Presenting the sequel of "True Reflection"... "The Next Episode". If you haven't read "True Reflection", I'd advise you to read it first before reading this story, or else you won't know what exactly is going on.
Special thanks for GinGitsuneIX for the cosplay idea used here. You suggested something futuristic, and this is what I came up with. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own Skip-Beat!, Buzz Lightyear, and the LGMs.
Chapter 1: Prologue ~After True Reflection~
Akatoki Marina was tired, but she was happy beyond words.
First, she finally had had the chance to see a story she had written herself came to life, played by talented actors and actresses. That particular story had been so far her most favorite, and getting the first chance to get involved in the making of the video of it filled her heart with senses of pride and joy.
She was also thankful for Lory Takarada's cooperation for the project. Thanks to rumours surrounding a certain visual-kei singer under her company's wings, the good relationship between Akatoki Agency and LME had been somehow severed. Marina surely did not want to be an enemy of the eccentric man.
Not forgetting to mention that his taste on cosplays and grand entrance was one of Marina's sources of amusement and inspiration. She had almost laughed loudly to tears when she had seen Lory barging into one of Queen Records' many studios, dressed like Roman god Neptune and accompanied by nereid-like dancers.
The memories brought more ideas to her forever-working creativity. In her head, she could already picture the story of a young maiden forever trapped in the sea by the gods, unseen by other humans. Marina made a note to scribble the idea down on her notes as soon as she could reach her desk.
But the best thing of all was the fact that she had finally found Mogami Kyoko, the long lost daughter of her equally long lost dear cousin, Uehara Kento. To her delight, the girl had been a sweet, innocent girl that had grown into a refined actress.
Just one day working with her, and Marina already adored her like a daughter of her own that she could never have.
She took her phone out of her purse as the elevator ascended to her floor. Earlier, she had managed to have a photo together with Kyoko without the angel's make-up, revealing the actress' shoulder-length chestnut hair which complemented her small, pixie-like face and golden eyes, one of so many things the girl had inherited from her father.
A 'ding' chimed and the elevator's door slid open. Marina closed her phone with a clapping sound and put it back into her purse before stepping out of the metallic box. She walked in an easy pace towards her condominium, sometimes with unconscious bounces in her steps. She fished the pockets of her blazer for her card key and opened her door, her unoccupied hand groping the wall for the light switch.
Contrary to the fact that she was not married, Marina decided to leave Akatoki family's house and lived alone in this condominium she purchased with her own money. Being the vice-president of the second largest talent agency in Japan brought her lots of money, but she decided to leave all the management to Seijuro, her older brother and the president, and take nothing from the profit.
Instead, she lived from her writing. Marina often wrote as ghost writers for many children book illustrators, and had a lot of different pen names to publish her novels. Her books were selling well, and no one ever knew that Akatoki Marina was the one writing those different books.
She threw herself onto her favorite recliner, crossed her legs to take off her high heels, and after she was done with them, she just left them be on the floor next to her feet. She took the letters she had picked up beforehand from her mailbox and began sorting them. Most of them were bills for the condominium, and Marina had grown bored of them. She just skimmed through them and put the already read ones onto the coffee table, until her eyes stumbled upon an envelope with her name written in lopsided alphabets.
Marina knew this handwriting.
She quickly singled out the envelope, which was made of a thick, good-quality paper, and put the rest of the letters beside her on the recliner. She reached for a letter opener, an antique given to her as a memento from one of her lecturers when she had been to London, and with a swift move, opened the envelope to reveal two sheets of folded papers.
The woman opened one of them and was surprised to see graphite drawing of a narrow river with beautiful houses on one of its banks. The other bank was full with hydrangeas, and when Marina looked at the drawing once more in concentration, she could see tiny creatures with wings – fairies – flying around the flowers, dancing in glee.
Her suspicions were proven when she opened the other folded paper and looked at the signature at the bottom.
Uehara Kento.
Tsuruga Ren could only frown in irritation as his manager, the light-brown-haired Yashiro Yukihito did not even make any attempt to school his snickers on the passenger seat beside him. He just groaned inwardly when he realized that he could guess correctly the cause of those snickers.
"It was a job," he snapped at the bespectacled man.
"Yes," Yashiro replied with his signature evil smirk. "But you still kissed. Ren and Kyoko-chan, sitting on a tree, K-I-S-..."
