Idol Gunner [Yuri Villainess LitRPG]

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Naomi Yamazaki

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09:03

Yamazaki Residence

Late again! Kelsey was going to kill her for this. Naomi could swear that she had set up an alarm for seven in the morning, but it had somehow not gone off. Someone else, like her sister-in-law, might have claimed that it had gone off, but she had just ignored it. That, of course, would be a total lie.

She hurried out of bed and grabbed her clothes from the closet. Jun had been nice enough to give her a whole room to stay in, which somehow made her feel bad. With three bedrooms, this house had once been big enough to allow both of the children to have their own places to stay. Now with her here, the sisters were forced to live in the same room. That had caused an endless increase in their quarrels.

By the time Naomi washed up, the time was already close to half past nine. She was supposed to get to Kelsey’s place by ten, which was still possible. She hurriedly put on her clothes, which she preferred to do in the bathroom. With all of the random scars and blemishes she had on her skin, Naomi did not like the idea of one of the children looking at them.

Both of them were so cute and innocent. It felt wrong for her to even be interacting with them, but they had taken a liking to her. The younger sister, Clara, had been given a Western name because of her mother’s favourite television show. The older sister, Fuyuki, was as cold and composed as her name suggested. A ‘winter tree’ was very much the best way to describe her mature view of life.

The two of them were ten and fifteen respectively, and both had a completely different relationship with Naomi. While Clara liked to play board games with her every evening, Fuyuki had already found out about her sketchy past. The former was a source of letting out some stress after a hard day’s work. The latter, surprisingly enough, liked to take life advice from Naomi. Not the best idea in the world, but it was an idea.

Apparently, Fuyuki thought that Naomi was a great person, somehow. The girl had once told her that her parents weren’t all that wise, so she expected someone with a history like Naomi to hold some wisdom instead. She was quite close to Kelsey in that manner, now that Naomi thought about it. Both of them seemed to hold her in high regard.

The phone rang, and she ignored it. The last thing her employer needed to hear was that she was going to be late. It was 09:40, and she now had twenty minutes to get herself some breakfast and leave for Kelsey’s place. If she somehow took only 5 minutes to eat, she could still make it!

Naomi finally got out of her room and stopped in her tracks. The Yamazaki residence’s three bedrooms were all in a single corridor. One at the very end, and two to the two sides of the corridor. The left wall, which led to Naomi’s room, also had the entrance to the kitchen. In this house, she should have been alone.

Everyone else was supposed to have been gone. Jun had work, and the kids had decided to visit their grandmother this Sunday. Since she lived far away, they must have left an hour ago. Yet, she could hear footsteps. Very clear, very obvious footsteps. Someone else was in the house with her, but she could not pinpoint where exactly.

It wasn’t the living room. Shaking, she quietly walked over and checked anyway. As expected, though, it was empty. Naomi went to the kitchen next. She had passed it on the way here, and knew it was also safe. But here, she could grab herself a knife. Doing that and arming herself, she looked at the door at the end of the corridor. Her room was empty. Jun’s room had a thick carpet. But Clara and Fuyuki’s room did not.

Hiding the knife behind her arm, she walked with caution. The footsteps grew louder the closer she got, and were occasionally accompanied by drawers opening. Whoever it was must have been looking for something. But why that room?

Jun did dangerous work, and she knew it. Even when Kelsey had told her about those monsters from another world, it hadn’t been a surprise to Naomi. She still remembered the day Kana Minami had pulled out a grenade launcher in front of her, after all. Anyway, the truth was that Naomi had all the reason in the world to be in danger. It could be anyone, based on what Jun had told her. The Coalition was ruthless.

Naomi had been dumb enough to agree to Kelsey’s request earlier, too. She had gone and used that smoke grenade out in the open. What a waste. No. She shook her head, gulped, and kept walking. That girl, Keiko, was safe. She was Kana’s sister, apparently. If not for Naomi, the poor girl would have been taken in by the police, and it would have caused far too much public drama for all of them. It had been worth it.

Reaching the door, Naomi closed her eyes and whispered a small prayer. She wasn’t a religious person, but it helped to have even the smallest reassurance once in a while. The footsteps hadn’t stopped at all, as if they didn’t care if they were found out. That was the confidence these people held. Naomi adjusted her grip on the knife to make it easier to attack, and slowly opened the door.

As it creaked open, the footsteps stopped. A drawer that they had been opening was paused. Naomi bit her tongue, cursing Jun for not having fixed this creaking already.

What was done was done, though. She screamed and swung open the door at once, pointing the knife straight at the source of the noise. Tumbling into the room, Naomi found some footing on the smooth floor and looked straight at the infiltrator. A teenage girl with slightly dry, ruffled black hair looked back at her.

“Uh…” Fuyuki raised her eyebrows. “Are you alright? What happened?”

“Eh?”

“Keep the knife down? Please?”

Naomi threw it on the floor and took a deep breath. Sitting down with a chuckle, she quickly apologized to the girl for scaring her. That was followed by a quick explanation of what she had been thinking when she burst in here with a weapon.

“Weren’t you supposed to go with your mother?”

“Yeah.” Fuyuki wheezed and pulled herself back into bed. She had just grabbed some medicine from the drawer. “Caught a fever last night, so I couldn’t. Clara was whining about wanting to visit grandma, so I told mom to take her.”

“Ah…” Naomi sighed. “You could’ve gone with them anyway. Turn the cooling in the car down and go to sleep. Something like that? Why put yourself through the trouble?”

She got into bed and pulled the blanket over her, still coughing and shivering. Fuyuki shook her head and yawned. “Not worth it. Also…don’t really like grandma. She’s whatever.”

