Chapter 3

Chapter 3

As Rin runs out of the audition people look in shock through their EV-Specs. The judges look on in subtle annoyance as this girl who had started on such a good note, faltered by the end of her performance. The man in the bunny ears pouts disgruntled at the sight of Rin’s abrupt ending.

“Tsk; such a shame I thought we were in for something special. Being as though she was one of 3 to activate the stages’ Ocular Dazzle function.” He places his hand on his chin bewildered.

The judge on the far-right picks up her glass of water looking unabashedly bored as she has been filming for around a couple of hours and is ready to wrap the auditions up so she can go grab a giant Torta de Chocolate from her favorite bakery. She nods and relents “If the contestant is not coming back on stage; can we get the next?”

The judge in the middle of the two with the golden EV-Spec sits in silence with an ominous look on his face. He gestures to the camera crew to bring out the next contestant.

A beautiful girl with freckles saunters over to the lit-up stage mark and says “Howdy!”

Rin and Mari are seen on the bus heading northbound towards their eminent bus stop departure. The tired Rin is seen golem and distant as if a lot is going on in her mind. Mari has her head down and is in the process of nodding off. Rin is thinking about all that just happened just an hour ago at the Dol’ Fest.

“You got something special kid!” gestures Shishijima as he pulls out a Hookah pen with a clown face on it. “I wouldn’t have ridden the tram all the way here in search of you if you didn’t.”

Smoking on his Hookah pen he looks gleefully over to Rin; who is utterly lost for words. Searching for a response “Well! What do you say?” Reaching out his hand in acceptance.

Rin looks up from the motion script business card and humors him with a “Well! What will I be doing? You do know I am a minor right?”. “Hey! Look here I’m not some weird loli-con joystick NPC character!” Rin snarls.

Following up with “No, I will not join your strip club! “

Shishijima starts to cough, blowing Hookah smoke everywhere. “What are you even talking about? I was talking about managing you as an artist.”

Rin is caught off guard by Shishjima’s response as the days of human idols and recording artists have long since passed. You would be better off becoming a rocket engineer or working as a live-in nanny than becoming an idol.

“Were you not just auditioning for a chance to become a muse for an EV-Idol?” as he spins around in the opposite direction. “It’s ok. You just had an exhilarating audition and now you are being scouted.” He looks back at Rin with a glare “Call me when you’re ready.” He turns his head forward with a gleaming smile thinking “I’m sure she will be giving me a call soon; girls like the mysterious types.”

Rin looks out the window of the tram; Mari has laid her head in her lap snoring away.

“I can’t believe that creep.” Pouting a face as though she’s been sucking on a lemon. “Like I would ever be interested in becoming an idol.”

She looks down at poor innocent Mari cuddling into her lap like a lost puppy. Rin pets her hair in awe and moves a strand of hair from her mouth.

Rin gets into the front of her door leading into her house; breathing in a deep sigh of relief. She unlocks the door awaiting a peaceful scene of a dark and empty house.

When the door opens her mother is running out of her house telling Rin to get a pot of water. The second she enters her living room she notices a bunch of flames and a smell of burning wood. Upon reaching the kitchen Rin sees the stove engulfed in flames. Rin thinks quickly and brings a pitcher of cold tea from the refrigerator.

“Pitcher adjusts to spritzer mode!” Rin shouts. The pitcher opens a hatch and spots a spritzer nozzle.” Take this and take that!”, said Rin feverishly. After a minute of spraying the tea and no progress. She then reaches for the nozzle for the spraying attachment on the sink. Before she could release it and turn it on her mother comes barging in with a water hose blasting her and the stove with a high-powered stream of water.

“Mom— gurgle—I think the fires out!” sulked Rin; getting blown away by the water hose. “Just a minute; sweetie.” I have to make sure this fire is completely out; don’t want the pan to get any bright ideas.” Her mother flipped the switch to turn off the hose after a minute of blasting her daughter. “Well, now that that’s done. How was your concert sweetie? Did you and Mari have fun?” Rin drenched with water and almost drowning awkwardly responds with, “It was fine.”

“Aww. That’s great!” smiling effervescently. “Get down here Rinko!” She yelled. A young girl with strawberry blonde hair down to her cheeks slowly creeks down the stairs. Wiping her eyes like she’s been awakened out of a deep sleep. “What is it, mommy?” She asked with a look of cherubic innocence.” Did you try to cook s’mores on the stove again?” She asked agitatedly. “No Mommy I was sleeping the whole time. Maybe it was Rin; you know she gets cravings for sugar and everything else late at night.”

“Well, it couldn’t have been Rin because she was out at the Dol’ Fest. Remember?” she stated inquisitively.

“Uhmmmmm, yeah.” The room became silent and for a minute you could hear a pin drop. No longer than a minute later Rinko dashes out the door and Rin’s mother follows right after her.

Amid the commotion downstairs and in the front yard; Rin slinks up the stairs to her room to change her clothes. As she’s about to remove her shirt the business card falls out. She looks from across the room at the card slowly fading out as the water has damaged the motion script technology. She walks across the room to retrieve the card; and picks it up. Slowly glancing at the cards dimming lights. She takes the card to her old-school tablet device. She then places it on the desk neatly; she then picks up her tablet and scans the Uni-code contents producing a contact profile. She then goes into the profile on her tablet and changes the name from Hunter Shishijima to Creepy Businessman.