Bionikokoro, Artificial Idols by DerStoryKeeper

Bionikokoro, Artificial Idols by DerStoryKeeper

Hana Ono always wanted to be an idol. Ever since her watching one perform it has been etched in to her heart. In opposition to this however were her looks: Too ugly, but not even in a noteworthy way. Just behind the hill of the bell curve.

After applying for another casting, and failing once again to even pass the first selection, she gets approached by a mysterious men, who offers her a chance to live her dream.

But nothing ever comes so easy without a catch..

Chapter 1 - A peasent’s face, an angel’s voice

Part I - A second chance

I knew their decision form the moment I stepped on stage. Despite the previously eager reply to the sound sample, I gave the casting studio of myself singing, I could see their judgement in their faces.
Nevertheless, I sung, eager to grasp that chance of becoming an Idol, although their stares left me with the fear of slipping up.
“T…thank you… What did you…” I said after I finished, but not before a long silence filled the empty theater room.
“We will… consider it… maybe…” The head of the judges responded, not looking in my eyes, scratching her chin.
When I went off the stage, I could hear them whisper.
“I mean, maybe with some plastic surgery…”
“Are you serious, we can’t have an ugly girl like her in the group. That’s suicide!”
“What a shame… Such a cute voice, wasted on such a face.”
I sighed, a longstanding pain bursting from my chest.
All my talent, in the end, is wasted on someone with an ugly face like mine. It isn’t even so ugly that it was eye catching, with people coming to see ‘the girl with the elephant face’ or something like that.
It is painfully below average.
Yet while I wallowed in my malady, I didn’t notice the man in the back of the empty seat rows, cloaked by shadows.
The same man who passed me by when I left the concert hall, quickly putting his card in my hand and telling me, ‘to give him a call, if I am interested.’
His card read:
“Ikki Inoi, Idol Agent”
Why would an Idol agent give a card to a girl like me, I thought.
The truth was that it was because of my deviation from a usual Idol that he gave me his contact.
“You got talent!” He waved me goodbye before disappearing from my sight.

In the end I took up his offer and we met up in a karaoke booth. We talked a bit about smaller things before we came to business.
“Well, then Hana… I would very much like to hear you sing.”
“I… really? I am probably not that good anyway…”
“Really, you sang beautifully that time from what I recall!” He sounded so calm.
“Why are you doing this anyway? It is not like I could ever make it big!” I shouted, before relapsing back. “After all, with a face like mine…”
“Let’s just say I am scouting for people like you: Talent that has been overlooked by this industry.” He was visibly upset. “You remember Flower Booth?”
“They were great! Umeko was my favorite flower girl!” I couldn’t stop myself from nerding out. “But they broke up so suddenly.”
“I was their manager before… To make it short and not getting myself jailed for breaking my NDA: Cooperate was not happy with their performance and micromanaged the whole group into the ground…”
Was that why one of the members had switched personalities, I thought. It was not a good idea in hindsight, seeing as it pissed of what little remained of that fanbase.
“But enough of that:” He interrupted my thoughts, waving them away with his hands, leaning back. “Pick a song and let’s roll!”
After picking one from the retired Idol Maya Izuki, my hands shaking and clearing my throat I began to sing.
The manager was sitting there with closed eyes, not even looking at me, only listening, giving me a strange boost in confidence.
“Only your voice counts…” I thought to myself and gave it my all.
And after 4 minutes, not missing a beat and me barely having to look at the text at all, I was applauded by the single man in the room.
“Bravo! Bravo!”
“Th…thanks…” I never heard such enthusiastic applause, especially from just a single person except for my parents.
“What. A. Beautiful Voice! Where did you learn to sing like that?”
“Just singing along songs… But my mother also sent me to a choir, a friend of hers is Christian.”
His smile told me everything.
“Do I pass?” I could have cried.
“I got several other candidates I need to meet first but rest assured: You are at the top of my favorites list. So… yes…”
“I…I…” I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t want to believe it. Too many times had I been ridiculed and sneered at, at worst or simply ignored or silently judged at best.
“Thank you!” I bowed deeply before him; eyes teary.
“Calm down! I’m just doing my job, looking for talent.”
“So do you have a name for the Idol group already?” I looked up after drying my eyes.
“Well, my associate and I discussed that already: ‘Bionikokoro’. What do you think?”
“’Bionikokoro’! What a nice name.” I didn’t really think about why they choose that name, when we sat together at that booth, both of us singing, him rather poorly.
I would be able to sing on stage, but, that I did not know yet, not as me. Instead as something that looked like it had an artificial heart.

Over the weeks we stayed in contact. I had a part-time job, financing my stay in the big city while I looked for an opportunity to become an Idol. I would keep it for now, just as something to fall back on.
Becoming an Idol. I still couldn’t believe that my childhood dream was now so close, despite all the ridicule I faced over my teenage years.
“You don’t look like an idol.” “Better save up for the massive amount of plastic surgery you gonna need!” “Forget it! No one is wants to SEE you on stage!”
But now, my life as an Idol would finally start. The contract I signed was surprisingly generous, with no trappings for which the industry was known for: No hidden fees or obligations.
The manager even asked me for my size. “For your outfit…” He told me, but also that he had finished finding suitable members and that soon we would have our first training session.
That day was tomorrow. And today came the package with my Idol outfit, together with a letter.
‘I hope you are well, Hana.’ It was a strange quirk for him to use a first name so casually.
‘In this package are the clothes you will wear. In order to get used to them, you are going to wear them on your way to the studio and while we you are meeting the others.
Be warned, they are very unusual form what you might think an idol would wear and harder to take put on and take off. If you don’t feel comfortable wearing them, please call me back as soon as possible and sent them back to the sender address.
Sincerely and hoping to see you at our first session,
Ikki Inoi Manager of ‘Bionikokoro’’
“What are those clothes going to be?” I mumbled while opening the key to my new life. “How skimpy can they possibly be? Or maybe it is the opposite?” I thought, swiping through various sorts of outfits I have seen idols wear, some more scandalous than others.
Once unwrapped the black clothing, the smell of rubber slithered into my nose.
“What the… fuck?”
Carefully I took laid out the pieces of what my new manager wanted me to wear as an Idol:
A set of a catsuit, a pair of gloves and socks and a hood with eye, nose and mouth holes, all of them made of black polished rubber. Like the sort of gloves, you use for cleaning or rubber boots you wear when the rain is pouring by the bucketload, but not as thin as the former or thick as the latter.
The socks were strange, too: Their soles were thick, more like a pair of shoes disguised as socks. But that didn’t compare to my shock when I found one last thing in the parcel: It was a gasmask with a tinted visor encompassing the entire upper part of it.
“Am I really supposed to wear this?” I was confused. Maybe it was addressed to the wrong… No, one look at the address on the package remnants was enough to clear that up. It was meant for me.
“This is…” I held up the catsuit against myself and looked in a mirror. “Is this his weird fetish or something?” From what I could gather comparing it to myself, it would be a hassle to get into it and leave barely anything to the audience imagination.
“And why a gasmask? What is the purpose of thi…. Oh!” I had pulled on the thing on my face loosely and realized why he was saying my looks wouldn’t matter only my singing, why he allowed me to still pull out if I felt uncomfortable about it and why the group was named ‘Bionik Hearts’.
My face wouldn’t be seen, and neither would any part of my skin be visible. Wearing this thing, I would become someone else, something else: I would become a sort of cyborg.
“Gulp!”
This was insane! This whole thing was weird! And so, I decided to put the pieces back in the box and forget about it.
But I couldn’t, as from time to time I reopened the package and let its contents glide through my fingers.
It was oily and smooth. One time I put on one of the gloves: It stuck to my skin snuggly, though it was difficult to pull off again.
After the tenth time of inspecting the contents, I saw a small instruction book and a bottle of liquid, which included care and maintenance, quite a lot for something like this, and how to put it on.
“Silicon oil. For Rubber-care and dressing.” It read on the label.
The figure in the pictures pulled on the catsuits legs like stockings, then pulled it over its chest and put its arms in its sleeves before finally stretching the collar over the neck.
“Shouldn’t there be a zipper at the neck?” After inspecting the catsuit my question was answered. There wasn’t.
The last pictures were it pulling on the gloves, socks and the hood and under the catsuit.
The figure was also seemingly naked, at least it didn’t seem to wear underwear.
For a long second, I sat there, my shame fighting against my desire and curiosity, with the latter winning out.
“Screw it! Just this once…” I mumbled, while getting naked and ready to get dressed in this fetish getup.
It was cold and oily while getting inside, but strangely inviting. After I struggled pulling it over my legs, I noticed that the suit did have a zipper: At the crotch.
On one hand, it made it even more raunchy, on the other it would have been a giant annoyance to get out of this every time you had to go to the toilet.
But I didn’t get out of it. More and more of my body felt the touch of the rubber suit, until the skin left were my hands, feet and my head.
Looking at my reflection in the mirror, it did accentuate my figure nicely, a figure I never really thought was that good, having been always overshadowed by my hideously bland face.
“Why do I like this?” I asked myself while getting the remaining pieces of my Idol-suit from the box and before I realized it nothing was left of me.
It was all covered in rubber, my head as well. And my face hidden by a black gasmask. I gazed dumbfounded into the thing in the mirror.
“Oh my god…” I said mindlessly, before being surprised by the words uttered by it, by me. It sounded like a robotic-girly voice. “Is this…”
I waved, and the figure did as well. “…Me?” I sounded like a vocaloid.
I just stood there breathing, the gas mask hissing along. There I was, stripped of humanity, of all that made me human, including my face.
I touched the mask covering it. It felt surreal touching the mask preventing me from touching it.
“Is this why he scouted me? He did say my voice was great, but my face…” My heart was racing. How would I look doing things an Idol would do.
“Let’s try this…” I started making poses, some of them standing upright making various gestures, some of them kneeling and one just lying down looking at the mirror.
They all looked good. I then went a bit further, by doing some small dance moves I saw from my favorite groups. While the squeaking of the suit was clearly hearable, it also visibly accentuated my movements, stretching and squishing as required.
I looked like one of the background dancers of a big star. I could also feel myself start to sweat.
And then I started to sing. And then combined it with dancing.
I could have cried of happiness. As weird as this suit might have been just a few hours ago, I knew now that it would be the thing that would fulfill my dream of being an Idol.
“This is incredible! This…” I almost prevented myself breathing due to covering the valves of the gas mask with my hand palms. “Uff… This was close… Am I dreaming?”
Slapping myself on my rubber skin made a satisfying ‘twang’ sound.
“Oh my god… I… With this I can become an Idol! Finally!”
But there was one more hurdle, I realized as I looked outside the window.
“I cannot go outside looking like this, can I?”
There was walking around like this in the walls of my own apartment, but then there was going to be seen like this by others, not to speak of a crowd.

Part II - Prototype Series Activation Test

The very next evening I closed the door of my apartment behind me, wearing nothing but a purple raincoat, a pair of shoes and the entire set of the suit the manager sent me, including the gas mask.
It was a petrifying feeling standing just outside my apartment, even though I wore it the entire day in my apartment to get accustomed to it.
“Calm down, Hana…” I whispered to myself. “If you want to be an Idol so badly. You will have to wear this in front of an audience of… probably dozens, if it goes well thousands. What are some few onlookers in comparison?”
It was still a gut-wrenching feeling to go out like this. Even as I went down the stairway, I feared someone would be coming my way and see me like this.
Luckily it was Friday night, at prime time, so most people were busy watching the news or something else. It also meant the public transit was emptier than usual, but probably not completely empty.
“How do I get there again?” I pulled my phone from my raincoat and opened it. For a split second, I thought that I would need to remove the rubber gloves to use my phone. But by that moment my finger hit the screen, typing the first number of my PIN number.
“What? Why did it…?” I rubbed the tips of my fingers. The rubber was still oily. “The screen reacts to it… Maybe the oil acts like the skin oil?”
Either way, I opened the transit app and looked up where I needed to go. It was a bit of a hassle, swiping being especially difficult. But by the time the first raindrops hit the screen, I had already found the route.
“Good thing I can take the metro to the studio…” I said while gazing up in the pouring night sky, the rain landing on the visor, which I quickly swiped away. The light of the various streetlights and signs reflecting on my black shiny body, while I went to and down the platform.
It was the same route I took to my workplace, though I needed to take the last line for two more stations. But it felt so different, being dressed in this strange outfit.
I previously watched some videos of women in full rubber getup, in preparation. Not pornography, although that was hard to avoid, but them walking around on the streets.
And just like in those videos, most people, at best, took a quick glance at me and then went on with whatever they were doing, with some staring just a bit longer. But most people just were busier looking at their phones or sleeping after a long day’s work or having to drink with their co-workers. And without a camera pointing at me, like it must have been the case in those videos, I surprisingly didn’t catch much attention.
All except one young salaryman riding in the same cart as I did on the way to the station I needed to leave. I could see him glance at me from time to time, but kept looking away, his suitcase lying on his lap.
I could feel my hand wander up my coat’s zipper. What did I want to do? Entice him more? But why? He looked at me, like no men or boy ever looked at me: There was a hidden desire other females could tease out of men, that I could never achieve.
But with him unable to see my face, he could fill the gap with his imagination. And I could, no, wanted to spur him on.
Zip!
I tore that dangle down until it reached the bottom. My heart raced as my body, clad in shiny rubber became visible to the cart and him.
And for a moment I could see him glow red! I wanted more of this! More of his attention! I breathed out heavily while, spreading my body on the seat row.
“Next stop…”
Oh shit, I needed to get out! Quickly I zipped my coat back up again and ran out the door just before it closed again. When the cart started moving, I could see him staring at me.
And I giggled, feeling the rush flowing through my body.
When I went up, I saw the bright lights of the entertainment district. A place that never slept. Bright neon signs and giant screens illuminated the streets, reflecting in the various puddles and on myself.
And I just went with the mass of the people. Some of them were apparently cosplaying, with one person being dressed in a plugsuit from a Mecha series, made of rubber, as well.
On and on I walked, my heart pounding violently, until I finally reached the address the manager gave me.
From the outside it looked like nothing special, the floor I needed to reach was marked as a dance studio.
“He must have rented it…” I assumed and was ready to ring.
“What are you doing?” I could feel a hand on my shoulder and turning around I saw a patrol officer in a raincoat.
“Why are you dressed like this?” She raised her eyebrow.
“I am not planning anything!” I spat out; my voice shifted to an electric tone. “I am just here because… Well, it has to do with this suit and…” She really didn’t buy it.
“She is with me!” A familiar manager stood outside the door with an open umbrella.
“Really?” The officer questioned him. He bowed before her, giving her his business card.
After taking her sweet time reading it, looking at me and him, she looked him in the eye: “Idol Agent… She…” She pointed at me. “Is an Idol?”
“Yes.” He answered with a straight face.
“In this weird getup?”
“Yes.”
“Pfuh! Youth today got weird taste…” She put his card away. “As long as you don’t do any weird stuff… Thank you for your patience!”
“Likewise…” He answered as we both bowed and once, she was out of view, he led me in.
“So how did it feel walking around like this, Hana?”
“It was definitely an experience…” I answered him while going up the stairway, pulling off my coat. “Felt weird, though…”
“That’s what the others said as well…”
“Others? How many have come as well?” I gazed at him, before realizing that he can’t look back.
“Together with Alpha? Three others. The other two applicants… told me yesterday that they would not be coming. Rather aggressively…”
I could have turned him down, yet I didn’t. What differentiated me from those other two? Was I desperate enough or did they have more shame than me.
“Also how did you recognize me?”
“Your voice! And your mask…”
“Everyone has a different mask?”
“Some differentiation between you. Would be quite confusing otherwise for me, or the potential fans.”
Once I put my coat on a hanger and kicked off my shoes and entered the dance studio, I could see that he was not lying.
In the room where four other girls dressed just like me: Full black rubber catsuit, with gloves, those sock shoes and hood. Their gas masks came in all forms and shapes, two lenses or one full visor like mine, short or long snouts. Some of them looked more rigid other more flexible. The only thing common was that none of their eyes were visible.
All of them were sitting around or already stretching.
“Is she the last one, Ikki?” The largest woman with whose visor looked like safety goggles, asked the manager.
“Yes, the remaining two turned us down.” He told her.
“What a shame… Anyway…” She turned to the rest of us. “If you would please take a seat.”
One by one we sat down, with me sitting down next to the person with the elongated snout gas mask with 2 separate lenses. Her bust, slightly bigger than mine, rose and fell as she breathed.
“To begin, are you familiar with the concept of V-Idols having a different persona?”
“Like that shark girl? Yes…” The girl with the round snout and two lenses, had a foreign accent, no mistake. But I couldn’t decipher which one…
“Yes, idols like those can have a separate identity from their real one. And this will, if things go well, we will be the case for us as well.” She went over to a board pushed in by the manager.
“Our name is, as you all know by now, Bionikokoro.” She put the name on the board. “Which split up mean ‘bionic’ and ‘heart’.”
“So, we are supposed to be beings neither organic nor robotic on stage?” I raised my voice.
“Indeed! On stage we are going to be bio-robots:” She put another word on the board. “Bionikos!”
“Bioniko…” Everyone else mumbled. It was a strange creation. Bioniko. ‘I am now a Bioniko. Bioniko Hana.’
“And to differentiate us we will all have a designation.”
“A number?” One of us said.
“Me and Inoi did discussed going with numbers, but we decided on Greek Letters, with us being prototypes for a line of Artificial Idols.” She then pointed to herself. “I am Bioniko Prototype Alpha.”
She then gave us our names, pointing at each of us. The names of the gasmask I would enquire after our first session ended from the manager, with me looking them up at home.
“You are Bioniko Prototype Beta” She pointed at the girl in the ‘S10 Avon’.
“Bioniko Prototype Gamma” She told the wearer of the ‘Draeger Panorama’.
“Bioniko Prototype Delta” To the one next to me, wearing a ‘Model 4’, a gas mask from Israel.
“And you are Bioniko Epsilon.” The mask I wore was, as I would later learn, a ‘MSA Millenium’.
Bioniko Alpha’s mask was an MP-5, from Poland. During the entire introduction I couldn’t help but feel as if I heard her voice somewhere else before, but I took that as being confused by the same electronic voice we all had in these masks.
“Are you all ok with your name? We got more than enough other letters for the taking.”
No one answered.
“Not really, I am fine with mine.” Beta responded.
“Great, then I will let Inoi take over from here.”
The manager than took center stage, with Alpha stepping aside.
“I have gathered you here, because I believe that each of you possesses talents which go unrecognized. Talent that if given a chance is sure to blossom, but for now…” He opened his laptop and typing something in and turned back to us. “Pick a song you like and show the others what you got.”
For a moment we all sat still, some of us turning to Alpha who just nodded back and told us to go first.
“Fine!” Gamma jumped up, grabbing her phone, selecting something on it. “Can I connect it to the stereo of this room?”
“I’ll do you one better…” He seemed to switch an option on. “Can you say something?”
“Like what?” Gamma answered him annoyed before holding her ears, as did we.
“As I thought. The voice sound setting was a tad bit too high.”
“I warned you.” Alpha replied to him.
“What the…” Gamma spoke more quietly, noticing however the speakers didn’t repeat her voice as loudly anymore.
“I put mics in your gas masks, which can be connected to a sound system.”
“Looks like we have to find another use for our hands without a microphone.” Delta joked.
“Anyways…” Inoi cleared his throat. “Shall we…”
Gamma went in front of the mirror and began her performance. It made me terrified, not because she was bad, quite the opposite: She was good, really good. Every movement was calculated, the choreography trained, every line sat nice and tight.
“Quite the high bar you sat there for the others.” Alpha commented.
“I thought the manager selected on talent?” Gamma responded annoyed, sitting herself down again.
“Talent is one thing…” I argued back. “But you are a pro! Were you in a previous group?”
“No comment!” She snapped back. I didn’t say anything more, I wouldn’t want to reveal who I am either.
Next one was Beta, who after taking her sweet time choosing a song started her dance performance.
The song was clearly English from what Beta sang, and even despite my relatively good English from school, I had some real difficulties deciphering it, but the way she sang it. She had depth to her voice.
The way she danced was also something idol-ish, but also not Western Pop Music.
Nonetheless…
“Thank you!” She said in English and bowed to us with flair, one hand on her chest, the other up behind her in the air.
“This was great!” Delta applauded. “Can I see what other songs you have?”
“Sure…” The two walked to her phone, swiping over Beta’s giant collection of songs, Western, Japanese and Korean, before deciding.
“You have a wide palette…” I told Beta.
“Yeah, must have had that from my dad. He collects all kinds of music, usually old stuff on vinyl. I like more contemporary stuff though.”
“So… Where do you come from?” I stuttered. “You accent…”
“Oh that?” She laughed. “USA, Southern Oregon, really close to California actually. But my family and I moved here a dozen years ago. Is my accent still that audible?”
“I am sorry. I shouldn’t have asked!”
“Nah it is ok. Delta is up now, so let’s be quiet for now.”
Delta was weird. Her singing was okay-ish, I had heard better, but also much, much worse during the many audits I took part in and failed, some of them even got in on looks alone.
Her dancing however was superb. The many twirls, twists and turns done with fine control of the movements. It was as if her brain had every muscle in her body on a string ready to be pulled.
Yet even this dazzling performance was soon over.
“Good luck, Epsi-chan!” Delta tapped my shoulder, and I got up.
“Th…this one.” I showed the manager the song, as we switched the Bluetooth connection from Delta’s to my phone. My knees were shaking, but why?
“Springtime by Flower Booth? Good choice…” The manager commented. “Nice, simple and comfy…”
I had stood countless times before judges, countless times of failure, of rejection, because of how I look.
But now, now there was no Hana, no me, just Epsilon. And if Epsilon failed, would not be because of looks, but due to my lack of skill.
“I.. is this on…” I stammered, everyone nodding, the voice, my voice, reverberating through the loudspeakers.
I took a deep breath and began.
It was a very fluffy and wholesome song about waking up in the early morning, the days ahead. The only thing souring it was the terrible fate that fell upon their lead.
But right now, it was the only routine I could do on the top of my head. I had to push the heartbreak their breakup caused away.
Again and again, I noticed how I failed: A misstep, a note out of tune. And wearing this rubber suit certainly didn’t help. I was by the end of it a nervous wreck, yet by some miracle I stuck the ending: No step out of order, the melody clinging out harmoniously.
“T…thank you for watching…” I muttered to them, twitching from the gauntlet I just went through.
They said nothing, just staring at me with their black, eyeless visors.
“Wow…” Alpha put her hand where her mouth would be. “I knew Ikki told me you were good, but really. This was great!”
“R…really?”
“Really!” Beta clapped. “Where did you learn to sing?”
“I was in a choir… For a bit… Honestly I don’t think I did a very good job…”
“Are you kidding?” Delta put her hand on my shoulder. “I wish I could sing like that!”
My heart was racing, not from fear but for finally getting something lauded, by all except one.
I looked at Gamma, who had turned her head away. Did she look at me with ridicule, scorn, pity?
“You are pretty solid.” She said cold and stern, not looking in my direction. “Keep it up and you’ll get somewhere.”
“I…” My eyes filled with tears of glee, my throat choking until bowed. “Thank you all!”
I was so happy.
“Even… even if we only manage to have one concert, I am so proud to be in a group with you!”
“Ssssh…” Alpha walked to me and embraced me. “Don’t cry… Together we will make Bionikokoro a huge success, won’t we?” She had turned to the rest.
“Ah, screw it.” Beta said in English and hugged me and Alpha too. “GROUP HUG!”
Then Delta joined in, hugging me from behind. And after being waved in Gamma did, too, reluctantly at first.
“Come here, Ikki!” Alpha looked at our manager, who had already gathered his things.
“Oh, it’s fine.” He rubbed the back of his head. “You don’t need to…”
“You are part of this now, manager!” Alpha told him proudly. “After all, you have given me and them a shot we might have never gotten without you!”
It was an order. An order he couldn’t refuse.
I never felt more connected to others than in this moment, with the exception of maybe my family. After years of being the ugly duckling, I had finally found a people, recently strangers, whom I could consider friends or at least close.
A phrase entered my mind, normally I would never utter cheesy phrases like this. They sounded like a strange optimist chuuni but right now, I was so giddy, I couldn’t stop myself from blurting it out:
“Our hearts! Beating as one!” A small part of me felt shame for suddenly throwing it out. But I could hear Alpha giggling softly.
“Our hearts!” She shouted.
“Beating as one!” We answered her.
“To be fair:” She released me from her embrace. “I might steal that for our first song.”
Song. Right, we had to sing something. But we had nothing original yet.
“Should I leave the artistic side to you ladies?” Manager Inoi removed himself, talking to Alpha.
“Sure, you told me you are more the financials guy anyways.” She and we gave him the thumbs up.
“Now then…” Alpha returned to the whiteboard. “For today, we will do some brainstorming with dance training interspersed.”
For the next few hours until 2 o’clock, we drafted up lyrics, recorded some melodies which came to our mind and did ballet routines to get in a rhythm together.
I felt kind of sad when it was over, and we went home our separate ways.
I still saw some people walking around even this late at night, but ever fewer the closer I came to my apartment, with the blocks I lived being completely silent.
The only figure walking around was me, a rubber thing breathing mechanically, having removed my raincoat and carrying on my arm.
It felt strangely exciting and comforting walking around like this, naked yet not, exposed and not, free and not.
After finally entering my apartment, and switching on the light, I found myself before the mirror.
Looking back was Bioniko Prototype Epsilon, until I removed the gasmask an pulled off the hood and I was Hana once again.
I was too tired to do really anything anymore than walk up to my bed and fall upon the sheets, neither crawling under them, nor removing the latex catsuit I still wore.
But I slept with a grin on my face, knowing that my lifelong dream came true and I had this outfit to thank for it.

Part III - A new routine

“Ono-san…” I heard the manager of the supermarket call for me.
“Yes, Manager?” A title I nowadays used for two people. “Your shift us up.”
She pointed at the clock. 19.00. “You can go now.”
“Thank you! I really need to go now anyway.”
“Why? Have you finally made it as an Idol?” She joked, she had ever since I began here, though I do not blame her. However…
“No, just meeting some friends.” I did not want to tell her the truth, though this wasn’t a complete lie.
“Good for you, Ono. Enjoy your evening!”
“I will!” I closed the checkout line, moving from it to the locker room and out of the backdoor with alacrity, taking a large backpack with me.
Previously, I would always go home, unless I managed to snag a spot in a casting call, but now I had a place I went to on weekdays.
But first I needed somewhere to change. And it didn’t take me long to find a public toilet big enough.
“This should be enough…” It was one of those toilets, where everything was in one cabin, sink and toilet.
I locked the door behind me, and stripped myself naked, after which I opened the bag I brough with me, containing the zipper bags containing my catsuit, hood and gas mask respectively. As well as silicone oil for dressing.
The smell of rubber after opening the zipper on the plastic bag was followed by the cold feeling of the oil on my skin and my catsuit.
While the first few times dressing up had been difficult, I was by now very much used to do this and in less then 10 minutes I was completely subsumed below the neck and moved on to the hood and the gasmask.
In the mirror I saw Prototype Epsilon staring back at me with her eyeless gaze. But one thing was missing.
“Where was it?” I searched the bag for the final piece. “Ah!”
In my rubber gloves was the symbol of my new Idol Identity: A black four finger wide collar, which I opened and pulled tightly around my neck worn by the others as well, given by the manager Inoi to make us a bit more different from each other.
Click!
On the black buckle engraved was a single, shiny, metal letter on it: ε. Again, I looked at this other me in the mirror. Even though it has been a month since I first put on this suit. I breathed in deeply, slapped my cheeks and tried to posture with more confidence. Hana Ono was on sleep for now…
“Prototype Epsilon active!” The reassuring reminder finally gave me the confidence to pack my backpack with my bundled up previous clothes and leave the public restroom.
The reaction of the woman next in line was priceless, gawking at me. But I barely noticed it, after all I had done this too many times to phase me now.
This was me now. I walked through the street as Epsilon. Took the subway as Epsilon. I was Prototype Epsilon, through and through, with nothing to hide.
Even the onlookers, while still exciting didn’t make my heart race as fast anymore: Most took a quick glance and went on with their life, some looked longer, the funniest being the one where the guy threw a glance at me while their girlfriend was mad at him.
“Excuse me…” And a handful had to the courage to walk up to me, in this case a group of 4 that was clearly a double date. “How does it feel walking around in this?” One of the boyfriends asked.
“Quite amazing actually!”
“You look cute! Can we take a picture with you?” One of the girlfriends had already taken out her phone and given it to her boyfriend.
Before all this, I had never been asked, yet now it happened nearly every night I went to the studio dressed like this.
“Cheese!” I posed together with them, although only their face could be seen.
“Thanks Ko-kun!” She took her phone back, preparing to post it.
‘Stumbled upon this cute doll out on the street.’
“What’s your name?”
“H… Prototype Epsilon. Social is Bionik_Epsilon.”
“Ok…” After she had sent the post, she checked out my profile. “You are part of an idol group?!”
“Yes, although we are still in the preparation for our first big throw.”
“When are you going on stage?”
“Not sure, that is our manager’s job. But hopefully soon. I will update my page when it finally happens.”
“Well then…” She tapped on her phone. “I’ll be rooting for you!”
“Thank you very much!” I bowed slightly. “I got to go now. This AI isn’t going to learn by itself.”
“AI?” I heard one of them ask as I went away.
“The I is for Idol, you dummy…” A female voice responded.
I looked on my phone, now seeing that the number of followers had risen slightly: 173. Some of those like the people I just met, some by word of mouth or random chance, and some due to being in the ‘Rubber community’, which apparently existed.
I never had so many people, even shallowly interested in me, though I never had social media in the first place, at best lurking in some Idol-forums. I was so oblivious to it, that when the manager asked us to set accounts up for publicity, I had to ask the others, specifically Delta and Beta to help me, although Alpha had asked for help as well.
‘Bioniko Prototype Epsilon, 0th gen Artificial Idol programmed to make the world a brighter place. Member of @Bionikokoro_Group’
I looked over a bridge, giving clear view to the skyline. I also never had taken selfies before, which was very obvious when Beta commented that I need to post more interesting stuff than just me in my room.
“It is not just about you. It is about you and whatever you are currently doing.”
I turned around, leaning on the bridge railing, holding my smartphone to get a good image of me and the skyline.
After that I just needed something good to write under the post:
“Hmmm…”
‘The city shines like starlight tonight. Looking forward to becoming one myself’
After hitting post, I thought, if I should have added emojis to it. Checking @Bionik_Beta, her texts were practically flooded with emojis. Her numbers showed however that this strategy was rather sound.
“Ah stop… Epsilon… You need to go!” I could always obsess about the growth of my account when I was back home. Now I had to go train to get these numbers up.

The dance studio was however empty when I came and looking on the clock, I knew that I could have dallied a lot more.
“Hello? Anyone here?”
No answer, but from one of the changing rooms I could hear a voice.
“’Set my heart aflame…’ Yes that sounds rather good, I think we can go with that one.” It was a voice twice familiar. It sounded close to Prototype Alpha’s voice, but I knew it from somewhere else.
“What about the other songs?… Yes, the ‘Hearts beating as one’… You have it, great! Would be great if you could send it right away.”
I peeked into the changing room, the door still open to see who was there: A woman in a rubber catsuit, unmistakably Alpha. But she wore no hood or gas mask.
“Nice to hear! See you soooooo…”
Maya Izuki, THE Maya Izuki had seen me peeking in for but a second, when I yanked my head away, breathing heavily. I must be dreaming right? The legendary idol was Alpha? The girl who I idolized since I was 10. The reason why I wanted to be an idol. But that was a decade ago, and by now she must have been 30 or so.
“Epsilon?”
But wasn’t that too old. Most idols graduate at 25 or 27, and I haven’t heard or seen her on TV and movies for years, not to mention the stage.
“Hana Ono, right?” She had left the dressing room and stood right in front of me. It was her, despite her years of aging, she was unmistakably beautiful.
“First of, I know that I am by all accounts to be an idol, but…” I didn’t let her finish.
“IcantbelieveIamsofortunatetomeetyouinperson!”
“Y…you are welcome… How about we both take a seat?”
“Sure.” I walked into the room and sat next to her. “But why are you here? And how do you know my name?”
“Ikki Inoi and I worked together for the scouting. In truth, I know who is behind each mask, yours included.”
“Oh…”
“If you want, I can tell you who the others…”
“No, it wouldn’t be fair to the others.” It was weird thinking back how we never saw beneath each other’s’ masks. As if we had an unspoken agreement to leave who we actually are behind.
“As for your former question:” Maya Izuki, aka Prototype Alpha went on. “I always loved being an idol. Despite all the hardships and bullshit, I loved singing, dancing and making everyone’s day brighter.”
“Thank you.” I told her from the bottom of my heart. Her face smiling at my gratitude.
“And I went on as long as possible but even I would soon face the tooth of time. I was ‘graduated’ from my group after a decade at 25. For a while I tried to solo it, but eventually fell into a rut of being a coach of sorts to fresh blood.”
“Like you are doing now? Coaching us four?”
“Yes, but I always wanted to return to the stage. ‘For there I have been, and there I always longed to return.’”
It was kind of sad to hear that from my youth’s idol, about how short the career actually is. 25 and then you are done, unless you gained some momentum in acting, music or other field of entertainment.
“I spent my evenings at the Starlight Refuge…”
“The Idol café!?”
“Yes, how do you know…”
“I have heard the maids there are often scouted, so I applied…” My tone soured.
“No luck, I’d wager?”
“Yes. But what did you do there?”
“Just watching the younger idols interact. Nothing creepy, of course. Just staying in touch with the industry, some of my friends, doling out advice to the rookies. And simmering in yearning. Until the day I meet Ikki Inoi.
I think we both just wanted someone we could mope with, so we sat together and emptied too many drinks to count.”
“What was it for him?”
“He was just fired from being the manager of Flower Booth.”
“Really?!”
“Yes, the higher ups had tried to replace the center after she was let go with some popular newcomer, who didn’t sync nicely with the others. So, they tried to kit the ship, only to tear new holes into it. When Ikki told them to not micromanage them, they kicked him instead.”
“Wow… That sucks…”
“You summarized what he told me that evening. Which brings me to well…” She tugged at her catsuit. “This.”
“Oh…”
“He told me that evening, that everything might have been fine if Idols could just separate live and work completely, with no one knowing who they really are. He suggested dancing in carnival or kabuki masks.”
“Or gas masks?” I pointed at the mask I was currently wearing.
“No, that was I.”
“Wait, this was your idea?”
“I had recently helped some V-Idol with her public image, and she invited me to something called ‘Rubber Day’, basically a convention of Rubber fetishists. I came, out of courtesy mostly, and started chatting with a bunch of her friends.
I was fascinated, to say the least, by the skintight, catsuits some of them wore, with some of them also using gas masks. I also told Ikki about this that evening, and maybe due to intoxication, he pondered if one could theme an idol group around them, allowing them to live a life apart from prying eyes. I told him equally as drunk, it would be a brilliant idea, to which he asked me if I wanted to join in. I thought at first as a consultant, but he made it clear to me that I could become an idol again.”
“You couldn’t say no?”
“No… I just want to be on stage again too much for me to be able to turn away such an opportunity. The rest was rather simple: He scouted for talent which had gone unrecognized such as yourself, while I contacted one of the sellers I met at the ‘Rubber Day’ and asked her if she could make a batch of catsuits once we got your measurements. And here we are.”
“Wow… Wait, her?”
“Yeah, the tailor…”
We could hear the door to the studio open, with a group walking in. “Hello, is anyone here?”
“Oh crap…” Maya mumbled. “Go ahead and greet the others, I need to…” She fumbled with her hood.
“Become a Bioniko again?”
“Yes…”
I nodded and closed the door behind me, not even able to see Maya Izuki changing into Prototype Alpha.
“Oi, Epsilon. You came early?” It was the rest of Bionikokoro, Beta, Gamma and Delta, but also another, regular person.
“Hello, who are you, Miss?”
“The lady whose work you are wearing, minus the gasmask and the collar.”
“Ah you are the tailor…” I almost slipped Alpha’s secret. “Alpha talked about.”
“Alpha?” The woman wondered, until she saw the person in question walk in. “Oh, now I get it.”
“Good to see you, Miss Saihoushi. So, what do you think? Is your labor fruitful?” Alpha gestured at the rest of us.
“Very much so. You all look fabulous!” She was giddy seeing us.
“Thank you very much!” I, Gamma and Delta bowed at her. Beta took a bit to realize why we did so.
“Thank you… from me too… ”
“Hmmm? British!” Saihoushi guessed after hearing Beta speak.
“Yes…”
“Wait…” I was befuddled at Beta’s statement. “Didn’t you say you were from the US?”
“Well… I did spend some years in England… My family travels a lot for work.”
“Woah, England must be so exotic!” Delta exclaimed.
“Exotic? Well, I guess from a certain point of view…”
“Enough, chit-chat!” Alpha clapped her hands together to call attention back to why we were here. “Let’s begin with warmup! Or did you come here just to say hello, Satoushi?”
“Actually, I wanted to redo the measurements you gave me.”
“The table wasn’t enough?”
“It was for additional clothing. I just wanted to double check it. Just to be sure.”
“Additional clothing?” Our heads collectively turned while we stretched for the dancing routines we had to practice.
“Just wearing black suits is a bit too bland, don’t you think?” She smiled coyly. “All rubber of course.”
“Your specialty…” Alpha snarked back gently, then looked at the rest of the group. “I take you have everything you need Saihoushi? I will go first.”
She lifted her arm, and the latex tailor took out a measuring band, typing into her phone what was likely Maya Izuki, no, Prototype Alpha’s size.
“Hey…” Alpha turned to us. “Don’t think this means you can slack off! You have an audience in the room.”
“That is awfully sweet of you. I would be happy to see you perform.”
For a second we were not sure what to do, until I asked Alpha: “Do you have the melody of Hearts Beating as One? I overheard that it was finally finished.”
Alpha raised her hand for Saihoushi to stop. “Yes, I already have it.”
I walked up to her, being given her phone and connected it to the sound system.
The music started; the beat began. We had read the songtext before together with an unfinished version of the melody.
“One. Two. Three. Four. One. Two. Three. Four.”
Our test run began.
“What is this feeling in our chest?
What is this pressure in our blood?
This sensation feels so tensed.
And our hearts are in full flood.
Whatever can this feeling be? …”
It felt exciting having someone watch me, watch us dance for the first time. The lines slipped through my lips and the voicebox of my gasmask, mixing with the voices of my co-idols. And while we still had to fully realize our dance sequence to perfection, we were pretty good at staying synchronized when it is needed and deviating when it was better for the flow.
It all culminated with the final line; our poses being perfectly ordered.
“OUR. HEARTS. NOW. BEA-TING. AS. ONE!”
“Bravo!” Both Alpha and the tailor clapped as we breathed after the culmination of all the weeks of grueling training.
“But there is still some work to do, but for now…” Alpha got up. “Beta, you are next!”
“Okiedokie!” Beta left the group for the tailor and Alpha joined us.
“Now let’s go back to the start…”
Over and over we repeated parts of the song either for lyrics or dancing holes, with Alpha instructing us how to patch them up, meanwhile one of us was standing at the other side of the room to get our measurements taken.
I was the last to get hers.
“Let me see… Prototype Epsilon.” I looked in her notes in which I was marked as ‘Epsilon / H. O.’
Bit by bit she rolled her band around my arms, my legs, stretched them over them and my feet and hands.
“What about my head?” I asked her, glancing to my group currently rehearsing the 2nd stance of the song.
“I don’t plan to put anything tight over your head.” She knocked on my visor. “Especially not with that thing on you.”
I continued to be obediently silent, until another thought crossed my mind.
“It must have cost quite a lot to make these.”
“Oh, definitely… Your manager can count himself lucky he got a discount.”
“A discount?”
“I cut down the price and in exchange…” Her face looked at me slyly. “You are going to promote my business.”
“One hand washes the other?”
“Indeed. Though, I do have to admit, while I had been skeptical at first.” She put down her measuring tape. “You all are quite talented.”
“Thank you…”
“And…That is it. I got all I needed. Though…” She put her tool away. “How about you all do it one more time, as a group.”
“Very well!” Alpha responded, winking me over. “Once more, ladies.”
“One. Two. Three. Four. One. Two. Three. Four.”
We went through the whole number again, and while we were far from having it completely down it felt better.
“Woooo!” Our tailer clapped, even though she seemed to be alone, once we were done. “That was great! When do you go on stage…”
“To be honest we don’t know yet…” Was what I wanted to tell her, until a male voice interrupted my thoughts.
“In roughly eight weeks….” Our manager came in, looking very happy. “I think you can manage to be ready by then, I hope?”
“You got us a slot somewhere?” Alpha was equally as surprised.
Our manager pulled out a card and gave it to us.
‘Underground Idol Festival. Catch the stars of tomorrow today!’
“Is that a big one?” Beta asked us.
“It is!” Gamma responded. “Of course, the number of groups filtered out there is always huge. But even getting a spot is a huge opportunity.”
“You know someone who began there?”
“Flower Booth!” I answered. “They had their first big gig there. How the hell did you convince them to let us in, manager?”
“Good old Vitamin C, and another group had to call off. No comment on that…”
“Oh…” It felt bitter to know our attendance was only possible because someone else had to drop out.
“That sucks…” Delta drew us together beside her. “We better give our best so their sacrifice wasn’t in vain!”
She was always the straightforward one.
“Aye!” We raised our fists, shouting to boost our confidence.
“Although that raises the question…” Alpha loosened herself from Delta’s grip. “Who is going to be our center?”
Much like our real identities we never brought that up. Maybe because none of us felt confident we would get anywhere or because of the conflict this question would entail.
“How about you?” Delta pointed at Alpha. “You are ‘Alpha’ after all…”
“A…absolutely not!” She reeled back, catching her tone and calming down. “It would be arrogant to assume it just because of that fact alone… Besides, many of you got talent as well. How about you Gamma.”
“I… I think I am not a good center either.”
“Really, but you are so good!” I protested.
“I am just good at going through the motions, that’s all.”
Alpha, I could understand, knowing who she really was, she might fear drawing too much attention to herself. As for Gamma, I suspected, she might have some history in the industry. But still?
“Leaves us, eh?” Beta commented.
“How about you? Your voice is quite unique…” I asked her.
“I don’t know. The audience can probably hear my accent a mile away.”
“Aren’t you foreigners usually the ones breaking through such barriers?”
“Yeah… But I am not an idiot, throwing caution to the wind. I don’t want to tank the group because of my ego.”
This left only me and Delta.
“H…how about…”
“To be honest…” She rubbed her head. “You are the better singer of us two.”
“But your dancing is far better than me! That is far more important than singing, isn’t it?” My stomach began to wring itself, imagining myself as the center of Bionikokoro.
“Your dancing was very good!” Saihoushi, the tailor, commented. “But I have never heard a voice as good as yours.”
“What she said,” The manager agreed. “It is a crime others disregarded you, without even mulling it over!”
My gaze swerved around, the other members just nodding.
“You definitely got talent. I have to give you that…”
“Your voice rocks, Epsi!”
“You are definitely perfect for it!”
None of them subdued my anxiety about going through with it, even when I looked towards Alpha.
She kneeled down and put her hand on my shoulder.
“You can do it! It has always been your dream, right?”
I swallowed my spit. I could almost imagine Maya Izuki smiling beneath Alpha’s mask. The woman who had gave me this dream told me to fulfill it.
“I… I will do it. I will give it my best!”
My shouting was less to convince them, but to convince myself.
The day was coming.

Part IV - Shotime!

“Hana, are you alright?” I jolted up in surprise. The supermarket manager had almost never used my first name before!
“Yes…”
“You seem tired. Are sleeping enough…”
“I just have a lot of stuff to deal with… Personal stuff…”
“Ah…” She left me alone at the checkout after, the beeping of the register calming my nerves. It was therapeutic to just scan one product after another and seeing the customer off.
Quite different through the gauntlet I went through during the last 8 weeks: I had trained our songs forwards and backwards, so much that if Alpha asked me to perform it in the middle of the night I would probably be able to.
But was all I did enough? There was always the possibility of a mishap, which might be innocuous for an idol later on. But for a debut everything had to be perfect.
One slip of the leg or the tongue of mine and it would be over for Bionikokoro.
‘Was I even cut out for this?’ Was something I thought a lot of recently. And the big day was this weekend! The final rehearsal was yesterday, yet I still felt I slipped at least thrice. I needed to do more… Train more… But from the little freetime, I had almost sacrificed everything. Maybe if I cut down a bit on sleep…
“Ono?” The supermarket manager woke me up from my trance again.
“Y…yes…” I looked at the checkout. No mistake. “Pfuh.”
“You really seem out of sorts. Are you nervous because something big is coming up for you?”
“I…” I bit my tongue, before releasing it just a bit. “Yes.”
“I don’t want to pry into your matters too much. Just let me give you a recommendation:” She looked deep into my eyes, with sternness. “Nine hours sleep!”
“What?”
“Whatever it is, you better get a lot of sleep, ok?”
“I…”
“No buts… You will thank me when the day comes. Anyways… I came to tell you your shift is over since half an hour ago.”
“Oh sorry…”
“You are welcome. But seriously, you better get some rest.”
As I walked home, the anxiety still stirred in me. Tomorrow I could still do some training, having the day free.
Although I would consider my regular managers warning and not cut down on sleep as I had planned.
“Nine hours, Hana! You don’t want Epsilon to be sloppy!” I mumbled to myself as I walked home.

The day had come. I even slept nine hours, yet still my heart was pumping fast even when I sat completely still within my personal changing room. On the outside I could hear chatter from the various people, preparing or coming from their gig, as well as the faint sound of female singing on the stage, very loud singing.
Beta, Gamma and Delta had already left our changing room, which we barely used as we already wore our full rubber suits, except for the outfits we got: Colorful rubber hoodies, mine being pink, with overly long sleeves and covering just a bit below my chest, on their back our letter in a complementary color, in my case ε.
The only one with me was Alpha, zipping up her green hoodie with a red α. “You are excited, I take it?”
I nodded meekly. “It is going to be our big time… Hard not too…” I fidgeted around my seat.
“Are you getting stage fever?”
“No, it isn’t that!” I protested. I had stood before judges before. But now…
“Epsilon?” Alpha sat down patting on her lap. “You want to talk about what’s troubling you?”
I hesitated at first, but then walked over to her and plopped myself on her lap, her arms gently embracing me. “It is the suit, isn’t it? Always gets sweaty after a long day…”
“I…” I won’t deny that I found the insides of it, filled with sweat after a long arduous day, among other liquids. Annoying as it was however… “It is not that.”
“What then?” Alpha’s voice asked motherly.
“I…” The fears I had bottled up sprang out. “What if I fuck things up?! If I do something stupid it will all be for nothing! You all have worked too hard for me to screw it up!”
“Epsilon.”
“I don’t want to make you all look bad on stage!”
“Hana!” Alpha, no, Maya Izuki using my name brought me back. “Breathe!”
I could feel her chest slowly heaved and lowered, in difference to my irregular gasps. I forced myself to slow it down, until mine matched hers.
“It is all going to be fine.”
“H… how do you know that?” I clutched her hands keeping me close.
“I had to many performances to make me worry anymore. Do you know how many times I noticed my mistakes. I even made some during important performances.”
“Really?”
“And do you know what I did, when I stumbled? I did not let distract me! I kept going on was back on the next beat. Same with singing. I mouthed a word or two and then it was back to the rhythm. And right now, even should you, I or anyone else of us stumble, we got nothing to lose and everything to gain.”
“Just…keep moving?” I swallowed my spit.
“Isn’t that what you have always done? Even after all these years of trying. And now…”
“Now I have almost made it.” I just needed to keep myself together, just a bit more.
“Don’t worry. We are always going to be there for each other.” I heard another voice beside me, Delta’s voice.
“Just keep yourself calm. It becomes normal after a while.” Gamma added, in her usual cold tone, though it had a touch of reminiscence.
“Let’s go, girls!” Beta embraced us all. “Let’s rock this joint!”
“Alright!” We all responded to her, even I.
The halls were only dimly lit to the stage, the eyes of others behind the stage fixated on us, as the technician synced our mics to the stage audio.
“What crazy costumes!” “No face…” “Kinda handy, isn’t it?” “They are certainly going to be the talk of today.” “What’s their name?” “Bionikokoro…” “Bionic? Kinda fits…”
“Hey…” I pulled one last time on Alpha’s sleeve before we were called on stage, the murmuring of the crowd already audible.
“Yes?”
“Thank you… For giving me the pep talk.”
“You are welcome… I wish I had someone giving me it when I was where you were…”
“Next up:” The announcer buzzed on. “Bionikokoro! The cutest cyborgs you will ever see!”
“He… Fits…” Delta joked, when we walked on stage, the crowd cheering. We nodded to each other one last time and let our heads hang, as if our brains had just switched off.
And one by one, the stage crew turned the spot lights on, the idol under it lifting her head, speaking with a dead robotic voice.
“Bioniko Prototype Alpha online. Loading basic operating system…”
“Bioniko Prototype Beta online. Loading sensory input functions…”
“Bioniko Prototype Gamma online. Loading speech and language files…”
“Bioniko Prototype Delta online. Loading human interface program…”
And then it was finally my turn, as the light shone on me standing in the middle.
“Bioniko Prototype Epsilon online. Loading Idol routines… ”
Behind us, though I could not see it, a giant text popped up: ‘Initialization complete!’
The music started and we shifted from our frozen posture to a more dynamic one, our voice going from robot to far more energetic.
“Good evening, everyone!” We announced and the crowd gasped up. “We are Bionikokoro. Our purpose as Artificial Idols is your happiness and enjoyment!”
After a small pause for applause, I announced the song. “Without further ado: Electronic Heartbeats!”
“What is this feeling in our chest?
What is this pressure in our blood?
This sensation feels so tensed.
And our hearts are in full flood.
Whatever can this feeling be?
Why all the sudden am I free?…”
I was performing! For the first time in my life, I was performing as an idol in front of a cheering crowd, who went wild after we went full blast.
It was a wild electronic beat to which we sang, with no pause left to think. But right now, I didn’t. I just performed just as we trained countless times. Like in the song our hearts, despite the chaotic nature of the melody were beating in sync.
And even when I made a misstep, I was immediately back in the flow. Even when I stumbled, Delta caught me and flung me up again, as if this had always the plan.
But what made my blood pump the hardest were the cheers of the audience. Innumerable stick lights illuminated the dark room, and claps with the beat echoed from the hall. Even from the little I saw, due to the darkness of the audience was cloaked in and me being in flow, they were enjoying the show.
All this cheerfulness filling the room made me so giddy. Maybe even too giddy, as I felt wetness between my legs which wasn’t sweating, although I did that a lot as well. I also couldn’t be my bladder, as I had made the wise choice of going to the toilet beforehand.
It was the suit, rubbing against my skin. It was the audience seeing me hopping around like this. But it felt so good and right.
Even then I didn’t let my concentration break. I was in it, singing dancing and smiling beneath the mask. A smile none would ever see.
Right now, I was an idol. I was Prototype Epsilon, made for this purpose!
And when we sang the final line together, I was kind of sad.
“OUR. HEARTS. NOW. BEA-TING. AS. ONE!” We banged on our chests.
But also, very exhausted and relieved.
The applause washed over us like a rainstorm after a long drought, falling on my black skin on sinking beneath it to reach the person who had yearned for it so long.
“Thank you all!” I thanked the audience loudly, bowing together with the others. “I hope very much to see you next time!”
After another round of bowing, we finally left the stage light.
“You seem very shaken? You alright?” Gamma bumped me out of my… shock? Trance? Flow? We were now headed to rest.
“Yes… yes… I have never been better.” My knees were shaky, and I could feel the sweat between me and the rubber, not to mention… another need.
“Sorry, gotta go to the toilet!”
“That’s fine.” Alpha waved at me. “We still got to do the meetups though.”
“I’ll be there.” I waved back, running to the bathrooms to calm myself down.

