The exit for all the teams, unlike the entrances, was the same. Points were not counted until they made their way through the sensor that was built into those gates. This exit was the set of doors that they had used for the audition round. Once the Fluorescent Angels stepped out with Kana and Jina into the ruins, it was time to say goodbye for now.

  Kana would be lying if she tried to make them think that they hadn’t been of help today. So, she happily shook their hands and promised to meet them with the same friendship if they ever crossed paths again. The entire time, she made sure to maintain their position as equals, and not juniors. Just because they had been here longer than her and Jina, it did not mean they were allowed to lord over them.

  After their pleasantries, both of them hopped into the car that Yamazaki was waiting for them in. Kana checked the time first thing.

  “Twelve fifteen.” She muttered, “Yamazaki-san, you said the cutoff time for the gates was at midnight, right?”

  He nodded, “If you do not make it in before midnight, then you are left inside to fend for yourselves.”

  “We wasted that much time talking to them?” Kana sighed with exhaustion, “The gates closed after we got in, which means we were standing there for twenty minutes. Pathetic.”

  “Ahh, there she goes again. At least we spent time talking to new friends. Isn’t that right, Yamazaki-san!?”

  “Ah, yeah…” He hesitated to answer without too much information and paid attention to the driving, “Who did you meet?”

  Since Jina had decided that she was going to sit in the back today and take over the duty of narrating all of the incident to Yamazaki, it was Kana’s duty to do the rest. And the rest was rest. She yawned and leaned to the right, dropping her head on Jina’s shoulder. It caused the girl to wince for a second, which disrupted Kana’s sleep and made her angrier.

  “Oi, stop moving.”

  “Yeah, yeah…”

  A second later, she felt Jina place her own head on top of hers. Now, they had a nice little head pillar. What next? Was she going to ask Yamazaki to stop the car and come back to join them? Turn the tower into a tasty sandwich with Kana as the bottom bread? Her head was not meant for other heads to be kept on. She scoffed and pulled it back, sitting straight.

  “Ouch, what are you doing, Kana-chan?!”

  She complained like a little kid. No time for that.

  Kana leaned on the other side and placed her head against the window. Now, every single piece of dirt that the tire pressed up against sent her head rattling. Her teeth pressed and hit each other as if it were a cold night in winter. But she let it be. This was still better and more preferred over what Jina had been doing just a moment ago.

  It took a lot of focus and patience, but her tired body did not try to fight back too much. It wasn’t easy, but it also wasn’t long before she drifted off to sleep.

  _____________

  The car stopped at the agency office instead of their apartment. In a sour mood, Kana got out with her black coat and slammed the door shut before putting it on.

  “Why are we here, Yamazaki-san?”

  He meekly got out of the car and led them to the entrance of the building, “Sakai…insisted. He wanted you to meet Pink Beats, the A Team. Their manager is also here right now.”

  A wave of anger worse than the one she was already carrying in her. But it was accompanied by a sense of accomplishment that she had just noticed in a single sentence. Jina, too, had to stop in her tracks the moment those words came out of his mouth. Or rather…didn’t come out of his mouth. Yamazaki hadn’t attached any honorifics to Sakai’s name.

  Kana’s frown was replaced with a genuine smile, and she laughed. Passing him with quicker steps, she gave him a pat on his back as the glass doors opened. Walking through her and Jina’s shoes left crumbles of dried blood and dirt on the floor, but she didn’t care. Normally, she was aware enough to not do that, or at least take steps to avoid it. Kana wasn’t like these rich assholes who had lost all consideration.

  Right now, though, her anger for Sakai was taking over her own consideration, too. Apologizing to the people who would have to clean it in her hand, she got into the elevator and waited for Yamazaki and Jina. Once they were in, the manager pressed the button to the fourth floor, and they started moving.

  “The reaction plan is still in effect. Don’t forget.” She reminded Jina and Yamazaki as the doors opened.

  “Yeah, yeah, Miss Sunshine.” Jina pushed past her and got out.

