Chapter 10
A Familiar Voice
The stadium roared as night settled in. Cheers rolled through the concrete corridors, shaking the walls as spotlights swept the orange sky.
Logos of the Twelve Agencies gleamed across banners — Aetherion Energies, Cygnus Enterprise, Golden Lion Pharmaceuticals. Brilliant Light Technologies scrolled on the screens. Even the stage they performed on bore Obsidian Industries' insignia. Impossible to miss, impossible to ignore.
Behind the stage, performers paced their dressing rooms, flexing fingers, muttering lyrics, steadying breaths. Some running last-minute drills, while others leaned into mirrors, adjusting makeup with trembling hands.
Felix waited just outside the room marked Starry Sweethearts, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, standing still and staying silent while excitement and dread buzzed all around him.
From behind his sunglasses, his right eye leaked a faint, ghostly blue glow.
"Hey—thanks for waiting. Tonight's the night!" a voice called out.
Stood before him was the pop idol, "Yumiko Sakurazawa", with hands placed on her hips.
Bright lights silhouetted her figure, framing a frilly black-and-white dress dusted with star patterns and a matching decorated mini hat perched atop her head.
"What do you think, Blue? Don't hold back." She smirked playfully at him.
"It's hard to believe you're the crying mess earlier this morning." Felix grinned, annoying the idol as the morning memory ran through his mind.
The smell of hairspray and stage lights faded, replaced by sunlight and coffee.
His face dripped with sweat as the sun brightly shined through window walls in the living room, "Forty seven… forty eight…"
As Felix counted his push-ups, the door of Natsumi's room creaked open. The pop idol walked out, wearing a depressed, sleep-deprived expression.
"…forty-nine… fifty… Good morning. Hope you don't mind, I helped myself to some of your… coffee."
As he stood up to greet her, his voice slowed down as he noticed the look on the young pop idol. Her face was red like a rose, while the bags under her eyes had gotten dark.
"The new character was released last night and I spent all my gacha crystals to get her. But… but…!" Her tears slowly escape her eyes.
"Uhm, there, there?" He tried to be sympathetic.
"She was supposed to put a smile on my face!" She quickly turned into a sobbing mess in the middle of the living room while Felix incompetently tried to comfort her.
Pain snapped him back to the present — as the idol's fingers pulled his cheek.
"Stop grinning, I'm still mad because of that."
"At least your eyebags disappeared." He remarked.
"Magic of make-up!" She stuck out her tongue.
"Magic, huh?" He placed his hand on his hip, "What's amazing is how you can change appearances."
"Funny you say that." Natsumi pulled him by the collar and whispered near his ear, "Ayame over there didn't look like that back then. I snooped around and found out she had plastic surgery. Rumors say she did it for her boyfriend. Lots of secrets with that girl, apparently."
His eyebrows curled slightly, "Is it alright to tell me this?"
"It's not like you're really into gossip, right? It's just that… faces, personalities, they change depending on what they go through, huh?" Her eyes narrowed and sharpened as her voice turned cold and professional.
He remembered Ayame's warning.
Be very careful… There's… more to this than you know.
Felix scowled, "After what happened last night, I'm not sure if I can keep you safe. So I'll ask you one last time. Are you sure you wanna go out there?"
She let go of his collar and replied with a smile befitting a pop idol.
"If I backed down now, people wouldn't expect much from me later on when I'm the actual head of Obsidian Industries. Besides, you stopped a sniper and swam me back home. I know you can do it." She said with a reassured smile.
Felix kept silent at her response, while the cheers and excitement from the crowds grew louder. A girl in the same outfit that Natsumi wore called out to her from afar, "Yumiko-chan, we're almost on!" She called out in Japanese.
"Coming, Ayame-chan~!" Natsumi responded in Japanese.
"Good luck, Natsumi." He said.
"Right now, I'm Yumiko, not Obsidian's Heiress. Unless you want me to call you 'Child of Stars.'" She eagerly demanded from him.
He let out an exhausted groan, "Ugh, you knew about that, too?"
"Don't underestimate an idol!" She pointed her finger directly to his face.
His expression softened as he yelled out, "Good luck out there!"
"I'll dedicate the last song just for you, so be sure to listen!"
As the idol left his line of sight, his smile faded and murmured, "Sorry, but getting to number one is my main priority, and I have to keep you alive to get there."
The music began as soon as he left the area.
