On the Roppongi rooftop pool, the burning sun was uncomfortable. To Reina, it felt like a heavy, hot iron pressing against the back of her neck.
It was 35 degrees celsius with thick humidity and the air was so thick it was hard to breathe. The sky was too bright and filled with the invisible data of millions of phones. Because of her fathers teaching to Reina, the world no longer felt real to her. She felt like she was trapped in a simulation. The world looked like a high-quality computer render that was beginning to break.
The blue pool water looked too perfect and the concrete felt too clean and fake.
Click.
Whir.
Flash.
"Good job, Reina-chan! Arch your back more. Look innocent! Innocent but a seductress!"
Takeda, the photographer, hovered over her like a vulture. His camera lens watched her like a cold, black eye. It recorded every part in her body. To the world, this would be "Summer Bliss." But to Reina, it was torture.
She knelt on the poolside tiles. The chlorine burned her nostrils. She was wearing the "Summer Splash" brand bikini. But to her that was literally a piece of blue fabric that barely covered her skin that felt like a mark of shame. Her body was coated in thick baby oil to make her shine for the cameras.
She felt disgusted inside. The baby oil and sweat made her skin feel slimy.
Not only was she disgusted, she felt sick. She felt a sudden pain in her stomach, a reminder of the diuretic pill, the chalky white pill she had taken to make her belly look flat. She had to tighten her muscles and make herself as thin as possible until it was hard to breathe yet she still had to look "innocent" and friendly.
But this was the "Perfection" the cameras and the fans wanted. And now she is paying the price for that "Perfection". Every time she took a breath, she felt the skin on her ribs pull tight against the fabric. For the sake of this shoot, she was enduring both hunger and thirst. And she felt like she might break at any second.
Click.
Flash.
"Chin down! Eyes up, Reina-chan!" Takeda shouted. "Look at me like you love me! Like I'm your first boyfriend!"
Reina forced her lips to move. She didn't really smile. She performed a 'natural' smile. It was a calculated smile, designed perfectly to please the company's LUMINA! engagement algorithm and frequently trend on the KIZUNA trending pages.
Inside her head, the noise of the city grew louder , reminding her of the power lines in Osaka. Her father used to stare at them before he died from their balcony in Osaka. He hadn't died a hero. He had died in a hospital bed from liver failure after years of hiding and drinking. He spent his entire life running from secrets, becoming a ghost even before he stopped breathing.
Reina had joined the industry to be his opposite. She wanted to escape from the darkness.She wanted to be so bright and famous that she could never be forced into the darkness again. But kneeling on those hot tiles, she realized the truth. To stay in the light, she too had become a ghost, a perfect picture with nothing inside.
"Cut! Five minute break!" Takeda shouted, wiping his forehead with a dirty towel.
Reina dropped her act. Her "Perfect Idol" posture vanished instantly. She didn't move to the cool shade. She stayed on the burning hot tiles, letting the stinging pain keep her stay awake.
In a nearby large white umbrella, Sayuri was sitting on a recliner with an iced coffee. Reina was tempted and looked at the water drops on her hand. To her, they were like sparkling diamonds.
But she didn't ask Sayuri to give her a drink nor did she offer Reina any drink. As water would make her stomach look bloated and fans wouldn't like that.
Reina watched her through her damp messy hair. Sayuri was holding the sleek matte-black tablet given by the agency which was a crucial device for every manager working under the agency. That black screen held everything: from secret encrypted schedules to the data stored in KIZUNA for the AI models that are meant to replace her. It was an all powerful black slab that had the ability to delete her existence and replace her with a digital ghost.
Reina's legs shook as she stood up. The pills made her dizzy and a grey fog blurred her vision. She quickly walked towards the umbrella, dragging her feet, making herself as small and fragile as possible.
"Sayuri-san," Reina whispered in a thin, weak voice. She suddenly dropped to her knees beside her chair, grabbing the edge of Sayuri's expensive skirt.
Sayuri snapped, looking at her with pure disgust, "You idiot. I brought this skirt yesterday and today you are ruining my dress with that disgusting oil, Reina. Watch yourself."
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm just... I'm just so dizzy," Reina said, letting real tears of frustration fill her eyes. She looked like a girl having a mental breakdown, "Takeda-san… Takeda-san keeps yelling… yelling and shouting… shouting at… me. I don't know… what to do. Can you show me the reference photos? Please? I want to do it right. I don't want to hear any more yelling and shouting."
She widened her eyes, acting like she was completely helpless. She was making herself look stupid and perfectly playing the role of a 'broken doll' for a woman who viewed her as nothing more than a temporary file.
Sayuri sighed with irritation. She wanted the shoot to end. So she grabbed the tablet. She wasn't even trying to hide it anymore.
Reina was careful. She didn't look at the screen directly. She knew the tablet had an eye-tracking sensor. Instead she looked at the reflection in Sayuri's dark oversized sunglasses.
The dark lenses were like perfect mirrors, showing a tiny reflection of the tablet's screen.
Sayuri's finger tapped and moved over the glass.
Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.
