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Haruka hadn’t been in a good mood for the last couple of days.
Naoki Shiina was the main reason, and Master was becoming insufferable over his photobook as well. It was bad enough the book had ever been published, but now it was actually selling copies. Every so often, a couple of giggling girls would come in to buy the book and gawk at him. His apparent boyfriend, the guy who always wore purple, had come in while Master was out, and bought seven copies. Why did he need that many? She was even having to deal with telephone and online orders. It made no sense. Haruka supposed Master was attractive; but he was still Master. And he had a stupid haircut. There should be a law that his fans had to spend at least fifteen minutes in his presence before being allowed to buy his book.
She’d arrived for her evening shift and was just clearing tables when Master waltzed in, “I’ll need your help on Saturday. I’m hosting a fan event.”
Haruka closed her eyes. “Haven’t you had a bunch of those already?”
“Don’t be silly. The book has only just been released,” he said, and went back to arranging the display of his photobooks. At least he was paying her for this, but the situation was becoming unbearable. It was worse than when Kilala had her fans in the café every single day.
Master went out after a couple of hours, leaving Haruka alone to mind the café. She called Saruhara and promised him cake if he’d come over to Donbura for a little while. Maybe it wasn’t the best idea when she was already in a bad mood; but she needed to vent. She needed to tell someone about everything that happened with Naoki Shiina, and whether she liked it or not, Saruhara was her closest confidant right now.
“Interesting,” said Saruhara, when Haruka had finished telling him the story. “And he sent you a copy of his new manuscript?”
“Yeah. And it was better than anything I’ve drawn in forever!” Just thinking about it made Haruka’s teeth grind. “I might as well just give up. I’m never going to be a mangaka!”
“Not with that attitude,” said Saruhara.
“What am I supposed to do? Everyone loves him, he’s more talented than I am … and he does the whole stupid man of mystery act.” Haruka thought it horribly pretentious, but the bunny suit seemed to go down well with Shiina’s fans.
“You could find him, if you really wanted to,” said Saruhara. “You could ask Sonoza again, or there are people online that can do it.”
She never wanted to see Sonoza again for the rest of her life. And was Saruhara really – “Are you suggesting I pay someone to hack him?!”
“I’m not suggesting anything,” said Saruhara. “I said you could, if you wanted to. The fact you’re choosing not to indicates that you don’t really hate him that much.”
The point was soaring way above Saruhara’s head, “I don’t want to go over to his house and threaten him or something. I just want him to leave me alone!”
“He is leaving you alone. You’re the one that’s upset,” said Saruhara.
Haruka wanted to smack him, “Of course I’m upset! He stole MY manga!”
“You tried confronting him, and it didn’t work. You’ll have to find another way to address the problem,” Saruhara said. “And now, a haiku. Spring flowers blooming. Emerged from the winter snow, that covered my hate.”
***
The main café space at Donbura was covered in posters of Master – all of which Haruka had had to put up herself, snarling under her breath the whole time. She had replenished the display of his photobooks and set up tables full of snacks. Master hadn’t lifted a finger himself, and she didn’t know where he was. Probably making himself look beautiful for all his fans.
By 12pm, the café was almost completely full. All the seats had been taken and people were now standing, gathered around the stage area that had been set up like it was for Kilala. Haruka was secretly glad that she’d reserved two tickets for Saruhara and Tarou. It made her feel like she at least had some kind of support, although Tarou had quite plainly told her he was only coming along to buy a copy of the book.
Master walked on stage, to cheers and applause from the audience, and said “Good afternoon, everyone. I am Kaito Goshikida, the field commander of the Dragonfires. I was born a hero, I fight as a hero, and I will always be a hero.”
She was secretly glad that Jirou had gone to visit his hometown and wasn’t here today. He wouldn’t be happy to hear Master taking all the credit for the supposed success of the Dragonfires.
“I have won an award for my heroic efforts.” Master gestured to Haruka, and she grudgingly handed him the trophy he’d been given. “And now I have released my first photobook, I’m the Hero! You should buy it. If you have already bought it, you should buy it again.”
Haruka looked out at the audience, most of whom appeared rapt at these words. Why were they all so obsessed with him?
“I’m hosting this event today to say thank you to all my loyal fans. But I also have an announcement to make,” said Master.
He hadn’t said anything about an announcement to Haruka. She refused to get involved, unless he was paying her for it.
“I’m collaborating with a very talented artist to draw a manga about my heroic journey. It will be released early next year; and depicts a side of me that you’ve never seen before. Like my photobook, you should buy it.”
