Kana crossed her legs and flipped her skirt away so that it didn’t touch even an inch of Jina’s. Both of them, along with Nobuko, had been put into a small facility back in the real world after the entire helicopter incident. Jina had been quick to keep up with Kana’s lies about the helicopter being attacked by a monster, but that didn’t mean she had been forgiven. Her pink hair was still just as annoying and just as worthy of being chopped to oblivion as it had always been.

  Jina had been called in by the therapist first. This was apparently a ‘pre-screening’ where they were trying to check if the incident had left any mental marks on them. If these later grew into trauma, it wouldn’t be very nice for the agency that signed them, so this was prime time to kick them out once and for all. Once she had come out, Nobuko had been called for her test.

  “Poor kid. She’s never becoming an idol like this. The questions they ask are pretty brutal, so she’s bound to fail.” Jina spoke up, shaking her head in disappointment.

  “Are you trying to make conversation with me after you tried to murder me? Are you?” Kana looked at her with a disgusted expression.

  “Oh, you’re so childish.” The goth bitch laughed, “Of course I’m talking to you. There’s nobody in the room, is there? Forget about whatever happened before. That was so long ago. Right now, we’re both traumatized little girls trying to process what happened.”

  “Speak for yourself.”

  “You won’t get far like this, Kana Minami.” She warned, “Being honest and true doesn’t mean shit around here. You’ll have to bend eventually. And when you do, that’s when you’ll shoot all the way to the top. Nobody cares about who you really are. They just want you to be who they want to see.”

  “If I was an ugly pig like you, I would also want to hide my true self.” Kana felt like she was going a bit childishly far with this, but once more, she wasn’t one to hide her true feelings. It was what it was. So, she kept going, “Me, on the other hand? You haven’t heard me sing. I’m pretty good at it. Way better than you, actually. I know people like it when their idols are cute and kind, but they’ll learn to change. Stagnation is no way for the world to grow, is it?”

  “Oh, you philosophize? Don’t let the man inside know that. He’ll probably think there’s something wrong with you.”

  “Ugh, shut up.”

  Always the pessimist. Kana saw the world as a hellhole that she needed to climb to the top of to get anywhere, but even she wasn’t so pessimistic. As far as people like Jina and Nobuko were concerned, they had started at the bottom and were gonna stay there. No drive, no passion. What a sad way to live and think.

  “Why do you think they make us kill the monsters instead of the military, huh?”

  Kana looked up at Jina as soon as she asked the question and shrugged, “I don’t really care. It’s cool and makes me feel cool.”

  “Oh my god, you’re gonna get us all killed, aren’t you?”

  “Of course not. Have you seen my weapons? I’d blow any monster away before they could even get close.”

  “That’s…not what I meant. But sure, Kana Minami. Do as you please.”

  Kana stood up. She needed to get away from this boring conversation. Of course, she had checked into why the idols were the ones fighting the monsters. It had been a pain in the ass to find it out, given how secret the entire operation was, but she had gotten her answers. Off the chair, she started to roam around the tiny room they were in and check the paintings on the wall.

  There were some really abstract ones. The doctor probably used that to do one of those ‘what do you see in this random noise’ tests. Every time someone had asked Kana that, she had told them exactly what she saw in them – a society desperately trying to slot her into a category. That’s all she saw. She didn’t need to see anything else, and she didn’t need anyone else’s help to tell her if she was fine or not.

  She scoffed at the painting and kept moving. But Jina’s silence was getting to her. She had been waiting for her to say something so that she could reply with her actual knowledge, but the goth girl had just gone silent. As if she didn’t really care at all. So, Kana cleared her throat and kept walking as she spoke.

  “It’s difficult to keep secrets in today’s world. The military is not given as much protection and secrecy as idols are. If a ton of soldiers gather at a particular location, people will notice and find out. But a bunch of idols gather? People assume it's just an industry party.”

  “Are you trying to answer my question from before, honey? Trust me, you can keep it to yourself. I know it all already.”

  “Is that why you’re here? Because you know they are just weaponizing our desperation to make us do things in secret?”

  Jina shrugged, “Who cares? I’ll do it. You know what we get in return, right? When we actually get signed by an agency?”

  Kana knew. She knew very well after the countless nights she had spent researching all of this before she joined the training center. She told Jina that she did, too. About how, every day of every week, idol groups went into different parts of the dimension and killed as many as they could. On the weekend, the group with the most points got to perform on the biggest stage for the largest audience. And they also got the most money.

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  The government got to keep their little interdimensional portal a secret, and the idols got a quantifiable, easy-to-visualize goal to know how far away from the top they were. The agencies, meanwhile, just got to milk as much cash out of it as possible. Merch sales, meetup events, and now the deals with the government. It was the biggest cash cow the entertainment world had ever seen.

