#64: Side Car
“Yes. Understood. I’ll let Kurosu and Saikawa know.”
In the passenger seat of an SUV speeding along the Shuto Expressway, Rinko held her phone in one hand and wrote the appointment into her business diary with the other. She had originally used her phone’s reminders, but had switched to a paper diary at this late stage because she was constantly on the phone and had an absurd number of appointments to write down.
“Surprised she’s even more in demand than you imagined, huh?”
It was late April. Although Rinko was still using up her paid leave from Meiji Stationery, she had already begun working as actress Kurosu Kotone’s manager.
The work was incomparably busier than the clerical work she had done at Meiji Stationery. Answering the endless stream of phone calls day and night, deciding whether to accept jobs, negotiating fees, mediating with clients… in short, every day was spent thinking about nothing but Kotone.
“Keep your eyes on the road. You’ve got Saikawa-san in the car too.”
As if that weren’t enough, despite not officially being responsible for her, Rinko had ended up looking after singer-songwriter Saikawa Hifumi as well, simply because she lived next door. Her salary remained unchanged. That was the trap of being a live-in manager.
“Hey, I was thinking. Aren’t managers normally the ones who drive?”
“Impossible. I don’t have a licence, and what if you got hurt in an accident while I was driving? I couldn’t bear it!”
“You really are a Kotone otaku.”
Kotone gave a delighted cackle, while Hifumi in the back seat had her ears covered with headphones. Rinko waved a hand in front of Hifumi’s face so she could pass on the earlier message. Through the gap in her fringe, which had grown long enough to cover her eyes, Hifumi’s dubious-looking gaze pierced Rinko.
“About the M Station recording, it’s running about an hour late. Apparently they have to disinfect the dressing rooms and everything, so they don’t want us arriving too early.”
“…Got it.”
Hifumi merely replied before covering her ears with her headphones again. Kotone gave a wry smile behind her.
M Stage was a venerable music programme produced by a television station in Roppongi. Kotone’s job today was to record the performance of her debut song, Scrap and Build, with the song’s information release just around the corner. Hifumi, who was travelling with them, would attend the recording in her capacity as songwriter, as well as record an interview explaining the song.
Even in times like these, or rather, precisely because of times like these, television and radio were the entertainment people relied on while staying home during the voluntary self-restraint period. The airwaves could not stop. Not for the sake of the people waiting for them. The recording had to go ahead, even if every possible precaution had to be taken.
“If they don’t want us there early, maybe I’ll take a little detour.”
“Don’t go anywhere conspicuous. And stay around Roppongi.”
“Then maybe we’ll go there. Speaking of Roppongi?”
“The shops are closed, and that woman’s in Kyōdō.”
“Well, we’ve got time anyway. How about we just go for a drive?”
“Suit yourself.”
The SUV gently descended from the ramp nearest Roppongi onto the ordinary streets.
It was just after noon on the outskirts of Roppongi.
The girls’ bar antiqua was solemnly observing the Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s request to suspend business.
“Think it might be open after all?”
“Of course it isn’t.”
The SUV came to a stop directly beneath the multi-tenant building. Hifumi, who had said she would take a walk and go directly to the studio, went her own way, leaving Kotone and Rinko to tread the asphalt together.
It had been a month since Rinko had last visited Roppongi, and the district felt eerily deserted. There were fewer than half the usual number of vehicles, let alone pedestrians, and even the route buses seemed to be driving around carrying nothing but air.
Following Kotone, Rinko climbed the outside stairs leading up to antiqua. In the unnaturally silent city, the only sounds were their two sets of footsteps.
At the landing, Kotone turned around.
“Hey, doesn’t it kind of feel like we’re the only two people left in the world?”
“Romantic lines aren’t going to make me fall for you.”
“I was just saying what I thought!”
Grinning vacantly, Kotone leaned against the edge of the landing and looked down at the streets. They were between the second and third floors, perhaps seven or eight metres above ground. It wasn’t particularly high.
“Riiinko! I loooove you!”
Kotone shouted towards the almost deserted streets of Roppongi.
It was the sort of thing you might see in one of those youthful romance films she used to appear in, or perhaps a sports-drink commercial.
Rinko’s heart did not stir in the slightest.
Even having her oshi call her name did not make her happy. Quite the opposite. She wanted to reject it with all her strength.
