Greedy Prologue

# Prologue

    "Yes… mhm… Yes, of course… I'll give it my all, Mr. Shishito! You have my word as your top producer! Uh-huh… Well that's not really… No, I understand. Clear as glass noodles. Yeah, g'bye…"

    The stout man furrowed his brow as he rubbed his eyes with the thumb and index finger of his left hand. He set down the office phone slowly, jostling it gently into place. Despite the call having ended, he couldn't shake the feeling that his boss would be able to tell if he slammed down the receiver in anger and frustration. Suddenly he grunted loudly and swept a rounded, thick highball glass off his desk. It fell to the carpet with a rather anticlimactic thump, spilling the remaining amber liquid onto the cheap, synthetic gray carpeting.

    "Ugh, I'm so behind… My most popular idol thinks she can leave me? Leave THE Goro Matsubara! And for Lina, of all people… That little BIT-"

    "HEY!" A sharp rebuke reminded the producer that he wasn't alone in his office. Normally Goro wouldn't accept that kind of backtalk from one of his idols. Being a successful producer means that you're the one who gets to yell at them, and it's a dangerous precedent to let one of the talents talk to you like that. But, seeing as how the young, blond man's opinion of the idol in question is an open secret in the office, Goro decided to let it slide just this once. His puppy love may still come in useful, after all.

    Goro tugged at the collar of his purple leopard print shirt - the finest one of three that he owned with a similar motif - and lowered his face so he could peer over the top of his sunglasses at the young man. This'll show him.

    "Clean that up for me, will ya?"

    The young man looked shocked for a moment, having expected Goro to yell or further their fight, before the young man next to him - this one a brunette - slapped him on the back with a chuckle.

    "Yeah, hop to it! Clean up that spill."

    Despite the sound of laughter filling the office from all three of its other occupants - there were, in addition to the producer, a total of three young men in his office, all idols under his management - the blond, Hayate Sumiyoshi, stood up off the couch and shook his head before walking to the corner of the office and grabbing the spray bottle of carpet cleaner they kept on hand for accidents just such as this. A prudent move, given how frequently they seem to happen.

    Goro is an unrepentant slob.

    If you were to walk into this room right this moment, the scene playing out would probably give you the wrong impression. To start, many may assume from his flamboyant sense of fashion and insistence on wearing designer sunglasses even indoors no matter the season or time of day that Goro was overcompensating for a lack of ability. However, this is very much not the case. The portly man is a hotshot at I MY ME, being the most profitable producer for far more years than not since he joined the company. His current sorry state is down to one, completely unpredictable stroke of bad luck:

    Eimi Inagawa, the agency's top teen idol, had recently transferred all of her work to Lina Fujimura, a rival producer whom Goro has long thought of as highly unpleasant and far too big for her britches. Especially with all the attention she's getting from the higher ups all of a sudden.

    The man seemed to sob a bit at the thought before breaking out in a coughing fit. He grabbed a new glass and the crystal decanter from the tray at the side of his desk and poured himself a generous portion of whisky, pointlessly adding two ice cubes before draining half of it in a single draught and finishing up with a loud, wet 'ahh'. "At least I still have Kerberos. You boys are still the freshest thing on the market! Have you seen the reviews? Good vocals! Stellar visuals! And with my talent? You boys are gonna rise to the top 'a the charts in no time flat! Just you wait, any day now Eimi's gonna be crawlin' back just begging for me to produce her again!"

    The sincerity in their producer's voice caused the brunette - Natsuki Ichinose - to let out another round of laughter. "Careful Goro, that's starting to sound like one of Hayate's daydreams."

    Hayate, understandably, scowled at his friend from across the room. Ever since they were children Hayate had nursed a crush on the idol Goro was admonishing, and now that they were fully grown that crush had blossomed just as bountifully as Eimi herself. In fact this had been the driving factor in the many decisions that had led Hayate to this point in his life in the first place. Everything from his short-cropped bleached hair to the intense workout regimen and diet he followed was to make himself into the sort of man that Eimi had often swooned over in books and movies, and it wasn't hard to guess that his decision to become an idol himself had been in response to her decision to do the same several years earlier. Of course, Natsuki was Hayate's good friend, so he understood that the ribbing was meant in good fun, but having it happen in front of their producer - whom Hayate tried his hardest to respect - and their third group mate was always a little annoying, especially given Natsuki's habit of referring to him in such an overly familiar and patronizing way.

    "Natsuki, my rising star, are you ready to take one for the team?”

    Natsuki laughed at the absurdity of the question and the absurdity of Goro's plan in equal measure. "Honestly, I'd rather go directly after Eimi. A hottie like her's much more my style than a dried-up producer. What is she, almost thirty?" He glanced at his friend, now done messing with the carpet, walking back to the sofa stiffly, and got the feeling that perhaps he was pushing the joke too far. Natsuki had never been accused of being overly particular with his tastes in women, and even at a stately twenty-seven Lina Fujimura would be nowhere near the oldest quarry he had set his sights on. Still, even Natsuki would have to admit that given his friendship with Hayate, Eimi Inagawa was perhaps the one girl at the agency who was strictly off-limits to his charms. Strictly out of respect for his friend's very obvious crush, of course. "I'm joking, I'm joking! If I get a craving for a blonde I'll check out Kumasawa's new girl. Heck, you should probably do the same. Nobody shows up for a baseball tournament without hitting up the batting cages first, right? Hey Goro, you think that maybe Hayate should give this plan a try? He could use the practice."

