04 — The Idol Hero
I'd spent a pleasant while chatting with U Haru before we finally parted ways.
What nagged at me a little was the unmistakable flicker of disappointment on her face as she saw me off.
I mean, we'd only just met. Why already…?
All the way back to headquarters, my secretary stayed silent.
She didn't even let her hand wander up my thigh like she usually did.
She'd probably noticed I was mulling something over and decided to give me space, out of consideration. With a faint flicker of gratitude, I asked her quietly.
"Miss, how did that thing I requested go?"
"It will be completed by end of day."
"Really? That's faster than I expected."
"There happened to be some unused space available, so I had it converted."
"Mm."
Separate from my Eternal Association business, there was something else I'd asked my secretary to arrange — a certain room to be built at headquarters. A secret one, accessible to no one but me without explicit permission, and stocked to the brim with all sorts of equipment and tools I planned to use going forward.
In a word, it was a Conditioning Chamber.
And if you asked what exactly I intended to condition in it…
"Young Master."
"Yes?"
"Are you planning to abduct the woman you met earlier today?"
"…How did you know?"
I stared at her, mildly startled. I didn't think I'd given anything away.
How on earth did she pick up on it?
Vroooom—
When the light changed, she pressed the accelerator, shot me a brief sideways glance, and turned her eyes back to the road.
"The items you requested be installed in that room have a rather narrow range of possible purposes. Furthermore, today of all days, you suddenly went to meet the retired idol hero listed in the information I provided you. It was not difficult to connect the two."
"……"
"And I suppose you already know what I plan to do with U Haru once I've taken her?"
That question might have given anyone pause. She didn't hesitate for a second.
"You intend to lock her in the conditioning chamber, break her in, and develop her into your very own personal cock-sleeve sow. Am I correct?"
"Correct… I mean, yes, that's right."
I looked at her with a vaguely unsettled expression.
"Does none of this bother you, Miss?"
The young master she'd watched over since childhood was suddenly talking about kidnapping a woman, confining her against her will — conditioning her, no less — and her reaction was exactly the same as always. No scolding, no reproach. Just unwavering defense, a sturdy fence thrown up around me. A dependable protector.
"Why would it? You needn't worry, Young Master."
With those words, she let a tiny smile touch her lips — so slight it was almost imperceptible.
"If anything, I'm relieved."
"…Relieved?"
"Yes. Because it confirmed that you, young master, so harmless and cute and adorable as you appear… are truly the Chairman's blood after all."
"……"
The light turned red, and the car stopped.
"…It's okay for me to do this, right?"
To a question heavy with all kinds of meanings and emotions, her answer came without a beat.
"Of course. After all, didn't the Chairman himself say it? 'Do whatever you want. I'll fund every last bit of it—'"
"…Yeah. He did."
"Young Master."
"Yes."
"You don't have to hold yourself back anymore.
Don't hold back…?
"Every desire you've been keeping locked away inside… every urge."
"……"
"Because that is what we are, at our core."
"…What?"
She gave no answer — she simply pulled the car back into motion.
……Our core?
U Haru, the retired A-rank idol hero.
The real reason I'd gone to meet her was… simple whim. I'd only ever known her through the game, and I wanted to see her with my own eyes, just once.
That was all. Or, it should have been…
'The Status Window was an unexpected windfall.'
The Status Window — something that had never once appeared to me since I was born into this world — had suddenly materialized the moment I met U Haru, a character from the game.
Which meant that if I went on to meet the other people I knew about, their information would surface for me the same way.
'…I like that.'
U Haru was as beautiful as I remembered. A slim frame made all the more striking by her enormous chest, and a voluptuous ass that looked like it would ripple in waves if you slapped it. A support hero who showered her teammates with affectionate cheering — buffs that carried the early and mid game — the undisputed GOAT of the support-hero archetype.
And yet, thanks to one unignorable drawback trait — heat vulnerability — she grew weaker the longer a fight dragged on. The ill-fated idol hero.
Wanting to take her for myself was my pure, unfiltered desire. There was no valid reason, no rational justification — just an ugly, naked greed to possess the woman called U Haru.
"……"
Why I'd chosen her first, out of all the countless heroes and magical girls out there, was simple: her current circumstances made her the perfect abduction target.
In the early game, depending on the player's choices, the Manager would either offer U Haru a return to hero work — or decline to. There was virtually no player who'd leave an A-rank buff idol hero out in the cold just because she'd retired, so in most playthroughs, she returned to duty and her abilities bloomed in full.
But if you ignored her… after a certain stretch of time, you could never see her again, short of starting the entire game over. You could think of her as a contract hero whose window of employability was fixed from the start.
But having met U Haru in person and confirmed with my own two eyes the depression and apathy sitting fat and shameless on her Status Window, another possibility presented itself. One I could only imagine.
What if… the U Haru who never met the Manager… made a certain irreversible choice?
That was all it was — a possibility. A truth only the game's creators could ever confirm.
But still.