Part V - Aftershow

I found my idol group again, having been given many gazed by the people around me, some daring enough to approach me.
“Whoah, shiny! Don’t you get sweaty underneath this?”
“Oh, like you wouldn’t believe.” I left out how sweat had dripped out on the bathroom when I opened the crotch zipper, thankful for its existence. “Have you seen my group, Bionikokoro?”
“Yes…” The nicely dressed man pointed me to a row of stands. “Actually, got this one from Alpha.”
He showed me a picture very familiar to me. We did a shooting once, a result of it now visible in his hand, adorned by a handwritten ‘Prototype α’.
Said Prototype was waving at me.
“Wait is this… a meet and greet.”
“Indeed.” All of Bionikokoro stood or sat on a table filled with prepared pictures and pencils and a crowd of people lining up to it. “Come on, there have been some people who have waited just for you!”
“Really?” I walked up to a free pencil, taking some of the pictures depicting me in suit. And there were so many people who wanted my autograph.
“You are so cute!” Some were your average idol fan.
“You sang very well, danced quite well, too. I love your costume!” Others were your average idol enjoyer.
“Can I… touch your suit? … It feels oily…” Some had seen apparently seen rubber suited girls for their first time.
“Nice outfits! Heard Saihoushi made them? I find it amazing that you bring rubber out of its niche.” Others were rubber fetishists, who were here to see specifically us.
“I love you, Epsi-chan! I hope to see more of your work!” And some were focused just on me.
“Aww…” Alpha giggled. “Your first hardcore-fan.”
“T..thanks…”
“I do have to admit, you are quite efficient at this.”
“At what? Talking to people and signing autographs?”
“Yes…”
I held in for a second, and sniggered: It was quite similar to my part-time job, but instead of swiping wares I signed autographs, all the while doing some small talk, though in this case more focused on myself.
But even I needed a break from it, so I sat down on a chair behind the table.
“Yo, botgirl…” I heard someone talk. “Yeah, you. Nice performance you gave there.”
It was a girl in a maid uniform, which was the least normal thing about her. The uniform looked disheveled laced with spikes and tatters and patches with demonic symbols. Her face was painted with equally garish makeup and on her head was a maid coif with horns attached.
“Especially liked the bootup into performance bit.” Her grin was devilish as well.
“You are devils? Were you the people before us?” I eyed her and the group sitting next to ours, all dressed like the girl next to me: Maids with demonic features.
She proceeded to make a v beneath her mouth angles… “Zarruriel of the Chaosstar Maids… Blegh” and let out her tongue, painted with a black sigil of sorts, before retracting it. “And you are…?”
“Bioniko Prototype Epsilon.”
“So, you really are a bot? Can I check beneath your skin?” She slid over my suit trying to find an opening. “So seamless.”
“I… am human beneath.”
“I know, I know…. Just joking. Also yes, we were the group before you.”
“What did you sing that was so loud I could hear it from the changing room?”
“Metal!” She smiled at me.
“Zarruriel! Get back here!” One of the demon maids shouted at her.
“Ok ok… We both better get back to our post. Was nice chatting with you!”
“Likewise!” I waved at her and continued my work as an idol, which included meet and greets.
“Alpha?” I also still recalled that nicely dressed man. “There was one guy who didn’t look like a fan at all.”
“Might be a speculator.” Gamma, standing behind me, answered me instead, as Alpha was currently very busy. “The autographs here are free, but if one finds the right one, they might make a fortune… Or end up with a lot of scribble paper.”
“Oh.” I didn’t say more and continued to sign pictures and talk to people who might become our fanbase in the future. Though due to me arriving late, I still had many people lining up for me, while the others had signed away all their autographs.
But this wasn’t too bad. Rather boring, in a good sense. The small gestures of attention were also a work of an idol.
Though while the others soon had their autographs finished, while I had a solid 2 centimeters of autographs to make, including the small talk with the fans.

It was half an hour when I was finally able to return.
“Man, this was tiring. Anyways what are you all going to do…” I entered a completely empty room, with two exceptions: Our manager Inoi and Maya Izuki, Alpha without her hood and gasmask on. “Where is everyone?”
“They have left for the night!” Inoi breathed in deeply. “You were quite the hit. Especially you, Epsilon! The other managers asked we where the hell I found someone with such refined singing talent.”
“It was in front of them…” Maya answered. “Had they just trusted their ears and not their eyes.”
“Well, … I think I am going to hit the brocks tonight. Rest be assured, this debut has gone really well.” Ikki Inoi opened the door. “I see you ladies next Friday!”
“Bye!” We both waved, and with a swing we were alone.
Maya Izuki, a 30-year-old idol leaned back. “Man, it really feels like back during my actual debut. So, what is the opinion of the actual rookie?”
“It was as I expected and yet not.”
“Thrilling?”
I nodded. “When did the others go?”
“Delta went first. In full get up still. Really likes to mingle with the crowd. Beta and Gamma went separately. Both incognito.”
“Without mask?”
“They brought a change of clothes. Speaking of which: You want to come with me celebrate, I know a bar a few blocks away from here.”
“Drinking? With my gas mask?”
“Without it, you dummy. Come on, a girls’ night out, just the two of us.” She held out a hand, then hesitated. “You are still anxious about your looks?”
I swallowed the stone in my gullet and nodded again.
“Hana…” She held me gently by my shoulder. “Everyone of us here has something weird with them, trust me. However, you look doesn’t take away the talent and accomplishments.”
Her smile was so full of warmth and caring. First scared but then more assured, I removed the latex hoodie, then removed the collar with my letter stamped on it, then I loosened my gasmask and finally removed the hood and Epsilon turned back into Hana Ono.
My heart was pumping even more than being on stage. I was barely even able to look my childhood idol in the face.
Said woman burst into laughter. “Really?”
My heart sank until she continued. “This is why they did not accept you? What a bunch of idiots!”
I smiled. “You are serious?”
“Dead serious. Did they plop up their ears with something? No matter…” She pulled out a coat and a pullover. “Let’s pull these over and be on our way!”
“Okay…” We both removed our gloves, storing them in bags and pulled over regular clothing, my wearing the pullover.
If one was just looking above our hipline, we looked just normal, below however was the shiny gloss of our catsuits. “You really think no one will notice?”
“Nah, there is a bunch of rubberists here because of Bionikokoro. And who is going to pay attention to some weird leggings anyway.”
“Leggings? I suppose they do seem like a pair of them.”
“See? Now, shall we?”
With a breath and a nod, I followed Maya into the hallways and halls of the venue. And indeed, no one noticed us. To them we didn’t even look close to idols, even potential ones. We were just two women probably on their way out after having watched idol shows. No one ever guessed who we actually were.
Even Zarruriel, the idol of the Chaosstar Maids, to whom I had talked, just walked past me without noticing.
But I heard briefly what she was saying to one of her group members.
“I am telling you Bionikokoro has it down to a tee. Especially their center. Have you heard her sing? She was like a goddess in black.”
“You are blushing…” Maya nudged me.
“Yeah… So many people talk about us.”
And we walked beneath all their noses. Bionikos Alpha and Epsilon were not here at all, even though we wore their skin just beneath a thin layer of clothing.
We had long since left the venue and were sitting at the bar waiting for drinks, looking more like two sisters, or cousins, when I finally uttered what I really thought about the day which changed everything for me.
“This is the best day in my life!”
“Sweet to hear…” Our phones beeped, interrupting us.
It was a message in the Bionikokoro group chat by Ikki Inoi: ‘Good news, I am currently sitting together with a bunch of old acquaintances and while nothing is set in stone yet, we are likely to get a sponsorship in the not-too-distant future.’
Two glasses filled with beer were placed next to us, we both picked them up.
“Onto a long and fruitful career!” Maya raised her glass for a toast and I mine.
“CHEERS!”
My journey as the Artificial Idol Bioniko Prototype Epsilon had just begun.

Chapter 2 - The secrets we all keep

With the start being made, Hana quickly got into the motions of being an idol: Singing and performing, but also being more sociable. Yet new challenges are quickly approaching, oftentimes in quick bursts and Hana Ono, aka Prototype Epsilon will have to wrestle with questions of her heart and how to say what she wants to say.

And just like her, the other Bionikos have a secret behind their masks as well. Alpha is an old idol, Epsilon has an ugly face, Delta…

“Epsi-chan? Are you ready?” I heard Alpha knock on the door of the toilet.
“Yes…” I answered, drinking the bottle empty and putting my gas mask back on after having taken in and let go of water and opened the door.
“First promotional event… Exciting, isn’t it?”
“I mean it is only a computer store… Not even a big one.”
“Oh, it will come.” Alpha tried to whisper as much as it was possible to me. “Was the case for my old group, too.”
As we left the backrooms of the shop, we finally returned to the rest of Bionikokoro, as well as the photographer and the crew hired by the computer shop, who sold everything from computer parts to full desktops, laptops, as well as accessories. Manager Inoi had struck a marketing deal with them for us to promote their products, but not alone.
“You ready?” One of the coordinators asked the other group involved in the campaign: A group of ‘E-sports’ athletes, all of them in their younger twenties.
“Yeah…”
“You ready as well?” The coordinator asked me.
“Yep.”
Posing for a professional picture was far more enduring than I imagined: Over and over again the photographer took a picture, made us readjust played around with the lights.
Some of the photos were more casual, me standing beside the e-sports athlete in front of a computer, which to be fair had a pretty sick light show. Sometimes I was at computer, other times he with me leaning over him, being supposed to be a ‘gaming muse’ of sorts.
The final picture however was behind a green screen, with me posing above the partner for the shoot on a box, ‘pulling him into the digital realm’ through a frame, supposed to be a monitor, as a digital goddess. Considering how we look in out getup, it makes sense.
The other members of Bionikokoro had pretty similar shoots, Alpha’s refined older nature seeped through, Gamma was far sterner and colder, Beta was very assertive, but open with her shoot partner, while I tried to look bubbly, but the photographer advised me to tone it down and look ‘more regal’.
Delta however was in her element. Looking completely natural while sitting in front of the computer and even making jokes about the game her shoot partner played.
“That should be all…”
“Yo, boss?” One of the gamers asked our manager and the one of the store. “Could we take the rigs and the… Bionikos for a spin?”
“For what?”
“We wanted to do a little stream… Just a match of the game, nothing serious.” Another then turned to us. “How would the ladies feel about it?”
“The exposure sounds nice, though… I have the feeling you want to flex on us, don’t you?” Delta asked cautiously.
The team laughed, caught as they were. “Don’t worry. We will go easy on you!”
“Very well.” Alpha looked back at the rest of us. “How about we show them why they cast us as ‘Goddesses of Gaming’.”
And after being given the broad strokes of how the game worked, it was on.

“Maaaaaaaaaaan…” The voice box in my gasmask struggled with me complaining to the others after the game was over. “They walked all over us! They didn’t hold back at all!”
“They did.” Delta responded.
“Wait, how?” Gamma was equally as confused after our crushing loss.
Delta removed the headphones. “They were using meme-strats on us. The kinda stuff you only see in low elo.”
“You play this game?” Beta enquired further. “Would make sense considering how you are far above us in kills.”
Delta nodded, then waved at the victors. “GG, guys!”
“GG! You were really good, Delta! Had me sweating for a couple of moments.”
“Thanks!” Delta held a thumbs up, while I checked the stream of the e-sports team.
“Looks like there are a bunch of people curious at us…”
“Any troll comments?”
“Hmm…” After I scrolled up, I found the following: ‘No one knew who I was until I put on the mask’, together with an emoji of a bald man with a black facemask. “Does this count?”
“Heh… That one is pretty clever.” Beta chuckled.
“What’s next, Ikki?” Alpha looked at our manager again.
“Let me see… I think… This is it for today … Although I can’t believe we got the schedule this full already.”
“You have done a fine job hooking us up with people, Ikki. Back to the studio then?”
“Sure, sounds good. With the concert on Friday, you better you rehearse your number once again, I still got paperwork to do.”
“All right…” We got up, said our goodbyes to the staff members at the store, exchanged numbers and contacts with some, especially Delta looking to rematch those guys and went off to finish another normal day in our, slightly weird, idol career.

“Ono?” The supermarket manager looked over my shoulder, as I was looking at my account, the one I used as Epsilon. “What are you looking at?”
“Just…” I quickly covered the phone. “A bunch of idol accounts.”
“Huh…” She pushed my hand away to see the account, including the small things giving away that I had control of it. “Are all idols this weird today? Back in my day all they needed was a cute dress and a face, maybe singing or dancing talent…”
I breathed out in relief. It was a good thing that my manager here was so tech-illiterate, she would prefer writing down the prices by hand, if it weren’t required by law for the cash register to print them. She doesn’t even like to use debit cards.
“Anyway, what about the big thing 2 months ago? What was it?”
“I… eh…” My mind was racing, as I blurted out the first thing that came to my mind. “Hardware Realm!”
“What?”
“I found work at a computer store.”
“Really? I mean I guess you know technology.” I knew about just enough to live in modern society, but for her turning it off and on a computer made one qualified enough for such work.
“Nothing set in stone… I think I’ll still continue here. Just in case… But it is looking good.”
“Well then…” The old lady walked away again to do inventory.
When my shift was finally over, I could hear her talking with some young man:
“You work at Hardware Realm? I think one of my staff here got hired there…”
“Really, who?”
“Young woman, early twenties…”
“Can wait to meet her!”
His voice seemed familiar… But I still had still a lot to do at home.
Back at home, besides the usual financials and housework I had to manage, there was also public relations as Epsilon: Answering fan messages, still manageable in our size, picking out photos I had made in the past week and discussing songs with the other members of Bionikokoro, though we would give these raw song texts to an actual musician who round off the edges and add a melody to it, although we were able to give some suggestions for the genre and style.
Another third party we stayed in contact with was Saishoushi, who had reported to us that her first-time sales had gone through the roof in the 2 months since we became active.
Which reminded me I needed to send out a post promoting her clothing, as she had sent us some very neat jackets for the ‘Gaming muse’ shooting: Jet black Jackets, with lots of colorful details and lots of zippers.
I put my laptop aside and jumped off the bed to my closet to pick the jacket off the rack next to the other few pieces of extra latex clothing I had separated into their own section.
Besides that, I only had to put on my gasmask again to start the private shooting session, having already worn the latex suit the entire time.
It really started because I was lazy at times when it came to get out of it, but after some time, I found it kinda relaxing walking around it at my apartment, just wearing it casually and even sleeping in it.
It was the only time when I was both Epsilon and Hana.
“I think that should be enough.” I started to check my phone after removing the jacket and gas mask, trying to pick the best one to post.
“Craaap, I look so good in all of them…” There was something exhilarating seeing myself as Epsilon, exuding a confidence I usually lacked. It was even worse when I also wore it.
“Mmmh…” My hand was drawn to my crotch, although not reaching it after getting myself together. “Not now! You still got stuff to do.”
But being horny and stressed proved to be a very bad combination, especially with the performance coming up on Friday, a rather big stage on a convention.
“Fuck!” I put the laptop away again, and tried to distract myself by squeezing my cat bodypillow, an old keepsake from my childhood. “Why do I like this so much?”
After a long hugging session with it, I finally managed to get up, removing the collar and the hood and went to make myself something to eat.
For now, my urges were in check again, though I prayed they did not return when the big time came on Friday evening.

I couldn’t stand it. No matter how much I paced around or how much I tried to calm myself, I was down…. BAD.
We had done such performances many times now, but never had my horniness been this bad. Although most times, I had solved this problem by letting it out at home. But now it was half an hour before start, and my mind was taken over by my ovaries.
“Screw it!” I mumbled into my gasmask, in both meanings.
“Where are you going?” Gamma asked me as I walked back to the changing room.
“Just catching some fresh air, be right back.”
“Tell Delta to come here when you see her!”
“I will.”
Right now, I needed a quiet place, and with all the crowding near the stage the changing room was likely empty enough to be almost abandoned, and if Delta was there, I would just tell her I needed some time alone to…
I had opened the door and closed it behind me, only to see a sight I would have never thought to ever witness:
Delta lay there leaned against the wall, fumbling around with something on her crotch. Something large and throbbing.
For a moment we just stared at each other, before I made a step backwards.
“Please don’t tell the others I’m a boy!” Delta rushed to me, preventing my flight. Her… his voice was still the same robotic girlish voice as I was used to.
“Boy?” My mind was rattled by this very sudden and very strange discovery. “What…”
“It is a… long story…” Delta looked down and, zipped the crotch up again. A small courtesy. “Would you mind sitting down?”
I sat myself next to her… him, looking at the small bulge still visible. “How did you manage to hide that?”
“Cloth tape… It loosens after getting sweaty, but it holds rather well…”
“Oh…”
The silence between us returned.
“Why?” I finally found the right set of words to hammer into a coherent question. “Why pretend to be a girl?”
“I always wanted to be an idol.”
“That is understandable, but there are many boy groups…”
“No, not in those. I don’t know but even the few times I swallowed my pride and joined them I found them… shallow. I mean a female idol group.”
“That sounds… creepy…”
“No, not like that… agh!” Delta grabbed her… his head. “I always found girl groups to be cooler, more interesting. The boy idols are always the same… I mean just look at how little shit they give about choreography! I know it sounds like a bunch of lame excuses, but I never wanted to perform with you girls because I wanted to get in your pants, honestly.” Delta’s tone sounded ashamed.
“I never knew that we would have to wear this either.” She… he plucked at the suit.
“You really fooled us, you know?”
“You probably would have been disgusted at me, if I had told you the truth beforehand?” He countered my question. To which I had no answer, given it was obvious.
“And the fans gawking at your female alter ego doesn’t bother you in the slightest?”
“A bit maybe… Though it would have been the case if I had stuck with a boy group.”
“Just that it would have been fujos doing the gawking.”
“Yeah… Although…” Delta looked aside. “Walking around like this has been quite the eyeopener.”
“Really?”
“People, men and women alike, tend to leave their guard down when I am like this. They assume…weakness, I guess. But not always in a bad way! They tend to open up more, listen to your feelings more without dismissing it as coming from some scrawny boy needing to grow up. It was comforting being with you all as friends, without feeling the need to compete with boys or the fear of being perceived as a suitor at best or a creep at worst.”
Delta sighed and leaned back again. “I guess I had it coming. Are you going to tell the others now?”
“Well… We still have a concert now. Besides that, … We all have our own reasons for wearing a mask.”
“I mean Alpha and Gamma, sure. Beta maybe because she is foreign… But you?”
“What about Alpha and Gamma?” I asked in a naïve tone, knowing already who Alpha is.
“They are clearly pros at this. Must have had some years in the industry. Although with Alpha that must have been a while ago, considering her age.”
“Wait, you know who she is too?”
Delta looked at me and nodded. “Yes, kinda stumbled upon a meeting with her and manager Inoi. You know her secret as well then?”
“Yep, an old famous idol who wants to start again.”
“Well at least no one will know with the mask and all… But why would you hide your face? With the talent for singing, you have; agencies must have rolled out the carpet for you.”
“I am… kinda ugly.”
“I don’t believe you!”
“I am really hideous, okay! Just a below average girl a boy like you would see once and think ‘Pass!’” I had raised my voice, the anger of being ignored while others my age needed no effort in picking up boys left and right boiling over.
“You are probably just underestimating yourself.” Delta crossed her…his arms. “Tell you what: I’ll reveal my face and you yours.”
“Delta…” Before I could voice my objection, he had already loosened the straps of his gasmask and removed it.
He, his voice was definitely a male now, the gas mask’s voice box must have heavily increased the pitch, gasping out. And there was something about his eyes which I couldn’t quite into words.
Then he loosened his collar and pulled his head out of his hood.
“Meep!” He was so cute! A boy this handsome sat right next to me, and now I had to show my nasty face?
I froze up and tried to look away.
“Bit shy, are we?” And his voice was also smooth as fuuuuuuuuu…
I nodded.
“Don’t worry I won’t tell anyone. After all you didn’t snitch on me, so it would be rude to do the same to you.” He said with a divine smile.
With jittering hands, I removed the gas mask and the hood as well, leaving my face open for judgement.
As he looked at me, he blinked for a few times, making me hide my visage behind my hair, until he smiled at me, pushing the strands away.
My mouth angles turned upward.
“You are cute!”
“Shut up!” My mouth twisted, as his smile infection still forced my mouth up, while my pouting forced it down. “I am not that cute at all.”
“A person with a smile will always be cute. Even if this or that bit is a off, as long as a girl is smiling, she will always look beautiful.”
“Tell that to the judges who talked behind my back.”
“These people, good lady, clearly have shit taste!” He said with a very critical tone.
I burst out in laughter after smacking about the ones who had rejected me in the past.
“What about you? With a face and humor like yours you must have had lots of girlfriends already.”
“I had one, but… Let’s just say a pretty face isn’t all it is made out to be if the brain behind it is rotten.”
“Oh…” It seemed even if you had made it, the life at the mountain top had its own challenges.
“Soooo…” He patted on his fake breasts of his catsuit. “Why are you here? We have to go to stage soon.”
“Well…” My face turned red. “I actually had the same plan as you.”
“You came here to jack off as well?” He was baffled.
“I am stressed out. Maybe I should have rubbed it out back home…”
“For me it is also stress and… reducing the chance of me popping a boner at an inopportune time.”
“Yeah… Haha… Oh, that would be really bad!”
As we laughed another joke came to my mind, immediately squatted down by the last rational bastion of my brain.
“Nah… That would be stupid!” I muttered to myself.
“What would be stupid?” I forgot that mumbling behind a gas mask was far easier.
“No, I just had a stupid idea! Just forget it and…”
“Well, then let’s hear it. We can disregard it later anyway, if it is.”
“Well…” My mind screamed not to utter it. “Considering we both came here to masturbate… I… thought it would be more fun if we… jacked… each other… off…”
This was stupid! My mind screamed at me for my sheer utter insanity, fueled by horniness and Delta, a cute boy, sitting next to me. What the hell was I thinking!?
“I mean if you want to do it, sure…” He rubbed his head. Then he put his hand down, expecting me to do the first move.
I moved my hand across his lap and to that place, letting my hand rest on it. Pressing against it, I could feel how stiff it was.
“D…don’t hesitate…” he answered me with a red face.
After tapping my fingers on his bulge, I started to pull the zipper down, and out plopped his penis.
“Eek…”
“Have you never seen one before?”
“O…only in… porn… Never like… this… Gulp!”
It was hard on touch, harder than I ever expected. “I thought they were… softer…”
“How else do you think it would get in here?” He patted my crotch with his left hand. “Sorry…”
“No no…” I comforted him. “G…go ahead… I…it was my idea… after all.”
He proceeded to gently pull down the zipper and explore my private regions.
“Wet already, are we?” He pulled out his hand, rubbing the fluid he had gathered between his rubber gloved fingers.
“I told you I was down bad!” I chastised him, then looking down at my now visible genitals.
Without any more words, we slowly started exploring each other. And from what I could tell he had experience at this, his fingers skillfully messaging my clitoris and vagina.
I meanwhile had no idea how to stimulate his genitals, tentatively touching his balls, his glans, tugging at the foreskin, pressing at different parts of the member. At last, I proceeded to rub it, first with only a few fingers, then my whole right hand, reacting to him saying: ‘Too tight!’ or ‘Too fast!’
When we finally found a rhythm with each other, we just sat there while rubbing each other hot, getting warmer and hotter, his left hand looking for something, until after a while it erupted from him.
A small stream of white liquid shot out, while he is gasping and moaning, as his penis twitch in my hold, feeling a bit softer.
“That’s it…” I wheezed. “You are done already?”
“You were… doing it too fast…”
I meanwhile felt stimulated but not close to orgasm yet.
“Bet I can make you cum again, before you can make me?” I laughed, feeling a bit exhausted.
His face exuded disbelief, but also determination, to which he proceeded to rub harder on my clit. He grinned. It was on.
I rubbed his penis even faster and harder, making it stiffer and him groan. But he seemingly knew what he was looking for and after a while of prodding he struck it.
“Hnnnng! ” My spot.
Clearly noticing it by my face, he now messaged both my clit and g-spot, making me loose grip on his penis.
“Ah….Ahhh…” He kept on rubbing me, and I felt myself slipping. “D…don’t stop…D…Delta…”
What was I thinking getting jacked off, by a guy whose name I didn’t know? Although I did not him, just not… as him.
“Oh… OH!” Then it happened, and I barely managed to cover my mouth so I wouldn’t give us away.
“MMMMMMMMMMMMH!”
I could feel his hand slipping out, oozing from me squirming.
“You…” He was somewhat exhausted as well. “Are you feeling more relaxed now?”
“Yes… I think…” I felt relaxed, and more interestingly, without the awkward feeling after doing it alone. “Just what I needed before a performance…”
The rational part of my mind also regained control again, ringing the alarm bells.
“Oh shit! The performance! How much time did we waste jacking off?”
Delta also reacted quickly to the memo, running to the bathroom for paper towels to clean up the mess we made, after which we hastily pulled our hoods and gas masks over and put our collars on again.
All the while our crotches were open and dripping.
“Delta… Could I have some as well?”
“Here…” Delta’s voice was now deceivingly female again and used the rest to clean up her… himself.
As I dried up my genitals, I noticed that Delta had pulled out some tape, putting it over his penis to tie it down.
“Is that safe?” I had heard enough about men trying to avoid damaging their loins to look at this as at least somewhat dangerous.
“It is just cloth tape. Better safe than sorry.” Delta had finally put the package back in, zipping the crotch up.
Looking at him now, Delta looked like a female once again, with the bulge not even visible, unless you looked really closely or dared touched it.
There were so many things I wanted to talk about: What we had just done, why he had gone so far to be an idol, how Inoi had scouted him and most importantly his name.
“Let’s go…” I waved Delta to the door. Right now, however we did not have the luxury of time.
When we finally reached the others after a mad sprint again, Gamma was annoyed.
“What were you two doing?! We have to go out in 3 minutes!”
“I… was looking for h…” I had to catch myself, for breath and to reconfigure my brain to before learning of Delta’s secret. “For her.”
“Sorry, we started talking and forgot about time.”
“Hmpf, could have done that after.”
“Gamma, …” Beta diffused the situation. “They are here on time. In the end, all’s well that ends well. Let’s focus on the show. Alright?”
“That’s the spirit!” Alpha agreed with her. “We got an audience awaiting us.”
We agreed with Alpha and made ready for the stage.
As we waited, I threw some glances at Delta. Whatever her… his reasons were, they were as genuine as mine. I would keep his secret for now, even though it sounded unreal, even to me.
A boy performing on stage with girls. A boy whose voice I swear I recall hearing somewhere else.

“Hey, Ono?” The supermarket manager nudged me. “Were you up late?”
“Yes… Uah! The other shift was long.” I yawned widely.
The concert yesterday was exhausting, as the audience demanded an encore, which we delivered of course, with some details coming back blurry, as I come home at 2 AM, falling into bed having only removed my gas mask. That was quite the mess next morning.
I think I even dreamt of one of the members of Bionikokoro actually being a boy, and that we jacked each other off… What kind of dream was that?
“Good morning, Miss Nagoshi!” I heard someone with a strangely familiar voice yawning as well.
“Good morning, young man… ” The manager greeted him back. “Oh, don’t you work at the Hatware realm?”
“Hardware Realm…”
“Whatever it is called… The girl I have told you about, have you met her?”
“Eh,… I don’t think so. Not yet.”
“Really? Strange… She is currently at lane 3 if you want to chat a bit.”
I silently cursed my manager for being so overly managing of other people’s social life, preparing to navigate a conversation with someone who assumed I would be a future coworker of his. Maybe this visage of mine might be useful for once.
Customer by customer went by, anxiety building up as I waited for that dude.
“Are you the girl Miss Nagoshi told me abooooooooout…” I could hear his basket drop like his voice. Turning to him, his face was familiar. Very familiar. Too familiar.
And suddenly I realized the dream about Bioniko Prototype Delta was no dream at all!
“Ah, so you do know each other!” The manager had also noticed our blank stares at each other.
“Yeah…” The boy, who I had last seen wearing a latex catsuit with fake breasts, cleared his throat. “Just in passing though…”
“L…likewise…” I supported his quickly spun tale. “I…is that all?”
I quickly turned the topic to the mundane business of groceries.
“Yes…”
We then proceeded with our roles in this affair: Me scanning or looking up the products he bought and him paying for them, without another word, although throwing glances at each other.
“H…have a great day!” I told him as he left the supermarket, with me having a stone in my stomach.
A bit later my phone beeped during a lull, having received a message. From Bioniko Prototype Delta:
D: Hey
D: when is your shift over?
I hesitated, then typed.
E: just 2 more hours
D: great
D. wanna hang out later?
E: as us or just… normal
D: normal
D: no funny business
D: just want to talk
D: if thats alright with u
My finger hovered over the ‘Send’ button after I had written my answer. I might regret this. However…
E: sure, meet me at the back of the supermarket
I was just too curious about him.
E: Btw whats your name?
E: i am Hana
D: Zenjuro, or just Zen

The sun had long passed its zenith when I left the supermarket through the employee exit, holding a back with something to snack.
And just as he told me, Zenjuro stood there leaning against a trash container, knocking on it with a beat very familiar.
“Can’t get our song out of your head?” I instinctively asked him, to which he nodded, noticing the bag. “Are these your groceries?”
“No, just some snacks… so we’d have something to eat.”
“Sweet! Did you ever visit the stone garden park?”
“Not, really. A bit too bland… and smooth. But we can go there if you want to.”
And so, we went to the park talking all the way there.
“Sorry for the manager! She is always excited when it comes to relationships of co-workers. We once had a guy there looking at a girl for one second too long and she already tried hooking him up with her.”
“Haha… No offense taken. Since when you work there?”
“2 years. It was just to get by… at first.”
“You have been chasing your dream for this long?” He looked at me with… a mixture of bafflement and admiration.
“Yes…” My heart fluttered when I tried to look at him, but I only gazed on the path ahead of us. “What about you?”
“One year, but I did some other gigs on the side…”
“Like?”
“Minor acting roles as extra, as a background dancer… More minor entertainment jobs… Nothing to write home about…”
“Inoi found you through one of those?”
“Yeah,… Sometimes when we had collabs with idol groups and I… asked them what they thought about mixed performances?”
“They shut you down really fast.” I wagered.
“Yup…” Zenjuro sighed. “I probably sounded veeery creepy saying that to them.”
“Well, you are a guy soooo…”
“Do you think I’m creepy?” He said after a long pause where we just sat on a bank and the snacks I bought.
“Huh?” I still had to swallow the cookie in my mouth.
“In hindsight do you think I acted creepy with… You know… Being Delta and all? It was probably a very stupid idea in all things considered.” His voice became soft, quiet and full of shame, mirrored in him avoiding eye contact with me.
I thought about it, nibbling on my food: He had been disguising himself as a female idol and performed with us, pretty easy and hard at once considering we were wearing full, but also skintight rubber outfits with no trace of identity left.
On an instinctual level I myself was certainly creeped now knowing that Delta was, indeed, a guy, considering we all behaved as if Delta was a girl and not a guy, doing things we would do with a female friend but not a male one.
But then… I did not think that during all this time Delta… or Zenjuro… ever crossed a line… At least I would have expected a guy in his position to have done a lot more heinous stuff, like being aggressively touchy or sexual. And he had been honestly great pretending to be a woman with all the nuances that pertained, I thought to myself.
“I guess you are probably going to leave or tell the others?”
“Not really…” I barely had swallowed my food. “You did a really good job as Delta… In more ways than one…”
I cleared my mouth and drank a bit of a soda can.
“You are a really good dancer; I have to admit that!”
“You are a great singer…”
“T…thank you…” My heart flustered a bit after hearing him say that. “And you are not too shabby in singing either despite that… voicebox in your mask?” I pointed at my lower face.
“Yes… The manager actually told me in advance about that… Otherwise it would not have been possible, he said. Didn’t expect the outfit either, though.”
We laughed thinking about us during the moment where we realized the catch of joining Bionikokoro.
“Where was I…” I caught my breath. “Right, you are doing a good job in appearing female: You honestly did pass right beneath our noses, not gonna lie. I would not have expected such a … eh… revelation. But…”
Delta and Zenjuro were so much alike and yet so different.
“But?”
“I think I’ll play along your charade as long as you behave as a proper idol.”
“Thank you very much Hana!” His bright smile nearly blinded me, and I could not help but feel drawn to him. But in the end, I could force myself to get up. “Not the right time for first name basis?”
“I don’t really care about that sort of stuff…” I lied through my teeth. “Anyway, we will see each other again, …”
My mouth went up coyly walking away. “Prototype Delta…”
“Hey, wait…” Zenjuro caught up with me, and looking back at him almost grabbed me by my arm, before pulling away. “Could we meet again… Like this? You know? Just casually?”
There it was. The moment where I could do what he was expecting, for me to turn him down, keep him at arm’s length, as a business acquaintance. But his eyes were just too damn heartbreaking for me to bear it.
“Sure…” I still looked away and walked to the station. “Sounds like fun. Just write me.”
He did not see my bright red face.

And so, a weird sort of double game began, with me hanging out with Zenjuro after my part-time job, talking about family, weather, food and music, including idols, and becoming more friendly with his alter ego Delta.
Both were in separate enough worlds that my head could make a clear cut, even though they were the same person. She was my idol and friend, he was my buddy whom I hang out with after leaving the supermarket were I still worked, sometimes even going to his workplace, the Hardware Realm, the same store were we had done our cross-promo event.
We even saw the posters amd videos they made with Bionikokoro and when I looked at these, it made Zenjuro and Delta appear even less to be connected in any sort of way.
‘Come beyond into the Realm of Fantasy!’ It called out.
Until that day:
We had just finished another concert, this time at a Latex Fetish club, who of course loved us and our getup. They had clamored for several encores and the meet and greets went on for hours. And when we were done it was already late in the evening, and everyone of us wanted to get home and into a bed.
For me that was no problem, as the subway line I took was usually filled at almost every hour.
“Shit!” For Delta however, it was not. She, I tried to hammer it in so as to not spill Zenjuro’s secret by accident, was scratching her head looking around, panicked from her posture. “What do I do now?”
“Is something?” I walked over to her.
“No, nothing… nothing…” For a moment the male desire to not need help slipped through. “Well, it is actually something… Can we talk about it while walking?”
“Sure…”
Once we were out of the building and on the street, after a few onlookers had taken pictures of us, Delta whispered closely. “The line I take I normally take had an accident, and I can’t get to my apartment tonight. Could I… ” Delta cleared his…her throat. “Could I crash at your place tonight?”
I stood silent for a while, knowing full well who Delta was behind her mask.
“I know it sounds weird, but I really have nothing vile in mind! It is just… you are the only person I can possibly ask right now.”
I breathed in deeply, pulling my raincoat tight. “Just sleeping over? Nothing more?”
“Yes…”
“I guess it is fine.” I breathed out in relief, as I convinced myself that it would be just like a friend sleeping over, nothing more.
Making our way to my home, we tried to keep a low profile, though there were still people obviously noticing us: Some just looked and went on, some asked us why we were wearing that and how it felt, and a few were people who had already heard or seen us, being either fans of us or customers of Hardware Realm, the place Zenjuro worked at.
“Let me see… This one!” I pointed at the incoming train for whom many people already waited, and when the train arrived few of its passengers left.
“There are usually never this many!”
“Looks like I wasn’t the only one affected by the accident…” Delta remarked. “Come, better we get any spot than none at all…”
“Delta, wait…” I walked after her…him…her when the door opened and a wave of passengers walked in and out, pushing and shoving to get through and me aside.
I pushed back as well desperately trying to keep line of sight to Delta, who got ever further away. Frantically I pushed myself forward, the oily rubber helping me to slip through, until I finally…
“Delta!” Grabbed Delta’s hand. “Let’s not get separated!”
“Sure…”
Now holding tightly to each other, we pushed through until we managed to hold onto something to not fall over, with me hanging onto a metal bar.
I could feel how the rest of the crowd kept pushing until I finally heard the doors closing and could feel the subway moving.
“Quite tight, isn’t it?” Delta joked, from what I could guess smiling behind the tinted glasses of the gasmask.
“Usually, it is not so overfilled… Even the air is used up.”
“Maybe we should have brought air tanks?” Delta shrugged. Then someone pushed us closer together.
“Ups…” “Sorry…”
I had been momentarily buried in Delta’s chest. It felt like real breast, although I have never fallen into someone’s breasts, real or fake.
On first inspection Delta certainly looked female, from the slim waist, the seeming lack of bulge and wide hips. Though some things slipped through: The bulge was visible, if you looked very closely, as in, with a magnifying glass close, Delta was almost a head taller than me, and her grip was very much that of a man, strong and steady.
We didn’t say much after that, the rattling of the rails making any talking hard without resorting to shouting.
Then, roughly 4 stops before we arrived something happened:
I could barely feel it at first, the rubber dulling my senses, but I could feel something slide along my butt. At first, I thought it might have been just a mistake, until this hand stroked further and then turned around to grab my ass.
Shame. Indignation. Rage. Disgust. All these emotions flooded my blood as I was groped. In the past, during especially low points of mine, I had at times fantasized about this kind of thing: An ugly girl like me, starved for attention, getting molested.
How naïve I was… It felt chilling to the bone, I wanted to scream, but I couldn’t.
Was it because I was standing in an over crammed carriage? Because people would notice if I tried to scream?
And even if I had room to move away, I was frozen solid.
I desperately wished for it to stop, but that bastard behind me just kept going, without any sort of shame he crawled down my thighs and…
I tried to smash my thighs together so he wouldn’t go there, but that did not deter whoever was groping me in the slightest.
I wanted to puke, to scream.
“Epsi-chan? Are you alright?” I heard Delta talk to me, and I nudged my head up, clenching my hands into small fists.
Delta’s stance shifted as soon as she, no, more he, saw me shaking.
Immediately Delta’s free hand flew by me and in a second, I could feel the hand of the groper, freezing, being forcefully pulled back, then finally retreating on its owner’s volition.
“T…thank you…” I muttered. Not saying a word more. I decided to turn around but whoever it was had slinked back into the crowd to vanish forever.
“Asshole…” Delta uttered at the invisible perpetrator, then comforted me: “Should we leave next stop?”
I shook my head and continued to stand with my back to Delta, feeling a bit safer. By chance I brushed on Delta’s hand, and with a feeling of desperation entwined my fingers in it.
We spoke not a word more until we had left the subway station near my apartment, walking through the dimly lit street to it. The memory of the groping still fresh in my mind, as well as Delta’s rescue from it.
“What… did you do to…the hand?”
Delta messaged her…his wrist. “Grabbed him around here… And squeezed it nice and tightly until he finally learned his lesson.”
“His?”
“From what I could see it looked a male one. Felt like it too…”
“Right of course…” I cleared my throat. “Did… did it happen to you as well?”
“Groping?” Delta held in for a second. “Yeah…”
That did not sound like someone whose ass got grabbed. “You sound rather… indifferent about it…”
“I just swatted the bloke’s hand away!” Delta clarified. “Nothing major really…”
Just, swatting it away… Thinking back I should have done exactly that as well, bite back, slap him, accuse him. Anything! But I had been too overwhelmed by my feelings to do just that.
“I guess it must be harder for you and… you know…” Delta avoided mentioning the difference between us. “Don’t worry. You are safe now.”
Delta proceeded to pull me close by the waist. It was a rather tight embrace but for some reason…
“Oh sorry…”
“No, it is fine.”
I felt comfortable with him… her holding me close.
“We should be close to my home by now. There.” I pointed to the apartment block I called home, some lights were still on, the street in front of it deserted except two black figures walking in front of it and entering the complex all the way to my small apartment.
It was the first time I had a boy sleep over at my apartment. Or a girl. Or anyone else but my family, for that matter.
“You made yourself pretty cozy here…” Delta looked around after I had turned on the light.
“I mean it isn’t very big. At least I can find the extra futon easily.”
Immediately Delta eyed a poster of Maya Izuki during her heyday. “Already a big fan of her, eh? Umeko Yamada too…”
“She was practically the reason I wanted to be an idol. Umeko, too, but more during the end of highschool and until now.” I dragged the futon from the small closet behind one of the posters I decorated my wall with.
“It is strange she disappeared so suddenly and without a trace… Do you need help?”
“No, feel free to look around. Although there isn’t much…”
“More than I have hanging at home. Wait…” Delta caught the futon unfolding wildly and together we gently spread it out next to my bed, now covering nearly my entire floor except around the small table. I didn’t even own a TV, a laptop was enough nowadays.
“Puh… Does feel crammed, especially with all the things lying around.”
“I didn’t have time.”
“Yeah, sorry…”
“Don’t mention it. You want something to drink?”
“Sure…”
As I filled up two glasses of water I could hear Delta wrangling off her gasmask, her…his voice now clearly deeper.
“Thank you!” Delta… no… Zenjuro thanked me, taking a sip from his glass. I too removed my gas mask to drink.
“Ah…” I gasped out, after emptying from my glass. “Just what you need after a long day of work!”
“And wearing rubber.” Zenjuro added. “I would have never guessed just how much you sweat in this.”
“How did he find you?”
“Who?”
“Manager Inoi. He had to see you during something, hadn’t he? At least for me, he saw me during a casting for an idol group.”
“Which one?”
“Eh…” It had only been less than half a year, but when I tried to remember, I had to laugh. “Haha, I don’t even remember what they called themselves.”
“Looks like you really dodged a bullet there.” He agreed, continuing after taking another nip. “As for me, he told me he had heard about the one time where I joked about making a ‘mixed idol group’.”
“Well, he lied about that one. We are all female.” I winked at him.
“No, he actually told me upfront that I would have to wear a voice modifier to make the cut.”
“And you agreed?”
“Yes… I…” He stammered. “I really wanted to be in an idol group ever since that day.”
“Oh? What day?”
“My twin-sister had a ‘school-idol’ performance for a school festival that day, but one of them got sick that day and so…”
“…she asked you to jump in.”
“To be fair, I only accepted because I would wear pants and not a skirt.”
“And now here you are, crossdressing to fulfill your dream.”
“Very much so…” He laughed at the hilarity of it all. “And now I have to walk around with these.”
He jiggled his false breasts.
“I thought every boy was soooo jealous of these?” I grabbed one of them making him laugh. “Do feel weird though…”
When touched one could feel something was off: Maybe it was the slight way they slid, or the softness being too much or too little, in an uncanny valley of tenderness.
As I got closer to him, kneeling on my bed with him sitting in front of me, comparing my breasts to the facsimile he wore, he suddenly began to blush.
“What is it?” I asked. “Aren’t these just fakes?”
“It is just… you are touching me…”
“Duh… Of course I am touching you!” I grabbed the other one. “Or are you just pretending to act as a woman again?”
I had this weird fantasy once of a boy being grabby with my breasts, squeezing them like dough. In hindsight, I had been very lonely, and this was maybe a sort of vengeance for the years of frustration.
“Could you please…” He gasped out.
“I do kinda get why a boy would love touching these. Sooo soft…” Of course, it was a very different thing touching and being touched.
“Hana… could you please… Hng!” He suddenly lapsed backwards, taking me with him. Luckily, we were still on my bed so no one was hurt, at least that was what I thought.
“Are you ok?”
“Your knee…” He stammered. “Your knee is on my… hng… balls…”
I looked down, his physique shrouded in a feminine form, shiny black all the way to his crotch zipper. Or at least where it would be if my knee didn’t obscure it. It was then I realized that this area was growing firmer by the second.
“Oh shit!” I exclaimed, quickly removing my knee. “Does it hurt a lot?”
“Yeah… kinda…”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize…” I put my hands over my mouth and raced for a way to help him. I found one, the first idea that came to mind. “Let’s remove the pressure on it.”
“W…” As I touched the zipper he winced again. “Screw it, just do it anyway… Can’t be worse than this.”
When I had pulled it down, I was greeted by his cock, although not in its natural form: It was packed into a rubber sheath.
“Oh that…” He gasped, still wincing. “I bought one of these because… I didn’t want… to clean my catsuit in case of… accidental discharge.”
“Oh…” It was one, more reasonable thing in this unreasonable situation. “Should I remove it? Just in case you got hurt.”
He nodded and I carefully peeled it off, careful to not touch anything that might worsen the injuries I had caused, be it balls or cock.
Zenjuro gasped out in relief after I freed his penis from the pressure, and I proceeded to carefully check if I had accidentally hurt him in any way.
To my relief, after looking for injuries or blessures, it had been unharmed. Me putting my knee on it had not caused any major harm from what I could tell.
However, while it had been pulsating before I had laid hand on it, it continued to throb, only becoming harder and harder. To add to this, I could hear Zen wincing and I feel felt myself becoming… aroused to myself touching his penis.
“D…do…you like it…?” I splurged out, more guided by instinct rather than reason. He was gasping for air, wincing.
“Well… I mean… It does feel… HNG!”
The reason lay on the tip of my thumb, which had been placed on the very tip: A white, nearly translucent liquid on black rubber.
A question crossed my mind: What did it taste like? Most of the practical stuff I knew was from porn, hardly a medium which could explore smell or touch or taste.
I gulped down my spit and with a lick my thumb was clean again. I don’t know what amazed me more, the strange taste of it, so expected and unexpected at once, or the blank stare he gave me after I tasted his pre-cum.
“So…” I fumbled squeamishly with the fleshy thing between his latex-clad legs. “Keep going?”
He hesitated, looking at me, the girl in rubber, then at himself, squeezing on of his false breasts and nodded downwards.
My heart raced faster and faster as I lowered my head downwards, and I could feel the innards of my catsuit getting wetter, especially between my legs.
And then my lips touched the glans.
It was warm, hard and wet, but so very warm.
I started slow at first, trying to restrain myself, just swallowing the glans. It was like a lollipop, although salty and meaty.
When I looked up, I saw Zenjuro very much enjoying it. But the weird thing was I was turned on by it. I wanted to suck it. Have it deeply lodged into me. As I throated his cock, every time a little more, I let one hand slip down to my clit, already grown wet beneath the zipper of my catsuit, moaning in pleasure.
I became so absorbed with sucking it, I didn’t notice its owner tense up, starting to breathe erratically until…
“Ugh!”
It flooded my mouth.
At first, I wagered I could easily swallow it all down. A foolish idea, as it came faster than I could gulp it down and soon enough my mouth was full, and in my haste, I tried to breathe when I was still gulping it down, something I had experienced from drinking water to fast.
“Cough! Cough!” As I removed my mouth from his penis, it still spewed its white liquid, although not as strongly, onto my drooling face, coughing out semen.
“Are you… alright?” I could hear Zenjuro being slightly exhausted, as he clapped on my back.
“Cough! Yes… Cough! Nothing… to worry…” As I slowly drained my mouth of the fishy liquid, I felt my urges still raging on. “Fuck… I am hornier than before…”
“You wanna do it then?” Zenjuro looked me straight in the eyes, wiping away some of the drool-cum from my mouth.
“I…” I stuttered. Why did I hesitate? I had already jacked him off and gave him oral, so why did I freeze up now?
His eyes! There was an earnestness in them, a warmth, intimacy.
Things that were just too good to be true to happen to someone like me.
“Or are you not in the mood…” He grabbed the cock-sheath, starting to pull it over.
“NO! It is not that… it is just…” My mind raced as did my head, until it found our gas masks. “M…masks…”
“What?”
“Please…” I crawled over to them, grabbing mine and handing him his. “Put it on.”
He stared at me blankly for a second, then took it and pulled it over his head.
“Ah…” It was Delta’s voice, asking cheekily. “Do you have a thing for futas or something?”
“Not… it is just…” The words stuck in my throat even after my gasmask sat tightly, shifting my voice into the artificial. “Let’s go!”
I pulled down my crotch zipper and immediately began riding Delta.
Unsaid the feelings I had towards Zenjuro, feelings of longing and intimacy. Things I felt ought to be said to someone you love before you go to bed with them.
But with a friend like Delta was to me, it was… Easier. Less complicated. Just letting it out of your system without being too attached as I had become to Zenjuro.
Our two girlish voices filled the room, with two reflective female figures mingling with each other, in a concert of electric moans.
Until we both finally came.
“Ah…”
My first time, with a boy crossdressing as a girl, to achieve his dream of becoming part of an idol group.
At least I didn’t have to worry about my hymen anymore, after the humiliation it caused me by making me botch the handover in a relay race during the sports festival in school.
We removed ourselves from the other, zipped each other up, and, almost on instinct began cuddling, the only sounds being our labored breaths and the creaking of rubber.
“So… how was it?” Delta caressed my cheek.
“I…”
There was so much I wanted to tell the boy behind the mask: A whirlpool of thoughts and emotions. How he made my heart flutter. My brain melt in joy. But all I got out was…
“Felt good… Wanna do this some more?”
Delta giggled. “Sure… But maybe another day. I feel really tired.”
I cringed beneath the mask at myself.
I loved him. But I had yet to tell him that.
Soon, I convinced myself, I would confess to him soon.

The sun shone into the room, but not my own. I could see a desk with a laptop, an additional screen and some other device with a green logo, and other peripherals.
I slowly got up from the bed I had slept in, but not my own. It was softer and when I looked next to me, there was a futon, whose sheet had been discarded.
And as I looked down at myself, I saw a t-shirt, but not my own. It had the logo of an old idol group on it. And beneath that, I wore nothing nothing.
I then smelled cooking, and following it to the source found Zenjuro, awake and making breakfast.
“Morning Hana…”
“Uaah… Good morning.” I yawned, the pieces finally setting in: I had slept over at his apartment again, for… the fourth time this week? Fifth time? “I hope you don’t mind if I borrow this?”
He looked at me yanking a part of the shirt. “No not, at all! Just don’t forget to return it.”
“Yes, of course…” I scrubbed my head, recalling the first time I slept here, having taken one of them back home, until he figured I must have had it. “I’ll be showering.”
“Sure…” he turned back to the stove. “But don’t forget to hang our suits down.”
Our suits. As I stepped into the bathroom, with my own hair products as he had nothing but soap and a single bottle of shampoo, I saw them: Two black rubber suits, plus assorted parts and gas masks drying on the curtain rods.
Carefully I took them down, taking in their touch, their smell, their sound. These were our second skins, through which we became Epsilon and Delta.
In these we sang, danced, performed and…
My temperature rose, and I decided to put the shower on cold, again.
We had sex again last night. In the suits. Gasmask and all.
Even decreasing the temperature more did not help cooling me or my thoughts down.
It had sort of become a routine of ours, but even after so many times, I just couldn’t do it without us both wearing our masks.
But why? There was a knot in my mind, my heart I just could not untangle. Ever since the first time, when I gave him oral and looked at his face afterwards, I just wanted us to disappear behind our other identities.
His face makes my heart flutter normally, especially when he is smiling at me. But as soon as it comes to sex, I want to disappear. And I want him to disappear. For us both to be two entities satisfying each other’s carnal desires.
Not to say Del… no, Zenjuro is bad at it. Quite the opposite. He definitely knows what he is doing and how to make me cum.
And yet, after hearing Delta moan so many times, I am aroused by the thought of him, in his own voice, cumming, but also absolutely terrified of it.
“Hana?” I heard him knock on the door. “Food’s almost done.”
“Ah… ok…” I turned off the water, after clearing of the remnants of the conditioner. I could dry my hair later. “I’m almost done anyway. Gimme a moment.”
Then I dried myself of and…
My hand grabbed a catsuit on instinct, so often had I simply gone from latex to shower to latex, but this wasn’t my catsuit. It was Zenjuro’s. And it wasn’t just the size making it different.
I could feel the suit having padding at certain areas like the bust or the hips and a soft mesh at the waist forming a sort of corset. Holding it out in front of me, it already had soft, feminine curves.
To think someone with his body only needed this to look like a girl, if a bit Amazonian, was quite astounding.
After carefully hanging his suit up again, I proceeded to take mine and put it quickly on and pulled the shirt he lent me over it.
His face as he saw me coming out was priceless.
“That was quick. Do you like wearing it casually?”
“Yes… What about you… Not so much with the corset, I guess?” I started eating. He wasn’t just good in bed; his cooking was also very excellent. I certainly never had breakfasts this good at home.
“Usually not… But…”
“But what?” As Is started eating, I raised an eyebrow.
“I… You remember that game we played against the esport team?”
“Mmmh…” I nodded, speaking after swallowing my bite. “The one we got stomped in? You play it on your own?”
“Yes…” He grinned. “But after that game, some fans asked me if I could stream more of me playing and sooo…”
He pulled up a game stream site and showed me a clip from his channel there, or to be more precise, Delta’s channel.
I still did not get most of the game, but Delta sounded like she was achieving something very exciting.
RAMPAGE!
“That is how it’s done ladies and gents!” Delta celebrated, the chat being very active.
“Since when did you play that game?”
“Pfuh, ever since… 5th grade. But it is not overly popular in Japan. So, I mostly play on the Southeast Asian servers.”
“More people there. Do you use your old account?”
“No… This is an alt account, so no one can trace it back to me.” He certainly was careful when it came to his identity. “Although I had quite the progress on my main.”
“Did you talk about this with the manager?”
“I did. He was quite enthusiastic about it. Publicity and so on.” He took a bite from his breakfast. “I… Would you want me to teach you the game so we could play together?”
I froze and heated at the same time, the word together alone holding quite the punch.
“I… in private or as B…bioniko?”
“Either really.” He smiled at me. That stupid, beautiful smile of his.
Luckily for me I was released by my phone pinging me that I got a message, allowing me to cut the conversation off, though the idea of him and me doing something together still stuck with me as something nice, even if I was terrible at the game he liked to play.
“Who is it?” He asked me, after a while.
“My landlord…” I groaned. “He wanted to ask me about the rent yesterday but…”
“You were here.”
“Right. Sigh. I better return there this afternoon after our training session, or he’ll get a seizure.”
“Maybe we should move together. I wouldn’t have to deal with my landlady then.” He laughed. “I got a very stern call from her after I was at your place for a few days.”
“Really? I thought that was your grand…”
It was at this moment we both got a message simultaneously, cutting me off from asking him also about if he meant ‘moving together’ seriously… It was from Ikki Inoi in the Bionikokoro group chat.
Inoi: It is this time of the month again and with great news too, the performances from last month were a smashing success, as was the Hardware Realm colab. As such you all will definitely feel our growing success as well. Check your bank accounts (^_~)
Inoi: Also, we need you here today. I have landed us an interview with IdolEye, never heard about them personally but they are apparently idol otaku with a channel making videos about upcoming talents. Never would have found them myself, that’s for sure. As such we gotta make preparations for an interview.
A: Don’t worry. It is just rehearsal, just with likely question we will get. Nothing big to write home about. It is going to be a nice boost though. Alpha Out.
“Ah, payday!” Zenjuro joked. “I nearly forgot about it.”
“I did as well…” I was so used through the 2 years for it to be the end of the month, not the beginning.
Both of us were silent, completely focused on our phones, logging into our bank accounts. The income from Idol work until now was nice, but it we still had our part-time jobs to pay the bills fully.
Then we saw this month’s income.
“OHMYGOD!” We both shouted.
“He certainly didn’t lie.” I was exasperated at the green number. Previous cheques had certainly been a welcome boost, even allowing me to upgrade my laptop to something that didn’t take 5 minutes to start up, but this month’s pay…
“This is more than I make in a month.” Zenjuro stole the words right out of my mind. I just looked at him and nodded, he turned his head slowly back to his phone.
A stray thought crossed my mind.
“With income like this… I could quit my part-time job for good.”
“Me too.” He answered me with the same astonished tone I had.
We said nothing more. Even as we changed into Delta and Epsilon and took the subway to the studio, but we both knew the other was thinking about the same thing:
We could go pro, for real.

