Chapter 7: Down the Rabbithole

Meanwhile, John stared at his computer screen, his mind completely blank.

“…The hell do I do now?”

He had found a perfect candidate to start off his idol group. Great. One problem solved.

But he still had a big one left, namely… The name.

“Re:idolize? No, that’s stupid. Idealize? Still dumb.” John ran his hands through his hair and then frantically scrolled through the list of popular idol groups.

As he did, he became even more irritated.

“What kind of names are these? PinkBlack? Thrice? BtS?”

Those names were as bad as his!

Then… should he just go with Re:idolize?

No. That wasn’t good. He had to pick a name that the girls would have pride in, that HE would have pride in.

But that also wasn’t enough.

Now that he was scrolling through the idol groups, John was beginning to realize that it was a daunting task he signed himself up for.

Most groups had at least three members. Moreover, all of them some sort of connection with the entertainment field already.

In short, for a newbie like him to break into the scene was next to impossible.

Of course, he could brute force it… but he wanted a place where the girls he picked up could have a future afterwards as well.

And the more he scrolled through the idol groups and read their histories, the more he was disillusioned.

The problem was the recognition. An idol’s value lie in their appearance and voice. Both were inherently impossible to separate from the person. Well, maybe not completely impossible. If he remembered right, there had been that burgeoning virtual idol group before he was transported to the Three Realms.

If it was something like that, then it would probably work. But at this time, that field was also bound to be filled… Right?

John paused.

…Come to think of it, all the groups he saw had been actual idol groups. A group like the one he remembered made of completely virtual personalities was bound to stick out.

Did he just miss them?

Curious, John started searching again. For good record, he even used his powers to scour all the available information in the web.

And… Nothing.

Not a single result.

No, that wasn’t true. There was an article a while back about a person doing a tech demo of a virtual idol, but that project apparently flopped and the person in charge vanished off the face of the Earth.

Then… Did that mean that there was nobody doing that?

“It can’t be.” John muttered and then opened up UTube. Since it was the future, the major personalities had vanished or gone to other fields, but a few of the big ones were still there. That Swedish controversial guy, for example.

There were also a lot of streamers playing video games. Minecraft was still there, of course. But as for everything else…

Not a single virtual avatar.

Another search revealed the reason why.

“This world… doesn’t have face rigging technology?”

No. It was there. Motion tracking software, Anime, and cartoons existed.

Heck, if they didn’t John would have immediately gone back to the Three Realms.

VR existed as well, and was even higher fidelity than he remembered it being.

Well, in comparison to Earth tech.

But the pieces hadn’t been connected.

John’s heart raced.

A burgeoning field that no one knew about.

He didn’t know how it turned out back in his home, but he could sense it.

A means to provide girls who wanted to become idols with the ability to do so while maintaining their ordinary lives. A field that would be like a lightning bolt out of the blue.

A smile crossed John’s face.

He had it. The concept was simple and yet something only he could draw out the full potential of with his abilities.

As for a name…

“MirAIs.”

MirAIs. Multiple futures. Mirrored ‘AIs’ that were the personalities of real girls behind the screen.

With inspiration found, John stood up from his chair and warped to the empty floor above.

Staring at the blank space, he said, “Well… time to take the world by storm.”

Rin adjusted her bag around her shoulder and then smoothed her dress. It was Sunday. Like Mister Smith suggested, Rin had arrived early in the morning at the front of his office.

Peering in the window and seeing an empty lounge, Rin frowned. “Am I too early?” She pulled out her phone and checked the time.

It was 7:30 AM. Since she was a bit anxious, Rin had immediately left her house and headed to the building after getting dressed.

At the moment, her hair was fashioned in a neat braid, with her usual orange ribbon woven within it. She had on a soft pink blouse and a blue skirt that went to her mid thighs. Beneath those, she wore a pair of furry white boots paired with knee-high black socks.

It was a cute outfit. Paired with her natural looks and innocent face, Rin was drawing the eyes of every guy that walked past her.

Of course, she didn’t notice. Instead, the beautiful high school girl was staring at her phone with her thumb hovering over the call app.

She had already saved Mister Smith’s number last night in case she lost his card, so it was just a matter of calling him to confirm. But… it was still early. And after all he did for her, she didn’t want to bother him, even if the man was expecting her.

But…

“Argh! I’m doing it!” Biting her lip, Rin dialed the number. She placed her phone against her ear, expecting to hear a few dial tones before reaching the voicemail.

Instead, almost immediately after dialing, a voice answered.

“Hello? Ah, this is probably Rin, right?”

“Y-Yes!” Rin flushed, caught off guard at the quick response. “S-Sorry to call so early!”

“It’s fine. I’ve been up for a while already, so it’s not a problem. You’re… Huh. Here already? Well, aren’t you eager?”

“E-Eh?” Rin lowered her phone and looked around.

Laughter echoed from the phone and Mister Smith said, “You can’t see me, but I’ve got some surveillance at the front door. Necessary considering that I’m the only staff member here at the moment, you know?”

“I-I see.”

