t that a bit…wrong? She’s your mother, so you should be at least a bit worried about what’s going on?”

“Shut the fuck up about things you don’t know anything about, Ohara!”

Keiko flinched at her sister’s shouting, but then immediately shook her head in defiance, “Don’t speak like that to Jina-chan, got it? Speak like that to…uh…that old guy over there. Got it?”

“N-no. Don’t do that! Yamazaki’s wife is really scary, so she will tell him that he is not even human or something. Don’t be so rude, Keiko-chan!” Jina kept up with the sister, then looked at Yamazaki and gave him a thumbs-up. “Don’t worry, Yamazaki. I got your back!”

“Uh…I really don’t think you do…”

“Nah, nah. I do. It’s ok!”

“Right? I knew it, Jina-chan!”

And so, the number one Jina Ohara fan continued her conversation with her idol. By the time they started talking to each other in earnest, there was hardly any space left for anyone else to interrupt them.

It was during this unintended hiatus of their meeting that Kana first noticed how quiet Yamazaki had been today. The ride here had been normal enough, since Jina had forced him into a talking position. But right now, when he had no reason to keep a façade up, the true lack of excitement within him was shining through.

“Yamazaki-san?”

“Y-yeah?” He looked at her, as if snapping out of a trance.

“Come here for a second? I needed to ask you about something.”

“Sure!”

“KanKan?” Emi called out to Kana as she stood up. “I…think I’ll go and visit my parents. If that’s alright?”

“Oh, yeah.” Kana nodded. “I’m sorry, I didn’t even think about that. Yeah, you can go. In fact, you should. We don’t get to come here every day.”

Emi smiled, nodded, and then stood up. After saying goodbye to Keiko, she took her leave. She had been fairly quiet all day as well, but Kana assumed that was because she was feeling slightly homesick. Now that she had the opportunity to fix that, she thought it was safe to assume that she would get better. And so, she could focus on Yamazaki.

Taking him out to the small balcony where they could just barely fit, Kana leaned her back against the railing. Yamazaki, meanwhile, stood as he was, uncomfortably staring out into the distance.

“So, what’s up at home?” She asked, “What Naomi said. Is that right?”

“Oh, no! Don’t worry about that.” He heartily laughed. “She was exaggerating. Or well, she wasn’t. But it wasn’t that serious either. She was just saying that out of exhaustion and annoyance. It’ll be alright.”

“Ah…and I was kinda worried. Why am I not surprised?”

“Naomi’s just like that. Sorry on her behalf, I guess.”

“But she wasn’t completely wrong, you said.”

He shrugged, putting his hands on the railing and looking down at their car. “I haven’t been able to go home recently, that’s it. I still call them every day, talk to my kids, all of that. I’m not sure if I want to get too close anymore, though.”

“Why?” Kana looked at Keiko, who was now basically inching closer and closer to sitting on Jina’s lap.

Yamazaki let out a nervous laugh, “Don’t know if I’ll get caught and be shot tomorrow, I guess.”

She looked at him, expecting to see a smile of some sort to go along with the joke. Instead, she found a stern face. He looked straight ahead, without a single quiver on his lips. What he said had been no joke to him. He was as serious as he could have been. And that made her uncomfortable. It made her queasy, because she had never considered the same thing herself.

“Never say that again, Yamazaki-san.”

“I know, I know. People working under you do not have the right to waver. I know…”

“No, not that. I mean, that too, obviously. But you’re better than that. Saying stuff like that just makes it seem like you’re not talented at all. The truth couldn’t be further from that, though. You’re extremely good at what you do. And…so is your sister.”

“Naomi? Ok, now you’re joking.”

Kana laughed, and so did he. As they did, however, the conversation she had had with the girl a few days ago came to mind. When she had called Jina out with a fierce determination.

“She’s better than I gave her credit for, at least. She can still be better than that. It’s a good start, that’s what it is.”

Yamazaki gave her a short bow. “I’ll gladly take the compliment. I won’t tell her, but I’ll take it.”

“Oh no, please don’t. Naomi-san is a little…obnoxious sometimes. Let her stay as she is, and we’ll be alright. And don’t worry about her, no matter what. Kelsey’s strong in more ways than one. Even if I don’t like her much, that’s the truth.”

“Ah, thank you. For what it’s worth, I’ll do whatever you want to protect Keiko-san as well. She’s a good kid.”

Kana looked at her sister, and the fulfilled prophecy of the lap seat. Going on about something while waving her arms around to illustrate, she was still rambling on to Jina. Thankfully, it looked like her idol was having a good time chatting as well. Not that that was ever a doubt in Kana’s mind.

“She’s the best kid. Also, the worst kid. But…also, the best.”

Yamazaki laughed, “Aren’t they all?”