  Kana calmed herself down before she accidentally landed a punch on the girl and followed her. Yamazaki then led them to the green room, where the A Team was waiting to meet them. Pink Beats was their group name. It was something Kana had never thought of asking, but it had been nice of Yamazaki to tell her about it.

  They opened the door and stepped in.

  Sure enough, all three of them were right there, resting in their chairs like zombies. The brown bob-cut leader, Rie Rin, or RiRi. The blonde, Chika Maeda, or Kelsey. And finally, Mari Sanada. The lead vocalist with an injury in her ankle.

  Sitting in the corner of the room was a man in a generic black suit. He was old and had wrinkles all over his face, along with the stock white hair that suited men like him. He stood up and gave them a short bow along with an apology, “I am Manager Daiki Yamada of Pink Beats. I am so sorry for calling you here to meet them, right after your battle.”

  Kana did not care to get angry at him. He had even been stupid enough to take the blame on his own shoulders when Sakai had been the one who had called them in. That fat, bald bastard was nowhere to be seen, of course. He was probably sleeping in his house after getting drunk. He must have had a ball watching them struggle against that spider.

  “Kana Minami.” She gave them a short nod of acknowledgement, but nothing more than that. They didn’t need or deserve it.

  Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

  “I’m Jina Ohara. Nice to meet you!” Unlike her, though, this girl went completely batshit with the respect. She bowed down as a good junior would, and waited for them to let her head up.

  As much as she hated to see it, this had been her plan too. Let Jina do what Jina wanted to do, and then make your plans around that. That was the strategy she had decided upon. Because no matter what she did, the goth bitch was not going to listen to her or become the kind of person Kana was. It was for the better, too. Kana didn’t need another person like her.

  If someone else turned out to be this great, they might become competition. Kana didn’t like fair competition. She either wanted ants to crush or mountains to climb. Someone on the same level as her just pissed her off.

  Pink Beats introduced themselves one by one and shook their hands. The girls didn’t look like they wanted to be here either. They were exhausted, clearly needed some sleep, and just overall had no interest in meeting the new kids. That was what their expressions said. At least that was mutual.

  “Right. Can we go now?” Kana asked.

  Kelsey raised an eyebrow and laughed, “What did you say your name was? Minami…Kana? Good. Very good. Keep that up, and the pain you’ll feel in return will be substantial.”

  “Kelsey!” RiRi hit her on the shoulder, “Don’t scare them. She’s the one who participated in the battle royale today. We just got on a plane and sat there.”

  “Yeah, she went there one day, and she’s already tired.”

  “Well, the first day is always the worst!” Sanada added with a smile aimed at them, “It’ll get better, trust me. We will be there tomorrow too, so you do not need to worry.”

  “Yes! We will look forward to it.” Jina bowed once more.

  Kana kept her eyes on Kelsey. This is what she had been looking for. When someone thought that they were going to ‘set the stage on fire’ before they had even performed, it was a telling sign. Sanada first, and then Kelsey. RiRi could handle the fallout, since she seemed like the most boring of the three of them.

  Kelsey noticed her looking and frowned, “What? Got something to say, Minami?”

  “Oh no, just…” She put on her cute voice, “I was wondering if…you were speaking from personal experience or…”

  All three of the girls went quiet. They looked at her, and then Kelsey laughed. She picked up a bottle of water and finished it in a single gulp before answering her, “I don’t need to have gone through it to know. Do your research, newbie. And as I keep saying, keep that tone in check. You don’t wanna get into trouble.”

  “Ahh, is that so?” Kana nodded, “Sorry about that. It’s just that I already got into some trouble, so I was a bit worried.”

  Kelsey gave her a mocking chuckle, “What else is to be expected? All you can do is learn from your mistakes and shut up the next time. You don’t get to decide when you get out of here. When the managers are fine with it, you go.”

