The moment the two of them walked into the agency that day, there was clearly an air that could not be quite defined. Some stares unsure about what they were going to do, a few people gave them their good lucks, and a few of them who were rabid Pink Beats fans hoped they were gonna fail. Kana had gotten used to it. A lot of these people hated her for being who she was, either way.
In their green room, as they finished putting on their makeup, Kana made sure to keep the song playing on loop. It wasn’t complete yet, and it definitely wasn’t at its best yet, but it already sounded better than anything Ruby Passion or Pink Beats had ever produced. She said that not only as someone who had worked on it, but as a person who had studied music for years.
Ever since the day Akiko Hara had ruined her life, she had dedicated her life to making sure she understood this art. And slowly, as she grew and understood, she found out that she had been born for this. That no matter how many people tried to stand against her, she would always win. Kana Minami knew what music was, and this was music. It had been stuck in her head since the moment she first listened to it.
Every beat, perfectly placed down to the millisecond. Every single one of their vocals, surprisingly mesmerizing. She was even pleased to hear Sanada’s voice, especially considering how painfully average she was in Pink Beats’ stuff. Give her the right stage, though, and this girl was clearly capable of so much more than that. Maybe Kana could change her plan a little to make her stay.
But it was already too late. Whatever would go down in that room later today would be the midpoint of their plan. The first climax, which would define how the rest went. Her first victory.
“Am I being narcissistic, do you think?” Kana looked at Jina, “If I think that this is one of the greatest songs I’ve ever heard. Do you think I’m being a brat who is too high up on her own horse?”
Jina laughed, putting on some final touches with her eyeliner, “Maybe. Normally, people hate everything they create. I hate this song, for example. My part, especially. But if you like it so much, then good for you. As for narcissism? Yeah. Yeah, you’re narcissistic as fuck.”
“Very nice. Now, I am the same as Ruby Passion. Makes me feel great.”
“Not like that, Kana-chan. Don’t you think you are bending the definition of that word to suit your perspective? Being narcissistic only means that you think you’re the greatest person who ever lived. It’s not the same as thinking lowly of others. Tell me this, Kana. Do you ever apologize to a cat for being smarter than it is?”
Kana did not answer. She waited for her to answer while continuing her makeup. They had fifteen minutes before Sakai would be seeing their performance.
“You don’t, Kana. Because that is not arrogance. That is just fact. If you think that something is a fact, of course, you wouldn’t apologize for it. I might hate this song because I’m in it, but that doesn’t mean I don’t hear it objectively. And as much as I would’ve hated to say this two weeks ago, you’re correct.”
Jina stood up and moved behind her to adjust the hairpins on both of Kana’s twintails.
“This is better than the rest. You’re not hallucinating or thinking too highly of yourself. You’re stating a fact. It just so happens to be that that fact puts you in a better than light than other people. We’re gonna win, Kana-chan. And nobody will be able to deny us that victory.”
Kana looked at herself and Jina in the mirror. This was it, then. Everything that she had done was building up to this. If it didn’t work out, then she didn’t know what she was going to do. Because that was one thing she hadn’t planned for. Contingency plans did not exist for her. Kana planned to win. Every single time.
“You know?” She looked up at her partner through the mirror, “You could just have said ‘never apologize for being the smartest person in the room’, and spared me the whole speech.”
Jina smiled. She held both sides of her hair, one hand each, and pulled down on them at the same time.
“Ow, ow, yowch! Stop!”
_____________
Ryu Sakai, Daiki Yamada, Rie Rin aka RiRi, Chika Maeda aka Kelsey Mari Sanada, and Jun Yamazaki. It was a fairly controlled group of viewers. There was a camera that was going to record their performance for a viewing with the board of advisors later, but that was something Kana didn’t care about. If things went well, there would be no need for that meeting. They would have no option left but to put them on stage.
Kana and Jina stood with bated breath as Yamazaki walked to the laptop and plugged the USB in. Every move played in their heads on loop, every expression on each person’s face was burned into their eyes. This was it. Kana closed her eyes and focused her ears on that spacebar. One, two, three, four, five. Yamazaki tapped it, and the familiar static that started the song started to play.
She calmed herself and opened her eyes.