“Don’t look at meeee!”
“What the hell is that? Hilarious!”
Kotone’s vulgar, cackling laughter, utterly at odds with her public image, echoed between the office buildings.
No matter what she did, Kotone seemed determined to destroy the dream Rinko had of her. That was precisely why Rinko continued to resist. She kept reminding herself of the beautiful, pure Kurosu Kotone.
At the very least, she had to protect the dream of Kotone that existed inside her own heart.
“Kotone doesn’t laugh like that.”
“Thanks for the acting lesson. You really do have a talent for being a manager, Rinko-chan. You got used to the job straight away, too.”
“Do I?”
Being praised for her work made Rinko a little happy, and she found herself smiling.
Then she remembered who had complimented her.
Her expression immediately soured.
“…Forget what I just did. I don’t want you getting any ideas.”
“You really are impregnable.”
With a wry smile, Kotone headed from the landing towards the third floor, where antiqua was located. Rinko followed, if only because she had nothing better to do.
At the end of the corridor leading into the building, there should have been that imposing wooden door. The close sign would be hanging from it, along with some notice about the temporary closure.
An empty antiqua.
That was what Rinko expected.
She was wrong about one thing.
“Ko-Kotone-nee! Thank goodness! The rumours were true!”
antiqua was closed, with a notice about the temporary suspension of business pasted to the door.
But the space in front of it was not empty.
A woman in a recruit suit was sitting against the wall, with a suitcase beside her. Headphones hung around her neck. She looked to be in her early twenties.
There was something vaguely familiar about the lightly made-up eyes visible above her mask.
More than anything, though, it was the strange dialect that caught Rinko’s ear.
“Ugh!? Aoi!?”
Judging by Kotone’s blatant grimace, this woman was someone she knew.
But there was always a possibility that she posed some threat to Rinko’s oshi. Acting instinctively, Rinko stepped in front of Kotone.
“Who’s this?”
“Ah, I don’t know her. Don’t know her at all. Shandy-nee isn’t here, so let’s go home, Rinko-chan.”
“Wait! I’ve been looking for Miko-nee and Koto-nee this whole time! I couldn’t get through to Auntie at all, so I searched the internet for sightings! Then I found something saying Koto-nee comes to this place called antiqua all the time!”
The woman called Aoi removed her mask.
Perhaps it was the dialect, perhaps the restrained make-up, but there was something distinctly unsophisticated about her overall appearance. She looked as though she might burst into tears at any moment, and Rinko found herself feeling sorry for her.
And yet, in terms of her actual features, she bore a striking resemblance to Mikoto and Kotone.
“…Was the Kurosu family actually three sisters? A secret child?”
At Rinko’s question, Kotone groaned and held her head in her hands.
“…This is Kurosu Aoi. My cousin.”
“Your cousin…”
“I’m cousin Kurosu Aoi! Nice to meesh you!”
The unsophisticated Kurosu family cousin, Kurosu Aoi, had spectacularly mangled her introduction.
＊
“This is amazing! I get to watch the recording! Having an actress for a cousin is the best!”
A dressing room beside the studio at the television station in Roppongi.
An hour behind schedule, Kotone had finally arrived, and her personal make-up artist, KOZO, was turning her into an artwork.
Aoi, meanwhile, paid no attention whatsoever to the proceedings, wandering around the dressing room.
“Aoi, you’re noisy. Kotone-sama is working.”
“Ehehe, sorry, sorry.”
“Honestly, you lot really are all cut from the same cloth, aren’t you? I don’t know about your sister, but every one of you is restless as hell.”
“My sister’s restless too. Right, Rinko-chan?”
“Yeah.”
In the corner of the dressing room, Rinko gazed absently at Kurosu Kotone’s transformation through the mirror.
Without even looking towards her, KOZO asked a question while changing brushes and patting foundation onto Kotone’s face. The man’s dexterity was impressive.
“Still, Rinko-chan, how did you ever end up becoming manager to a creature like this?”
“I became one… or rather, I was made to become one…”
“Oh, I think you two make a lovely couple.”
“Right? KOZO-san has such a good eye!”
“No way!”
Rinko had seen KOZO at Maverick as well, but his work was every bit as dazzling as she remembered.