    "No, thank you. I'm not interested in the slightest. Leave me out of stuff like this." The blond replied icily to his friend's ribbing.

    "Me either! Can you imagine? She's so old…" That comment came from the third member of the group, Yuu Tobe. Yuu is a couple years younger than his group mates but has no trouble following their conversations, his sense of humor often coming off as more grown up than that of a typical highschool kid. Then again, if the glass full of amber liquid in his hand is any indication, Yuu is hardly a typical highschooler. It's also an open secret in the office that he would be completely lost trying to implement a plan like this one.

    Make of that what you will.

    "We're gonna stick to the plan. This'll teach her a lesson, so don't mess it up! Now get out! I've gotta make the phone call and you've gotta get home and bathe! And don't forget to take proof!"

    After kicking his idols out of his office, Goro picked up his phone and carefully dialed a neighboring extension. After five rings a grumpy voice answered.

    "Hello, this is Ms. Lina Fujimura spea-"

    "Lina! I know we've had our differences, but this is an emergency! I don't know anyone else who can help! You've gotta save me!" Goro spoke quickly and forcefully, decorating the receiver with flecks of white spittle. "I've got some urgent materials for a recording session but one of my idols forgot them at my office! I've got appointments all afternoon and I know ya live over on that side of town. I need you ta run it over for me! I'll owe ya big time!" Goro played up the emergency, even though his only plans for the rest of the day were trying to secure the top rank in the latest *Capsule Girls* event on his phone.

    "Look, Goro-" She barely managed two words before she heard Goro's ugly fake sobs from the other side of the line. "I've got a mountain of paperwork to do. I know Umechou is your best girl, but if you really need help that desperately you're gonna have to find someone else. Get one of the interns to do it. That's why they hire them."

    The man's dramatic sobbing became loud enough that Lina swore she could hear it from the other end of the hallway as well as through the phone she was holding at arm's length. She shuddered at the experience of Goro Matsubara in stereo.

    "Please! You're the only one I can depend on! This stuff is a big deal! Top secret! I can't just give that to an intern! It could ruin me if it goes missin'! I don't know how but I swear I'll pay ya' back! For real, next time there's an Aimee event I'll buy ya however many rainbow quarters it takes to get ya an SSR! Even if it takes thousands!"

    The female producer sat up and straightened her glasses, her interest piqued. "Change that to an UR and you've got yourself a deal."

    For those unfamiliar with the *Capsule Girls* mobile game, as impossible and unlikely as that sounds, UR stands for "Ultra Rare", and it's widely believed to be the rarest type of pull in the game. There are some players who joined way back during the beta tests who've spent tens of thousands of yen each month and still haven't seen the glory and splendor of that sparkling rainbow background. Lina knew that there was almost no chance of Goro making good on his word, but on the off chance that she could milk even an extra ten or twenty pulls out of this by guilting him later it felt too easy a task to pass up.

    "Fine. Leave the materials outside my door. I'll make sure they get delivered this afternoon."

    Especially since Lina probably didn't actually need to go through the trouble of dealing with it herself.

    "Thanks, Lina! You're a lifesaver! I'll bring them right over!" Goro shouted into the receiver, barely able to contain his glee. His plan was working!

    *Soon Lina's entire career will be over, and then Eimi will come crawlin' back!*

    Back in her office, Lina was contemplating actually running the errand herself. Glancing at the clock she confirmed that there were only two and a half hours left in her work day. By the time she got across town, dropped off the papers, then came back, it would be practically time to leave anyway. She laid her face down on her desk, making a mess of the piles of papers that were already fairly sprawling, until a knock came at the door.

    It's probably Goro with the delivery…

    "Go away…"

    Despite her unfriendly greeting, she heard the door click open anyway. *It must be one of my idols then…* The producer thought. *They're the only ones who would be that disrespectful…*

    A soft voice proved Lina sadly correct.

    "Lina, is everything okay? It looks like someone left you mail outside the door."

    "Yeah yeah, everything's just fine. What is it?" Lina sat up and slid her glasses back into place, being greeted by an image of one of her less annoying idols - though don't be mistaken, Lina considers them all to be at least minor annoyances - holding a small cake box.

    "I wanted to thank you for getting me that last modeling job. I really appreciate your faith in me, especially when you have so many of us to manage, and I wanted to get you something to show my appreciation. I've never really seen you eat sweets - or, er, anything but coffee, really… I'm not sure of your tastes, but I thought you may enjoy this. It's called tiramisu. It has coffee in it, so I thought-"

    "Shush. Junko, gimme the coffee cake and come here." Lina was, for once, almost happy to see one of her girls. Coffeecake and an errand girl. The answers to all of Lina's immediate problems all wrapped up in one. Junko was surprised to be cut off, but obliged her producer's request, setting the plain white box on her desk along with a thick manila envelope she had picked up outside of Lina's office door. "I've got an errand that I need someone to run for me and you just volunteered. I need you to deliver that package to the address written on it. Like, right now." Lina thrust the manila envelope into Junko's hands then dug around in her purse for a few coins and plopped them down on top of the envelope, causing Junko to try to maneuver it to prevent them from sliding off. "You'll need to take the train, but that should cover it. You can consider this your thank you for the modeling job."

    Junko was a bit apprehensive being ordered around like one of the interns, her long black eyelashes fluttering a few times in confusion as she weighed the pros and cons of protesting, but she eventually tipped the change into the palm of one hand and nodded her head.

    "I'll take care of this right away then." She stared at the cake box, which Lina was in the process of opening. "As… your thank you… Have a good evening, Lina…"
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