Ren purposefully let go of the steering wheel, making the car went straight to almost grazing the side curb nearest to the passenger side. The smirk on Yashiro's face instantly changed to the pale of dread.
The manager jumped on his seat towards the middle of the back seat, while Ren, pleased by the result, regained control of the car and steered it away from the pedestrian curb. He silently thanked the heavens that the street was empty.
"Ren!" Yashiro screamed. "What the hell did you think you were doing? Did you want to kill me?!"
His tall, handsome charge only gave him a smug smirk. "At this state, I might as well do anything to stop your ranting, especially that stupid song."
Yashiro only pouted. "Even though you must have been waiting for it for your whole life... Just admit it, Ren! You're happy that Kyoko-chan kissed you!"
"Whatever," Ren sighed, giving up. Yashiro threw him a 'I-can't-believe-this-guy' look, and leaned back to his seat.
"Now that I think of it," he then said suddenly, "where were you when I talked to the President?"
Ren stayed silent, and much to his dismay, the evil grin was back on his manager's face. "You were with Kyoko-chan, weren't you?" Yashiro asked slyly.
"No comment."
"Tch, what a boring man, you are," Yashiro pouted. "Come on, you know you can always confide in Big Brother here."
Ren groaned. "And let you tease me to no end with it? Never."
"So something did happen!" the fair-headed man squealed. Ren could only sweat-drop at that. "What? Did she kiss you and say 'I love you'?"
What is this man? Psychic? Ren thought in disbelief. How did he know exactly what happened? Wait; maybe it's just a random guess. Don't admit it, and it'll be fine.
"Ah, Ren, you're not saying anything. So I'll take it that that's what really happened when you were alone with Kyoko while I was talking to the President? Oh, I'm so happy for you, slowpoke."
Ren did not answer. He just stared at the road in front of him. Damn you, Yashiro-san.
Expecting to be greeted by a barrage of nereids like the ones in the Queen Records' studio, Mogami Kyoko was speechless when she found herself stepping into what seemed like a spaceship control room.
More to her surprise, instead of the beautiful nereids, she was greeted by short people dressing up as green aliens with antennas on their heads and three wide eyes dressed in blue uniforms. They grabbed her hands and dragged her into the 'control room' with movements not unlike penguins.
Kyoko could not utter any single word when at the middle of the room, she was face to face with Lory Takarada, the president of Lory Majestic Entertainment (or LME for short), dressed tightly in a bulky astronaut suit.
"Err... President?" Kyoko greeted him hesitantly. When the man raised an eyebrow and did not answer, she raked her brain for childhood memories and then mumbled, "Captain Buzz Lightyear?"
"Yes, Cadet?" Lory answered, his voice muffled by the statics of the microphone transmission.
Her attention was briefly turned to the short, green, three-eyed aliens – whom she remembered were called the Little Green Men – bringing the two of them chairs. Kyoko instantly wondered how her employer had found these people and managed to convince them to dress like that.
Lory cleared his throat to gain her attention back, and when she saw him raising one inquiring eyebrow, she stammered. "Err... Yashiro-san told me... that you wanted to talk to me... Captain?"
The man smiled in satisfaction while giving the girl a thumbs-up. "That's right," he said. "But, first, please sit down, Cadet."
Not knowing what else to do, but finding the whole situation a bit too awkward for her liking, Kyoko sat down on one of the chairs gingerly while Lory literally brought all of his weight – including the weight of the space suit – down onto the too small chair. He pushed a button and his glass helmet slid down to his back and Kyoko could not help but wonder again about the cost of that space suit.
She was sure that how much the cost was, the nominal would surely make her best friend, Kotonami Kanae, gag in disgust.
"First thing, Mogami-kun, good job on the project!" Lory beamed at her with glossy eyes. "I could certainly feel the love, even only from the footages taken by Yashiro-kun."
Kyoko smiled and bowed on her seat. "Thank you very much for the praise, President."
"Especially the love confession scene!"
She blushed heavily, remembering the way she had gone out of character and confessed her real feeling as Mogami Kyoko to her boyfriend in the middle of acting.
Lory grinned widely. "That, and added with the fact that you and Ren are already an item," – Kyoko's blush darkened ten shades of red – "bring me to the conclusion that you are ready to graduate from LoveMe Department."
