#51: Masquerade / ep.3
The corners of Kotone’s mouth curled into a mischievous grin, like a child who had just found a new toy. There was nothing of the actress in her expression as she looked back and forth between Rinko and Shandy.
“W-who… are you?”
“Quite the opposite of Shandy-sis, aren’t you? So today’s character setting is a timid woman who can’t speak properly?”
Riddle Smith, or rather Shandy, timidly hid behind Seta Maria, Rinko. Even though she had already figured out about ninety per cent of their little charade, Shandy had no intention of dropping the act.
Which meant Rinko had no choice but to continue with hers.
“Y-you must have the wrong people… My name is Seta Maria, and this is Riddle Smith, a genius with an IQ of 160, the genius founder of a venture company, who’s shy around people and has a stutter…”
“Oh really?”
There was no way an amateur like Rinko could act between two professional actresses. She had even said “genius” twice.
She looked exactly like a suspicious person.
Kotone grinned eerily.
“Are you two lovers?”
“Y-yes! What’s it to you!?”
“Then could you kiss in front of me? Nice and affectionate.”
“W-what!? Of course we can’t do that!”
“Ah, right. Then maybe I’ll tell the Hibiya people. Tell them there are some suspicious people mixed in among the guests.”
Kotone was testing them.
Or rather, she already knew the truth and was simply enjoying herself.
There was no way Rinko would kiss Shandy.
She would rather leap from the roof of Maverick than kiss her.
But if she refused and Kotone exposed their identities, the entire plan would fall apart.
Rinko turned her attention towards Riddle Smith, hiding behind her.
This is too much! Do something!
“This is what you call a game, you two. If you can kiss, I’ll let you go. If you can’t… well, what should I do? What do you think I’ll do, Ms Riddle Smith?”
“Haah…”
A sigh of utter despair came from behind Rinko.
Riddle Smith’s hunched back straightened, and Shandy’s real manner of speaking returned.
“…I give up. If I kissed a woman like Rinko-san, it would sully my beautiful soul.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean!? I’m the one who doesn’t want to!”
“I hate it ten times more than you do!”
“Why are you competing over it!?”
“Ahahaha…! That was the greatest farce I’ve ever seen! Absolutely hilarious…”
Kotone snickered, barely managing to contain her laughter.
Rinko could only confront her. There was no way she could allow their secret to be exposed.
“Please, keep this between us! And don’t tell Hibiya! Or Mikoto-san!”
“Hmm, should I?”
“Don’t take advantage of me! I’ll quit being your fan, you know!?”
“You couldn’t quit even if you tried. You were staring at me in this dress, weren’t you?”
“It’s not my fault you looked beautiful!”
What am I even saying?
Rinko was completely flustered.
She wanted to complain to Kotone, who was clearly enjoying every second of her embarrassment, but her tongue kept getting tangled and she couldn’t get the words out properly.
After enjoying Rinko’s humiliation to her heart’s content, Kotone finally laughed and apologised profusely.
“Sorry, sorry. I’m on sis’s side too. Yanase-san asked me to come, you know. So don’t worry, I’ll keep your little secret.”
“Then you could have said that from the beginning…”
“But you two were doing such hilarious cosplay. It would’ve been cruel not to tease you.”
“Did you get to see Sanae-san?”
“Mm. I saw sis too. The women from Hibiya’s Secretarial Division, and Kuzé-san for the first time in four years. Oh, and some random old guy.”
Rinko’s suspicion had been correct.
Kotone and Kuzé Fumika had appeared together in the stage play Rinko had attended four years ago. Kotone had continued acting and risen to stardom, while Fumika had left the stage and become a hotel employee.
But there was another person who concerned Rinko.
Before she could ask, Shandy spoke.
“Do you know that man’s name?”
“Hmm, what was it… Something like Musako… Not Musashi-Koganei, though. Musashi…”
“Kosugi?”