“Five. Six. Seven. Eight. And Stop! That was very good.” I breathed a sigh of relief when Alpha finally called it quits for today. “Remember to practice at home as well. With all the time we lost for preparing for the interview we have got to make up for it.”
“Got plenty of time anyway.” Gamma answered in her frank tone, quickly packing her things and going to the door. “See you on Friday.”
“Well…” Beta was more playfully coy about it. “I mean I had some plans for the week, buut… I’ll fit it in.”
“You better.” I could almost see Alpha rolling her eyes, waving Beta anyways.
Our manager had gone away after we had prepared for the interview, him playing the part of the interviewer, asking us questions, then commenting whether the answers we gave might have gotten us caught in a rhetorical trap and giving us advice how we should answer them: Not lying, but not giving away the whole truth. Keep your cards close to your chest and expect the host to try and pull gossip out of you.
Afterwards he had left to deal with the financial and business side of our idol group, while Alpha drilled us through the choreography of one of our numbers again.
Alpha turned to Delta and me. “What about you two? I guess you still have your part-time job too…”
“Actually…” Delta stood up. “We both thought about quitting them. You know, going full time pro.”
The way she…he flexed his arms was almost too comical.
“Really? I know myself that this is a big step. No more stable income to safely rely on in case things go south. I admit I was scared when it came to this point.”
“So what?” Delta countered stubbornly. “With our combined talents we have made it so far already, and pretty smoothly too. Not to mention…”
Delta then walked to me, putting an arm over my shoulder. “Our center being so beautiful and beloved by our fans. And I am hard-pressed to argue with them: Epsilon is our best girl!”
Zen…Delta saying that made me quiver in warmth. “Thank you… You… didn’t need to…”
“No really.” Delta laughed it off. “I could probably be replaced rather easily… Only really got my dancing. But you are irreplaceable!”
“Don’t say that!” I spoke up, quieting down as I pulled Delta’s arm from my shoulder, looking directly into Delta’s blank face. “You are irreplaceable as well.”
The Bioniko in front of me didn’t say anything, for a moment.
“T…thank you…” Delta answered sheepishly. “Anyways…. Gotta go…” And pulled her…his hands away. And in a matter of a minute Delta was gone as well, leaving me and Alpha alone.
“Zen, wait!” I followed after him, but he could not hear me anymore, but Alpha did.
“Zen? Oh my…” She laughed, covering what would be her mouth. “Are you already going by first names?”
“I am sorry please just forg…” Then I remembered. “Right, you know who Delta is beneath the mask.”
Alpha patted on a spot next to her, inviting me to sit down and talk. “Did you know each other for long?”
“I guess…” I rummaged through my memories. “Since a month or so ago.”
“Ah, and how is HE privately?” Alpha leaned her head on a hand.
“Well… he…” I had to swallow a bit. “He is really nice.”
“Oh really?” If only I would have been able to see Maya grinning, I would not have blurted out my feelings in full.
“Like… He is really forthcoming. When he saw my face, he just shrugged it off like it was nothing at all. Even called my cute, because of it, not ins spite of it. But he is also really caring about me. Like he is just the right balance between thoughtful and manly… And… he is also…”
I could hear Alpha giggling at this point, not to mention my mind swaying to our first time. Thank the stars I wore a mask.
“I have seldom seen anyone so lovestruck as you.”
“I… it is not like that…” I could feel Alpha’s hand on the back of my hand, while she looked at me. She had already seen what I had tried to deny. “I love him.”
The words came out with great effort, but after them I felt so relieved. My heart bubbling.
“He was so sweet to me… Even when I showed him my face, he didn’t mind it at all. Said the judges who rejected me had ‘Shit taste’.”
“Haha, that seems about right!” Alpha laughed. “And beyond that? It has got to be more than ‘he is kind’.”
“We… did hang up hanging out. Not as Delta and Epsilon, but just… as us. We went out eating together, talking about our jobs. And he is just: A great person… I don’t know how else to describe it… I love him.”
“The full boyfriend experience, huh? And how does he feel about it.”
“I don’t know…” A stone rolled into my throat. “I didn’t actually confess to him…”
Alpha just stared at me, more blankly than I thought possible.
“With how touchy he was with you? I thought you would be over by now.”
“It is just… I am afraid to do it. What if he…” The word oozed in my mind with a foul stench. Rejection. “Besides, someone like him… he probably has got loads of other options. He even told me once about his ex.”
“In good terms?”
I shook my head. “No… Nothing like that. But with his looks… How do I even stand a chance with him.”
I crawled into myself, the rubber hugging my skin, comforting me ever so slightly. As did Alpha.
“Shhh… Don’t cry.”
With this suit on and her embracing me, I felt somewhat eased. I sniffled beneath my mask, took deep breaths and sat upright.
“What would you do…?” I could barely even hear my own voice.
Alpha pondered for a bit. “Ikk… Manager Inoi and I actually talked about stuff like this: You know love and such.”
“Don’t tell…” I was still sniffling, but the thought of the two being together made me smile. “You are also a couple.”
“No…” Alpha waved her hand. “Although we do help each other out. Asking the other what to do and such. Well, mostly him asking me but…”
Alpha lay a hand on my shoulder. “When it comes to men, he told me that what most men like is a woman who is straightforward. ‘Not playing mind games’, he called it. Even if we might not perceive it as such.”
“That is a nasty way to put it.” It felt a tad insulting having my turmoil be reduced to cheap dating tactics.
“It does… We were… a few glasses in…” Alpha scratched her head, or better rubbed the glove on her hood, making noises. “But it does have some truth: And with the times we live in, maybe it is on you to make the first move.”
“But… that sounds risky.”
“Plenty of young men have taken that risk in the past… Putting their hearts on the line. But plenty of them have made it out on the other side.”
“Even with the risk?”
“Because they had nothing left to lose and everything to gain. So… go get him girl! I believe in you!”
The phrase felt heartening. But did I believe in myself? To be able to look him in the eye and tell him the simplest, yet hardest words to ever leave my mouth?
“I…”
“Now a good place for it? That’d be a nice restaurant. A movie. Hmm, maybe karaoke? Christmas is still a bit away…”
“I will tell him!” I spat out, standing upright. “I will tell him once we quit our part time jobs!”
I could feel myself boiling inside the suit. I needed the cool night air.
“I have to go now! Bye!” I quickly took my stuff and was about to leave the studio.
“Alright then…” Alpha said warmly. “But you have to mean it! Otherwise, you will forever tell yourself you’ll do it tomorrow.”
Her voice still rang in my ear as I took the lonely trip back home, ringing with regret.

It went rather quietly all things considered. I finished my last shift, put my uniform in the locker and asked the old lady if I could meet her in the office and gave her the slip of paper.
“The day has finally come then, hasn’t it?” She sounded rather sad.
“Yes…” I swallowed my spit. “But nothing against you! You were a really good boss. I just have to move on.”
“Ah, Ono.” Nagoshi took of her glasses, wiping some tears away. “I’m going to miss you. I have seen so many come and go, except you. And now…”
She took a deep breath.
“When you come in my age, you are supposed to learn to let things go. But even in my age it still feels as hard as when I was your age. You still feel the pull of them.”
“Is it ever possible to be free of this pull?”
“No, but it is possible to accept the memories you have of them. Good and bad.”
“I hope I am in the good part, then.”
“You are. Ah… It is just…” She held it for a second. “Who am I going to ask now, when the techno-thingies don’t work again?”
I stared at her blankly. “I guess… You will have to find someone else for it.”
“Yes… Naturally… I need to post a job offer on the door by tomorrow. As for you. Have a lovely evening. And good luck going forward.”
“I will, thank you.” I bowed deeply and left the place which kept my head above water for 2 years. The rain softened the neon signs above the entrance of the supermarket, casting shade one someone who had been waiting for me.
“How did it go?” He had an umbrella in one hand and a sports bag in another.
“Pretty smoothly, all things considered. And you?”
“They were not happy about me leaving… But they were very understanding.”
There was an interlude, where only the prattling of the rain, and the faint noises of the city could be heard.
“So, this is it then…” I remarked, taking the first steps. “No more part-time jobs. No more living two lives. Just…”
“Full time idoling.”
“I wanted to say that.” I pouted at him, before I came closer to him, the rain having wetted my hair a bit already.
“Oh sorry.” Zenjuro moved the umbrella towards me, only for the bag to start getting wet.
“Give me one of the handles…” I gestured towards the bag, bumping into him. “Sorry, didn’t mean to…”
“Na, it’s alright…” He shuffled the umbrella and the bag around until the umbrella was in the middle and we both held half the bag up, him with only one, me with both my hands.
My heart fluttered walking around like this… With him so close, through the rain.
Carefully I let go of my right hand go, the left one dragged down by the weight of the bag, and tentatively locking my arm into his, holding the umbrella. He didn’t resist, quite the opposite even: He lowered his arm a bit down so I could get mine in easier.
I don’t know how long I walked beside him, letting him just guide me. I just wanted this to go on. To walk around the city which, with him beside me seemed so much more radiant.
Many times I stammered an “I…” or a “Mmh…”, unable to put the words I looked for into speech, so happy I was that time flew by.
I was looking for a moment an opportunity to finally do it. To tell him how I feel.
“Zenjuro…” I finally gathered my courage until I saw the sign of a public restroom. To be precise, the restroom which had been our goal all along.
“Ah we have arrived!” He remarked, then turned to me. “Is something?”
“Eh… no… Wanted to say the same…” I silently cursed myself at letting the time window close, again.
It was a single room restroom, including sink and toilet, requiring no two separate entrances for men and women. Perfect for quickly changing outfits, or even more radical redressings.
“After you.” Zenjuro held the door open, letting me enter into the rather well-lit room, after which he closed and locked the door behind himself and put the umbrella aside and the bad on the floor.
“How much time do we have?” He looked to me, to which I checked my phone.
“An hour and a half. More than enough time.” Enough to become Bionikos or to finally fess up. “We better hurry or we will be late.”
He nodded opening the bag, letting out the smell of rubber.
Where it just our regular suits it might have been easy enough to regain my courage to attempt to ask again. But for today we had to wear more than that, something more elegant.
“Kimonos…” Zenjuro examined two large pieces of thick rubber, one blue with red details the other red with white ones, the one I would wear. “You ever wore one?”
“Only once during a summer festival… And certainly not one made out of rubber…” I could barely remember it anymore. Just that I was barely in elementary school and that my parents came with me. Every year after I either didn’t come at all or just wore regular clothes, usually a hoodie.
“Do you know how to put them on…?” I asked sheepishly, hoping he might be lost somewhat.
“My sister usually wore them every summer, so I have some knowledge… And I looked up some tutorials beforehand. But let’s just focus on changing into our catsuits.”
“Right… Right, of course…” I took the suit and parts belonging to me, while Zenjuro began undressing himself.
During the whole changing process: Getting out of our regular clothes, lubing the suits and ourselves and finally getting into our latex.
While we mostly turned out back to each other, I did risk a glance at him from time to time, not knowing if he did the same.
Bit by bit I could see how his body morphed from his usual lean, though still muscular physique to a feminine shape.
Although he did seem to have difficulties when it came to pull it over his waist.
“Do you need help?” I asked him while the top part of my suit was dangling beneath my chest.
“Y…yes….” He gestured towards the waist.
Carefully I slid my hands between the latex, the pressure of the hidden corset clear to me, while he pulled up, drawing his belly in.
“Hhhhng… There we go!” He breathed out when we finally managed to get it over his chest. “What about you?”
“Eh… sure… Not much of a challenge though.” I told him, before he helped me get the latex over my breasts, blood rushing through me when I could feel him touching my them.
After that were the arms, which were comparatively simple: To the elbow on both arms, then one arm fully over the shoulder followed by the other, the collar snapping into place.
We both breathed in and out, making sure to push out the wrinkles and of course making them shine.
After that came the gloves, the rubber shoes and our hoods.
“Here…” He handed me something: My choker, with its engraved Eps… no wait.
“Yours?”
“I put your choker on you, and you mine on me.”
“On each other?”
He… still he, with his eyes and grin carefully opened my choker, sealing me into my role as Bioniko Prototype Epsilon. I lingered for a moment before finally opening his and putting it around his neck.
“Man… This part always freaks me out.” He laughed nervously, as he grabbed his gasmask.
“Why? Because you are going to look like a woman?”
“Not that… Because…” He held in. “I am going to turn into something far removed from a human.”
With that the gasmask was pressed on the face in front of me and Zenjuro disappeared. And with it my window of opportunity.
“Another time then…” I whispered, cringing at myself.
“Did you say something?” Delta asked, me after pulling the straps on her mask tight.
“No nothing. Let’s get into those Kimonos.”
The kimonos, despite our lack of experience were far easier to get on then our regular gear. No stretching or squeezing required, just a robe, some strings and rubber pieces to have it lay on our second skins nice and snuggly.
It does feel weird to wear multiple layers of this fabric, but also strangely comforting.
“You look good in it.” Delta told me.
“Y…you too…” I stammered flustered.
“Thank you, Epsilon.” Delta held her face in a very feminine way while saying that. The boy beneath it had certainly adapted well to his alter ego. “Shall we?”
“Alright!” For now, I had to put my feelings aside. My job as an idol was calling.
In a matter of minutes, we had packed our clothing and were out on the street, walking together to the meeting point beneath the umbrella Zenjuro had brought.
Zenjuro… When I looked at Delta, there was nothing which could ever hint at him being the exact same person. All I could see was Delta, a co-idol. A friend.
On the way however I got a message, from a friend I had made on my debut.
Zarruriel: Your interview on IdolEyewas soon, right?
Epsilon: Yes
Zarruriel: Good luck, I will be crossing fingers for you!
Epsilon: Are you going to tune in?
Zarruriel: Of course. I wish the Chaosstar Maids could be on a show like that.
Epsilon: Thanks, I can give you a shoutout if it is possible.
Zarruriel: Sweet!

Noriko hung up the frizzled, patchy maid outfit on a hanger and let herself fall on the sofa, sighing heavily. On the small table in her equally small apartment were the demonic horns she used for her costume then at the wallpaper on her phone.
It was a bunch of idols looking very… demonic, including her, as Zarruriel.
It was funny how much difference some makeup and a diabolic looking dress and accessories can make.
“Certainly not as much as Epsilon in her rubber suit though. How long…” Noriko looked up when the stream was starting, which was soon.
“Nice!” Noriko went off to get herself something to eat and drink while watching the interview.
They had exchanged DMs after meeting each other on the debut concert, talking about life, idol work and other such things, like Epsilon having left her old part-time job to focus on being an idol full-time.
Yet to her, Epsilon was still as enigmatic as the day she met her, despite them talking more casually. What lay behind that mask, Noriko wondered. Although she guessed everyone did. All the members of Bionikokoro could not be traced back to a regular profile, either leading to speculation or to just rolling with their backstory: Cyborgs who are programmed to be the perfect idols.
She had to admit, she was kind of jealous about their anonymity. Sure no one knew who they were, but considering the rumors she heard about the dissolution of ‘Flower Booth’, it sounded more like a blessing.
“Welcome to IdolEye!” The laptop was turned to full volume, Noriko cocooned herself in a blanket.
She was also jealous because they had landed an interview on IdolEye. She had been a regular viewer for years now and she could not count the number of obscure groups, male and female, who made it out big after being featured there on both her hands.
The hosts, a pair of idol otaku, themselves had also started small, with just online interviews, until garnering so much success they could afford to have a studio with all the perks that had.
She missed the online gaming sessions they had done in the past though…
“Today on our show: Artificial Idols designed to make your heart bubble up. Artificial Idol Project: Bionikokoro!”
The camera swerved to the side and followed the five shiny black figures in equally shiny but colorful kimonos enter: Bionikokoro Prototype Series Designation Alpha to Epsilon.
“Thank you very much for inviting us.” The five answered in, almost robotic unison.
“The pleasure is all ours…” The other host gestured towards the large couch, big enough to accommodate most sizes of groups, Noriko only remembers one time where a group of 15 was on. “Please take a seat.”
“For the viewers in chat:” The other host announced. “Now is your time to give us your questions. Remember to tag whom you are asking. Only one question per user. We will pick one question for each of our guests at the end.”
“One question…” The girl watching leaned back. She had never managed to get a question through. Luck of the draw they would say. But maybe this time…
Noriko thought about the question to ask, the person in question was already clear.
“@Epsilon…” She began to write, listening to the interview. The hosts’ question were all the questions IdolEye usually asked their guests and due to her writing with Epsilon, she knew most of the answers already: When was your first concert, how did you form, where did you get your costumes from, any recent releases, any plans for the near future?
It was funny however, when the hosts tried to dig into the people behind the mask. The cover story of being androids was still played straight, especially by Alpha and Gamma, while the rest were looser, answering more, but still playing their cards close to their chests.
Reading their expressions was pointless anyway.
“I will definitely have to check out Saihoushi someday soon. Now then!” The female host announced to the watcher, clapping her hands together. “It is time for the viewers’ questions. If you may…”
“Of course…” The male host had his laptop pick questions at random, one for each tag.
“First one from rudi: @Alpha: From all the Bioniko’s you seem to be…. The oldest one. At least from the way you speak about the others, like they are your adopted children. How come?”
“Oh my, oh my. Does it seem like that?” Alpha giggled, before answering in her prim fashion. “As my designation hints, I was the first model in production, the others were produced later, and me being the oldest one had to take care of them. I guess if I were human, you could call me the proud mother of 4. Couldn’t wish for more beautiful, well-behaved daughters.”
“Thank you, Alpha-ka-san!” The four in question responded in jest.
The chat took to it spamming ‘Thank you, Alpha-ka-san’ after this, making Noriko laugh as well.
“Next one from LightOfStarLight: @Beta: As a person with US heritage, I have noticed your accent, reminded me of my mother. How did you get here? Or your parents?”
“Parents? What’s that?” Beta threw out in a deadpan voice, before continuing more loosely after her joke: “I wasn’t built in the same laboratory as the others, but one in Silicon Valley. However, they due to the lack of popularity for idols over there, they installed a Japanese language module into me and send me here.”
“Well, you do speak Japanese really well.” The male host praised her.
“Thanks, but I think the scientist who programmed the module deserves the applause more. Not me…”
“Sure, I will, maybe he can install an English language model in me, too?”
“I think you lack the necessary hardware for that.” The other host commented. “Anyways, next one: Tinkerman asks: @Delta: I am a regular on your Dota streams and am very happy others here playing it. How did you get into it, do you have a guild for your fans and, most importantly: Least and most favorite hero? You can guess which I like most by my name.”
“Well…That is more than one question.” Delta started, but still continued. “But I’ll gladly answer all of them. Thing is, when I was first activated and waited to be an idol, I found out about Dota, the old one.”
“Old one? Mind if you explain it to others?” The female host was clearly out of the loop, as was Noriko.
“Ah, forgot about that. The current version is a sequel to a modification of an old RTS. The one I found on the computer in the lab. I still wonder who installed it there but… thanks to whoever did, I guess. From there on I became hooked on it. Tried other Mobas later, but I always returned to it. For the other questions, I usually do group invites through stream chat, but making a guild for fans would be a great idea. I’ll have to think about that one for sure. As for heroes: I really like to play Dark Willow…”
“The fae? The one with the caged wisp?” Epsilon interceded. “I remember you played something like that during the match against those pros.”
“Yeah, lots of tricks that one. And really sly personality! As for least favorite:”
Delta’s mood darkened: “Techies. Screw those three goblins and their stupid mines!”
The studio started laughing, including Delta.
“What’s so bad about them?”
“If they are in the game, it is 1 vs 9. Only they are having fun! I was overjoyed the day they changed them.”
Noriko only briefly saw the match of Bionikokoro against the pro-gamer team, and still didn’t get the game at all, but judging from the way Delta spoke about it, it was a very fun, if slightly frustrating one at times.
“Well, let’s keep going. Last two questions. This is for Gamma from Nanakusa4567: You seem to be rather experienced in idoling. How did you start being one? I would like to be one to one day.”
Gamma breathed for a second than gave her answer in a formal tone.
“I don’t know much about your circumstances. I was fine tuned to be an idol, even more so than the others. But from the data I was given I can tell you that what is important is talent and effort. Sure having talent is nice, but without effort you will not get anywhere. Other than that, not much more: Knowing the right people is important, too. But nowadays with the internet that is not as difficult to get out there. Streams, cover songs and vlogging are things you might want to look into.
And I guess, try to offer something not seen before. Think outside the box. I hope this helped you.”
“A very inspirational advice… For all our viewers out there. Last questions from….”
The host scrolled down to the final viewer question. “Zarruriel.”
“Oh… She did tune in!” Epsilon reacted upon hearing the name.
“You know her?”
“Well, yes. She is actually an idol too. For Chaosstar Maids.”
“Oh, what kind of music are they making with that kind of name?”
“Metal. So, louds it rings in your ears. But pretty talented. Probably because of the pact they made…”
“A pact? With whom?” The host played along, while Noriko sat there giddy at her group getting some free exposure.
“I think I’ll let her explain it.”
“Very well, then, I will look into them after the show, for now…” He cleared his throat.
“@Epsilon Where have you learned to sing so well? Even amongst all the other idols I have seen your voice seems to have the certain something.”
The female host turned to Epsilon, who sat with her legs tightly pressed together. “Well, what is that certain something? Programming?”
“Not that…” Epsilon blurted out. “I was trained on recordings of great singers, from operas, musicals and such.”
“Like…”
“Eh…” Epsilon was clearly searching for something. “Have you ever seen Les Mis?”
“Yes, we have…” The hosts answered. “We actually went to a performance of it for our honeymoon.”
“Oh, that is sweet. What was your favorite song from it?”
“Well, everyone knows ‘Do you hear the people sing?’ but…” The female host was pondering for a brief interlude, while humming the melody of it. “I always loved the love song Eponine sang at the beginning of act 2. It was so emotional, full of love and pain.”
“’On my own?’ Oh man… I have sung that one so many times… I know it by heart by now.”
“Really?!” The woman interviewing them was excited. “Could you sing it for us?”
“Right now? If you have the instrumentals of it.”
“One second…” Her husband was currently looking for it and preparing to play it. “We usually do a small song segment on the show anyway. So have at it.”
Epsilon looked at her fellow members, waiting for approval, before she got up, clearing her throat, taking deep breaths.
The music was playing, the lights were dimmed, and on queue, Epsilon began to sing.
“And now I’m all alone again
Nowhere to turn, no one to go to
Without a home without a friend
Without a face to say hello to
And now the night near
I can make believe he’s here
Everyone was silent, in the studio, Noriko in her blanket watching and even chat slowed down to a crawl, with the occasional remark like wow, or beautiful thrown in.
Here was Epsilon, solo and improvising. And yet her voice was so serene and pitch perfect.
The song, which Noriko had never heard before, swelled from melancholic, to lovestruck, then to emotional and finally echoed out to lovestruck heartbreak, using her voice and gestures to convey emotions.
“I love him
I love him
I love him
But only on my own.”
She had heard the phrase ‘putting your soul into it’ often, but right now Epsilon had, despite her extraordinary getup and her synthesized voice, become Eponine, a girl hopelessly in love with someone who would never reciprocate that love.
And it wasn’t just her who was awestruck. The people in the studio erupted into applause as well.
Chat was erupting with comments like: “Guys, what is the opposite of earrape?” and “I think my heart skipped a beat when she began belting.”
Noriko noticed that Delta had just sat there, gazing at Epsilon until slowly starting to clap as well, saying: “Absolutely brilliant!”
“Must be taken aback as well.” Noriko commented as she sipped her tea. She then proceeded to simply write: Thank you for your amazing performance, Epsi-chan. It was simply wonderful hearing you sing! (^_^)

I made my way up the roof after the interview was done, partly to catch fresh air after nearly singing my lungs and soul out.
But partially also because Delta whispered something to me once the camera was off: “Can you meet me on the roof in a few minutes?”
I guess having someone to talk to privately was refreshing after needing to play safe for such a long period. Except for that song.
Why did they have to pick that one? The one about hopeless love. Especially with Zen…
No, I told myself. Delta was here. Zenjuro far away. I merely sang it well, conveying the emotions of Eponine Thenardier.
The steps before the rooftop door proved to be most challenging after thinking about the lyrics of the song over and over again.
The rain had cleared, and in the sky the moon was clearly visible, its light reflecting on a figure in black, blue and red.
“Nice view isn’t it?” Delta noticed I had arrived.
“Yeah definitely. Ah, the air after rainfall smells so… fresh.”
“As if it had been purified and all the grim washed out?”
I simply nodded and sat myself next to her.
“Ha… Epsi-chan?” Delta turned to me. “The song… Who was it about she sang?”
“Marius… But he fell for someone else in the end. At least… Eponine managed to confess her love before she died.”
“And when you sang it? Who did you sing about?”
“I merely acted out her love.”
“One doesn’t sing with such bravado by just pretending…”
Delta’s words stung into me.
“It wasn’t about anyone in particular. It could be anyone… Seriously.”
“Hana…” Delta fumbled around with her mask, taking it off.
He started talking looking directly at me. “I have known you now for quite a while and do you know who is behind that mask?”
He gently caressed the visor of my gas mask, while I tried not sound flustered in my breathing.
“The most gentle, kind hearted girl I have known., with a sweet and hearty soul.”
“D…do you…?” I couldn’t utter anymore.
“After all we have been through?” He laughed softly. “Sharing our secrets, being in bed together, hell, we already lived together at times. I do not need to tell you what my answer is.”
I could feel tears swelling up behind my mask.
“But…” He continued. “What were the final lines in that song again?”
“I…” I tried to recall the lines again.
“I would much rather hear them with your real voice.” He tapped on the latches pressing the mask on my face. With shaking hands, I loosened them, and pulled the mask off my face, the cool air assaulting my mouth and tearstained eyes.
“I…love him…”
I could feel him extending a hand to wipe them away from my eyes.
“I love him…”
I turned my face to his, meeting his soft smile and gentle eyes.
“I love him.”
I could not avoid it any longer. There was no way for my mind to tell my heart no, not anymore.
“I love… you.”
He grinned. “That wasn’t the last line.”
Before he was able to say anything more I got up to my toes, grabbed onto his shoulders and kissed him, all the while our suits were creaking and kissed him.
“Shaddup…” I joked, now more tears in my eyes than before and kissed him again.
“You women can be so wonderfully complicated.” He whispered without animosity.
“Just shut up…” We kissed again. “It’s not like you can just go up to someone and say it out loud and clear. That would be too plain.”
“I meant it generously. Complicated like a riddle in which you can lose yourself forever more without solving it.” He returned a kiss.
“And in order to solve the riddle of women, you decided to step into the shoes of one?” I teased him, touching the false chest of his catsuit.
“Seemed to have worked out swimmingly, didn’t it?”
“Seems like it did…”
For a long time, we just sat there, hugging each other, looking into each other’s eyes, while the moon mirrored its light in our latex suits and clothing.
I loved him, and not just on my own.
“Say…” I finally broke our snugly silence. “You said something about us already living together… sort of.”
Zenjuro nodded.
“How about we do that… for real.”
“Sounds like a great idea!” He smiled at me. “But right now…”
He took his mask and turned into Delta again.
“Let’s go back down. The others are probably waiting for us.”
“Yes of course!” I took my own mask, put it on tightly and quickly caught up to him, taking his arm.
Nothing could hint at the boy beneath the latex and the gasmask.
Yet even then, I could feel his gentle warmth as we slowly went back down.
We had our roles as idols after all, but now we also had a new role: The one of lovers.

Chapter 3 - Assumptions of the soul, Intentions of the heart

Every person wears a mask, even if their face is clearly visible and is judged accordingly.
Some get the assumption they deserve, be it good or bad.
Others wear a mask of golden, only to hide rot beneath.
And yet others, often without intent, get judged unfairly, with no objection allowed, damned by their appearance and the look of their actions alone, even if behind all that was no malice.

Sorry for the big hiatus, besides usual Uni stuff, the chapter gave me quite a lot of trouble to write properly in of itself, as I wanted to do Beta’s chapter well, considering her identity.
What is her identity?
Read and discover…

Part I - Rising Stars

Knock! Knock!
The sound made us both freeze up, as I stood cheek against the wall, Zenjuro right behind me, although neither of us looked like our normal selves at the moment.
I and Delta had previously excused us as needing to go to the bathroom to “shine up”, not a complete lie, except for the small fact that my boyfriend in disguise was currently inside me.
“Anyone in there?” It was a female voice coming from the other side of the door.
“Yes…” I answered, struggling to hide my breathlessness even under the gas mask with its voice changer. “We… just need a moment.”
“Oh right… you are those Bionikos… Must be sweaty beneath those suit…” She barely spoke up. “Don’t worry… I’ll just look for another one.”
Then we waited until the heel steps became almost inaudible, and we could finish what we began.
“Puh…” Zen sighed in Delta’s voice. “That was too close.”
“That’s big coming from the one who couldn’t keep the little man a hidden man.” I chuckled, to which I received a tight embrace and an even deeper thrust into my abdomen.
“Weren’t you the one who got too carried away when we just wanted to shine our exterior?” The rubber person behind me asked in jesting, snide tone. “Especially when it came to my crotch?”
“I maybe got a… bit too excited.” I huffed. “Let’s just enjoy it while we can…”
“Sure, my dear…” Zen whispered into my ear, the tone unmistakably his, despite using Delta’s girlish voice and restarted our little escapade.
Something we had done very often by now, be it before going off to rehearsal, before or after livestreaming and sometimes, like now, even before performances. So engrained had our routine become walking the razorwire between being idols and a couple.
And I loved both parts. Every minute of it. But the one I loved even more was…
“Zen…” My boyfriend.
“Who is this Zen?” The person in question sounded strained herself.
“Delta… I…” I couldn’t hold it any longer, but the least I could do was not moan out loud, as did Zen behind his mask. “Ah, this feels soooo good!”
“L…likewise…” Zen breathed heavily as he pulled out, his member covered in my liquids, but engulfed in a rubber shaft, which he now pulled off.
The rest was cleanup as always, including going to the toilet, or in his case standing in front of it, while I waited for my turn.
It was certainly a rare insight for both of us into how the other sex did this very common, yet well-hidden routine. Certainly practical, if the toilet is super dingy to just be able to do it standing up.
“Now then, let’s get back to the others… We have a jury to impress.” I said anxiously while zipping up after I had my turn.
“Hana?” I jumped at… Delta mentioning my real name. “Can you remove your mask for a second?”
Anyone else I’d hesitate with, but not Zen, especially because he had taken off his mask as well. And as soon as I did as well, he planted a kiss on my lips.
“For good luck…” He smiled, attempting to put it back on, yet before he could, I grabbed his head, stood on my toes and returned the favor.
“For you as well, Zen.” I grinned at the even redder face of my boyfriend, before putting on my mask again. “Enough dallying around… Delta.”
Both Hana and Zen disappeared to make place fully for Bioniko Prototype Epsilon and Delta, who had a big event ahead of ourselves together with our group.
“Welcome to ‘Rising Stars’! Where new idols from all over Japan get a chance to come out big time. The price for this year’s Top 3: One of three stage slots at…. The International Idol Festival!
The first round is over and now it is 16 groups competing for a rare chance at international recognition!”
Even when I was tuning in as a fan, the announcer had the high energy he now had.
“You came just in time.” Gamma tapped with her fingers on her arm.
“Sorry…” I excused myself and Delta.
“… the next group, having won over the judges with their artificial beauty and mechanical grace: Artificial Idol Project: Bioniiiiii-kokoro!”
“That’s our queue, ladies!” Alpha raised her voice. “Let’s knock them out!”
“Alright!” We cheered as we entered the stage light, reflecting on our shiny, black, rubber suits.
“Zero One Zero Zero One One Zero Zero!” Alpha began, the others following with their part of the opening line.
“Zero One Zero Zero One One One One!”
“Zero One Zero One Zero One One Zero!”
“Zero One Zero Zero zero One Zero One!” Delta hyped it up further and gave a quick nod for my part.
“Zero Zero One Zero Zero Zero Zero ONE!” I sang with all my lungs, ending the intro, then breathing in deeply.
“BINARY LOVE!” We dropped the song name together.
“One and Zero… Were it just so easy…
Zero and one… But my heart is queasy!”
A song about how complicated love can be, comparing it to the simplicity of computers working with zeros and one. Although that is all I got. Even the combination of Zeros and Ones at the beginning had to be explained to me. Something about ‘ASCII-Code’ or something…
But when I glanced over to Delta, all this difficulty of finding love felt strange to me. For us two it was One all the time.

After we had passed the jury’s verdict, we were able to sit on the sideline on watch the other remaining groups. The highlight for me was when a group of certain demonic maids stepped up.
“HELL! REIGN! NOW!” Zarruriel sang or rather screamed into the microphone. They sang one of their metal songs: Hell Reign Cometh.
“Christ…” Beta mumbled, rather loudly, were it not for the Chaosstar Maids singing way too loudly, as they usually do. “Their throats must be sooo dry after this.”
“They are, Zarruriel told me about it.” I answered her, to the best of my abilities. “A liter of water each, every time.”
“You talk a lot with her?”
“Yeah, mostly chatting. Although she did call once during a stream of Delta and mine.”
“Ah, that was her? Wouldn’t recognize her voice compared to…”
“LET HELL’S REIGN COME NOOOOOOOOOOOOW!”
“Her singing.”
“Yeah, it is very raw… But sometimes I wish I could just scream it out like she can…” I looked at Zarruriel breathing heavily after finishing, the jury making their verdict: Passed to the next round.
“Thank you! Thank you very much!” She and her group left the stage passing us.
“Congratulations on passing to the next round!” I greeted her. “Likewise and…” She cleared her rasp throat. “Wouldn’t be here if you didn’t give us a shoutout. But now…” “We are going to need some water.” Another chaos maid completed her.
“Definitely, see you in the next round.” Alpha and the rest of us nodded politely at them. From a corner I could see a camera pointed at our small interaction, sharing it to the viewer at home. “Who is next?” I wondered out loud.
“Let me see…” Alpha flipped through the list of our remaining competition. “There was us, then the Matrioshka group, the Panda one… Chaosstar… Which means now….”
“Introducing! Having learned their style from hiphop artists and rappers of da hood… Inner City Girls!”
“Oh…” We all perched up, hearing an English name for an idol group.
And what came out looked definitely like the kind of American city culture: Garish colors, big clothing, big sunglasses, tanned skin and various hairstyles, most of them dyed, with the exception of their center who instead had her hair formed into dreadlocks.
“Wassup everybody! We are straight outta LA bringing you da beats!” Their center exclaimed, turning around to her group, all in English. “Hit it, sisters!”
The beat came on, and their performance began.
“When I was a little girl on the streets downtown,
Life was tough, with the man keeping us down…”
Delta tried to translate a bit of the lyrics before giving up. Too fast had they rattled them for my boyfriend in disguise to keep up, even though Zen’s English was far superior to mine. In the end I just hummed along and tapped my foot to the beat. It was very catchy.
Which is when I noted Beta sitting back, her arms locked in front of her, one of her hands digging into her arm anxiously.
“Is something?” I asked her.
“It is just…” Beta was silent, except for the hint of a groan escaping her. “They really didn’t have to go all out with the stereotypes, did they?”
“Is it… bad? Their song, I mean. I don’t really understand English well…”
“Not in that way… I just… It just feels awkward to me. That’s all…”
And for the rest of Inner-City Girl’s performance, she said nothing at all, except for a single line uttered beneath her breath. “Jesus H. Tapdancing Christ… How did they get so far with this shit? At least they didn’t use THAT word in the song.” Even after the cameras were out and we could go home, I still wondered why it made her so upset.

“Hey Hana, are you alright?” Zen, in normal clothing looked down at me, wearing not-normal clothing, lying face up, staring at the ceiling.
The way Beta spoke about the other idol group, it didn’t leave my mind. She was deeply distraught that much I could decipher.
Coming back to the present, I looked around the room, smiling at our apartment. It had been only a few weeks since we moved here, shortly after I had confessed to him, but with both our things combined here it felt very much homely.
From the size it was only one and a half times as big as my old apartment, but as we now shared a kitchen and bath, we didn’t need that much space anyway. A low frame bed on the floor, a desk for us to work and stream together, partially filled with knick-knacks and paperwork alike and a kotatsu, a gift from Zen’s parents, beneath which I currently lay, although the heater was not on as my legs were already sweaty enough from the rubber alone.
“Yeah, I was just thinking…” I pulled myself out of its comfy clutches and walked towards Zen currently editing something. “What are you doing?”
“Just a small montage from our streams: A.I. teaches another A.I. how to play Dota. What do you think?”
I smirked watching the project, knowing how terrible I was at it, and how Zen… well Delta in this case, was leagues ahead of me in it, but still.
“It is always fun when we play together, especially with fans. Ah…”
“Although I always have to tell you to when to initiate a fight…” He quipped.
“I mean it is kinda scary going into the enemy team, but not so much knowing you always back me up and tell me: Man up and dive, Epsi!”
“Haha… But…” He returned to a more concerned face. “Going back to what I asked earlier: You seemed like you were thinking about something.”
“Well… It is Beta… She… How do I put this? You remember Inner-City Girls?”
“Yeah, they sounded kinda cool. Why you ask?”
“Beta was really put off by it.”
“Hmmm… Doesn’t she come from the USA? Maybe something about it rubbed her off wrong.”
“No, not like just not liking something… More…” I struggled for the right word. “Finding it offensive, but not trying to show it. I guess…”
“Should we ask her about it?”
“I mean that would be a bit too direct, wouldn’t it?”
“Well, she is from the USA, they are usually more to the point. I don’t think she would keep quiet just out of politeness.”
“Like we would do?” We gazed at each other for a moment before laughing, considering our very extraordinary circumstances of meeting each other.
“Hopefully…” Zen gazed at the time. “Oh, we are running late!”
“Shit you are right. You need help?” I was already in my suit, quite different to my boyfriend.
“Would be nice thanks.”
In half an hour, we both had switched to Delta and Epsilon, rubberized from head to toe, leaving our apartment. As we walked out the door, I noticed the gift my parents gave us when they visited our apartment: A fruit corb, with the bananas left in it starting to be overripe. They were both overjoyed that I had finally found a relationship, after I told them how we met.
Although I did leave out the parts where we both wore latex suits, who which were unbeknownst to our parents safely stored in an unassuming chest in our closet.

Part II - An idol from beyond the sea

“Can I ask you something, Beta?” I and Delta had approached her after our dance drills were over and we stretched to prevent cramps. “Sure…” “What is it about Inner City Girls that you don’t like?” “That… Oh…” Beta’s sight wavered from me. “It is nothing…” “It is not nothing.” I pouted, even though she was unable to see it, making Delta snort. “What is it you don’t like about them? Is it because they copy American music.” “If it were just that…” She laughed unnerved. “It is more complicated… Than you two can imagine.” “If you need someone to talk to about that don’t hold back. I thought you Americans never held back with the truth.” Delta tried to convince her to open up while I put my hand on her shoulder. “The whole freedom thing and so on…” Beta almost pushed my hand away from her shoulder, before relenting, breathing in deeply. “We can talk about it in private, no masks and all… If you have time on the weekend.” “Eh, sure… After our next appearance on ‘Rising Stars’ then?” We both held out our hands. “Fine.” She shook them both. “I know a nice café at the waterfront.”

“Have you ever been here?” Zen asked me after whistling at the bustling streets around us.
“No, I don’t think I ever did.” I answered him, my head swerving round and round and round, as if it were my first day in the city again. I had never been to Sekai Tobira International district, a part of the city only constructed roughly a decade ago, but I had heard about it.
On the first glance, it felt like I was in another country, with all the foreign people around me, filling my ears with a cacophony of languages, though still including a bit of Japanese. The signs of the various shops, restaurants and food stalls, though still having Japanese writing, were too a wild mixture of different writing systems, the Western and Chinese I somewhat understood on a very rudimentary basis, former through my school English, the latter through Kanji looking like them, but the rest I was lost at.
“Now let me see…” Zenjuro looked at the address Beta had sent us, looking around. “Café Occidentale… Delhi Delicacies… The Levante… United Diner. There it is!”
We entered a building with a large neon sign in English and Japanese, finding ourselves in a scene straight out of a Hollywood movie.
Rows of soft seating areas and a long counter with stools lining up on it. The walls decorated with various trinkets of Americana, and fabrics all in red, white and blue.
“She caught the Katy and left me a mule to ride …” And from a jukebox music from beyond the Pacific.
“Wow…” For a moment I really thought I had taken a portal to the US, until a waitress talked to me in Japanese, although dressed in a very colorful dress, not like any maid uniform I have ever seen, that’s for sure.
“Can I help you two?”
Before I could refocus myself back to the present, Zen took out his phone to look up where we were supposed to meet Beta, or more precisely the one behind her mask.
“Yeah, eh… We were supposed to meet someone here at the I-ri-nois table?”
“Ah, so you are with Akilah then!”
“Akira? Wasn’t she American?”
“Aki-Lah… Gosh, English can be really hard to pronounce well. Anyway, follow me.”
I noticed then that she didn’t walk but wore roller skates, sliding elegantly amongst the 50 tables, all occupied. Some of them were Japanese like me and Zen, but others were foreigners, but all different in appearance and language, and even the few I could make out were speaking English spoke it in ways I had never heard.
“Hi Aki!…” The waitress finally led us to our table, Illinois, talking to the current occupant in English, certainly better than I could. “Your friends have come. May I take your order?”
“Sure thing!” The girl on the other side from where we and Zen sat answered, while handing us the menu. “Just the usual for me.”
“Cheeseburger, fries and soda…” She mumbled something in English, then turned to us back in our tongue. “You need some time, you two?”
“Would be very nice thank you!” We both nodded and buried our head in the menu. It was large and had a huge variety of dishes, some I didn’t even know they existed or didn’t connect them with stereotypical US food.
But what caught my curiosity more was the young woman sitting in front of us. We both stared at her sheepishly, before looking back at the menu again. We both didn’t really want to say anything wrong to her.
“Soooo… you are Beta? Eh… Akir… Akilr…”
“Akilah Fletcher, but just Aki is fine you two!” She had a big grin, her teeth sticking out sharply against the rest from her face, her dark skin, showing us the collar with the Beta on it, then looking at me and asking in slow English: “What is your name?”
“M…my name… is Hana…”
“Mine is Zenjuro…” He replied as well, but much clearer.
There was an awkward silence toward her from us both.
“Jeez…” Akilah took it rather lightly, however. “I guess when you picture an American you think of some blonde bombshell.”
“We are so sorry if we…”
“Relax… I know you didn’t mean it that way. Probably would be weirder if I was Japanese too. Anyway, how about you order first? I’m starving for a good burger.”
“Are they better than one at Mac…”
“Leagues better!” She responded immediately. “You wouldn’t believe how happy I was finding this place. But back to business. Have you decided?”
We both looked into the menu again and nodded.
“Mac’n’Cheese… Apple Pie and Two Sodas…” The waitress took off with our orders after noting them down.
“You come here often?” Zenjuro asked Akilah.
“Quite so. Mr. Inoi recruited me here for the group.”
“Really? How so?” I sprung up before sitting down again slowly.
“They had a singing contest. First place got a free meal, rest a free drink. I only got the drink, but afterwards so much more.”
“And what made you come to Japan in the first place?”
“My parents… Although we have been around quite a lot before that. From moving from Chicago to the Pacific and of course visiting my father’s family in London.”
“What do you mean London?”
“My mother’s from the US, my father lived in Great Britain, although his family originally came from the Caribbean.”
I realized then, why her Japanese accent had sounded so weird. It wasn’t American or English, it was a mixture of both.
“Your family has been quite around the world through the ages then:” Zenjuro noted. “Asia, America, Europe, … Africa.”
“Yeah, you could say that…” The last part of what Zen said seemed to sting her very much, although she tried not to show it. “Now then Hana… you must be…”
“Why are you looking at me so closely?” She eyed me carefully.
“The gestic and the clear voice… Epsilon, right?”
“Correct…” I pulled out the only thing identifying me in normal clothes from a bag, a metal-padded collar with an Epsilon on it.
“And you got the proof as well, I should have thought of that. Now, when is Delta coming?”
“What do you… oh!” I nudged Zen beneath the table. He turned to me, I nodded him towards Aki.
“Well…” He scratched his head.
“Wait, aren’t you just her boyfriend? Don’t tell me…”
He pulled out the same collar from the bag and showed it sheepishly before pulling it back. Aki was left stunned, before getting out one single word. “DAMN!”
And Zenjuro proceeded to get even more flustered, trying to explain himself further. To his luck however…
“Your order!”
He was saved by a waitress on wheels, holding two large plates, filled with what we asked for, including a steaming slice of American apple pie with cream.
“Well, at least I ain’t leaving this table without being surprised myself. Let’s dig in shall we?”
“Very well…” We took our food and clasped. “Let’s dig in! … Is that how you say it?”
“There…” Aki had already taken a bite from her burger. “Isn’t really a specific phrase, to be honest. Some folks use, tuck in or dig in, others say ‘Enjoy your meal’ and a lot of people just say ‘Bon Appetit’… I think we used all of them in my childhood interchangeably.”
“Ah, so you just use whatever you feel like?”
“Yes…”
“Well then… Thanks for the food!” I took a bite from my cake. My brain knew that this was a bomb of sugar and calories, but my body was singing a different tune.
“Mmmmh…” Same story for Zen, who had taken a forkful of the mixture of noodles and cheese, stuffing it into his mouth. “Man, this is good!”
There was a certain tranquility eating between us three, as we were far too busy savoring the taste we had in our mouths. Yet the reason for our meeting still rolled around my mind and looking at Akilah chomping down on her burger, I started to realize why she did not like Inner City Girls, …
“Aki?”
“Mhh…” She looked up, swallowing her bite. “You want some…”
She pushed her fries to me.
“I mean… I am already busy hear… Not to speak of the calories…” The only saving grace I had despite my bland-ugly face was that my body was decently in shape, which was now endangered by this seductively delicious food.
“Anyway…” I cleared my throat, snatching just one fry. Just one. Not a single more. “We wanted to ask you why you didn’t like Inner City Girls but…”
I could see her face sour as soon as I mentioned them.
“I think I know why…”
She took a deep breath.
“I mean if it was just doing hip-hop as an idol group it might have been fine. It is their ridiculous getup! The black face is abhorring! They could have at least dropped the tanned skin! It is like looking at a caricature of…”
“Yourself…?” Zen responded, distraught by the bursting of emotions from Akilah.
“Imagine if I walked around looking like a stereotype of you… Would hurt, wouldn’t it?” Her hands on the edges of her eyes looking straight at us, almost pulling them apart, yet before she did, she relented, dropping them on her lap. “Sorry… I didn’t mean to…”
“No… it is fine… I get it.” I rubbed eyes. I guess mine were a bit more slanted than they are for others. “Honestly. Although I am not sure if they meant to come off as insulting. At least on intent.”
“’Don’t attribute to malice, what can be explained by stupidity’?”
“Like that.” Zenjuro nodded to her laughing. “Look if you ever need to talk to us… You are welcome. We aren’t going to out you.”
The black girl in front of us laughed. “Same for you two!”
On the table was still food to be eaten and we certainly weren’t going to waste it. And I, to my dismay didn’t hold back with fry snatching.
In the end we parted our ways, asking if she wanted to visit us or we her on a later date, to which she obliged.
“… stupidity, not malice… ” I could hear her mumble something in English. “Bloody Hell, maybe shouldn’t have told Joeseph…”

The minivan Manager Inoi had rented arrived at the studio, but when we stepped out, we saw a crowd. A very loud crowd, shouting. Loud and Angry. Holding signs.
“Idols are making women into sex objects!”
“A girl’s dream should not be dancing for perverts!”
I stood there rooted.
“What are they doing?” I blinked, though nothing of the sort could be seen beyond my visor.
“Protesting it seems…” Beta, who I now knew was Akilah, hopped off the van, commenting while stretching. “Never thought you were big on protests here.”
“From time to time… But never something like this against Idols…” Delta scratched her head, putting her hand on my shoulder.
Some of the people noticed us for a second, shouting at us as well, but then turning to the main target of their wrath.
“Looks like they have it out for someone else…” Alpha looked at the crowd. “Although I am perplexed: There seem to be many foreigners amongst them, for some reason.”
“W…what?” Beta responded, twitching for a second.
“Some of them are shouting in English. Not to mention the hair and the signs.”
I then noticed it as well, the signs were being the obvious part, as was the English I couldn’t even begin to decipher: Too much, too fast, and too loud. But the hair?
“What do you mean by hair? Color?” I turned to Alpha.
“Not just that…” Her head shifted to Beta for a second. “Besides other East Asians, foreign hair tends often to be far more curly, less straight. Guess that tells a lot about us as well.”
“Straightlaced and tidy?” Beta snorted at Alpha’s comment.
“You could say so…”
“Maaaaan.” Inoi looked out of the car window. “Don’t seem like they are gonna let up any time soon.”
“What about the back entrance?” Gamma asked the manager, sounding more annoyed than frightened by the protestors.
“Yeah, best you try that. You think you can get there without much trouble?”
“It is pretty dark already…” Alpha held her thumb up. “We should just be able to slip past them.”
“Good, because I’m gonna need to find somewhere to park with these pricks blocking the usual spots.”
“See you in a bit!” We waved the manager, as we went around the crowd.
“Apologize ICG! Ig-no…” The rest of the English went over my head.
“What did they say, Delta?”
“Eh… Ignorant. Colonialist. Girls? What the hell are they even talking about?”
From where we were walking, we could see, ICG, surrounded by security pathing their way, heckled by the protesting crowd, and very much in distress.
“They didn’t do anything wrong. What do they think calling them…”
Then a loud voice boomed from the crowd, leading the charge. I couldn’t make out what this man said only that he was American, like Aki.
And the crowd was spurred by him, repeated what he said in a chant directed against the Idols of Inner City Girls.
“What are they saying now?” I turned back to Delta, but Beta was quicker in giving me an answer, all the while she was rubbing her temples.
“Black culture… is not… an Idol act…” She sighed, as we saw the half a dozen of them finally enter the safety of the studio of ‘Rising Stars’.
For a while I didn’t know what to ask her, Beta or Akilah. She seemed perturbed by the other Idol Group, but also at the protestors and the man starting the chanting in front of the studio which we could hear even as a member of security escorted us through the back entrance.
“Do you know him?” I mustered my courage after twirling my thumbs.
“Who?”
“The guy who started the whole… you know…” I pointed my thumb backwards from where we came from.
“I do in fact.” She let out an awkward laugh. “Really wish I didn’t.”
“Now, now girls.” Alpha tried her best to soothe us. “We got a performance ahead. We can worry about them some other time.”
As she held the door open, I breathed in and out and stepped in. For now, I needed to focus, despite all the questions and confusions rolling around my head.
A Bioniko is made to entertain and bring happiness not to dwell on the dour thoughts plaguing me right now.