Felix pressed into his earpiece and mumbled, "See anything suspicious?"
"No, sir." An unfamiliar voice replied.
"Keep observing." He ordered as he continued onward.
As he walked through the dark halls, he noticed a familiar figure by the side from the corner of his eye.
"Excuse me, Yoko-san?" Felix walked up and asked.
"Haruki-kun? Is something the matter?" She adjusted her red glasses.
"Have you seen Asahi-san?"
"Asahi-kun? Why would you ask that?" She responded with the slightest hesitation in her tone.
"I'm just curious, since I haven't seen him."
"Hmm… now that you mention it. I haven't seen him the whole night. Could it be that you like him?" Her face turned red with an uncomfortably enthusiastic smile, her hands clutched tightly together.
With a sense of discomfort, he immediately excused himself, "I'm uh… I'm going to go look for him."
"Don't disappear either, understood? You might just miss it."
"I won't, I won't." He waved as he walked away.
As he walked through the hallways in the back, Felix pressed into an earpiece and spoke clearly, "Robins, are you in position."
There was a brief, static noise that didn't last longer than half a second before a reply could be heard.
"Robin One, yes sir." A feminine voice replied from his earpiece.
"Robin Two, in position." And another.
"Robin Three, I'm here, sir." The third one spoke with a very casual tone, and through her voice could be heard a crunching noise.
"Three… are you eating?" Felix asked.
"S-sorry, sir. It's just some chips, I was hungry." She replied.
"Sigh." He groaned, and the three ladies laughed nervously.
"And you, sir?" The first robin asked.
He shifted his gaze to the top of the building, "On my way."
On the horizon, the twilight marched toward its last moment. Bright colors above the skyscrapers blended and faded into dark. Felix climbed up the roof access ladder to the very top of the stadium, lugging a large, black case. At the edge of the roof of the entrance, his coat dragged against strong winds.
As he got up to the top and walked, he pressed into his earpiece once again, a short static buzz let out;
"Report." Felix looked towards the distance with a pair of binoculars.
"Robin One, no signs of the sniper yet, sir." The agent responded as she watched from atop a distant building.
"Robin Two, currently sweeping the stadium. Nothing appeared to be out of the ordinary, no bombs or explosives or anything. Nothing in the crowds either, other than some fanatics, sir." The second answered from within the stadium.
"Robin Three, if I may, sir. The only suspicious behavior going on is how the Blue Phantom is requesting for back up from robins." She responded, standing in the backside of the stadium.
All three robins formed a triangular formation surrounding the stadium as per Felix's instruction.
"I realized that, without my partner, I needed more help than I thought . A certain happy-go-lucky idol gave me the idea." He replied.
"Boss, if I may be so bold, have you taken a liking to said happy-go-lucky idol?" The third robin lightheartedly poked.
"Well… she does have an idol's charisma." Felix smirked as he opened the large case.
"Don't worry, boss, we'll make you proud." Robin Three replied.
"I'm counting on it. Three, what's on your visual?" He asked while assembling his rifle piece by piece.
"Currently sweeping the two kilometers away from you, nothing much." The third robin replied.
"Widen the search." Felix shifted his sights towards all the tallest buildings.
"Sir, with all due respect, there's too many people to scan for and only one drone. With how sudden your request was, it's the only one I was able to assemble and authorize."
Ignoring her question, Felix pressed his finger against his chin, thinking out loud, "A sniper would be hiding kilometers away, so how do I capture them?"
"I think the fastest way would be to get a taxi and drive there, but it'd still take a lot of time." The first robin spoke.
"If I move, she dies. Standing out in the open like this makes sure eyes are on me." He responded.
"So what, we just fire back?" said the second Robin.
"Well, sir. You could always swing forward with your grappling hook to block the bullets."
"Three, that's not possible." The first robin responded.
"But I've heard rumors that David Soldier could do it." The second robin replied.
"Right?" The third replied.
"Are you both children? You have movies for brains. Stopping bullets isn't possible, much less doing so while in the air." The first robin replied in disbelief, only for Felix to smirk.
There was a whistle in the wind and a twinkle in the dusk.
He looked upwards and saw the crescent moon above him and clutched the necklace under his shirt and smiled. He pulled out a pale white mask from underneath his cloak.
"Idols have make-up, and I have this." He put the mask on, "Time to work my own mag—"
A glint flashed in the distance —
Bang.