“Yeah, Kosugi! Sis and Yanase-san looked pretty serious when they were talking about him. Who is he? Someone from the Secretarial Division?”
At the mention of a man she knew nothing about, Rinko glanced at Shandy.
Her complexion was deliberately made pale and unhealthy, so there was no way to read her expression.
But her eyes had widened ever so slightly.
That alone was enough to suggest he was bad news.
“…We may need to revise our plan. We have another enemy now.”
“Yeah… How many enemies have you made, Mikoto-san…?”
Rinko tried to organise the situation in her head.
First, there were the four women in the Secretarial Division.
The villains trying to bring down Mikoto and her ally at Hibiya, Yanase Sanae.
Then there was Akazawa Kuruha.
If what Shandy had told her was true, she was an enemy of the Kurosu sisters, having tried to bring down not only Mikoto but Kotone as well.
And she was also Rinko’s sworn enemy.
And finally, the mysterious man, Kosugi.
“So what are you going to do, Shan-sis? Storm in there and beat the crap out of everyone?”
“I’m a delicate young lady. Violence isn’t really my style.”
“So you’re leaving it to sis? No way. She’s useless.”
“Quite. That’s why I’m thinking of a strategy.”
The conversation between Shandy and Kotone seemed strangely distant to Rinko.
She felt excluded.
The woman she was supposed to be protecting, Mikoto, was no longer within Rinko’s arms.
The woman she had watched over for two years at Meiji Stationery, the person she loved most, had slipped free of her grasp and was preparing to fly away into another world.
It was terribly lonely.
It hurt.
“…Maybe I’m not needed anymore.”
The words slipped from Rinko’s lips.
The heated discussion between Shandy and Kotone stopped dead.
The first to speak was—
“…Shan-sis. Can I borrow Rinko-chan? There’s something I want her to help me with.”
“Huh? Wait!?”
Kotone grabbed Rinko’s right hand and intertwined their fingers.
A lovers’ handhold.
“Fufu. You needn’t return her.”
“What!? What’s that supposed to mean!?”
“However, Rinko-san still has something to do for me. Please let her go once you’re finished.”
“Sure thing.”
“You’re treating me like a piece of luggage!”
Rinko, holding hands with her idol, was on the verge of losing all capacity for rational thought.
She desperately tried to pull her hand free, but Kotone’s grip was firm.
Rinko glanced at Kotone.
There wasn’t a trace of a smile on her face.
This wasn’t some nasty joke.
It was the same beautiful actress’s expression she had worn when Rinko had once shared a night with her as Rin-chan.
“Rinko-san, go see Fumika-chan later. And ask her to teach you as many steps as possible besides the Natural Spin Turn, Reverse Turn, Whisk and Chassé from PP. Tell her I sent you. She should agree.”
“What is that, some kind of magic spell!?”
“Kotone-san, did you memorise what I just said?”
“Please. Don’t underestimate an actress. Come on, Rinko-chan.”
“W-wait! What? What is this!?”
“It’ll be fine. Just the tip.”
“That absolutely does not sound fine! Ow, ow, ow!”
With her idol pulling her along with considerable force, Rinko couldn’t bring herself to resist too strongly.
Kotone dragged her into the guest room being used as her dressing room.
Once the corridor was empty, Shandy switched on her phone.
She glanced at the name of the woman who had left a mountain of notifications, then switched it off again.
“…I’m sorry, Mikoto-san. I’m not nearly a good enough woman to trust that easily. It’s troublesome, isn’t it?”
She gave a small smile.
Then she hunched her back again and returned to being Riddle Smith.
The expression of the supposedly timid, shy woman was gone.
Instead, she looked like a fearless girl, smiling mischievously as though she were about to propose another game to someone.
＊
“What did you want me for…?”
“Sorry, sorry. I’ll get ready now, so give me a minute.”
Maverick’s guest room, being used as Kotone’s dressing room.