That made sense. Mister Smith did mention that he recently acquired Myth Inc. And seeing the empty front desk… Did he mean to hire her as a secretary?

Footsteps echoed.

Rin blinked, realizing those were closer than expected. Before she could react, the door opened.

Mister Smith stood there, wearing a casual white t-shirt and jeans. Unlike the clothes from the other day, his body was completely on display.

Muscular arms, a chiseled chest and matching abs.

Not only that, but his lightly tousled hair made him seem years younger, at most a few older than her. A university student at most.

Only, he was the CEO of Myth Inc. and the owner of the towering office building in front of her. And in Roppongi Hills of all places.

“Come in. I’ll explain what kind of job I have for you upstairs.”

Rin walked inside and then frowned. “Upstairs?”

“That’s… Well, you’ll see when we get there.” John locked the door and then walked in front of Rin. “Follow me.”

Rin nodded and did as he said.

John opened the elevator and stepped inside. Rin did as well.

John pressed the top floor button, the tenth floor, and then said, “Did you sleep well last night?”

“E-Excuse me?”

John shook his head and said, “You were probably stressed out, right? Did I manage to relieve some of that at least- Ah.” John frowned and said, “That… Phrasing. Right.”

Rin raised her left hand to her mouth, hiding her smile and biting back her laugh.

John coughed. “Ahem. Right. What I meant to say is… Well, are you feeling better?”

Rin nodded. “I am. My mom appreciates what you did for us as well.”

“Ah, right.” John frowned and said, “I should probably introduce myself to her. Wouldn’t be proper to sign you up for a job without giving a proper introduction at least.”

Rin smiled at that. “It’s fine. My mom is a bit worried about me-“

“As she should be.” John nodded and said, “After all, I’m a shady foreigner that requested you at a compensated dating bar and then offered you a job.”

Rin shook her head. “You’re not shady. I mean, if you had bad intentions, you would have taken advantage of me back then, wouldn’t you?”

“Maybe. Or maybe I just wanted to get you off your guard so that I could-” John cut himself off and sighed. “No. I can’t even say that as a joke.”

The soft chimes of the elevator echoed.

Rin glanced up at it and then frowned. “Are you… really alone in this big building, Mister Smith?”

“You can just call me John, Rin- Ah.” He paused and said, “Should I have been calling you Miss Hibana?”

Rin laughed and said, “It’s fine. I know that Mister Smith isn’t native, so I’m not offended. And… I don’t mind either if you call me Rin. You’ve already done so much for me and my mom, so…”

John sighed. “That’s a relief.” He shook his head and said, “As for your question… Yep. As of today, the faculty of Myth Incorporated consists of one Mister John Smith… and that’s it. Though I’m hoping to add another member by the end of the day. That’ll depend on you though.”

“Of course. I’ll do my best!”

John laughed. “Don’t be too eager just yet. It’s going to be a pretty intense job, you know?”

Rin shook her head. “No matter what kind of job it is, if Mister Smith- No. If you need me to do it, John, I’ll agree.”

John stared at Rin and then shook his head. “You are way too trusting. That’s going to make a guy like me worry about you, you know? It’d be all too easy for a nefarious guy to trick you into going along with bad things.”

“It’s fine. You already solved my problems… and I learned my lesson from last time, so it won’t happen again.”

That sort of humiliation. The pain and self-resignation she felt… Rin already swore to never go through that again.

“And if I suddenly disappear? What then?”

Rin froze. “T-That…”

That was right. Mister Smith… John was a foreigner. He was here for the moment and had a company, but that didn’t mean he would always be here. And when he left…

“Sorry. Didn’t mean to worry you.” John shook his head and said, “I guess you could say I’m a bit nervous too. After all, what I have in mind… Well, it’s a big job and might fail. If it does, I don’t want you to have your hopes dashed.”

Rin let out a breath she didn’t realize she was holding.

So that was it. John was just concerned about her again.

Rin shook her head and said, “You’re too kind, Mister Smith- Ah. I mean, John. But it’s fine.” She smiled and said, “I’d be satisfied with even a desk job. The pay doesn’t matter too much.”

“Hm? No, it’s not that, but…”

The last chime. The elevator had reached the top floor.

John glanced at the lights and then shook his head. “Well, you’ll see now.” The doors opened and John walked out. Rin followed after him.

The elevator opened up to a hallway that rounded the corner. As they walked down it, John said, “You mentioned that you wanted to be an idol, right?”

Rin paused, wondering what John was getting at. “I did. But… I think I’ve given up on that dream.” She sighed. “Even if I wanted to… more than a few of my classmates know that I tried ‘that’ job.”

John paused and said, “Right. I suppose there would be some people who saw that.”

A sad smile crossed Rin’s face and she said, “It’s fine. I made the choice.”

“Hm…” John glanced back and said, “And what if I said you could still become an idol? Not only that, but one that wouldn’t need to hide their face in public? Would you still do it?”

“Well… I suppose if that was possible. But it’s not-” Rin paused, her eyes growing wide.”…possible?”

John grinned and turned around. “But is it though?”