The practice room disappeared. Everyone in it disappeared. Jina danced beside her, but Kana could merely sense her. The only person she saw was Akiko Hara. She saw that smile, those ugly teeth, her rough hair, and dull clothes. The smell of paper and metal wafting through the air. She could feel the chill of that cold night, tingling across her pore of her skin.
Her body moved like it was supposed to. As if she were born for this. She could feel herself floating, rising in the air, above these people. Beyond anything they could ever mean to her. Right here, right now, as she occasionally heard Kelsey grunt, Sanada gasp, or Sakai snort with happiness, she knew that a year from now, none of these memories would matter.
Then, the middle half of the song started. She came back to the practice room and locked her eyes on the members of Pink Beats. The very second that Sanada’s voice started echoing through the room, Kelsey’s face lost all color. RiRi stood in silence. All Sanada did was look at the floor out of a mix of pride and embarrassment. Rules broken or not, even she could not deny that this was the best she had ever sounded in a song.
Sakai, as expected, was impressed. He didn’t care about boundaries. At the end of the day, both of these groups were a part of his banner. Crossovers were not expected, but entertained. This was a win in his books because it made it easier to promote the new duo to a pre-existing audience. They would come for Sanada’s feature and stay for the rest of the song.
Kelsey pulled Sanada aside and started whispering something in her ear. RiRi stepped back to stop both of them, but only got pulled deeper into the debate. Even as Sanada’s part ended and the final bit of their trial performance started, Pink Beats had been consumed by their infighting. Finally, expressions started decorating Kana’s face. An honest, true, joyous smile of victory.
She did not know when the song ended, but she was soon in her final pose. Holding hands with Jina, and standing with one hand and leg in the air. It had been perfect. Every little detail, pulled off with the grace and beauty that she had imagined. This was everything she had worked for and toward. Now, nobody could stop her. Nobody could become an obstacle to this plan.
Sakai, Yamada, and Yamazaki clapped. Pink Beats, as expected, were still busy fighting amongst themselves. Or, well, if Kana could see properly, it was just Kelsey bullying Sanada while RiRi pointed out both of their faults with exhaustion.
“Sanada!” Sakai called her out as soon as he stood up. The girls stopped arguing and looked at him. She bowed and stepped forward, “Go and stand there with them. Why didn’t you tell me about this feature plan earlier, huh!?”
“We thought it would be a good surprise, hehe!” Kana smiled and tilted her head, tongue out, “If you don’t like it, Sakai-san, we have a version where we performed those lyrics too. It was just a test to show you how well it would work if Sanada-san was the one performing it, though.”
“Liked it? No, I loved it. It was perfect.” He laughed, clapping once more, “Yamada, did you hear that? Did you? Isn’t that one of her best works yet? And you’re telling me this is not even the full version. You got me giddy for more now, huh. Oh, it was amazing. Just amazing. The board is going to love this one!”
“Thank you, Sakai-san!” Kana and Jina performed their rehearsed thank-you bow in a lyrical tune.
“Kelsey, RiRi!” He looked at them, “What did you think?”
“It…was very good, Sakai-san.” RiRi nodded with a forced smile, “It was amazing, actually. Kana and Jina have very good stage presence and flexibility, and the song was easily the highlight. I…loved Sanada’s part. And you’re right, Sakai-san. It might be one of her best works yet.”
Kana noticed Sanada’s face lighting up for a second, but then she met Kelsey’s eyes and went back to her slightly sour expression. Looking back down at the floor, she started curling her toes around to deal with the anxiety. Kana quietly slid her hand into Sanada’s and gave it a quick squeeze. The Pink Beats member looked at her, and they shared a quick smile.
“Why don’t you join them, Sanada?” Kelsey disguised her hatred as a joke. Exactly what one would expect from someone like her, “You sound so good when you’re singing for them, I thought it was a completely different person! Where does all that energy go for our songs, eh? Doting on the juniors, I guess.”
“Kel-”
Sakai stopped Sanada from replying, and stood up, “Ah, someone’s jealous, huh? Or was that supposed to be a joke?”
Kelsey replied. She said something, but Kana had given up on listening. She was moving on. She needed to begin her part, and she needed to do it right. Looking up at Sanada, she started with a whisper first.
“Sanada-san, aren’t you a bit tired of Kelsey-chan?”