Part III - Rice, Rubber and Responses

My face was glued to my phone screen as I scrolled down the comments and posts. Ever since the round last Friday I couldn’t think of anything else, but the reaction against ICG.
Most of the Japanese posts were as confused as I was.
“They are just dancing and singing, what is the big fuss about?”
“I know Black people face difficulties in life due to discrimination, but that kind of reaction seems a bit much.”
What however confused me more were the posts in English, which even with translation I hardly understood but could be divided in two factions.
One vehemently defending ICG from ‘thin-skinned snowflakes who need to touch grass’, while the other accused them of ‘wearing the culture of marginalized people without their permission’.
And that were just the kindest words to put it, as the rest was so poisonous, that I had to double-check if they really had said such outrageous things on a public forum and…
SNIP!
“Ow!” I rubbed my head were just a moment ago I felt the sting of a fingernail.
“Hana!” Whose owner was my boyfriend. “Less scrolling, more cleaning! Or do you want Aki to see this place like this?”
“No, you are right…” The sting had already passed, when I put my smartphone away. Aki wanted to pay us a small visit to our apartment, and we had still some things to do: The rough work had been done, now all that remain was cleaning out the little bits and making it look acceptable for our visitors.
It was funny, I thought, if it weren’t for our common profession, we were basically a grown-up couple, living together, taking care of our home and each other, even cooking.
I would have never believed myself, back in that small apartment, that in such a short time I could make such large steps into adulthood. Back then I had basically just stayed in my one-person abode, but never truly lived in it.
“Thank you, Zen…” It escaped me in a whisper.
“Huh, did you say something?” He leaned over to me, clearing the dust from the shelves.
“Nothing…” I stammered with a red face. I didn’t deserve someone like him. But whatever stroke of luck brought us together I, too, was truly thankful for it. “What about the bananas? Do you still want to eat them? With how brown they are…”
Before he could give me an answer, the doorbell saved him from answering.
“Hello!” He greeted Aki in English. “How are you doing? Was it difficult to get here?”
“No not at all.” She responded, nonchalant and in Japanese, carrying a shopping bag and a backpack. “Nice apartment you got.”
“Yes… We… just cleaned up.” I rushed to greet her as well. “Chat reminded us to do it.”
“’Update to cleaning routines available, please install…’” Aki grinned.
I sighed shamefully. “You watched the stream then?”
“Yes, I… eh… did not really get what the game was about. But it was very entertaining hearing you banter and coordinate. But for now…”
She put the shopping bag on the counter of our cooking corner. “Let’s make something to eat. I am starving.”
“What are we having?” We both asked mustering the groceries she pulled out, including, much to my distaste, bell peppers. Which Aki quickly took notice of.
“Hoppin’ John…. Why the long face? Is it the bell pepper? I can leave it out if you want…”
“No, you really don’t need to!” I apologized. “I am not 10 anymore.”
“Heh, …” She giggled. “Funny, at that age bell pepper was one of the few vegetables my mother didn’t need to convince me to even try. Now broccoli on the other hand…”
“What about them?” Zen asked. “They are delicious, especially fried.”
“I don’t think 10-year-old me, would’ve listened to you saying that.” Aki looked at me with skepticism.
“Likely… So, what can we do?” Zen rubbed his hands, eager to assist.
“Well… I guess you can start by washing the veggies and beans…”
In around than 25 minutes, the apartment smelled of a delicious rice cooked with vegetables, bacon and beans all done in one pot.
“Mmmh… Really does add to the rice.”
“That’s all the flavors soaking into it. Just like my mom does it.”
“Bit spicy though.” Zen coughed, chugging a glass of water after it.
“That spice is the soul of the food.” Aki commented laughing. “That’s why they call it ‘soul food’.”
“Well, I can’t deny that. It is very flavorful.” Zen commended it after having swallowed another bite. “Never thought Americans can cook rice that good though.”
“Depends on the region really. And by whom. Rice is eaten more in the south and around the Gulf of Mexico where the climate is ripe for it.”
“As hot and humid as it gets here during the summer?” I asked.
“Oh yes, a good reason to call that season ‘the hell months’, when I went on visits to Jamaica and South Carolina during that season it was unbearable without an AC.”
“I feel you… My family once went down the country in a house without it and let me tell you: I didn’t want to do a thing unless it was swimming in the ocean, or it was during the evening.” Zen told us.
“Well, that explains why my parents and I always went up north.” I added further. “You really came around a lot Aki. I don’t think I ever left the country and here you are having been around half the globe.”
“Hey, don’t fret it.” Aki had cleared her plate. “We are still young and if things are going well for us, we might be able to perform abroad.”
“That would be nice…” I swerved backwards my eyes eventually catching my alarm clock. “Oh…”
“What is it?” Aki managed to see what I was seeing. “Right, we need to get changed.”
She got up opened her other bag to reveal, sealed in a plastic zipper back, her rubber suit and other stuff. “You wouldn’t mind, would you?”
“No not at all…” I responded while I gathered up the bowls and spoons, only notice then noticing Zen scratching his head and stammering.
“Neither do I, although I think I will go use the bathroom for it…”
“What do you… Oh right…” I finally caught up to his train of thought.
“Don’t tell me…” Aki laughed as Zen grabbed his suit from the closet and vanished into the bathroom. “You get redressed in the same room…”
“Well, …” I felt as if we’d been discovered doing something indecent, beyond just the nature of our outfits. “We never really got bothered by it…”
“Hey, no pressure. He’s your boyfriend after all.” Aki shook her head and pulled her shirt off.
“Yeah…” I followed suit, taking my suit out of the closet as well and getting undressed. Soon enough, with the help of some lube we were on our way to both become Bionikos again, when…
“Is something?” Aki had looked at me puzzled.
I had taken notice at first how her skin, compared to mine or Zen’s didn’t contrast as much with the color of the suit, obviously, but also that she was far larger than me, in more way than one.
“I… eh… Nothing really…You just look… very good.” And in comparison, I was rather measly.
I did not even notice her as she stopped pulling the latex over just beneath her breasts, walking slowly just next to me and poking with a finger right into the middle of my spine.
“EEEEEK! What are you…”
“Posture. If you slouch like a mouse, you will just disappear like one too.” Aki grinned, standing firm and straight, the sleeves of her catsuit dangling on her sides. “You are an idol now, are you not?”
“Y…yes…”
“Then act like one. I have never seen you stand or sit like this as Epsilon. Not to mention dancing.”
“I…” I could see her… me… Epsilon. A cyborg, a paragon, graceful, demanding the attention of an audience with a voice of an angel, yes, but also a stance to match that voice.
“Yeah, that’s more like it, girl!” Aki clapped once loudly as I stood up, straightened my back, loosened my shoulders, holding my chest out and put one hand on my handlebar. “That’s the spirit.”
“Thank you… Do you need help with the catsuit?”
“Oh yes please! I always struggle with the last stretch over the shoulders.”
“Ah, likewise. This is why we usually…. ” With a satisfying twang the suit sealed itself around her neck. “…do this together.”
“And then have fun?” Aki smirked.
“Well…” I tried to dodge the question as Aki helped me. “Not always…”
“’Not always…’ Huh?” Aki glanced around back as she pulled over her hood, as well as her rubber shoes and gloves. “Say, where do you keep the shiner?”
“It should be in the closet where we keep our other rubber clothes, should be right next to the gasmasks.” I told her, while snapping on my hood, gloves and socks.
“Do you mind if I get your gasmasks too?” Aki asked with her unpolished back turned to me.
“No, not at all. Thanks.”
“You are welcome.” She returned with three gasmasks dangling in her right hand and our bottle of shiner in her other. She carefully laid down the breathing apparati and poured out a bit of it on her now free hand, then giving me the bottle to do the same.
As soon as I was done, she had rubbed her hands together and planted them on my shoulders. “Need some help?”
“Eh, sure…” I responded, doing the same on her body.
From there on, we worked our way, bit by bit over each other’s body, from head to toes until we both were polished.
“Feels good, doesn’t it?” She asked as we were just reaching the legs.
I nodded, adding smirking: “I guess this is the ‘fun’ Zen and I usually have when we are done. Speaking of whom…”
“Zen, you can come in! We are more than covered now.” The second sentence made Aki giggle. “What? You can only see our eyes and mouth now.”
“And yet barely anything is left to the imagination, isn’t it?” Zen opened the door, his voice clashing with the female figure the catsuit gave him.
“You look damn fine…” Aki nodded, looking impressed while Zen sat himself down on the bed next to us. “If it wasn’t for your voice, I’d think you’d be some chick.”
“Well, that is what the mask is for.” Zen held up his gasmask, the face of Bioniko Delta.
“Although…” Aki slyly grabbed the bottle and looked at me. “He still needs his glow up. Mind if I help?”
“Fine…” I held out my hand, letting the contents droop on my hand, the rubbing them together. “Let’s get you glossy and shiny, Zen.”
I planted a kiss on his lips before getting to work, with Aki covering his other side. Blazingly fast we managed to polish his upper body. And from time to time, I snuck glances at someone who really enjoyed being rubbed all over by two women.
Yet during one of those glances, I would have almost not noticed how Aki’s hand advanced to the region between his legs.
Yet before she had the chance to touch it, I came first.
“Pfff…” Aki couldn’t help but laugh. “Don’t worry, I am not going to take your precious Delta away.”
“What do you mean, Delta? I am not Delta yet.”
“But you wear the suit.” Aki responded confused.
“But not the collar or the mask.”
“Really? Where do you draw the line?” Aki moved on to hi left leg.
“The line to what?” We both asked.
“The line between you and the Bioniko. For me it is just the suit…”
“The gasmask.” Zen answered, while I responded. “The collar.”
“Funny how that works out.” Aki commented offhandedly, picking out the final piece of her suit: Her collar with the β on it. “Let’s get across that line of yours.”
We both took our collars and almost synchronously we put them and sealed them tight.
Three clicks sealed us in our other skin.
“And now you are Epsilon, huh?” Ak… Beta asked me playfully.
“Well…” I felt my neck and face, sealed in rubber. It was comforting to be someone else for sure. “I suppose.”
Then I got jumped by Aki, who quickly snapped a photo of us two.
“You look sooo cute. Don’t worry, this one’s for my eyes only.”
“Much appreciated…” I muttered before seeing Delta having put on hi…er gasmask.
“And you… Stay there, I have to take a picture of you!” Beta held up the phone, and Delta after a moments hestitaion stroke a pose. “You. Look. Gorgeous! And to think that beneath all that is a man…”
“Thank you.”
“Did you teach Delta how to be more feminine?” Beta turned to me, while we were putting on our gas masks, with her walking to her bag to deposit her normal clothes.
“No, not really.”
“I mean I learned a few things from you.”
“Really? Good to hear. Now then, if we are all ready, we should really…” As I passed the small hallway to the door, I saw the fruit corb, or more precisely, what was left of it: a bunch of bananas, uneaten, brown and mushy.
“What a shame. I guess I’ll just throw them away…”
“Throw what away?” Beta had just placed her gasmask on her face pulling the straps tight when she saw the very sad bunch of formerly yellow fruit. “You are kidding right? They are totally edible.”
“Yeah, …” Delta had packed our things already and pulled over a coat. “But I don’t think either of us is gonna eat them.”
“Hmmm… How about I use them?” Beta took the empty plastic bag from the supermarket and put the overripe bananas, before stowing them away in her backpack next to her clothes.
“For what?” We wondered loudly.
“That…” Beta put a finger over her mask’s muzzle. “You will have to find out when you visit me. But I promise you, it is very delicious!”
“Fair enough then.” We laughed, as I pulled the coat over my already rubber-coated body and left the apartment.
“By the way…” Beta asked Delta on the way down. “How do you feel walking around like this?”
“Fine, I guess…”
“Nothing like relief? Or comfort? Or distress?”
“Maybe… I guess I’m just fine as I am, as long as I am with you guys… eh… gals.”

When the cameras were off, we all were relieved.
“Another round passed!” Alpha punched up.
“Last 6 remaining…” I sighed after having a queasy feeling in my stomach while the jury passed their judgement. “Only the next round and then…”
“The competition between who gets the prime stage at the Idol festival.” Gamma retorted. “I think we should be able to get atleast to top 3, but a stage at that festival would really help boost us.”
“A stage is still better than no stage.” Delta retorted.
“That’s how quitters talk!” Gamma sounded less amused.
“Relax… We are going to do fine.” Delta gestured her to calm down. “Good old PMA.”
“Speaking of which…” Beta who had remained silent during the whole judgement procedure was quietly looking at another group. “I am amazed they passed.”
“Who…” I walked next to her, only to see a very familiar yet changed group. “Oh, ICG has really toned down their outfits. They didn’t even sing in English.”
The other group looked kind of… gloomy despite their still colorful outfits, but also relieved.
“Not that their haters are going to care…” Gamma, upon seeing them too, had pulled out her phone. “Look at these posts. They really are not pulling their punches.”
Most of them were in English, but the few I did understand were unreasonably harsh, even though ICG had a whole speech before their performance today in which they announced a ‘shift in direction’.
Yet it seemed as if that fell on deaf ears for some:
“What a lame-ass apology! Disgusting, they haven’t learned their lesson still. You should do yourself a favor and just step-the-fuck-down before you cause any more harm to black folk everywhere and take some time to reflect on their actions!”
While others mocked them for trying to be courteous:
“And they kowtowed… The cancel mob is already coming at them like sharks to blood in the water… They should have toughened it out and not even acknowledge the hate mob… Japan once again submits to foreign influence.”
“What a shitshow…” Alpha commented, whispering barely: “Not even a decade and social media has become even more rancid…”
Her saying that made me certainly a bit nostalgic. Looking back at the time when I logged into a forum about idols for the first time, the discourse seemed so much more civil. Sure, there were bad apples, as is usually the case, but the discussions were more in forums around the topic.
It was certainly sad when that forum shut down and discourse moved to general social media.
“Jesus…” Beta mumbled as Gamma’s phone reached her.
“What do the English comments say.”
“It is a… Clu…” That is where my barebones English left me trying to understand what Beta tried to tell me.
“Sorry, I didn’t really get the last word.”
“Clus-ter-fuck…”
“That doesn’t sound nice…” I remarked sarcastically.
“It ain’t.” Beta sounded… confused as she gave Gamma her phone back. “And you know what the strangest part is:”
She turned her head to the group in question.
“There is a part of me that wants to be happy about it, but I am really not.”
“Happy? What for?” I prodded her astounded.
“Partially for them not doing the whole ‘Inner city Thug’ number anymore… Partially for them getting criticism for it… But this outrage, …” She nodded to Gamma’s phone. “It just is too much. And I don’t think it is going to stop anytime soon.”
She then huddled together. “Not as long as they are on the show, or even beyond that.”
They way her voice quivered in fear of an unstoppable force stuck with me. But especially the last sentence she merely whispered, probably to herself in English, I only deciphering it after Zen and I were home and already sleeping. “Sweet Lord what have I done.”

“Hey Zen, can I ask you something?”
“Hmmm… waisit…?”
“What would you do, if you, hypothetically, did something with the best of intentions only for it to horrifically spiral out of your control, but no one knew you did it.”
“mmmmmmh” I could hear him half thinking, half sleeping. “Probably try to lay low… dunno… ‘sk m’ t’m’rr’w”
Zen, I knew by now, drifted into sleep very fast, and would likely not be responsive until he had his coffee next morning.
And so, I joined him, my last conscious thought being about those overripe bananas Aki took with her.
“What could she possibly be making with them…” I slurred drowsily.

Part IV - Table debate

‘Just a heads up: My brother is also coming today. Don’t worry there should be enough for everybody.’ We both read Aki’s message as we left our apartment to visit her on one of the free days we had.
It was in an unremarkable part of town and an equally unremarkable apartment building, if a bit on the cheaper side of things like ours were before moving together.
“Bzzzt.” I hit the button next to the door with ‘Akilah Fletcher’ on it, written in Romaji and Katakana and soon enough a voice came through, as well as music.
“Ah… You are here. Come in! How was the trip.”
“Fine…” Zen answered. “Although we had to walk quite a while from the metro to the bus station.”
“I feel you. But hey, at least you can count on the bus always being punctual. And the surprise should also be ready.”
“I can certainly smell it. What is it? It must be delicious.” I asked her, with all the walking having me made hungry.
She waved us in, and her small apartment was filled to the brim with shelves of quadratic envelopes, some of them new, but many more looking very old.
“What are these?” I carefully pulled out one of the new ones. There was something solid inside, like a disk…
“Vinyl records…” Aki told us, as she walked to the source of the music, having just finished one, moving the needle away and freeing the player for a new one, while carefully putting the old one in its envelope.
“Whew…” Zen was impressed. “Last time I have seen this many was at my grandpa’s house. Although wouldn’t it be cheaper to have them on CD or just digital?”
“Sure… But where would be the fun in that. Same reason why a fan of an Idol group is buying a CD and not just swiping it online.”
“For the goodies that come with it?” I handed her the record, her expression being very disappointed.
“No, for the collection and the ritual of playing them, of course.” She took it out of my hand, pulling it gently out, then laying it on and diligently dropping the needle on the turning record.
It crackled a bit, until finally music was heard.
“Blues?”
“You know your music, Zennie…” Aki was already in the throes of the rhythm, moving her way to the beat to the small kitchen counter of her apartment, on it: A cake, brown and with a black coating.
“It smells wonderfully.” My nose was caressed by the soft scent of chocolate and banana.
“Our ma’s recipe…” I heard a male voice behind me, the same accent Aki had, but a bit rougher.
One could see the family resemblance on first sight, even beyond the obvious, although he dwarfed his sister by a head’s length.
“Banana-chocolate bread…”
“Bread? Looks more like cake to me…” Zen inspected the cake… bread?
“Is there any difference between the two?” I pondered.
“Well…” Aki shrugged. “Probably, but in the end who cares, as long as it is sweet.”
She then turned to her brother. “Oh, I completely forgot… This is my brother Joeseph…”
“Yazid…” He corrected her.
“As he prefers to be called…”
“A nickname?”
“You could call it that.”
“I’d rather put it as the closest I have to a true name.” He corrected her.
“Not a fan of the one your parents gave you; I figure?” Zen sat himself down at the table.
He sighed, looking at Aki. “I just wish they didn’t choose such a… white name.”
“Don’t worry, with all the times people had problems pronouncing my name, I can tell you the grass isn’t exactly greener on the other side. Also, the bread is getting cold.” Aki replied, while putting some plates on her table, after clearing various things from it.
“Fine.” He rolled his eyes, taking a knife and cutting the cake…bread, giving each of us a slice and taking a bite. “Tastes better when it’s still warm…”
The bread cake itself was soft warm and sooo tasty, the banana flavor mixing with the chocolate frosting to a yellow-brown symphony. The sweetness overpowered any worry about the mountain of calories and sugar this thing likely had.
Yet while I and our hosts were digging in, Zen looked far more disinterested when eating.
“Uhm… Is something wrong with it? Or… Oh shit… Are you allergic against bananas?” Aki barely managed not to choke on her terrified assumption.
“No, it is not that… Tastes good… Very good…” He answered trying to save face, leaving the American siblings baffled.
“What is it with Japanese men and not wanting to eat sweet things?” Yazid asked bluntly. “Whenever our mom made it, me and my homies would delete it in less than a few hours.”
After giggling at a group of kids ganging up on a poor cake, I thought somewhat about his question. Even back in school there was often a reluctance of male students to openly enjoy sweet things, and then only if they were eating with their girlfriend.
“I guess…” I had never thought about it so much in hindsight, to me it just seemed self-explanatory. “Liking sweet things is kinda girlish.”
There amazement was written all over their faces.
Aki was visibly digging through her memories. “Really? This is… weird. No one would ever see a dude in the US eating ice cream and think of it that way.”
Yazid meanwhile had a bit of a laugh. “Definitely… But here they would gawk at the kind of sizes they sell it.”
“How big are we talking about?” Zen asked the two.
“Well… To be fair this is for a family of four… Usually we’d buy a half gallon… Which is around… Two liters, give or take.”
“Around TWO LITERS?” An image of two big water bottles formed in my mind. Two bottles filled with ice cream. “I don’t think they even sell sizes that big here.”
“Sounds like we all have our weird streaks…” Zen took a bite of the bread, now visibly enjoying it. “Although that does make me curious, are there any other things in Japan that ‘weird’ for you?”
“School uniforms, although the Brits got that as well… hmm…”
Yet while Aki was thinking about her answer her brother had already made up his mind after swallowing his bite.
“Idols.” A single word, yet the deafening silence of a freshly dropped bomb.
“Oh… why so?” I asked him, trying not to sound defensive and unreserved.
“Read about it a lot recently. I have never seen something as utterly repulsive and exploitative as the Idol industry.”
And Aki was clearly on edge, biting her lip.
“Baiting young girls with the promise of fame only to treat them like slaves! And if they dare to step a bit out of line of their ‘public image’ they get shamed to oblivion, not to mention the effect on children about the roles of women…”
As he ranted on, it dawned on me who the guy Beta told me she didn’t wish she knew was.
“I… mean some groups are trying to be more than just cute faces. There are the Chaosstar Maids and Inner City Girls…”
Before I noticed Aki putting her finger over her mouth in panic it was too late. I had just stepped on a landmine.
“Don’t get me started on these bitches. If they weren’t just appropriating our culture… No, they had to wear Black face. And their leader even stole dreads!”
“Stealing… dreads? I don’t really get how one could steal a hairstyle…”
“Look it is simple!” He was still visibly angry. “Dreads are part of Black culture! They are for Black people, only. Without permission…”
“Permission from whom?” Zen was equally as bewildered. “Some governmental body?”
“Black folk. Is it too much to ask to defer to…”
His phone started ringing this very moment.
“Gimme a moment… Yazid Fletcher here… Right now? I thought today we were meeting tomorrow… Jesus… Yes, ok I get it.”
He hung up and grabbed his things. “Sorry, I got to go.”
“Where to?” Aki spoke our thoughts.
“Meeting with a bunch of folks. We are planning to stage another protest.”
“Against ICG?” I asked tentatively.
“Exactly.” He raised his fist. “We ain’t gonna stop until they apologize and take some time off to reflect on the harm, they have caused!”
“You mean push them to dissolve. Over what? Some makeup and hairdo? You aren’t even wearing dreads.” Zen countered.
“You wouldn’t get it!” He slammed the door shut.
The rest of our visit at Aki apartment was very quiet, even with the wide variety of music we went through. Aki herself tried very much to dodge any further questions regarding her brother.
And the previously sweet banana bread had gotten a rather sour note.

“And the finalists are: Chaosstar Maids, Bionikokoro aaaaaaand… ICG” The announcers words rung in our ears even when we were already backstage. “But only one will get a stage at the Olympic stadium, but who and how? That and more, dear viewers, will be answered next week, on Risiiiing Stars!”
But we made it. Even against some tough competition, we made it. Although I wondered…
“Surprising that Inner City Girls also managed to get to the finals. Even with all the backlash they got, so many people voted for them.” I nudged Beta as we walked back, Delta chatting with Alpha and Gamma more focused on calming down after all the stress.
“Hmmm…” Beta merely nodded disinterested. “I suppose with many picking one side, others are feeling obligated to side with them.”
“Although it is a shame, they just wore normal dresses. Not even gal styles.”
“Yet their center still wore dreads.”
“Do you really think it is just going to keep going until they break?” I tried not to sound too worried for them, yet still… “I never thought Americans to be so keen on grudges.”
“It depends… I guess…” Beta scratched her head, mumbling something which might have been an answer or just her talking to herself.
For now, I thought, I wanted to go home and spent some quality time with Zen. Nothing bodacious, just cuddling, hot choco and watching some movies. Maybe an online match or two with some fans in the guild.
“I got an idea!” Alpha, previously talking to Delta, turned to the rest of us. “How about, to celebrate us having made it to the finals, we go out. No masks or anything. Just a girls’ night out with us all having some fun.”
If it wasn’t for Zen having gotten so good at playing his role, I could have almost seen Delta jolting at hearing that part.
“You mean like we two did after our debut?” I asked her.
“You went out with her?” Delta was surprised.
“It was just a drink and besides, this time we could all do something together and…”
“Pass!” Gamma spat out.
“Come on, it will be fun.” Alpha tried to convince her, getting closer, which Gamma immediately refuted.
“Look, maybe you feel comfortable with dropping this façade… ”
“But harsh isn’t it.” I muttered.
“But I don’t! And besides it is far to early to celebrate anything.”
“If you want you can keep the mask on…” Alpha was really distraught by Gamma’s blatant refusal.
“Still no. I also got things to do. See ya…”
And the five Bionikos became four.
“Poor thing…”
“What is it with… Wait, forget I asked.” I didn’t want to push Alpha to reveal who Gamma was behind her mask.
“Don’t fret it. I hoped to pry her out of her shell a bit. Ever since…” Alpha took a deep breath and lightened up, or at least attempted to do so. “No matter. What about you, how does a night out sound?”
“Maybe not today. To wrung out. What about tomorrow?”
“Sure… Beta? Delta? What about you two? Can you come tomorrow?”
As I waited for Beta and Delta’s reaction, I noticed they had been talking about something.
“Sure thing.” They answered at once.
And I swore I could hear my name, my real name, being mentioned.
“See you tomorrow then!” Alpha waved us goodbye, and we all went our separate ways, except me and Delta.
“So, what did you talk about with Beta?” I tried prodding Delta, as we drove back home.
“Oh, nothing important really…”
“Really?” I was less sure about that.
“Really. Just small talk.”

Part V - Girl’s Night Out

“Should be around here…” Zen and I were walking down the promenade, a cool summer breeze engulfing us as we walked past the shops and restaurants. My stomach felt queasy. I never really went out during my school time, yet now….
“Over here!” Aki, sitting together with Maya, waved at me.
…now I was gonna do… What did one usually do when out with friends? Going to a café? The arcade? Maybe to a club or…
“Oh dear…” Maya exclaimed, shaking her head. “What are you two wearing?”
“Is something wrong with my clothes?” I looked down at my clothes. It was just a shirt and a long skirt, what could possibly be so offensive about it?
“I mean Zen doesn’t need no explanation for having no sense of what to wear, but you, Hana. Excuse me if I may, but your clothes just don’t mesh well together, at all!”
“Eh,… What do you mean? Is the color wrong?”
“Not just that…” Maya held her head in her hand, gazing downwards. “Poor thing, but at least you didn’t do something like wearing sandals with sooooooocks…”
“What about it?” I looked down at my choice of footwear. “I found it a bit too cold for just sandals, so…”
“Akilah. We gotta do something about this!”
“Agreed. This is an emergency.”
The two nodded, stood up and grabbed us by our arms.
“Wh…what are you planning?” We both looked bedazzled at our friends.
“We are going shopping!” They both exclaimed very enthusiastically.
And so began a two-hour long trudge through multiple clothing stores, with Maya and Aki pushing us to try on a mountain of different clothes.
“What do you think?” Maya nodded while examining one set, we had changed into with the same care the judges at ‘Rising Stars’ did with the Idol groups.
“I don’t know?” Aki rubbed her chin. “Something is missing…”
“I think it’s fine.” Zen protested, already through the wringer after having tried on a dozen different clothes.
“Fine? No, there is still something…” Maya stood up, looking through a rack of jeans until finding one in a slightly different hue than the one he was wearing. “Try this one.”
“It is the same.” Zen looked with a blank expression as he saw the pair of jeans.
“You can’t be serious? The form and color is completely different from the one you are wearing. See.” Aki laid the jeans together.
“It does have a warmer tone.” I commented. “Just one more okay?”
“Fine.” Zen grabbed it and went back into the changing cubicle. “I think you look good though, Hana.”
“Oh thanks!”
“Welllll…” Maya mustered for a long moment, wearing a combination of a short sleeved yellow blouse and a dark blue denim skirt. “I suppose. It does make you stick out, in a cute way.”
My heart skipped a beat. It felt nice hearing a compliment like that from someone else than just my parents.
“What she said.” Zen, who had just come out of the changing room argued further. “Although she looks cute no matter her clothes.”
Now I felt completely smattered with fuzziness and I hugged him on instinct, snuggling against his chest. “That’s so sweet of you. By the way you look very good yourself.”
“R…really?” He looked at the trousers very much confused. “There is no difference.”
“How can you be so blunt? Don’t you see…” Aki was somewhat annoyed.
“Maybe they need a better perspective… Could you two go to the mirror?” Maya gently pushed us to it.
It was surprising how well our clothes matched to each other, as if perfectly aligned by an outer force. Which it probably was, considering now my skirt and his jeans had the same hue.
“Did you do that on purpose? The partner look?” I asked Aki and Maya, not coming around to smirk at them.
“I mean a pair should look like one.”
“And besides…” Aki walked to a shelf and pulled a skirt like I wore. “You are wearing pants, Zennie. Maybe we could try a skirt…”
“You said that was the last time, right?” It was unclear which part made him more upset, the return to the changing room or him wearing a skirt.
“Bold of you, considering…” Aki sly remark was interrupted by him.
“I like the look right now, ok. Can we leave now?”
“Man…” Aki rolled her eyes. “If it weren’t for us, you would just wear whatever you got from your school days until it tears to pieces, wouldn’t you?”
“Are we done?” He just rolled his eyes back at her.
“Fine… On to the next store…”
I could hear him wince when she said it.
“Maybe this is enough shopping.” Maya stretched her arms. “I am starving. I know a nice karaoke joint near here, also sells foodstuff. How does that sound?”
With no one arguing against her proposal, we gathered our clothes, paid for them and walked out into the street, each of us walking with a heavy bag in hand.
“Anyone of you need a hand? Mine doesn’t feel so bad.” Zen asked around.
“Relax, it’s ‘girl’s’ night out. No need to play the gentleman.” Aki negged on him, lowering her voice for ‘gentleman’.
“Alright…” He sounded somewhat miffed. “I just wanted to be nice.”
We four walked without saying much for a while, him just nervously looking around. Pride a bit wounded.
“Hng…”
“Is something, Hana?” He immediately turned to me.
“It kinda bites into my hand. Could you help me out?” I handed him one of the straps, which he without further comment.
It felt much lighter all the sudden, and he looked more at ease.
“Much appreciated…”
“No problem.”
The rest of the evening was just us 4 having fun in a karaoke bar singing, goofing off and sharing small-talk.
If it wasn’t for one thing.
Aki and Zen had gone to the toilet and I joined them after a few minutes as well. Yet as I approached the karaoke bar’s bathrooms, I could hear someone talk.
“You think you can manage that?”
“The size is certainly not gonna be a problem. But I first have to… Hey Hana!”
“Hello… What are you talking about?”
“Oh just… eh… stuff. You need to go to the bathroom as well?” Zen was scratching his head.
“Yeah… hehe… I really gotta go.” I carefully maneuvered myself through my boyfriend and Aki. Yet as I entered the female bathroom, I could hear them talk again this time in English.
What were Zen and Aki up to, I wondered, trying to not slip into darker implications of what the contents of their discussions could be.

Part VI - The pebble that started an avalanche

“And the wheel stops aaaaat: Mixup Duet!” A whimsy tune played as the words ‘Mixup Duett’ were displayed boldly above the stage and the attendant carted the giant wheel away.
“Oh!”
“Do you know what that is?” Beta sat next to me as the juror announced the final competition. “I haven’t seen the past years’ entries.”
“That one hasn’t happened in years!” Alpha clapped excitedly. “Although the rules are a bit weird, to be quite honest.”
“For the new viewers, I shall explain!” The host cleared his throat. “Each member of the finalists is teaming up with the member of another group. The dup will prepare and sing together, with half the points awarded being split amongst them and their original group.”
“Why though?” Beta was befuddled. “Why not just a straight competition.”
“They always like to make their finals stand out.” Gamma explains. “As for the mixup duet: It is focused on cooperation with someone outside your comfort zone and brings a dilemma to you singing well: Another group is going to profit too from a good performance.”
“So, by binding each of us to someone from the other groups it makes the competition tighter. It also leads to collaboration with other idols. I always found the chemistry between two people from completely different backgrounds enjoyable. One time they even had a male-female duet, who were the main point source for their separate groups.”
“Interesting…” Beta took the information in. “How do they choose the pairs.”
“Usually they allow free team-ups at the start before they choose by lot. Why are you looking at me like that…” The other Bionikos, despite having no visible facial were clearly looking at something behind me.
“Surprise Epsi!” Or someone.
“Zarruriel…” I calmed down from her jumping me from behind. “Glad to see you are well.”
“Likewise… Sooo… How about it? You and me?” She wasted no time on formalities.
“Sure, why not…” I held out my hand, which Zarruriel took.
“On good partnership!” Zarruriel announced, adding with a mumble. “Never thought latex to be that smooth.”
“Anyone on of your demonic maids still left Miss Demon Maid?” Alpha asked the horned idol.
“Two of them, I can introduce you. The other two wanted to team up with ICG, well what’s left of them.”
“Left of them?” Beta was out of the loop as to what happened to them.
“One of them quit, due to the harassment.”
“Oh…” That was all she said to me.
The rest went on to pick whom they wanted to partner with. Until only two people remained.
“Excuse me…” One of the staff members pulled me aside asking me quietly off the camera. “Would you mind talking to your group member Beta? She hasn’t even started to talk to her partner for the mixup duet. Chiyo Higa.”
“The center of Inner City Girls?”
“Did something happen between the two? I know there has been some viral discussion surrounding ICG.”
“Not directly… It is complicated…” There was a giant knot, older than me, Beta, Higa or anyone in the room. Too large to be simply cut through, too complicated to be merely unfurled.
“Could you give her a push, maybe? It would also make great footage…”
“It is better that if we talk it out in private.”
“It is very serious I take?”
“You could say so…” I got up and quickly informed Zarruriel about it, as well as Delta, who partnered with another Demon Maid, Myriel. “Excuse me, I have to talk to Beta for a bit.”
“Good luck with her.” Delta nodded. And as I walked away, I could hear the maids asking what was up with our group member.
“It is complicated.”
I chuckled when I heard that. It was difficult. Really difficult.
Finding Beta however was rather easy.
“Hi, you are still here I see.”
“Yeah…”
“You know you have a duet to prep for…”
“I know.” Her posture was defensive.
“Have you talked to Higa from ICG yet?”
Beta shock her head. “I’d rather not.”
“Why not?”
“You know exactly why not!”
“Do you feel guilty for what happened to them?”
“Are you saying I did…” She stuttered. “I… It just… Felt insulting, … their whole performance…”
Taking a deep breath, I sat myself next to her. It took a while for me to find the right set of words, to find the truth, while also not insulting the woman beneath Beta’s skin. “You must have had it tough here in Japan, I guess. I understand it, a bit. You wouldn’t know how often people just started laughing when I told them I wanted to be an Idol. ICG opened an old wound for you, didn’t they?”
“I don’t know… Really… You Japanese are in general very polite, even with prejudice.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“When I transferred during middle school, none of the students actively bullied me, at least not the kind of bullying I expected to get. I didn’t get called names, no one hit me or anything like that. But…”
“They still made you feel like an outsider?”
“Yeah, like that. I eventually made some friends, as hard as that was. And after a year or so, I made my peace with always being seen as a foreigner. To be fair it was quite freeing in certain aspects. I saw me as an American, plain and simple.”
“That sounds not like someone who would be out for…”
“My brother Joeseph however was not so accepting of it.” Beta’s voice oozed with a painful sympathy for her brother. “Heh, I can still remember him being so excited to move here. ‘We will be respected in Japan. After all, Yasuke was the retainer of Oda Nobunaga…’.”
“Who’s Yasuke?” I interrupted her. “I… remember Nobunaga being a leader of some kind… But beyond that…”
“As far as remember from Joseph retelling me that story repeatedly, he was a slave who gained the respect of the shogun, who gave him his freedom and made him his bodyguard, or something. All I know about that guy is the stuff my brother told me over the years.”
“Ah that’s fine, not really keen on history myself.” I had never understood the fascination with the Sengoku period. For me it was a bunch of dudes killing each other over who’s going to be Shogun until someone beat them all. Important, probably, but not terribly interesting. “He seemed to have been quite taken by our country.”
“Yeah, until he was faced with reality.” Beta sighed again. “He never recovered from that to this day. He always used to watch anime with me back in the states, but now he actively avoids it, telling me it is ‘filled with trashy stereotypes and bottom of the barrel tropes’.”
“Wow… That is… sad.”
“You tell me, girl. We still meet from time to time, talked a bit about how life went and so on. Didn’t tell him about this, of course.” She pulled at her rubber suit. “But eventually… I saw the ICG performance.”
I didn’t say anything, knowing that she needed to let something out that boiled within her for a long time by now.
“When I saw that, I could just feel raw anger at them. I had heard too many times about things like that. Some folks dressing up like us and mocking us about how we looked or spoke or acted. I had learned to keep it all to myself, after all the worst thing you can do here is explode at someone even if completely justified. Especially as a foreigner.
And then I told my brother about it and he took it personally as well, but acting far more radical on it than I did. He started the whole protest.”
For a moment my breath halted.
“And I am responsible for it.”
“Not really, you just told him…”
“Of course, I fucking did! He never watched idol-stuff. He only became aware of it due to me. And you know what the worst part it? When the whole online shitstorm began, I felt vindicated! I felt as if justice had been served, however small. That they got what they deserved!” Beta had worked herself into a frenzy, only to fall from this zealous height. “And then I saw them heckling ICG in person… It just felt wrong. Too much. And I saw how terrified they seemed when faced with that mob. And it only got worse from there.”
I gently moved onto Beta and gave her a hug.
“And still, I can’t help but despise them for acting like Black stereotypes. I feel trapped…” The last sentence barely came through her gas mask’s voice filter. “What am I supposed to do?”
“I…” A whirlpool of thoughts slowly coalesced into a sentence I could speak coherently. “I am sorry, to hear what you have been through. It must have been tough on you. Although when it comes to ICG… You should still at least talk to them, if only to ask their intentions. They might have simply not known better and walked into the whole thing blindly.”
“You mean…” I could hear Beta swallowing her tears behind her mask. “Don’t assume malice, where stupidity is more likely?”
I nodded, to which Beta hesitated to answer for a moment. “It just… hurt what they did.”
“I am not asking you to forgive them, just to talk to them and ask about their intentions. I doubt they had mockery in mind when performing it. Just… do it. Once. For me. Alright?”
“…” The faceless rubber girl sat there for a while, only breathing, until she finally made up her mind. “Fine.”

The bags from the supermarket weighed heavily as I came home. It had been a tough gauntlet, not just with the whole drama surrounding Akilah/Beta. We still had our regular performances and appointments as idols, in addition to me and Zarruriel having to prepare our performance, updating our social media presence, although Mr. Inoi did help us out in that regard, and just regular, boring life. Same with Delta and Myriel who had their performance to prepare.
We even had to put the streams on hold, much to the dismay of our viewers, who were nonetheless excited for what the performances would be.
I had just closed the door behind me, with the rest of my strength when I heard D… Zen speaking to someone.
“You have put the size in, great! Wait!… Yeah, she is home…. Don’t worry… I’ll just text you later, bye…”
“Who was that on the phone?” I plopped the bags down, with him helping me to unpack them and sort the contents into the cupboards and the fridge.
“Aki.”
“Ah, how is she doing?”
“Fine considering what you told me from her situation. It is really disheartening to hear stuff like that.”
I nodded, then enquired further: “Has she talked to Chiyo Higa yet?”
“Well… No, from what she told me Chiyo Higa didn’t have time yet, but she already agreed to meet with her this week.”
“Progress…” I uttered laconically. “And besides that? Anything else?”
“Nah, that was about it…”
“Really?” I poked him with a food packet.
“Yes…” He held in for a suspicious moment, holding two bottles, slowly putting them in their place. “That was about it. Nothing more.”
“Hmm…” I nodded, yet something irked me about the way he said it. He was hiding something; I was sure of it. But what? I knew, that my father had often less to hide than my mother suspected, but now…
There was a paranoid curiosity in me, yearning to be sated. Even if it tore bonds apart.
A curiosity tested when in the late evening I saw Zen’s phone. He had texted someone, likely Aki, after dinner and for a moment I felt tempted.
He slept deep and well, and I could just take his finger and see what he had written to her, but just before taking his phone, I relented.
“It is nothing.” I told myself silently, slowly getting back into our bed. “You are just terribly paranoid of losing him to someone else.”

Part VII - The truth will set you free…

Ever since they had been on stage at ‘Rising stars’, it had all been downhill from there, even though they made it to the finals, it had taken a toll on them all. The manager even suggested to her that she needs to loose the dreads, something she had hesitated with in the hopes that just dropping all American references and the apology would be enough, yet the angry posts about it still did not subside.
Chiyo sighed as she walked to the apartment of her partner for the mixup duet. Bionikokoro was very odd with their skintight suits and their faceless gas masks, although it did set them apart, just like they tried to do, only to get the wrong kind of attention.
“Bzzt.” She could see what the Bioniko’s real name was likely, Akilah Fletcher. Not too surprising, considering her foreign accent. It was… American… But had some odd parts she couldn’t pin exactly.
“Is that you, Miss Higa?”
How formal, unexpected from a foreigner. “Yes… May I come in eh…”
“Beta. I’d like to stay in character for the duration of our partnership, if you wouldn’t mind.”
“Oh, that’s no problem.” She had only seen them in passing and never interacted with them up close and personally. One of the other ICG girls who had remained told her that the Bioniko she partnered with was quite forthcoming to their prickly situation and that the smell of rubber had stuck to her own clothing.
“Welcome…” What greeted her at the door was a black, reflective female figure, a faceless gas mask with no eyes. “Is something?”
“N…no… It is just… Your look is a bit much all at once…”
“Oh… ok… Rather understandable.” And her voice sounded as if it was synthesized, though considering the name plate a human was beneath this costume. “Please come in.”
She nodded to the rubbery woman, slipped off her shoes and entered ‘Akilah Fletcher’s’ apartment. And her jaw dropped at the walls of vinyl plates crammed into this tiny apartment.
“Are you hungry? I still got some of this left…” The rubber girl handed her a plate with cake and a fork. Taking a smell, it seemed to be made with banana and chocolate. “I can’t really eat it like this.”
“Thanks…” Chiyo sat down and took a bite, immediately her mouth exploded with flavor. “Mmmmmh… Sho good… Did you make it yourself?”
“Yeah…” The faceless woman seemed a bit reserved however. “I think we haven’t been introduced, have we? I am Bioniko Prototype Beta, of the Artificial Idol Project Bionikokoro.”
“I am Chiyo Higa, not as impressive I know, from the Illustrious Chrysanthemum Girls.”
“Wait, weren’t you called Inner City Girls?”
“After the recent backlashes we decided to change the name…” She tried her best not to sound not too down, even though she found the old name great. “It is probably for the best. By the way… You have a big music collection. Is it all vinyl records?”
Beta nodded. “Bought them over the years, others are old ones from my dad… You know… my actual dad, not the one of the persona I’m wearing.”
“Oh cool… Could we… Oh never mind…”
“You want to listen to some?” Beta went to get a… silk glove over her rubber gloves much to Chiyo’s confusion. “Bought these after I nearly wasted one of my records. Let me tell you: Vinyl and silicone oil do not mix.”
“Oh understandable… Can I pick one?”
Beta nodded and she started browsing the covers, pulling some out. They were a mixture of new music and American classics she had heard many times on her phone.
“This one.” She pulled out one and delicately gave it to the Bioniko. “I have listened to him a bunch of times.”
“Ray Charles? That is old.” Beta sounded genuinely impressed, but nonetheless pulled out the record, put it on her player and dropped the needle.
“He always had such a great voice.”
“I am not gonna fight you on that one.”
What followed was them going through Beta’s collection. They would comment both on the titles, until Chiyo couldn’t help but start to sing along with the songs and Beta would start to join her, and eventually when one of Agatha Franklin’s songs was playing they even started dancing.
They must have gone through 2 dozen records when the sun finally started to go down.
“So… Anything you think would make a good song for the duet?” Beta asked, audibly out of breath beneath her mask. “Christ does it get hot in this…”
A stone rolled into Chiyo’s throat. “I think… we shouldn’t after all the controversy we have gotten already… It would be very inappropriate actually… Maybe we could go with something contemporary, like J-Pop… Just to be sure…”
Beta could not be heard breathing for a second. “But… you seemed to actually know your stuff. Hell, even your pronunciation of the texts was good.”
“I know, but still… I don’t want to be labeled a bad person just for liking them.” She fidgeted with her fingers.
“It…” Beta sounded confused, like a computer faced with a paradox. “It is not bad just liking them… Or singing or dancing to them.”
“Tell that to the people sending me death threats for our songs… Maybe we should’t have done hiphop…” In Chiyo’s mind many memories surfaced, of song texts she had thought were absolutely ok, but in hindsight saw how someone could take offence to. “It is just not safe for me… Or you… ”
‘Ping!’ The sound alone had made her flinch. And when she checked the message it was just another scar like she had gotten for the last month. “Sigh!”
“What does it say?”
“Please, just go end your career you stupid jap! Your only source of Black music must be racist stereotypes you picked up from the Klan!” Yet this one left Chiyo with one scar too many.
“Jesus!” Beta shouted, scraping the range of her voice modifier. “What the hell are they thinking! I don’t know what they are thinking, but…”
Chiyo was crying. “How can…”
A moment later she felt the cold, yet warm embrace of the woman clad in rubber.
“How can they say something like that about Bobby!?”
“Bobby?”
“He was a soldier, in the US base near my hometown in Okinawa…” Chiyo tried with all her might to swallow her tears. “He was a big black guy, but very gentle. He often ate at a bar my uncle runs and even brought his guitar to play songs her knew.”
“And you listened to him often?”
“Yeah…” Chiyo sniffed. “I always came back home as soon as possible, listened to him playing all kinds of Music: Blues, Spirituals, Soul, he even rapped a few times… And of course, I pelted him with questions… I probably learned more English from him than from school.”
“This might sound like a weird question, but what drew you to the music he played as opposed to something else?”
“Honestly…” Chiyo never had thought so deeply about it. If asked plainly she might have just said she liked it with no further explanations. But now that she mulled over why those melodies and tunes Mr. Robert had played resonated so deeply with her.
“You can feel the hope within them. There is always some underlying current of old wounds and lingering pain… But not in a ‘woe is me’ way. At times the songs he sang where more therapeutic, other times they were resilient, defiant or even triumphant. Like there was a long way to get where his people now are, and yet still a long way to go.”
“Wow…”
“Oh, sorry for dumping on you!” Chiyo apologized.
“No, I am not mad at you. Not at all.” Beta returned the apology, and went beyond that by stating enthusiastically. “Honestly, we should probably go with something like Blues. That would be amazing to bring on stage.”
“R…really…?” Chiyo was a bit taken aback by Beta. “I mean there are still all the haters out there…”
“You know what?” Beta told her in English. An English dialect recognized, as is was similar to Bobby’s dialect. “Fuck the haters!”
“Even though I am not Black?”
“Have you ever heard of the Blues Brothers? Pasty as they where, they still were amazing Blues singers.”
“There was a movie with that title. Is it about them?”
Beta nodded. “If you want to, we can watch it right now, if you still got time.”
Chiyo checked the time. Barely 8 ‘o clock. “Sure, why not. Sounds like fun! Wait…”
And for the first time in week, the account of ICG member Chiyo Higa became active after having laid low all the time.
The post: A selfie of herself and her partner for the duet, Bioniko Prototype Beta with one of the beginning scenes of the movie. “Currently doing some research on which songs to cover. @Bionik_Beta told me Blues Brothers got some bangers. Can’t wait.”
One of the people seeing this new post, however, could swear he recognized the room they were in. There could be no way in hell that this was his sister’s room.
Then he got a DM.
“We gonna crash them when they start?”
“That’s the plan.” He answered.
Whatever song they wanted to degrade; they wouldn’t let them go through with their willful appropriation of his people’s music.

“Buah…” I tore my gas mask off in exhaustion after finally coming home. “I’m home Zen!”
“How was the rehearsal with Zarruriel?” I could hear Zen from the bathroom, where he was likely pulling himself out of his suit.
“Great, we actually ironed out a very difficult part.”
“The one where you scream? Or isn’t that every part?” His voice dripped with irony.
“Hah. Hah.” I rolled my eyes as I walked to the fridge taking a bottle of water and just gulping it all down at once. While Latex felt and looked amazing, it could be extremely sweaty, especially if you have just exerted yourself, as I had done. Not just today but for the past two weeks.
“What about your duet with Myriel? Zarruriel told me she can be quite princely.”
“Very funny, Hana…” He had gotten a taste of his own medicine.
“Although you can be quite as well. At least when you are not Delta. Anyways, how long are you going to take? I’d like to take a shower.”
“Only to get back into the rubber suit right afterwards?”
I had come to wear it casually quite often. Zen even had to remind me once that my parents were visiting and I had to get out of it, an hour before they arrived.
“What can I say, I like the feel of it.” But I certainly wanted to get the hood off for now. And after unlocking the collar and pulling it off my head. “Do take your time.”
“Don’t worry I am out soon.”
I threw myself on our bed and relaxed for a bit. I then decided to check my phone. My Bioniko Epsilon was still quite active. Especially with me posting photos from my rehearsals with Zarruriel. The most popular post was a clip of my gas masks voice changer starting to get distorted after singing too loudly, with Zarruriel asking if we had broken it. Luckily we had not, but my ears had rung for a while after that experience.
I then took a look at the Bionikokoro group chat. Alpha had posted a bunch of pictures with her duet partner, an ICG girl from Osaka, while Gamma was as cut and dry as usual.
‘My rehearsal went well. We are making good progress.’ – Gamma
Alpha told me, she had to convince Gamma to do these status reports, otherwise she’d just go radio silent.
‘Had a blast with Chiyo today going through a whole bunch of records to pick a song. Decided on the song ‘Everybody needs somebody’ as the song we’d sing.’ – Beta
‘Good to hear. On my side with Zarru-chan as well. A heavy metal song she has written.’ – Epsilon
‘An original Hope your vocal cords can take it…’ – Beta
‘Im more concerned about the gas mask’s voice module.’ – Epsilon
‘If you’re concerned with it breaking, don’t hesitate to ask me about sending you a new one. Just in case.’ – Inoi
‘Very nice of you. ^_^ Should be fine for now.’ – Epsilon
‘I also recall being able to tinker with it, to change the frequency.’ – Inoi
‘Ill keep that in mind.’ – Epsilon
‘By the way, where is Delta?’ – Beta
‘Showering. Should come out in a bit. Why are you asking?’ – Epsilon
‘No reason in particular.’ -Beta
I was left a bit baffled. Until Beta, or better Aki send me another message outside of the group chat.
‘Congratulations to your birthday! A certain boyfriend told me about it ;)’ – Beta
‘Wait, is that why you two had been talking behind my back?’ – Epsilon
‘Maybe. Also said boyfriend has got a surprise for you! Pls turn around…’ – Beta
I wanted to pester her for further answer when I heard the bathroom door open, hearing the familiar squeaking of rubber.
“Zen, what the…” I turned around only to see my boyfriend still wearing latex.
“Happy Birthday, Hana…” He smiled at me. But not the same latex suit he usually wore. This one lacked the fake breasts, or corset, or hip paddings. And where his crotch would be smoothed out a bulge was clearly visible. It was also unpolished.
“Sorry, you came home early, so I didn’t have time to shine it.”
“Oh, that is not a problem… That is…” It lay perfectly on his skin, his masculine figure nearly unobstructed. “Something we can fix very quickly.”
I grabbed a bottle of shiner and poured a bit of it on cloth. “M…may I?”
“No need to ask.” He laughed and gestured at his body. “It is your birthday, after all.”
“Right, my birthday… I had nearly forgotten about it with how busy we had been…” I mumbled as I started to polish… His body. His flat, yet firm chest, his slim hips and his butt.
“My, my aren’t we a bit too eager?” He recoiled playfully after I had given it a tiny slap.
“Sorry… It is just…” My mind started to go off the rails as my vagina started to assume control. “Is that what you and Aki have been planning?”
“Yup, gave her my measurements so she could order it. Wouldn’t want to ruin the surprise.” He explained, while I polished every bit of rubber.
He looked so good in it!
“So, …” He inspected my work after I was finished. “How do you like it?”
“You… I don’t know how to describe it… ” The words cute, sexy, handsome and a million other more vague words swarmed in my head, as I couldn’t let of off him, stroking his rubber hood.
“Wait a moment…” He went to the closet where we put our gear, his usual catsuit still hanging there, and pulled out his gasmask. “Hope this works.”
He swiftly checked the voice module on his gasmask and pulled it over. A moment later a new, deeper yet familiar voice came from it.
“Bioniko Prototype Delta, Configuration XY fully operational.”
And my vagina finally assumed full control, shorting all fuses in my brain.
As if I was on autopilot, I pulled over my hood again, put on my collar and strapped on my gasmask, before pushing Delta on the bed.
“Whew, that escalated fast!” Delta laughed out loud.
“This is the best birthday gift ever…” I whispered, before squeezing him tightly.
For an unknown length of time, we just mingled on the bed. I was used to just either him as Zen or him as Delta. Both, at once was completely novel to me, yet now it was laying there in front of me.
Delta, his bulge only growing firmer, reciprocated the sensual cuddles. I was able to hold him so tightly to me, it was unbelievable!
After much rubbing against each other, and caressing each other’s faceless visages, Delta whispered something into my ear.
“Which Configuration do you prefer? XX or XY?”
“I…” My mind, so full of horny now, needed a moment to process his words. The sight of Zenjiro’s naked body had given me many a wet dream, however when I thought of Delta’s body it was very much the same kind of feeling. They are the same person after all.“I like it either really way. As long as you are with me, I couldn’t care less. Just hold me and…”
“Make us sing a duet of pleasure all night through?”
I nodded enthusiastically.
It would be very much a night of pleasure, as we fucked like rabbits. Both of us being even more exhausted than we had been already.
As we just lay there breathing heavily, I clung to Delta, Configuration XY triumphantly. After all this configuration was exclusively reserved for me and me alone.
Although I should definitely ask the manager if he ever thought about some of the future series of Bioniko’s being configured as males. After all we were just the prototype series, weren’t we?