If it were really true…
If she was a woman who might vanish somewhere I'd never know about…
Then wouldn't it be far better to just make her mine?
"Young Master."
My secretary's voice — she'd appeared behind me without my noticing.
"As you instructed, she has been escorted, with full courtesy, to the conditioning chamber. Shall I take you there now?"
"…Thank you, Miss."
Yes. I had to go to the conditioning chamber.
I made sure to thank her, too — for so readily granting a request like this one.
"Miss."
"Yes."
"I'll be entering the chamber alone."
"…Understood."
"There are… certain things I'd be embarrassed for you to see. Just yet."
"I wouldn't mind at all."
"I would."
U Haru used to be a hero.
The idol hero Lovebell — beloved and adored by her fans, all wrapped up in one girl.
Once upon a time, she had been a girl who shone brighter than anyone. On stage, she basked in the cheers of tens of thousands; when battle began, she was the first to stand at her comrades' sides, singing, pouring her strength into them.
Affectionate support. The power of cheer — the sincere, warm hearts of the people rooting for you, the more numerous the stronger it grew. A deceptively simple, devastatingly effective ability.
And so U Haru was loved, and in return, U Haru loved her fans back.
But time flows on. Like a runaway horse, relentless and wild — held back by no one's hands.
The years were fair to everyone. The hero industry was no exception. No matter how legendary a hero's deeds, time wore their name down to a whisper.
New rising idol heroes appeared, stepping into Lovebell's shadow. Young, pretty, fresh girls at just that tender age. Novel songs. Bolder, more daring costumes. Newfangled kinds of fan service.
The public's gaze drifted, naturally and without malice, toward the girls offering something more stimulating.
They drifted, little by little, away from Lovebell.
At first, U Haru didn't mind. A few fans drifting off was just the way of things, she told herself.
But then — at some point she couldn't name — the stages she stood on began to shrink. Fewer fans came to see her. Her new songs landed with less and less of a splash, because after that day, the throat that had never fully healed only grew worse.
And every time an idol hero even younger than she was debuted, U Haru's place on that stage shrank a little more.
Even so, she smiled. It's fine. I'm still a hero, she told herself. An idol, still. Returning the love her fans had given her — that was Lovebell's role. She had believed it with all her heart.
But then one day, the notice came down.
Not a retirement of her own choosing. She had never once said she wanted to stop being a hero. It was simply a unilateral decision, made by her agency and the Association together.
No longer profitable. Time to make way for the next generation. That's what they told her.
U Haru smiled right up to the end. She didn't cry. She didn't rage. She just nodded along, soft and mild as ever, the way she always did.
"Yes. Of course. I understand."
And after that day, Lovebell was a hero no more.
Because her profession demanded the strictest secrecy, no one recognized the civilian she'd become. But plenty of people still remembered the name Lovebell, still held it dear.
…And yet one by one, even they found a new idol to their liking and began cheering for someone else. And there was nothing wrong with that. No one was at fault. The world simply… moved on toward what came next.
Only U Haru was left behind, standing in the same spot. An idol hero once loved by so many. Now nothing at all — just an ordinary person.
So she smiled. She kept smiling. The same smile her fans had loved, the same expression the people who'd cherished her had adored most — as if that one thing alone were something she could never, ever afford to lose.
Slowly withering away, in a world gone gray.
…
…
…
And then, before her eyes, a strange man appeared.
A fan… she supposed. He'd called her the idol hero he'd always looked up to, so yes. A fan, clearly.
Feeling a little color seep back into her faded, gray world, she'd talked with him.
At first she'd thought nothing of it — just a fan she hadn't seen in ages. Someone who recognized her. Someone who still remembered Lovebell. That alone was enough to make her happy.
But her eyes kept drifting back to him. She kept… falling deeper into his words.
A young man, or a boy? The line between them was blurred on that oddly youthful face. She'd never met him before, and yet something about him pulled her gaze. A somewhat guileless young man…
How on earth did he get into the Recruitment Division? That part fascinated her so much it only made her more curious about him.
Look closely, and… his face was cute, too. Cute enough that she wanted to wrap him up in a hug and squeeze.
U Haru spent an afternoon talking with him, genuinely delighted, losing all track of time for the first time in she couldn't remember how long.
Even when the moment came to part, something in her ached a little.
But he was with the Eternal Association's Recruitment Division. She was just a civilian now — not a hero, not anything.
So she sent him off gladly, and walked home carrying the small hope that maybe, somewhere, they'd meet again — only to let out a sigh and realize:
They'd never even exchanged names.
He knew who she was. She had no idea what his name was.
Why had it never occurred to her to ask? Why had she felt that kind of fondness for a man whose name she didn't even know?
She tilted her head over one puzzling situation after another — and at some point, drowsy, drifted off to sleep.
And when she opened her eyes again…
"Hello there."
She woke in a place she couldn't recognize, bound so completely that she couldn't so much as twitch.
It made no sense at all, truly, but…
the moment she came face to face with the very man she'd been longing to see again, a strange, impossible warmth surged up in her chest.