Fame With Scales

A picture of Sanae and Risa performing at Kiku's café appeared. The title of the article was the typical bait for people to read it.

The president's affair with his maid: his secret daughters are idols…? Oh shit.

I didn't know anything, yet my stomach dropped to the floor; I knew it was something serious. I opened the article, but the suited man kept talking.

"So, that's why I'm here. I can send you my business card in case you need—"

"Yes, just send it!"

"Splendid! And… sent. I'll be waiting for your call—"

I couldn't wait anymore, so I shut the door on his face. I stood still in my apartment, trying to read the article, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. There was a video as well. A video of a masked person that seemed to have been recorded with glasses. I didn't dare to watch it. I felt so sick that I had to sit on my bed and take a moment to calm down.

I called Sanae. She told me that a bunch of news reporters were standing in front of their building. She, Risa, and Butcher had already read about the president, but not much about the other exposures. She sounded frightened, barely able to articulate words.

It was going to be impossible for them to get out, so I called the other girls—who were still sleeping—and told them to go to the old studio. Except for Astra, who didn't answer the call. However, as I walked out of the apartment building, news reporters surrounded me.

"You're the creator of the idol group, right?"

"Did you know they were the president's daughters?"

"Did you choose them to get more fame?"

"Were you the one that exposed the secret on purpose?"

Many questions were shot at me at once; I could barely understand them. But I didn't say anything; it only would've made it worse. Still, I knew the other girls were going to struggle to get out as well.

Slowly, I made my way through the reporters and headed to Aki's apartment building, being followed by them. The gate was just as crowded. Again, I swam through and stepped inside. Since the reporters didn't have permission to enter, they had to stay outside or they would be fined.

Aki stood in front of the gate inside.

"I always wanted to be famous, but not like this," she said.

"Did you see what happened?"

"I only read the headlines. Who could've done this? And why?"

"I have an idea, but I'll tell everyone when we are together."

"It's going to be impossible to walk anywhere with them following us."

"I know, but we have no choice."

Thoughtful, Aki replied, "Maybe we do."

Confused, I followed her to the elevator. We arrived at the floor where her apartment was and walked through the hallway. I thought we were going to her apartment, but we walked past it. Instead, she rang the bell of another apartment: the one I had accompanied Professor Fuku to many times.

"Aki, are you sure? I don't want to get her into this."

"It's this or we get nowhere. And there's no reason for them to target her."

"They'll find a reason. They always do."

Professor Fuku opened the door. Her hair was quite messy and she wore a set of pajamas.

"Aki? It's five in the morning. Did something happen?"

"Yes. Kaito and I need a ride."

Professor Fuku realized I was standing next to Aki and she hid behind the door.

"A ride? And at this hour? Please tell me what happened."

"Bad stuff, basically," Aki answered. "Can you help us? We'll tell you everything once we are in the car."

Worried, she accepted. She closed the door to get ready, while Aki and I waited outside for a few minutes. Professor Fuku came out and we headed back to the building's gate. She couldn't believe her eyes when she saw the reporters outside. Since they didn't know about her, she simply walked out and everyone ignored her, thinking she was just an occupant.

Aki stayed on a call with Professor Fuku the whole time. She told Aki when she arrived at her car and when she was coming for us. Meanwhile, I called Umi to tell her we were going to pick her up. She sounded angry.

A couple of minutes later, Professor Fuku arrived in front of the building with the car. Aki and I walked out together and struggled to get in. Then we headed for Umi, who lived a few buildings away. She struggled just like us, but she managed to climb in.

I tried to call Astra multiple times, but she wouldn't pick up. Still, we drove to where she lived: a building of apartments in the center of Saitama. We had never gone to that place, but the crowd of reporters made it obvious where the entrance was.

I kept calling Astra until she finally answered.

"Kaito?" she said with a raspy voice.

"Astra! Are you okay?"

"Y-Yes. Why do you sound so worried? Did something happen?"

I let out a sigh of relief. She was just sleeping.

"Listen, get ready and come out of the building. We'll be in the car waiting for you right in front of the gate. Understood?"

"You are scaring me… but okay. I'll be there in five minutes."

"Call us before walking out."

I hung up and we anxiously waited in the car. Meanwhile, Aki and I explained to Umi and Professor Fuku what we knew. Umi got even angrier and Professor Fuku got even more worried.

While waiting, the reporters finally realized we were in the car. They approached us and wouldn't stop asking questions even though the windows were closed. Professor Fuku had no other choice but to drive away.

Finally, Astra called me.