The order and techniques he used were completely different from the way Rinko normally did her own make-up. After a while, she could no longer tell whether she was watching Kotone or studying KOZO’s work.
Professional work was something to behold.
If she could steal a few tricks, she wanted to.
Meanwhile, Aoi was wandering around the tatami-floored dressing room with every ounce of amateurishness imaginable. She peered into Kotone’s face, touched KOZO’s make-up tools without permission, and generally behaved with breathtaking rudeness.
“Erm, Aoi-san. Can I have a word?”
“What is it, Manager-san?”
With an innocent, vacant grin, the face resembling the Kurosu sisters drew closer.
Their facial features belonged to the same family, but the expression was completely different. It was a radiant, melting smile that neither Mikoto nor Kotone ever showed.
The sheer wrongness of it made Rinko’s brain short-circuit for a moment, but she somehow managed to maintain her composure.
“You know, they’re both working right now. So why don’t you wait quietly?”
“Eeeh? But that’s boring!”
Rinko’s warning, wrapped in as much polite language as possible to convey don’t get in the way of people doing their jobs, went straight over Aoi’s head.
Aoi seemed to have no understanding of basic social conventions.
Rinko was naturally hot-tempered, but she was Kotone’s manager now. She had to behave like an adult somehow.
“But you see? Kotone and KOZO-san are working. So how about you talk to me instead?”
“I suppose I have no choice.”
Rinko nearly snapped.
But judging by Aoi’s expression, there really was no malice behind it.
There was no helping it, Rinko told herself. Aoi genuinely meant no harm.
She somehow managed to calm herself down.
“…Aoi-san, why were you looking for Mikoto-san and Kotone?”
“I got my job offer cancelled. And it happened the day after I moved here! Everything’s gone completely to hell…!”
“Everything’s gone completely to hell… what does that mean?”
“It means ‘isn’t this awful?’ That’s Iyo dialect.”
Kotone, who had apparently been listening to the conversation, supplied the explanation.
Rinko wondered where Iyo was.
Then she thought of iyokan.
Ehime, the rival orange-producing prefecture to Shizuoka and Hamamatsu, where Rinko was from.
But iyokan were citrus fruit.
In other words, oranges.
Rinko absolutely hated women associated with oranges.
Except herself.
“So then, because I couldn’t stay in Matsuyama, I had to find a place to live and do all sorts of things, and I ran out of money…”
“Rinko, take a hundred thousand yen from my wallet and give it to Aoi. Severance pay.”
“Eeeh!?”
Rinko did as she was told, but Aoi shook her head and refused the money.
From the phrase severance pay, Rinko could more or less work out the nature of the relationship between Kotone and Aoi.
“Here. I’ll give you a hundred thousand, so get lost already, country girl. Big Tokyo is still too much for you.”
“You’re not from Tokyo either!”
“You idiot. Yokohama is above Tokyo, so it’s fine! The only place above Yokohama is New York!”
“London is amazing too!”
“Stop saying random shit!”
The conversation had dissolved into complete chaos and was getting nowhere.
Rinko placed the hundred thousand yen on the table, then took another fifty thousand from Kotone’s wallet.
One hundred and fifty thousand in total.
That ought to be enough to tide her over until her first paycheque.
“Your kind big sister Kotone is giving you a hundred and fifty thousand yen. Will that be enough?”
“No! I don’t wanna go home! I’m gonna look for work here! So let me stay at your place until I find a job!”
“Denied!”
“Why!? We’re relatives!”
“I hate how you’re acting like some country bumpkin who can just rely on her relatives!”
Kotone rejected the idea flatly.
Rinko and KOZO could only smile wryly.
Her make-up had just been completed, so Kotone merely said, “I’m going to make the rounds and say hello,” before leaving the dressing room.
Naturally, Aoi followed her out.
Overwhelmed by the unexpected mental strain of the job that had nothing to do with actually being a manager, Rinko collapsed onto the tatami.
She sighed.
“Rough day, huh, rookie manager?”
“I’m exhausted by everything except the management.”
KOZO chuckled softly as he put away the make-up tools he had spread out.
His next appointment was to do Hifumi’s make-up in the dressing room next door. After that, apparently he was off to Odaiba. In addition to being Kotone’s personal make-up artist, he was in demand among numerous other talents as well.
