Author's notes: So yep, this chapter is a week later than planned. To add insult to injury, contrary to my revised promise, this still isn't the last chapter. New content kept jumping in as I wrote, this chapter became too long (both for aesthetic purposes and for getting it done on schedule), and then I stumbled upon a decent spot for a cliffhanger, so here we are. The final chapter should be much shorter, so I'll shoot to get it out on February 23.

An Explosive Clashing of Rivals

- Part 5: Showdown -

The Warm Tones Studio offices were on the 34th through 46th floors of a skyscraper covered with windows that reflected nothing but smooth flat blackness. Just looking up at it was enough to make me feel weak and insignificant.

This wasn't a fight I belonged in. But I went inside anyway and told the receptionist I wanted to see President Sasaki, and no, I didn't have an appointment, but I was confident she would see me.

Being the office boy at the nation's smallest and most unsuccessful talent agency shouldn't have been enough clout to get me past the receptionist. Logically, he should have sent me away without wasting a moment of Sasaki's time. But my self-confidence won the battle, and the receptionist placed a call to Sasaki's office. He gave her my name, and a moment later he hung up the phone and gave me directions.

I took the elevator up and walked through a corridor lined with pristine, sterile offices from which crisply suited employees with polished haircuts hurried about their business. I dodged them, trying all the while not to look as out of place as I felt, and reached the door to Sasaki's office.

"Hello, Kyon," Sasaki smiled from her seat behind a desk that could have crushed me like a bug. "Have you decided you want a job with Warm Tones Studio?"

"As if you'd let me have one." I sighed and tossed the newspaper with the bunny suit photo of Miss Asahina onto Sasaki's desk. "I came here to talk to you about this."

"Ah, yes. I read about that." She gave a disdainful shake of her head.

"You're the one who got it into the papers. And who told my parents I was getting no pay at SO3 Studio. Don't insult me by denying it."

"Oh, I won't. But I'm hurt, Kyon. Why would you jump to the conclusion that I'm behind these things?"

"What the hell do you mean, you're hurt?" I slammed my palms down on her desk. "You publicly humiliated one of my friends... you set my parents against me... you, one of my oldest friends! How the hell can you think for one second that I've hurt you even a fraction as much as you hurt me?"

Sasaki leaned back in her massive cushioned chair, a smile playing across her face. She looked like the villain in a secret agent movie. "You're pointing your finger in the wrong direction, Kyon. Your boss is the one who stopped delivering your paychecks. Your boss is the one who arranged that tasteless photo shoot for Mikuru Asahina. All I did was expose the truth. Your boss is the one who made that truth ugly."

"I'm not here to talk about Haruhi." And believe me, I already gave her an earful about the wrongs of sexually objectifying women and debasing your clients. But it wasn't like Haruhi had evil motives; she was just trying to bring in money so that she could keep giving us our paychecks. And she at least had the sense to use a pseudonym for Miss Asahina when she sold the photos to magazines. "I'm here to talk about you. What happened to you, Sasaki? You used to be a nice person, who cared about people, and believed in doing the right thing. Why would you do something like this?"

She shook her head, still smiling. "Poor, naive Kyon. The question isn't why would I do something like this; it's why wouldn't I do it. I run a company. The way companies get ahead is by outperforming and demoralizing the competition. That's all there is to it."

"You used to believe in something more than that. Something better."

"You're projecting your own values onto me, Kyon. 'What happened to you' isn't the right question, either. It's what hasn't been happening to me." She stood up from her chair and walked over to the massive window overlooking the city, allowing her to see out but no one to see in. "All the time you were my friend, and later my boyfriend, you questioned everything I told you about the world. Always arguing that there has to be more purpose to life than just passing on your genes. Always looking up at the sky and telling me you see more there than distant balls of gas and a great sea of empty darkness. Always dreaming, always trying to convince me to see your dreams."

I haven't the foggiest notion of who you're talking about, but it isn't me. I always just sat and listened whenever you went into one of your philosophical diatribes. I can guarantee that I never once argued with you about anything.

"You were so persistent that even though I knew the truth of things, I let myself get sucked into your fanciful perspective. I wasn't aware of it, but once I broke up with you, I slowly but surely drifted back into reality. And without your voice to lead me astray again, that's where I've stayed." She flicked a lock of her hair. "You were just a bump in my road. So long as you're not a part of my life, I have a smooth, unperturbed ride."

"I don't believe that."

"Oh, don't take it the wrong way." She turned her head from the window, half looking back at me, and smiled, and this time the smile wasn't cruel or mocking. "We had good times together. I'll always think of you fondly. It's just that I don't have any reason to continue thinking the way I thought while we were friends."

"I'm saying I don't believe I had anything to do with you being a nice person. Sure, you were always a bit cynical, but you never used that as an excuse to treat people like garbage."

