Idol Gunner [Yuri Villainess LitRPG]

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Akiko Hara

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Akiko slammed her hands on the desk, glaring at President Kenji Tanaka with a fury that she hadn’t felt in decades. Yet, he remained motionless. Looking at her as if she were a misguided puppy raging at her master for something she was too naïve to understand. Ironic then that it was that very look which made her angry.

“Bring it back.”

He slumped his shoulders, shaking his head. “We can’t, Akiko. It’s as simple as that, so just give up. There are things going on in the Monster Dimension that will not allow us to restart the competition without putting people in immense danger. Do you understand that? Everything is out of hand.”

“What is out of hand?” She cried. “Have you seen us fight? Any of us? If you’re sending your people in there and they’re dying, then maybe consider the fact that it’s because they don’t know what they’re doing. I’ve spent half of my career in that damn place. You don’t think I know those monsters better?”

“I’m sure you know them better, Akiko. There’s no doubt about it. But you are also the biggest idol in the country, and we’re not going to risk your life.”

“Screw my life!” Her words turned into whispers as she stepped back in defeat. “I don’t care about being your number one idol. I want the competition, and it’s as simple as that. It’s just…”

“Not fun without it?”

She looked at his smug smile and then turned around. There was no need to feed this man any more than necessary. He was not wrong, of course. That was the reason she needed the competition. There was nothing in this world that was as fun as being in the Monster Dimension. Nothing calmed her more.

Akiko left the office, composing herself before she entered the corridors of the Lilac Shower building. Ever since the competition had been shut down, every fibre of her being had been crying out for help. And despite being surrounded by people who adored her, she couldn’t voice a single complaint.

Not to them, at least. So, she decided to go to the one person who would listen. One of the only two other people in this building who would understand where she was coming from and give her some peace.

Since Sachiyo had gone away for some work, Akiko decided to go for the second option. Without knocking, she opened the door to Yuko Suzuki’s green room and got in.

The view she was faced with because of those actions was suitably rushed. Barely awake, Yuko was half-hanging off the bed in the room. Wearing a loose tank top and some shorts, every single time she stretched her arms or moved her head around to yawn, the blanket on her slid off another inch. All of that work trying to be intimidating and quiet as a persona, and here she was.

Akiko locked the door for Yuko’s sake and then sat down on the nearest chair. This one wasn’t the most comfortable of the five that she had in her room, but Akiko didn’t care much. Unlike Yuko, she didn’t have a deep-seated appreciation for different chairs and their comfort levels.

“Aki-chan…” She mumbled, unable to pull herself together in time, but still covering her body with haste. Akiko somehow knew that it wasn’t even because she felt ashamed or embarrassed. It was just because the temperature was set a bit too low.

“You really should start living at your own house, Yuko. It’s getting embarrassing hearing all the people talk about you outside.”

The sniper waved her off with a “No, thank you.”

“It’s not a request or suggestion!” Akiko picked up the nearest thing she could find, which just happened to be one of the pillows being used as a backrest on the chairs, and threw it at the sleeping girl.

It hit Yuko square in the face, but was instantly caught by the victim. And in true Yuko fashion, she did not throw it back or complain about it. She just took the pillow and added it to the pile already under her head.

“What happened, Aki-chan? Woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning?”

“All sides of my bed are the right side, Yuko. I never wake up on anything else. It’s Tanaka who is getting on my nerves.”

“What’s new about that?”

Yuko yawned and finally raised her arms up to stretch. With another groan following that, she sat up and leaned against the wall to her right. Turning to look at Akiko with a smile, she gave her a good morning wave.

“The new song is number one again, as expected. I’ve stopped checking the rankings already.”

“You stopped checking the rankings three years ago, dear. There’s no need to keep reminding me of the fact. My memory is not that bad.”

“I thought Kimura might do something, but she is an even bigger loser.” Akiko moaned in frustration, kicking the floor and letting the chair swivel around as she looked at the ceiling. “No fight in that girl, no matter how much you provoke her. Not to mention that all of that is useless now, since there is nothing to fight.”

“She did stab that guy to death. I wouldn’t say she’s got no fight in her.”

“Yeah, well, she did it because she was provoked. Do you think Nobuko Kimura would kill someone just because he went against her ideals? She’s not that determined. She did it because she realized that the girl who had been with him was her trainee. She was paying back for slipping up. That’s it.”

“Fine, whatever you say.” Yuko nodded and then fell back down on the bed, pulling the pillows over her head. Her muffled voice still made it through. “Why are you bringing her into this anyway? She’s not even relevant. You’re angry that you won’t be able to face off against Minami.”

“Shut up, Yuko.”

“Oh…did I hit a nerve?” She pushed the pillows off her face, wickedly smiling at her leader. “Come on, it’s not a secret. Everybody knows that that girl did something to catch your attention. You just want to fight her one-on-one, and that’s it. You don’t want the competition back, Aki-chan. You just want her.”

“Yeah, and I need the competition for that.” Akiko stopped the chair in front of the dressing table and rested her legs on top. Pushing the flexible chair backwards, she looked at the girl sleeping behind her. “You just haven’t met a sniper good enough to tick you off, that’s it.”

“Minami is not a Healer, though. Also…I have.”

“Ugh, don’t invoke Maeda’s name. What is it that she calls herself? Kelsey? Fuck that. She’s Chika Maeda, and nothing else. She’s not even that good. And Minami…huh…”

Akiko wasn’t even sure why she had been so hellbent on fighting Minami. For some reason, she had just started targeting Velvet Beats during the retreat and never stopped. It pleased her. It brought her a sense of accomplishment that she hadn’t felt in forever. All because of Kana Minami.