Silence ensued as Kyoko processed what Lory had said. When the idea finally stuck to her mind, she let out a very loud scream.
"EEEHHH?!"
"He let you graduate?" Kuon repeated with a big smile.
He had just got back from dropping Yashiro off at his apartment to LME just to pick up Kyoko before heading to his condominium apartment for dinner. At the moment they were side by side in his car, only separated by the hand brake and the console. However, that did not stop Kuon from grasping Kyoko's hands with one of his own while he managed to drive only with one hand.
His girlfriend nodded timidly with a light blush decorating her face. Kuon's smile widened to form a grin. "Congratulations, then!"
"Not that easy, Kuon," Kyoko mumbled. "The President of course saw it appropriate for me to graduate, but there's still the issue of me not having guardian's permission to debut."
Kuon sighed sadly for her. "Can't the couple from the restaurant sign it for you?"
The girl shook her head. "They're not my legal guardians. The one who had the legal rights to sign it for me will be my mother or Shotaro's parents."
And they're all out of the picture, Kuon thought grimly. "What about your father?"
"Kuon, he's been missing since before I was even born," she grumbled. "It'll be a real miracle if he suddenly pops out and sign it with a huge smile. He might not even know I'm his daughter; no, scratch that, from the looks of it he even doesn't know he has a daughter."
At that moment, Kuon could swear that he sensed, for the umpteenth time today, black ghostly aura swirling above Kyoko's head. Suddenly, her body rocked violently as if she was vibrating, which he interpreted as the fact that her mobile phone was ringing.
Kyoko fished in her purse for her phone – with now the picture of her, Kanae, and Marina as the wallpaper – and looked at the caller ID. She hesitated on the receiving button.
Noticing this, Kuon brought the car into a parking position on the left side of the road and leaned closer to the passenger seat to have a peak at her phone. "Who is it?" he asked curiously.
His anger flared quickly when his eyes saw 'Unknown Number' on the screen. He narrowed his eyes for a moment in irritation, trying to calm his rage down and rationalize his thoughts, before taking deep breaths and said in a low, hesitant voice. "Answer it."
Kyoko spun her head to his direction and stared at him as if he had just said the dumbest thing ever.
"It's okay, Kyoko, just answer it. If it's that damn brat, I'll deal with it."
After convincing herself that her boyfriend was as calm as he could possibly be regarding the situation, Kyoko pushed the green button on her phone and brought it to her ear. Upon hearing the caller's voice, her stiff back immediately relaxed.
"Good evening, may I speak to Mogami Kyoko-san? This is Akatoki Marina speaking."
Kyoko smiled. "Akatoki-san? Good evening."
"Ah, Kyoko-san. I am not disturbing anything, aren't I?" Marina's voice had a hint of worry in it.
"No, not at all!" Kyoko glanced at Kuon who had also relaxed a bit. "So, how can I help you?"
Marina was quiet, before her voice was heard again. "You may not believe this, but I just received a letter from Kento."
Kyoko's mind went blank in an instant.
Marina sighed at her phone. After she had been met by silence from her distant niece, Tsuruga Ren had taken over the phone and said that Kyoko needed time to process whatever it was Marina had told her and promised the older woman that Kyoko would call back the next morning.
Is it that surprising? Marina wondered, tapping her pointer finger on her chin. She took another glance at Kento's letter once again, and let out another sigh. He is just unbelievable. I cannot wait for the moment where I meet him face to face and have a chance to strangle this fool.
Her mobile phone buzzed, and she picked it up only to find her brother's caller ID on the screen. She frowned, reminded of the bitter truth she had found out during the shoot the earlier afternoon, and pushed the button with a bit more strength than needed.
"How may I help you, Brother?"
She could sense Seijuro taken aback by her harsh tone. "Marina? Are you... angry?"
"Yes. In fact, I am currently displeased at you. But alas, you are calling at a very good time. I have something to tell you."
"Can it wait?" Seijuro asked in a rush. "This is urgent."
Marina's ears perked in interest, her anger at her brother was pushed down to the back of her mind. "Did something happen, Brother?"
"The editor of Hinokuni Shinbun called just now. And, dear sister, I believe we have a problem."
Two major problems posed in one prologue chapter... I wonder whether I'm rushing things...
Please review :) Thank you!