Part VIII - …Even if it hurts.

“Burn my chains!” It was therapeutic singing from the depths of my lungs.
“Forever bound to my will!” Zarruriel responded singing herself, in a frenzied roar of a duet. As struggle between a human, robbed of face and identity and her demonic master seeking to bind her.
“Free me from this fate!”
“Your future ever bound to me…”
My throat was sore when we were finished, the crowd cheering and us bowing, the cameras broadcasting live.
“Thank you…” We both said in unison.
“Next one is…”
As we both left the stage, the silence expecting the next performance was broken by a group entering the studio.
A murmur erupted, shouting from both the security and the protestors marching in and unfurling a banner.
“You are not allowed here, leave!”
“WE WILL NOT BE SILENCED!”
The banner unfurled read, both in English and Japanese: ’Deplatform Ignorant Colonial Girls, Support authentic performances!’
And as soon as they so as they saw who was on stage, they started shouting, sneering, jeering. All of them directed at the center of ICG, still wearing her dreads, ignoring Beta almost completely.
“And during a performance?” Delta shook her head as we saw this whole thing unfurling. “Don’t they have any shame pulling these sorts of stunts?”
“Poor thing.” Zarruriel winced in sympathy. “Heard from someone in my group how much these guys got to them. Wouldn’t blame her if they just cancel it until the mob starts to leave.”
“Wouldn’t either…” My heart was with the center, whose imitation of music she really liked was seen as nothing but mockery. Any and all attempts at defense seen only as further signs of guiltiness. It made my stomach crawl.
And then Beta took Chiyo’s shoulder, nodded to her and then to the people responsible for playing the backing tracks.
Beta looked once more at Chiyo, and she at her, both taking a deep breath, shutting out the people currently heckling them.
“One, two, three, four…”
The music started to play; the duet began to dance to the rhythm, despite the crowd only partially beginning to calm down.
Beta strode a bit forward and began to address the crowd:
“We’re so glad to see so many of you lovely people here tonight, and we would especially like to welcome all the representatives of communities concerned about authenticity, who have chosen here in at Rising Stars at this time. We do sincerely hope you’ll all enjoy the show, and please remember people, that no matter who you are, and what you do to live, thrive and survive, there are still some things that make us all the same. You, me, them, everybody, everybody.”
She had prepared a part of this speech in advance, minus the part addressing a crowd partially made up of people wanting you off the stage.
“Everybody needs somebody…"
Chiyo and Beta began their duet, switching who was the main singer, and for the chorus singing together, pointing at random people in the crowd while chanting something.
I leaned over to Delta, who immediately got the hint that I required translation.
“I need you you you…” Delta sang alongside them after the third time, after which however they sang further.
And the crowd started getting heated, but in a good way: Clapping with the beat, smiling. And by the third time of the ‘I need you’s they were chanting along.
In a matter of a few minutes the situation had turned from tense to joyful. I could barely see the banner the mob had held up and some of these very people even got swept up in the mood. One of them, from what I could spy, clapped giddily until he was elbow-checked by a man next to him for enjoying the performance.
“I need you!” Beta and Chiyo ended their duet with a bang, and a standing ovation. They bowed waved to the crowd. The people who weren’t cheering were mostly drowned out by the larger audience and confused by what to do next.
One of them however, the man who had nudged his comrade out of ‘switching sides’ had a scowl on his face.
Even from this distance I could see Aki’s brother was not happy about his protest misfiring so badly.
The rest of the performances went through without much more heckling. I hoped that would be it for this evening.

“Second Place! Not too shabby. Manager Inoi got still some things to discuss on the phone, before we can start planning what we do for the festival.” Alpha celebrated the result.
“Not much to celebrate really…” Gamma rolled her eyes, Alpha staring at her for ruining the cheery atmosphere. “But it is still better to take part in the International Idol Festival, than not. The stage we got is pretty ok and got a lot of audience space. Still would have preferred the Olympic stadium.”
Gamma looked at me, currently looking at her phone.
‘First Place! Couldn’t have done it without you!’ -Zarruriel
Attached to it was a group photo of the Chaosstar Maids.
“Sekai Tobira isn’t so bad to have a stage, Gamma…” Beta stretched herself. “We are going to get a lot of international clout.”
“I know…” Gamma scoffed. “I am amazed though that ICG came through all this way… I have seen groups dissolve under less pressure.”
“It’s a matter of enduring it… Chiyo was very brave even standing there.” Beta spoke plainly.
“Don’t sell yourself too short, Beta.” I walked up to her. “You stood by her on the stage.”
“What she said.” Delta supported my claim. “It must have been difficult for you as well having these ruffians interrupting your performance.”
“Well at least it is now over…”
In the hallway we could hear someone walking stomping in out direction, with someone else likely a security guard shouting something along the lines of: “Sir, you are not allowed here! Please leave or we will have to escort you out!”
“Who the hell is making that ruckus?” I wondered out loud. The steps became louder and louder until at last, someone tore the door to our room open.
“Akilah Fletcher! What the… hell… do you think… you are doing!” He shouted, loudly but slowly enough for me to be able to understand what Akilah’s brother Joeseph was saying, while he was intensely staring at Beta.
Most of us were shocked by this sudden intrusion, except Beta who tried to ignore him, until he shouted something again.
“I don’t know a person with that name. Maybe you have taken the wrong door?” She answered in Japanese.
“Don’t…play…” I looked to Delta who after a small interruption translated parts of what he said. “Games with me. I know it is you behind that mask!”
Beta hesitated for a bit, with him not letting up, even as security tried to drag him out.
She then asked him how he found out it was her, with him answering he recognized her room in her posts, but only realized it was her when she spoke to the audience before she and Chiyo Higa sang.
From there the discussion became audibly louder and irater. Beta never took her masks off, but I could feel her anger, her brother’s anger and distaste at his sister’s profession as idol marred in his face.
I could only make out very few words one of them being “…traitor…”
It also became faster, so fast in fact that Delta had more trouble keeping up with translating it to me, keeping quiet and only when I asked translating further, if only the pieces of this bickering.
Then a word fell from Joeseph’s.
I was never good in English. The word order confuses me, there are more exceptions than rules, it uses idioms for nearly everything and it uses sounds where my tongue just gives up.
There was however one English teacher, a foreigner, who had a teaching style unlike any other. He always pushed us to apply what we learned in daily life and, more importantly, to keep trying even if it isn’t perfect.
“My chums in me old pub speak English that ain’t ‘proper’ either. Keep it up…” It might not have exactly helped my English, but it did in many other ways.
One of his lessons, however, was on swear words. He had explained their meaning and origin of them going from the minor ones, the ones you wouldn’t say in polite society but wouldn’t hold back if you are with a bunch of friends. And while it had been all fun and games at the start of the lesson, he eventually went into the ones that we should never use, under no circumstances whatsoever!
And on the very bottom of these was the very word Joespeh had just said to his own sister, leaving a deafening silence.
“He didn’t just call his own sister that, did he?” Delta was certainly shaken by it, Beta was as well, for a brief flash.
SLAP! The rubber left a hand shaped mark on Joeseph’s cheek.
“Get the fuck out!” Beta’s voice was drained and cold, her brother starting to realize he may have over done… whatever he just said.
“Shit… I didn’t mean to…”
“You are the last person I had thought would ever call me THAT! And in front of other people!”
“Come on, you know I didn’t mean it. After all, I’m bl…”
“No! Not with that intonation! Out! Now!” Beta shoved him through the door, helped by the security guard, himself shocked about this fight, yet relieved the person he was attempting to remove from the backstage area offered a lot less resistance than before.
The door closed with a bang. Beta leaning on it, exhausted in spirit, body and voice.
“I need some air…” She told us with a weak voice, opening the door and leaving hastily.
“Great… More drama, how American. Shouldn’t have posted those pictures if she didn’t want her brother to find out…” Gamma shook her head.
“Gamma!” I admonished her, before turning to the door and running after Beta.
Finding her was surprisingly easy, one didn’t often spot a woman dressed in all black rubber on a terrible mood.
“There you are…” I had spent myself by climbing the stairs to the rooftop too fast, and wearing a rubber suit myself was not exactly helpful either. “Are… are you… are you alright?”
I was unsure if that was how I should approach her after all this.
Beta swayed her head to the side, while looking out. “Fine…”
I tentatively approached her and slowly sat myself next to her. It certainly didn’t sound like it, no matter how much Beta tried to hide it.
“What were you two talking about?”
“Why do wanna know that?” Beta didn’t even look at me.
“Curiosity…” My lie was very flimsy. “And maybe it’ll make you feel better…”
Beta didn’t respond for a long while, breathing through her gas mask, the sound mixing with the faint sounds of the streets below.
Then she removed her gas mask.
Even in the dark night I could make out the tearstains in her eyes, rolling beneath the eye sockets of her hood.
“He called me a traitor, at first.”
“A traitor to what?”
“To our people, although with him that means everyone, we share skin color with, even if those very people make us out as Americans from the get-go. Although he would never want to acknowledge that.”
“I don’t get it. Do you mean he tries to be loyal to everyone who looks like him?”
“Hah, loyal? He is obsessed with the idea that every black person he meets is automatically a brother from another mother.”
“Like a family member?”
“Blood kinship, call it whatever you like. Certainly, didn’t help jack shit when we were tricked and fleeced during our holiday in Lagos. But hey, ‘they are just like us. They wouldn’t dare harm us!’ Bullshit.”
“I hope you didn’t lose anything valuable.”
“No, I actually followed my father’s warning to leave anything too valuable at the hotel. Unlike my brother. So much for the idea of ethnic kinship.”
Aki burrowed her head into her knees, only looking out after swallowing the stones in her throat.
“Unlike you we got no roots…” She shook her head on telling me this painful realization she must have had for years by now. “We are like plants whose roots were forcibly cut off and transplanted against our will. People like my brother think we are just like our ‘ancestors’ but we are not. You got samurai, whites got knights, explorers and all that fancy stuff, even Native Americans got some lineage to look back upon. We got unlucky villagers who got raided and were traded around until they had the misfortune of being sold across the Atlantic.”
Akilah suffered from a wound so deep, so gnashing, yet unseen. Words failed to help her in any way. The only thing I could do was hold her and comfort her through the pain. It was all I could really do, yet for now it would have to suffice.
“Thank you…” She winced in English.
“You… are wel… com…e…”
“Ey, that’s pretty good!” Aki laughed at what I thought was pretty terrible English, despite all the crying she had just done, or maybe despite it. “It wasn’t actually being called a traitor that made me mad it was…”
“That word.”
Akilah nodded. “Yes, but not quite.”
She shuffled around a bit. “He told me that Chiyo… you all… just saw me as a… you know. Being called that by my brother is terrible enough, but mixed with him accusing you of being racist… It was just too much.”
“How could we possibly discriminate you? Most of us didn’t know who you were behind the mask.” I joked but went back into being softer spoken, taking off my mask as well. “Not that it matters who you are or where you come from. You are you, with or without mask: A part of Bionikokoro and someone I would call a good friend, Akilah-chan. Someone who… even against the odds tries to realize herself as who she wants to be and not how others think she is too be damned to be.”
“Thank you, hearing that from you means a lot.”
“As for feeling rootless: You are always welcome to take root here, at least in Zen’s and my garden.”
I had stood up, holding out my right hand to her, while holding the gasmask in my other hand.
Akilah was taken aback, but then, with a smile, took my hand and got up with my hand and we tightly embraced each other.
“Much appreciated, Hana. But for now…” Akilah put on her gasmask again, Beta striding back to the door. “We should go back before the others start to get worried.”
I nodded back, strapping my mask back on as well.
“Let’s not keep them waiting. I am looking forward as to what we are going to be planning for the International Idol Festival.”

Part IX - Regret and Righteousness

Somewhere in the city a bartender poured out another round of glasses for his tenants when a foreigner came barging in.
“Whisky!”
“Welcome…” He wanted to greet the dark-skinned man despite his rude entry, getting out a shot glass and filling it.
The foreigner didn’t hesitate to gulp the glass down in one go, slamming it back down, before slumping onto the bar.
“Why did I say to her that her stupid idol group…” He stammered in English.
“Are we having woman-problems?” The bartender politely asked in Japanese-accented English.
“Yeah, not in that way though. It’s my sister.”
“A fight between siblings?”
“And a bad one at that. I don’t think Akilah is ever going to forgive me for insulting her like that.”
“Maybe take step back… Some distance… Rethink how you got to this point… And trying to drown it in alcohol is certainly not going to work. Sorrows tend to be lighter than alcohol, even the stronger ones.”
“Sigh!” His guest rubbed his temple. “You are probably right old man… Although you are not a good salesman for your wares.”
“I do like for my customers to keep themselves clean, and not…”
“More sake!” The black foreigners seat neighbor held his glass out.
“Very well…” The bartender switched back to Japanese, dutifully filling his other customers cup, who was intently staring at his smartphone, watching a recording of the recent episode of a popular idol competition show.
And the foreigner seemingly knew it as well, judging from him leaning in.
“What do you want black guy?” The local guest, a young unkempt man, had his better judgment already sullied by the drinks he ordered, all on tab.
“’Rising Stars’…” The foreigner studied the tiny screen on which, as far as the bartender could see, some girl in a faceless black suit was dancing next to a girl with dreadlocks. The foreigner then asked in nearly perfect Japanese. “Why are you so interested in this stuff? It is oversexualized girls dancing. Nothing you could get in a brothel as well.”
“You wouldn’t get it!” The man with the phone snarled back, before turning to his phone again. “You wouldn’t get it…”
“Leave him be. He’s been like that for two hours.” The bartender advised the foreigner. “Anyways… What brings you to this country, judging by your speech you must have been quite a while…”
The man with the smartphone didn’t listen to the rest of the conversation. To focused was he on his little screen, on the Recording of the finale of ‘Rising Stars’. To be more precise, on a specific segment of it, which he had replayed a thousand times by now:
Just as the performance of Chiyo Higa and Bioniko Prototype Beta was over and most of the uninvited audience had left, the one he was actually interested began: Bioniko Gamma and… some girl from a demonic idol group, he didn’t care.
No, his eyes and more importantly ears were for Gamma only. He knew her voice. The voice of an angel, the voice of a liar.
“Umeko-chan…” He could be heard whispering between his sips over and over again. “How could you after all the pain your betrayal caused us?”

Part 4 - The Scarred, the Zealous and the Arrogant

Article from the The Pacific Post:
‘The International Idol Festival opens this Friday for avid fans and newcomers alike.’
‘Tokyo, Japan – The streets of Tokyo are always busy, yet among the usual workers going to and from work you can see young performers Idols seeking to get exposure and Idol fans travelling here to see their favorite group, or just people curious about the upcoming International Idol Festival, a week longs celebration of Idol culture from all over the world, although the official partnered groups are majority Japanese or Korean.
While some readers might have heard of it due to either the heated internet drama about a group called ICG, who got into hot waters for what some criticized as blatant appropriation, or due to the diplomatic drama of the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism first investing massively into the festival, only to pull out later when demands regarding ‘implementation of moral guidelines of partnered groups and hostile-negative performers from unfriendly countries’ not being allowed to attend, including two Taiwanese groups. With China now holding its own ‘Festival of International performance of dance and music’, the previous spots were auctioned off to other countries, primarily in East and Southeast Asia, including 4 groups from Taiwan.
And even before all this the very question of the location had put the festival at risk of not even leaving the planning stage, as the two main organizers, the Cultural Ministries of Japan and South Korea had been in conflict, both previously planning two separate festivals falling on the same date, leading to diplomatic strife between two nations. The conflict grew in fact so large, in danger of growing larger than the topic at hand, that the US decided to intervene as a mediator, with the decision being made to merge the two festivals into one international one, with Japan getting to host the first iteration, allegedly decided by a coin toss. The USA in exchange was given 50 spots for their own groups to attend, 1 from each state.
With the opening to groups beyond Northern East Asia, all eyes are set on Tokyo for this cultural equivalent of the Olympics. Our local correspondents will also be on site, reporting on both the official partnered groups, as well as unofficial idols hoping to grow their brand. We too are all thrilled to see what this week of melody is going to bring.’

I hope you all liked the story of the Bioniko Prototype Epsilon and the other members of Bionikokoro, feel free to like, share, but most importantly leave a comment, so I can improve my writing for future stories.

Part I - Where in the world is…

“Coming!” I walked towards the door after hearing the buzzer.
“Manager Inoi?” Zen asked me looking up from his computer currently answering some posts.
“Hello, you two…” Ikki Inoi stood on the doorstep of our apartment, holding a bag with two packets. “May I come in?”
“Of course…” I nodded leading him in. “Can I bring you anything?”
“Just water…” He looked at us two with a bit of confusion. “Are you two streaming or why are you wearing your suits…?”
He then noticed the ‘Configuration XY’ suit Zen was wearing. “Ah is that the suit Epsilon told me about? You mentioned the idea of introducing a male series of Bionikos to me.”
“Yes, I nodded. Also, we aren’t streaming so you can just call us normally.” I handed him a glass of water.
He laughed. “Very well, although I might accidentally slip back into your Bioniko designation out of habit.”
“Fair enough…” We both answered, our voice being modified by the masks we wore.
“Considering your idea of male Bionikos…” He then put down the two mysterious boxes. “Delta is already marketed as female so that is probably a no-go.”
“It’s not a problem.” Zen answered cheekily. “I have gotten through so far posing as a female.”
“But it could be worth a thought for a future series of the Artificial Idol Project. I have already commissioned the company who runs our website to create an application formula for… volunteers.”
“To be turned into an Artificial Idol as well.” We both completed him in unison.
“Oh my, how creepy.” He giggled at our acting. “But yeah. I even have received a mail from someone who applied for it already. So, Series Mk. I is already in its planning phase.”
“Any upgrades planned for the next gen?” Zen asked our manager.
“Well, yes in fact, it is going to be deployed to the current generation.” He pulled the boxes out of the bag and pushed them to us. “Go on try them.”
Zen and I took the box marked with the letters Epsilon and Delta and opened them and grabbed out their contents.
“Aren’t those our normal gasmasks?” I swerved between the copy of my mask and Inoi who looked like a father giving his kids a present.
“At first glance yes… But there should be a something there.”
“What do you… Oh wait, here.” Zen pointed me to a nearly invisible button at the snout of his gasmask, which I found on mine as well.
After pressing it, although a bit complicated due to my latex gloves, there was an eruption of light from the visor, same for Zen’s gas mask where I could see two circles and two lines curved above them.
“Are those eyes?”
“Yup but it gets even better!” He beamed with anticipation. “Try them on.”
We carefully took our old masks off, sighing at the feeling of fresh air on our skins.
“How long have you been wearing your suits today?” Inoi sounded a bit concerned.
“Since early morning…” I looked down into the visor. I could not see light coming into the mask, but from closer inspection there seemed to be some microelectronics implanted next to the visor.
“What for… Don’t tell me I accidentally awakened something in you?” He barely held back his grin.
“N…no…” We both put on our new masks, hoping to hide our embarrassment. “We… are doing it to prepare for the International Idol Festival. Considering we are going to be Bionikos all day for a week through.”
Finally, the mask sat snugly, yet while I pulled it tight on my head, the manager couldn’t help grinning. “I only need to see your eyes to know that you are lying about how much you like it.”
“Eyes? What do you mean? Aren’t these eyes…” Zen retorted until he stared at me. “Wait, Hana! Did you just blink?”
“I…” I saw the artificial white LED eyes on Zen’s… Delta’s visor blink. “Oh shit. This amazing! Does it mimic our actual eyes.”
“More than you think.” Inoi commented. “It’s a project of a friend of mine. He currently is finishing his Master. His project for it is a very compact form of facial reading and output, so small it can fit inside a gas mask. When we met again and caught up with each other he asked me if he could implement it in your gas masks.”
We were already on it to make all sorts of faces to see how advanced this tech is. To our amazement it could reproduce a lot of emoticons.
“Wow, and all this inside here? Your friend is awesome!” Delta was amazed, something I could now not only hear through his voice, but also now read from his eyes.
“Thank you, I will tell him that!” He bowed in the stead of his buddy.
“Do the others have these already?”
“Alp… eh Maya has it. She helped him with testing it and giving feedback, I’ll check in with the others right after you. You should have seen his face when I brought him THE Maya Izuki.”
A fan, I thought, only a moment later realizing that now intrusive thoughts were now not hidden by my mask anymore, at least not completely.
“You must be busy then?”
“Not so much, I’ll drop by Bet… Fletcher soon after.”
“And Gamma?” Delta’s fresh pair of eyes curled in confusion.
“I just send it to her by mail.”
“No house visits for her. It is… complicated, to say the least.”
“What a bummer.” I tried not to press him further on that, though I was still left curious. Did something happen between them personally? And if so, why did Gamma become a Bioniko then?
“Anyways, …” I distracted my curiosity by having another question answered. “Is our booth and stage done already? You wrote in our chat group last week that the stage mechanics are already working and only needed approval.”
“Ah, yes. That’s the other reason I came to you. I got a message in the metro from the board overseeing the stages of all the Idol groups. They gave their go.”
We both cheered in excitement.
“Some last preparations still need to be made, but the lab is already walkable for us. The plan is to visit the week ahead of the festival.”
“Sounds good!” We both nodded.
“Well then, I don’t want to hold you two lovebirds up any longer.”
We both stared at him flustered.
“Oh man, those faces are priceless!” He laughed heartily. “Well then, I do hope you have a nice evening.”
“Li…likewise.” We responded; our eyes looked like the emoticon one would use to show blushing.
After he left, we were busy for a while testing all sorts of emotions with our new gas masks. We were able to make some pretty funny faces.

Somewhere in a dark room, a man was watching recording of Bionikokoro performances. Yet he was not enjoying it. Not one bit. He was serious, dead serious. Cans of energy drinks and food packages littered the ground, as where the walls, but not with trash:
Pictures upon pictured were tacked on, strings connected to each other. Some of them where of an Idol, dressed all in rubber with a faceless gasmask. Her name Bioniko Prototype Gamma. Dozens of her pictures were connected to an idol who had long since not been seen in public, some of her faces were scratched out, others overdrawn. All those pictures had remarks scribbled on them:
‘Whore’, ‘Slut’, ‘Liar’, ‘Cheat’, ‘Thief’, ‘Betrayer’
All those words could be heard reverberating from time to time from the only person in this messy room, staring in two screens respectively.
A man in his late-20s ravenously comparing, piece by piece, performances of this old idol and of a newer one, Bioniko Prototype Gamma.
“How dare you… After you played with our love!” He could be heard mumbling.
Somewhere in this room lay a document titled: ‘Papers of release’, the first paragraph read as following:
‘Patient has shown remarkable psychological recovery and is to be considered save to release. Great care is however to be taken to avoid any sort of contact with anything related to Idols for the foreseeable to prevent potential relapses.’

Stepping into our themed booth room we would be staying at for the entirety of next week felt surreal. On the walls was the writing: 人工アイドルプロジェクト バイオニ心, Artificial Idol Project Bionikokoro
And while some handymen were still putting up the props, we needed it already looked like a laboratory with all the screens, test chambers, guidelines, warnings not to touch and in the middle a storage vault with 5 human-sized lockers marked ‘Prototype Series α’ to ‘Prototype Series δ’, with one of them having been opened for us to inspect its contents.
I however gazed into the opened locker, a long dark shaft, the door on the other side barely visible. It did give me goosebumps to think that we would be lying in this cramped space for extended periods of time.
“And we are going to stay in these during the night?…” Gamma hesitantly tugged at the thick, yet clearly see-through rubber sack in which a tube was inlaid at the bottom that when screwed into the nozzle of a gas mask would provide the inhabitant air in the airtight environment of the inner rubber sack, with the outer one being thicker, padded and solid black, the air hose leading through its bottom as well and all the way into the locker to the other side. It was also marked with text:
‘Property of the Artificial Idol Project Bionikokoro
Handle with care’
“Not really, only during opening and closing, maybe for some photoshoots.” Inoi walked besides us 5 Bionikos, himself wearing a hazmat suit with a gasmask, although the eyes behind his mask were real. “Between you can go out for rehearsals, interviews, meet-and-greets, maintenance…”
Which meant maintenance of our human physiology, so eating and bathroom breaks, and so the room marked ‘Maintenance, Staff and A.I. only!’ included not just a small communal kitchen, but also a bathroom.
In short, a brief respite from being a Bioniko.
“… and of course, when you visit other Idols. Wouldn’t want you to miss out on it. Do return here on schedule before midnight. We wouldn’t want to lose one of our precious prototypes.”
“Don’t worry, not gonna happen!” I assured him, unsure if I could hold that promise up. With the entire city being an Idol paradise for the week there was so much I wanted to see, and even if I were not busy myself, I could only probably visit half of all stages.
“Where does this door lead to?” Beta looked down a hallway, through an open door marked: ‘AI Deep Storage Controls’ leading to the backside of the body vault.
“We precious Bionikos can’t be exposed out here all night. We need to be put into safe storage so we can rest and recover during the stress tests in the coming week.” Alpha explained.
“In other words:” Delta extrapolated. “It is where we get undressed and stay for the night during the Festival?”
“That is… pretty much it.” Alpha’s eyes exuded disappointment of having the fiction of our being scratched upon. “Behind it is also an entrance to the stage, just in case this one this doesn’t work.”
Her foot tapped on a round contraption, which was still being worked on and from the discussions on the planning phase of our presentation in the festival, it was a stage lift, although the tube acting as a guard against falling down the side was still to be installed.
“I hope it doesn’t fail while we are all on it.” Delta looked down at herself, worried about the man beneath the skin.
“It’s going to be fine…” I whispered to her. “I’ll be with you.”
“If you say so…” Delta nodded, a bit more assured. “They probably have a failsafe on it. I am probably just nervous.”
“So…” Gamma turned to Inoi in his hazmat suit. “Are you the only mad scientist here for the week?”
“Well, me and Saihoushi and some of her people, she wants to do some promotion for herself, naturally. Also, my friend who made the emotive visors wants to help too.”
“All dressed in hazmat suits just like you?” Alpha tugged at Inoi’s blown-up rubber suit, very loosely fitting and orange with a gasmask as well, only that his real eyes could be seen.
“Wouldn’t want to cause any contamination to you in such a critical environment. Be they staff or guests.”
“How thoughtful.” The emotive visor was able to portray Alpha, rolling her eyes during her ironic thanks.
We all inspected our stage for a few minutes more, until Gamma scrambled her phone out of her bag, going into the maintenance room and returning only to leave in haste through the entrance of our stage, an airlock.
“Sorry, got to go. Something important came up.”
“Oh no big thing!” Inoi shouted after her. “That was our tour pretty much. Any further questions?”
Delta and I shook our heads, after I grabbed her by the arm. “Not really.”
“I wanted to go downstairs…” Alpha nodded towards the doorway to the cellar. “Take a look how we are going to sleep and so on.”
“Dito.” Beta walked ahead.
Delta and I, however, were walking out of the building, an old theater which had been remodeled for the festival and now would host half a dozen idol groups including, and on to the even more bustling streets, a few heads turning towards us but then going on their way.
“Why do you want to go so early?” Delta asked me.
“I really wanna know where Gamma’s going.” I responded bluntly, looking for her. “She’s always keeping us all at arm’s length.”
“You know we shouldn’t be looking into someone else’s past.” Delta grabbed my hand and held me to a standstill.
“I know…” I muttered. “It’s just…”
“Look here!” A shrill female voice blocked our past, belonging to a girl looking like the dictionary definition of an idol: Cute clothes, hair and face, although something was… off about her.
“Ugh, and to think we have to share a stage with you…” She scoffed, rolling her eyes… “Don’t you agree, girls?”
Behind her were two other Idols, seemingly belonging to the same group, who nodded and agreed with her.
“Some bargain bin idols who couldn’t make it here without some stupid Idol casting show instead of raw talent like me…”
“Us…” One of them coughed behind her.
“Us, of course. So where are you going? To some brothel or something like that?”
“N…no…” I defended myself with a shaken voice. “We were just looking for one of our members who has run off.”
“Really? My advice: Just let them go if they can’t take the heat, they should just get a part-time job or something, isn’t that right?”
Her posse nodded obediently.
“You said something about stage sharing?”
“Yes, …” One of the other girls spoke up. “Things are getting kinda crowded with so many Idol groups in the city. Idols from all over the world, not just us and the Koreans…”
“Oh understandable. I do hope we can be good neighbors for the week… eh…” I cleared my throat. “I think we didn’t introduce each other yet?”
“Unbelievable…!” She seemed to be offended by my lack of knowledge about her name. “How can you not now about the one and only Ichika Sora.”
“Hmmm… I think I have heard about you before… Not sure when though… Anyways it is nice to meet you.” I bowed slightly, holding out a hand. “We are Bioniko Prototype Delta and Epsilon of the…”
“ugh whatever…” She went passed me without even looking at me into the direction where their stand for the festival likely was.
“What a blow head” I shook my head. I did not voice my other concern. Her eyes, something was off about them. “Come one, Delta, Let’s go find…”
Delta was completely frozen, and when I saw her visors’ eyes, they were a blank stare straight ahead.
“Is something?” I tried to shake her out of it. “Did you know her?”
“No… no not, at all.” There was something about Delta’s response. The kind of repression of one’s emotions mostly common with men. Before I could dig further, Delta had quickly switched the topic: “Let’s find Gamma.”
“Oh…ok…” We went through the crowd, some asking for a photo, and even a few fans of us who had come early, one of them was a foreigner with whom I could only talk in scraps, although Akilah had given me a bit of a freshening up of my English, as did the game Delta and I streamed where the common language for the player base was English, though luckily a very simplified one.
“There she is.” Delta pinched me after having scanned several streets for Gamma, pointing to a car she was currently walking towards.
From it a man, a bit older than Zen came out. He had a very unkempt look about him, but Gamma approached him nonetheless and talked to each other about something.
She nodded and shook her head at times and gestured in a very defensive way.
The young man looked at her with a mixture of anger and concern and at last produced an opened envelope handing abruptly it to Gamma.
I couldn’t see her eyes as she had turned them off, to save on the battery life of the electronics inside her gas masks. But the way her posture shifted and the slow, shaking way she returned the letter was gut-wrenching.
He said something again, pointed at the car to which Gamma nodded once, got into the side seat of the car with him driving the two of them off.
“I got a bad feeling about her…”
“That makes two of us…” I agreed with Delta. I was hoping against my better judgement that it wasn’t something serious.
And my question about who Gamma was, was only compounded by the question of the young man who drove her off.

‘FlounderRoll55 donated 3000 Yen: How is the festival prep going Ichika?’
“Thanks for the money FlonderRoll55!” Ichika did her best to sound very excited for the guy who had just paid her a fat sum. “It is going very well. Even though we gotta deal with some weird creepy, fetish group.”
Chat was exploding with questions. Questions Ichika did not answer, instead ego surfing on her phone to see how much she had been mentioned today, which was always less than she’d like to be mentioned. The streams audience was free to look at her, for interaction they had to dosh out at least 3000 Yen. Something which some pay pigs didn’t get, only paying paltry sums below the number Ichika deemed enough to be deserving of her attention. And at times Ichika decided to up the price a bit, just to see how far she could take it.
‘Night_Cr@wler donated 4000 Yen: Who are these perverts you are talking about?’
“Thanks, Nightcrawler. They are some girls who wear some weird rubber gimp getup. Gas masks and all. What was their name… Bionikokoro… Or something like that…”
Chat calmed down for a bit, with her calmly looking at more important things, waiting for the next donation. Then it came:
‘Dead0Fan donated 20000 Yen:’ Ichika’s heart nearly stopped as she heard the sum. In her entire attempts at streaming she hadn’t earned this high of a donation. She calmed herself down and read the message as it was relayed.
‘You are right! They are perverts and more than that! They are liars who need to be punished for their transgression. Amongst them is someone called Gamma but I have found out the truth behind her. She is Umeko Yamada, an Idol who broke her fans trust by sleeping around. A slut who deserves no place like she has now.’
Ichika was a bit perplexed reading this, not sure what to answer. “Thanks, … dead fan.”
Her chat was wild after this, and Ichika decided to scroll through it. At one point she found an explanation to this deranged donor.
‘Good grief! It’s Gamma-schizo again coming to ‘bless’ yet another stream with his presence!’
“Gamma-schizo?”
Said person answered promptly with another expensive message: ‘LOOK FOR YOURSELF! GAMMA IS UMEKO! SOMEONE NEEDS TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT THAT BITCH!’
“Yeah… Imma just…”
‘Dead0Fan was banned!’
“There we go… Did give me a lot of money though. Maybe I’ll unban him sometime soon…”
A ‘Dont’ appeared in chat a lot after she said it. ‘He spams other idols’ chats with his stupid conspiracy theory’
After that the stream was quieter with messages from her pay pigs regularly rolling in. Yet Ichika could not wrest her head from the name.
The guy had not just been on her stream but others as well, judging from the hashtags #Dead0Fan and #Gamma-schizo
Umeko Yamada. A few years ago she and Flower Booth were rising fast, and Umeko herself was even threatening to outshine Ichika herself with the higher ups in her agency speaking highly of Umeko even after all Ichika did for them personally. Luckily for her this did not happen as for some mysterious reason Umeko Yamada just disappeared without trace, and Flower Booth fell quickly apart after their manager quit.
It absolutely didn’t have anything to do with Ichika being swapped into Yamada’s position. The others just couldn’t keep pace with her.
But for Yamada there was no ‘graduation’, no scandal, no drama. Nothing. As if that girl never existed. Maybe she should watch some of this perverted Idol group, just to see if the weirdo was right, she thought to herself after she ended the stream.
“Not worth my time.” She muttered, checking her phone for one of her contacts in her agency: A higher up she still owed a ‘favor’ for getting one of the few coveted spots for the festival.

“Our hearts beating as one!”
The crowd cheered on our last performance before the International Idol Festival. In fact, this was the stage where our first performance was, where it all began. Yet…
“Thank you for coming everybody…” Alpha bowed. “Although we are very sorry about Gamma having to go through maintenance today and could not appear.”
That is what we told our fans about Gamma, in truth however we had no clue where she was. She hadn’t even contacted us and did ghost us all on all channels.
“What do you think happened to Gamma?” I enquired Delta about her thoughts.
“I have as much of an idea as you…” Delta shrugged.
“Great, we are down a member and have this Ichika group right next to us. I looked her up, you know what they call themselves: Ichika & Co.” The whole group was centered on her, the other two being barely in the promotional art. “I have heard of centers being the focus, but this is ridiculous!”
“Huh…” Delta had mentally checked out when I mentioned Ichika. “Uh, yeah sure. We better avoid her.”
Delta walked off ahead of me, and I was left ever more

After that day, I had by now tried several times to question Zen about this Ichika, with him dodging the question every time. And I almost gave up on pressuring him further about it. Until I spotted him looking at a picture on his computer, which he then quickly deleted. One of a girl that looked like Ichika. Did he know her?
We just had his sister come to visit us, who was staying in the city for the Festival, so for a change we didn’t wear our rubber suits. At one point she and Zen talked about how I was a definite step up from his previous girlfriend, until Zen reminded her that it was very impolite to talk about exes in front of a current partner.
And when he went to shower for dressing up as Delta, he forgot to turn it off. Against my better judgement, I sat myself in front of it opened his recycling bin, rummaging through it, trying to find it until I found a picture, years old by now.
A picture of him and Ichika taking a selfie together, under the folder name:
Pictures\Ichika\StarlightRefuge04.png
“Hana, what are you doing on my computer?” A familiar voice accosted me from behind.
When I turned around Zen was half-naked and tapping his fingers on his arm.
“Why do you still have a picture of your ex? And why is that ex the very same Idol you now refuse to talk about?”
“You didn’t answer my question.”
“I have tried for days to get you to talk about what it is with you and that Idol and now I find out that you were her boyfriend.”
“She is my ex, that is all.”
“That is all… Am I supposed to leave it at that? Why were you reacting to seeing her?”
“How would you react if you saw your ex?”
“Certainly not react with shock in front of your girlfriend. Unless…” Something was still there between him and her.
“Unless what?” Zen shouted at me. “UN. LESS. WHAT?!”
He looked at me, a stare of enraged pain boiling in his eyes, yet him trying so desperately to stem it.
The words became stuck in my throat, taking even my ability to breath. Even without saying it I had accused him of betrayal.
“I need some air…” He told me bluntly, not even looking at me anymore.
He closed the door behind him with a thump, leaving me in a deafening silence. And for minutes I was too numb to even move, yet eventually I got myself up.
For a while I tried to distract myself with mindless busywork: Cleaning dishes, cleaning the room, tidying up, all sorts of things to not get me to keep thinking about Zen.
Yet eventually there was nothing left to do and when I opened the closet with our rubber clothes, I felt this awful stone in my throat returning once more. Just seeing it reminded me of Bionikokoro, of Delta, of Zen.
So, I tried the thing usually coming first in such cases of obsessive procrastination: My phone.
I checked my socials, answered a few questions here and there. Yet I still couldn’t bring my mind out of this malaise.
Through habit I found myself scrolling through the chats with the other Bionikokoro members beside Delta.
And then I gazed at the chat with Gamma. 2 days left unread by her. No answer, no response from her, nothing.
However, the chat app was connected to phone numbers, so I made a gambit.
“Doot…”
And called her.
“Yuuki Yamada here. Who is it?” A male voice answered to my shock.
“Eh, I assume with you answering this you know what your sister is doing?”
“What do you want?!” He became more abrasive.
“I am Epsilon, from Bionikokoro like Gamma. I just wanted to know how she is doing. Is it something serious?”
“You are an idol as well? Can I give you some advice?”
“Yes…” I was confused at his question.
“Give it up and quit!”
“What?”
“Quit being an idol. You might not like to hear it, but your dream of being an idol is nothing but a farce! It is an illusion propped up by rich bastards who want to give creeps dolls to fawn over and wring you out for all your worth.”
“But…” It was like Joseph all over again. “I have spent too much time chasing it to just give it up, and Gamma as well…”
“Then cut your losses and get a real job. And regarding my cousin… Never. Call. Her. Again! She is not going to be dragged into your idol-shit cesspit ever again! Do you hear me!? Never again! Tell that to your manager as well. Maybe he’s gonna consider what he has done.”
Then he lay up.
My phone just slid out of my hand. And tears crawled out of my eye sockets. I needed my big cat pillow again!
“Being Idol is not a real profession anyway.” It had stuck somewhere with me ever since I had been told that in school. A real job produces something, manages something, trades something. Entertainment was only something for those foolish or blessed with good looks, which I didn’t have.
It hurt so much. And now, not only had I fallen out with one member of Bionikokoro, not to mention my boyfriend, and we had lost one of us.
Was this the end? The end of this pleasant dream? Reality giving me a few crumbs of fame only to take it away when it hurt most?.
“It’s not fair… It’s not fair…” I cried into my pillow. “After all we did… why now? Why is life only ever taking a dump on me!?”
I felt so lost and hopeless. What good would it be to go on, I thought to myself moping.
Until…
Beep.
My phone got a message. From Zarruriel.
‘Hey, how are you doing? I got some free time to kill. A rarity right now tbqh. Just wanted to ask you if you wanted to meet.’- Zarruriel
I took some time to process.
‘Sure…’
To me, in this moment, it was a lifeline. But even as Bioniko Epsilon I had a reputation to keep and right now, I needed someone to talk to heart to heart.
‘Could I ask you something?’
‘Aye’
‘Can we meet without costumes?’
‘Sure can. But arent you usually secretive with your identities though?’
‘We are. But right now, I need someone to talk to in private.’
‘As friends :) Got it. How about the Starlight Refuge, the last table on the windows? Am a bit excited to see the real you.’
“The real me…” I would be meeting her face to face. No mask or anything.
‘Sure…’
But at that moment I needed someone to confide in. It was just all too much for me alone.
‘My real name is Hana btw’
‘Noriko :)’

I tried my best to not look too out of place by gazing around the café and held my head straight as I waited for Noriko to arrive, not afraid to be recognized, quite the opposite.
I probably stuck out like a sore thumb, even while wearing plain clothes.
“Who’s that?” I could hear one of the waitresses ask another.
“Dunno, says she is waiting for someone.”
“A personal fan meeting? Must have paid a fortune…” Her mumbling was interrupted by a new guest. “Oh, aren’t you one of the Chaosstar Maids? Your shows are always so amazing!”
“Thank you…” The person I had barely recognized without her usual garish makeup introduced herself. “But I am currently not Zarruriel duty. I am just here to meet a friend.”
She then looked at my table and waved, I waved back, with far less bravado. The girl I knew until then as Zarruriel was accompanied by a waitress.
“This is your friend?” The waitress eyed me, getting ready to take our order.
“Yes, she is.” My friend stated with a tinge of annoyance in her tone. “Can we order now?”
“Sure…” The waitress rolled her eyes but took and returned with our orders without saying another word.
As we started to eat our orders, I tried to kickstart a conversation. “I guess… You probably expected me to be a lot more attractive, didn’t you?”
“What are you blabbering? You got a sweet voice, even without that voice modifier of yours. Not to mention you look good.”
“But I am ugly, aren’t I?”
“I mean… We had some groups from Korea in the Olympic Stadium for the rehearsals. They are the sort of people to demand perfection in everything, especially looks. Compared to them, we basically take anyone, even the raw gems.”
“Really?”
“Yeah… Wait… Did all the casting calls reject you just because of your looks?” Noriko looked at me with bewilderment and laughed. “Man, they missed out on some great talent! You got a diamond voice.”
“I really only just took part in a choir nothing more…”
“I showed one of the Koreans a video of our duet. ‘Practice since childhood’, I think one of them commented.”
“Wow…” It felt warming to hear compliments, more so as myself than as Epsilon. “You said you got the stage in the Olympic stadium. How is it?”
“Honestly, it is a mess. The technical crew came every day because they had changed something in the installation and all the groups are constantly bickering about order and how to transition the stage. Not to mention the usual competitive spirit, about who fills the stadium more. The Korean groups I talked about complained about us having ‘homefield advantage’.”
“It would be reverse if we were to perform in Korea, to be honest.”
“Yeah, fair enough. It is just very stressful…”
“I’d like to have your problems…” I sighed, pushing my cup aside, crumpling into my seat. And Noriko almost immediately noticed something was up.
“Is that why you wanted to come incognito?”
I nodded. “Z… Delta and I got a bit into a fight today.”
“Oh no, I hope it wasn’t too bad.”
“I… nearly accused Delta of doing something horrible… Do you think I can still apologize?”
“If you are close enough, she is probably going to forgive you. But do it now and don’t push it to some other time. You two live together, right?”
“Yes.”
“Then you will have ample time to say that you weren’t thinking straight or whatever it is. I wouldn’t want to dig into your private affairs between you two, would I?”
“Thanks…”
“But that is not all, isn’t it? I heard Gamma wasn’t on stage at the anniversary of your debut. Did something happen to her?”
“I am not sure… When I called her some guy answered in her stead. He called her cousin.”
“A relative… And besides that?”
“He told me to get lost, never to contact her again and… Quit being an idol…b… because we would just be dolls dancing to line the pockets of rich men…”
“Hmmm… Is that man by any chance called Yuuki Yamada…”
“Eh… Yes, he said so… Who is he?” Yamada… The same surname as… Could it be…
“You are soooooo lucky!” She rolled her eyes then showing me a video she had saved on her phone.
“You should be ashamed of yourself! All of you! You might lie to everyone and yourself, but she will never be your girlfriend! EVER!” A man with a familiar voice was accosting a group who stood in a row to get autographs. His expletives continued even as he was dragged away by security.
“That is him!” I shouted, before quieting down after heads turned to us. “The man who answered the phone. But what the hell is he doing?”
“You never had your events crashed by the Idol Scourge. The guy is known to pester any sort of idol event. Has been at it for yeeears from what I have heard. A few weeks after our debut, when we were doing body signings, he quarreled with some fans until security dragged him away. A real troublemaker. Did he never interrupt your events?”
“Nope, never seen him or heard him before the call. Do you think he has any relation to Umeko Yamada?”
“The Umeko Yamada? Would be weird if he did. Besides Yamada is a very common surname. Although… he did turn up right around the time she went missing.”
“You are probably correct. Sigh. But why is this— ‘Idol Scourge’, Gamma’s cousin if what you heard is correct… why is he sheltering her away?”
“Hmmm…” Noriko thought, finishing her cup. “Does your manager know who is behind your masks? Or anyone else?”
“Yes, Alpha too, but…”
“But?”
“I shouldn’t put my nose in that. It feels wrong.”
“Wrong? To ask the identity behind the mask?”
“It would be unfair.” I stated, softly slamming my fist on the table. “I wouldn’t want to have a trusted secret I shared with someone to be breached against my will.”
“That is… very understandable. I wager Delta and Beta got some big secrets too?”
I nodded again; my lips locked tight.
“Do ask him.”
“I know…” I responded meekly.
“No, really… eh…” Noriko held in for a moment. “You know how we sing mainly metal. It sounds destructive, yes. But in this destruction, there is freedom but also the hope that if you break the old it can be rebuilt into something better than it had been before.”
“You are asking me to expose her.”
“You need to do something to break this deadlock of yours… Look, you don’t need to follow my advice blindly. Just… consider it… There is no harm in just asking your manager or Alpha why Gamma has disappeared.”
Noriko and I hardly said anything more, except goodbye, until we left the café.
“I just think it would be a waste if you ended like Flower Booth…”
I mulled it over, all the way through the metro and bus, until I reached the station near my home. I took a deep breath and wrote to the manager directly.
‘Manager, I want to help Gamma. But I need to know what is up with her. I know it is not right of me to ask her real identity… But I need to do something! She needs our support right now.’
‘It is complicated…’
‘Why? I know we all have our secrets but whatever it is with her she needs us right now. Not her cousin who tries to shelter her away.’
‘She lives with her cousin because of what happened to her. She has secluded herself away for years. I don’t think you could change anything about that by just talking to her.’
‘Why can’t you just tell me? I just want to help her.’
‘NDA’ Was all he wrote.
I stood there; my hands placed on the side of my phone not writing anything. And the pieces started to come together. He was the former manager of Flower Booth, let go around after the time Umeko Yamada disappeared. A while after a man with her surname started harassing Idols and their followers, all except us. Not to mention how already talented Gamma was. And her voice… I knew her voice from somewhere.
After quickly searching for two separate clips where either Umeko or Gamma were singing, I gathered myself to get a hint how to help her and to get a sense of closure for an old mystery.
‘Is Gamma Umeko Yamada?’
‘No comment…’
‘What happened to Umeko Yamada?’ A question that had been asked by me and many others so many times, without an answer, the company behind Flower Booth shrouding her disappearance behind a cloak of silence.
He began to type. And was typing for nearly a minute, stopping at times, trying to tell me without making himself liable. In the end he wrote a word in Romaji.
‘Vitriolage’ I copied the letters to paste them later, yet still I wondered.
‘What’s that supposed to mean?’
‘No comment…’ He wrote before he deleted this message and the one beforehand.
I cussed, then sighed, pasted the word and tried to understand it.
“Vi.Te.Ri.O.Ra.Ge.” It definitely didn’t sound English. French, maybe. I resorted to copy the text he had written into the search bar and hopefully find a Wikipedia article in English or French.
The article in front however was a completely different word. I guessed it might be the English synonym for ‘vitriolage’ and clicked it.
The first image left me shocked and when I navigated myself to the article’s Japanese version, I found out what terrible fate came over Umeko Yamada all those years ago and why she disappeared, or rather was disappeared all those years ago.

Ikki sighed in relief when he wrote that one word. The day it happened still burnt into his mind.
“You told her without incriminating yourself?” Maya sat across the table in his apartment.
Ikki nodded, swinging the shot glass in front of him, his phone put far away from him, lying on its screen. “I hope so…”
“Her cousin is a real piece of work. Keeping Umeko locked away, like some dragon obsessing over his precious treasure.”
“I told you already it isn’t him keeping her in her room. It is herself.” Ikki fidgeted with his glass. “She didn’t even leave her room until I told her about Bionikokoro. About a fresh start, a new face.”
“You never told me what happened to her exactly. I know she disappeared after a closed performance for fans, but I didn’t expect her to be… so closed off. What did this to her?”
“Acid…” Ikki’s lip quivered as he emptied the shot. “It was after we were done and were going home. Her cousin, Yuuki had come along to see her perform. We were seeing each other off, when I heard her scream. Next thing I knew, we saw lying on the ground covering her face and crying, and a man running away from her, who dropped a bottle with liquid next to her. It looked like water, but you only need to smell it to know that it wasn’t.”
“He splashed it on her. But why? Flower Booth never had any scandals associated with them.”
“Yuuki beat it out of the guy after he caught him, while we tried out best to wash the acid off Umeko’s face. He had seen Umeko and Yuuki together, and he apparently thought that he was her boyfriend.”
“What the… fuck…” Maya was beyond flabbergasted. She had heard of idols getting flag over having a relationship, but a relative being mistaken for one.
“He didn’t stop taunting her and Yuuki even when he had punched his hands bloody. Mocking her as him about his ‘leaving his Umeko now that she is as ruined on the outside as she was on the inside’.”
“How disgusting…”
“I think he eventually went unconscious. At least Yuuki stopped punching him, but he didn’t stop his mixture of crying and roaring. That is when the ambulance came to pick up Umeko.”
“And after that? Surely there had to be consequences for that monster’s action, hadn’t there?”
Ikki began laughing at Maya’s obviously rhetorical question. It was a low, disquieting laughter. One of disbelief.
“Would have been nice…” He took another shot. “Due to Yuuki beating the guy and threatening to go to court…”
“But he would have lost…”
“Yes, he would have. But corporate was worried about reputational damage if the attacker got to speak in court.”
Maya’s eyes were wide open in disbelief. “You can’t be serious!?”
Ikki just nodded. “Welcome to the HR level world of big companies. They were afraid that his accusation of Umeko’s ‘unchasteness’ could cause their other Idols to lose value, because some might see him as the victim in the whole thing. Not that it would have helped Umeko much. The doctors did as much as they could… But only so much.”
“Surely she must have fought it…”
“With her hiding in her room for the last two years?” Ikki shook his head. “No, she accepted the settlement. A nice sum of hush money and her assuring to never work as an Idol again so that her attacker was deemed legally insane and put in a psychiatric hospital without a big trial drawing attention. And the worst of it all…”
He pushed the glass away. “It was me who convinced her to accept it.”
Maya looked at Ikki with disdain, making him scoff.
“You know exactly she couldn’t work as an Idol anymore. Not with her face being scarred.”
“And you continued managing Flower Booth? After all this?” Maya leaned back coldly.
“Only for a short while after. There was this girl, someone in HR must have had the hots for her. No ounce of talent besides looks, constantly causing drama, but she was the upper managements favorite, despite our dwindling numbers. Upper management and I constantly locked horns with each other: They wanted their plant to be as successful as Umeko was, while I told them to stop meddling in the artistic side of things and to stop making Ichika a thing.”
“Ichika? Isn’t one of the girls next to our group called that?”
“Told you they want to push her for some asinine reason, to this very day.” Ikki sighed. “I might have stuck it out there… If it wasn’t for them being so petulant about Umeko surviving her attack.”
“Please tell me you are joking…” Maya went pale, she had to deal with a shitty company at times, but this was unprecedented.
“’If only she would have died as angel, instead of living on as a ghoul. We could have just written off Flower Booth and redistributed the rest instead of letting you leech of the company and paying her a hefty sum of cash.’ Upper management’s words, not mine.” Ikki sounded defeated, like he was when he had heard what he had just repeated. “Needless to say, the very next day I handed in my resignation, but not before telling the rest of Flower Booth to jump ship. I think some of them did, hopefully.”
“And the NDA you had to sign?”
“It was that or being charged for negligence, accusing me of being responsible for Umeko getting mutilated maimed and losing corporate millions in unsold goods and canceled events.”
“Disgusting. Absolutely…” Maya couldn’t find words condemning enough for what she just had heard.
“They are nothing if not protective of their own bottom line and reputation.”
For a long while both just sat there, an uncomfortable silence filling the room.
“What did you do after that?”
“Coasting around. Looking for work. Got some here and there, but nothing that held me. Until the day I met you and we both had the idea of Idols dressing up as rubber dolls.” Ikki began to smile painfully. “Umeko was the first that came to mind after you… I still had her phone number and when I told her of it, she was ecstatic to get on stage again. As for me, I guess, I wanted to make up for persuading her to play along our old company’s foul game.”
“And now she has buried herself again.”
“Maybe our old company caught wind of me. Maybe someone writing threats… Who knows…”
“And you are just going to leave it at that?” Maya looked at him with disappointment.
“We both work in an industry where you hope for the best and expect the worst. Maybe…” He filled his glass with another shot. “That’s just life’s way of telling us to finally quit it.”
Maya bit her lip in frustration, only for her to pick up her phone.
“What are you doing?”
“Giving her Yamada’s address. You might be bound by a stupid NDA, but I am not!” She uttered meanwhile hammering the letters in and sending it. “None of us got this far by just accepting what life gave us after all.”
Ikki stared at her baffled, only to then smile. “I do hope your gamble pays off. Do you think they can coax her out?”
Maya nodded. “Yes, because I am going there as well.”