"You're projecting your values again. That's a bad habit, and kind of offensive, actually. The fact is, Kyon, I'm very happy with who I am and where I've gotten in life. I hold power over hundreds of people. I have a job that makes good use of my mental facilities. I have enough money to buy anything a whim should push me to buy. As for the all-important goal of passing on my genes, well... I may not be as sexy as your boss or that bunny girl toy you keep, but a woman with my wealth and brains can have any man she wants."

"The way you're acting right now, I don't think any decent man would want you."

I immediately felt bad for saying that, but Sasaki didn't sound the least bit bothered. "Now you're projecting your values onto other men. Maybe men like you wouldn't want me, but I don't want a man like you anyways. That's why I dumped you, remember?"

This was getting off onto an unrelated and dangerous topic, and I wanted to end this whole conversation as soon as possible. So I just said it. "Stop your smear campaign on Miss Asahina."

She turned her gaze back out the window, and all of a sudden she sounded disinterested. "Why should I?"

"Because it's the right thing to do. Because Miss Asahina is a sweet and innocent woman who doesn't deserve to have people look at her like a cheap centerfold. Because you don't gain anything by doing this to her."

"Of course I gain something. The judges for the Ultra Stars of the Future competition aren't going to ignore this."

"So, you were lying when we met that day on the street."

"Hmm?"

"You said that SO3 Studio was no competition for Warm Tones Studio, that we weren't rivals. If that were true, you wouldn't have done something to sabotage us. Much less break the law to do it."

"Break the law?"

"Haruhi says none of those photos or any paperwork connected with them ever had the name Mikuru Asahina on it. It was all under a pseudonym, and she's not a popular enough idol that someone would recognize her. The only way you could have dug that up so quickly is by hacking our computer files."

"You've become quite the armchair detective, Kyon. Yes, that's right. One of my I.T. people happens to be an expert hacker, a Mr. Ya... Ya..." She waved her hand. "Ya-something-or-other. Anyway, he had not trouble at all getting into your company's files."

It was rather uncharacteristic of Sasaki to forget someone's name, but it didn't matter. I pressed on: "Haruhi must really have you guys scared. It wasn't even an accident, was it, that we bumped into you on the street with Miss Asahina's brother and Yuki Nagato in tow? You probably hired her just to get Haruhi's goat."

"Now you're thinking entirely too highly of yourselves."

It was a bit paranoid. Haruhi-level paranoid, even. But Sasaki wasn't offering any alternate explanation for why she would have someone with Nagato's job tagging along with her. "Sasaki, you need to stop all this."

"Sorry, but I don't. You're the ones who need to stop, if you don't want to be humiliated and annihilated." She turned around, leaning her shoulders back against the window. "Of course, you could stop me right now. Just shove me through this window, and I'll splatter into unrecognizable chunks on the street below, and SO3 Studio will be saved from further harassment. There are no security guards on this floor, so you could make a clean getaway."

There was something alarmingly serious about this suggestion. I mean, there's no way Sasaki could possibly think I would do such a thing, and if I did, there's no way she would just stand there and let me kill her. As much as she had changed since I last saw her, I was absolutely certain of those two points. Despite that, again, something about the way she said it sounded utterly serious. Which is why I answered, just as serious, "I didn't come here to hurt you, or even to fight you. I came to stop us from being enemies. I know what you said when you dumped me, and I'll admit I was hurt for a while, but I never wanted anything bad to happen to you. Maybe it was stupid, but I always hoped that if we ever met again, we could be friends."

For a moment, Sasaki just blinked. There have only been two previous occasions where I was certain that I had caught Sasaki off-guard, but this was a third one. And honestly, it made me sad that she had no clue how I felt about her. Maybe I should have done something to keep in touch after we broke up... called her on her birthday, or sent her a message on social media, or wrote her a Christmas card. I guess I just assumed that if I wasn't hearing from her, she didn't want to hear from me.

But Sasaki had a different theory. After those few seconds of blinking and staring at me, she laughed. "Wow, you sure are thoughtless, Kyon. You felt that way all this time, and you never even once tried to get in touch with me? Some friend."

I looked at the floor. "I'm sorry... I didn't mean to be such a jerk."

"No, no, I'm just teasing. The truth is, I get it, even if you don't. You're the most loyal person I've ever met, Kyon, but without meaning to, you've moved on from me. You've got a whole new circle of friends. It's only natural that you would spend time with them instead of calling up friends you haven't seen in years. Anyone who's given the choice would eat a fresh vegetable instead of a stale one."

"I don't think our friendship ever got stale. It just went on hiatus."

"Maybe that wasn't a good metaphor to use. The point is that life goes on, and it's better to enjoy the present than to cling to things that are part of your past and can't fit into your future. Some people, like you I'm sure, would want things to just stay the same, and keep all the same people in your little circle for as long as you live."

I guess that's a pretty fair assessment of my feelings.