“That live show she mentioned. Do you remember seeing her there? I don’t, for some reason. She wasn’t in the audience.”

“You cannot possibly be asking me a memory question, Aki-chan.”

“Yeah, true.” Akiko shrugged. “But she wasn’t. I know she wasn’t. I would have noticed that face, no matter how young she was. We got there, we had that little campfire, we did the show, and then we left. I remember it well. I just…can’t see her there.”

“Maybe she didn’t have such a rude face back then. How about that?”

“You think so? People don’t just get rude-faced out of nowhere, Yuko. She must have had it before then. Something must have ticked her off, too. Or are you trying to say that whatever happened to that girl only happened after that show?”

“That’s exactly what I am saying. Can I go back to sleep?”

“No, you need to work on supervising that ghostwriter. I don’t like this new guy. His work is too…new.”

Akiko shook it off. She didn’t need answers to do what she did anyway. If she disliked Kana Minami enough to want to fight her, she would revel in it. The reasons could be left all alone for Minami to discover and solve. To Akiko, all that mattered was having a fun prey to keep her going with the same determination as always.

Just the fact that a girl as new to this industry as she was had done what she did during the retreat was reason enough. Akiko had wanted to save her because she had wanted to get the prey for herself. She couldn’t help herself, after all. But now, someone was threatening to take that away from her. Some loser who did not even know the value of what all of this meant.

He and his entire company. They were doing nothing but holding her back.

“Yuko?”

“Yeah?”

“I want you to hack Tanaka’s communications and send copies of them to me. Can you do that?”

There was a moment of hesitation. She looked at Suzuki as the girl considered the job. Yuko had always been good with computers, analytics, mathematics, and stuff like that. That was why she was such a good sniper. To do this would be child’s play for her. It would be easy enough. The only real threat was Tanaka himself, and that was nothing that Akiko couldn’t handle.

Keeping all that in mind, the answer eventually came. It came about a minute too late, but it did.

Yuko gave her a thumbs-up.

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Three days later, back at home, Akiko went through all of the emails that had been sent to her in document format. The viewing experience was not very pleasant because of the weird formatting, but Yuko had done her best.

Scrolling through all of the many useless emails that Tanaka sent or responded to, a certain lack of importance had started to take over. Akiko had started to consider whether there wasn’t actually anything interesting being sent to him after all.

The most he ever communicated was with his grandmother, who was in the hospital. That was a bit of a surprise, given how stodgy a man he was. You didn’t expect to see someone like Kenji Tanaka care that much about family that he had not seen in many years. And yet, here were all of these saccharine emails checking up on her and telling her stories.

She found herself giving up. She found herself on the very edge of calling Yuko and asking her to stop whatever script she had been running. Despite all of the hopes of finding something about the Monster Dimension, she had gotten nothing. Akiko picked up her phone, keeping her eyes on her computer as she moved down her contacts list to find Yuko’s number.

Reaching it, she pressed, getting ready to call the girl.

But then a notification stopped her. A new email had just been sent. Or rather, it had been sent a few hours ago, and she now had access to it via Yuko’s rerouting. It seemed to contain a video file, too. Akiko put her phone down and opened the document. No time would be lost in checking one final email, and maybe she could even find something to blackmail Tanaka with.

The video, however, was nothing like that. It contained a very familiar shade of red in its thumbnail, which made her instantly start downloading it. Her hands itched on the mouse as the bar filled up, and her heart beat quickened as a grin spread across her face. Here it was. Finally, something worth her attention had arrived.

As soon as it finished downloading, she hurried over to the folder and played it.

It started off as a recording of an expedition. The camera had been attached to the helmets of one of the soldiers they had enlisted for the job. The government had been contacted, then. That was how big the event had gotten. Akiko had guessed that it would not remain contained once that massive horde of monsters attacked them at once, but it had certainly escalated quickly.

They made their way through the barren lands of the Monster Dimension. The place that she had gotten so familiar with. Familiar enough to know where they were, and what they could expect around every corner. Meanwhile, the soldiers panicked at every sound and stumbled on every rock. The camera shook with its bearer as the cold breeze sent a chill down their spine.

For most of its runtime, that was all the video was. An expedition where nothing happened. They killed a few monsters here and there, and that was it. There was nothing of note. And that almost made Akiko click out, too. It was like teasing her with a place she could not return to.

But then, something happened. As they were walking, a head vanished. As simple as that, with as much elegance as a monster could possibly have. A scythe-like weapon appeared from outside the screen and sliced off the head of one of the soldiers walking ahead of the camera. The head dropped to the ground, and there was silence for a split second.

The dread of what had happened took that amount of time to set in. As soon as it did, they ran.

They ran, and ran, and ran as they were hunted by the monsters one by one. Every single one of them was as strong as the one Minami and Kimura had hunted down together. Some even stronger than that, if Akiko had to guess. It was heavenly. It was gracious. It was one of the most beautiful things she had ever seen.

Punishment from the gods for their insolence. Retribution for believing that they could do something that was meant to be her job.

The video continued, blood splattered and flew everywhere, and they reached a location that she had been to so many times before. The soldier with the camera, having lost a leg, crawled on in the red dirt as he reached a wall that she had leaned on a million times before. But then, something happened.

His hand moved up in desperation and pressed something that should not have been there. It did something that should not have been possible. The rocks heaved, groaned, and moved across the desert wasteland. The familiar rocks that she had once believed she knew everything about.

What was revealed made her open her eyes wide. It made her watch on in a mixture of horror, wonder, and love.

Pure, unbridled, uncontained love.

Akiko Hara could not help but smile. She could see it all now, and she could not help but be enamoured by the possibilities.