“Is that where she lives? Hmm…” I mulled it over repeatedly after I had gotten a message from Alpha, looking at times images I had searched.
I just couldn’t imagine something like this happen to Umeko Yamada even as I looked at images of what must have happened to her, as if my brain couldn’t, or better didn’t want to imagine how she would look after being… splashed with acid.
A part of me was trembling at having my memories of her be encroached by the present.
“What the… hell are you looking at?” I hadn’t even noticed Zen appearing behind me.
“EEP!”
“Sorry…” He scratched his hair. “I… I… Why are you looking at images like this? If I was too harsh with you, then I am sorry, Hana.”
I shook my head, barely able to look him in the eye. “No, it is not about you. It is about Gamma… Or better… the one behind the mask.”
“Don’t say Gamma is like me…”
“No, not like that…” I was doubting he would believe me if I told him.
“Well, what is it then? Is she some former Idol like Alpha…”
“Yes…” I spat out. “Gamma is… Umeko Yamada.”
He said nothing for half a dozen seconds his face betraying his disbelief. “No way. That’s crazy. That’s just… Who told you that?”
“Our manager… As best as he could considering he was under an NDA.”
“Right, was he…? Let me check…” Zen quickly looked something up on his phone. “Yup, manager of Flower Booth a few years ago, left a short time after Umeko disappeared from the public without reason.”
“Well… The reason…” I stuttered with the answer behind me, pointing to one of the images. “…is likely this.”
“You mean…” His voice croaked for a moment as well. “She was attacked with acid?”
“Judging from what Mr. Inoi wrote me. And now Umeko… Gamma has broken off all contacts again.”
Judging from his deep breath and him rubbing his nose bridge it must have been a lot for him.
“Sorry, for dumping all of this on you. Especially after… you know…”
“No, it is fine.” There was again this uncertainty where I read more meaning from the words, he spoke than he intended. “It is just… I was on stage with not one but two famous Idols. I just need to let it sink in.”
“Likewise…”
“And now she has for some reason gone back to hiding again. But now what?”
“Now what?” I repeated in disbelief. “We need to visit her. Try to talk her out of it.”
“Really?” He scoffed throwing up his arms. “Whatever happened to her must have been dire enough to make her want to hide under a rock again like she must have before. Do you really think you could say anything to change her mind?”
“I…” My hand twitched, in rage, in fear, in vain, bleak hope. “We have got to do something. Say something to her?”
“Like what? ‘Please come back, we really need you not to vanish during the biggest event of the decade.’”
I bit my lip, trying to come up with a clever answer, but all I could think off was rather plain things.
“Just… That we miss her. That we will be there for her. You know… comforting stuff you would say to someone distressed. You would like to hear it too if you were in her shoes, wouldn’t you?”
“I mean…” He scratched his head with an expression trying to contain something within him. “It would feel good, I suppose.”
“I know I am not exactly the girl with a plan, but right now Umeko needs us. Gamma needs us.” I picked up his head and looked deep into his eyes. “Will you help me getting her back?”
He nodded and without more to say, we went out to help Gamma. Even if it meant tarnishing the memory we had of Umeko Yamada.

KNOCK! KNOCK!
“Thank you, for coming as well, Alp… Izuki.”
“No problem…” Maya smiled at us with the aura of a concerned mother. “After hearing what happened to Umeko… I needed to come as well.”
I then noticed something black and shiny sticking out beneath her coat. “Why are you wearing it?”
“If I told you I rushed here as fast as I could, would you believe me?”
“Hmmm… I don’t know.” Considering how much Zen and I came to like rubber it seemed not too farfetched.
“Thought so. This material really is something else. But…” Maya held in.
“But what?” We asked impatiently for her and for Yuuki Yamada to open the door, with Zen knocking more intently.
KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!
“Umeko really came to like the rubber suit. Not just her face became damaged in the attack. For her being Gamma was… is therapeutic.”
“Certainly…” Of course it must have been, I thought to myself, gentle touching my face. I could only imagine what Umeko had to endure, all alone. There was a sick feeling I couldn’t place: Fear, pity, sympathy, though my face was just ugly as it was naturally and not by the will of another. And the waiting didn’t make it any better.
“For crying out loud!” Zen stammered angrily while knocking even louder. “He is really taking his sweet ass time.”
KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!
We both stood in front of the door, holding each other’s hands while Maya took a deep breath, waiting with bated breath as we heard stomping steps coming ever closer.
“I told you already to stop soliciting…” A man in his late twenties opened the door, looking a bit confused at as. “Oh, sorry. There is this guy going around trying to sell his stupid cult books. Who are you?”
“I… think we talked before. I am…” Before I even spoke two sentences, he had already recognized my voice and slammed the door shut, if it hadn’t been for me shoving my foot between the door and the frame.
“AAAAH!” It hurt, not surprising considering the force he had used to close the door.
“What the hell do you think you are doing to my girlfriend!?” Zen shouted pushing the door open, until the one trying to close it, relented. “All she wants to do is to talk to Umeko.”
“What do you think you know about her!? Huh!?” The occupant now tore the door open to rage at us. “After all those years I cared for her, what do you think you know about my cousin.”
“I know that she is incredible…” I stood upright, straight into his eyes, all the while forcing myself to ignore the pulsing pain in my right foot. “And I know she has suffered a lot. And she has always tried to close herself off from all of us. She might not have wanted to realize it, but we… care for her. As colleagues and as friends. We just want to help her, if we can.”
“Well…” My speech had left an impression on her cousin, judging from his utter rage being replaced by scrutinizing caution mixed with a pinch of trust. “That is more than her former crew ever did. Never even visited her in the hospital…”
He then went into the apartment leaving us at the wide-open door.
“What are you waiting for? Do you want to talk to Umeko or not? Not that it’s gonna be of any use.”
“Of course we want to.” Maya responded and bowed, with us following her example. “Thank you for having as guests… Mr. Yamada.”
It was a plain apartment, with one room serving as a mixture of living room and kitchen, although a bed was next to the balcony with an extra room to the left, its door closed.
“Umeko?” He knocked on it with soft gentle knocks. “You got guests… They are from… What was your groups name again?”
“Bionikokoro…” I answered him. I could hear something from the other side, but I couldn’t make out what it was.
“Go away…” I voice from within whined. A voice I would never want to sound like that.
“Told you. Hasn’t left her room in days, except to shower. And I had to tell her to do it.”
“What happened?” Maya looked at Yuuki with concern, who after a moment of hesitation went into a drawer and pulled out a bunch of opened, unmarked letters.
“What are these?” I tentatively picked one from his hand and unfolded the contents and my heart ground to a standstill when I read it.
Heavy Expletives, surrounded by thinly threats and overt attempts at self-justification of the author. The last sentence was enough to let my blood freeze solid.
‘If you think you can fool anyone in any way whatsoever, you are mistaken! We see what you have done and what you continue to do: Lie. And should your attempts at lying continue we are more than willing to enforce the will of your former fans on you Umeko Yamada aka Gamma aka The filthy, incestuous slut who cheats on her loyal fans.
We are watching you, because next time you wish it was acid on your skin!
Your FORMER fans.’ Attached to it was a photo of Gamma entering this very apartment.
“Hana, are you alright?” I could hear Zen speak to me very concerned.
“I’m fine.” I told him with a strained face while giving Maya the letter who read it as well with a similar reaction to mine. “Umeko’s certainly not…”
It broke my heart to see someone I so cherished in my youth be brought so low as to hide herself in her room, twice, because of people like these.
“What sort of scum goes so far after all these years? Wasn’t the acid enough?”
“Wait… The letter mentions acid. Do you think it could be… the same guy?” Maya looked at Yuuki.
“Thought about it too but it is impossible! Last I heard he was still in psychiatry; they aren’t going to release a nutcase like him so easily.” He took the letter and put it away. “And even then… It is only enough to warrant investigation against an unknown person.”
“If you care about your cousin so much you should have already called the police when the first letter came in…”
“Well guess what I did numbnut?” Yuuki swung his arms around wildly. “They told me to be careful, but that with such little evidence they couldn’t track the culprit. I didn’t even tell Umeko at first until he sent this letter with a picture attached to it.”
“You didn’t want to make her worry.” I commented.
“I know how much she wants to do it, despite all that has happened to her.” He gave a big sigh. “I just don’t want to see her ever suffer like that again.”
“By letting her isolate herself.” I stated clenched my fists.
“What else can she do? Can I do?” Yuuki collapsed on a couch. “Face it, that’s just life and dreams are just that. Something you wake up from, no matter how nice they are.”
For a minute none of us refuted Umeko’s crestfallen relative. Yet something boiled within me, a mixture of hope and will.
“But you will never achieve them if you just hide yourself away!” I spat out, almost defiantly. “We all didn’t get here by just accepting what life has given us. If I just told myself that my face…”
“You did not get a chunk of your face melted off!” Yuuki whined at me irately.
I clenched my fists, clenched my teeth. For my idol, my colleague whose dream was shattered once more, and she was left alone.
But this time…
“Wait, where are you going?” I could hear Yuuki standing up as I marched sturdily to Umeko’s door, my hand sweaty as I turned the doorknob.
This time I would not let it happen.
“Gamma? It is me, Epsilon.”
“Get out…” The room was dark, a figure sat on the bed, huddled in a blanket. The only light came from a phone.
With one last gaze I looked back at Yuuki, at Maya, at Zen and slowly nodded at them, before closing the door.
“Why are you here? Aren’t you busy prepping for the festival?”
“A bit hard without you.”
“Tell Mr. Inoi I am sick.”
“You are not sick.”
“Then just tell him I quit or something like that.”
“We need you, Umeko.” I inched closer to her. “I know you had a good reason to vanish all those years ago. I was a fan of you back in the day…”
“Oh. spare me!” She howled, making me shut up briefly.
“We were just puzzled when you disappeared without a single word and no hint to what happened to you. We never forgot about you. We just were faced with a wall of silence.”
“Fuck off. You just jumped ship to the next pretty face.”
“Umeko!” I told her firmly. “If you had said something. Anything. We would have been there.”
“Would you? Would you have been at the hospital when they sewed my face back together? Would you have told me to not give up? Would you root for me for years to come even after I got turned into this!?”
Before me sat Umeko Yamada, my idol. Pointing at her face…
Her face. A field of scar tissue reaching from right eyebrow, over her nose and over her lips. You could clearly see where the acid had taken effect. Her right eye had lost its color. But despite all that…
“Sniff!” I began tearing up.
“Are you crying because your idol isn’t beautiful anymore?” Umeko scoffed.
“No… I am…” I tried to calm down, ending up embracing her. “I am happy to meet you in person, after all these years. You are as beautiful as the day you left.”
“huh…”
“I am sorry…” I mumbled. “I am so sorry that we weren’t there to support you when you needed us the most. So sorry.”
“No…” Umeko muttered. “I should not have taken their offer.”
“What?”
“I should have spoken up when they tried to buy my silence. I was coward for just wanting to disappear.”
“You are no coward.” I responded with teary eyes. “After all that happened to you, I would have just given up in your position. But when you were given the chance to be an Idol again, you took it, despite it all.”
“Well, …” Umeko smiled. “The mask does help quite a bit.”
“Same for me…” I smiled back. “Never would I have believed to get a chance to perform with you. Thank you, Umeko for all you have done for us. For Bionikokoro.”
“We are just doing our job.” Umeko blushed. “Nothing more.”
We just sat there holding each other for a while.
“Are you ready to go out again?” I asked her softly.
She nodded. “But I need to change first…” She slowly loosened herself and walked to her closet, picking out her rubber suit.
“It can wait, if you need to.”
Umeko shook her head. “I don’t feel safe without it.”
“Like a protective layer.”
“Yes…” She spoke frankly. “Being Gamma, it gives me a sense of security I wouldn’t have otherwise. Keeping everything out of that shell was the reason why I always tried to act so professional.”
“I get it.” I reassured her. “Do you need help with it?”
“Thanks, but I think I can manage.” Umeko took a deep breath and started to undress herself, while I left her room, lighter than I had entered it.
Outside Maya had seemingly waited for me. “You talked to her?”
I nodded and breathed a sigh of relief. “Yes, … Give her some time. She wants to get changed first.”
“Into her Bioniko suit?” Zen asked me.
“No, into her pajamas. No, of course she means that fetish getup you all are wearing.” Yuuki rolled his eyes.
“We aren’t wearing it for that.”
“Says the guy crossdressing and performing in it with his girlfriend.” Yuuki grinned.
“Oh, shut up.” Zen rolled his eyes.
“Wait how…?” I was perplexed at him knowing Zen’s secret.
“I might have gotten a bit worked up when he accused me of lusting over you performing as a Bioniko and let it slip that… I am one as well.”
“Well, that makes you at least ten times better than dudes getting their pants wet over you. Oh, I would love to see the faces of your fans specifically if they knew the truth.” He poked at Zen until he snapped back.
“Do that and you are gonna get yourself a bloody nose.”
“Could you two please not threaten to get into a fisticuff…” Maya had her hand splatted over her face, groaning. “You two sound like schoolboys.”
The two rolled their eyes, neither saying anything until Yuuki coughed and spoke up. “At least it is relieving to hear some guy with manners.”
“Hmpf…” Zen nudged Yuuki towards me, my still aching foot to be precise.
“Fine.” Yuuki groaned exasperated and looked over to me. “Sorry, for ramming the door on your foot. Do you need something to cool it?”
“No… But thank you.” I bowed slightly, trying to not stand to heavily on said foot. “The shoe caught most of the impact anyway.”
“So, my turn. I guess…” Zen scratched his head. “I am sorry for getting heated at you when…”
“Nah, don’t mention it.” Yuuki shut him down. “I would have done the same. Should have seen the bloodied face of the ass who splashed Umeko…”
“Yeah…” Maya looked at him with a blank stare. “You had to be dragged off him. What is with you guys getting all physical so easily anyways.”
To that the two men shrugged. “We just care deeply for the ones we love… Dunno.”
“To the point of violence…” Maya said, slightly amused.
“If that is what it takes to protect the ones we love.” Yuuki countered Maya. “Or would you rather have a man who starts negotiating away your belongings with someone trying to rob you.”
“’Please, just take her earrings and necklace and we can all walk away without doing any harm.’” Zen mimed the kind of man Yuuki had just described. I didn’t know if I found the concept disturbing or funny.
And judging from Maya’s face, an expression of facing the choice being caught either lying through her teeth or expressing an uncomfortable truth. She chose to remain silent, at least on that matter.
“Umeko, are you ready? Do you need some help?” She decided to switch the topic at hand.
“Would be very kind of you.” I could hear Umeko behind the door, before Maya entered it.
A short while later Maya exited the room, alongside Gamma.
“H…hello…” She waved at us, with a bit of squeamishness, her step a bit uneven, likely a result of having moved little for the past days.
“I still don’t get why you ever agreed to wear this thing, Umeko.” Her cousin shook his head. “Didn’t even recognize you the first time wearing it.”
“I wanted to return to the stage, even if it required a mask. But… it does make me feel safer.”
“Look feeling is one thing, it’s just… Ever since you started with this whole robot idol stick I had a queasy feeling about it. Like something is about to happen again.”
“You don’t need to tell me that…” Umeko… Gamma stammered. “But… eh… Epsilon…”
“My name is Hana.”
“Hana talked a bit of courage into me again. Although I get why you’d want to keep an eye on me.”
“I don’t want to watch every single step of yours.” He protested. “I just want to make sure you are as safe as can be. I am sorry if I pushed you too far into holeing yourself up again.”
“No problem, Yuuki.” Umeko gave her cousin a hug, his face looking awkwardly away, as Umeko’s suit squeaked. “You meant well considering the circumstances.”
“This still leaves the anonymous threats however.” Zen said, rubbing the corners of his eyes. For all my talk of courage, those letters remained, their author still out there. “We will be staying at the old theater for the week, so there is safety in numbers considering other groups might also stay there during the night. Do they provide security, Maya?”
“Well, of course they do. But Ikki did talk to me about hiring extra…” Her head turned towards Yuuki. “Say, don’t you work as a in a security company as a bouncer?”
“Inoi told you, didn’t he? Ugh, guy got some nerves…” He spoke that last part out very quietly. “I tell my boss, that I got us a contract and to call your manager. But under one condition: I will not wear one of these weird suits. Just plain security outfit, suit and pants.”
“Haha, that wasn’t the plan anyway.” Maya chuckled. “We do appreciate it though.”
“I’m only doing it for your sake Umeko.”
“You are going to watch our performances like you did when I was in Flower Booth?”
“Sure…” Yuuki answered his cousin reluctantly.
“Good, we will see each other on the big day then?”
“Aye.” Zen nodded.
“Wait… What about you?” Umeko looked at Zen.
“What about me?” He pointed at himself, echoing her question-
“I figured you are her boyfriend…” Her saying that made me feel so happy. “So, are you helping us with security as well. Or some other role?”
“About that…” Maya gestured her to come closer, telling her the answer to her question. The look on her face must have been quite something, as she just gave out an “Oh…”, without touching further on the topic.
Although she did tell me as we were on our way out that “You and Delta do make a good pair. Hope to see you two on the big day.”

I couldn’t help but feel excited for tomorrow after returning from my family visit. Of course, I told them I’d be returning this week for the International Idol Festival, although nothing about me participating in it myself.
“I am home.” I announced to Zen who had been holding the fort while I was gone.
“How was your family visit?” The female voice of Delta responded.
“You are in your suit already?” I joked as I unloaded my small bag, I had taken with me.
“Yeah, need to get used to it after all we are going to be wearing it for almost the entirety of the next week.” Zen explained while looking at the computer, having pushed one side of his headphone from the ear.
“Playing video games…” I raised an eyebrow.
“Nothing else much to do, besides waiting for tomorrow. Chat was very excited when I streamed today, but they were constantly asking where you were.”
“How nice of them to think of me. How about one final stream before the festival. A little surprise.”
“Sounds… good…” Zen agreed. “I am just gonna finish this match, before preparing another stream.”
“Take your time, I need to change anyway.” As I told him, I had already gone to our closet, taken my suit and gas mask and walked into the bathroom to get changed.
Changing into Epsilon was by now a common ritual for me, yet always one that made me shudder with excitement. Bit by bit, my human form was obscured by black, shiny rubber. And yet, I had now been Epsilon for so long that parts of it had rubbed off on me, the real me.
The confidence of walking out in something so audacious.
The liberty to sing and dance to the best of my abilities.
As I put on the gasmask and in the mirror, Hana Ono, the quiet, plain girl had disappeared for Bioniko Prototype Epsilon, a being born to be an Idol.
I couldn’t help but feel a deep sense of gratitude to this other version of myself, even if she was supposed to be just a faceless Idol-bot.
“I am ready, Delta.” I announced walking out of the bathroom. “What about you? Did you win your match?”
“Eh, not really. But that’s just life. You win some, you lose some.”
“Then I just have to carry you next game.” I smiled at Delta, while she was doing the usual setup, including the chat on a screen between our two computers.
“Did chat say anything interesting? Or was there a donation message I should have read?”
“Well, not really…” I could tell Delta was hiding something.
“Spit it out.” I gave a hug from behind, which I however loosened as Delta loosened her tongue.
“It was about Ichika… My ex.”
“Oh.” The memory of almost accusing Zen of cheating was still fresh, as it must have been for him. “Sorry for thinking you…”
“Don’t mention it.” Delta answered calm yet coldly. “The less I have to think about her the better.”
“Was she rude to you? I mean in private. As a girlfriend…”
“Rude would be an understatement. She was abhorrent.” I could see Delta tense up. “I don’t really know why I was into her in the first place. Maybe I just didn’t had any experience until then. Maybe because I just tried to cling to her even as she made it clear who she was…”
For a moment I wanted to say something, but I felt that Delta, no, Zen, the boy beneath, needed to let something out he had carried for far too long. I sat myself beside him and let my hand fall on Delta’s leg.
“Everything had to revolve around her. No matter the time of day, she was the one that needed to be satisfied and what I wanted came second, hell sometimes not even that. And she constantly asked for money…”
“Was she an Idol even back then?”
“Yes, but she always told me she wasn’t making any money even though she always boasted with how successful she was. How many followers she had and so on. And she also threatened me to never ever appear in any picture she took. ‘If they even catch a glimpse our relationship will be over!’”
“And you didn’t break up with her? After all this… bullshit.”
“Men can be very entrenched in sunken costs. Even to the bitter end.” I could hear Zen starting to tear beneath the veneer of Delta, and I began to comfort the one beneath, holding Delta first loosely then ever tighter.
“She cheated on me…” Delta’s voice cracked. “Not just once or with one guy. Multiple times. And when I found out about it she just told to accept it or leave, and then asked me… Wait for it… For more money… I think it was for paying the debt for some giant haul from a cheap clothing app.”
I could hear sobbing from beneath the gas mask, ugly sobbing. And while the mask pitched it up, it was unmistakably a man crying beneath it.
“That’s all I was to her… A source of money. An ATM with a cock.”
“Shhh!” I tried to calm Zen down, with him holding on to me. I started to slowly rock him while speaking to him as softly and quietly as possible. “Shh! It’s alright. Just let it out.”
I had never seen a man crumble like that, not even my own father. A trove of wounds kept hidden away for so very long.
“Hey, don’t worry I’m here for you, love. Come…” I shifted myself behind my boyfriend, laying his head on my chest, all the why consoling him gently. “There there, take as long as you need to.”
Zen was still crying when a terrifying thought crossed my mind: If he had started weeping like that outside of the suit, hell, even in Configuration XY, I might have felt weirded out by having a grown men start crying. It made me feel disgusted at myself for imagining myself just disregarding his feelings, because right now…
“Shh, don’t worry. I am here for you and always will be. You are the best partner I could ask for. I love you so very much.” I needed to be his rock to cling onto.
And that he did, his sobbing starting to die down, though he did not let go off me, even as I patted his head.
“There we go…” I whispered to him. “Are we better now?”
Delta nodded and croaked. “Y…yes… I think… it is better. Thank you. And…”
Delta lunged up and gave me a hug. “I love you too.”
“You are welcome…” I leaned into the hug, while rubbing my lovers back, staying like this for a while. And during that I contemplated: On this strange power I had just used. It reminded me of the antiquated tales my grandmother told me about femininity. Of her having an intricate knowledge of grandpa’s emotional state, beyond even his knowledge and how to deal with it. To indulge him when he is in good mood, to comfort him when he was sad and to get his spirits up when he needed it the most.
“No, we were not as free as you were today.” She had once responded to me after I brought up the lack of rights women had once. “But we were very keenly aware of the power we had over men: Not in steel and legal codes, but of emotions and relationships, a silken web, to harm or hurt. Women in all ages and times knew how to weave more than just common yarn. Maybe one day you will understand and know how to wield it for a good purpose.”
“A webspinner, huh?” I said softly to myself. Grandma might be long gone by now, and she certainly would be weirded out by how I was dressed right now, but she might have had a point with what she said back then, to a certain extent.
“Webspinner? Are you thinking about the game already?” Delta asked me, her…his voice still croaked from the emotional outburst.
“No, but speaking of which: If you want to, we can stream another time, when you are ready.”
Delta shook her head, the after sobs still audible. “I’d rather forget about that bitch right now. Let’s just play together.”
“If you say so…” I loosened my grip from Delta. “Do drink something, we don’t want our audience to worry about you, do we?”
“Sure…” Delta removed the gas mask and walked over to the fridge while I followed Zen’s instructions in getting the stream ready.
Even before the camera and microphones chat started filling up with messages, which I answered to the best of my ability and trying to get a grip on the program we used to draw lots for viewers getting to play with or against us.
“Ah better!” Zen sighed in relief after he cleared the slime from his throat and put the gas mask back on. “A few friendly matches are what I really need right now.”
Delta was more relaxed now, putting her headphones on.
“Are you ready Epsilon?” Delta looked at me, having turned the eye LEDs on, hovering with the mouse on the broadcast button.
“Yes, although…” I leaned over to Delta after having put on my headphones and turned on my visor eyes too and whispered sultry to him: “I’d like to play some more after the stream in private, if you catch my drift.”
My right hand between Delta’s smooth legs was more than enough to emphasize my point. Delta’s reaction was more than worth it.
“Hng, these eye LEDs are so cute!” I gushed, before turning back to my laptop glancing over to Delta. “I am ready! We can go live.”
“S…sure…” Delta glanced back, then turned to her computer and counted down. “We are going live in 3. 2. 1.”
“Hello everyone, I’m baaaack…” I greeted our viewers. “I just came back from a small visit. I hope we can have some fun games before tomorrow…”
And chat has already started to spam: IIF HYPE!
“We are excited as well for it.” Delta noticed it as well. “Hopefully we will meet a lot of you there.”
The mood during the entire stream was very comfy, as were the games, even if we lost a few. Although one of our teammates we had drawn from the viewers commented that we acted more tenderly towards each other.
“What can I say…” I defended myself. “I missed Delta very much.”

Part II - The International Idol Festival

I held my breath with childlike excitement when the entire Olympic Stadium became quiet and the Idols walked on the stage, with only faint noises being heard. Same went for the other members of Bionikokoro, sitting in seats preserved for partnered Idol groups, with perfect view on the gigantic stage on which not just a few dozen, but one hundred Idols, boys and girls, Japanese and foreign were getting ready.
“That moment just before the needle drops…” Beta commented quietly. “Always gives me goosebumps. Oh, Ji-Mi Hwa is the one initiating it. Beautiful as ever…”
“Indeed.” I whispered back. “Although I don’t really know who she is sadly. Is she big in Korea?”
“You bet, no wonder they choose her to…”
“Ssssh…” The other three nudged to the stage. It was about to start.
“We welcome everyone. For the next week we invite you to a spectacle unlike any other seen before. We all sincerely hope you will either find someone to root for or are already rooting for someone and wish you to have lots of fun and excitement in the coming days. But without further to say:”
The Star from Korea stepped back into her group amongst the other groups. For a moment all fell silent again. Until a greeting from a hundred throats roared across the stadium, across the internet, across the globe.
“Welcome, oh world, to the First International Idol Festival!” It sent shivers down my spine. The good kind. They were pulling out all stops for what the greatest number I have ever seen performed.
For the next half hour one giant continuous performance was holding mine and everyone’s attention as the Idols sang and dance, in what I can only be described as peak Idol. Some parts everyone sang, with one synchronous performance, while in other parts it became essentially ‘call and response’, with one Idol group or two getting the highlight while the rest of the cast backed them up. They also sang in a bunch of different languages, even beyond the more common trifecta of Japanese, Korean and English.
At times, it even seemed like it was about to be over, only for the next part to begin akin to a Classical European Symphony Orchestra playing for extended periods of times. It also reminded me of my days in the choir.
Then, at one of the break points, one very familiar group of Demonic maids became the center and I jumped, taking some of the glowsticks we had brought and started swinging them like a madwoman.
“But when your heart is bursting. Bubbling from emotions, all you need is to… LET! THEM! OUT!”
“GO ZARRURIEL!” I shouted, not even noticing the other Bioniko’s giggling at my fan behavior. “What, I am not just going to sit silent.”
Then Delta got, took two sticks as well, nodded at me and without any preparation we started to whirl around our glowsticks with the rhythms of Chaosstar Maid’s heavy metal tune for as long as they were the center.
“Great my arms are sore…” I complained as the tone softened for the choir part of the performance.
“Don’t overexert yourself. You are not here as a fangirl.” Alpha gently chastised me.
“You can make the Idol otaku an Idol…” Gamma rolled her eyes, or at least that’s what her visors LEDs did. “But you cannot take the Idol otaku out of someone.”
“Come one…” Delta pushed Gamma. “She just wants to have some fun.”
“Not that performing with you all isn’t fun. I do look forward to our first performance tomorrow. However…” I grabbed the glowsticks tightly. “I do want to go to Zarruriel’s booth here. Just to check up on her after this is over, alright?”
“Fine, there are other groups I would like to see myself.” Gamma answered me. “Just to get a view from the other side of it all.”
Eventually the performance came to an end and the various organizing groups, both governmental and corporate officially opened the festival, retelling the various parts of how the whole thing started, the pitfalls and so on. Rather boring stuff, except the confirmation that the US mediator did indeed throw a coin to decide where it would take place, from what I read later.
But by that time, we had already left the spectator rows, to take a look at the various booths.
An entire hall was filled with the booths of the 100 people who had just sung their welcome to the world, the exhaustion being written all over their face. Nevertheless, they were present, meeting fans, selling merch, giving interview and making connection between each other. Most of them were naturally from either Japan or Korea, but there were a few from other countries: Philippines, Singapore, even India and some groups from the USA and Latin America.
And with so much crowding even we, who were wearing our black rubber suits, didn’t catch too much attention. Although the person I was looking for waved and shouted at me as soon as she saw me, despite being interviewed together with someone else.
“Yo, Epsi! Over here!”
“Wait, is that…?” Beta’s eyes were spread wide open, judging from the LEDs orming two perfect round circles. “No way, its Ji-Mi!”
Next to them was a foreign reporter, holding a small camera, who turned around to the direction Zarruriel was waving at.
“Who is she?” He asked Zarruriel with an American accent pointing at me.
“A friend of mine. In fact, …” Zarruriel stood up from behind the desk walking to me and taking. “If it weren’t for her shouting me out, I likely wouldn’t be here at all.”
“Oh, don’t mention it.” I responded to her laudation. “You helped me out more than once that is fair enough.”
“Really? With your talent you ought to have a better stage than just that old, renovated theater.”
“It is fine really…”
“Excuse me, …” The other interviewed Idol asked me in a thick Korean accent. “Are you the masked singer Zarruriel told me?”
“Ohmygosh…” I could hear Beta stammering in disbelief.
“Eh… Yes…”
“Someone with your caliber of talent is rare. I find it honestly strange that you even wear a mask, considering your potential.”
“I’d rather keep the mask.” I slightly pushed the mask on my face. “It can be rather inconvenient to be recognized if you don’t want to.”
“Fair enough…” The foreign idol laughed. “At times I wish I could just wear a different face.”
“Eh… Epsilon…” I could hear Beta stammer, tugging me and when I turned around I could see her optical LEDs having turned to puppy eyes. “Could you… ask her…”
“Aye.” I grinned at her, before introducing her. “Beta here is a big fan of yours. I bet she would really like an autograph of yours.”
“No problem, well…” Ji-Mi looked around. “One problem: I don’t have anything to write on.”
“Just take one of ours…” Zarruriel handed her a stack of paper and a pen. “We got tons of it.
“Thank you.” Ji-Mi nodded and began signing the piece of paper with the insignia of the Chaosstar Maids. “Here for you… Sorry, that you couldn’t have something more official, Beta.”
“Oh, that is totally fine.” Beta carefully took the autograph before carefully stashing it in her bag like the treasure it likely was to her.
“Great, we have two superfans in our midst.” Gamma commented earning herself scornful looks form Alpha and Delta. “Although you won’t get a chance like that any day, I figure.”
“So, who are you ladies? Just a group of fans dressed in rubber gimp suits?” The reporter began to press us out for a story.
“Not exactly…” Alpha took out a business card and handed him it in the usual formal manner and introducing us. “We are the Prototype Series of the Artificial Idol Project Bionikokoro, ranging from Alpha to Epsilon.”
He looked at the card for a second before pocketing it away, but not before giving us a nod, likely to not seem too rude for doing it too quickly and handing us his own card.
“I am Tobias Cole, correspondent for the Pacific Post. Pleasure to meet you.”
“It is all ours as well.” Alpha took the card, holding onto it without putting it away. “I take you are here because of the festival, like the American Idols as well.”
“Yes, … I was the only one in the post interested in it beyond the diplomatic shenanigans the PRC pulled. To be honest, Idol culture isn’t really big in the West beyond a few niches. And certainly not the homegrown variety.”
“And yet you managed to field 50 groups, for 50 states.”
“Barely in some cases, I think the one from Idaho was just a high school band who made the cut by default.”
“But that is great!” I commented. “Indie Idols are often diamonds. And you get the credit for being with them if they were big.”
“If.” He laughed, shaking his head. I made a note to myself to give that group a visit. “Although same could be said about you.”
“We did start off as a mixed bunch. But we managed to find our spirit over time. And sponsors…” Alpha said sheepishly.
“Like the one you are wearing on your wrist. Pretty expensive…” He eyed the smartwatch Alpha was wearing, as we all did. “No pressure though. We run ads, so I really don’t have the high ground concerning taking money for sponsorships or anything like that. Anyway…”
He pointed at the table with the two Idols he must originally have planned to interview. “I got an interview to do. But… I will certainly try to look up your booth.”
He took out the card again and read the address with the two original interviewees taking a look as well.
“Sekai Tobira… The foreign quarter?” Ji-Mi looked at Zarruriel.
“I think so yes.” Zarruriel nodded, though still unsure. “Your booth was in that old theater, right Epsi?”
“Yes… Once you get there you won’t miss it.”
“Why are you so sure about that?” Zarruriel raised her eyebrows.
“It is a laboratory. You won’t miss it.”
“Oh laboratory. For what purpose?”
“For gathering data on us.” Alpha said half serious, half sarcastic. “As subjects of the Artificial Idol Project we are here to perform a serious of stress tests during the coming week, and such tests need supervision and care of the Project’s scientists.”
“And what goal does the Artificial Idol Project seek to accomplish.” Reporter Cole’s curiosity had been raised.
“To raise our abilities.” Alpha answered him like a machine. “And to gather data to optimize the next generation of Bionikos.”
“Fascinating… You got some great lore there.” He had taken notice. “Don’t mind if I drop in for an interview.”
“We would greatly appreciate it.” We bowed to him to thank him for the offer.
“I also am going to visit that lab of yours, Epsi.” Zarruriel promised. “I think I even have a bit of time tomorrow.”
“I will be waiting for you, Zarruriel.”

“Good Morning, Hana…” I heard a familiar voice over my earbud in the darkness of my two-layer cocoon while the air was pushed in and out of my lungs. “No, wait… Focus. Epsilon. Man, I hope I don’t slip up.”
“mmh… How early is it, Delta?” I mumbled back, trying to read the time on my wrist, unable to due to the restricting environment of our sleep lockers.
“Dunno… Just woke up.”
“Without any light?”
“Yes…”
“Ugh… I am gonna try to sleep more.” Despite the complete lack of space, the outer sack squishing against me and humid envoirement of the inner sack, filled with a mucous oil we were pretending to be ‘lubrication’, it felt comforting and warm, even with the three layers of rubber surrounding me.
“Hey, Delta.” I asked. “Do you think this is what it’s like inside a womb.”
“Who knows… But I think we might be leaving this womb soon. I think I heard footsteps outside.”
“Really? So much for my… Ah. It is moving!”
“See you in a bit.” Delta whispered to me, the call being cut off afterwards.
“See you…” I responded, before switching the voice channel with my smartwatch. At least this sponsorship has been worth it.
After a while the cocoon I lay in came to a halt and I was lying there anticipating my first day of the festival. After what seemed like an eternity, I could hear Manager Inoi’s voice from my earbud, as well as the voices for people he hired for the act.
“Waking up Subject Epsilon. All life signs nominal. Subject is stable. Subject, conform your status.”
“Artificial Idol Bionikokoro Prototype Epsilon on standby and ready for to be unsealed.” I breathed in deeply, trying to focus despite the drowsiness. While I could still pretend some of it was just me ‘booting up’, I had to act before an audience just as we had rehearsed for.
“Commencing unsealing of Prototype Epsilon. Removing outer protective cocoon.” No sooner was this said by one of the staff did I see a first glimmer of light, starting from my right and expanding in a line over my head to my left, following the zipper.
I clenched my eyes as the outer padded thicker layer was clapped out, taking me a bit to adjust to the blinding light, a figure standing over me, still sealed in a much tighter, thinner latex sack.
“Prototype Epsilon, please confirm visual functions…” As my eyes finally got used to the light I saw a person, female judging from her voice looking at me, wearing an unwieldy white hazmat suit, her gasmask unlike mine showing her eyes. “I repeat…”
“Yes, I can see you, one second…” My hand moved over to the button on my mask managing to press it despite the tight, slippery cocoon. “Visuals fully operational. Boot up complete.”
“Removing inner layer.” The ‘scientist’ responded in a cold tone, starting to unzip the transparent, inner layer from the top of my head all the way down to my legs.
I gave myself a final push and with some effort first slid out my right arm out of the sack I had slept in for the night, followed by my right arm, using both to move myself out of the rubber sack, oozing with the lubricant smeared across me.
“Do you need help, Subject?”
“Not… needed… thank you…” After a few moments of struggle, I finally sat upright, looking around me, while the ‘scientist’ checked my vitals.
The laboratory of the Artificial Idol Project was fully operational, with few other white suited people standing around, looking busy. What caught my eye were the people behind the glass, having just witnessed my waking up from my slumber.
“Wow, so many. Thank you for coming so early.” I waved at them, while putting on a cheerful voice. “Must have been tough to wake up this early on you all. Certainly, was for me.”
“Please focus, subject.” The actress played the strait-laced scientist, while I played my role, though still gazing around cheekily to greet the visitors standing outside the laboratory watching us.
“All clear, subject. You can disconnect from the vault and wash yourself off.”
“Understood.” I returned her a quick nodded, grabbing the air hose leading to my gasmask and after a small twist in the screw nut letting the hose thump into the cocoon. After taking a long, very overplayed breath, I jumped off and proceeded to hop into the shower, with a curtain allowing the audience only being able to see my silhouette while the water washed off the excess slimy lubricant.
“Get ready for the next subject.” Our manager ordered the others, him wearing the same sort of suit they did, with stripes marking him as ‘in charge’.
“Yes, sir. Removing capsule containing Artificial Idol Bionikokoro, Designation: Prototype Delta”
As I dried my, I could hear the next locker being opened with them going through all the steps I had just went through.
“Waking up Subject Delta. All life signs nominal. Subject is stable. Subject, conform your status.”
“Artificial Idol Bionikokoro Prototype Delta on standby and ready for to be unsealed.”
It was all according to the script: We would wake be woken up one by one, then interact for a bit and start rehearsing our performances, though that was mostly for show, to give the audience the feeling of getting to watch us at our most natural. Which meant we could allow ourselves mistakes during the morning hours, after all it was just rehearsal and training in the end.
“Commencing unsealing of Prototype Delta. Removing outer protective cocoon.”
Finally, the black, bulky, yet shiny padded sack was unsealed, revealing underneath it, Delta writhing in her transparent cocoon, the air hose connected to her gasmask, sliding between the legs of the Bioniko.
“Good morning, Delta.” I walked over to Delta’s bedding, while the actress was still checking on him.
“Hmmmmm…?” Delta shifted within the confines of her sack, unresponsive.
“Please stay aside Prototype Epsilon until after we have gone through all necessary steps. Prototype Delta please confirm visual contact…”
Delta was still writhing in her bag.
“Prototype Delta, please…”
Her order was interrupted by me sliding my finger across the sack, until I finally found what I was looking for: The switch to Delta’s visor LEDs. When they popped up, I could see her blinking slowly multiple times.
“Time to get up, sleepyhead. You heard our handler.”
“Ugh…” The actress feigned annoyance, just as planned. “Thank you, Subject. Removing inner layer.”
The way Delta heaved up when the actress pulled down the zipper was almost erotic. Her chest, false as it was, popping up and holding between it the air hose. Delta herself was still very sleepy, only managing to get out one arm.
“Could you help me up?” Delta reached her arm out to me.
“Of course…” I grabbed it, and when Delta started to slip away, I dug deep into her rubber sack, and pulled her out, holding her by her head and back.
“Thank you…” Delta removed the air hose while the scientist checked her. “I better wash this off.”
“That’s the idea, subject.” The scientist responded, pointing him to the shower area. “That should be it.”
“That many people came to see us wake up?” Delta nudged her head to the audience and giggled. “What an honor.”
“Most other groups are just getting up. Our manager had the right idea including our usual routines for the audience to see. But let’s get you nice and clean.”
After that followed the unsealing of Gamma, then Beta and finally Alpha, who looked around and with a bit of a displeased voice told us she was disappointed that she was the last one to be woken up.
“The manager knows how much you need your sleep, Alpha.” Beta answered her.
“Ah, how polite of him. Let’s get up and running shall we.” Alpha waved us to an area in the laboratory very similar to the studio we usually practiced in, with mirrors and all. “Our usual routine. Are you ready?”
We got in position and gave her the clear. She then turned to the people in white hazmat suits, including Ikki Inoi waiting for them to start their ‘measuring’ our outputs.
“You can begin your initialization routines, Subjects.”
Somewhere during the end of our session however I noticed Manager Inoi going into the maintenance room, with my stomach giddy knowing what they are going to make in there.

“Not bad for a start. Have at it!” Our manager had taken off his hazmat suit, gesturing at the richly set table at which we sat. Rice, miso, vegetables and grilled fish, for us Bionikos to have enough energy to get through the morning.
“Thanks for the food!” We chanted, our masks and hoods removed, and napkins on our laps so we wouldn’t spill on our latex catsuits.
“Don’t mention it…” The cook appeared. “It’s just the stuff I usually make for Umeko and me.”
“Don’t say that Yuuki!” Umeko protested, while taking some rice from the pot. “I always appreciated your cooking. It was one of the few things that got me out of bed.”
She smiled, infecting her cousin with it as well, it was the smile of someone who clung to the little things during painful times.
“I do have to say, …” Aki swallowed her bite. “I have come to like how you do breakfast, especially eating rice for breakfast.”
“Really? No rice for breakfast.” Maya leaned on her arm while eating some of the grilled maceral. “Why not?”
“Most Americans associate rice with something you would eat for lunch or dinner. Not really ‘breakfast food’.”
“What would you consider ‘breakfast food’?” Zen poked her with his chopsticks.
“Well, I sometimes make myself pancakes in the morning, it’s pretty fast and you can use prep the dough the day before. Especially with some maple syrup…”
“Now here is something I wouldn’t think of eating right when waking up. Especially something this sweet.”
“As I said…” Aki shoved a clump of rice into her mouth. “I really come to like rice in the morning, especially with some bacon and butter. Pretty fast if you just use the leftover rice as well.”
“Hmm, have you ever tried to put an egg into the rice?” I asked her, while taking one of the raw eggs, cracking it on my bowl and pouring it on the rice, then mixing it with my chopsticks. Her reaction was on restrained yet polite skepticism.
“Yeah, I’d rather not get food poisoning.”
“But the rice cooks the egg.” I told her taking a bit of it. “See, safe.”
“I know…I know… It is just… Being told as a kid that raw eggs contain salmonella sticks with you. I think I rather take the mini omelets.” She announced her pinching one of the last rolled omelets with Zen snatching the other one.
A few minutes later and we had all eaten up, cleaned the room and ourselves, teeth included and were ready to face the rest of the day, but not with each of us drinking a lot of water to offset the sweating wearing latex incurs even with AC.
“I’ll go ahead and start with checking the visitors, Inoi.” Yuuki told our manager before waving at Umeko as she was about to put on her gas mask. “I hope you have fun today.”
“I will!” Umeko smiled for the final time, her gasmask subsuming her human features.
“So, how do you like this schedule? Or should we move the breakfast earlier?” Inoi asked into the round. “I know having to go from sleeping directly into action must be tough on you.”
“I think it is not too bad…” Maya answered him, just before coming Alpha, continuing further as her mask changed her voice. “I even hear it helps you lose wight to exercise before eating your first meal.”
“I dunno. I did feel very hungry…” Aki, now Beta began to argue. “But the breakfast afterwards was very delicious. Hey, Um… eh… Gamma.”
“Yes?” Gamma had just put her collar on.
“Could you teach me how to make this kinda breakfast? Especially the soup!”
“Sorry, but you got to ask my cousin. I was never really good when it came to cooking.”
“Ah, thanks. Got to ask him at lunch.” Beta noticed Zen and me still putting on our hoods, telling us with a jesting tone: “Don’t you two lovebirds start fooling around. We got to be there for our fans.”
After her Alpha and manager Inoi, now in his hazmat suit walked out leaving us alone.
“Big day eh…” He caressed me.
“You can say that…” I looked into his eyes. For a moment, in our lone togetherness, we could feel the desire for each other. How easy it would have been to just go through with our burning desires and yet…
“Good luck…”
We had to leave it with only a kiss to share.
“You two, dear.” In a matter of seconds, Zen became Delta once more. “Let’s not keep them waiting.”
“Definitely.” And I became Epsilon, nodding to my partner and opening the door to the main lab.

The thing that immediately came to the eye in the sterile, white environment of the lab were the people wearing orange hazmat suits, unlike the ones the ‘scientists’ wore, waiting in line at the table to get an autograph or to meet one of us for the first time.
I sat myself down, next to Delta, connected a charging cable to the battery of the electronics inside my gasmask, and greeted the first of my fans today.
“Hello, good to see you.”
“Likewise… I am Taro.” He answered, giving me a CD to sign with a slight bow. The medium on which the music was saved was not as important as the goodies coming along with it, including a ticket to be allowed into this very lab. “Although it gets a bit stuffy inside the suit.”
“Yeah, that is natural. But the AIP insisted on it due to safety concerns. Wouldn’t want any of the equipment or us getting contaminated.”
That was only for atmosphere really. Inoi had asked a chemical plant if they were willing to sell him their old stock of hazmat suits, but only when buying all of them, even the orange ones but he felt went against the color scheme we were going for with the Artificial Idol Project Lab. However, the idea came up to have visitors wear them as well, only needing some minor cleaning afterwards when only worn for such a brief period.
In hindsight it also had the added benefit of placating the fears of Umeko and her cousin had for her safety. After all, it was very hard to hide any kind of weapon beneath your clothing and then try to pull it out when you are wearing a thick suit, with limited mobility.
“So, this is like an actual laboratory with all the bells and whistles?” My fan had taken a look around at the various things inside.
“Well, we are a science project, are we not?”
“Woah, now that is dedication! I hope the festival goes well for you, Epsilon!”
“For you as well!” I shook his hand and went on to the next one waiting in line, just like in my old part-time job at the supermarket, the only difference being me giving autographs, even the small talk was very familiar. I wondered what my old manager was doing currently. With the festival business must have been booming.
It went on for a while until a familiar voice greeted me just when the line before me had been cleared, from one of the orange hazmat suits.
“Yo, Epsi! How are you doing?”
“Huh?” Did I know her from somewhere?
“Oh, you can’t be serious? Look…” She pointed at two humps on her head, obscured by the hazmat suits. “Or do you need me to spell it out for you?”
“Epsilon…” Delta nudged me and nodded to a person similar to the one before me, including the humps. “It’s Zarruriel.”
“Oh, I am such an idiot!” I laughed at me own brainfart. Of course! The voice, the devilish demeanor and beneath those humps were likely the horns of the Chaosstar Maids. “And you must be Myriel, am I right.”
“Correct…” The more princely of the two maid demons answered. “Zarruriel asked me to come here to visit you. I have to say… It is good to see you again Delta.”
“The honor is mine.” Delta returned politely. “You even bought two discs just to come in.”
“Not discs!” Zarruriel handed me a larger piece of packaging.
“Do you own a vinyl player, Zarruriel?” I asked her.
“Nope.” She answered with glee. “It looks much cooler than a CD. And I usually just download them anyway.”
“Really, … Don’t tell Beta though. She would give you an earful about how much better it sounds when played directly from it.”
“I know…” Zarruriel rolled her eyes. “Anyway… neat place you got here. I heard you sleep here.”
“Yes, we woke up not too long ago.” I gestured her towards the vaults we slept in, which were now being cleaned out of the lubricant.
“Woah, how futuristic! Was it comfy?” Zarruriel gushed.
“Bit tight though. I don’t think I could sleep soundly in such a place.” Myriel gulped.
“Takes a bit to get used to, but then it is very comfortable” Delta elaborated.
“What did you call it again?” I teased Delta. “The inside of a womb?”
“Yes…” Delta rolled her eyes. “Maybe not as warm though.”
“Anyway…” Zarruriel took a look at her prize when I returned the plate to her. “Would you mind showing me around? I have never been to the Sekai Tobira theater, but they must have put in a lot of work considering the old pictures I saw from it.”
“Sure… eh…” I looked towards Alpha, who when noticing me and Zarruriel talking gave us the go ahead.
“Most fans are going to come for meetings anyway. Go and stretch your legs for a bit.”
After a small detour through the lab exit, with Myriel and Zarruriel shedding their hazmat suit, returning it to Yuuki, our security guard, who gave me and Delta a nod, us four were off to explore the renovated theater:
It was built somewhere around the early Taisho era and was destroyed during the war, later rebuild but abandoned when cinemas eclipsed their forefathers in popularity, its empty shell being the source of conflict with two parties arguing over its ownership until the day the city bought it from both to make more room for the upcoming festival.
Or at least that is what the short information segment at the entrance told us.
But the theater was only half the attraction, as Bionikokoro were not the only ones having booths in here.
Some of them, like us, were Japanese groups, but nearly half of them were from foreign lands: Two from Europe, one from Africa, another from India and the band from Idaho the reporter yesterday told us about.
And while they looked and sounded great from the sound test, they gave another visitor. I couldn’t really speak with them, not for lack of trying though, as both of us tried to speak the language of the other with little success and Delta had to translate for us.
I did commend them though for trying at the very least, even having a small dictionary next to them.
“What a wonderful little piece of the world you got here.” Zarruriel stated as we walked back to the lab of Bionikokoro. “Knightesses, Cowgirls, Bollywood dancers, Irish folk dancers and a group from Uganda. Those gals are really insane… In a good way.”
“Made up in spirit and creativity where the budget was lacking. It’s admirable…”
“Yes, we should visit one of their concerts if we ever…”
“SCAM! I am not telling you to leave for the fourth time!”
“You are totally leeching fans of us. Go tell your manager to come here right…” I knew this voice, and judging from Delta tensing up, she… no… Zen it as well.
“Oh great…” It was Ichika, again, followed by her group. Her gaze left nothing up to interpret. “The little dollies were let out to play. Did you know that the festival schedule officially only begins at 10:30?”
“Yes, but …” I attempted to defend myself, but against this sort of woman there was no use to do such a thing.
“And from what I hear YOU began at 8 o’ clock! Illegally snatching visitors away before I…”
“We.” One of her group members coughed.
“We…” Ichika continued as if she had always meant to speak in the plural. “Could even arrive here from our hotel!”
“I don’t want to run into your parade, but there is not hard rule blocking a team from arriving earlier. If you want to…” Zarruriel tried to calm the situation down.
“And how do you know that? From the looks of it you aren’t even a festival partner, just some hanger on. Besides I need my beauty sleep.”
“Oh, give it a rest already…” I could hear Delta mumble. Although I had the strange feeling that one of her team also said the same thing.
It was at that moment, Myriel took off her necklace badge and held it in front of Ichika, who grew paler by the second.
‘Myriel, Chaosstar Maids Booth: 666, Olympic Stadium’
“THIS IS…! No way this is real! You probably faked it!”
Zarruriel, now unusually annoyed, went to the festival website and to the category of official groups of the International Idol Festival and showed her the Maids profile. “There! And if you are worried about that, try going to bed earlier!”
“And miss prime time to stream for my payp… fans!? Anyways, you only got your spot by luck. Unlike me…”
“Us.”
“Us, naturally, not like those faceless posers.”
“That’s it.” It burst out of Delta and walked up to Delta, causing her to sweat. “If you are so willing to claim you are the better than us then prove it! You against me and Epsilon on stage. Whoever gets the crowd to cheer more wins.”
“Whhat… T…two against would be unfair. A…and especially not against you. You…”
“What about us…” The smaller one of her groupies asked sheepishly.
“How about just one on one then.” I tried to calm Delta down, noticing the bulging fist she had formed.
“P…pfah. S…sure. You will see. I can make the crowd go wild unlike anyone else.”
“The day after tomorrow?” Delta, her rage mellowed down, spat at Ichika.
“Prepare yourself to be utterly beaten! Now then, I have fans to greet!”
She then proudly strutted away, with her two group members following her obediently.
“Who the hell was she anyway?” Yuuki scratched his head in disbelief.
“No fuckin clue…” Zarruriel was equally stunned. “How did someone as rude as her get to be a festival partner anyway?”
“Like usual. Vitamin R and a lot of crawling up someone else’s arse.” Yuuki commented.
“Oh, come on. I know you got a problem with Idols, Yamada” Myriel seemed to already know Yuuki, though not on good terms. “But we do not all do that!”
“Do what?” I asked her.
“Do ‘favors’ for higherups.” Yuuki answered me instead, raising his eyebrows in a suggestive manner.
“Oh, shut it, you…”
“I am here to bounce, not to be nice.” He scoffed at her.
“Ugh why the hell did you hire him as security anyway?” Myriel asked us.
“We know one of his relatives who referred us to him.”
“See it on the bright side, Myriel.” Zarruiel padded her on the shoulder, waving and smiling at us. “At least they don’t have to deal with creeps with him around. See ya! Have a good run at the festival!”
“See you as well Zarruriel!” I returned her goodbye. “Now then…”
“Welcome back you two.” Yuuki greeted us in his cold manner.
“Everything alright in there?” Delta nudged him.
“Yes, all green. I think there are two visitors waiting for you to return.”
“Oh, then we better hurry.”
Yuuki opened the door to the airlock, just like a real lab with such sensitive content would have. In it we were sprayed with water, pearling off us, before drying us off with air and letting us walk in.
“Sorry for being gone.” I greeted, firmly yet politely, the couple of orange suited fans. “We will get to you straight away.”