"The trouble with that is, for any person with a reasonable lifespan, say, anything more than 20 years, the people in their circle when they start out will no longer exist by the time they die. For one thing, people change as they get older, like it or not. You can tell this just by looking at the people who exist in the present. There isn't an infant in the world who acts anything like a teenager, there isn't a teenager in the world who acts anything like a middle-aged person, and there isn't a middle-aged person in the world who acts like an elderly person. Everyone eventually gains experience and loses innocence. It's a law of nature."

"But we're getting older together."

"That doesn't have any bearing on the issue, because everyone changes in different ways with age, and at different times. Even if two friends were born on the same day, they'll naturally be affected differently by the passing of time. And that's only the start of it. People change for reasons other than just getting older. We all try to avoid tragedies, conflicts, and epiphanies, but they happen just the same. Even when nothing happens to you, your friend may have his or her whole world changed. Sometimes you still like the person they've turned into. More rarely, that person can still fit into your life. But however it turns out, they're not the same person they were before."

I wondered about that. The more Sasaki droned on about this subject, the more I was feeling like she was still the same person I'd always known after all.

"That's why you're just as well off spending time with new friends. You're a new person, and the people you knew when you were younger are different people, so it makes more sense to find people who get along with who you are now than to stubbornly cling to people who once satisfied a desire inside you and don't satisfy that desire anymore."

"Is that really all relationships are about? Just satisfying desires?"

"The good ones are. If you're in a relationship where you aren't getting anything that you want, well, that's pretty much the definition of an abusive relationship, isn't it?"

I couldn't hold back a short laugh. "I guess that's true. It still seems like a dismal way of putting things, though."

"Well, I satisfied a desire in you once, didn't I?"

And just like that, it felt uncomfortable for me again. "I don't know," I answered, trying hard not to think of the make out sessions I'd had with Sasaki. Not that they were bad; I just wished in retrospect that I hadn't allowed our relationship to go in that direction. "I just hung out with you because we were friends. I never thought about what I was getting out of it."

"Same old Kyon." She shook her head. "Never looking out for yourself."

"I just said that I never thought about it. That doesn't mean being friends with you wasn't good for me."

"Okay, but then you agree with my basic point, don't you? A relationship has to fulfill some sort of desire to be worthwhile. Now that you're an idealist working a bottom rung job at a talent agency that's about to go under, and I'm a ruthless materialist running a talent agency that's about to dominate the Japanese market, what do we have to offer each other?"

Just the Japanese market? Okay, Haruhi has seriously got you beat as far as ambition goes. "Do we really have to offer each other anything at this point? We're old friends."

"That's just sentimental attachment. And even if I agreed with the general principle, there's still the fact that you're a competitor. A totally inept competitor, but a competitor nonetheless. I can't get what I want without running over you."

"So what? That doesn't mean we can't be friends. It definitely doesn't mean we can't fight each other fairly and honorably, instead of resorting to smear campaigns."

"Still concerned for that Miss Asahina, I see."

Was I supposed to forget about her over the course of ten minutes? Give it ten centuries; maybe by then I'll have reincarnated enough times to forget about her.

"Well, you've given me plenty of food for thought. I'll consider it." She tilted her wrist up to give a side glance at her watch. "I'm afraid I have an appointment with a client in just three minutes, though, so this will have to conclude our little meeting. You can call me anytime; I'm usually in the office, but the card Tachibana gave you has my mobile number on it, too."

I guess I had been dismissed. It was a little weird; I was so used to seeing Sasaki leave when we said goodbye. I never came over to her house, really, just picked her up at the door. We went back to my place (which was of course really my parents' place) now and then, but she always refused any offer to walk her to her door. This made no sense to me, since at my place we could only make out if my parents weren't home, and then always with the risk of them walking in on us, but whatever. The point is, I'd never had to walk out on Sasaki before.

Not that it was a problem. I certainly wasn't satisfied with "I'll consider it" as the final word on her smear campaign on Miss Asahina, but we hadn't been counting on Sasaki being reasonable, after all. Also, I knew, without the least bit of trepidation, uncertainty, or equivocation what my farewell salutation to her should be.

I put a hand on the doorknob and turned to give her a parting wave. "See you later, old friend."

She nodded and smiled as I left.

Koizumi was waiting for me by the car. As I approached, rather than climbing back inside and starting up the engine, he held open the passenger-side door for me. I was lost enough in thought that I got in and let him close the door for me before I realized how unbelievably effeminate this made me look. Knowing him, that was probably Koizumi's whole intention. Damn him.

He got behind the wheel and asked, "So, were you able to get anything?"

I reached into the lining of my coat and pulled out the audio recorder. "The whole thing."

"Not just innuendos, or inferences? Nothing ambiguous?"

"Totally clear. She confessed to hacking our files."

"And you got out without them suspecting a thing." He smiled, and started up the car. "Well done. I must admit, I was less than confident that this would work."

