Kana did not know where to go. She did not know where to start or where to end. As her breathing got heavier, and she lost sight of whether she was really someone who would do this or not, she kept running. Grenade launcher in hand, blasting every monster she came across in a fit of rage, she kept running without a thought in her head. Her eyes searched for even a single trace of colour in the red wasteland. But nothing came.

  Her thoughts overpowered her thinking. An unstoppable barrage of questions, guilt, and fear. She did not know why she was like this, or why she was doing this. She did not know if this had been her fault or if Jina had been the one who had failed. Most importantly, she did not know if she was doing this because she did not want the plan to fail, or if she just didn’t want Jina to get into trouble.

  It was both, really. Just as much as she wanted to get to the very top, she did not want to stay alone in that apartment. Emi wasn’t there either. She was lost. Completely lost, with nothing to guide her. Kana still loved money above everything else. She still wanted to live in the most lavish apartment ever. But right now, she didn’t want to be alone. The idea of sitting in that car all by herself, and having to live in that house all by herself.

  It consumed and destroyed her. Maybe it was selfish. It was selfish, actually. But that was alright. She was a selfish girl, and she was proud of it. Jina was her cook. Who else would make her breakfast every morning if not her? She was not going to do it herself, that was for sure. She was above that, after all. She also needed Jina to write the lyrics. And, then…

  Her breathing got quicker, until, all at once, she made it stop. Stomping the ground, she looked at the sky and put the weapon away. Taking a deep breath, she felt the chilled air swoop across her skin and visualized the map of the Dimension once more. She narrowed down where the two of them had been and where they could have possibly gone from there.

  The map wasn’t very big, but it was still substantial. Running from one side to the other would take about one hour. At her speed, it would be more than that. She could not afford to be inefficient. Her brain slowly removed the parts of the area that they could not possibly be in, based on their trajectory. In the end, she was left with three options.

  One of them was a bit too close to the gates, so she wrote that out. Even if they were trapped, being that close to the gate would certainly give them the boost necessary to try to get out. No, they needed to be in a hopeless position. But hopeless didn’t mean ‘all the way at the other side’. No, that was just more motivation. They would have to be somewhere in the middle.

  In the middle, they had to have become victim to a classic mentality. Just close enough in their heads to consider waiting a dangerous monster’s attack out. And yet, not close enough to consider making a run for it. Keep that up, and it would eventually trap them permanently. Time would fly, and their indecisiveness would be the reason for their deaths.

  Kana started running once more. That narrowed it down to one location. One rock that she remembered for being a good hiding place. Most monsters were bigger than the opening, but it was just right for girls as slim and controlled at them. She remembered thinking it was an opening reserved only for idols like them. Or for very, very skinny and malnourished people, but that was a darker path.

  Pulling her launcher out once more as she got closer, she found her target.

  A bunch of monsters with blades for their arms were gathered next to the opening she had considered. About fifteen to twenty of them. No wonder Jina and Sanada were stuck. These were enemies that could actually fight back against them. There was real steel in their bodies that could parry and block other melee weapons. Her fear replaced with annoyance, Kana shot.

  The first blast caught the group perfectly unaware. A bunch of them flew up in the air, dead, while others were pushed back with heavy wounds.

  Monster Kills +450

  Explosion Kill +20

  Nine kills, then. She had whittled them down to half already. She saw Jina’s ugly pink hair peek out of the small opening, and then immediately withdraw. It disgusted her. There she was, sitting and waiting for someone else to help her instead of doing something. She had a massive sword, but was letting these idiotic monsters dictate what worked and what didn’t.

  She shot once more, and the grenade flew. But before it could hit them, one of the monsters ran forward and used its blade hands to shove it aside. The bomb moved to the left and blew up mid-air as the demons took over from the resulting explosion. Jina’s sword appeared from the opening and tried to sweep through their legs, but they just jumped to avoid it.

  Kana shot again. This time, the one who had parried it once stood straight like a hero from a spaghetti Western. Eyes on the grenade, it moved its hand once more, and the explosion was redirected.

  “Motherfucker…” she whispered and decided to shoot three of them in quick succession.

  A bunch of other demons, inspired by the singular protector of the masses, hopped forward and did the same. The three grenades flew in different directions and rocked the entire sky.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  “Kana, what the fuck are you doing?!”

  “You want me to shoot one in that hole, you goth bitch!?”

  “Just try and see what happens, why don’t you?”

  “K-Kana-chan! Thank you. Please keep trying!”

  Sanada did not need to be replied to. Kana shifted her focus to shooting once more, but her attacks kept getting blocked over and over as the monsters closed in on her. She took a few steps back and started reloading. But it was too late. One of them was already in slashing distance. She raised her leg to kick it, but her aim was too late.

