“At least there was smoke everywhere.” Jina sighed and put her hand on Kana’s shoulder, “And it’s just the recruiters watching, so your chances might not be completely dead yet. Good luck with that apartment, yeah?”

  She haughtily left her alone and walked up to Nobuko, who was still forcing her way through the burning parts of the crashed helicopter to find survivors. Crouching down, the black-dressed goth girl gave her a path on her head and nodded. Nobuko, confused, held back her tears and immediately pulled Jina into a hug.

  Preposterous. What the fuck was that? Kana burned with jealousy and rage. Not only had she stolen all of their kills, but now she was also acting like all of this had been Kana’s fault. If she hadn’t jumped in out of nowhere to try and steal the show, then they would not have been in this position in the first place. The helicopter would still be up, Kana would not be a murderer, and Nobuko would be in her hands instead.

  “You bitch.” She whispered and hurriedly walked up to the two girls. Pulling Jina up and away from the crying girl, she landed a tight slap on that entitled face, “You did this. Are you insane?”

  “I did this? What do you think you’re saying? Whose gun was it, Minami? Who the fuck was holding the fully loaded railgun as if it was a child’s toy?”

  Kana held her tongue. She did not need to entertain her any longer than necessary. Putting herself in a bad mood right now was not worth it. All she needed to do was pick Nobuko up and take her away. The poor girl did not need to see all of this. She was going to pathetically fail and miss her chance at becoming an idol anyway. Now, she needed to deal with the trauma of seeing this crash, too.

  Pushing past the goth bitch, Kana bent down and put a hand in front of Nobuko’s face, “Nobuko-chan? Come on, we should get out of here and tell someone about what happened.”

  But the girl did not take her hand. Instead, she just wiped her tears and stood up. Taking a few steps backwards, she shook her head, “Why? Why did you do that, Kana? Why would you kill those men in the helicopter?”

  Kana could not believe this. She could not believe that expression or that reaction. Nobuko had been there when it all happened. She had seen what the plan had been and what Jina had done to ruin it. But for some reason, shooting the helicopter down had been Kana’s fault, according to her, too. What had she seen to believe in something like that?

  “What do you mean? It…was a mistake. Jina caused this stupid earthquake and made me lose my aim.”

  “Even before that, Kana! You were putting our lives in danger because you wanted to show off in front of the camera. Then…then when Jina-san took the light away from you, you destroyed the helicopter to make sure she could not get all the credit. Right? You’ve been like that from the beginning. You only care about money and fame!”

  Come on, now. She could not be this dense. This girl did not actually believe that she was in it for love and peace, right? Nobody was in it for love and peace. Nobody cared about making fans, reaching out to people, and spreading love. Fuck that. Jina wanted money too. Nobuko was no different. At least Kana wasn’t being shy about it. She said it straight without any sugarcoating.

  She wasn’t pretending to be some happy-go-lucky copy-paste idol you found on every corner of every street. Sure, she cared about her fans. She already knew she sang better than almost everyone who had ever lived. Even then, she wasn’t using that as her crutch like these other girls. Kana didn’t lie. Well, except when she needed to lie. In that case, she lied shamelessly and as much as was needed.

  Even she never knew when she was lying or not at this point. It wasn’t until she faced the consequences that she realized that something had been a lie. Schr?dinger’s Kana, in that sense.

  Anyway, she wiped her train of thought and focused on Nobuko once more. Jina walked up to the crying girl and pulled her closer, sighing and giving her pats on her head. Even that beret-wearing girl leaned in on her and took her support.

  “How blind can a single person be? I’m so tired of your bullshit reasons and motivations.” Kana spewed the words as they came to her mind, “Trying to act all nice when even you know you want to stand at the top and get rich. Who am I even kidding? You hated me the moment you laid your eyes on me.”

  “No!” Nobuko looked up, “For a second, just for a second, I thought you were really sweet, Kana. But now I know that my original thoughts were correct. You just killed them because the spotlight wasn’t on you anymore. That’s the kind of person you are, right?”

  She was trying to take the spotlight off her. But Nobuko wasn’t going to hear her out anyway.

  “You were an honor student, weren’t you? I can smell it off you.”

  “Oi, what’s that got to do with it? Even I was an honor student. Sounds like you’re the one with an education deficiency.” Jina scoffed and added.

  “Yeah, both of you look like you would be. Lapping up whatever the schools threw at you like a little pet.” Kana was disgusted by people like them. Liars, the lot of them. All liars, just like the fake assholes who were blaring in her ears right now. She quickly shut the speaker off and put it back in her inventory.

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  Nobuko kept on sobbing and sniffing into Jina’s comfort, still shaken by the fact that she had seen those men die. Kana felt bad for her. Of course she did. But that didn’t excuse the fact that she had just blatantly refused to open her eyes and see the truth. That was just how the world worked. If you told the truth and presented yourself as your true, honest version, then the world hated you.

