Most of Sunday was spent sleeping. Sakai, Aiko, and Yamazaki took way too long to leave once they shifted to talking about other topics, and the others got caught up in them, too. Before they knew it, Emi was having a nice chat with Aiko about their favourite film, while Sakai was getting drunk and complaining to Yamazaki about a janitor who had apparently (he was certain) been plotting to assassinate him, for some reason.
Kana and Jina tried talking about strategies for Monday, but all the noise, laughter, and crying made it almost impossible. And it did not die down until Sakai, in all his drunk glory, declared that he would do a backflip on top of the inflatable swan. Before he even got on top of the inflatable, however, he walked straight into the pool and lost all control of his body. Yamazaki had to drag him out and drive him back home with Aiko.
How that drive back went, Kana would have paid a hundred thousand out of her new salary to learn. But for now, she let it slide. They had probably troubled Yamazaki enough last night; Jina especially. On top of that, she didn’t really have time to think about their ride back, since she was hoping Emi would sleep with her. Instead, she had very strongly committed to sleeping on the inflatable swan to show that she could one-up Sakai.
When Kana somehow woke up first on Sunday, close to the afternoon, she found that Emi had, indeed, succeeded. Good for her. But since there was nobody to make her food, she went back to sleep and pretended her eyes had never opened. Way later, when Emi woke her up on Jina’s orders, she came back down for some food.
Then, after some time spent finalizing new steps for the full song, it was time for Emi to go. She gave Kana one more kiss to last her the week, but spent the rest of the time teasing her instead. That didn’t help with how annoying Jina was going to get through the week, so Kana wasn’t sure what to feel about it. At least for now, the goth bitch was busy preparing for their bet with Sakai, so there was no teasing.
What there was, was a lack of preparation.
On Monday, Pink Beats did not show up to the competition. Kana and Jina found themselves all alone in front of the door leading to the Dimension. It was in a former public park this time around. Once it had appeared, the Coalition had bought the land and made a fake outer building around it. The inside was still the park, but it was now covered with concrete and glass on all four sides.
Certainly, a rare aesthetic.
“Should I call Yamada-san to confirm their status?” Yamazaki asked.
“No need.” Kana waved him off and then quickly snapped her hand back. Doing that reminded her of Sakai and made her feel dirty, “We’ll handle everything today ourselves. I’ve got some plans forming in terms of map manipulation, so today might be a good time to try it out. We can-”
Yamazaki’s phone began to ring, and he quickly picked it up. It was someone from the Coalition, he mouthed. A second later, however, there was no need to do that. He put the phone down and turned on the speaker. An unknown, garbled voice spoke from the other side in the most ‘commentator’ intonation Kana had ever heard.
“Here’s a quick update to all of the participating teams! As you all know, Lilac Shower announced the creation of a new group day before yesterday – Ruby Passion Jr.!”
“As if we would forget. How humble of them!” Jina gave her best fake laugh. She was getting better at that.
“It is well-known that Ruby Passion have dominated the leaderboard for the last thirty-five weeks!” It continued, “Obviously, this would put Ruby Passion Jr. in a massively advantageous position under the banner of Lilac Shower. To ensure that this does not happen, and that there is no unfair advantage, Lilac Shower has decided that Ruby Passion Jr. will be participating as a team unrelated to the original Ruby Passion!”
There was a pause in the call, as if the commentator was giving them time to be surprised and talk amongst themselves. Because that pissed her off, Kana did not even give him a smile or a frown. Jina seemed pleased with the message, but Kana would put her in her place once this guy stopped speaking.
The voice continued, “As such, Ruby Passion Jr. will not only be in competition with all six of the teams that it was originally against, but it will also be facing off against Ruby Passion themselves. As we head into this week and all the weeks coming up ahead, please remember that any alliances formed with either of these teams will not equate to an alliance with the other. So, keep an eye out for the leaderboard, and don’t forget to give your best!”
