“Esper Idol Project?”
Inside the windowless building in District 7, Yurika sat with a plastic cup of orange juice in her hands, the straw between her teeth out of habit, staring at the man hanging upside down inside the life-support device in front of her with the kind of look you’d give a complete idiot.
The Chairman of Academy City’s Board of Directors, the great mastermind lurking behind the scenes, one Aleister Crowley.
“Is your brain okay?”
“I’m being completely serious with this proposal.”
Aleister’s eyes stayed shut.
From the speakers on every side came a voice stripped of any emotional inflection.
In a sense it really was a fairly grave tone, but Yurika, long since used to Aleister’s unreliable announcements, genuinely couldn’t imagine what this guy’s actual motive was.
“You suspended Academy City’s ‘Level 6 Shift Project,’ so that crowd decided to push Accelerator out into the open. Thanks to that, Academy City’s idol industry is now growing enormously.”
“So?”
Yurika gave the straw a hard slurp.
The empty plastic cup made a hollow, sucking sound, and she frowned slightly.
Then she used her Teleportation ability to send the empty cup straight into a trash can on the street outside the building.
“What do you want me to do?”
“Become an idol.”
Aleister looked at Yurika with complete seriousness, his mouth producing words that sounded like he was asking her to start a cult.
“With your charm, captivating the students of Academy City would be child’s play. Even Accelerator, the No.1 among Academy City’s espers, would absolutely be left in your dust.”
“I. Don’t. Want. To.”
Yurika wore an expression of pure disgust, looking at Aleister the way you’d look at a pig that had run headfirst into a tree.
She channeled Telekinesis and slammed it hard against Aleister’s life-support device, trying to knock some sense back into that head of his that seemed to have gotten caught in a door.
“Why would I want to become some pointless idol? It’s exhausting, okay?”
Yurika had heard about Accelerator getting packaged as an idol too.
And apparently because that opened the floodgates, Academy City’s idol industry was now sprouting up everywhere.
Not just Accelerator.
Several of the other Level 5 espers had started getting packaged into all sorts of idols, and even some other ability users with potential had been scouted by the major entertainment companies inside Academy City, kicking off weird packaging deals.
It had the distinct feel of idols being mass-produced.
“Becoming an idol isn’t without its benefits. Don’t you want to be the center of everyone’s attention?”
Aleister gazed deeply at Yurika, as if trying to see straight into the depths of her soul.
By ordinary logic, very few people don’t crave the spotlight, and Yurika was still human, after all.
So Aleister immediately began appealing to her most basic desires.
“Once you become an idol, you’ll have more true fans than you can count.”
“I already have more true fans than I can count.”
Yurika fixed Aleister with a dead-eyed stare.
On a normal day, just dealing with those fanatical young ladies at Tokiwadai Middle School gave her enough of a headache.
The thought that, once she became an idol, her pool of people to deal with would expand from Tokiwadai’s little patch of turf to the entire Academy City, which took up over half of Tokyo, made her shiver involuntarily.
“Thanks for the reminder. Now I want to be an idol even less.”
“If you’re willing to become an idol, you’ll immediately gain the most powerful backing in all of Academy City.”
Aleister tried persuading Yurika from another angle.
Academy City’s idol project had indeed begun developing on a large scale, but in truth it was still in its infancy, and promotion was a huge problem in a lot of areas.
But for Yurika, there’d be no promotion problem, because her backer was a heavyweight who could easily spread his reach across all of Academy City.
“Yes. That would be me.”
“I never planned on being an idol in the first place, so what use do I have for your backing?”
Yurika rolled her eyes at Aleister.
This Aleister felt completely out of character.
Before, he’d looked like some behind-the-scenes final boss; now he looked like a creepy old man trying to lure away a kid.
And sure, Yurika wasn’t exactly a kid anymore, but Aleister’s methods were even more over-the-top than those creeps’.
“And you’ve really got some nerve, singing your own praises like that.”
“In that case, I have no choice but to play my trump card.”
A glint of light flashed in Aleister’s eyes.
There’s nothing in this world that can’t be negotiated; it just means the conversation hasn’t yet touched the other party’s bottom line.
And as luck would have it, he knew Yurika’s bottom line perfectly well.
Facing Yurika, who was immune to both coaxing and threats, Aleister calmly posed a single question.
“Have you ever considered how much money becoming an idol could earn you?”
“…”
At those words, Yurika’s previously scornful expression went slightly stiff.
Her carefree posture froze too.
She stiffly raised her head, looking at Aleister hanging upside down in the container, and swallowed.
“Don’t even start, there’s no way I’d…”
“I used Tree Diagram to calculate your potential. If you’re willing to debut according to my arrangements—”
Aleister’s bland expression looked, at this moment, like a shrewd, calculating merchant.
Possessing the most powerful computing machine in the world, he really did have the leverage to negotiate with Yurika.
No other entertainment company had the right to use Tree Diagram, but he did.
“In about a month, the money you earn from a single performance would be enough for you to eat for a whole month at the standard you had back when you were a rich young lady.”
Gulp.
Yurika thought she heard the sound of her own swallow.
Honestly, ever since her family went bankrupt, it had been a long time since she’d eaten any of those fine delicacies she used to have.
After all, even with her Level 5 stipend, she could just barely satisfy her appetite, and how could her tongue, long since spoiled rotten by gourmet fare, ever be satisfied by ordinary food?
“What’s more, to maintain your idol figure, I’ll hire a dedicated nutritionist to prepare delicious meals for you.”
A faint smile played at the corner of Aleister’s mouth, and a confident smile spread across his usually expressionless face.
“The taste absolutely won’t be inferior to those expensive foods you’ve eaten before.”
“This…”
Deep down, Yurika wavered.
She blinked, her palms began to sweat, her mind churning over whether becoming an idol was actually worth it.
After all, becoming an idol meant she’d have to deal with even more fanatical fans, and even in disguise, the true fans would probably recognize her on the spot.
“And besides…”
Seeing Yurika still hesitating, Aleister threw out his final condition.
“Once you sign, you’ll immediately receive a hefty signing fee. No delays.”
“Goddammit, fine!”
Yurika clapped her hands.
And just like that, she’d been roped onto the pirate ship.