Come to think of it, Rinko remembered.
He was part of Team Kurosu Kotone.
If so, he ought to know quite a bit about her former manager.
“Can I ask you something? What was Kotone’s previous manager like? I know she was a woman.”
“Ah, Chata? Kitaya Chatan Midori. I think she’d been Kotone’s manager since her debut. So I was pretty shocked when I heard she’d quit.”
Manager Kitaya had quit because she had fallen in love with Kotone.
Rinko had felt sorry for the unseen woman who had supposedly been fired for such a ridiculous reason, and had reflexively slapped Kotone across the face only a few days ago.
“…Kotone told me she fired her because she’d fallen in love with her. What do you think, KOZO-san?”
“Ahaha, no way! Chata and Kotone’s relationship was strictly business, unlike yours, Rinko-chan!”
“No way!”
“Oh? Is that so? I’d assumed you two were the same kind.”
Rinko understood perfectly well what KOZO meant.
“We’re the same kind, but different. Kotone is my oshi, someone I admire. She isn’t that kind of person to me!”
“I know exactly what you mean. I love feminine beauty too, but women themselves don’t really interest me. That’s what you mean, right?”
“Probably. I’m not interested in male beauty either, though.”
KOZO smiled gently.
Perhaps he was hesitating over what he ought to say, because after a slight pause, he continued.
“…I think Kotone is suffering quite badly. You know too, don’t you? That girl kills herself inside.”
“I know. But that doesn’t mean I can have the kind of relationship Kotone wants.”
“But you live together, don’t you?”
“That’s… there were unavoidable circumstances…”
Under the terms of Rinko’s manager contract with Kotone, her current address was a tower block in Minato Mirai, Yokohama.
Once working hours ended, she retreated to the private room assigned to her and did not step outside it except to use the bathroom or lavatory. Their arrangement was practically a separation under the same roof.
You could call it a siege.
Naturally, Rinko had not yet performed the work Kotone had demanded of her even once.
“If I’d known that was part of a manager’s job!”
“Well, I won’t pry. It happens sometimes in this industry. Male idol managers are sometimes assigned to them for that sort of purpose, too.”
“The dark side of the industry…”
“…Ah. I see. I think I understand why Chata was fired now.”
“Because Kotone’s idiot self demanded that, right…?”
“No, no.”
KOZO wagged his index finger from side to side like a metronome.
“Pillow work.”
“…What?”
The word was so far beyond anything Rinko had imagined that she caught her breath.
When a talent, whether they were still trying to make it or already successful, had sexual relations with a client in order to secure work, it was called makura eigyō, or “pillow work”, sleeping with someone for business.
Kotone might be doing pillow work.
The moment that thought crossed Rinko’s mind, the image of Kurosu Kotone she had fought so hard to protect nearly shattered in an instant.
She was so shocked she could barely force the words out.
“No way… Kotone…?”
“Not just Kotone. Managers can do it too. Chata was fairly pretty, so there’s a chance someone might have made that sort of proposition to her.”
The words managers can do it too struck Rinko like a blow.
Which meant…
“…Me too?”
KOZO closed his eyes.
“I think it’s a rotten custom in the industry, but I can understand why people succumb to it. For talents and managers, being told ‘We’ll use you’ is the most welcome thing in the world. There are plenty of young people who are willing to sacrifice themselves if it means becoming successful. Even though there’s no guarantee it’ll make them successful.”
“……”
A chill ran down Rinko’s spine.
The fear of becoming a target for pillow work herself.
And yet, even more unbearable than that was the thought of Kotone becoming one.
Rinko found herself almost exasperated by her own otaku mentality.
“Sorry for frightening you like that. But Kotone’s fine. Just try making a move on her now. It’d cause a massive scandal without fail. And Rinko-chan, you’ll definitely be fine.”
“How can you say that so confidently?”
“Because I think the reason Kotone fired Chata was to protect Chata from pillow work.”
At last, the pieces fell into place in Rinko’s mind.
If KOZO was right, someone had probably approached Kitaya, Kotone’s former manager, with an offer of pillow work.
Something along the lines of, I want to use Kotone for a job, but what can you offer me?
The coward had been unable to get his hands on Kotone, so he had targeted her manager instead.
Anger welled up inside Rinko.
