Idol Gunner [Yuri Villainess LitRPG]

“She left, huh?”

Kana could hardly believe what she was hearing, but it was probably her own fault for not having considered it. She wasn’t really surprised that it had gone down like this. Yet, even as she calmed her own raging heart and quietly walked past Jina, she could not resist it. The knife in her hand came up and flew towards the inflatable swan in the pool all by itself.

Piercing through the thin rubber of the floating bird, it cut out a hole and dropped down into the water. The air inside began to whistle out, making it drift along the water as it lost all pressure and collapsed. Kana did not pay much attention to it, however. The deafness in her ears had already drowned out the noise by the time she went up the stairs and into her own room.

It looked worse than she had expected.

Clothes were strewn all around, the blanket had been ripped off and thrown into a corner, and all of the closet doors were still open. It reminded her of that day Jina had buried herself under a pile of her clothes. Almost made her laugh, even. She had never thought of Emi as a person who could get this angry.

Normally, she would have gone through the effort of cleaning it all up. This time, however, she barely had the strength to stand up. There was no reason why, at least to her. Kana could not narrow down the cause of her fatigue. All she knew was that she didn’t want to do anything right now.

She did not even feel bad about Emi leaving. Tired was all she felt. Collapsing on the bed and closing her eyes, she stopped thinking and drifted off to sleep.

_____________

“Don’t come. Stay away.”

The darkness whispered to her, saccharine. Kana couldn’t see anything, but she could feel the voice crawling through her head. It was like someone had plugged in the most high-quality noise-cancelling earbuds on her and was playing the same sound on repeat.

“Don’t come. Stay away. Don’t come. Stay away. Don’t come. Stay away.”

She recognized the words, of course. It was difficult to forget something so provocative, especially when it came from someone like Nobuko Kimura. Kana had tried to decipher the meaning behind them on her way back home, but had given up halfway through. Nothing was going to stop her, after all. She would be there on Sunday, even if the entire world tried to stand in her way.

But none of that made her skin crawl. What did was that the voice was unfamiliar. It slithered, and creaked, and clicked with every vowel. It wasn’t a voice, really. And her profession meant she knew a thing or two about voices. This was not it. No, this was more like if those stereotypical kidnapper messages made out of newspaper cutout letters were given audio.

Each letter strained and stood out, demanding its own individual perfection before it moved on to the next. The sound was a desperate but pathetic attempt at speech made by what felt like an insect trying to pass off as human.

“Don’t come. Stay away. Don’t come. Stay away.”

Was it a dream? Yeah, it was a dream. Kana knew it was, somehow. She could feel the bed under her, and she was distinctly aware of her own closed eyelids. Yet, in that darkness, she could also hear that horror movie-like recording on loop. Every time, it got more authoritative and demanding.

“Who are you?” She asked, though she knew there wouldn’t be an answer.

“Don’t come. Stay away. Don’t come. Stay away. Don’t away. Stay come.”

Thunder crackled over her head, and she looked up. A second later, a bolt of lightning zipped through the void and straight into the continuing darkness. Looking down, she noticed a strangely humanoid figure in the distance. Humanoid in its premise, but something completely else in execution. Before she could grab the details, it vanished.

Then, another clap of thunder caused lightning to illuminate the pitch-black of her eyes. This time, she stepped closer and paid more attention to the figure in front of her.

Red skin, like those monsters. But nothing else was similar. This was a woman, just like the one she had seen in the Monster Dimension earlier. Feminine bodily features that she could very clearly make out, but punctuated by two ugly dysmorphisms. She had no facial features. None at all. What stared at her was an empty mask.

The second, however, pissed her off more. Twelve hands, all arranged in various positions and symbols, jutted out from her body. None of them moved, and none of them were preparing to attack. All of it was just…there. Her existence felt more like a natural calamity than it did an artificial presence on this planet. As if she were as inevitable as an earthquake or a tsunami.

“Who are you?” Kana gulped, reaching close enough to touch her.

As her hand met the strange woman’s skin, though, it hit nothing but air. A blink later, the figure had teleported away to the same distance as before. She did not want to be touched. Not by Kana, at least. Maybe it required a certain amount of familiarity for them to get that far.