“Whatever!? Don’t say that! At least say that she makes you eat too much, and you want to go on a diet, so you can’t. Don’t disrespect your grandmother like that.”

“Yeah, true. Let’s make it that, then. I’m just not all that keen on visiting her. Plus, I did not want to hear Clara crying all day and telling me it’s all my fault. She’s so fuc-…sorry. She’s just so loud sometimes.”

“Hmm…?”

The girl was definitely unwell. No matter how well you acted, you couldn’t just fake a fever this convincing. The wheezing, the teeth chattering, the random shivers. Naomi would have assumed that she lied about the fever, but she hadn’t. Still, she had decided not to go. Surely…

“Well, then.” Naomi stood up and stretched. Picking the knife up, she opened the door and took a single step out. “I won’t come back until late in the night, and your mother will be back even later. Your father…might not come back tonight. He’s got quite a bit of work to take care of.”

“Huh?” Fuyuki looked up at her with red cheeks. “Why…are you telling me that?”

“Oh, I don’t know.” She mostly closed the door behind her, leaving just enough space to whisper. “Maybe so that you can tell your boyfriend to leave on time. Make him do all the work to take care of you, got it? No leaving the bed for anything, and take your medicines on time…”

“Wahhh~!”

Naomi closed the door with a chuckle and went back to her room. No wonder the girl did not want to go. She had the chance to rest all day while letting her boyfriend dote over her and make her snacks. Who would want a visit to some family over that? Understandable enough.

She was running late, so there was no time for breakfast. Naomi picked up her bag, told Fuyuki goodbye, and then left the house. There was a bakery she liked going to once in a while, so she could always grab something from there on the way. It was close to Kelsey’s house, too. It would be easy to tell her to just walk there.

Down the elevator and into the underground parking lot she went. Twirling the key on her index finger, she reached the car and shook her head. There was still some drowsiness in her, which wasn’t great. Maybe it was finally the day to let Kelsey live her dream of driving herself. If they switched back before reaching the office, nobody would suspect anything at all.

She opened the door, got in, and then forgot about that idea. Probably not a good one. This wasn’t even her car, so she couldn’t risk it getting damaged. Kelsey wasn’t that good of a driver, as she had proven that one time Naomi had handed her the steering wheel. It would be too much of a hassle to let her go at it once more. Or maybe Naomi could just instruct her better.

Turning the car on, she switched to her favourite radio station and put her foot on the accelerator.

Knock, knock.

Someone was outside her window. Someone in a black suit wearing gloves. Huh? He was carrying a letter, too. Naomi rolled it down just a little and pushed her eyes out of the little gap.

“Yes?”

“Letter for you, Ms. Yamazaki. From the Coalition.”

“Ah, work?”

She rolled the window down completely and took the letter from him. The man stood there as she opened the envelope and took the paper out. It was addressed to her and had signs of both Kenji Tanaka and Ryu Sakai on it. She read through, and shook her head.

“I’m sorry, uh…” Naomi looked at the man. “Termination? I don’t even work for them. I work for Chika Maeda, actually. I don’t think…there’s any direct connection to the Coalition there?”

“Anyone employed under an idol is automatically employed under the Coalition. You have been an employee of Sakai Entertainment from the day Maeda-san hired you. Is that clear, Ms. Yamazaki?”

“Y-yes.” There was no point in arguing about rules and regulations with someone who clearly knew more. She scratched her forehead and put her foot above the accelerator once more, adjusting the gear stick. “I guess I’ll go and talk to them. Thank you so much for delivering it!”

“A pleasure.” He replied in the same monotone voice. “But I must let you know that you are no longer employed by either Sakai Entertainment or the Coalition. Do you understand that, ma’am?”

“Y-yeah.” She looked down at the car, back at the man, and shook her head. “Please don’t tell me you’re gonna take the car. Look, let me just get to the office, and I’ll deliver it myself. I don’t wanna get on a train right now. The crowd will be unbearable.”

“You can keep the car, Ms. Yamazaki.”

“Oh, uh…I don’t think that’s right. I wouldn’t want to keep it if I don’t have a job. I mean, it’s not mine. Anyway, I’ll talk about all that with Maeda-san. Thank you once more. Have a nice day, yeah?”

The man was fidgeting with something under the window. She couldn’t see, but he seemed quite committed to whatever it was. Maybe he was putting some sticker or tracker on the car to ensure that she didn’t run away with it? Naomi did not know much about how the Coalition handled layoffs. Why had they even fired her anyway? What had she done wrong?

“Uh, I’ll be going now…”

Naomi pressed a button to pull the window up, but the man stuck his hand in between and stopped it. She felt a chill run down her spine. She didn’t know what was going on, but there was a bad feeling rising in her chest. Tapping the button over and over, she tried to force it to close, but the man held it where it was.

“What are you doing?” She let out a small, uncomfortable chuckle as the man bent down and looked at her.

He was wearing a mask that covered his entire face with a hat on top. “Thank you for your service, Ms. Yamazaki.”

“I’m…not sure I understand.”

The man did not reply. Instead, his right hand slowly appeared from under the window. In it was a sleek black pistol with a silencer attached. Naomi’s eyes moistened. Her face reddened as her temperature shot up. At the same time, she lost all ability to move and think. Unable to do anything other than mumble gibberish, she shook her head and tried to move back into the other seat.

Naomi crawled further back, but the man’s hand did not budge even a little bit. His aim was stiff and sure.

“Look…” She raised her hands and finally managed to speak. “Just hear me out, alright? I…I…am. I don’t know. Look, we can talk th-”

One single shrill cry of a bullet tore through the parking lot, leaving behind a stain of dark red inside the sedan.