The call was cut, and Jina laughed.
“Are they stupid? Why would they do that?”
“No, it’s very smart of them.” Kana clicked her tongue.
“Why?” Yamazaki asked.
She looked at the door as it slowly opened, “Lilac Shower are greedy bastards. I’ve done enough research to find that out about them. Kenji Tanaka would never do something like this unless it did not benefit him. So, do you not see what he just did?”
“Just cut the bullshit and explain it, Kana.”
Kana laughed, “It means he is confident that Nobuko’s new team can climb the leaderboard on their own. He is confident that they will be able to get to the number two spot at the very least. Then, he will probably force Ruby Passion to break their streak and give first position to Ruby Passion Jr. for just one week.”
“And then…” Yamazaki added, his face turning to horror, “Once they both naturally have weapons of the same level, it becomes a statistical impossibility for anyone else to get to Rank 5. The number one and two positions will keep switching between Ruby Passion and Ruby Passion Jr. eternally, and keep making sure Lilac Shower gets the best stage every week.”
“Exactly. Kenji Tanaka knows that monsters can be beaten.” Kana gritted her teeth as pure hatred for the man took over her, “Three or six, they can be defeated. But if he divides them into two teams and keeps the top two spots for himself, the requirements for Rank 5 mean that he will stay there forever. Everyone else’s dreams will be dead before they can ever be dreamt.”
“No, but there has to be something against this. How is he just allowed to do that, especially when it creates such unfair competition?” Jina asked.
Kana had been thinking about that too. It didn’t make any sense. The Coalition would surely have something to say about this. If she had realized it, it meant they would have realized it too. It wasn’t that difficult to figure out what exactly Tanaka was cooking up here, so….
“Motherfucker.” She whispered.
“What?”
“Jina,” Kana asked, “What was Nobuko’s contract like?”
“Huh?”
“What was it like?! I mean, the specifics. Just like mine was specifically altered by Sakai to lure me, were there any specifics in her contract about something like that?”
“I mean…” Jina racked her brain. The door was now completely open, which meant they were wasting precious time here. But this needed to be decoded. Yamazaki needed to know so that he could begin some background work, “I guess, yeah. I don’t remember it properly, but I remember Nobuko-chan being clear about how it was her dream contract. I just assumed it was like that because Lilac Shower was that good.”
“Of course, you did.” Kana groaned, trying not to scream, “It’s all a fucking setup. Aiko Taira told Tanaka everything he needed to know about Nobuko, so that he could manipulate a contract for her.”
“What do you mean, Minami-san?”
“Start thinking, Yamazaki-san. Begin an investigation on your side, and go as deep as you need to. You mentioned they fired her soon after Ruby Passion was formed, but why? What was the reason? And if they fired her, why did the Coalition immediately pick up someone removed by the top agency so easily? It’s almost as if…”
“You think they didn’t fire her at all, do you?” Jina sighed, “Bunch of lying fucking bastards.”
“They just changed her position internally.” Kana nodded, “If the Coalition is letting this slide, it means they’re getting something in return. We don’t have time to go too deep right now, but start looking into it, Yamazaki-san. Taira-san is still working for Tanaka. That’s my theory, at least. She’s just hiding it under the guise of being a Coalition representative.”
“I…” Yamazaki put the phone back in his pocket and gulped, his eyes widening as if he had just been dealt the biggest blow of his time, “I’ll start immediately, Minami-san. Not a rock left unturned.”
“Do your best, Yamazaki.”
“You too, Ohara-san. Good luck, Minami-san. I’ll meet you at the gate.”
Kana bid him goodbye and turned to the door. This was this, then. If they were gonna try and cheat her like that, they needed to try harder. She wasn’t going to let something this slide so easily. They would pay, even if it took some time. For now, though, she wanted that extra two hundred thousand yen from Sakai. That is what she was going to focus on.
Both of them walked into the portal.
