Pink and Purple (Volume 1 End)

“We have a full house!” Exclaimed an excited girl while peeking at the audience.

“Get back here.”

Amy was pulled back to the backstage as she was almost entering the stage just to peek.

"Sorry, sorry... It is so awesome though."

Less than a week had passed since the events at the skyscraper, but that event was long gone from the idol's mind.

In fact, from the moment she received Boss' reward and went for an interview, this moment was all in her mind.

"It seems that interview worked wonders, eh? I almost died back there though..." Lily commented while trying to keep her friend in place.

"It was because I know what has to be done, you see? Letting my exploits die like any other irrelevant piece of news is unacceptable."

"It's scary how this city cares more about a weirdo than about technological breakthroughs and disasters..."

From the day Amy appeared on TV and gave an interview about her job and the disaster, she became THE trend.

Trends were usually short-lived around Miskaria though.

Any common case would die out in a few days and the next trend would take its place.

Sometimes, there were even older trends that came back to life in a weird rotation that never stopped.

For now, though, the pink hero idol was actually getting more popularity.

It went as far as her having Hazel double the capacity of the venue chosen for her concert due to the interest.

All this was still much less than what the girl wanted.

"How I am trending is irrelevant, Lily." She noted with fake displeasure on her face. "We got ten thousand people in the audience today, but this much is a fraction of my views on the internet. Trending is, sadly, different from fame."

"You have a point..." Lily answered while looking at her clock. "I don't think it has anything with what I was saying before though."

"It is because it does not! I just wanted to say that."

"Chaotic as usual..." The ex-detective smiled. "By the way, five minutes to go. Do you have any preparations?"

"I am always ready!"

The short girl with an energetic expression and a frilly pink dress puffed her average chest in answer.

As she did so, her miniature top hat came back to where it should be.

"Sound and lights are ok too." She assured such since Lilianna was going to ask anyway.

"You're way too convenient, you know? We didn't even need a staff or extra equipment to such a big venue..." Lily commented while looking around the empty backstage around them both.

"Boss is the one who prepared everything, so all I had to do was activate them. Dealing with the whole process would be tiresome."

"Which means that you could do it by yourself, right?" The purple-haired woman questioned with a half smile.

"You are not a cop anymore, so no questioning." Amy quipped back. "Actually, are you not a little too calm? The trope would have you panicking by now..."

"I'm not even sure why you brought me here... Or why you changed my clothes for that matter."

"You do not get? It is very simple if you think about it."

"Unless you pretend to make me sing and dance with you or whatever, I have no idea what you're talking about..." Lilianna said while looking at her new clothes.

"So you get it. Very good."

The pink girl and the rebranded ex-detective got locked into a staring contest by this point, one of them smiling and the other just confused.

In fact, she could enjoy her whole new appearance by this point.

The slightly taller woman had her black hair dyed in purple and her whole makeup was different too.

She even seemed younger at this point, and it was without the usual methods people would use.

Other than her face, her clothes were also of a different breed than anything Lilianna had.

She was in a black and white braided dress with a purple-colored coat and waist cape.

They were obviously paired with white thigh highs and gloves, and with purple boots.

"Now I can see any reason to panic..." She said while looking around her clothing. "This much isn't as half as gaudy as you, but how am I supposed to be a performer?!"

It was a very gaudy look when compared to the audience for sure, but when compared to Amy, she was quite tame.

Anything compared to the monstrosity of frills and pink that the main idol used was tame, in reality.

Having them both in the same place was a very interesting contrast though.

The overly enthusiastic girl in pink and her calm and collected purple foil.

An old trope that a single person knew about.

"You forgot the drive I gave you earlier?!"

"That small thing? It's here. You said to carry it around all the time, so..."

"Looks like I was preoccupied for no reason then."

"You were preoccupied?! It's hard to believe when you pretty much kidnapped me... And it doesn't explain how this will work even!"

"All you have to do is link it to your eyes and follow the instructions then. Your part today is relatively simple since it will be your debut, so all you have to do is follow my lead."

"Sigh... You're not letting me leave either way, right?"

"Exactly! You are stuck here right now." Amy answered with a beaming smile that could break the sensors in her friend's eyes.

From being forced back to her vehicle and then inside this stadium, all went a little too fast for the ex-detective turned into pseudo-idol to react.

And the fanatism in Amy's eyes wasn't helping to give her hope of escape.

This much was all an excuse though since, in reality, Lily was very bored ever since she changed jobs and wasn't that against doing something else for fun.

"Fine. I'll play your little idol game, but I won't accept complaints if I mess up."

Too long dealing with Amy created a good deal of resistance on her mind too, so she just accepted the situation.

"Do not worry, you are ready enough."

"Of course not! I don't even have a reason to enter this stage right now!"

"Is having your debut not a good reason?"

"Not even a little."

"How there is no clear reason? I literally trained you for a whole week for this."

"You gave me a drive with dance routines and we went for karaoke yesterday. How the hells is that training?!"

"You learned the routine, did you not?"

"Well, yes. You told me to memorize it since you would need a training partner, so..."

"And you can sing properly too, right?"

"Not sure if it's something worthy of a venue, but I have some top scores."

"It was all the training you needed then. All properly ready to get the heart of your target!"

"I'm not going to... Wait. My target?"

The neutral expression on the reluctant idol broke down to confusion as she heard a weird comment and started to run her options.

"Is this some mission then? You should have told me so befo..."

"This is just a concert. No one would dare to give me a mission during my concert."

And her theorizing was broken by one of the usual logic-breaking answers from the pink girl.

But again, Lily had a good deal of resistance to those and could just keep going.

"So, what is it about then? I don't remember having a target..."

"But you very much do! It would take a lot of arm-twisting and politicking, but it all became much easier later..."

"Go to the point already." Lilianna glared her stalling friend down before she could lose the little focus she had.

"I was going to!" The girl complained weakly. "We have some captured machines already, so I managed to get access to one of them and that is all. Who was inside this machine you shall see soon, but that is not what matters..."

She made a pause while trying to look at the audience again, seemingly in search of something.

"You don't have time for that..." Lily reacted while pointing to her watch.

"Ow, you are right..." The pink girl agreed and started to move toward the stage. "Anyway, your boy is in the audience. Not a hundred percent recovered, but interested in seeing who saved his life. Maybe you should use this little change to enthrall him, yes? Easier than getting another high-class party..."

The idol said at the same time that the lights turned off, the signal to start the show.

"He also has some backstage tickets, you see?" Amy smirked while turning to the darkened stage.

And before Lily could ask anything, Amy set off to her concert, leaving her friend behind as what was expected in the routine.

Just the act of her stepping on the stage was enough to rile the audience to a max, which only went beyond this much when the banging tune started to play around her.

"This girl is surely gifted on this, but she's a little devil too..." The ex-detective commented while the song was picking up around her.

A couple of songs passed and, soon enough, the tune and rhythm started to change to a slower and calmer one.

"Can't say I hate your way of doing things though."

And with the cue to her entrance approaching, Lily marched to her debut as the idol's foil.

She would soon learn that the easy routine of that day was nothing compared to how her new teacher usually went about her show and that 'spy idol' wasn't an easy job at all.

But that is another story altogether.