Chapter 41: [Former Family Side] Realization [Amana] [Yachiru, Nana, Shiki, Futaba]

“Mika disgraced herself on the runway and now the brand’s been canceled due to a scandal!? Again with this nonsense!?”

“Yes. Footage of Mika-san collapsing at GalColle and being carried off on a stretcher has gone viral online. It even made the trending rankings. As for the brand, it’s under fire for design plagiarism.”

At the Amagasaki Agency’s executive office, Amana was receiving a report from her secretary, Yuki, regarding Mika’s recent incident.

“…How dreadful. She’s grown so fat she looks like a white pig. No wonder her heels broke. To think a daughter of mine could become such an eyesore.”

“You don’t have to go that far…”

Amana commented with a look of disgust as she watched the viral video of Mika on the TV screen.

Amana loved beautiful things—jewels, clothes, paintings, furniture. And that included people.

Conversely, she hated anything ugly.

Even if it was her own daughter, her revulsion toward ugliness didn’t change.

“To think this unbeautiful creature is my daughter… it’s unacceptable. And as for the brand—plagiarism? Are you telling me she resorted to theft?”

“Well… it’s a bit complicated. Mika-san wasn’t designing the clothes herself to begin with. She had hired another designer for that. But after that designer quit, a new one was brought in—and this new designer is the one who plagiarized.”

“I see. So Mika didn’t do the plagiarizing herself, but she lied. I suppose it’s not uncommon for influencer brands to have the influencer pick from designs made by professionals. Couldn’t she have admitted that and continued the brand?”

Amana wasn’t entirely wrong.

Influencer brands often begin when a company approaches a popular influencer to collaborate. The influencer gets a new source of income, and the company benefits from not needing heavy promotion thanks to the influencer’s following.

However, many influencers don’t have real fashion expertise. Typically, they work with the company to define a concept or image and then leave the design work to a professional team.

Some influencers are very involved in the process, helping from the initial design phase, while others give minimal feedback only after the items are made.

How much they’re involved varies from brand to brand.

“It’s true there are influencer brands run by people who don’t do the designing themselves, working more as producers or directors. But in Mika-san’s case, lying about it ruined her credibility, and continuing the brand became difficult… Also, though it’s not publicly known, Mika-san herself apparently said: ‘I don’t think I can come up with a design good enough to put out as my own brand, so I’ll stop.'”

“She couldn’t come up with a satisfactory design, was it? That does sound like her, always so particular. But then, why not just bring back the previous designer?”

“I asked Mika-san about the former designer, but she completely refused to say anything…”

After the GalColle incident, Mika could no longer deny the quality of Atsumu’s designs.

However, admitting she had been relying on Atsumu was something her pride—now as swollen as her body—couldn’t accept.

“Well, even if the designs were good, who’s going to buy anything when the brand’s face, Mika, looks like that?”

(This woman only ever talks about appearances. Isn’t your daughter supposed to be precious no matter how she looks!? Shouldn’t you be shielding her from public criticism and hateful comments!? And yet you’re the one leading the charge!? I can’t believe this…)

Yuki seethed silently as Amana sneered at the video of Mika.

“So… h-how much will the damages be this time?”

Amana asked with a twitching face.

“Well, the contracts for her exclusive modeling magazine and brand ambassadorship have been canceled. Her activities as an influencer on Fotostagram have also ended. With her own influencer brand shutting down, the loss in revenue is significant.

Since there will be no future income, we estimate the damage at around 200 million yen. Possibly more…”

“T-two hundred million yen!? Aaaaargh! After everything I did to raise that ungrateful white pig…!!”

Hearing the damage estimate, Amana screamed, clawing at her hair.

She swept all the papers on the table into the air in a frenzy. It was a complete disaster.

Yuki frowned at her behavior.

After several minutes of rampaging, Amana, hair disheveled, recalled something Yuki had said and asked again:

“Huff… huff… Just now… what did you mean by ‘possibly more’?”

“Regarding the previous scandals: in Mutsuki-san’s case, it was an empty alcohol can showing up in a photo, which led to her suspension. But public opinion is split down the middle—some are attacking her, some want her back—so I think there may still be room for her to recover. As for Io-san’s dropping out of the movie, the cast hadn’t been announced yet, so it only made it into a weekly tabloid article. The general public isn’t really aware of it.”

Yuki paused, then continued:

“But this time, the failure happened on a big stage—and the video went viral online. There’s a real risk that it could seriously affect the activities of her sisters as well. It’s hard to predict how that fallout might spread…”

Yuki spoke solemnly, staring at the floor.

“Whaaaaat!? She left behind such a massive ticking time bomb!? First, we need to slim down that white pig immediately, and no matter what it takes, revive the brand so she can earn money again!! I won’t let any more of my precious money go down the drain!! To do that, we’ll need to bring back the previous designer—or hire someone new who Mika can accept… That’s it!! Wasn’t there someone called V’s who won GalColle? Let’s bring that person on as the new designer!!”

Clapping her hands with sudden inspiration, Amana shouted her “brilliant” idea.

“Uh, um. That designer’s identity is unknown, and no one knows how to contact them…”

“Then you figure it out somehow! If that’s not possible, get the previous designer’s name out of Mika! Letting a money tree like her wither would be a complete waste!”

Amana shoved her own unrealistic demands—really just wishes—onto Yuki.

“Both are unreasonable! …And you’re not even listening…”

Yuki tried to argue back, but Amana let it go in one ear and out the other.

That was because Amana was lost in a dreamlike delusion, a form of escapism, imagining the brand coming back and the money flowing in. All she could see in her eyes was money.

(With Atsumu-kun gone, this agency is a complete mess now… What on earth am I supposed to do…?)

Yuki’s feelings remained trapped in her chest, never voiced aloud.

○ ●

At the same time, in different places:

While Mika’s video was being passed around online as a spectacle, the video of the mysterious beautiful girl who appeared last at GalColle—Iori—was tearing through the internet with even more momentum than Mika’s.

Each of the Amagasaki sisters was watching a video featuring Iori.

In a room filled with many fancy dolls:

“This can’t be what it looks like, it can’t… That person should have been finished with the entertainment world, it is. This time, Yachiru will see them gone from it for good, it is!”

Yachiru watched the video on her computer monitor. Realizing Iori’s identity, she sat in her gaming chair, fuming with visible anger.

In a dark room with the curtains drawn and no lights on:

“Ahh… The melody and rhythm of the music used in this show are unmistakably Five-san’s, it is. Where did you go, Five-san…? A world without Five-san’s sound is like hell, it is…”

Only the glow of the computer screen lit the room. Sitting in front of it with headphones on was Nana.

She wasn’t watching Iori on the runway—she was listening intently to the music playing in the background.

Over and over, she replayed the video, and each time she murmured, “Five-san…”

In the back seat of a taxi during a break between jobs:

“This Iori girl’s voice… I feel like I’ve heard it somewhere before. But that guy’s a dude, so there’s no way, kyahaha.”

Shiki watched the video of Iori at the award ceremony on her phone and laughed off the thought that had popped into her head as impossible.

She gazed out at the city passing by, already thinking ahead to her next job.

In a TV station dressing room:

“Iori-chan, hm? One after another, they just keep coming. This industry is so busy trying to find the next star. Well, if she doesn’t try to butt into variety shows, I guess I’ll let her slide.”

Futaba exhaled cigarette smoke as she stared coldly at her phone.

After finishing her cigarette, she crushed it into the ashtray and immediately put on her on-camera smile—like flipping a switch. The change was so sudden it made the earlier scene feel like a lie.

Some noticed. Some didn’t.

And just like that, the story began to move.

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