The revelation of my identity sent a shockwave through the immediate vicinity. Whispers rippled through the crowd- "That's their brother?" "No way!" "He looks so… normal." My name, which had been a comfortable cloak of anonymity, was now a bright, flashing neon sign, and every student in the vicinity was a moth drawn to its disastrous flame.
Just as I was contemplating the fastest way to quantum tunnel myself to another planet, a new voice cut through the air, sharp and dripping with condescending sweetness.
"Well, well. If it isn't Mikuyi, holding a meet-and-greet at a science fair. How quaint."
We all turned. Approaching the booth was another trio of girls, dressed in a style that was edgier and more provocative than Mikuyi's, all black leather and gleaming silver chains. At their lead was a girl with fiery red hair tied in a high ponytail and an arrogant smirk that could curdle milk. I recognized her instantly from the covers of music magazines I'd seen in the convenience store. It was Reika Amasawa, the notoriously ambitious leader of the rival idol group, Starlight Cascade.
Hina's polite smile became glacial. The warmth vanished, replaced by a professional frost. "Reika-san. What a surprise to see you here. I didn't realize you had an interest in quantum physics."
"Oh, I don't," Reika said with a dismissive wave of her hand, her eyes scanning our setup with disdain. "I'm just enjoying the festival. But I have to say, I'm surprised to see you here, so far from the main stage. Don't you have a show to prepare for? Or is this part of your new 'relatable genius' marketing strategy? It's a bold move, pretending to understand science." The venom in her voice was unmistakable. This wasn't just professional rivalry; this was personal.
Reika's eyes, sharp and calculating, then scanned our chaotic group. They swept past Hina's icy composure, Izuwa's bored indifference, and Ayumi's protective glare. Then they landed on me. She took in the scene: me, looking profoundly uncomfortable, being clung to by Ayumi, flanked by Hina and Izuwa, with the pretty and intelligent-looking Nami standing beside me. Her brain, wired for the cynical politics of the entertainment industry, processed this information and came to a swift, logical, and completely wrong conclusion.
This normal-looking guy, surrounded by Japan's top idols and another attractive girl, couldn't just be a brother. That was too simple, too domestic. He had to be someone important. A producer. A genius songwriter working under a pseudonym. The secret weapon behind Mikuyi's meteoric rise.
A predatory gleam entered her eyes. Destroying Mikuyi's concert would be good. Poaching their secret weapon would be even better.
"And who is this?" Reika asked, her voice shifting into a purr as she directed her full charm offensive at me. "You haven't introduced me to your… colleague." She completely ignored Nami, dismissing her as irrelevant.
"He's my brother," Hina stated, her tone cold and final, a clear 'back off' message.
"Oh, just a brother?" Reika said, her disbelief evident. She sauntered closer to the booth, her gaze fixed on me. "You must be very talented to have such a dedicated support system. I'm Reika, by the way. It's a pleasure to meet the man behind the magic."
I just stared at her, unsure how to respond to this bizarre, high-stakes idol drama I'd been unwillingly cast in. I was no one's secret weapon; I was a hostage.
Reika picked up a cup of iced tea from the edge of our table, which a festival volunteer had given us earlier. "This all looks so complicated," she said, gesturing vaguely at my holographic projector. As she turned back towards me, her elbow "accidentally" knocked the cup. The cold, sugary liquid went flying, splashing all over the main laptop and the projector's control unit.
The hologram flickered and died. A collective gasp went through the crowd.
"Oh, my goodness! I am so clumsy!" Reika exclaimed, her hand flying to her mouth in a perfect pantomime of shock. But I saw the flicker of triumph in her eyes. It was a petty but effective act of sabotage. She had created a scene, embarrassed Mikuyi by disrupting their "family event," and caused a technical disaster she assumed a mere "brother" couldn't possibly handle.
Ayumi let out a cry of outrage. "You did that on purpose!"
"Don't be ridiculous, Ayumi-chan. It was an accident," Reika said smoothly, though she made no move to help.
Hina was about to step in, her face a mask of controlled fury, but I acted first. The engineer in me took over. The noise, the drama, the idol politics- it all faded away. This wasn't a social conflict anymore. This was a technical problem, a puzzle to be solved. And I was in my element.
"It's fine," I said, my voice calm and steady. It cut through the rising tension like a laser. I grabbed a cloth from our supply box and began methodically drying the laptop, tilting it to ensure no liquid seeped further into the keyboard. "Nami, can you unplug the projector from the main power strip, please?"
"On it," Nami said, immediately ducking under the table. There was no hesitation. She trusted me completely.
Reika watched, her smug expression faltering slightly. She had expected panic, shouting, chaos. She got quiet, focused efficiency.
"The motherboard on the laptop should be fine, I dried it fast enough," I assessed, my fingers flying across the trackpad, checking the system diagnostics. "But the projector's primary data port is soaked. The surge from the liquid must have shorted it."
"So the display is broken? We can't do the demonstration anymore?" Nami asked, looking worried.
"The hardware port is broken," I corrected her. "But the projector has a secondary wireless casting receiver built in. The university network is too laggy, but if I can create a direct ad-hoc Wi-Fi network from the laptop, I can bypass the physical port entirely and cast the display directly. It will actually have less input lag than the cheap cable they gave us."
Without waiting for a response, I began typing furiously, my fingers a blur as I accessed the command line, reconfigured the network settings, and executed a series of commands to force a new, private connection. The crowd watched in baffled silence. They didn't understand what I was doing, but they understood the absolute confidence with which I was doing it. My sisters, who had seen me fix their own tech problems a thousand times, watched with a familiar sense of awe. This was my superpower.
Reika's jaw was now slightly ajar. Her plan was unraveling in the most unexpected way.
After a tense thirty seconds, I hit the enter key. The holographic projector whirred to life, and our quantum demonstration reappeared in the air above it, brighter and crisper than before.
A spontaneous burst of applause erupted from the students gathered around the booth.
I looked up from the laptop, my gaze meeting Reika's. I hadn't raised my voice. I hadn't panicked. I had simply taken her act of sabotage and, in less than a minute, turned it into an upgrade.
Her plan had backfired spectacularly. She had tried to make me look helpless and, in doing so, had handed me a stage to showcase my skills. Her attempt to undermine Mikuyi had only served to amplify the mystique of their "secret weapon." Her smirk was gone, replaced by a look of stunned disbelief and grudging respect. She had come to play games