Reina's eyes didn't blink. She stared at the reflection of the finger as it moved across the screen. She memorized the path.
First 1 then 5 and then 9 a diagonal line from the top-left to the bottom-right.
Then 9 and then 5 a straight vertical jump from the bottom-right back to the top-right.
And then 3 then 5 and then 7 a second diagonal line from the top-right to the bottom-left.
The finger traced two crossing strokes that formed a "Z" or a sharp "X" pattern. She wasn't sure. So she considered both possibilities as both of them gave the same result.
A simple "Z-path" pattern.
1 → 5 → 9 → 3 → 5 → 7.
To Sayuri, Reina was just a broken doll. She never imagined the girl was stealing her password.
For a moment, she felt a sharp rush of victory but then she made the mistake. In that split second, she let her guard drop. She stopped crying and her eyes turned cold. She wasn't the "clumsy idol" she used to be, she became the girl who had spent her childhood watching a man hide secrets. And she looked like a predator. Not a victim.
Click.
Reina froze and returned back to reality. He looked towards the sound.
Takeda was right there, his camera pointed at her face. He had caught her. He had caught her in his attempt to take a "candid" photo..
"Wow, Reina-chan," Takeda chuckled. "That look... that wasn't 'innocent' at all. Just now you looked less like a 'Huntress' more a 'Predator'. And from the angle of the photo that I have taken right now it looked like you were about to bite Sayuri-san's throat out. If this photo is released then that's a 10-point engagement spike right there. The 'Wicked Woman' fans will savor this for a long time."
Sayuri turned instantly towards Takeda. Her eyes were full of suspicion. She hugged the tablet to her chest and looked at Reina, then at Takeda.
"Takeda. Let me see that photo," Sayuri commanded.
Reina panicked. If Sayuri looked at that photo and saw what Reina was really doing, it would be over.
She had to do something. Something idiotic but drastic to divert the attention. Now all she had to do is now to make a silly wrong move to hide her "Predatory" look from being exposed.
Reina moved forward, her hand "shaking" with exhaustion and extreme heat "accidentally" knocked Sayuri's iced coffee off the table.
The cool sticky liquid splashed across Sayuri's lap and soaked her skirt and the tablet.
"Shit! Oh no! Sorry! I'm so sorry! Sayuri-san, I'm so clumsy! Please don't scold me" Reina screamed. Her voice was full of fake and frantic panic.
"You idiot!" Sayuri yelled. She became extremely furious. She shoved her hard, sending her crashing onto the boiling hot tiles. "You stupid, useless piece of crap! Look what you've done! This skirt is made out of cashmere wool! It will lose its shape."
Sayuri was too busy wiping the coffee off her clothes to look at the camera.
The distraction worked. All she had to endure was her palms hit the hot tiles and the heat almost burned her skin. The pain was real but she stayed quiet.
"Get out of my sight," Sayuri hissed, the "Professional Manager" act finally broke. "Takeda, delete that photo. We don't do 'Wicked' here. We do 'Perfect.' And she is far from it. Go to the dressing room, Reina. Now."
Reina got up. Her palms were red and stinging from pain. She bowed low, her hair hiding her face. She didn't say a word.
She walked away quietly. But deep down she knew the cameras recorded her every "clumsy" move as proof and added them to the "Evidence for Replacement" folder.
She reached the dressing room and locked the door and let the silence wash over her.
She leaned against the sink and looked at herself. She looked half-dead, oily, pale and shivering. Her palms were burned from the burning hot tiles. She felt like a prisoner locked in the high-tech world of Roppongi and had barely avoided triggering an alarm.
But she now had the code.
She pulled her burner phone from her gym bag, hidden inside a makeup kit. Her hands were still shaking.
> GHOST_BIRD: I have the code: 1-5-9-3-5-7. But the window is closing. Takeda saw something. Sayuri is furious. They're going to move faster now. I need the backdoor access tonight before they delete me.
She slumped on the cold floor of the dressing room. She wasn't a "supernova" yet. She was just a girl in a blue bikini, following the same darkness that had killed her father.
The intercom buzzed with a sharp and loud sound.
"Reina. Sixty seconds to air. Fix yourself and put on a smile. Now."
She stood up and killed her emotions.
She wiped her eyes, cleaned her face and fixed her bikini.
The girl who remembered her father's death vanished.
Only the Idol version remained.
> [SYSTEM LOG: LUMINA!_DORM_SURVEILLANCE_05]
> Asset: Reina Shiratori.
> Status: Motor function impairment detected (Clumsiness/Spatial Awareness Failure).
> Biometrics: Cortisol levels at 180% of baseline. Stress response: High.
> Manager Note (Sayuri): Asset is becoming a liability. Personality glitches are manifesting as physical incompetence.
> Recommendation: Expedite the 'Final Performance' (Digital Transition) by 48 hours. Notify Chairman Kaneshiro.
> [ALERT: UNAUTHORIZED DATA PACKET SENT VIA EXTERNAL IP... KIZUNA FIREWALL BYPASSED. TRACE FAILED.]