“Huh? N-no! Not at all. She’s like my sister.”
“Just ‘like’, right? She isn’t your actual sister, after all. I guess you might be a bit tired by now.”
Sanada tried opening her mouth, but Jina grabbed her hand too, smiling. Now that someone else was holding her, Kana let go and stepped forward. She looked at Yamazaki, and he gave her a subtle nod. It was going to work.
“You know, Kelsey has always hated us anyway.” She started, out loud, “So, it’s no surprise that she hates that Sanada-san gave a better performance either way.”
“MINAMI!”
Her raised voice even caught Sakai off guard, as he stepped back and made some distance between both of them.
“You think you’re so smart, don’t you?” The blonde walked forward and grabbed her by the collar, pulling her up, “You think you know everything, don’t you? Lie after lie after lie. Do you only find comfort in making other people’s lives worse?”
That was it. That was all she needed to do. Kana gave up control of her body and turned her brain off. All she needed to do now was watch and try not to laugh.
“And you, Sanada! First, you steal all of our lines in that song, and now you want to give your voice to the others, too, huh? Did they even invite you, or was it your idea to be a feature?!” Kelsey shouted, letting go of Kana, “You’re the one who hurts your ankle. You’re the one who has no other skill. And yet, it is RiRi and I who need to pay the price. We’re the ones who get one line each in our premier song of the year. That’s fair, is it?”
“Kelsey, calm down!” RiRi tried her best, but went unheard.
“Kana-chan, Kana-chan, Kana-chan. I’ve gotten so fucking tired of hearing it all. What about our friendship? What about everything we did together? Ever since you got that injury and didn’t get to be in the video, you’ve been acting like some homeless kitten. Acting all high and mighty without any actual backbone.”
It was funny that she saw it that way. To Kana, the truth had always been obvious. Maybe because she was a third party and had no emotional stake in this fight, but it had always been obvious. Sanada felt like she wasn’t doing enough. She felt that by hurting her ankle, she had gone to Brazil on vacation, while the other two did the work. Ever since Kana had seen her in that pool, it had been obvious.
“So, just join them, why don’t you? Leave us if we’re so horrible, and stay with thes-”
“Kelsey!” Sakai got her attention with a single shout, “Stop before you say something you don’t want to. Get out of here and get some rest. You’re clearly not in your right mind. RiRi, take her away right now.”
RiRi scurried up to them, grabbed a quiet Kelsey by the arm, and started to pull her away. As she did, Sanada also backed up and decided to leave with them.
“Stay here, you bitch. No need to be with us. You clearly like them better either way.” Kelsey tried to snatch her hair, but Jina pulled the girl away in time.
“Kelsey, just calm down. It’s ok.” RiRi whispered, taking her all the way to the door.
The closer she got, the more the blonde calmed down and lost her edge. This was perfect. This was even better. Kana had time to land the final blow.
“Sakai-san!” She bowed down, “Should we move on, too? We’re a bit tired, so we’d like to leave too. I’m sorry about everything that happened, though. You too, Sanada-san. I didn’t mean for it to get so violent. I just…wanted…”
“It’s alright, Kana-chan.” Sanada gave a weak, sad smile, “It wasn’t your fault.”
“Yeah, listen to her, Minami.” Sakai nodded, “Kelsey’s been a bit of a hothead either way. She’ll calm down after some time and come around to it all.”
Normally, maybe, but not this time. Kana had played with her a bit too long for her to be able to rebound now. Pink Beats had crumbled. Sakai wanted to believe it wasn’t, and that was to be expected. But the truth was laid bare. They were never going to be able to work with the same passion and camaraderie again. Still, for extra measure, one last betrayal wouldn’t hurt.
“Our name…Sakai-san.”
“Yes, yes.” He nodded, “I’ve been waiting to hear that. Did you reach a consensus?”
She smiled, timing it just as RiRi opened the door and stepped out. Just as Kelsey was on the verge of leaving. Sanada had given them an opinion on the name earlier, so what Kana was going to say was not completely wrong. Just a carefully worded statement meant to cause the most damage.
“Sanada-san actually helped us with this one, too!” She said, “We’ve decided to go with something that fits the entire vibe perfectly – Velvet Choker!”