  Be quiet, be subservient, and be all cute like they wanted, and everyone would love you. Just like both of these girls. One, merely a victim. The other, someone who was clearly taking advantage of those limitations. Unfortunately for Kana, she did not have it in her to bend over backwards for the system just because it would give her a boost. Even if it took ages for her to win, she’d do it on her terms.

  “Kill yourselves.”

  Kana spat on the ground and decided to walk away from the scene. She didn’t need to see their faces any longer. They deserved the worst. The worst of the worst fates. And she didn’t want any part of this. She was going to get to the top, all by herself. That’s what everyone had proved to her. That she wasn’t going to do anything if she wasn’t all by herself.

  "What did you just say, Kana Minami?”

  She looked back at Jina, but then continued walking. No need to reply.

  She continued walking until she heard the distinct sound of a weapon being manifested from the inventory behind her. The swoosh of air being cut by a sharpened blade followed, and Kana knew what was going on.

  “As an idol who protects the hopes and dreams of the masses!” Jina started spouting some bullshit as Kana turned to see her, “I will take revenge, Kana Minami! You are a domestic terrorist who destroyed public property, and you need to be punished for that. Are you prepared to face the consequences?”

  “Fake bitch, fake accent, fake dialogue.” Kana didn’t even need to hesitate. She took one look at the screen, tapped it, and pulled out her grenade launcher.

  Armed, she aimed it at Jina. Both of them stood there for some time to let their nerves settle. Kana didn’t want to kill anyone. It hadn’t been her wish or style. But if she was being completely honest with herself, she would kill if the need arose. At the end of the day, people like Jina didn’t deserve life either way. Kana had just tolerated people like her until now.

  People who lied and lied and lied all day long. People who were afraid to show their true selves. People who did not celebrate the gift of life and its wonder. If they were going to be stuffy idiots who only saw negativity all around them, then it was Kana’s duty to help them truly see the world in negative.

  “W-what are you doing? Please don’t! Please stop! There is no need to do any of this.” As expected, Nobuko tried her best.

  “Why? Suddenly, you don’t hate me enough to let me die, huh?” Kana looked at her.

  The green dress girl, however, only focused on Jina, “Jina-san, we can just turn her in. The authorities will be here soon to check what happened, and we can tell them the truth. Then, they will take her away. You don’t need to do something so disgusting and kill a person. You’re not like her, are you?”

  “Nobuko-san?” Jina smiled, “You are a very kind girl. This world needs more people like you. But I am not like you. I punish people who deserve to be punished. If we let people like Kana Minami live, then the world will become a horrible place. Then, you will not be able to live a happy life. For kind people like you, Nobuko-san, I will rid the world of pests like her.”

  “N-no! Don’t do it. Please!”

  “Ahh, I’m tired. I’ve got songs to sing and demons to murder. If you’re not gonna start, then I will. But remember. You’re the one who started all this.” Kana hit her limit and prepped the launcher to shoot.

  Nobuko shouted and shook her head. In an instant, she took her revolver out too and aimed it at Kana. One vs. two? Not a problem at all. She had only recently figured out that her weapon could kill thirteen monsters at once. Two was nothing for a single shot. It would allow her to complete her wish of blasting Jina into a million pieces quite well.

  She aimed her shot and took a deep breath. Death to all lying, pessimistic bitches, she thought. The trigger pressed. Not just hers, but also Nobuko’s. At the same time, Jina ran forward with her sword ready to slash through.

  Kana aimed her grenade launcher again to hit the goth girl, but Nobuko wasn’t a particularly bad shot. Her bullet hit the edge of the launcher and chipped the metal. At the same time, it repositioned it to shoot away from its original location. Somehow, unbeknownst to them, a helicopter had also made its way uncomfortably close to their position. Now that the sounds of it were way more audible, though, Jina lost her balance and confidence, too.

  The grenade landed elsewhere, and a cloud of dust and rock flew into the sky to obscure the camera’s view. Nobuko crouched on the ground and covered her ears out of fear. A frustrated Jina withdrew her sword and pushed Kana to the ground because of her momentum. Both of them thudded to the ground, with the goth girl’s hands on either side of her.

  “I’m gonna kill you so bad.” Kana whispered.

  As the dust cleared, though, she put on a happy expression and gave Jina a tight hug, “I’m so happy! Thank you, Jina-chan! I would be dead if not for you.

  “Y-yeah! It’s alright, Kana-chan!”

  “Jina-san?” Nobuko stood up and looked at her, “What are you doing?”

  Jina looked at her in a hurry and mouthed something with a slightly sour face. By the time she turned back to the camera and helped Kana stand back up, Nobuko had gone back to a relaxed smile, too. For some reason, she had suddenly given up on making Kana pay for her actions. Why? What had Jina told her?

  But there was no time to explain anything. Kana quickly turned and brought some tears to her eyes. Ahh, all that time practicing acting in her closet had been worth it. As her face turned sad, she ran to the camera crew as they landed on the ground and started blabbering out gibberish as if she was panicked.

  Behind her, Jina and Nobuko stood as they were – completely in character. As if just the competition itself was not bad, Kana would not have to figure out what was up with them, too…