"Yeah. We've got her by the throat, all right." I stared at the audio recorder for a moment. It was funny to think that this one little object was all we needed to save SO3 Studio.

I opened the door on my side and pulled back my arm to throw it out onto the asphalt.

Koizumi seized me by the wrist. "What are you doing?!" I think I just set a new world record for most alarm and disquiet ever aroused in Koizumi's voice. "Miss Suzumiya trusted you to do this, and you're going to betray her for Sasaki?!"

"I'm not going to betray anyone," I snapped back at him. "That's why I have to destroy this!"

Koizumi firmed up his grip. "Calm down and give me the recorder."

"I just told Sasaki I don't want us to be enemies – how can I do that and then blackmail her?!"

Koizumi's voice was now as solid and sure as stone. "I understand your doubts. Hand it over so that we can discuss them like reasonable men."

I looked into Koizumi's eyes. I saw... an honesty there that I didn't see in him very often. Something hard-edged, but sincere and trustworthy.

Or maybe I just figured that he couldn't keep a firm hold of the recorder every second. Either way, I gave in and handed it over.

He took it and set in inside the cup holder between us. "I understand that you don't want to hurt Miss Sasaki. That you would still feel that way after she has proven perfectly willing to hurt you is quite admirable."

"Save it." I folded my arms. "If I were the kind of guy who feels he has to hit back every time someone does something wrong to him, Haruhi would be perpetually black and blue."

"I do not mean to persuade you out of that conviction. The issue here is that destroying the evidence on that recording affects people other than just you and Miss Sasaki. You said you would try to persuade Sasaki to stop her smear campaign against Miss Asahina. Since you have not told me that you succeeded, that means she is determined to proceed with it."

"Sorry, but you just made a bad assumption."

He peered at me with curiosity. I couldn't hold back a smirk. It was refreshing for Koizumi to be wrong about something for once, and for him to be baffled about what I was talking about instead of the other way around.

"You assume she had to say either yes or no. Actually, she said she would consider it."

He rested the side of his head on his knuckle. "And you are satisfied with that? The fate of SO3 Studio, and Miss Asahina's reputation, hinging upon the caprices of an amoral corporate executive?"

"That's my friend you're talking about."

"I assure you, if her friendship had resolved the situation, I would gladly refrain from being frank about her character. But that is not the case. So again I ask: Are you satisfied with leaving our fates entirely in her hands?"

Damn it. "...No. But that doesn't justify using the same sort of dirty tactics against her that she used against us. I don't want to hurt her."

"Hurting her should be unnecessary, if she responds reasonably when we show her that we have this evidence."

"Don't give me that. Me blackmailing her alone would be hurting her."

"You surprise me."

"...What?"

"I had not thought you were the sort to so highly estimate his own emotional value to another person."

I didn't know who I wanted to punch more: Koizumi for saying that, or myself for giving him the opening. I had to admit it was a fairly egotistical thing to say, even if I didn't mean it that way.

Koizumi fingered the audio recorder. "Perhaps I should listen to this before we take this debate any further. It may be that Miss Sasaki's incriminating words were not captured with sufficient audio fidelity to use as proof, in which case the whole issue is moot." He gave a wry smile. "Tragically so, from my perspective."

"Yeah," I said. "Go ahead."

He hit play, and we sat there a few minutes as he listened. I thought maybe we should start driving as it played back, in case a security guard got suspicious of our loitering, but Koizumi was in the driver's seat and I didn't suppose he could listen too well while driving. I kept an eye out for security guards, but thankfully no one approached.

Maybe I was being stubborn here. If Miss Asahina were publicly humiliated because I refused to use this weapon, how could I forgive myself? For that matter, wasn't allowing Sasaki to do something so despicable being, in a way, just as bad a friend as blackmailing her was?

As the recording came to an end, Koizumi looked thoughtful.

"Well?" I said, though my heart was already sinking. Even played on that tiny speaker, every word Sasaki said sounded crystal clear.

"...I think we need not worry about Miss Sasaki doing anything else underhanded against SO3 Studio."

I blinked. "That's great. But, um, why not?"

"Remarkable that you didn't notice." He smiled. "Something you said during that conversation touched her. She sheathed her blades, let drop the master villain mask she had been wearing, and allowed herself to address you in a conversational manner. You made her again see herself as your friend. You have said that when she was your friend, she would not do something so cruel as what she did to Miss Asahina. Therefore, assuming she has anything more planned to demoralize SO3 Studio, I do not think she could bring herself to go through with it after that."

I nodded. I wasn't sure I understood, but I definitely wanted to believe in Sasaki.

"My conclusion, then, is that we do not need to blackmail Miss Sasaki. However," he added, sticking the audio recorder into his vest pocket, "...I had better hold on to this. Just in case."

Should have seen that coming. Still, I guess it's not the worst idea in the world. If Koizumi tried to do anything with that recording, like blackmailing Sasaki into buying him a yacht, I'd hear about it from Sasaki, and Koizumi knows it.