_____________
Her plan for the day was simple.
Kana, on her many rounds around the map now, had found a spot where the concentration of demons was always higher. This was a place that was as far away from the doors as possible. If she was thinking right, it was probably because the demons had learnt patterns. They knew that if they came from anywhere near the doors, they would die faster.
So, they stuck to this one location. That is where they headed. Since the games had just begun, they were probably going to spill all over the map from here. There were three such locations, of course, but she could only hoard one of them. The others would still allow them to bleed in and allow the other teams to keep fighting. This was ideal, since they wouldn’t realize something was off.
Kana and Jina followed a simple pattern. Just like they did at the training range, they stood and waited for them to appear. Once they started, they came in hordes. That when the massacre began. It was perfect, too, since it allowed her to unleash all her rage productively. She shot, and shot, and shot, and shot. The kills racked up without stop, and the streaks kept coming.
Every time she thought that it was going to end, more of them appeared to die at her hands.
At the same time, Jina handled the frontline. Keeping the other side of the hordes busy, she made sure none of them were able to escape easily. This was a near-perfect setup. It wouldn’t last them very long, and it wouldn’t help them win. But this was only until Pink Beats came back. As annoying as they were, she did need help from at least one of them to rack up more points. For today, this would have to do.
It did not take time for her to end up with a five-hundred kill streak. It was exhilarating, and still didn’t end. More and more kept coming. She didn’t even realize that they had been running out of time until Jina started running back and convinced her to stop. Groaning about the lack of time, she started making her way to the gate along with her. And only when they had made substantial distance, did the pop-up finally appear on her weapon.
Monster Kills +29,100
Explosion Kills +2320
Kana laughed like a maniac. Every time she lost, it was like the universe rewarded her once more. Every time she felt like there was no hope, it pushed her right back up. Existence was really just a perseverance test. And she was scoring high in all of the checks.
They soon made it to the gate, and the system calculated their points. It wasn’t late until all the teams had reached inside and the leaderboard on the ruins updated to show the day’s rankings.
“Fucking fate.” Kana groaned.
Maybe it had been a mistake to even think about fate and the universe like that. But then again, it had been a good reminder. It was a perseverance test. No matter how much things aggravated her, she needed to keep her calm and keep plotting. It would get better.
Sakai Entertainment was in position 5. It was exactly what she needed. Together, just her and Jina had racked up 52,450 points. It was impressive. No, it was more than impressive. It was beyond anything Pink Beats had ever done. And yet. Yet. Ruby Passion Jr. was in position 4, with 91,300 points.
Nobuko Kimura was not human. Kana refused to believe that she was human.
“Nobuko-chan!”
Right as she was thinking that, Jina jumped up and waved her hand at the girl. With her teammates, she was making her way to their car. She looked just as cute and vulnerable as Kana remembered. Just as perfectly worthy of protection as she had been then.
If Kana weren’t smart, she would have fallen for her again.
Jina walked forward, still waving and taking her name. But Nobuko did not respond. Walking straight, she acted like she could not hear her at all. Eventually, when the two of them were almost face-to-face, Jina kept her smile up.
“Nobuko-chan! It’s me, Jina Ohara!”
Without a word, the group kept walking. One of the other members pushed Jina out of the way, and they kept walking. Kana wanted to stand up and land a slap, at the very least. But it would not be worth it. This was exactly what Nobuko wanted. She wanted to destroy them mentally. Unfortunately, she would not get it. Unfortunately…
Jina was silent. She stood as she was, unmoving. Her lips were quivering, and her smile barely attached to her face. It was right on that thin line of transitioning from immensely overjoyed to horribly hurt. Kana walked up to her and put a hand on her shoulder. Even if this was all she could do, she had to. Jina had proved herself over and over again. At this point, seeing something like this sent even more waves of hatred through her body.
A single whimper escaped the poor girl, “Nobuko…chan?”