A neat-looking man with somewhat feminine movements, presumably her personal make-up artist, was finishing Kotone’s hair and make-up.
He moved closer, then farther away, repeatedly scrutinising Kotone’s appearance with an utterly serious expression.
“Hmm… I could add a little more glitter, but I don’t know how strong the lighting is going to be in the venue. Sorry, that’s my lack of research.”
“It’s fine. I made you come all this way on short notice, after all.”
Kotone clearly trusted his skills. She left every decision to him.
And he had good reason to be trusted.
Rinko had entered the dressing room complaining, but she had been captivated by the transformation before her. It might sound strange to say that make-up alone could make such a difference, but professional make-up could bring out someone’s beauty several times over.
“All right, stand up for me?”
“Mm.”
Kotone sprang up from her chair and turned towards Rinko.
The make-up artist circled her like an artificial satellite, examining her from every angle. After a final check that included her dress, he nodded firmly.
“Perfect! All done! Ah, that was fun. You really do have a gorgeous face!”
“I’d appreciate it if you praised something besides my face, too.”
Kotone laughed in her usual casual manner.
But the woman standing there was the actress Rinko idolised, Kurosu Kotone.
Her face, which had previously received only the bare minimum of make-up, now harmonised perfectly with her red-and-black two-tone dress, transformed into something dazzling.
“Sorry to keep you waiting, Rinko-chan. I forgot to introduce him. This is my personal make-up artist, KOZO. The only man in the Kurosu Kotone team.”
“Honestly! Not man, darling. Red. Don’t lump me together with you rough, romantically deprived girls.”
“So there you go. No need to worry.”
“I think… I understand the situation…”
Rinko tried not to stare too curiously, but she couldn’t take her eyes off KOZO.
It was almost as though he were the male equivalent of Rinko herself, whose particular aversion to men had been flipped around and assigned to the opposite sex.
“Ah! Kotone, you’re doing that ritual, aren’t you? Then I’ll be off. I’ve got another woman’s face to finish in Shiodome.”
“Thanks.”
KOZO left in a hurry.
The lingering scent of what appeared to be the incense he had been using, frankincense, filled the room.
“So. What do you think of Kurosu Kotone?”
“Ah, well… I…”
Rinko had completely forgotten KOZO, who had departed after enhancing Kotone’s beauty, and found herself staring at Kotone instead.
She was dazzling.
This was a rare version of Kotone that would never appear on social media, and one rarely seen even on television or at the theatre.
“…Can I take a photo?”
“That’s the first thing you say? You really are an interesting one, Rinko-chan.”
“Can I!?”
“Fine, fine. Just make me look good.”
Kotone’s expression vanished.
She gazed into the distance with a melancholy expression, standing with such fragile transparency that she seemed as though she might disappear.
The sight of her in front of the camera was so beautiful that Rinko took photo after photo.
The sound of continuous shooting and the flashes surrounded Kotone.
“Ahahaha. You’re really going for it, aren’t you?”
“Don’t laugh! Keep the expression you had before! Look into the distance!”
“What are you, a photographer? A professional Kotone otaku really is something else.”
Kotone smiled wryly and arranged her expression as instructed.
The moment her bearing became dignified, Rinko began taking photographs again.
Her camera roll filled with pictures of Kotone.
Rinko was completely absorbed.
She raced around with her phone in hand, determined to capture every last trace of Kotone’s beauty.
She only came back to reality when her phone displayed an alert saying that she was out of storage.
Rinko checked her camera roll.
Her cheeks relaxed into a huge smile.
“Thank you! I’m making these my family treasures! Bye!”
“Hold it, camera brat. You haven’t finished what you came here for.”
Rinko tried to leave, but she couldn’t.
Kotone grabbed her shoulder and stepped in front of her.
Seeing Kotone’s face from such a close distance was so beautiful that Rinko lost her words.