  “Why are you here, then? Aren’t you bending over right now, too? Aren’t you giving them exactly what they want to get all that money you lust over?”

  Kana gave her a sly smile, “That’s what you think, Ohara? Keep thinking that. But just know that if you think someone can make me do something I don’t want to, you’re dead wrong. I am not here because this is my only choice. I am here because I made this choice out of my own accord.”

  The door opened, and Nobuko stepped out. She had a calm expression on her face and a certificate in her hands. She ignored Kana completely and walked over to Jina. Then, as she sat down, she buried her face in her the other girl’s arms and started crying.

  “I got in…Jina-san!” she said, “They said I’m allowed to sign with an agency.”

  “You…are?”

  Kana scoffed and entered the room she had just left. If Jina had been terrified of a test that even Nobuko was able to pass, then there clearly wasn’t a lot to be afraid of. There was a limit to exaggeration. She was going to pass with flying colors.

  _____________

  “Doctor?” she asked.

  “Yes, Minami-san?” He asked.

  “Are you fucking insane?”

  “I am sorry. What did you just say?”

  She shook her head, “No, I meant, did you just show me a photo of another helicopter crash with blood and bones all around it, and then asked me if it elicited a reaction inside of me?”

  “Uh, yeah.” He nodded and showed her the photo on his laptop screen once more, “Does it?”

  How delusional were people?

  “Tell me one person in this world who would not be disturbed by that image. Would you, please?”

  “I don’t know, Minami-san. Are you that person?”

  Bastard. She bit her tongue and cleared her head. That is precisely what he was checking. He knew the kind of stuff that one would have to see in this profession. He knew that what she would be seeing a month from now would surpass this on all levels. Right now, her being unbothered was exactly what he needed to hear. And he needed to hear it in the correct tone.

  She laughed and put her tongue out. With a short performative smack on her head, she spoke in her cute voice again, “Of course I am! I thought I would build up to the joke, but you caught me. Well, can’t fool everyone, I guess!”

  “Right. You are unfazed by this image?”

  She nodded. He shrugged and switched to another image. This one, even grosser and gorier than the last. She kept her happy expression up and kept confirming that she was fine with all of this.

  All the while, the only thing on her mind was how Nobuko ever passed this. There was clearly so much more to that girl than she let on. So much that she was hiding behind that cute, shy persona of hers. Even Kana felt a bit uncomfortable seeing all that blood. Mainly because it was human. With monsters, she could bathe in their guts and not care. But with humans? Yeah, it was a bit difficult.

  But it didn’t matter. She needed to get out of here with a positive certificate, and that is what she was going to do. When the slides were done, the doctor nodded and asked her a couple more questions. Mainly about how she was feeling about the entire event, and how things were at home. Generic stuff to judge her current and overall emotional state. Kana did not end up remembering everything she told him.

  She spouted some nonsense about how she was really sad for the people in the helicopter, and how her family was very supportive of her endeavors. When asked about what she had said in the interview about her mother, she quickly confirmed that it was just a dumb joke and that she loved her mother very much. Then, finally.

  “Who’s your favorite current group, Minami-san?”

  “Huh?” She made an exaggerated, shocked face, “Is that even a question? Of course it is Ruby Passion! I love them so, so, so much! My speaker only plays their songs.”

  “Yeah, I noticed that, which is why I asked. I am a massive Ruby Passion fan too, so that speaker caught my attention.” He laughed and reached into the drawer beside his table. Pulling out a small ring, he put it on the table. It was a silver ring with a small, fake ruby on it. On that ruby was the group’s logo.

  A ruby with a strawberry stem and leaves on top. From the corner of that ruby, a little bit of juice leaked out.

  A forced avant-garde, ‘this is so deep’ logo, if she ever saw one.

  “Here, a gift from me to you! I hope to see you wearing it when you perform one day, all right?”

  “Yes! I will wear it right now!” She picked the ring up with a smile and angrily put it on her finger without letting him see through her emotions, “Thank you! Also, wait…”

  “Yes?”

  “I pass?”

  He nodded. Kana jumped up with fake joy and gave him a short scream. Then, with a quick hug, she picked up the certificate from him. Then, thanking him for the amazing ring, she left the room.

  As soon as she did, she was met with quite a scene.

  Jina and Nobuko were standing shoulder to shoulder in front of a middle-aged woman in a grey suit and red high heels. With her auburn hair tied together in a pretty pattern on the back of her head, she had one hand on each of the girls’ heads with a smile on her face. As soon as Kana stepped out, the woman took off her sharp, thin spectacles and smiled at her too.

  “Ah, Kana Minami! Please, come here. Are you fine?”

  “Y-yes…who are you?”

  “I am Aiko Taira, a representative of the Agencies Coalition. Just here to take you to the headquarters where the recruiters will be announcing their picks. Come on. About time you find out who you’re gonna be performing for!”