Besides... I'd like to think I can trust Koizumi not to do that. Just like with Sasaki.

The last week before the competition went by like a blur. Many was the time I felt myself nodding off from overwork, but Haruhi was there to yell at me to work harder, so I had to wait for her to drop off before I could let my own forehead plop down at my desk. I would awake to the smell of some lovingly brewed coffee from Miss Asahina and a completely misplaced insinuation from Koizumi with regard to the fact that Haruhi and I were sleeping at the same desk.

Incidentally, it was just as well that I was spending most of my nights at the office. While I had convinced my parents that those photos of Miss Asahina were photoshopped (I sealed the deal by introducing them to the idol herself, correctly intuiting that no one who had spent five minutes in conversation with Mikuru Asahina could believe that she would willingly pose for those kinds of photos) and talked them into letting me stick with SO3 Studio until the outcome of the Ultra Stars of the Future Competition had been decided (also helped greatly by their meeting Miss Asahina, though I most regretfully suspect that the motivating emotion was sympathy rather than confidence that she would win and ensure a return to my drawing a steady paycheck), I wouldn't say that the atmosphere around my house was exactly comforting now that everyone knew I was working without pay. My little (miniature, really) bonus check did little to liven up the atmosphere.

Miss Asahina was a real trooper through it all. Haruhi had her rehearsing almost nonstop, but though she more than once implored that she needed a break (on one occasion I had to absolutely put my foot down and remind Haruhi of labor laws, or I'm sure Miss Asahina would have collapsed from exhaustion), she never showed the least sign of self-doubt, much less of giving up. However much practice she still needed, in terms of spirit she was 100% prepared for the big day.

During my fleeting, precious breaks I nervously scanned the trade news for any sign that Sasaki was continuing the smear campaign, but all I found was articles about her own new superstar, Kuyoh Suoh. The "mysterious beauty" they called her, though how "mysterious" a person can be when they have profiles giving her age, weight, blood type, place of birth, and measurements can be is seriously up for debate.

Her capacity for mysteriousness was further reduced by the fact that Taniguchi knew her. "Are you kidding me?!" he burst out, snatching a magazine out of my hand and gaping at her profile. "Kuyoh Suoh is a contestant in the Ultra Stars of the Future competition?"

"What, you've heard of her?" I asked, picking up the next magazine from the pile.

"Heard of her? Man, I used to date her!"

And just like that, Kuyoh Suoh lost ten thousand points worth of mysteriousness. Assuming that what Taniguchi said was true, which I had good reason to doubt. We met working as stock boys at a grocery store, and I hadn't been able to completely rid myself of him since then. Trust me, he was not exactly suave with the ladies.

"You're doubting me? Come on, man!"

Okay, so it wasn't just that he wasn't suave. I hate to be crass, but I had a hard time picturing Taniguchi chasing after anything that wore a "B" cup. And no, I wasn't staring at her chest, and gauging a woman's bra size isn't one of my talents, anyway. I knew her size because it was in her profile.

"Oh, I get it. You think she's out of my league, huh?" He smirked. "Well, here's the catch: I dated her in high school, before she rose to fame."

I could have pointed out that she still hadn't risen to fame, but there was an uglier nit to pick. "I find that hard to believe. It says right here she went to a very prestigious all-girls school."

"Man, I know that. I volunteered to help out with festival prep there once, and I bumped into her."

He volunteered? Why would he ever volunteer for – Oh, right. All-girls school.

"We hit it off and started dating. We went out for a little over a year, but..." He sighed.

"She finally realized you weren't good enough for her?"

He scowled at me. "No, she caught me kissing another girl and ran away crying. I tried to calm her down by telling her it was no big deal, and she got mad and told me she didn't want to see me again."

Somehow, Taniguchi continues to find new ways to repulse me. "That's really nothing to brag about."

"I know it," he sighed. "I never felt so lousy as I did that day. I don't even know why I told you about it. You'll probably make fun of me for the rest of my life for having an incredible girl like that and just... throwing her away." For a moment I actually felt sorry for him. Then he held up the magazine again and said, "I mean, even in high school she was hot, but now? Damn!"

"Hey!" Haruhi approached and shot her index finger at Taniguchi. "Your break ended ten minutes ago!"

He retreated a step. "B-but I don't even work here..."

I guess I should explain. Haruhi realized we needed a few extra hands to get the final preparations done in time, so she had us call in friends for help. Taniguchi could always be relied on for such occasions, since he never turned down an opportunity to be near the divine Miss Asahina.

Haruhi held no special sympathy for volunteers, though. "Mikuru's outfit still needs at least eight more ribbons sewn onto it! Get to it!"

"What about Kyon?" the traitor protested.

"Kyon still has eight minutes left; you don't." I have no idea how she knew that, but whatever. "Now, move!"