  Kana smiled. There it was. Everything she needed for her to start working. Become the brat she hated with all her life. It was necessary for what she needed to do next. If Sanada was the chisel for this rock, Kelsey was the dynamite that would be placed inside to truly start the destruction.

  “I see.” She quickly blinked and turned to Daiki Yamada, “You are the one I need to talk to! I was just wasting time with Maeda-san. Manager, can I go? I am really, really, really tired!”

  Daiki had no reaction. He just glanced at Kelsey, and then back at Kana. With a gulp, he waited for her to react. But she did not. She just glared as if trying to scare her. All Kana did, in return, was maintain her perfectly crafted smile. Kept it up until Kelsey finally gave up and looked away.

  “Manager,” She aimed it at Daiki once more, “Can I please, please go?”

  “Y-yes, I am sorry for the detour.” Daiki stood up and gave them a short bow again.

  Now, the final blow.

  Kana turned and started taking her gloves off. As all the dried blood from it fell on the floor, she looked at Yamazaki and went back to her usual way of speaking. Pushing past him, she opened the door.

  “Yamazaki-san, Ohara, let’s go. We’re going to the apartment.”

  As she stepped out into the corridor and the two followed, a smile appeared on her face. Who would have thought that this horrible little trip could be saved so easily? That expression had been everything. They were all falling into place like they should. All of them, behaving exactly how she predicted. They were all the same, these industry pricks. All of them thought they had it figured out.

  So, so figured out that all you had to do was remove one brick and everything came falling down.

  “It’s like some good old Jenga.” Kana whispered and laughed as she got into the elevator.

  _____________

  “Good night, Yamazaki-san.” Kana tapped the top of the car as she closed the door.

  “Good night, Minami-san. Good night, Ohara-san.”

  “Good nightttt, Yamazaki!” Jina cheerfully got out of the front seat and did the same.

  As they were walking away, however, he pressed the horn and got their attention back. The two of them turned and walked back to him. Leaning against the opening window, Kana asked what was wrong.

  “Uh, the lyrics.” He said, “We really need the lyrics to be done by the end of the week. That will give us enough time to prepare the music and the dance. It gives us only two weeks to perform and generate a fanbase.”

  Kana groaned, “Right. Of course. Sure, we’ll get it done.”

  He drove away towards his own house. As she did, Jina leaned against Kana. For once, she did not push the girl away. It felt good for now, to have the hair pressed against her arms. When there was no ugly pink wig, Jina actually felt like a real human being, which certainly helped. She wasn’t catching feelings, of course. Those were reserved for Emi since she was so close by.

  Kana looked at the building she was in, and wondered what would happen if she ran there and tried to get in. Would that get Emi into more trouble? As curious as she was, she wasn’t going to take any risks. Instead, she turned back to their apartment and got in.

  “Let’s get to work, Ohara.”

  “Huh, what work? Also, you really need to tell Yamazaki your whole plan. He’s still worried about the lyrics and dances as if they matter.”

  “We should be worried about the lyrics, too, Ohara.”

  “Whyyy? I thought we were gonna replace them. So, like, we don’t really need to perform, do we?”

  “You’re not even drunk, and you’re giving drunk vibes. Get off me.” Kana pushed her away as they got into the elevator and started moving.

  “No, but I am serious. Why put in all that effort?”

  “Because we are going to sing our own songs, Jina.” Kana reminded her, “We are not using any of their bullshit to fund our group. So, we need lyrics. And we’re gonna start working on them right now.”

  “Right…now? It’s one in the morning.”

  “Do you have any other time to work on it?”

  Jina groaned and got out of the elevator as it stopped. Kana followed while the goth bitch opened the door and got in. This was their life now. As much as she loved to live here, the work certainly matched up. At least things were going well with her plans. Some hard work was nothing compared to what she was going to win in return.

  And so, they got inside and got back to working on their writing.

  Helter Skelter! A 2012 movie based on a 2003 manga. The main character of that heavily inspired my portrayal of Kana, and will continue to do so in the future!