Chapter 11

It’s been 3 days since the signing of the contract by Rin to have Shishijima represent her as her manager. 

Rin is seen running in the hallways of her school to get to the tram stop near the school before the next one arrives.  

She briskly runs down the stairs but before gets to the bottom of first flight she hears a familiar voice. 

The voice yells out “Hey Rin”, in a nervous tone. 

Rin stops in her tracks and turns around to see Santana at the top of the steps. Waiving and panting as if he ran for quite some time around the campus. 

“Umm—Hello Santana, you need something?” said Rin in a hurry. 

“Well I haven’t seen you around school lately; I was wondering if we could finish the conversation from a couple of days ago?” Santana hastily. 

“Well I am really in a crunch for time. Umm— can I just have your phone number? That way we can talk whenever without any interruptions.” Rin said with a flustered look. 

She walked up the flight of stairs and reached in her blue knapsack and  pulled out her phone.  

She then says “Hey Coconoko; can you give this guy a scan for me?”

Coconoko jumps into the frame of her phone screen. Responding  with “Sure, hold still buddy!”

The phone emits a light with a greenish-hue to it. It follows the length of Santana’s face and digitizes its features. Narrowing down who it could be in the Worldwide Database for phone users. It brings up a profile with Santana’s social media handles, and number. Rin taps on her phone screen where it says add contact name and instructs Coconoko to put Santana. 

“There you go! I’ll be in touch. Bye now.” as she makes her way towards the tram stop. 

“But—it’s really important—. Damn it; I can never get her attention enough to have this conversation. Maybe it’s not meant to be; but pops—“ Santana looks sulkily. 

Remembering the conversation he had with his father a couple of days ago. 

“Son I know this may seem sudden but I need a huge favor from you.” said Mr Abe. 

Santana looked in amazement as this had been one of the very few times that his father had engaged him any meaningful conversation.

“Uhmm—what is the favor you want to ask?”-said Santana in a whispering tone.

Well! he clicks the button on the table and a clip of Rin performing at the contest last week pops up in the form of a hologram.

“As you can see! This girl right here has a staggering amount of potential. See she was one of only 5 contestant that triggered the optical dazzle feature from the stage.” said Mr. Abe. 

Santana looked in shock as he would’ve never thought that Rin would participate in a contest like that.

“Rin always seemed like she was one to keep a low profile in school. I would’ve never guessed she would’ve entered a contest to have her likeness turned into an EV-Idol.” thought Santana to himself.

“So what is it that you want me to do?” asked Santana.

“Well Son, I want you to persuade her to join our label. She would serve as the voice inspiration for the next EV-Idol project that we have in production.” said Mr. Abe

“Uhmm—I don’t know—if—?” said Santana hesitantly.

“Now Santana. I know we haven’t been the closest of kin; you and me. However, this is something that I would only ask someone I trust with. It should be easy as anyone who’s anyone would jump at this chance to become a voice for an EV-Idol for us. 

Just trust me; you must be popular with the ladies at your school.” said Mr. Abe. 

“Well!”, Santana rubs his head in embarrassment . 

“Yes! So it should be really easy to reel her in. Now go and make your father proud!” said 

Santana watches Rin run off and yells “Don’t forget to call me!”

Rin makes tram just by the skin to her teeth. She sees that she has 32 minutes to get to Shishijima’s apartment complex. So she is timing her arrival and the time it will take to change into different outfit. 

“Well that leaves me with about 10 minutes to get changed. I’m sure he lives near a bunch of stores where I can change really quickly before I get to his place.” thinks Rin quietly to herself.

She walks down the street and sees an older gentleman walking up from the other direction. 

He stops and looks back at Rin walking towards the direction of the convenience store. 

He suddenly turns around and says, “Hey miss! I think you are going in the wrong direction.” 

Rin is startled by the sudden yelling in her direction from the older gentleman. 

“Why do say that? The address that I’m looking for is right here.” said Rin confused. 

“Well—nevermind” said the man. 

He turns around and whispers; “That’s right maybe she’s just visiting.”

Rin turns back around with slight air of panic coming over her. 

“What was that about?” she whispers to herself.

Rin gets to what she notices is the number building on the street where Mr. Shishijima’s is supposed to be. 

Rin notices it looks rather old; with the brick being slightly faded and having an older design. That of; a mid-2020’s modernist aesthetic heavy use of brick and shutters something that has since been lost in the development of the current era’s use of recycled tempered metal for homes. 

She walks in the sliding door and walks over to the receptionist’s desk. There is an older lady of about 50+ dancing with her EV-Specs listening to loud music. 

Rin waits for a second for her to notice her but the receptionist isn’t wary. She then picks up one of the forms from off the table and throws it at her. The lady suddenly stops and takes off her EV-Specs to observe the room. 

She then picks up the paper ball in her hand and says “WHO JUST THREW THAT!?!”; in a very annoyed tone of voice. 

Rin whistling and looking up in the air says “I don’t know but whoever did must’ve thrown it and left.”

“It must be that damn Macy; when I catch her I’m going to give her an earful” says the receptionist with deep resentment. 

However, that all dissipates as she greets Rin with a “Sorry about that sweetie! How can I help you?”

“Uhmm-I’m here to see Mr. Shishijima.” said Rin with an ashamed look.

The receptionist freezes and looks Rin up and down from behind her position at the desk. 

“Wow! The bastard actually got a girl to come back to this hell hole. I mean you’re rather young which is concerning. However, I never knew that Shishijima had any game to begin with.” said the receptionist with a surprised tone of voice. 

“No! it’s not like that all. I’m his client. This is strictly business!” said Rin argumentatively. 

“Oh. So he is one of those. Sweetheart; I think you can do better than this. If you want, I  can pay for one of those AI ride shares. If at any time you feel like your not up for this.” said by the concerned receptionist. 

“No! It’s just for business that’s it!” said Rin frustrated. 

“It’s ok. I understand. However, if you need anything I’ll be down here. Also the pager in all the rooms are close to the door.” said the receptionist with a wink. 

“Thanks?” said Rin with an agitated face. 

Rin makes it to Shishjima’s apartment and gulps thinking that the receptionists’ reaction after heearing she was going to Shishijima’s was rather alarming. 

“What did I get myself into?” sighs Rin. 

As she is about to knock on Shishijima’s door. The door swings wide open with Shishijima’s face bursting through. 

“Oh Sh—“ as Rin falls back; startled by Shishijima appearing so suddenly. 

“Welcome to my humble abode!” gleams Shishijima. 

“What the hells was that for? How did you even know I was about to knock.” says Rin. 

“Well, in the 2040’s when this building was constructed there was that government mandate for Nova Raton to have apartments utilize security cameras outside the doors. You know because of the crime epidemic from that time. It’s since been deemed unnecessary because crime has been reduced dramatically. However, this building hasn’t gone through any renovations since then so they still have them.” Shishijima explains. 

“See?” says Shishijima as pulls Rin up by her hand. 

He shows her the camera in his door while he goes into the hall way and dances ostentatiously. 

“Great!?!” says Rin with some hesitance. 

“So enough of that.” Shishjima’s face goes from happy to serious in a blink of an eye. 

“It’s time to train.” as he jumps on the couch and lands with his legs crossed with him looking at Rin. 

Rin looks ominously for a second then lets out a “WHAT-THE-HELLLLLL!”