Taniguchi moved. In fairness, there's a good chance he would have moved right out the door if Haruhi hadn't promised all the volunteers passes to the competition. But three hours of young, beautiful ladies in flattering outfits singing tawdry love songs was the closest thing to heaven that Taniguchi knew of, so he got right back to work.

"Disgusting," Haruhi muttered. "He's in love with her, isn't he?"

"Miss Asahina? I guess so." I didn't think you could call what Taniguchi felt for Miss Asahina love, but I didn't feel like arguing the point.

"No, you idiot. Kuyoh Suoh!"

"Excuse me? He hasn't seen her since high school."

"That's what's so disgusting about it. You can tell by the way he talks about her that he's never had it as good as he did with her, and all this time he hasn't done a thing about it."

"Well, she did break up with him," I reminded her.

"So what? If I were in his shoes, I'd do everything in my power to get the guy I loved back with me, even sail around the world three times."

"Didn't you tell me that love is a sort of mental illness?"

"Yes, and when you have an incurable illness, what's the only logical course of action?"

Having your will made out and playing through your bucket list of video games?

Haruhi shoved her face in mine and belted out, "Symptomatic treatment! You've got to get together with the object of your affections so that both of you can be as happy as possible given your unfortunate condition."

There was a moment of silence. But Haruhi didn't pull her face away. I guess she was expecting me to offer some sort of comeback.

I tried: "Well, that's easy enough to say, but now that she's on her way to becoming a big pop idol, why would she give the time of day to a nobody like him? Especially after the way he treated her."

"Idiot!" She spun away from me and stalked off. "You don't understand anything about how a woman's heart works!"

I watched her go. Actually, I understood what she was saying. When you love someone, you can forgive them for being a total jerk now and then, so long as they're sorry. And even if you're fabulously successful and they're a worthless pauper, you still want to be with them.

Of course, realizing those two things put me in a very awkward position. Because Haruhi had made clear that she was sorry for the way she treated Miss Asahina, and the only other reason I had for not taking her out was that I was a worthless pauper.

The gala event arrived. I knew we were just a tiny struggling agency attending one of the major talent events of the year, and had no intention of trying to make it appear otherwise, so I wore my usual suit. Haruhi, on the other hand, wore a trench coat, bright red boots, a fedora, and a pair of sunglasses.

I rested my weary temple against the tips of my fingers. "Couldn't you have worn something more inconspicuous?"

"This is an idol competition! The whole point is to be as conspicuous as possible."

"Conspicuous and attractive. You look like a cartoon private eye."

"Now, Kyon, you should be honest." Koizumi, matching Haruhi's outlandish dress style, wore a suit that probably cost more than I earn in a year, with a bright red carnation on the breast. "You clearly think she looks lovely, so you should say so."

"She looks ridiculous." Actually, it was a pleasantly kinky look for her, even if I didn't like not being able to see her eyes, but there was a difference between a look I would enjoy at the office or in the pages of a magazine and one I would enjoy being seen in public with.

"You should talk," she said, seizing me by the tie and practically throttling me with it. "Can't you even put on a tie properly?"

"Perhaps he relies upon you to tend to it," Koizumi said. "You certainly do so most dotingly."

I would have had sharp retorts for both of them, but I was too busy fighting for air.

"Better," Haruhi grunted, giving my tie one last straightening pull. "Come on, let's go."

She slipped her right arm in Koizumi's and her left arm in mine, giving us no chance to protest before pulling us along. This gave Haruhi complete authority over the seating assignments for all three of us, planting me right next to the main aisle, and leaving our guests to take the seats on the other side of Koizumi. (Not that I wanted to sit next to Taniguchi and chat with him. Oh no, I'd much rather sit next to my trench coated boss.) Miss Asahina was waiting backstage for her moment in the spotlight. I wanted to be there to offer her moral support, but Haruhi had insisted that since she was scheduled to go on towards the end of the competition, the rest of us should just enjoy the first half of the show.

"Well, well, fancy meeting you here."

My head whipped around to see none other than Sasaki seated just across the aisle. I had expected her to show up in one of her expensive business suits, but she was instead wearing a shimmering ballroom gown which, although very dignified in its own way, highlighted her femininity in a way that was very atypical of Sasaki.

"You can stop gawking and drooling," Haruhi muttered to me.

I wasn't drooling – not even figuratively. Sasaki just wasn't attractive to me physically, and I had seen her in a bathing suit enough times to be sure of that. However, I was staring a bit at the unfamiliar sight of Sasaki looking feminine, so I did a deliberate blink to shake myself out of it and said, "Is this a coincidence, or do you have some influence over this event's seating arrangements?"

She slipped on a smug smile. "I'll leave that for you to guess. But honestly, Kyon, you don't really think your little agency means that much to me?"

"I guess not." Her response seemed a bit like waffling to me; first she said she wasn't going to answer, but wasn't the second part essentially an answer? "Nice to see you. You too, Mister Asahina."