“W-what…”
“Honestly, this is hard for me to ask… but would you do me a favour?”
Kotone, unusually, lowered her gaze and stumbled over her words.
For an instant, Rinko was reminded of the women in love she had seen Kotone portray in dramas.
“If you’re going to say you like me, I’m going to reject you.”
“If I were going to confess, I’d pick a better situation than this. That’s not it.”
Kotone took Rinko’s hands.
She pressed their palms together as though praying, holding their joined hands before their chests.
It was almost like two statues of the Virgin Mary, facing one another in prayer.
Was this the “ritual” she had mentioned earlier?
“…You know, I get tired of being Kurosu Kotone.”
“Huh…?”
Rinko swallowed her words at the unexpected confession.
“I mean, it’s not that I want to quit acting. I think it’s my calling, and I’m genuinely happy that there are people who enjoy watching me. But you know the gap between the real me and Kurosu Kotone, right, Rinko-chan?”
“Yeah… I do…”
“That’s why it’s hard. Keeping the real me from coming out. I have to sink myself to the bottom of my heart and become the Kotone everyone wants. I want you to help me with the ritual I use to do that.”
“What… do you mean?”
“It’s like an athlete’s routine. My manager normally does it with me, but she isn’t here today. Though, originally, sis was the one who used to do this routine with me.”
She laughed shyly.
Her hands, still clasped with Rinko’s in that prayer-like position, were trembling.
She was nervous.
Afraid.
Rinko had never seen Kotone like this.
On camera, on stage, and on social media, she always radiated an almost divine beauty.
But once she stepped outside those spaces, she was just another living human being, like Rinko.
She could be afraid.
She could be frightened.
“Sorry for being weak. Have I disappointed you again?”
Rinko hesitated.
This was, in fact, the side of Kotone she had least wanted to see.
Rinko had practically deified her, treating her as something close to a goddess, and now she had learned that Kotone was a human being just like herself.
But at the same time, the more Rinko thought about the truth behind Kotone, about how she stood on the public stage despite being frightened and afraid, the more her perception changed.
Perhaps she had been like this when filming her debut V-cinema.
Perhaps she had been like this when appearing in a supporting role in Kuzé Fumika’s starring stage production.
Perhaps she had been like this while performing spectacular action scenes in that late-night drama.
The Kurosu Kotone Rinko had known until now was being overwritten.
A strong, beautiful actress who gave dreams to fans across Japan.
And now Rinko had glimpsed another side of her, one who carried her own troubles and fought desperately to overcome them.
At last, Rinko managed to speak.
“…Then there’s no choice but to protect you.”
“Then I hereby grant Rinko-chan the title of Honourary Fan Number Two.”
“…Who’s Number One?”
“Don’t ask something that obvious.”
Rinko smiled a little.
There was no need to think about who Honourary Fan Number One was.
“…Fine. I’ll do your routine with you. What do I have to do?”
“Okay. Repeat after me. Just change ‘I’ to ‘you’. Face me, hold my hands, and look into my eyes.”
Rinko met Kotone’s gaze.
Her eyelashes were long.
Rinko was reflected in her eyes.
Perhaps Kotone was looking at her own reflection in Rinko’s eyes, too.
Kotone slowly inhaled.
A few seconds passed.
Then the ritual began.
“I am actress Kurosu Kotone.”
“You are actress Kurosu Kotone.”
“No one sees me. No one is conscious of me. No one loves me.”
The words stabbed Rinko in the chest.
“…No one sees you. No one is conscious of you. No one loves you.”
“I behave as everyone wishes me to. I give everyone a brief dream.”
“You behave as everyone wishes you to. You give everyone a brief dream.”
“I rely on no one. I can live alone. I will soar through my own strength.”
“You rely on no one. You can live alone. You will soar through your own strength.”
“Goodbye, me. Hello, Kurosu Kotone.”