"Kaito? Why is there a crowd outside?"

"I'll explain when you're with us. For now, just step out and ignore them."

"Eh?! But they are going to crush me!"

"Just do it. You won't see the car yet, but we'll be there when you get to the street, okay?"

Trying to gather courage, she replied, "Okay."

Professor Fuku quickly drove around the block and parked in front of the building just in time for Astra to hop in. She was frightened, so Aki hugged her. I kept getting angrier and angrier as the situation unfolded.

We finally arrived at the old studio. There were even more reporters than we had seen combined. They already knew about Professor Fuku's car, so they were waiting for her to park on the street.

"What are you going to do?" Professor Fuku asked, worried.

"We'll go together," I answered. "Thank you, Professor Fuku. Please be careful on your way home."

"Don't worry about me. Aki, call me regularly to give me updates, alright?"

Aki nodded.

Scared, we got out of the car. We were holding each other's arms not to get stuck, but it didn't help at all. We could barely move through and they kept pushing us. About to yell, Butcher suddenly appeared. He pushed everyone out of the way as if they were nothing and made a space for us.

We survived and stepped inside the building. We all heavily breathed from fear and anger.

"Are you okay?" Risa asked.

"Kind of," I answered. "Thanks, Butcher."

"No problem. They have been annoying us for an hour already. I wanted to scare them off, but the girls told me it would've been bad for their reputation."

Good decision.

"Let's go to the kitchen," I said.

We all sat at the table—except for Butcher, who remained standing.

"Have you watched the video?" I asked.

They shook their heads.

"Me neither. Let's start with that."

Using my glasses, I projected the video in front of the table.

The video had been recorded from a giant screen on a building. It wasn't a person, as I had assumed when I saw the preview. It simply was a hologram of a weird mask floating around the frame with a white background.

"Good morning, Saitama citizens," he talked.

His voice sounds as deep as the guy who threatened me, but it's somewhat different. Maybe because it's recorded from a screen far away.

"Some of you might know me from my previous exposures over the years, exposures that ended up all being true. Now I'm making my biggest appearance yet and you might be wondering why. It doesn't matter. The secrets I'm about to reveal are what matters."

In the recording, we could see a lot of people in the busiest crossing of Saitama staring at the screen.

"Without further ado, let's commence." He cleared his throat. "I'll go from the least interesting to the reveal of the year. First, we have two lovebirds. Kaito Miyahara on the left and Aki Akane on the right. Mr. Miyahara is the owner of a new idol agency made for idol groups that travel throughout the galaxy and he's the manager of the only group they have: Blostars. Ms. Akane is one of the five members of the group."

He showed a picture on the screen of me and Aki holding hands as we headed inside the Araki Restaurant. He then showed a few more from our date. Judging by the angles, they seemed to have been taken from security cameras. Still, I couldn't help but get goosebumps from thinking how disturbing it was. Aki and I glance at each other, worried.

"Not very interesting, huh?" the mask continued. "You should know that it isn't a wise thing to do, Mr. Miyahara. Especially in an idol group. But anyway, next one."

Our pictures disappeared and one of Astra emerged, taken from one of the performances.

"Astra Celeste. A very cute name for a very cute girl, isn't it? What if I told you neither is real? I present to you: Miu Khuaie."

Another picture appeared next to the one already on the screen. It was of what looked like a strange creature of sky-blue skin with scales standing next to human school students. The creature wore the same uniform as the other kids in the picture. It had the same height as Astra and the hair looked similar. It resembled Astra a lot.

Is that Astra?

Suddenly, Astra stood up and ran to the bathroom.

I tried to stop her. "Astra—"

Aki grabbed my shoulder. Feeling useless, I remained sitting and kept watching the video.

"That's right, Ms. Celeste comes from another planet, one that was destroyed by a supernova twelve years ago. You may have heard about it before. As of now, she's the only one of her species known to have survived. When she turned sixteen, she underwent surgery to implant a HoloForm in her body to allow her to look like a cute girl all the time and she was permitted to legally register with that appearance. This won't be very appealing for the fans."

That's why even her ID doesn't show anything about it.

"And now, the moment we've all been waiting for," the mask continued. "Two members of Blostars don't have contracts, meaning they are breaking the law."

What? How does he know?!

"This will get them into trouble already. However, I made an even more interesting discovery; the discovery of the year, I would say. These two members are sisters born only two minutes apart and their names are Sanae and Risa… Okazaki."

My breathing stopped.

"The same Okazaki we all know: Japan's president."