He gave me a friendly smile and wave in reply, but apparently didn't think it polite to shout at me from where he was seated.

Sasaki shook her head. "How rude, Kyon – leaving out Tachibana from your greeting."

Tachibana, who was seated to Sasaki's immediate left, looked like she couldn't care less. She was intensely swiping and poking at her phone, perhaps coordinating all of the Warm Tones Studio employees who were preparing their clients' performances. I doubted she had even noticed I was there. I gave her a hi, though, just to appease Sasaki.

I couldn't help but notice that Nagato was not among their group.

"Of course not," Sasaki said. "If every employee of Warm Tones Studio got a seat at this event, we'd fill the entire theatre by ourselves. I gave passes solely to our elite executive staff."

I guessed that was the only sensible way to do it. It made me start to realize that there were disadvantages to being part of a big agency.

"She's not going to take you back, you know," Haruhi muttered to me.

I wasn't sure how to respond to that. I didn't want Sasaki to take me back in the first place, but I obviously wasn't going to say that with her sitting right across the aisle. Before I could come up with anything, the announcer came on and started the show. So for the next hour or so, we just settled back and enjoyed.

That is, as much as one can enjoy while knowing that the better the performances are, the lower the chances of your beloved angelic idol winning the competition, and the greater your chances of being out of a job and getting mocked by your ex-girlfriend. And I have to admit, there were some very good performers trying out, and putting so much of their heart and soul into the show that I couldn't help but applaud.

Besides, I had to have faith in Miss Asahina, and that meant believing that she didn't have to rely on everyone else doing a mediocre job. In the lulls between performances, I even complimented Sasaki on some of her clients.

She shook her head. "They're just the warm-up... young hopefuls who I had to give at least a chance. Kuyoh Suoh is our big guns."

As another song wrapped up, Haruhi nudged me. "Mikuru's on in 15 minutes. Let's go."

Abandoning our guests (who were probably not too sad to see Haruhi and me leave), we headed backstage.

"Hey, Mikuru! Are you ready?" Haruhi said as we burst into Miss Asahina's dressing room without knocking. I half-expected to find her in the middle of changing clothes, squeaking "Don't look!"

Instead, she was seated at her dressing table, fully in costume, giving us a bright smile and a thumbs up. "Good to go!"

I was still trying to puzzle out where this new, supremely confident Mikuru Asahina had come from. Only Haruhi was supposed to be this confident. I guess you could say that under the circumstances, I should be thrilled at this confidence, but I couldn't quite push the nightmare notion that everyone in the world was turning into Haruhi Suzumiyas out of my head.

We made sure everything was in order, and when the hour arrived, prepped the stage and lights for Miss Asahina's performance. Our setup was modest compared to some of the ones that had already gone on, but still rather ambitious considering that it was left to just me and Koizumi to set everything up. I did my best not to grumble as we scrambled to get everything in place, though. After all, this was for Miss Asahina: the beautiful aspiring superstar who humbled herself enough to serve tea to all the employees at her talent agency.

Our efforts were rewarded as we got a backstage view of Miss Asahina's performance. She stepped up to the microphone and called out, "Hello everyone! I hope you enjoy my song!"

Haruhi had selected for her "Smile for Me", a song from her second album. But she sure didn't sing it the way she did on that album. From the first note, her voice resounded with enthusiasm.

"You could be having a bad day
and it would take all my happiness away
You would only need to sigh
and I'd feel as if all I could do is cry"

It was the same Miss Asahina as ever – the same brightness, the same sincere friendliness, the same charming vulnerability – but there was no warbling, no squeaking, no falling out of key. All I could think was that she must have practiced her heart out these past weeks, and I couldn't be prouder.

She even had the dance moves down perfectly, her costume's dozens of ribbons flowing in flawless sync behind her as she slid and skimmed over the stage. She did a pirouette as she went into the chorus.

"But all you have to do is
Smile for me
Smile for me, baby
And the weight will lift off my heart
everything's right again
if you just
Smile for me
Smile for me, baby
then I promise it's true
I'll be smiling back at you"

It was almost beyond belief. I'd always liked Miss Asahina's singing, but now I was beginning to sincerely believe that we might win this thing. She was giving it her all for the agency, as I'd always known she would, but she was also handling herself like a pro in front of a crowd of the most critical listeners you could ask for: music industry people. This was a coup for her, and for us.

Then disaster struck.

"I understand that things are tough
And sometimes love's just not enough
But if you - W-w-waaah!"

A ribbon caught on the stage floor, making Miss Asahina trip forward, flailing. I could see the entire fate of SO3 Studio falling to the floor with her.

Then she brought her right foot forward, planting it solid against the stage in front of her, straightened up, and continued singing, "...keep on trying, I know someday you'll be back to flying!"

Koizumi, ensconced in front of the sound board, managed to get the prerecorded music to stutter just enough so that Miss Asahina wouldn't lose her place. The whole recovery was so smooth, I wouldn't blame anyone for thinking we had choreographed it.