“See you at the concert!” I waved at the last group of fans leaving through the airlock, right about 11 o’clock.
“Pfuh, and there is going to be more later….” Delta let out a sigh of relief. “When are we going on stage anyway.”
“Should be the third slot… So soon.”
“Then we should go to the backstage already. With the stage above us it should only be a short skip.”
“No need…” Manager Inoi had come back from the maintenance room after a call he had to make, pointing us to a marked circle in the middle of the lab. “Once you got the costume on just stand there.”
“Ah the surprise…” I could see Maya smirk beneath her mask, while she walked to the closet storing all the costumes which would go over our Bioniko suits. Some were rather plain, like our maid uniforms or kimonos, all made of latex of course.
“Here is yours…” Maya handed me an assortment of parts, which looked like parts of a human sized gunpla. But this was meant to snap onto us.
“Thanks…” I took the part of our 3d printed mecha musume costume and started by putting the main bodyframe over myself followed by the smaller parts: The headgear, modified to click onto our individual gasmask using the airvalves, then the gauntlets snapping right on my arms and finally the oversized, bulky heels.
At the end of it all we looked like human sized mechs, although from the way Delta walked, he certainly had the sluggish momentum of a large one.
“Stil not really used to walking with the heels on.” Beta snidely remarked.
“I think I can manage. Epsilon helped me a lot since the first time wearing them.” Delta responded. “Although I don’t get why you’d wear heels at allllll…”
“Not every woman is blessed with height.” Alpha helped Delta to stabilize again. “And besides that, it trains you to keep your back straight.”
“Yeah, because if you tried crouching, you’d just topple over.” Delta began to walk with confidence again. “I think… I got it again…”
“Should we just remove…”
“No, I think I got it figured out.”
“Don’t worry.” I gave Delta a soft punch. “I’ll catch you.”
“Good to know.” Delta responded.
“Then…” Gamma, adjusted her headgear. “We have a battle to fight.”
“Sheesh, you don’t need to be so dramatic.” Beta rolled her eyes.
“To win the hearts of the audience.” Gamma completed her sentence, walking into the circle. “Although I wonder…”
One by one we walked into it, me noticing something off about it.
“This is not connected to the rest of the floor.”
“What?” Delta barely heard my mumbling, when all of the sudden, glass walls started to rise around the circle.
“Starting launch sequence…” A computer voice announced.
For a moment we were dazed by the walls rising around us and the blaring countdown, until our eyes become fixed on the people in the white hazmat suits, chief among them Inoi, who pointed upwards and giving us a thumbs up.
We were going to enter in the most direct way possible. And once the walls were all the way to the ceiling the platform on which we stood rumbled, with smoke engulfing us from beneath, making me stumble around until two hands caught me. It were Alpha’s and Delta’s hands clutching my left and right and looking back we had formed a circle facing outwards.
“What is this…” I asked Alpha.
“Stage lift.” Alpha stated calmly as the ceiling above us retracted to the echoing sound of the stage hall. “It was already there. Ikki saw the potential for it when the renovators wanted to remove it originally.”
“This is certainly one way to make an impression.” Delta commented, half laughing, half ventilating from anticipation.
“Now then… Take a deep breath.” Alpha told us. “And let’s knock them out.”
Slowly my head was moving above the stage floor and I could see a room with roughly a thousand viewers, most of them standing due to lack of seats.
We must have looked majestic rising up from the floor, with smoke around us, walking off the lift with equal step measure, the music already starting to play, waiting for our voice to fill it with melody.
‘The Battle Maidens’ Ballad’
“Looking back”
“To a home far away.”
“Looking back…”
“To a life once known.”
“Fighting to protect the once we love!” We ended our intro to the song, the beat picking up energy as did we.
The crowd roared and I could see glow sticks as far as my eyes could see, not that I could exactly focus on that with our performance, a mixture of dancing and martial arts.
The idea for that came from none other than Zenjuro, who when we were told to brainstorm costumes told us about a show were the girls sing while fighting.
“There is nothing more awesome than cute, action girls.”
The audience was definitely in agreement with him.

We just began our 3rd performance, this time in feline variations of our outfits, ears, paws and tail attached, when someone ran onto the stage.
He was ramming down Gamma took a knife and…
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
“A nightmare…” I groaned as I awakened, encased in two layers of rubber. “I was just dreaming.”
Right, nothing of the sorts happened. In fact, our first day here we did draw in even more people to our laboratory. At times we didn’t have enough orange hazmat suits for visitors.
After our first concert we even met the Idol knightess group ‘Order of Dusk’ from Europe, with us together making fun of the fact we all wore mask, though theirs were made of solid steel. I even got to hold one of their swords.
All in all, we entered our sleeping cocoons with a good feeling at the end of the day. But now, only 4 hours later, we were taken out on the other side of the vault.
“How were you sleeping, Hana?” Zen without his gasmask, greeted me, after he unzipped the first layer. Her… his body was still oozing with lubricant.
“I guess alright…” I stammered while he took me out of the inner, transparent layer. Still trying to shake of the tiredness, I struggled to get my gasmask off. “Buah…”
The air felt so cold as it reached my eyes and lips.
“How long did we wear our suits now?” I wondered.
“Since…” Zen needed time as well to think, giving me time to look around. Manager Inoi and Yuuki had unzipped both Maya and Umeko, with Maya now helping Aki out of her storage sack.
“I think… yesterday morning.”
Over a day. It had been over a day since any of us 5 had so much as felt air on anything below our necks. And the suit was as sweaty on the inside as it was slimy from the lubricant we slept in.
“Showering at 3 in the morning…” Aki complained as she removed her hood.
“I know…” Maya had taken off her hood as well, her hair was a mess. “But with us having to be active during the whole day, we barely have time to eat. Let alone redress during reasonable hours.”
“Bah, So sweaty…” Umeko tore her mask off, revealing her scar.
“How have you been doing, Umeko?” Yuuki asked his cousin, while taking out a bottle of what I could only assume was for treating her scars, with him gently rubbing it on her, careful to avoid her eye.
“It was really great. Lots of fans. Just like the good old times…” Umeko told him, sighing like an old lady recalling the past.
“Won’t it get washed out when you shower?” I asked her.
“No, this one is meant to go before it.” She pulled out another bottle from Yuuki’s bag. “This one is after showering to prevent cracks.”
“Speaking of which: Should you go first before you I go in?” Zen’s raised voice implied he was speaking to all of us, but specifically the other Bionikos. “I’ll just wait here in the meantime.”
I ran up to him and grabbed his hands. “We go first!”
“Wh… what are you doing?” Zen stammered, as I closed the door behind us. Before he could say another word I had him pinned against the wall, smearing my hand on his body.
“We are both soooo slippery…” I then came closer and gave him a tight hug, softly stroking his butt.
“Are you… in heat, or something?” He was flustered yet looking up at his hooded face, I could see how much he liked it.
“I have been in a full body latex suit for over 24 hours, together with my crossdressing boyfriend. Not even talking about…” My hand reached down to the zipper and pushed it into his but crack. “The cute noises you made when you inserted that tail plug for our Neko costumes.”
“Pl…please… It still feels a bit sore.”
“Alright, alright…” I relented, moving away from his backside and to his crotch. “I guess you want to be the one doing it then.”
Gently I pulled the zipper down and gave his cock the free space it needed. “Hng,… So hard and already sheathed.”
“You know I hate cleaning the inside of my suit.”
“Oh, I get that. Speaking of insides…” After spreading some excess lubricant on his sheath, I took his hand and lead it to my private parts. No words were needed anymore to convey our desires, as he pulled it down.
“Hana…” Yet he still had something to say. “Could I ask you something?”
“What is it.”
“Could we squish… our… breasts together…”
“Pfft…” It was certainly a weird request, but if it was for Zen.
I nodded. First inserting myself on him, then hugging him tightly at face level, with the rubber at chest level creaking against each other.
“So… How does it feel?” I smirked at him, while he grinned with retrained pleasure.
“It feels…” He held in for a second. “Good. I always wanted to see that for real ever since I saw it in a hentai.”
“My pleasure…” I gave him a kiss. Which he returned immediately. Then I did the same.
We lay there mingled into each other, our black, shiny, oily bodies rubbing against each other. And I could think of is how much I love him. How cute he is. How handsome. How I always wanted to be there for him and…
“Hey you two?” We stopped when we heard Maya knocking on the door. “Shouldn’t you two be already showering or are you getting frisky?”
“W…we are still changing!” I stammered, then whispering to Zen. “Crap, we better get going.”
He nodded adding, however: “Let’s finish this.”
With how wet we were right now; it was probably the right idea. And 7 minutes later we came out of the shower in bathrobes, clean and relieved, with the others taking their turn going in.
“Here…” We handed Inoi the worn, wet suits, taking the replacement sealed in ziplock bags and put them on a table in the room. “Thank you for cleaning them.”
“You should rather thank Saihoushi’s apprentice.” He took the used ones, folded them and put them in a plastic bag. Thanks to this system, we would always have a clean one to wear and in an emergency have a replacement should one be damaged.
As we waited for the others one by one, I snuggled up to Zen in his fluffy bathrobe. “Can I use you as a pillow for a bit.”
“Sure thing.” He pulled my close, stroking my hair as I closed my eyes for a bit. “Strange to think…”
“What?” I wanted to hear him finish his train of thought.
“That in the past people used to sleep in two phases like we are doing right now.”
“Waking up in the middle of the night? Without electricity?”
“Yes, you can guess what they were doing during those time.”
“Having sex?” I punched him softly in the gut, giggling.
“Of course, but they did other things too: Praying, going for walks, talking, some even wrote dream diaries, hoping to capture them before they would forget them next morning.”
Dreams… The dream I had this night was still vivid in my mind.
“Do you think dreams can predict the future.”
“Hmmm…” Zen grumbled. “Like a premonition?”
“Yes.”
“Maybe… Although that could just be someone’s own subconscious making predictions. Did you dream badly tonight?”
“Hmm…” I nodded into his chest.
“There there, it is alright. I am here for you.”
“Ah, I would love to have a boyfriend like you.” Aki interrupted us. “You couldn’t have gotten anyone better, Hana.”
As I rubbed my eyes, I saw all five of us together in bathrobes, the ziplock bags with our suits lying on a table.
“Well then…” Zen stood up and took his suit, looking away in shame. “I guess I’ll take the bathroom, while you gals change here. You probably don’t want to change while a guy is around.”
“I mean you are a guy…” Maya remarked, looking at us, waiting for confirmation. “But you are one of us.”
“What do you mean by that?” He shook his head in confusion.
“It means…” I tugged as he tried to get away. “We trust you enough.”
“It’s nice of you and all. But…”
“We trust you, Delta.” Umeko shut Zen down. “Considering all you could have done; you don’t need to hide away in shame just because of who you are.”
“Still, I’d rather not change with you girls.”
“Zen…” I whispered into his ear. “You don’t need to be afraid of yourself. We are here…”
“Yes, I know… Just… The other girls.” There was something he hid.
“Are you afraid we will use this against you?”
He nodded ever so slightly.
“Your ex, I assume?”
He nodded again.
“Don’t worry, I’ll be there for you no matter what happens.”
I gave him a kiss on the cheek, slowly removed myself and let him breath.
“Would any of you have a problem with that?” He asked us, with none of us having any objection.
He then loosened his bathrobe, letting it drop on the floor, making the other 3 girls getting wide eyes at his physique.
“Hana…” Maya told me. “You are one lucky woman to have such a handsome boyfriend.”
“Th…thank you…” Zen and I stuttered, while we both were bright red.
After that we dressed up into our rubber suits again, without any more incidences, though I did notice the others throwing glances towards Zen, whose masculine physique was disappearing, bit by bit, subsumed into the XY configuration of Delta.
And after we finally were all wearing our catsuits, Yuuki came in to seal us back into our sleeping sacks.
“Hey, Hana. Don’t forget your mask.” Zen handed me my gasmask as I had already crawled hip deep into the inner layer of my cocoon.
“Oh, thank you.” I took the air hose and connected it to my gas mask, noticing he was already putting on his own. “Wait!”
In his moment of stupor, I grabbed him by the head and kissed him, us both smiling and some of the onlookers who were still outside their cocoons giggling at our love.
Zen put on the mask, the voice shifting up.
“Good night, Epsilon.” Delta hugged me one last time.
“Sleep well, Delta.” I wished her, as I put on my gasmask, the breathing apparatus at the other end already pushing fresh air in and stale air out of my lungs.
The last thing I heard from a bit away, while Delta was zipping my two layers up was Yuuki, speaking to his cousin.
“Good night, Umeko…”
Inside the sack I nestled myself into thinking of nothing. Doing nothing as even breathing was taken care of through an external apparatus pushing and pulling air into and out of my lungs. I just lay there, like a deactivated android, ready to be booted up in a few hours.
We would be waking up not as humans, but as artificial idols. Perfect, flawless, masterfully crafted and ready to enthrall the audience.
*
Today we had our first interview. IdolEye had come to pay us a visit, talking about our meteoric rise but more importantly, our plans for the future.
“Is there anything exciting coming up for Bionikokoro after the festival? Maybe expansion?” One of them asked me.
“Actually…” I turned to our manager who gave me the thumbs up. “Yes, we will be starting the first selection of volunteers for the upcoming Mk. I series. To be honest, I am very much looking forward to have more of us making you all happy.”
“Oh, can I volunteer?” The female interviewer joked. “What are you looking for anyway in a potential candidate?”
“We do have our procedures. You can sign yourself up at our website. As for what we are looking for… Talent, guts, something that makes you want to stand with us on stage.” Maya answered her confidently.
“A… also to anyone listening in…” I wanted to give a message, to people like me. “This look might be strange at first. But once you get used to it, you feel so free. There is nothing holding you back anymore.”
“The mask will set you free?”
“In a manner of speaking yes.”
“We will be waiting for you.” Delta and Beta gestured towards their camera, to whomever it might concern.
I silently prayed for all the people like me, to hear this. Maybe it will give them the courage to follow this dream, no matter how unlikely it seems to be fulfilled.

“Great performance of you all!” Inoi praised us as he heaved the pot onto the table. “You must be hungry.”
The smell of chili and rice filled our nostrils.
“Like you wouldn’t believe.” Zen exclaimed as he dug in.
The food was delicious as always. Yuuki for all his bluntness did have a knack for cooking. The rice perfectly balanced out the spiciness and slight sourness of the sauce.
“mmmh…” Umeko visibly brightened up. “Thank you, Yuuki.”
“Don’t mention it.” And when it came to his cousin he was always softened. “I… saw the concert yesterday.”
“Oh really?” Umeko swallowed up before continuing. “And…”
“It’s like you never left the stage at all. Only that you wear that mask now.”
“Honestly, I think this is better than back then…” Umeko blushed, rubbing her scar.
“Don’t say that…” I reprimanded her.
“No, I mean it. Well… My old group was nice and all, yes, but…”
“No higherups form corporate fudging things up.” Inoi completed her sentence.
“Yes…” Umeko rolled her eyes. “Oh, fuck yes… Those pieces of crap… To think I took their money…”
“You probably needed it.” Aki tried to soothe her.
“Yes, I did. But I shouldn’t have accepted it. To them I was finally out of the picture without drama and their precious favorite could take my place.”
“Who was that?” Zen asked.
“Whashername… Ichika Sora.”
The spicy sauce crawled into our nostrils as we snorted at the name, while Yuuki laughed. “The same girl who came whining to us about us opening earlier and so on…”
“Wait, don’t tell me you know her?” Umeko eyes were open in disbelief.
“Oh, I wish I didn’t!” Zen exclaimed.
“She is also on stage here too, you just didn’t have the displeasure of meeting her, unlike us. She seems to have quite the hateboner for us.”
“Not like you don’t have it either, Zen.” Yuuki exclaimed. “Otherwise, you wouldn’t have let your manhood slip out and challenged her to a duel.”
Zen became a bit pale after that.
“Wait, don’t tell me… You do not strike me as the obsessive fan… Were you her boytoy or something.”
I could hear Zen’s rubber fist creak.
“He left her after he found out she was cheating on him.” I told Yuuki plainly, while holding Zen tight. “And now he has me. Someone who loves him more than anything else in the world.”
“Hana, you shouldn’t…” Zen reddened upon hearing my confession. “I love you too.”
“And now you are going to sing in a duel against her.” Umeko asked us eying us with interest in what we had to tell.
“Yes, but…”
“We aren’t sure who is going to do it. Two on one would be unfair.”
“I still think you should. Your voice is unbeatable.” Zen told me.
“I don’t know…” I responded. “You challenged her. And you certainly got more than enough motivation to beat her.”
“If you don’t want to, then maybe I could stand in for you?” Umeko raised her hand to our astonishment.
“Well… S…sure… If you want to… Why though?”
“Let’s say…” Umeko seated herself with her hands covering her mouth, a mischievous smile forming beneath her palms. “I’d like to take that corporate plant down a peg or two. If you two don’t mind.”
It was the smile of a woman about to taste the bitter ruin of an old rival.

Yuuki had to admit, the theater was a bit spooky at night. It likely was even more when it had been but a ruin, but even now that it had been renovated it was utterly eerie.
Not to mention the prop laboratory he was patrolling, how utterly silent it was, except for the whirring of screens and other electronics on standby. The only thing that was missing, he thought to himself, letting his flashlight swerve, was some vile monstrosity jumping him, the unknowing security guard, and tearing him to pieces.
But there were no beasts like that in this laboratory of an Idol group, pretending to be a scientific experiment, he reminded himself as his light landed on several storage vaults with small green lights noting someone was inhabiting them, only 5 Idols in deep slumber.
“Well, not so deep…” Yuuki mumbled to himself. They had gone back to sleep only 15 minutes ago with him helping them getting out and back into storage. All he was doing now was checking that everything inside their booth was in order.
Still, he softly knocked at the door marked: ‘Prototype γ’
He and Umeko had always been close, through thick and thin, from the beginning of her Idol career to its ruinous end, and now her comeback, but not as herself. He couldn’t shake off the strange circumstances Umeko was now in: Presenting herself to the world as an android, created to sing and dance. Shoved into this vault, property of the so called ‘Artificial Idol Project’.
And yet…
Ring!
Yuuki shook off his stupor and frantically looked around.
Ring!
It came from close, in fact…
Ring!
It came from himself. He shuffled through his pockets until he found the origin of his noise.
Ri…
He picked up the phone, the caller:
“Hey, Yuuki…” His own cousin.
“You gave me quite a scare.” Yuuki exclaimed, lowering his voice. “You are still awake.”
“I woke up. I could hear something knocking.”
“Oh sorry, … That must have been me.”
“Dummy!” He could hear her frown. “You know I sleep light.”
“Did I wake you? Even beneath two layers of…” He could only imagine how cramped it must be in there. “Is it at least comfortable? Wouldn’t think you get much sleep.”
“It is. Very sweaty, yes. But eventually you just doze off.”
“Tired after such a long day, huh?”
“Yes, …” He could hear breath in relief. “It is very exciting, though. With all the fans around. I am especially for tomorrow.”
“Right…” He recalled the discussion she had with that Hana and Zenjuro. “The singing duel. Who is that… whatshername…”
“Ichika. A pain in the ass, right?”
“Did you know her?”
“She was the upper managements darling, for some reason. Sure, she could dance and sing… okayish… but I always felt something was missing with her. Yet in the old company they always favored her highly…”
“You were rivals?”
“You could have called us that, yes.” He could hear Umeko’s dissatisfaction at the other end of the line. “When it came to opportunities, she always had priority and no matter how much effort I put in. Not to mention…”
“Not to mention what?” Yuuki was disquieted by her silence.
“The groups she was part of never held long. She’d start in one or join later and they later would always break, just like Flower Booth.”
“Sounds like she is cursed… Anyway I hope you sleee…” Yuuki screeched into the line,making Umeko squirm.
“Is something?”
“No… nothing…” Yuuki held his flashlight firmly towards the window of the lab. “Must have just imagined it.”
“Maybe you should get some sleep?” Umeko retorted playfully.
“You are probably right. Just checking the locks just to be sure…” Yuuki did as he told her. All locks secure, no fiddling or manipulation.
“Thank you…” He could hear his cousin from the other end.
“For what?”
“For being there for me. After it, I just couldn’t anymore. Just going through the motions of daily life was torture. If it wasn’t for you…”
Yuuki knew damn well what she meant with it.
“I wouldn’t be here. I wouldn’t be with Bionikokoro.”
He recalled the day she walked in on her, wearing that suit for the first time. He almost wanted to strangle her former and new manager for forcing her to wear it, but she told him that it was her decision.
“Umeko… Do you like being… Prototype Gamma?” Just uttering this name gave him an ache. His cousin, just a faceless android, without a name, just a designation.
“Yes.” She spoke honestly. “When I walked on the stage after all that, I couldn’t help but feel giddy to be back. It might not be my old me… But it was better than sulking in my room. I… missed it.”
“Despite…”
“Yes, despite it. In hindsight I longed so much to return on a stage, to interact with fans again and to bring people to smile. I couldn’t have done it without being and Gamma or without you.”
“That is…” Yuuki bit his lip. He had cursed the profession that had taken her face ever since and yet she returned, unforced and out of her own will. “Great to hear! I hope you are gonna knock your old rival out of her socks.”
“I will see you tomorrow again.”
“Good night, Umeko or do you prefer Gamma?”
“Either is fine, but I leave it to you. Good night.”

The crowd was loving her, that much Ichika was sure of, the cheering she received didn’t lie. She even pitched her voice up and winked extra sweetly and just to be sure, chose a currently top-rated song to cover.
“And now… for Bionikokoro: Bioniko Prototype Gamma.”
Gamma? Didn’t those two have different designation?
Like that would matter, she thought, those faceless dolls are birds of a feather. It would not matter which of them was standing against her, they didn’t have even the slightest chance.
“Hello everyone. I hope you enjoyed the starter, because now it is time for the main dish:” She held up her finger and then pointed it to her audience. Her LEDs changed to star eyes. “Tsubaki Bouquet by Flower Booth”
This voice. Ichika knew this voice, but where?
Before she managed to sort her thoughts, this doll began her performance and… it was brilliant. As if she had done it a thousand times before. Was this doll programmed to be a genius or something?
The crowd was utterly enthralled by her and when the song reached its climax, the crowd went absolutely nuts with glowsticks from the front row to the very back.
And Ichika felt deep anguish. Who was this mysterious girl who managed to outshine HER? This was to be HER big chance to shine and now this… thief stole it right under her nose.
“Thank you everyone.” The doll had finished her performance, with the crowd clamoring for an encore, something they hadn’t done for HER, these ungrateful…
Ichika noticed the pose this doll made. She was mimicking someone holding a large basket overflowing with flowers. That was the signature pose of Flower Booth.
The pose, the song, the doll’s talent and genius rivaling HER.
And then she remembered something. A certain donation message of a random on her stream, his message clear as day, but to nearly all it was the ramblings of a madman.
But she had seen what he had seen.
Ichika didn’t stay for the counting of the votes. Or the announcement of the winner: Bionikoko Prototype Gamma.
No, she was on her phone looking through her donation history for the one who send her the message.
She would teach these dancing dollies to not mess with her again, especially Umeko Yamada.

“Have you seen her face?” Gamma jostled me as we, together with Delta entered the subway. “Priceless!”
“It was at that moment she knew…” I began.
“She fucked up.” We three joked in unsion.
“Ah,…” Gamma stretched her legs upon sitting down, a few faces turning towards us. “So, what do you want to do during our break.”
“Well, for one I want to see how Zarruriel and the Chaosstar Maids are doing. Then after that, there was a group from Oregon Beta recommended to me who performs in Shibuya. I would also like to see that new group from Saga that has made waves and…” I had taken out a list with all the groups I wanted to see during the festival measuring two full pages.
“Woah… Woah… Slow down!” Delta interrupted me. “I don’t think there are enough hours in the day for you to see everything the festival has to offer.”
“I know…” I sighed, realizing that the I would only ever cross off a fracture. “Besides, is there anything you two want to see?”
“Well, there are some in the Olympic Stadium I wasn’t able to visit yet.”
“And you Delta?”
“Eh, I got nothing. I’ll just tag along with, you two.”
“Delta…” I pulled her close to me, softly whispering: “There is no need to restrain yourself just for our sake.”
“What do you mean?”
“She means…” Gamma pulled Delta close to her and whispered. “You don’t need to play the gentleman. We are just girls out to enjoy the festival, you included.”
“In that case…” Delta mumbled after contemplating for nearly the distance between two stations, finally pulling out her phone.
“I’d like to go to the Epsorts arena.” Delta pointed to a location a few stations away from the Olympic Stadium.
“They do Idol performances there as well?” Gamma leaned into the map.
“Yes, they also do LAN matches with fans.”
“LAN?” Gamma clearly knew nothing about that word, and neither did I.
“Delta… ” I gently nudged her, reminding my boyfriend that not everyone might know the lingo he knows.
“It is kinda like couch multiplayer. Although everyone has their own computer instead of all sitting before a single screen.”
“Oh, that sounds fun.” Gamma giggled. “The only games I really ever tried where dancing games. Do they have that too?”
“I think so… Although I am more into competitive games…”
“I think this station is for the Esports Arena, Delta?” I pointed to the sign showing the station the train would be stopping at next.
“Oh yes!” Delta sprung up, with Gamma and me following and eventually catching up to her.
“Hold up…” I locked myself into Delta’s arm. “Your legs are too long for us to keep up.”
“Ups..” Delta waited for us, and continued further towards the arena, this time at a slower pace. “It can’t be helped…”
“It is fine.” I whispered to Delta.

He had ordered by now his third glass of beer waiting for the anonymous person messaging him in regarding Umeko Yamada, promising to help him.
He had tried to get closer to Bionikokoro during the closed hours, to no avail. They kept them and by extension Umeko Yamada under lock and key.
“Tsk.” It pissed him off. He had to endure that place for all these years only for her to continue lying to her fans through her teeth. “What a load of bullshit!”
However, if what this person is true, he might be able to her pay for it. Apparently the first time hadn’t been enough.
Although…
He sighed.
With how thick security is at the old theater in Sekai Tobira, maybe he should just forget it. Damn that stupid directive of the psych ward not to interact with Idol culture anymore. The International Idol Festival was currently held right here, and he had wasted three days just to find out where Umeko Yamada was, and snooping out if there was any sort of lapse in vigilance, he could have abused to deliver justice.
And with the earth not being flat, justice was certainly not a given, he messaged his eyes. He made the call to finish this glass, pay up and enjoy the rest of the festival.
“Maybe I’ll find someone to root for who deserves it more than she ever did.” He readied himself and started to drink the rest in one gulp.
He then noticed, after being lost in thought for so long, that someone was now sitting in front of him.
“Dead0Fan, I assume?” It was the voice… of a girl, wearing a baseball cap, sunglasses and a facemask.
“Eh… yes.” He nearly choked on his glass, now trying his best to remain calm. “Sorry… I… eh… didn’t expect… you to be… a … girl.”
“Oh, no need to apologize after all…” Her voice was soft and oozing, yet not low, quite the opposite. She lifted her glasses and lowered her facemask. She was radiant, mesmerizing and outshining the dark spots he ought to have seen. “I did ban you despite the large donation you gave me, so I ought to be the one apologizing.”
“Oh, thanks I guess… eh… I don’t think you introduced yourself?”
“Wha… Really?” She pouted, and not the cute kind of pout. “Like do I even need to do that, considering who I am?”
“I… eh…” He stammered in panic at her being upset. He did recognize her face, but it wasn’t attached to a name. He had spammed donations and messages to so many streams just to get the word out, only to get either banned, or just drowned out. But he did recall seeing her more recently, only in passing. “The old theater… right? Eh?”
“Ugh what a waste…” She rolled her eyes, rolling up her mask and ready to leave. His mind was desperately cramming for a name.
“Eh… Ichika! Wasn’t it?”
Her displeasure was gone in an instant. “Oh, so you do remember?”
“I think so…” He did stay for part of the concert there, the ones that didn’t involve the faceless dolls amongst which Umeko hid. “You certainly… were the highlight of the concert for me.”
“Oh, thank you, that’s so sweet of you!” He blushed upon hearing such kind words. “I do appreciate my fans, old and new, as long as they are loyal.”
“Loyal, yes…” He cleared his throat with constipation. “Unlike Umeko…”
“Yamada, I assume.” She reached out her hand to his, almost close enough to touch him. “You probably already heard stuff about her but take it as someone who had to work under the same label as her: She was waaaay worse personally, especially her stupid little lapdog.”
He gritted his teeth, the man he despised as much as Umeko herself. Not merely for him chasing him and beating him up for making them pay for their illicit relationship, he had the gall to claim he was just ‘her cousin’.
“Oh, you poor little thing.” She doted him. “It is a crime really what she did to you and her other fans. And now she is back at it again… as Gamma.”
“You recognized her too then!” He jumped at her, before realizing his shouting had drawn the attention of the rest of the bar. He descended meekly back onto his seat. “Sorry…”
“Yes… Unmistakably her. She must have enjoyed toying with me.” A small creek of tears erupted from her eyes.
“What did she do?” He asked her.
“Not only, did those rubber freaks try to steal away fans from us, no. Two of them challenged me to a singing duel, but then decided to send her… to… sniff… humiliate me in front of an audience.” The creek of tears had turned into a river, filled with crocodiles, which he did not notice.
“No, it is fine… I’ll make her pay! For this… For everything!” He gave her some tissues, her sobbing slowly subsiding.
“Really? Oh, that would be so amazing of you!” Her reddened eyes beamed with gratitude.
“Although I can’t promise much…” He shamefully admitted. “I am just some guy. And with how tight their security is…”
“Wait a moment…” She was searching in a pouch for a second before finding the object of interest and giving it to him. “This should do it!”
“What is this?” He inspected the card, phrased on it was: ‘International Idol Festival Sekai Tobira Backstage Pass. PERFORMERS AND STAFF ONLY!’
“A keycard? But how will this help me… eh… us.”
Ichika proceeded to shuffle right next to his ear, to lace it with the final dose of her sweet poison:
“The stage of the theater has many entries, with some groups sharing an entryway. With this you can get them while they are on stage.”
“On stage… You mean during a performance?” His heart pounded at such an audacious idea, to attack an Idol on stage… He certainly couldn’t remember anyone ever trying to such a brazen thing.
“If I can ask a small favor of you: Take off that mask of hers so her sycophants can see the witch they are cheering for. She isn’t wearing a mask for nothing…”
“My first punishment of her…” He blabbered out, biting his tongue just as he said it.
“You mean…” Her smile coiled up into a devilish smirk. “Then do me the favor and punish her again… And this time so much that she will never ever want to go on a stage ever again. Would you do that for me?”
He had never felt a woman touch him so intimately. Even their fingers intertwined.
He nodded. “Anything more from your end?”
“No… I will leave the rest up to you, …” Her voice reverberated into his soul. “Darling. You don’t know how happy I am knowing that that bitch will get what is coming to her.”
He walked away half an hour after she left, his eyes empty, yet full of determination to do what must be done, in his mind, for the good of all.
And so, the wrath of small angry men, blood boiling, was once again used in the ulterior machinations of far greater men, or in this case in the schemes of a woman.

“Cheese!” I smiled at the camera, despite the mask obstructing my mouth, while Delta and I formed the upper half of a heart.
“Cheese!” The lower half was formed by two girls standing between us, wearing hazmat suits like any other visitor in the laboratory. “Thank you so much!”
“You are welcome!” Our manager handed them their camera back, before going outside removing the hazmat suit to talk with someone very important looking.
“Woah, this guy is from a big electronics company.” One of the two fans gushed. “You are so lucky.”
“Not luck. Just our manager having good contacts and such.”
“Still…” The other one said. “I would love to have a manager like him. Imagine if my little sis and I had someone like him…”
“Wait, are you idols as well?”
“Hey, could you not tell everyone you meet about it.” The other one grumbled. “And besides that, I am only younger by a few minutes.”
“Twin idols.” Delta remarked surprised. “Now that is a unique selling point.”
“Yeah…” The other twin grumbled. “If only my blood wouldn’t freeze as soon as I see a crowd.”
“Stage fright?” I questioned her concerned, to which she nodded.
“I do like the whole performing thing, it is just… All that goes on in my head is thinking about what the people looking at me are thinking. Hell, maybe someone even recognizes me and thinks: Ugh, what is she doing there and…”
“Sis…” Her older twin softly bonked her on the head. “When you are on stage you do, not think.”
“You make it sound so easy…” She rubbed her head. “I just can’t help it.”
“Hmmm…” Considering she said she was always imagining others having thoughts about her when she was on stage. “Have you ever tried performing while wearing a mask of some kind?”
“Eh, not really. Do you think it might help…” She took my advice straight.
“Oh, I see where this is going…” Furrowed her eyebrows. “Are you trying to recruit us for Bionikokoro?”
“Of course not. I was just giving your sister advice…” Was what I wanted to say, however…
“Maybe.” Delta had cut me off. And by the looks of it the older twin was intrigued.
“Well, a rubber suit wouldn’t be my first choice for an outfit, but they do leave quite an impression. We wouldn’t be here without them.”
“What about you?” I asked the younger twin.
“I mean…” She stammered. “It is quite revealing, but at the same time not… How does it feel to be inside one of them. It must be really uncomfortable wearing them.”
“Not… really.” I leaned back and stretched myself, and by extension my rubber suit. “It feels awkward at first sure and you do tend to sweat a lot, even if you wear it in temperate environments.”
“Explains the AC in here being cranked up to 11.” The older twin mumbled.
“But after a while you get very much used to it and it becomes your second skin. Hell, I even like to wear it casually at home. I have come to really enjoy myself in this form.”
“Gasmask included?” The twins were a bit baffled by my confession.
“At times.”
“So where do we sign up, if we wanted your overlords to turn us into Idol drones?” The older twin joked.
“It is all on our website, though competition might be tough though.”
“Oh man… And here I was hoping to get brainwashed or something like that.”
“Big sis…” The younger one nudged her in her sides.
“Just joking.” Her older sister was left laughing. “But seriously… Is there something we could do to better our chances. Being able to stay private despite the fame sounds sweet, especially considering my sister.”
“Well… Considering I can’t really come around much during the festival due to being an Idol myself…” I took out my phone, giving her my contact which she took with a nod. “I would greatly appreciate if I could at least have some mementos from other groups, I would have liked to visit and in exchange I will put in a good word for you, ok?”
“Really?” The younger twin was a bit more cautious. “What’s the catch.”
“The catch is that all that matters is your effort and your talent.” I answered her, who reminded me a bit of myself a bit over a year ago. “Good luck, maybe we will see you as part of the next generation of Bionikokoro.”
“I…” She held in, responding with a mumbled: “I will look forward to it.”
“Likewise… See ya.” Her older twin gave us a farewell, before walking off with her sister towards the airlock. “Come on, we got to gather a bunch of macguffins in order to turn them in for favor.”
“Alright, alright. We are not on a quest or something like that.”
“Making contacts and recruiting new blood…” I heard Alpha clapping slowly. “Like a pro.”
“Oh, don’t mention it. I was just being nice to them.” I politely rejected the compliment.
“Not everyone is this fore coming to newcomers. There are some who would pull up the ladder as soon as they feel they have reached the top.”
“To prevent rivals?” Alpha nodded to my question.
“Hmm, reminds me. What is Ichika up to?” Delta wondered. “She has been awfully quiet, ever since Gamma wiped the stage with her.”
“Coping, probably.” I really hoped she had learned her lesson after this, after all she had done to Zen.

“Momo, could you do me a favor, pleeeease?” She knew when Ichika pulled that kind of voice. When she was still fresh, she had fallen for it quite often, but after being burned time and time again she had come to wise up to her tricks.
“Sure, what is it?” But Ichika was, like it or not, the most important of the trio and the one who could easily wreck an entire career just because she felt slighted.
“I, like, totally forgot my keycard for the theater. Could I have yours?”
Right, the keycard. Something they were all told to treat like the key to their house, as it opened the doors to the backstage area to anyone who has it. If she or Tomo would lose it, they were sure to get an earful.
“Here.” But this was Ichika, nothing of the sort would ever happen to her, Momo thought while rummaging around her belongings in their hotel room. It wasn’t that much compared to Ichika whose things occupied most of the florr. “Don’t forget to contact the festival management about your missing card, if it isn’t found they will need to block it from opening any doors.”
“Eh… Yeah whatever…” Ichika was more focused on her phone than to what her colleague was saying. It was likely, she, like so many other times before, had to do the paperwork for her, again.
“Oh well…” She mumbled. “Not like they would give you shit for it anyways.”
“Did you say something?” Ichika turned around.
“N…nothing really… Just…” She was elevated when finally found it. “Mumbling where I put this thing.”
Ichika was nothing if perceptive of her surroundings and other people, Momo shuddered silently, not being able to show it.
“Here you go.”
“Thank you soooo much.” It was in that sweet voice, Momo had by now come to know was laced with virulent poison. Even the hugs she gave, where all just an act.
“N…no need to thank me.” She slowly pushed her off, trying not to seem too rejective. “I…if you want, I can help you look for your old card. Do you remember where you last saw it?”
“Hmmm… That must be…” Ichika seemed to genuinely try to recall it, Momo thought relieved. She knew it must have likely been after that late-night trip she had taken yesterday.
“I last had it when we were in that old hovel.”
Momo started sweating icicles. She knew the person in front of her lied, without even so much as blinking and she would have probably believed her as well, if she hadn’t had a sleepless night yesterday.
It was during these inhuman hours she saw Ichika get up, dress not in their usual costumes but in a coat, baseball cap, sunglasses and a medical mask and going out into the night, but not before Momo seeing her pocketing her own keycard without the need to take it, only to later return without having it.
“Really? I thought I saw yours in your things.” Momo tried to be as polite as she could in her situation, pointing to Ichika’s massive pile of clothes, accessories and other things she demanded to take with herself.
“What? That can’t be possible. Maybe you are thinking of yours or Nana’s card? Maybe the card of our manager? I know I last had it back there. Besides… Why are you sniffing around in my stuff?”
“I…” I saw you last night leaving with it, you lying snake, was what Momo really wanted to say, but in the end who was she, a girl who had only managed to become an idol due to luck despite all her effort. If Ichika badmouthed her for speaking frankly to her, she could already start digging a grave for her career. “I didn’t sleep well last night. Maybe my memory is a bit foggy.”
“We are getting old, already? Not a good omen for your career.”
“Yes, hehe… I think I’ll go to bed now.” Momo pulled over her sheets. “Don’t forget to declare your keycard as missing tomorrow.”
Ichika didn’t answer, only the clicking of a digital smartphone keyboard being drowning out the noise from the streets.
Why couldn’t I be in another group, Momo sleeplessly boiled in her bed, her face turned away from Ichika. One without a tyrant like her.
Even during the festival, where she had hoped to get some wider recognition beyond being just her posse, she hadn’t had one opportunity to get out of her shadow. They were always to be with her, the center, the lodestar of their group. And during the meet and greets, most of the table was reserved for her and even the few fans she and Nana managed to attract for themselves were at every opportunity poached by Ichika, who pulled them over to her queue, especially if her queue was empty.
‘Why did I have to land with her? Why couldn’t I be with any other group…’ She recalled the Chaosstar Maids, who Ichika came to hate with a burning passion for supposedly ‘outshining her without deserving it’ and, of course, Bionikokoro.
Momo chuckled quietly.
The only time she had any fun this week when Ichika faced the challenger from the group of the girls dressed in gimp fetish suit and gasmasks, a weird idea for idols to be sure, but the idea of making them some sort of artificial creation of mad scientists was definitely a clever idea.
Ichika had gone in with bravado, cocksure she would sing them into the ground. Much to her dismay, and Momo’s concealed joy, Ichika had gotten the smackdown she had deserved for so long.
‘maybe I should have joined them…’ Momo mumbled, drifting into sleep. They sure look weird, but at least they seem to enjoy themselves.

“And that’s it.” Ikki Inoi gently pushed the final of the storage vaults in and closed the door.
“All of them are nice and tucked in for tomorrow.” Yuuki commented, softly touching the vault containing his cousin. “She is so different when she is wearing it…”
“I suppose it must be weird seeing her like this. Especially considering her history.”
“No…” Yuuki smiled sincerely. “I didn’t mean it in a condescending way. Seeing her like this…” Yuuki’s gaze swerved upwards, roughly where the stage was. “She was like back then, as if the clock had been turned back. The same overflowing bud of energy. Have you seen her during that singing duel yesterday?”
Ikki grinned, still seeing the scene clear in front of him. “The crowd went wild when she began, bit risqué to pick one of her old songs, but I am not one to speak against the crowd. What makes me befuddled is how my old company is still trying to push Ichika Sora…”
“Wasn’t she the one who replaced Umeko?”
“Yes… An absolute drama queen! And don’t get me started on her performance!”
“Hmm…” Yuuki pondered for a moment. “She… was missing something… As far as I can say she was ok but…”
“It is soulless!” Ikki pointed straight at Yuuki. “Sure, she manages to hit the notes and technically she can dance well enough. But nothing more. She…”
Ikki bursted out into laughter. “She performs like a robot would!”
Yuuki saw the irony as well. “And here I thought Bionikokoro was supposed to be the soulless robots!”
“Well…” Ikki slowly gasped for air after their fit. “The secret is beneath the shell of plastic and rubber. Uah… I think I better get some rest now.”
“Sure thing, I’ll just do one more round. Just to see if everything is ok. And…”
Yuuki stood there awkwardly thinking how to put his feelings to word. “Thanks, for looking out for Umeko.”
“Hey, I am just doing my job.”
“I don’t think every manager would sleep in a refurbished broom closet.”
“Well security is one concern; the other is the vault.”
“Didn’t you tell me they aren’t dangerous whatsoever?” Yuuki was a bit perplexed at this revelation.
“They are fine and safe, especially compared to the original version.”
“What was the original version?”
“Originally, after Saihoushi told me about it, we planned to have the inner rubber sacks vacuum sealed.”
“That’s it?”
“Yes, but we scrapped it after Maya did some research and found done wrongly it could cut off certain blood vessel.” Ikki pointed to the carotid artery on his neck. “So, we scrapped the vacuum and just made the sacks tight, but with air left in them. But I still want to make sure they are fine.”
He gave Yuuki his phone, with an app opened showing 5 updating graphs marked ‘Alpha’ to ‘Epsilon’.
“If anyone of these register something out of the ordinary happening they will trigger an alarm and wake me up.”
“Clever…” Yuuki chuckled. “You really thought of everything.”
“Wouldn’t want anything terrible to happen to them. Uaaah…”
“Good night then…”
“Good night as well, or whatever is left of it.” Yuuki waved, with Ikki closing the door to his little temporary abode, just big enough to cram a matrass in and about to change for the night when he heard knocking on his door.
“Yo, Inoi!”
“What is it?”
“Did you have a smoke break or something? The back door to the backstage was open.” He pointed outside their backstage area leading to the outside. “Did you forget to close it or was it someone else?”
“I…” Ikki pulled up his pants as he inspected the door as well. “I… don’t think so. But good that you noticed, anyone could have come in.”
“I better, whoever that guy is that sent those letters is still around.”
“Yes, of course…” Ikki massaged his worried eyes. “Like letting the door to the candy factory open for any kid to come in. Do ask the other teams if any of them have opened it, or if there has been any sort of thefts.”
“I will first thing in the morning.” Yuuki almost went out their area of the backstage again, before stopping. “And thank you again, for giving Umeko a second wind… I know we never were on good terms after she got attacked, but I mean it.”
“Much appreciated…” Ikki bowed and closed the door to finally get the rest of his sleep.
As Yuuki continued his patrol through the backstage he walked by the door again.
“What the…” It was open again.
He peeked outside to the narrow alley behind the theater, scanning both sides, one leading to a dead end, the other to a larger street, just around the corner of the main entry of the currently closed theater.
Even at 3 in the morning there were still a handful of people walking around. But none looked like they just opened this door.
“I am going to have a word with the rest of the security staff.” He shook his head and went back in. Closing the door again, and this time using the old rusty locking bar no one ever used, believing the new system installed to be enough.
He was away at the other end of the backstage when a electronic click could be heard, followed by the rattling of the old rusty bolt, before one could barely hear a stream of curses and the automatic closing of the electronic mechanism after a few minutes.
“I will just have to wait for these chumps to slack off.” A figure in a rain jacket mumbled as he left the alley, tearing at one of the posters with the various groups inside. “And then…”
It was the image of Bioniko Prototype Gamma.

“I am gonna go out for a bit. Catch some fresh air…” Momo told the others, hurrying outside.
Her head felt like bursting apart, not only from the stress. Ichika was in a very chipper mood, unlike the days before and especially after she lost that singing duel.
But there was something sinister in the way Ichika was behaving, like she was waiting for something to happen.
And Momo herself wouldn’t dare ask that question, to Ichika or the manager.
“It is all going to be fine. You are just… imagining things…”
“And when the time comes to ask yourself: Just what have I done?” Someone on the outside was singing, accompanied by an acoustic guitar. “There was nothing left for to dooo-ho.”
It was from a girl sitting on a makeshift seating a few meters from the theater entrance away. Her hair unkempt, and her clothes looked worn as was the guitar she was playing on and yet the music was good.
A small crowd had gathered before her, a few of them throwing a couple hundred yen into the cup she had put next to her.
“Thank you everyone…” She gave a slight bow, with the clinging of a few more coins accompanying her. “This will be it for now, my next appearance will be at the Imperial Park North Gate at dusk.”
After the crowd dispersed, she proceeded to count what she had made with a beaming smile. “2500… 3000… Yes, just enough for a night at the net cafe!”
She interrupted her counting when noticing Momo and another girl watching her in awe. “Sorry, nothing more from me here… I would think…”
She noticed the badge hanging around Momo’s neck. “You are a partner, wow! I would have thought you got better things to do then watch someone like me play.”
“You are good.” Momo plainly stated.
“Oh, don’t say that. I’m just playing well enough to make ends meet. Maybe some small change on the side.” The net cafe refugee humbly replied, while fastening her guitar to her large backpack, swinging it over her back.
“I have to agree with her.” The other girl gestured towards Momo. “I have seen people with less talent than you on a stage.”
“Wait, are you an idol as well?” The rough looking girl asked, examining her closely. “No badge…”
“Yes… Well, no… It is complicated…”
“Aspiring idol?”
“Sigh! Yes… I have been at it for over a year now. But nothing… All cold. What wouldn’t I give for a spot. You must have quite the success to be an official partner?” She looked at Momo with admiration.
“I mean. It is ok. Although I wish I had declined joining them.”
“Really? Well, if you did that would have made two of us.”
“I thought you didn’t get any offers until now?”
“Well, …” The aspiring idol looked away in discomfort. “I did get one, but… Let’s just say their choice of clothing was too perverted for me. Although considering their success, I probably made a huge mistake.”
She gestured to a poster behind the street performer, who upon turning saw a couple of women, she assumed, who were wearing some kind of shiny skintight full bodysuits and gasmasks.
“Now that is quite out there.” The street performer nodded with wide eyes, reading out the bottom text. “’Volunteer today as test subject for the Artificial Idol Project and become part of a future series of Bionikokoro.’ Looks like it is not too late for you yet.”
“Wait, you had the chance to be one of them?” Momo couldn’t quite believe it.
“I thought I could do better, but…” The wannabe idol pouted.
“Nothing did bite. Well at least it wasn’t a shark!” Momo joked.
“Are you working for some sort of black company?” The girl with the backpack grinned.
“You could say so.” Momo groaned. “Our center really is a sore.”
“oh…” She got as a response. “Ichika Sora? If I remember correctly.”
Momo nodded. “Behind the stage she is a real tyrant. And my contract is still going.”
Momo looked at the poster with the 5 rubber girls. “I have seen them. They are… quite nice. Wish I had joined them, instead of falling for that trap of an offer.”
“Hmmm…” The street performer pondered at the poster. “Do you think I could make it?”
“Why would you want to join them?” The former Bionikokoro applicant asked bewildered.
“Beats having to do gig work or having to do performances on the street, although with the festival there are a lot of foreigners who are a tad more charitable. When he scouted you were there any requirements you had to fulfill? Like a permanent address?”
“Not really, no. He did ask me for an address, but only to send me the costume.”
“Wait you were this close to be a part of them?” Momo couldn’t really believe it.
“Wow you really fumbled the bag at the last moment.” The street performer laughed. “But there is always a second chance, isn’t there?”
“I…” She hesitated to give an answer. She had been desperate for a chance, sure, but this desperate? On the other hand,… “I do still have the number of their manager. Maybe…”
“Really?” The street performer pulled out her cracked phone. “Would you mind giving me it. I might try my chance as well!”
“Eh… sure…”
“Good luck with applying, you two.” Momo waved these two strangers farewell, lightened by her being able to admit what she really thought about her predicament. “If I could join them as well? No one would be able recognize me behind the mask.”