A manga? Why had he asked someone else to draw it, instead of paying Haruka? She was still in a creative slump, and she didn’t think trying to draw a manga about Master would break her out of it. But it would be nice to have been asked. More importantly, she needed the money. Who had Master hired instead of her?
Master said, “The artist I’m working with is here today. You may be familiar with his current hit, True First Love Hero. Please welcome Naoki Shiina!”
It felt to Haruka as if all the air had been sucked out of the room. She seemed to have lost all control of her body as her head turned towards the front door, just at the moment a familiar figure in a pink bunny suit came through it. He walked across to join a grinning Master.
Haruka couldn’t take any more. She marched through the crowd and right up onto the stage, “Master! How could you?!”
“How could I what?” said Master.
“How could you ask that guy to work with you? You know he stole MY manga!”
“He’s an award-winning artist. I wasn’t going to say no,” said Master. “Anyway, you can’t draw it. You work for me. It’s a conflict of interest.”
“You did this on purpose!” said Haruka. She stormed over to Shiina and grabbed him by the front of his stupid costume, “And as for you …!”
Naoki Shiina seemed a little shorter than he’d been the last time she saw him. How was that possible? Now he was only slightly taller than Haruka. Maybe she was remembering wrong, and either way, she didn’t care.
“You knew I worked here! You’re just trying to make me look bad in front of everyone!”
Shiina shook his head.
“Yes you are! I’m tired of you copying me! I’ll show you!” Haruka yelled.
The squeak that came from Shiina sounded a little high-pitched for a man, but by the time Haruka heard it, she was already wrestling on the ground with him. A little voice in the back of her head told her this wasn’t a good idea. Without transforming, she probably didn’t stand much chance against a grown man – and she’d attacked him first. He might call the police on her. It wasn’t in her best interests to prolong the fight, so Haruka would have to do something, fast.
She reached for the mascot’s head and pulled. “Let’s see who you really are –” Her voice broke off as she saw who was under the suit. Naoki Shiina was a girl? One that wasn’t much older than Haruka? “You’re Naoki Shiina?”
“Kind of.” The girl shoved at her, “Let me get up!”
Haruka shifted backwards, and the girl stood up. Well, that would explain why Shiina had appeared a little different than Haruka remembered him. She probably should have paid more attention to that.
"What do you mean, kind of?" said Haruka.
“I’m Yui. I'm his stunt double," said the girl.
“What!”
“Mr Shiina gets invited to so many events he can’t attend them all, so …” Yui looked wary, and Haruka felt bad. She didn’t want to be the cause of someone getting fired, “So sometimes I have to go instead and stand in for him.”
“You mean he’s cheating his fans?” said Haruka, as loudly as possible. She hoped some of the audience were filming this.
“It’s Mr Shiina’s game, I don’t ask too many questions,” said Yui.
Haruka pointed at her. “You heard her! Naoki Shiina is lying to you! He’s using an innocent kid to pose as him!”
“I’m 23,” said Yui.
Master cleared his throat and said, “This is my fan event. Please sit down.”
***
Haruka browsed idly through her phone. In the couple of hours it took her to clear up the café (with help from Saruhara and Tarou), Naoki Shiina had issued a public statement saying that he had never deceived his fans or asked Yui to falsely identify herself as him. Pretty much everyone seemed to be on his side. She’d noticed a couple of tweets identifying her as “the plagiarist Haruka Kitou”, but not many people had picked up on that yet. It was only a matter of time.
“So, Naoki Shiina eludes you once again,” said Saruhara.
“I think Yui should have called the police to come and arrest you,” said Tarou.
“Yeah. Thanks for your support, guys,” said Haruka between clenched teeth.
“We helped you clean up,” Saruhara pointed out. “And your Master has completely sold out his photobooks. I hear he’s already had a lot of interest in pre-orders for his manga, too.”
“'His' manga? It should be my manga! He should have asked me to draw it!” Haruka said.
“Perhaps, but don’t you think you’re lucky you still have a job?” said Saruhara.
Tarou said, “Last week, Kiriyama tried to put a snail in Ms Sanae’s tea and told her I did it. I was lucky I didn’t get fired. You should put today behind you and try to move on.”
Haruka put down the cup of tea she was currently drinking from. Suddenly, she had no more desire to finish it, “Thanks, Tarou.”
Saruhara said, “We're your friends. That's what we're here for.”
Maybe he was right, and after all, Haruka would need to keep a low profile for the near future. She contemplated ordering a bunny suit of her own.