Whether they thought that or not, the audience loved her heroic recovery. I joined in the cheers, even if it felt rather awkward to do that from backstage.

...Okay, so it is possible that some of them were actually cheering the amount of cleavage that became visible when Miss Asahina stumbled. But I prefer to believe that Miss Asahina's resolve was what wowed them, and either way, it meant victory for us, right?

Miss Asahina finished her song with style, beamed happily at the thunderous applause that followed, and left the stage with a bow. If the judges don't give her the gold trophy after that, then I say screw them. She's done us proud – no, she's done all of humanity proud.

"Way to go, Mikuru!" Haruhi cheered as she rejoined us. "You've done all of humanity proud!"

...Okay, I'm going to pretend that did not just happen.

"You boys can take your seats now. I'll take care of Mikuru from here. Remember to boo all the other contestants!"

I'd already explained to Haruhi three times that that was against the competition rules and could result in our being disqualified. Apparently she had tuned that all out. Fortunately, she also apparently had forgotten her original intent, because she hadn't booed once the whole time she was in the audience.

Regardless, I was perfectly happy to return to my seat. I'd put in enough work on this competition, so I felt entitled to sit back and enjoy some of it.

"Our next contestant is... Kuyoh Suoh!"

The small, bespectacled woman walked onto the stage, and inched her way to the microphone. Her costume was a simple black cloak with a ruby brooch. Her hands trembled as she grasped the microphone. "Um... H-H-Hi, everyone...?" She shifted on her feet. "This is my, um, first competition, but... I would like to sing a new song..."

For a second I wondered if this was a joke of some sort. Her nervousness seemed completely natural, so could Sasaki have possibly faked us out? Presented an untested, untrained novice as her agency's great big hope, just for the laugh of seeing us sweat ourselves over nothing? But when I glanced over at Sasaki, she just gave me an ominous wink.

My eyes shot back to the stage, where Kuyoh Suoh had just taken off her glasses and dropped them in front of her. With them gone, her bare eyes suddenly shone with a stony presence. In a tone of cool, mysterious sensuality, she intoned, "I know what you want."

Her intonation was immediately followed by an opening salvo of rhythmic synthesizer chords, Suoh moving sharply to each one. Then she began to sing:

"I live in the darkness
that's in the back of your mind
I can feel over all your fantasies
even the ones you could never find"

I got a sinking feeling in my stomach, because her voice was uncanny. Sultry, yet almost robotic. It seemed to penetrate right into my skull.

She moved across the stage with moves that were not so much graceful as astounding, sliding from left to right a meter at a time, yet you really had to look to even tell that she was taking a step. Sometimes she did it without budging her arms, her body remaining perfectly level.

"I'm a shadow
right behind you everywhere you go
I'm a shadow
there's not a secret you have that I don't know
and when the night falls
I'll bury you deep inside me
Yeah, I'm your shadow"

There was no cheering yet, but that's probably because the entire audience was staring as spellbound as I was. I didn't want to believe that Miss Asahina could lose this competition after the performance she just gave, but Kuyoh Suoh's performance was... almost inhuman. Just like...

Nagato.

That was it. Kuyoh Suoh wasn't just some young hopeful that Warm Tones Studio had been grooming. She was a card that Sasaki had been holding specifically to trump SO3 Studio's star player, Yuki Nagato.

Maybe by the time Nagato disappeared, they had already invested enough training into Kuyoh Suoh that it wouldn't have made sense to change tracks. Or maybe they suspected Nagato's disappearance could have been a publicity stunt, and we were plotting to bring her back for this competition.

Whatever the case, it was obvious that Suoh was meant specifically to beat Nagato. She had all the same mysterious, unshakable cool, but with the added theme of sensuality. If Nagato were an alien (a scenario I find disturbingly easy to imagine), she would be the sort of alien who you become friends with but never feel like you completely understand, an impenetrable but unquestionably safe enigma. If Kuyoh Suoh were an alien, she would be the sort of alien who lures you away from the rest of your group and then eviscerates you while you have sex with her. I'm the kind of guy who, even in my fantasies, would rather have sex with a woman who I've gotten to know and have an emotional connection with and wouldn't even consider eviscerating me, but I know that sex, in every shape and form, sells. She was the perfect trump card for Yuki Nagato.

Which was really bad, because as much as I love Miss Asahina, I couldn't see her ever beating Yuki Nagato in an idol competition. We were screwed. We were going to lose the competition, my parents were going to make me quit SO3 Studio and get a job alphabetizing files, Miss Asahina would be forced to join Warm Tones Studio and take whatever scraps they threw her way, and once Koizumi took a job with them as well Haruhi would be left alone with the shattered dreams she'd had for SO3 Studio. I wanted to believe that Miss Asahina would still pull out a victory, but I just couldn't.

And then things got worse.