  Kana swooped its feet, and the lightweight demon tripped and fell. Still, it tried to swing its hands and get her knee. Before it could get there, though, a shot rang from behind her and clocked it in the head. Blood sprayed everywhere as its entire cranium was split into a hundred pieces. From the same spot, sounds of engines and motors filled her ears.

  She turned to see Yuko Suzuki standing on top of a motorcycle moving towards her. She shot once more, and another demon died. The treads of the vehicle were running on their own, perfectly in balance on the red rock surface of the dimension. Beside her, on two similar motorcycles, were the other members of Ruby Passion – Sachiyo Tanaka and Akiko Hara.

  Kana put her grenade launcher down, and it vanished as the girls pushed past her and ran their vehicles into the monsters. The other two girls did not use their weapons at all. Yuko had gotten rid of all the enemies before they could anyway. As they dropped one by one, all Kana could do was watch. Watch as Ruby Passion helped Jina and Sanada out of the opening and checked on them.

  She sighed and quietly started walking back towards the gate. That was it, then. They could handle the rest and do whatever they wanted.

  “Kana Minami?”

  She stopped and looked behind her. Akiko Hara, the leader of Ruby Passion, had a smile on her face. She stepped closer and looked down at her to speak.

  “I heard what you did. It was very courageous of you, but also very dumb. Come on, then. Hop on my bike.”

  “I’ll…walk.”

  Yuko Suzuki laughed, “No, you will not walk. You’ll never get to the gate on time. We’ve only negotiated thirty extra minutes from them, and we’re nearing that limit every second. Get on if you don’t wanna die.”

  Kana, unfortunately, did not want to die, so she did as they asked and slowly walked to their bikes. Jina and Sanada were wiping the dust off their dresses, standing right there too. They smiled and waved at Kana as she got closer.

  “Thank you so much, Kana-chan. Thank you so, so, so much!”

  Sanada bowed down as far as she could. Ignoring her, Kana just got on Akiko’s bike, utterly defeated. She had come so far, done so much, only to be shown up by these assholes. At the same time, Kana knew she would have died if they hadn’t shown up. She wasn’t sure what she wanted to feel. Anger, or just embarrassment. She felt ashamed at not just having required their help, but also that she felt slightly grateful for it.

  After getting the other two on, Ruby Passion started the bikes and took off.

  The wasteland drifted by in a blur. Kana didn’t even know that vehicles specially designed for this terrain existed, but it was to be expected. This normally would have been important intel to her. She would have classified it away to be used later. But she couldn’t care less. She stared at the sky in defeat, and not a single thought crossed her mind. Every rock and bump in the terrain made her body jump up without any restraint.

  “Hold on tight, girl. You’ll fall off like that.”

  Kana looked up at Akiko, who had a smile on her face, and pushed her hands forward. Full of reluctance, she slipped them around her waist and held on tight. Feeling every breath inside the group’s leader, she wondered how easy it would be to grab her right here and pull her back. Both of them would fall and crash. As the images popped in her head, she killed them at the same time.

  She would get injured too, so it wasn’t worthy of consideration. Kana could not let her pristine skin get damaged like that.

  Before she knew it, the thoughts continued, and they reached the gates. Right before they closed, the group drifted and managed to get in through the gap. Everyone else burst out in a cheer, and the Coalition members took sighs of relief. Akiko stood up and put a hand forward to help Kana down. Instead of taking it, she got out herself and started walking away.

  “Kana!” RiRi called out to her, but she ignored that, too.

  “Kana-chan…” Atlas whispered and went unheard.

  “Oi, Kana Minami!” Jina got down from her bike and started to run towards her, but then remembered she had other people to thank first. So, she stopped and turned back to Ruby Passion.

  Everyone else ignored her once she got out of the crowd. Ruby Passion had been the ones who saved the day. The ultimate idol group loved by fans and idols alike. The undisputed queens of the industry who could not be competed with. Kana scoffed and kept walking until she saw Yamazaki waiting in front of her car.

  Meeting his eyes, she looked back down at the floor and quietly got into the back seat. Somehow, out of everyone else, this manager had been the first to understand her. Yamazaki also followed her and got into the driver’s seat to turn the air conditioner on. Once that was done, he just sat there with her. Looking through the rearview mirror to check on her, he did not utter a single word.

  “Drive.” She whispered.

  “We are waiting for Ohara-san.”

  “Ok.”

  She did not say anything else and waited. And waited. And waited. She did not know if minutes had passed or hours. Or if it had only been three seconds since Yamazaki said those words. All of her joy, anger, fear, agony, anxiousness…had been killed. She didn’t want to think anymore. Fuck that.

  Kana just wanted to go home and sleep.