“Kotone’s a genius as an actress, but as a human being she’s unbelievably clumsy. But she isn’t a bad woman. You need to understand that, okay?”
If that was really what had happened, then Kotone had protected Kitaya by firing her.
And the reason Kotone had not told Rinko the truth was probably to avoid destroying the image Rinko had of her.
She had tried to protect that final boundary.
And Rinko, without knowing any of this, had struck Kotone in a fit of emotion.
“…I have to apologise to Kotone.”
“Well, I’m off to turn Hifumin into a beauty.”
Just as KOZO reached for the door, it flew open.
Aoi burst in without even knocking.
She was visibly flustered.
“Ma-Manager-san! Koto-nee’s been caught by some weird man!”
“A weird man…?”
“It’s, like… Koto-nee really doesn’t like him! And he was asking why her previous manager quit!”
Rinko exchanged a glance with KOZO.
KOZO nodded seriously and asked Aoi:
“Aoi-chan, do you remember the man’s name?”
“Koto-nee called him Mibu P!”
“KOZO-san, do you know him!?”
KOZO’s answer was simple.
He brought his palms together and held them beside his face.
“Pillow.”
“Aoi-chan, thank you for telling us. Stay here and look after the dressing room.”
Rinko stood up and began stretching on the spot.
Then she recalled the self-defence techniques Toko had taught her in return for the massage lessons.
The run-up and take-off were the crucial parts.
It was her first time actually putting them into practice, but her anger was stronger than her uncertainty.
No problem.
As long as she had enough anger, she could fight.
Rinko ran out of the room.
At the far end of the television station’s long corridor, she spotted Kotone.
Beside her stood a somewhat portly man.
He had a firm grip on Kotone’s wrist and showed no sign of letting go, even though Kotone was shifting her weight away in an attempt to leave.
“…Don’t touch my Kotone with those filthy hands…”
Rinko quietly exhaled.
The distance between them was roughly thirty metres.
For someone who was confident at short-distance running and the long jump, it was an easy distance.
She pictured herself closing the gap in one burst and launching herself into the air.
Then she remembered Toko’s words.
Don’t worry, don’t worry! Humans don’t die that easily, so just go for it!
Power filled both her legs.
Running in heels would be difficult, so Rinko decided to go barefoot and stood on the floor.
The cool tiles gripped her feet firmly.
She wouldn’t slip.
She could hit him at top speed.
“…I’m Kotone’s manager. Protecting Kotone is my job…”
She had made her decision long ago.
Rinko kicked off with her right foot and started running.
She tore down the corridor like the wind.
Her mask was in the way.
She ripped it off and charged forward at full speed.
“Uraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”
A voice burst from her throat.
She was screaming at the top of her lungs.
The staff who noticed Rinko sprinting towards them hurriedly cleared a path.
Naturally, the scream reached the end of the corridor, where Kotone and her target stood.
She had to make sure she didn’t hit Kotone.
She wasn’t confident she could control herself once she was airborne.
So she shouted.
“Kotone, get out of the way!!!”
Kotone instinctively leapt aside.
The target, bewildered by what was happening, remained rooted to the spot.
Rinko reached the point where she had planned to take off.
Then she forcefully kicked off with her left foot.
The basic principle was the same as the long jump.
Accelerate to top speed, then launch at the precise moment the momentum was greatest.
Rinko’s body soared through the air, her target’s face directly within range.
She twisted her body and thrust out her right knee.
After that, momentum did the rest.
“Th-The hell… Rinko-chan’s Vacuum Flying Knee Kick…”
After confirming that her target was still breathing where he lay sprawled on the floor, Rinko breathed a sigh of relief.
Then she turned to the stunned Kotone beside him.
“…I heard about Kitaya-san. Tell me what needs to be told properly. I’m your manager, after all.”
“Ah. Yeah…”
“Why are you blushing? Come on, get up. Let’s go back to the dressing room.”
Rinko held out her hand and helped Kotone to her feet.
Only then did the target, Mibu P, apparently regain consciousness.
His voice trembled.
“Y-You…! You’re banned! I’m banning Kurosu Kotone from this station!”
Rinko smiled.
“Do you have any idea how many television stations there are in Tokyo?”
She looked at him calmly.
“Getting banned from one of them isn’t scary. She’s my oshi.”