“…Goodbye, you. Hello, Kurosu… Kotone…”
Rinko desperately held back everything threatening to spill over and exhaled a hot, trembling breath.
She released Kotone’s hands.
Kotone quietly stepped back and turned away.
“Finally, pat Kotone on the back.”
“Okay…”
As instructed, Rinko pressed her palm against the back of Kotone’s red-and-black backless dress.
Kurosu Kotone turned around.
“Thank you, Rinko-san.”
The ritual was over.
Standing before Rinko was the actress who had just said farewell, for a little while, to Kotone.
“I’m all right now. You go to Kuzé-san.”
“B-but… I…”
The secret about Kotone that Rinko had learned weighed heavily on her conscience.
How painful must it be to lie to yourself like that?
How difficult must it be to preserve the image of Kurosu Kotone even if it meant saying goodbye to your own self?
No one loves me.
Those words from the ritual shook Rinko to her core.
Because all Rinko had ever done was lose herself in the dream Kotone sacrificed herself to give everyone.
“If you keep talking to me like this, you’ll fall in love with me, you know?”
“T-that’s not going to happen!”
“Because you’re a fan, Rinko-san.”
Her diction, tone and intonation had all changed completely.
The beauty she possessed was far removed from her remarkably similar sister, Mikoto.
Her narrow eyes were fragile yet strong-willed.
Her expression and bearing radiated a sensuality that had been entirely absent before.
Kurosu Kotone.
The actress who gave the world dreams.
But the strong Kurosu Kotone whom Rinko had once merely admired was no longer all she saw.
Because now Rinko knew the truth.
She knew the weak Kotone hidden beneath the surface.
“…Take care.”
“I will. See you later.”
With those few words, Rinko left the guest room.
The moment she stepped into the corridor and closed the door behind her, all the strength suddenly left her body.
She slid down the wall and sat there.
“She’s playing dirty…”
Her face was frighteningly hot.
Rinko convinced herself she must have caught a fever and, as instructed, staggered off towards Kuzé Fumika.
＊
The meeting with the Secretarial Division was a simple affair.
They merely confirmed the changes to the programme: two additional guests had been invited at short notice, and Kurosu Kotone would be giving the opening address.
After that came nothing more than a series of conversations masquerading as small talk, which in reality consisted of one-upmanship and mockery.
Beside Mikoto, Sanae stood in her bunny-girl costume and remained completely silent.
As she had told Mikoto when they were alone, “If I open my mouth, nothing but abuse will come out.”
So she simply endured the Secretarial Division’s mockery with her usual sour expression.
Sanae was strong.
Even so, Mikoto wasn’t so oblivious that she failed to notice how often Sanae touched the ring on her ring finger.
“…I’m going to meet up with Toko for a while. My only concern is whether she’ll go absolutely ballistic when she sees me dressed like this.”
“If anything happens, I’ll be a witness.”
“Thank you. That helps.”
The guests had already begun entering the hall.
Among the elegantly dressed men and women, Sanae, the lone incongruous figure, disappeared into the crowd.
Her resolve was genuine.
She had wagered everything on this job, on integrating the Secretarial Division.
The final showdown with the Secretarial Division would take place at the end of the dance party, in the exhibition dance against Akazawa Kuruha.
“I really have to dance well…”
Mikoto felt terribly alone.
She had even taken her phone off silent, but it still hadn’t rung.
No matter how many times she tried to reach her, the woman she most desperately wanted to hear from remained silent.
Not even a read receipt.
Unable to stand there any longer, Mikoto left the crowd and sat down on one of the chairs lined against the wall.
The tails of the unfamiliar tuxedo, the cloth at the back from which the tailcoat took its name, trailed onto the floor.
She sat there and looked across the hall.
The guests had no idea about the Secretarial Division’s schemes.
They simply exchanged greetings and chatted, maintaining the superficial relationships expected at a social gathering.
“E-excuse me… May I sit here…………?”
“Hm?”
