The news broke while I was trying to ignore the stares in the university cafeteria. A dozen phone screens around me suddenly lit up with the same headline, a perfectly timed media assault. Starlight Cascade had just announced a collaboration with 'Jean-Pierre Dubois,' a supposedly world-renowned music producer from France, for their upcoming single. The press release was a masterpiece of passive aggression, filled with quotes from Reika about "working with real, established industry professionals" and "the importance of authentic talent."
It was a direct, surgical strike. Reika and her agency weren't just competing; they were actively trying to discredit me, and by extension, Mikuyi. They were cementing the narrative that I was a fraud, a nepo-brother playing at being a genius, while they were aligning themselves with legitimate, international prestige.
The fallout was immediate. Back at the apartment that evening, the mood was grim. Ms. Kurosawa was on a video call, her face tight with fury. "This is what happens when we wait!" she snapped at the agency head on the screen. "We let them define him, and they defined him as a joke! This reflects poorly on the entire group!"
The pressure to force me into a public role, an interview, a photoshoot, anything to counter Reika's move, was becoming unbearable. Hina was trying to mediate, Ayumi was crying again, and I was on the verge of locking myself in my room until I graduated.
Later that night, there was a soft knock on my door. It was Izuwa. She slipped into the room and closed the door behind her, her usual cynical armor seemingly absent for once.
"This is my fault," she said quietly, leaning against my desk. The admission was so out of character it stunned me into silence. "I knew Reika would pull something at the festival. I've known her since we were trainees at the same academy. She's always been ruthless. She sees everything as a zero-sum game. If someone else has something, she has to take it or destroy it."
She looked at me, her gaze direct and surprisingly vulnerable. "I saw the way she looked at you. She doesn't see a brother; she sees an asset. A weapon she assumes Hina is hiding. Her entire strategy is to either steal you or prove you're a dud." She paused. "I thought you could handle her. You did. But I didn't think she would escalate it to this level. I underestimated how much she hates losing."
It was the most she had ever opened up to me. It wasn't just about idol politics; it was about a deep-seated rivalry, a history I was now a part of. Her concern wasn't just for the group's image. It was a confession of a different sort- a confession of her reliance on me as a protector, a quiet force to counter the overt aggression of their rivals. She saw me not just as a brother, but as a silent guardian of their flank.
"She's trying to take something that belongs to Hina," Izuwa finished, her voice low. "And I won't let that happen."
I was still processing her words when my laptop chimed with a new notification. It was a direct message on a niche coding forum I occasionally used, an account so obscure and anonymous I was shocked anyone had found it. The username was 'Maxwell_s_Demon'.
The message was short and cryptic.
"They are underestimating you. The Starlight Cascade announcement is a bluff. Jean-Pierre Dubois is a fraud. I have the data to prove it. The question is, what are you going to do with it?"
I stared at the screen, a cold dread mixing with a spark of something else- anger. I was being pulled deeper into a game I never wanted to play. This anonymous messenger was offering me ammunition, a way to fight back in the shadowy media war I had been drafted into. Engaging meant diving headfirst into the muck. But ignoring it meant letting Reika win, letting her tarnish my name and hurt my sisters. The choice was mine, and either path would drag me further away from the life I once knew.