“Wow…” I mumbled to the other Bionikos while peeking out behind the curtain. “The crowd is even bigger than yesterday.”
“Today is Friday. Lots of people are here for the weekend.” Delta nodded in agreement. “The room is bursting at the seams.”
The previous group, the Ichika Girls were stepping off the stage, with the crowd already knowing who is coming next.
“Bioniko! Bioniko! Bioniko!”
“Wow, they can’t wait.” Beta exclaimed.
“Exciting isn’t it, Gamma?” I turned around her.
“You get used to it.” She answered with a straight posture.
“Come on!” Alpha nudged her. “Even I get a bit flustered when going on stage.”
“Okay, maybe… a bit.”
“Take a deep breath in and out…” Alpha ordered us, with all of our chests heaving and lowering at once. “No then, let’s not keep our fans waiting.”
We lined up and waited for our queue and the announcer to wave us in.
Beneath all the noise I would have barely noticed Ichika whispering something to us, Gamma specifically.
“What did she say?” I asked Gamma perplexed by Ichika’s cold smile.
“She is going to enjoy watching us…”
“Oh ok…” I shrugged. I was too occupied with the upcoming performance to not notice the strange feeling I had that something was up. Something troubling.
But for now…
“Ladies and Gentlemen: The Artificial Idol Project: Bionikokoro!”
I had to focus on being just Prototype Delta, an artificial being made to be an idol.
“Hello, good to see you all here!”

“Well, well, well, if it isn’t Yuuki Yamada.” One of the security guards patted him so hard Yuuki nearly chocked on his coffee. “Never would have expected the Idol Scourge to become a security guard for an Idol group.”
“Oh, shut it!” Yuuki barked back. “It is a job nothing more.”
“Is being their cook also part of the job?” Another guard laughed. “I saw you come through this door with a bag full of groceries.”
“Well…” Yuuki stuttered, then quietly admitted: “Their manager asked me if I could do that for them… To reduce the possibility of their identities being leaked.”
“How thoughtful.” One of the guards heightened his voice to sound overly polite.
“More than you lot…” Yuuki barged over to the door, closing it from the outside.
“Yo wait up…” One of the guards put his foot in the door. “Don’t close the door on me during my smoke break.”
“I told you to keep the backstage door shut.”
“Relax… It is not like anyone could sneak by us.”
“Yeah, with us standing between it and the alley entry.” He noticed Yuuki rolling his eyes. “Wait is this about us not using that old locking bar.”
“It would help.” Yuuki leaned against the wall, picking up his coffee to drink it all up.
“Like that rusty old thing would stop anyone.” The guard then went on to switch topics. “So, how are they?”
“Who?”
“You know Bionikokoro. What are they like behind the mask?”
“Fuck off…”
“No names or anything like that. Just curious. Those European Knightesses I work for example are quite charming.”
“What about those Americans… eh… from Idaho, right?” Another guard chimed in.
“Sweetest little cinnamon rolls.” The security guard for them responded with endearment. “I don’t think they even expected to get this far.”
The eyes of the half dozen guards swerved now towards Yuuki Yamada again, expecting answers.
“Fine… I don’t think I need to tell you a lot about Alpha, do I?”
“Top Milf!” One of the guards nodded, to which Yuuki made a grimace saying: One more comment like this and I will not say a word more. “Sorry…”
“But yes, she is basically their den mother. A sort of rock they all lean on. As for the rest: Beta is really quite open, being from the US and all, but not in the rude way you often see tourists behaving. She really has come to feel at home here. Delta is…” Yuuki stopped for a moment. “Delta is a real bro, for a lack of a better term. Really loves games, and not in the ‘Oh look at me!’ way. Genuinely cares about the things she loves.”
“Like Epsilon?” Yuuki frowned again. “Come on there must be more going on between the two!”
“They do tend to be always close to each other. It’s kinda sweet to see them interacting. As for Epsilon: She is… How do I put this? She is an Idol Otaku. Last dinner I heard her going on about a particular group in venue west of here. She just wouldn’t stop gushing about how good their act was. Inner City Girls, I think they are called.”
“Hmm, might check them out if I got time.” One of the guards commented.
“Do have to admit I feel jealous for her: Little Epsilon gone and achieved her dream of being an idol.”
“She does have the talent to back it up, but yes, she really wanted this for a long time.”
“Now what about Gamma?”
“Gamma? Eh…” Yuuki became flustered, trying to not out his cousin.
“No, don’t say?!” The other guards picked up on it. “Are you rooting for her, and took the job to meet her in person?”
“It is not like I took the job because I am her fan or anything like that!” Yuuki protested to no avail.
“A coldhearted man with no love for Idols or their fans, has his heart melted by a beautiful Idol-Android.” One guard pondered romantically. “Would make for a great story.”
“Good luck going up against Generic Isekai, number 3421!” Another slapped the fledgling storytellers back. “What do you think champ? Would you play the hero saving the cute little android from the eeeevil Artificial Idol project?”
“Oh just… shut it.” Yuuki shouted them down, with all seemingly awaiting what he has to say about Bioniko Prototype Gamma. “I do think she is really…”
Clank!
Behind them in the dead end of the alley an empty trashcan was knocked over by a cat chasing something. Yet that cat wasn’t the prominent actor in the view of the now alerted guards.
It was a man in a trenchcoat, who also looked at the cat following its movement through the guards’ legs, his face visible to them. He then went inside; through the door he had just opened with a keycard.
Yuuki stood there while his gears were turning. He knew this face; it was deeply etched into his mind. The face of a man who took everything from his cousin Umeko, all over a fabrication in his sick and twisted mind.
“Do you know him?” One of the guards looked at him with concern.
“Who is on stage right now?” His voice was drained of emotion, his eyes razor thin. He stammered on “If Inoi is with them behind the curtain he could still…”
“I think…” One guard checked the schedule. “Oh, it is Bionikokoro.”
“Fuck!” Yuuki bolted to the door, leaving his confused colleagues behind. “Not again! You will not harm her again, you monster!”

It happened so fast. One minute we were performing, the crowd clapping along to the beat, light sticks as far as the eye could see. And then…
“You will pay!”
In the blink of an eye someone ran onto the stage and pushed Gamma to the floor.
“Wha… EEEEK!”
The man did not hold back, holding her by the throat with his right hand, while attempting to tear off her mask, all the while Gamma was starting to lash out against her attacker.
Most of us, including me were still trying to wrap their heads around what was happening, shocked by the sudden appearance of the attacker, except for Delta.
Seconds before we were even able to move a muscle, she… he was already wrestling him off Gamma, who now was desperately trying to get his hand of her throat.
In the attackers was a malicious glee and bulging eyes, like a beast right before devouring its prey. Even as Delta pried him off, he persisted, mumbling something I could barely hear in the now murmuring crowd, who was as shocked as we were.
“Just … wore … mask you …take us …fools again?”
By now he had realized he had to unlock the straps on her back to get Gamma’s gasmask off and against Delta’s best will he managed to one by one.
I had only heard of fans like this, whose zealotry had twisted, from obsessive love to blind hatred, yet every time I just thought of them as something distant, even as Umeko had silently disappeared from the public eye all those years ago.
This man on top of her was very much real!
“Let go… off her!” Delta groaned into her microphone, which by now was cut off from the loudspeakers by the backstage crew the same moment they cut off the music. But with the slippery rubber there was not much chance of holding him off.
And suddenly, though more hastened someone else appeared on stage, running towards the struggle. None other than Yuuki, who reinforced Delta’s effort to tear the attacker off Gamma without the two exchanging so much as a word.
But he just wouldn’t give up, clinging onto Gamma’s mask, flailing and screaming.
“You will not get away with this! You will not get…”
The mask came off, with the attacker still not letting go off it, held back by Yuuki and Delta.
“I hope you eat shit and die, Umeko! You filthy piece of…” His screeching was cut off by Yuuki holding his mouth shut, while staff from the backstage came running with zip ties. The attacker gazed once more at the now unmasked Umeko, the mask dropping out of his hands once he saw the scarred girl behind the mask.
Delta then picked up Gamma’s mask and returned it to her and helped her up. During that entire time her gaze was fixed on the audience that had just witnessed the attack on her.
There was unintelligible murmuring, and while taking footage was not allowed there were surely some people who would have taken pictures, faceless to us with the stage lights shining brightly on us all.
“What happened to her left eye? It is all white…”
“Ha… Epsilon…” I felt someone shaking at me, with me taking a second to realize it was Delta staring at me, holding me softly yet firmly. “Are you alright?”
“Yes… Yes, of course I am, but what about…” I looked at Gamma who for a moment gazed at the audience, with the audience gazing back, her back towards us. I could only imagine what must have been going on in her head at that time.
She then, to our utter surprise, simply put on her mask and walked back to us, with cheering from the crowd: “Ga! Ma! Ga! Ma! Ga! Ma!”
“Gamma… If you need to, we can adjourn our performance for now. We all understand if you…” Alpha approached her softly.
“No, let’s keep going. Gamma to stage control… yes… start over from the track beginning…” She kept a firm pose, but I could see her hand twitching ever so slightly.
“You are seriously pushing yourself though, after all this?” Beta protested her concern.
“Yes I am… All right you can switch our voice channel back to the main speaker array…” She proceeded to ignore her.
“Gamma…” I tugged her by the arm. “We are not going to judge you for taking a break right now. No one is going to…”
“What does a computer do when it crashes?” She asked me, who was too baffled by her unwarranted professionalism as I could hear the stage control counting down to the voice channel switching back. “It reboots and goes on as if nothing ever happened.”
“But you are not a comp…”
“And we are back…” The crew announced our mics being hot again and almost immediately Gamma took charge.
“We apologize for the technical difficulties! We are now up and ready again and as compensation, you all get an ENCORE!”
The dark hall filled up gradually with light sticks again as the crowd cheered us, but more specifically her on.
“Gamma! Gamma! Gamma!”
“What is this feeling in our chest?
What is this pressure in our blood?
This sensation feels so tensed.
And our hearts are in full flood.
Whatever can this feeling be?
Why all the sudden am I free?…”
I couldn’t really decide at this very moment, whether to worry about Gamma for pushing through what just happened to her or admire her for keeping going as if nothing had ever happened.
But at that moment, I was too busy to sing and dance to think about that, except one thing: This is the Umeko Yamada I had always admired.
And eventually our performance was done, the next group looking at us with a mixture of bewilderment and admiration.
And Umeko was still shaking.
“Gamma… ” Alpha whispered to her. “You really didn’t need to pull through. Everyone would have understood, even the audience.”
“I couldn’t let him…” She mumbled to our confusion, the angst she had managed to bottle up boiling up again. “I could not let him win again!”
“There, there.” I comforted her, hugging her, giving her headpats. “It is alright. You were so brave; I couldn’t think of someone more worthy to root for.”
“Thank you,… sniff…” Gamma started to calm down. “When…. When I… looked over the audience without my mask… I felt kind of relieved…”
“Really?” Delta shook her head. “Even after…”
“Some didn’t recognize me… A few probably did… But none of them cared for it. For the one behind the mask. They came for Bionikokoro… For us…”
I could almost see Uemko smile behind Gamma’s mask.
“And I am Bioniko Gamma. So… I put the mask back on and became Gamma again. They don’t care who I am behind it.”
“Excuse me, Miss… eh… Gamma… your actual name is…” A voice belonging to a police officer approached us. “Should we speak at a later moment, if you need some time?”
“Sorry for the sentimentalities.” Gamma apologized. “Yes, I am Umeko Yamada, if that is important for the record.”
“Yes, although we can change it for the public record if you wish.”
“That would be nice for now… And thank you for arriving early…” Gamma slightly bowed again.
“No need, we are patrolling during the festival and were only a few blocks away when the theater called us about the situation.” The female cop took out a notebook. “For the record: You, Bionikokoro were assaulted at 19:34, with eh… Gamma being targeted in particular?”
“Yes, that is right!” Ikki Inoi came rushing in. “After the attacker managed to get access to the backstage.”
He then turned to Gamma. “I am so sorry for this happening. I don’t know how I could ever make up for it.”
“Please, Mr. Inoi. You don’t need to, thanks to Delta and Yuuki everything is alright.”
“Speaking of which…” The officer swayed her eyes over us multiple times. “Which one of you is Delta?”
“That would be me…” Delta hesitantly stepped forward.
“I would very much commend you the.” She gave Delta her hand and shook it firmly. “If it weren’t for you, security might have been too late.”
“Oh, don’t mention it, we are a team after all. That is a given.” Delta eyed the policewoman who, after letting go, seemingly studied her hand for a while.
“Firm… hmm… Anyways…” She went over her notes again. “I have more witnesses to question, including… Yuuki Yamada… are you related?”
“He is my cousin.” Gamma whispered to the police officer.
“Ah… Explains why he got himself into trouble so often… Well then… I say you deserve yourself a long rest after this…”
“Wait… Is… that guy still here?” I held up the officer.
“That voice… I think we met before…”
“Really?” On second glance, I recognized the officer too, from a time when this second skin was still new to me. “The world is small.”
“This city certainly. As for the perpetrator, he is still here until a car comes to transport him to a remand prison for the time being.”
“I want to see him.”
“WHAT?” The others shouted, with Gamma adding: “Why would you want to do that?”
“I need to see the monster who hurt you, fan to fan!”
“As long as you aren’t attacking him in revenge…” The officer waved me over.
“I think… I can restrain myself enough.” I grit my teeth behind the mask.
And after a short walk, I saw the man, unkempt hair, patchy beard, disheveled clothes, hands tied behind his back, his eyes focusing in on me as soon as he saw me with Yuuki standing right next to him.
“Umeko Yamada, you fucking… Wait, you are not her?” He seemed to have realized soon enough that this Bioniko wasn’t the one he had attacked. “Then who are you?”
“Who I am right now is not important. Behind this mask is someone who rooted for Umeko back when in the day.”
“Hah, who would still root for a loose sl…”
“One more word from you and I won’t care about going to prison for what I’ll do next!” Yuuki clamped the guy’s mouth shut.
“Please refrain from assaulting the suspect…” The officer calmly cautioned Yuuki. “We already have enough assaults for today.”
Yuuki relented, but not before giving him a terrifying scowl. The I stepped forward and looked at him deeply. I had so much on my mind to tell this… this… asshole, but all I managed to sputter out was:
“Why?”
“Why what?” He scoffed.
“Why go after Umeko? After all these years?”
“There are things on this earth that are unforgivable. One of them is cheating on her fandom and then lying about it!”
“I swear…” Yuuki growled in the background, relenting to tear him a new hole only because I gestured him to stay back.
“I know that she never did…”
“She did!” He stated his delusions as a fact. “Why else would she walk around with a man, holding hands!”
“But even if she did it, is it worth it to punish someone who already paid for it dearly?” I pointed to roughly where my eyes would be. “You have seen it. What you have done, didn’t you?”
“Shut up…” He started to shake.
“And not just physically…” I stood up. “Was it worth it? Was it worth ruining someone you admired?”
He reserved his right to stay silent, though his face showed my words having some affect, if little.
“Is that all?” The officer asked me, I merely nodded walking slowly away, leaning against the corner of a hallway just out of sight of that man. “Well then, I have some questions for you, young man. How did you manage to get in here?”
“He must have had a pass card.” Yuuki answered her, after I could hear the attacker give no answer. “And I told the other guys to use the old locking bar.”
“That flimsy thing?” Another officer chimed in. “I guess it would have bought time…”
“But the question remains: Where is it? And how did you get your hands on it.” I peeked back to the officers, searching the attacker fully, with him reluctantly complying. “Nothing… Crap…”
“Where is it?” Yuuki grabbed him by the collar.
“Please remain calm and do not strangle the suspect.” The policewoman reprimanded him again. “He has probably dropped it somewhere… Let’s search the premises and…”
“Excuse me, officer…”
“Wah!” I jumped at the soft, squeamish voice behind me, turning around I found a girl standing behind me clutching something in her gloved right hand, wearing a very familiar uniform.
“Yes.” The officer looked at her with sharp eyes.
“I… I think… I saw him drop th… this.” She held out a card. A card similar to the one I had as well.
“Do you think you saw him, or do you know you saw him?” The police officer slated her imprecise manner of speech.
“I…” The girl stuttered. “I saw him… drop it in our changing room. The one my group uses.”
“Hmm… Ichika Sora.” She inspected the card’s backside the spoke to the suspect. “Did you swipe it from her?”
He gave no answer.
“Well, for now I will take this as evidence.” She handed the card to her colleague. “Tell your groupmember she should take care not to be pickpocketed again.”
“It wasn’t pickpocketed.” The girl, I realized was part of Ichika’s posse spoke up with trembling. “It wasn’t stolen at all.”
“Well, how did this young man get his hands then on this keycard?”
“It was…” The words got stuck in her throat, as if she was fearing something, or someone. “Never mind.”
“Hey… eh…” I walked up to her.
“M…momo…”
“Momo… Is something troubling you?”
“It is nothing…” She stammered.
“Really, I am thankful for you reporting how he got in. If you ever need something, you can tell me.” I thanked her.
“There is something bigger… Ichika didn’t let her card be stolen.”
“Wait, do you mean?”
“Yes…” Momo audibly gathered her courage to jump over someone’s invisible shadow. “I think… No, I suspect she did it voluntary…”

The Pacific Post Idol Review by Tobias Cole: Do Artificial Idols sing of electric sheep?
With the International Idol Festival coming to a close, this column too will be the last for this year. We have gone over Idols both from the twin homes of Idol culture, Japan and South Korea, as well as Idols from other parts of Asia and beyond. Idols whose appeal is straightforward and those who have gone out of their way to differentiate themselves from the mass of cute and innocent looking faces.
The group I interviewed today however lacked even a face, instead wearing gas mask in addition to a polished rubber bodysuit covering them head to toe with no human skin left.
The ‘Artificial Idol Project: Bionikokoro’ describes itself as a corporate-scientific endeavor to create the perfect idol, with a mixture of biotechnology and psychological conditioning, with the girls currently being featured being part of their Prototype Series, a pilot for things to come, with volunteers already being able to sign up for future series.
Their show booth during the festival, located in an old, renovated theater in the Foreign Quarter matched their presentation on the website to a tee, with the entrance to the booth itself requiring to wear a hazmat suit to ensure painstaking sanitation inside, which upon entering gave me a bit of a shock.
Nothing remained of the ornateness the rest of the theater had, replaced by the white, sleek modern look of a futuristic laboratory, with me being greeted by the groups manager, Mr Inoi, who introduced himself as the ‘Head Scientist’ of the project, who had been ‘developing’ the Prototypes for over a year by now.
He then let me speak to the girls one on one, all of them perfectly shined black drones, wearing different types of gasmasks, with LED visors depicting their eyes.
Here are some free excerpts of the interview, with more being available for subscribers.
Cole: How does one become an Artificial Idol? Is it a difficult process?
Alpha: We come from a wide range of backgrounds, but at the beginning we were stripped of all redundant things, like identities. All that matters for Bionikokoro is either talent or potential, nothing more or less. Everything else is discarded.
After that we were given our new identities, our skins and new faces as Bionikos and put through a series of tests and training programs to boost our stats as much as possible before we were presented to the public.
But I don’t want to scare any potential volunteers reading this too much. We are all in this together and help another out if one of us needs it. Not just to strengthen the weakest link, we are all friends here.
We welcome all willing applicants with open arms.
…
Cole: How easy has it been for you to live in Japan?
Beta: It… takes time to get used to. Especially when you come from the states where you can just pack up and live in another state as if you were switching your clothing style. People here have a harder shell for sure, and there are a lot of unwritten rules you would probably learn since childhood, if you were born and raised here.
But people tend to be somewhat lenient to outsiders, at least to a certain extent. You just need to have a lot more patient then in the states.
…
Cole: So, I have heard rumors, but I’ll be vague for legal reasons: During a recent performance something happened which leaked your true identity. I have heard the name Umeko being spoke of. Do you know her? What happened at the concert?
Gamma: Hmm, not really sorry. At least not personally. I would really like to meet her one day! She was a huge inspiration to me.
As for the concert… (Gamma looks at Mr. Inoi for a second) We had an interruption, and my mask was ripped off in the process. Nothing major in the long run, we were able to resume the performance a few minutes later.
Although… I was a very scared when it happened… But thanks to Delta I was safe.
…
Cole: You have my respect for acting this quickly. Was it out of your own volition or was it merely a subroutine?
Delta: Gamma was in peril. It was only logical to help her get that guy off her. I guess…
(Delta is silent for a long while)
You could call it a sort of subroutine I have installed, which we are currently testing for a future configuration of Bionikokoro. But it is best to keep it a secret for now. Our manager wouldn’t like me to spill the beans too much.
…
Cole: What is going on between you and Delta? Just friends or something more intimate?
Alpha: Initmate? I don’t really understand…
I do like Delta very much, yes. We have been together since a few months after we were activated and cohabitate in the same apartment. I want to be with Delta for the foreseeable future, if the project allows it.
Perhaps the thing you ask for is something we were not programmed with. Should I ask Manager Inoi about installing the necessary modules to understand your question to its full extent?
(Mr. Inoi shakes his head furiously, while Delta is subtly nodding)
…
A last thing I needed to tell of as well, is something which happened about the time when I finished the interview:
A girl wearing a rubber suit like Bionikokoro had just waltzed in to apply in person for the Artificial Idol Project under the name Zeta, with Mr. Inoi being taken aback by the sudden approach of someone so eager to be turned into a faceless android she had taken the major step already. However, after some back and forth between the two, one of the people acting as scientist knew her.
Her actual name was Yūki, which was also the same name of the security guard, an employee of the woman who had made the suits Bionikokoro wore, Mr. Inoi having not recognized her on account of her attire. Her employer told me she wore the same outfit while working in her store, but with her being gagged, on Yūki’s own wish, as she would otherwise have a quite dirty mouth. Or so she told me.

It felt weird walking around the theater with Zen, with us both not wearing our costumes.
Already some groups have left, mostly the foreign ones, though we had closed our booth yesterday evening with one last concert. And yet despite that there were a few groups left amidst the workers dismantling some decorations, refurbishing the theater for operations beyond the festival.
“Oh man, they already closed the Bionikokokoro lab. What a shame!” Zen joked beside me, with us both looking into the now empty lab which we had last exited in rubberbags.
“And by only a day too.” I replied in the same tone. “Maybe we get to see them another time.”
“They weren’t o good anyway. Would you like to visit our…” I could hear a shrill voice behind me, a voice I had the displeasure of hearing before. “Oh.”
And Ichika herself seemed to be very surprised to see us here, or to be more precise, Zenjuro.
“Well, well. Long time no see, honey. Who is that your rental girlfriend?”
“Almost…” I countered smugly. “I am his girlfriend. No rent required.”
“On second thought, yeah… I can see it.” Ichika stabbed back with a vicious grin. “Who would pay actual money to be with you. Hell, most people would probably not take money to actually date you.”
“Hey, you take that back!” Zen shouted, holding me tightly, as if to reassure me.
“Take back what?” Ichika snorted. “Not surprised this butterface is all you get manage to get.”
“Better a delicious face like hers, than a poisonous heart like yours!” He now pressed me tightly against his side. “Hey, it is alright.”
“Oh my god… You are killing me…” Ichika began to laugh. “A pathetic knight and an ugly peasant. It’s like you two were made for each other.”
She then walked by me whispering one last insult in my ear: “With your looks he will cheat on you in no time…”
“You take that back!” Zen very much had heard this accusation of his lack of faithfulness.
“You see this face:” Ichika pointed at her face. “It says: I don’t care. I don’t care at all. Not even a bit…”
She bumped into what she realized were two police officers on turning around.
“Can I help you?”
“Are you Ichika Sora?”
“Yes.” As soon as she had said this one of them pulled out the handcuffs and put them on her wrist.
“You are under arrest, for the instigation and assistance in a violent assault break-in and potential attempt at manslaughter.”
Her face drained of color. “W…what the hell are you saying? I am innocent. I didn’t do nothing of the sort. What sort of person would dare say such slander!?”
“The main suspect has been more than willing to spill the details in exchange for a plea deal.”
For a second, I could see her eye twitch at hearing that her tool had had a will of its own. I for one was a tiny bit comforted that that man had at least been willing to accept the consequences of what he had done to Umeko. “Well, that is just the words of a deranged lunatic…”
“We also have witness testify against you… She had seen you sneak out at the same night the suspect told us you met him, with no room for an alibi wearing the same clothes and giving him a keycard you took with you and then did not declare missing the days after.”
“I don’t know what you are talking about.” She raised her nose pridefully.
“Stop lying already, Sora.” A girl wearing the same uniform as Ichika stepped forward, her brave face sweating upon facing her. “I saw you leave that night. After you got beaten by Gamma.”
“Huh…” Ichika had lost all color; her starry-eyed pupils became razor thin.
“I am sick of it. Of always having to please you. And then you orchestrate a hit on someone just for being ‘better’ than you.”
“The company will never forgive you for this…” Ichika told her in a hollow voice. “You know how much they value me. I am their favorite. Their top…”
“I didn’t want to be an Idol just to join another rat race!” Mom protested. “Being an Idol is about bringing joy to people, making them happy, even if for a bit. To bring joy…”
“Haha…Joy… Don’t make me laugh!” Ichika snapped her head back before locking eyes with her former colleague. “You wanna know the truth?”
At this moment the star light in her eyes vanished, replaced by a deep yawning abyss of a black hole.
“Our industry is entirely based on appealing to lone virgin men who never had a girl so much as give a second thought to them. The bottom feeders of society, like the fuckup who I gave the card, who we press out for their cash to the last yen.
To get your foot in, all you need is to be someone they could feasibly have a chance to loose their virginity to. You, dear Momo, just are about passing in comparison to her…”
Her eyes, devoid of anything an Idol should have bore into my soul, with Zen quick to shield me.
“But still… You were likely destined to end up as just another wannabe Idol in a convenience store for the rest of your miserable life. But I graciously gave you the chance you needed. I pulled you out of the swamp, letting you share my spotlight. See this is how this industry works. I scrape backs, they scrape mine. I scraped your back…”
And then she snapped, with the police barely able to hold her back from biting Momo’s throat off.
“SO, WHERE ARE YOU TO SCRAPE MINE!?”
Her struggle against the two officers was ultimately in vain, flailing and screeching around, but she was deadest on mutilating the one who had disrespected the pecking order and betrayed her, by not staying silent on her actions.
“YOU BITCH! WITHOUT ME YOU WOULD BE ROTTING ON THE STREET! YOU WOULD BE NOTHING! NOTHING! YOU HEAR ME? NOTHING!!!”
Slowly they manage to drag her away past us, while she was still hurling expletives at a stone-faced Momo.
“WHEN I START TALKING TO MY CONTACTS! THEY WILL MAKE SURE YOU WILL NEVER GET SO MUCH AS A STATIST ROLE! I WILL DESTROY YOU! AND THEN YOU WILL BEG ME…”
“No wonder your performance sucks.” I uttered; her screeching stopped immediately.
“What did you just say, you ugly shit?”
“I watched some of them. They all are lifeless. If it weren’t for the others you would have no popularity whatsoever.”
“You… Where did I hear your voice?”
“You spoke of contacts…” I decided to turn her game around. “Say what sort of favors did you to for these powerful men, to push you so hard. It must have been truly hard work for them to ignore your complete lack of talent or effort.”
“You…” I got a rise out of her. “Turdface! Shit eating pig! Whore! You will never be as popular as I am. You will never…”
As she was dragged outside the theater, I positioned myself next to a poster of the groups which had been performing, including Bionikokoro.
As she hurled more at me, I slowly tapped on the poster of Bioniko Prototype Epsilon, a smug grin on my face.
With each tap she realized more and more what I wanted to tell her. And then just to be sure I mouthed it.
‘I. AM. EP. SI. LON.’
She was pushed into a waiting police car while screaming: “IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN ME! NOT YOU! ME! ME! ME!”
It felt a vindication come over me as I returned to the theater, finding my boyfriend giving a now collapsed Momo some water.
“Must have been hard, huh?” He comforted her.
“You have no idea…” She took a swig. “How much I was afraid of her.”
“What now?” I asked her, helping her up.
“No clue. My career is over, that is for sure.”
“You can’t mean?”
“We are named Ichika Girls so without her…” She shrugged. “And as she said, my company is going to blacklist me for giving their Golden Goose to the butcher.”
“Are you looking for a group then?”
“Like any of them will take me. Why are you both grinning?” She looked at us confused.
I then whispered into her ear, while giving her a certain number. “Call Ikki Inoi, manager of The Artificial Idol Project: Bionikokoro, and tell him that Protoytpe Epsilon and Delta are referring you.”
Her face was priceless.

I breathed in deeply after sealing my mask shut looking out at the cloudy sky shedding water. One year had flown by so quickly. A year of success, our group having attracted international fame, a year of hardship, with Umeko’s case finally having gone to court. And a year of growth, as us prototypes had finally pathed the way for the next series.
“Epsilon…” A rubber-clad figure nudged me, though her suit had more ornamentation, with a barcode and a ‘Bionikokoro Series Mk. I Epsilon’ emblazoned on her chest. I also noted the small device with a single button on it.
“That is Epsilon-Senpai to you.” I smirked. “You had your chance, Epsilon-I.”
“Sigh… Epsilon-Senpai.” The girl who when she had joined us, admitted that she was one of the two who had declined to become part of the Prototype Series of Bionikokoro. “We were wondering where you are. The performance is beginning soon, and Delta was wondering where you were.”
“My Delta or Mk. I.”
“Mk.I” She lead me to the door. “Not yours. Although…”
“Although what?”
“I assume HE is also worried about where you are.”
“What a wonderful boyfriend.”
“You have to tell me one day how you two hooked up. I still find it crazy how well he managed to pass.”
“He is quite the good actor, hmm.” I smiled, thinking about Zen. “Anyways, let’s find Mom… eh Delta-I.”
It only took a while to find Bioniko Mk. I Gamma, or to be more precise. Momo, who was currently not wearing either mask or hood, staring intensely at herself in a bathroom mirror, recently having washed her judging from the droplets of water running across her face.
“This is so crazy…” She muttered. “I can’t believe I am wearing this.”
“Don’t worry.” I questioned, walking up to her, picking up her gasmask. It was the same type Umeko had. “You get used to it after a while, maybe even come to like it.”
“Like you like it?” She looked at me with skepticism, proceeding to pull over her hood. “Who knows… I get why the look is arousing, not so much wearing something this sticky.”
“Same here…” Epsilon-I walked behind her, stretching her arms. “I do find the identity loss nice though. You can walk through a street without anyone recognizing you… Oh…”
“What is it?” Momo had just pulled her hood over.
“I think you missed a spot on the back with the polish.”
“I know. It is hard to reach there. Could you?” She handed her a bottle of silicon polish.
“Certainly.” Epsilon-I took some of it and proceeded to rub it into Momo’s back.
“Now then…” I pulled the straps away, holding Delta-I’s gasmask facing me. “Time to turn you into one of us.”
She took deep breaths, her face switching from nervous anticipation to accepting calm, until finally Momo was gone and only Gamma-I remained, with us both pulling the straps of her gasmask tight when…
“Oh, are you preparing to have a threesome? Could I join you for a four- Mpfh!” Another Series I Bioniko with the insignia ‘Bionikokoro Series I Zeta’ came marching in and before she could finish her lewd remark, she was gagged from inside her gasmask.
“I swear…” Epsilon-I groaned, holding out the device with the single button. “If you make one more remark about any of us getting it on, I will leave that gag in your mask inflated for the rest of the day…”
Zeta-I seemed hardly disturbed by that news.
“You like this don’t you?” Epsilon-I realized the obvious as Zeta-I’s LED eyes so obviously showed her delighting in her predicament. “Just pleeease get a grip of yourself, ok?”
“You mean the Bioniko who is described on our website as having the ‘H-Glitch’, needing to be plugged up just so she won’t do something reckless. I doubt it.” Momo laughed. “How you managed to get through the selection is beyond.”
“You are talking about someone who practically lives in latex! In this form I am at my most natural.” Zeta-I announced, then bowing for an apology. “I promise I will not say anything more about anyone of us having sex…”
“Thank you. Apology ac…” Epsilon-I nodded in relief.
“Except Epsilon-Senpai. We all know she is getting it on with her hot futan… Mpfh!!!”
“DO YOU HAVE YOUR EARS PLUGGED AS WELL!?” Epsilon-I finger ground the button of the gag-control firmly. “I will loosen it once we get on stage. You get it?”
“Mpfh-K…” Zeta-I nodded obediently and we finally proceeded with the rest of Bionikokoro.
Beta and Beta-I were talking about something outside the life of an Artificial Idol when we finally found them.
“And again, thank you for letting me live in your house and paying the caution. It is so nice to sleep on a bed in a room and not a Net café.”
“You don’t need to thank me. Would have been a hassle for you to store your suit without anywhere to live.” Beta politely answered her, before noticing us. “Ah good, we are ready then?”
The two sprang up from their chair and joined us, with Beta glancing at Zeta-I.
“Did she get gagged again?” She whispered me.
“Yes…”
“What for?”
“Talking about me and Delta.”
“Last time I saw her ungagged she complimented my ass. Not that I would find that bad, but still… Oh speaking of Delta…”
Delta was standing in a hallway together with Beta-I.
“Ah, there you are!” Delta slid next to me and hooked her… though it definitely like his hand, into mine. “Looking good as always, Epsilon.”
“Only because you did the polishing.” I giggled, and even more when hearing Zeta-I muffled laughter, which was promptly interrupted by Epsilon-I slapping the back of her head.
“She never learns, eh…” Beta-I looked at her colleague rubbing her head. “Maan, I am so excited.”
“What about your sister?”
“You mean… Alpha-I, right? She is doing surprisingly well. I wouldn’t have expected it but the mask really helped her.”
“So much that she is now Alpha.”
“Yeah, yeah…” The bigger sister pouted. “How did your Alpha get to be Alpha?”
“She was the one who cooked the idea up with the manager, though besides that… she acted like a mother.”
“And now you got a bunch of younger sisters…”
“Maybe even brothers soon.” Delta remarked.
“Did Mr. Inoi already do a selection for Configuration XY suitable volunteers?” I asked Delta.
“Yes, although he wants you ladies to decide who is prime heartthrob material.”
“Not me though… Got mine already.” I could see Zen blush beneath the mask after me saying that.
“Speaking of younger sister…” Beta-I replied, pointing at the two Alphas in front of us, with Alpha-I wearing the same mask as herself.
“Ready to go out…” Beta-I began.
“…and shine…” Alpha-I continued.
“…like twin stars…”
“…in the sky.”
“You can certainly hear you two being twins.”
“We are duo…”
“…made from one.” It was uncanny how well they could complete each other’s sentences.
“Is that a thing twins can do.”
“Some can…”
“…most don’t. Although I do have to say…” Alpha-I finally broke character. “You were right, Epsilon-Senpai. It is a lot easier to sing with a mask on.”
“You did very well in front of the test audience. Always had it in you.” Alpha complimented her, before turning to the rest of us, specifically the Series I Bionikos. “Now then, are you ready for your debut?”
“Yes, mam!” They answered.
The rest of us only needed nods, with us not needing words anymore.
“Gamma, Ikki. How are we out there?” Alpha turned to Gamma who was coming with our manager in tow.
“All set and ready. The audience is waiting… and ready to see the new series.”
“You all good?” Ikki Inoi waited for confirmation before giving the backstage crew the go ahead. “Mics go hot in 5… 4…”
Epsilon-I let the air out of Zeta-I’s gag. “Don’t make me regret this…”
“You can be cocksure of that!” Zeta-I answered her handler, to her chagrin.
“2… 1…”
I breathed in deeply and together we walked outside into the glaring light of the stage, the crowd cheering at our reflective physique shouting: “Bionikokoro! Bionikokoro! Bionikokoro!”
“We are proud to present to you all, the first official Series of the Artificial Project!”
“Thank you, Epsilon-Senpai!” Gamma-I bowed, before addressing the crowd. “I am so excited to be here with you. I hope we are going to make tons of new memories!”

Part 5 - End of Support

Every commercial software or hardware on the market eventually becomes obsolete. A rule not even Artificial Idols are excepted from. Though they will not go out without one final hurrah, from their fans and from the Bionikos of the following generations, be they Configuration XX or XY.

A small farewell, set 8 years after Hana had her fateful meeting with the mysterious manager Ikki Inoi that led her to discover many things: About herself and about her fellow Prototypes.

But who will step in their shoes? That is for you to decide, dear readers.

(Feel free to post your OC Donut Steel Bionikos in the comments ;) )

“Thank you very much for coming…” I bowed to the fan of mine, after our chatting time and getting autographs, getting ready for the next one in line at this mega event of Bionikokoro, with all 5 series of Bionikokoro present, although the focus, unlike the previous year was very much on us prototypes.
“Hello, Epsilon… It is such an honor to finally meet you!” The voice belonged to the male of a pair of… what looked like Bioniko’s at first, but upon closer inspection turned out some of our most loyal fans:
“A pleasure to meet potential candidates for Bionikokoro…” I read the prints on the rubber suits: “I hope you are enjoying the day so far, Candidate 2451 and Candidate 2464.”
“The pleasure is all ours!” They gave me a slight bow, handing me a small treasure trove of things to autograph, including a CD that was not from our series but…
“Do you plan on giving this to a Series I?”
“Yes…” The male, 2451, answered. “Zeta-I, in particular.”
“Hmm… Wait a second, I think she isn’t busy right now.” A look around, eye contact and wave later the Bioniko from Series I was already on her way to us, much to the bother of 2464.
While the made to measure suits, available against a high upprice made by Saihoushi herself, were close in appearance there were still some differences: The most notable besides the big ‘A.I.P. Bionikokoro Candidate XXXX’ print, the visor of the candidates wasn’t tinted at all, leaving a fragment of the human beneath visible.
“Is something troubling you?”
“Not really a fan of Zeta-I…” She muttered begrudgingly as Zeta-I arrived.
“Let me guess… Is it my H-Glitch cause something again? The eggheads in R&D have ironed out most of it though.”
“Then why are you always sneaking up behind Mk.II Beta and touching him like you are about to ride him? He isn’t into you!”
“Sorry, I just can’t help it: Whenever I see cute boys I just wanna squeeze them and… ehem…” Zeta-I realized that her train of thoughts was already somewhere below the line. Both of us noticed however their quite different reactions: Candidate 2464 was holding the hand of the 2451 even firmer, as to prevent him from being stolen, while he was blushing.
“I do have to say you are quite the handsome young man. I wouldn’t mind…” She glanced at 2464. “If you weren’t taken already.”
“Th…thank you…” He certainly wasn’t prepared to be complimented by his Idol.
“What do you see in her anyway?” 2464 whispered to her. “Do you want me to be… forthcoming in bed? Like her?”
“Forthcoming? Bed? Aren’t you supposed to sleep in a bed?” I asked, expertly playing the role of a Bioniko, free from all dirty thoughts. I couldn’t help but smile beneath my mask, thinking of how much those two remind me of myself and Zen.
For a second my sight swerved to Delta, currently taking a group photo with a bunch of fans.
“I could explain it to you… but management would probably get very angry for getting explicit… and you wouldn’t get it anyway.”
“Eh… sure…” I acted confused at a foreign concept staying unexplained.
“Speaking of explicit…” One of the fans spoke up again. “IF we were to get selected as volunteers, would we need to stop being in a relationship?”
“You mean being a couple?”
“Yes…” 2451 responded looking at his girlfriend with the angst of losing her. “That was one of the few things we still feel itchy about…”
FUCK, those two are so cute and I can’t say anything about it. “If you applied as a group, you are unlikely to split up.”
“No, it is not being split up that has me worried. It is…” 2464 protested, before Zeta-I walked close to her ear.
“You will remember nothing of him.” Her pupils thinned upon hearing this.
“Nothing, but the pure love you have for him. You will not even be able to get wet, but your heart will still race when you are with him. You will want to be together with him, but with not a dirty thought in mind.”
“How…”
“Have you seen Epsilon and Delta-senpai together? If those two had the H-Glitch as well… Dear, what wouldn’t they do?”
“What would we do?” I asked her innocently.
“Nothing dear. Just what you two have always done and look super cute together. Not that they are the only couple. Beta-II for example is into…”
“He’s totally together into Gamma-II, right?”
Both me and Zeta-I were a bit taken aback by this sudden assumption.
“I was about to say Eta-III…”
“hah…” 2451 chuckled, nudging 2464. “Everyone knows it with the way she always teases him when they are together.”
“But… but… Have you seen them together. You cannot tell me there isn’t something going on between the two.”
“They are friends, that is about it. Had a bit of a rough start from what I remember about the first days of Series II.”
“They cannot be just ‘friends’… Can they?” Candidate 2464 had the expression of a captain seeing her ship sinking.
“If you ever manage to get selected as Bioniko you are likely to get to know the two more personally.”
“Would be, yes.” 2464 returned from her stupor pretty quickly. “Maybe they need just a nudge.”
“I would love to see you try that…” 2451 swung his back to laugh. “I look forward to the day we will meet as fellows!”
“Likewise.” Zeta-I shock their hands. “I will definitely root for you.”
“Me too, although I won’t be there to see you too around anymore…”
“Yeah, of course… Thank you for letting us meet you.” The two replied politely, not scratching further upon my ominous words. Everyone knew this concert was special, beyond merely being the 7th anniversary of the Artificial Idol Project Bionikokoro.
It was the finale for us Prototypes.
*
For the last time we had a performance like so many others, yet even now we put our all into this swan song of ours. For one moment I felt reminded of the day 8 years ago, when my dreams came true, and I was able to step on a stage and become an Idol everyone looks up to.
“Encore! Encore! Encore!” The crowd shouted after we had finished the song ‘Our hearts beating as one’. Many of them wore some kind of latex or a gas mask, pieces of Bionikokoro merchandise, some of even wore the full Artificial Idol Project Candidate suit.
Yet despite their clamoring for another song for us to keep going and going, forever and ever.
“We would very like to… But it is almost midnight…” I announced to them. Behind the audience I could see the old-fashioned clock of the former train assembly factory tick onwards, with only one minute left until midnight.
I gathered myself, with time running against me. “Thank you, for everything. I would never have imagined that I finally could become idol!”
And, as if me breaking the ice had caused something, the others spoke up as well.
“I would like to thank you all for allowing me into your hearts even if I am an older model.”
“You are the best, guys!” Beta spoke in English. “I wish I could tell you more of how amazing an experience this has been!”
“Thanks for giving someone like me another chance… But this is going to be it for me.” Gamma was brief in her tone.
“Thank you for giving me the opportunity to meet Epsilon.” Delta grabbed my hand. “You wouldn’t believe how happy I am to be with her.”
“THANK YOU ALL VERY MUCH!” We shouted at our cheering audience together for one last time, facing the last three seconds of this life as Artificial Idols.
3. 2. 1.
‘Shutdown of Prototype Series! Thank you for your service.’ It appeared white on red on all the screens in the hall, with a warning sound playing, while a warning label appeared on the visor of our gasmasks: ‘Shutting down! DO not move!’
And as practiced, all 5 of us collapsed to out knees the moment we heard the siren, our heads hanging forwards as if the life had been drained out of us.
We feigned small signs of futile resistance against the Artificial Idol Project shutting us down: A hand twitch there, irregular, panicked breathing here and a head twitch between, with me managing to raise my head just a tiny bit, having one look at our audience: Some were gasping, some shouted barely audible phrases of gratitude, some were crying, though most just stayed silent.
At last after a ‘long struggle’, I, Bionko Prototype Epsilon gave my final parting words to them all:
“Good night everyone. I… hope you… you…. a…all… are… goin… to be… wellllllll…” I let my voice fall ever lower until it could be barely heard anymore. And with that our visors went dark and the Prototype Series of Bionikokoro was history.
There was an eerie silence as the AIP scientists packed us in body bags with micro perforated holes and transported us off the stage, with us doing our impression of being limp and lifeless.
When I left the sack I knew for a fact that the girl exiting it among our younger colleagues throwing us a farewell party, was not Epsilon anymore. I was just Hana Ono, with a many things learned from that other me I had allowed to be for the past 7 years.
*
“What is it with you and removing your mask outside and looking into the night sky?” I could hear Umeko walking up behind me from the bustling room where the rest of Bionikokoro was throwing us Prototypes a farewell party.
“I dunno. Is something? Or are Zen and the other guys just being boys as usual?”
“Pretty much…” Umeko laughed, having removed her gas mask, leaning on the railing next to me. “Crazy how times flies by. Feels like we got that package yesterday.”
“Yeah…” I pondered her words. “Really crazy.”
For a long while we just stood there letting the cool night’s breeze strafe our rubber-encased bodies.
“Any plans on your end after this?” Umeko looked at me.
“Pfuh, not really.” I laughed awkwardly. “Although two things are certain: Zen and I are going to stay together and…”
I tucked at my catsuit.
“We are likely going to keep wearing this.”
“Haha… Inoi was right. He might have given you a fetish by accident.” Umeko gasped for air until finally responding with her own plans. “As for me: I was thinking about appearing on stage again as me.”
“Really? No mask?”
“You know that my dual identity is pretty much known by this point. Especially with me testifying in court.” She sounded frightened at the memories of having to face not only the ones who attacked her, but also the black company who wanted her to disappear forever and attempted to sue her once it became known what happened to both Umeko and Gamma.
Officially it was for breaking the clause disallowing her from appearing again in public, but behind hands they really wanted her to pay for tarnishing Ichika’s reputation.
“The day they got their just deserts was the best day in my life. But I think… I can finally shed this skin…”
“You are not going to wear latex then anymore?” It did look good on her.
“well… For special occasions maybe.”
“What do you think of Maya’s and Akilah’s plans for the future?”
“Haven’t asked them… Although…” Umeko looked at the door where cheerful sounds could be heard. “I think she isn’t done with Bionikokoro quite yet.”
“You are kidding… How old is she by now?”
“Scratching the forties. But it is surprising she got this many fans still.”
“Must be that motherly energy.” I giggled. “Judging from the way she always talks to fans as if they were her children. Asking them if they take good care of themselves.”
“I guess men do like women who are concerned about their well being.” Umeko grinned at me. “Although I assume you already know that.”
“Well…” I turned my head away, so she wouldn’t see me smile from ear to ear. “I guess Zen has his moments where he wants to be doted. But…”
“But what…?”
“He does give back so much more than I could ever give him.”
“Aww…” Umeko circled around me to get a look at my expression. “You look so cute when you are in love.”
“That is nice to hear! Especially from you!” My heart had turned into a puddle. Even after all these years being Epsilon such a simple compliment like that. “Thank you…”
Umeko just returned a smile to me, a smile that was so unlike the one I had seen from her former rival. One of sincerity and unabashed kindness, despite all the horrible things happening to her.
“As for Aki…” She broke the silence. “I think she was talking about doing something with Chiyo Higa.”
“From Inner City Girls? I wonder what they are planning…”
“Whatever it’s gonna be… It is going to be great.”
“No hints? From either of them?”
“Only two words. Blues Sisters.”
“Hey…” I heard a very familiar male voice jumping me from behind and hugging me tightly. “Was wondering where you were. This party is only half as fun without you!”
“I thought you were having a blast down there with your buddies already.”
“Sure… Definitely… But…” He leaned in to kiss me. “They are not my Hana.”
“C’mere!” I held him by his shoulders and returned his kiss. As did he. As did I.
“So much for Bionikos not knowing nothing about intimacy. I still don’t know how you two can keep your desires on stage in check.”
“Well… That is the secret…” Zen began.
“When we want each other, we get it over with pretty fast… And after that… Only pure love remains.”
“So, when can I expect you to get pregnant?” Umeko joked, although it did get me thinking about it.
“We haven’t given it much thought yet, obviously…” Zen stammered, perplexed by this question as well.
“Kidding!” Umeko slapped on our backs. “I would like to imagine having to explain your kids what you did in your twenties though. But for now… Let’s not leave the others hanging!”
Zen and I nodded, following our fellow colleague down to the small hall we rented to celebrate our graduation. However…
“Zen…”
“Yes, Hana…”
“Do you think we are ready for it?” I clung tightly to him while stroking my lower belly.
“Whenever you are…” Zen responded. “I will be there for you.”
“Thank you.” I whispered him back. “Maybe not now, but… soon.”

“What was your favorite scene of the movie?” I asked Zen, now my husband, after returning from the cinema. It was a very special movie: Escape from the Artificial Idol Project, a production made in conjunction with Bionikokoro.
“When Shion hugged Iota, assuring her it is going to be alright when they were on the run. And you?”
The movie played in the meta-lore of Bionikokoro, where they were a soulless conglomerate hellbent on creating the perfect idol, with the main characters being a Bioniko whose programming failed and her troubled past was leaking back into her mind and a new security guard, who starts to develop feelings for this broken artificial idol.
“For me it was the final scene:”
“After they both had been mind wiped and brainwashed?”
“He promised her they would find each other again no matter what. Even as the headsets were put on them and they were about to be gagged. And in the end… They found each other.”
“They did not even know each other anymore.”
“But they did know this part…” I rubbed my hand on Zen’ shiny, rubbery chest. “The Artificial Idol Project could take everything away from them: Their memories, their faces, their personalities, their identities… but not their love.”
“Says the woman without a face.”
“Same goes for you…” I punched him softly, before giving him a smack and opened the door to our apartment, but not before noticing a package. “What is this… Is that a new toy for the both of us?”
“maybe…” I could almost see his smug face. “Let’s just relax for now.”
“Yeah, that sounds fine.” I agreed with him, dropping our bag in a corner. But that did not mean we took our suits off.
Today was our free day, without me having to hold any vocal training classes and Zen no dance lessons. Today we could be in full latex for as long as we liked or could manage, doing whatever we wanted, like visiting the cinema where a special screening for the Bionikokoro movie.
But even at home we had come to wear latex because we both liked how it felt. We even acquired a small wardrobe of different pieces of rubber clothing for both of us, although my favorite piece was the one I was currently wearing: A one-piece full body stocking, with micro perforations for sight and air. Not to mention the multitude of toys.
Speaking of which…
“Are you so eager to see what is in the box?”
“I wanna try it out.”
“Eager aren’t we? Are you in heat or something?”
“As long as I am wearing rubber? Yes.” I tore the package open like a child would on Christmas, only to find. “A bottle?”
“That’s not all…” Zen snuck behind me, grabbing a bundle of hoses. “You remember all those times we performed as Bionikos in fetish clubs.”
“Yes… I think so.” I was jittering as he took those hoses and screwed them together, until it was one tube forking off into two.
“A bubbler bottle.”
“Oh, I think I have seen one of those!” I remembered vaguely Zeta-I talking to some people using them, although the liquids they put into those were quite… dubious. “Should we just put water in it.”
“I mean we could…” Zen pondered. “Would be a bit plain though.”
“How about tea?”
“That sounds… good. Could totally go for tea right now. I’ll get our gas mask in the meantime.”
“Sure!”
A few minutes later, the tea was brewed and in the bottle, our gas mask were on our faces and we had connected them to the bottle ready to take our first breath.
“Ohh…” The soothing, warm scent of the tea reached my nostril as I took my first breath through this bottle. It was surprisingly tenuous to take a breath now, with the air being forced to pass the liquid in the bottle in forms of bubbles and breathing out proved to be no less difficult.
The next breaths however were a lot easier, though the scent of tea was missing and they smelled used.
“Hana…” I heard Zen behind me. “You… need to stop taking the air I breath out.”
“Oh… crap…” It was making me already dizzy.
“We need… to synchronize…”
“Syn…chronize… Got… it…” I held my breath for a moment, trying to hitch his next breathing cycle. And once I did.
“Yes… much better…” It felt easier, with the bubbles in the bottle now being much bigger with our combined force. “Let’s… play… a game…”
“Sure…” I waited with my answer until we both breathed out.
“Whoever… disconnects first… loses”
“Sounds good…” Although a bit boring, if I thought about it. “Let’s play… another game…”
“What… do you… have… in mind…”
“The… Creampie… game…”
“Really…?”
“Why… not…” I turned around to face Zenjuro, who looked at me back with the same featureless face and hidden eyes. “You… ready?”
“Ready!”
We both unzipped each other, and Zen entered me. It was difficult to focus on keeping our breathing on the same note and on our hip movements. But on the other hand, it felt thrilling to have our breathing be a thing we need to do consciously while slowly sliding around each other.
“Mmmh…” Not to mention the tea, a gift of my parents. ‘To help with the grand kids ;).’, so they said. And I wouldn’t want to disappoint my parents, now would I.
“MMh… yes…” Eventually our motions synched up with our breathing, and yet with every time I could hear the bubbles pop up, I could feel something inside me bubble up as well.
“Zen… juro… Feels… so… good…”
“You… are… so… wet and… warm Hana…”
Until finally Zenjuro filled me up, and the feelings inside me bubbled to the surface causing me to leglock him. Our breathing a mess and me moaning into my gas mask for minutes without end, until I had finally let it all out, as did Zen, although for him it was all inside me now.
“I… ah… won…” I gasped as I removed the gas mask of my featureless head. It felt exhilarating to be able to breath almost normally after having been restricted airflow. “I finally won the cream-pie game.”
“You say that every time…” Zen removed his gas mask, as well as his penis. “And every time you lost.”
“Hmm…” I zipped myself up and caressed my belly. “This time I am sure of it! Though we will have to wait for the results to be revealed.”