A presence suddenly appeared beside her.
Mikoto hadn’t noticed the woman approaching because she had blended so completely into the crowd.
She was so inconspicuous and ordinary.
Black hair.
Red eyes.
Skin so pale and unhealthy that she looked almost ill.
And over her eyes, a masquerade mask that gave her an oddly sinister appearance.
Taken aback, Mikoto stood to make room for her.
“Ah, yes. Of course. I should get back to my post, though.”
“…A-are you… a h-host? From… Hibiya…………?”
“Yes, more or less.”
Her stutter was severe enough to make her difficult to understand.
Mikoto shut out the surrounding noise and listened carefully to the masked woman’s voice.
“…I-I don’t… like crowds…… B-but… I-I also… don’t like… being… alone…………”
Mikoto understood what she meant.
From her manner, she was probably afraid of interacting with people.
But she also didn’t like standing out by herself.
The fact that she had deliberately chosen to sit beside Mikoto despite there being plenty of empty chairs supported that interpretation.
Though, considering she was wearing a masquerade mask when nobody else was, perhaps it was unreasonable to expect her not to stand out.
Maybe she simply didn’t want people to see her face.
Perhaps she was extremely shy.
“Then shall we sit together? To be honest, I was feeling a little lonely myself.”
“…Th-thank… you…………”
Mikoto sat down beside her, and together they watched the number of guests gradually increase.
Guests passed before them.
Then, suddenly, a scent of orange brushed against Mikoto’s nostrils.
Without thinking, she followed it with her eyes.
But there was no one there.
Besides, she and that woman were in the middle of a quarrel.
There was no way she would be here.
Mikoto had checked her phone so many times that the battery was nearly dead, yet there had been no response whatsoever.
“…M-may I… ask… your name…………?”
“Ah, forgive me. I haven’t introduced myself. My name is Kurosu Mikoto. And you?”
“…………R-Riddle… Smith……”
Mikoto hadn’t noticed because she was being addressed in Japanese.
But now that she thought about it, Riddle Smith did have somewhat Western features.
A powerful sense of déjà vu struck Mikoto.
But the source of that déjà vu wasn’t this person.
The woman she was thinking of didn’t have black hair.
She didn’t have red eyes.
And she certainly wasn’t someone who painstakingly stammered her way through every sentence.
Instead, she could speak so smoothly that you could never tell whether anything she said was true or a lie.
“Ms Smith, is it?”
“…Y-yes…………. M-Ms Kurosu…………”
Riddle Smith’s voice was drowned out by a majestic fanfare filling the hall.
The murmuring of the guests fell silent.
The lights dimmed.
Spotlights swept across the darkened venue.
The Hibiya corporate emblem and a plaque reading 48th Regular Social Gathering were illuminated brightly.
A calm alto voice, presumably Kuzé Fumika’s, came through the speakers.
“Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your patience. We are now pleased to announce the opening of the forty-eighth Hibiya Trading Regular Social Gathering. To give the opening address, please welcome today’s guest, actress Kurosu Kotone.”
Thunderous applause filled the hall.
Kotone emerged from the wings, the spotlight following her as she walked towards what appeared to be the podium for the host.
Her bearing was magnificent.
She had simply done this too many times for it to be otherwise.
Even Mikoto, who knew Kotone’s vulnerabilities, couldn’t help being captivated by her presence.
“Even after all that, she really is an actress…”
“…Y-yes…………”
Mikoto smiled wryly.
She didn’t hear what Ms Smith had murmured.
“I am Kurosu Kotone. Thank you all very much for joining us today. On behalf of Hibiya Trading’s president, Hibiya Emi, and as someone fortunate enough to have been invited to stand before you today, I hereby declare the forty-eighth Hibiya Trading Regular Social Gathering officially open.”
Applause rang out. The lights came back up.
Majestic classical music filled the hall, and conversations blossomed throughout the room.
At last, the battle had begun.