“Don’t come. Stay away. Not your fight. Not your land.”

“I decide what my fight is. Not some weirdo with twelve arms, got it?”

“Utterly despicable.” The voice cried, howling in pain before settling back in that clicking rhythm. “Do you want to die? You die. You die. Don’t come. Stay away.”

“Now you’re getting ridiculous. Who the fuck are you, and what do you want? This is another one of you demons’ tricks, isn’t it?”

“Demons? What demons? You demons.”

“Nope. Not a chance. I made that point earlier today, and I’m not repeating myself. You…are monsters. Me…I am just a human being. Doesn’t make me better or worse.”

“You demons. You demons. You murderer.”

“I am past feeling bad about that. So, let’s try this again.” She found herself whispering, for some reason. Every breath accented her words, making them heavier and more dramatic than she intended. “Who are you, why are you messing with my head, and what do you want? Speak, and we might talk. Don’t…and you know what happened to that four-armed friend of yours.”

Another flash of light, and the female figure got closer and larger. Its torso touched Kana’s forehead, forcing her to step back in caution and look up to meet its eyes.

“Aa. Laar. Ma.” It declared with authority. “Name. You know name. Aa. Laar. Ma.”

“Aa. Laar. Ma?” Kana repeated. “That’s your name? That’s three different names. I’m Kana. That’s one name. Do all of you have three different names?”

“Aalarma.” She repeated, but as a single word this time.

“Ok. That’s better. You think I’m a child and you were helping me pronounce. Aalarma it is. What do you want?”

“Don’t come. Stay away. Not your fight. Not your land.”

“Well, tough fucking luck.” Kana spat out her words with vitriol. “It became my fight when you guys showed up at our doorstep and started attacking. How about that? Wouldn’t really care to protect this shithole of a city, but it’s the only life I got. Your people. My people. I don’t care. I was asked to destroy you, and that’s what I’m gonna do.”

“You demon.”

“Oh, so now I am individually a demon now? Great. That’s very nice of you. My preferred way of making friends, actually.”

“No friend. Don’t come. Stay away.”

“And now you’ve crossed into the realm of me not giving any more of a shit. Is this a power of yours? You can just get into people’s heads and then get them to die of pure cringe? Do you do that, Aalarma or whatever the fuck you are called?”

“God. Aalarma. God.”

“Is that you…exclaiming?” She raised her eyebrow. “Or are you trying to tell me that those demons see you as a God? Oh…wait. Were you the one that four-armed dude was praying to? Well, I gotta tell you that your customer service is horrible. He’s fucking dead.”

“You die. You die. You demon. You demon. Don’t come. Stay away.”

“Right. Make up your mind, girl. Do you want me to stay away, or do you want me to die? Are you afraid of me dying, or are you looking forward to it? Because I must say that you’re giving off mixed signals. Hell, I don’t even know if this is real.”

“Hopeless. You hopeless.” Aalarma declared, almost sighing. “You die. You demon. You die. Aalarma God…you die. Manta Nak kill.”

“Ok…that’s it. Get out. Now you’re just spewing gibberish that I can’t understand. My dream, my rules. Fuck off.”

“You die. You die. You demon!”

It kept repeating itself again, growing larger and larger with every click and every beat. Soon, Kana could only reach her stomach, and then her waist, and then her thighs. Every time she switched to a different word, her body got a little larger. This was Kana’s dream, and she was still somehow the larger one.

How did that make any sense? This was her dream. She could do whatever she wanted. She could raise her hand and imagine that grenade launcher in her hand again. Kana could see it now, too. Hand up, she could feel the weight of the weapon in it. Dreams were a wonderful thing, after all. Do whatever you want, and everything is possible.

She looked at the towering monster god in front of her and pressed the trigger. A single grenade flew out and curved up to reach her head. The fuse crackled, and a single loud noise announced the beginning of the discharge. But before it could explode and light up Aalarma’s face, the dream had already ended.

_____________

Kana felt like she had a hangover. She hadn’t even touched a drink in so long, and yet her brain and body refused to cooperate.

Pulling herself out of bed with unnecessary effort, she got into the washroom and splashed some water on her face. A quick brush later, she came out with slightly less pressure on her head. The mere freshness of her breath helped her feel more in control.

Getting out of her room, she went down the stairs to find Jina sitting on the couch, reading a newspaper.

“Does it have any information on Emi’s whereabouts?”

“Kana!” She snapped. “It’s not a joke. She left because you finally broke her. Do you understand that?! She’s your girlfriend, Kana. You’ve told me a hundred times before that you love her.”

“Well, good for you, then.” Kana went to the kitchen and poured herself a glass of water. “Less competition to deal with, so you can start dressing scandalously to grab my attention and steal me once and for all.”

Jina scoffed. “What else could I have expected? You’re never going to change. I really used to think that you could be better, you know? But nah, that was just wrong. You couldn’t care less about the people around you. So much for love.”

“You know very well that you’re still head over heels, Ohara.”

Kana drank the water and then looked to find some lemons. Once procured, she got about to making lemonade. She was sure she didn’t have a hangover, but being cautious still helped. Plus, lemonade still tasted good. She looked up, wanting to ask Jina if she wanted some, but stopped at the sight of her red face.

“Ugh, that’s embarrassing. Don’t blush. As for Emi…she’ll be back. She’s done this before, and she’ll do it again. Sometimes, she just needs some time to calm down and think things through. Go home, cry to her mother, and then come back. It happens. No big deal, really.”

“Oh, I see. That’s why the damn pool inflatable is dead now. It happens all the time, and that’s why you threw a knife to destroy it!”

“Ok, now you’re being unreasonable. I love her, and she walked out. Even if I know that it’s going to fix itself, I have the right to be angry.”

“Maybe start by questioning why you are so used to it, then?” Jina turned and looked at her with a sour face as she walked out with her drink. “You think it’s normal for partners to just leave and go cry to their parents about things like these? No. The truth is that you’re trying to find excuses for why you’re a bad lover to her.”

“I am not a ba-”

The apartment telephone rang, stopping her. Nobody ever used it, which was why she was caught off guard. But then again, both of their phones were probably in their rooms, so this was the only way to contact them.

Taking a sip, she walked to it and picked it up. The line stayed silent for a second, and then Marie Iwata’s excited voice broke through.

“Kana! The deal’s done. It was just finalized.” She spoke. “We’re buying THE POP-JO, and Ito is coming along with them. Just as you predicted. And, uh, the president wanted to thank you for the help.”

“Oh, hey! No worries.” Kana smiled, sitting on the chair nearby and sarcastically smiling at Jina. “Looks like someone can actually appreciate the work I put in and the results I get. I wish you were the one living with me instead.”

“Uh…did you fight with Ohara or something?” Iwata seemed confused. “But anyway, none of my business. The president also wanted to throw us a small party for the win. And we already promised you one earlier, so you wanna take us up on that offer tonight? You can stay over, and we can go to Akiko’s place together!”

“That…sounds fantastic. Yes, let’s do that. Jina says she will do it, too. We’re in.”

“I said what?” Jina stood up, stomping closer to get in her business.

Iwata laughed. “Yeah, I heard that. Good luck convincing her. I’ll still consider her to be in, though. I’m assuming Kelsey won’t show up?”

“Nope. Not her. She wants to be out of it.”

“Oh. Understandable. I’ll see you guys later, then. Thanks again!”

“As I said, it’s no big deal.”

Jina snatched the phone from her, ready to revolt against the party plan. Kana, hoping that she didn’t ruin too much, pressed the speakerphone to let the sound through. But before the wolf-cut goth girl could make trouble, Marie continued.

“Also, another thing. I had the weirdest dream yesterday. What’s more? Hiromi and Hanae say that they saw the same thing, too. I knew I was dreaming, but it still felt so real, you know? There was this-”

“Woman with twelve arms?” Jina asked, her face swallowed up by ruinous fear.

“Y-yeah.” Iwata whispered back. “You..too?”

_____________

November 12, 2043 – Throughout the Morning

Across Neo-Edo

Idols involved in Akiko Hara’s Unofficial Game report seeing the same dream