A Manager & His Ward's Rival

Aida Masato was a very conflicted young man right now. His precious ward, Amami Haruka, had just been raped into unconsciousness and then carried off somewhere to be raped some more. And all of that was his fault, arranged by him.

And what was he doing right now? Was he running off to rescue her? No, instead he was letting his ward's rapist's best friend tug him off to be raped himself.

At least that was how he wanted to understand the matter. But that simplicity would be unfair to Yuuki Chigusa, whom he felt deserved the benefit of the doubt.

So he followed her to their destination, trying not to get excited like his manhood was at the thought of what probably awaited him, wondering what else did the Eclipse idol have in mind...

Chigusa wasn't too sure what she was doing. It wasn't like she had no idea, far from it. She had the barebones of a plan in mind, something she cooked up with Drake and Megumi a while back. She didn't quite know how to see this through though, especially with him. Masato seemed rather unwilling still to follow Chigusa, despite already being dragged along. She needed to keep him separate from Haruka. And she needed to somehow seduce him away from her.

She knew that they shared something more than just a performer-manager relationship, that both of them loved each other but were too stupid to express their feelings properly. They were quite perfect for each other as well! Chigusa had to go through all that, just to break them apart. It seemed quite unnatural to her, since she preferred to unify people and do good, but was going to do something evil.

They finally arrived, at the special place. Chigusa pulled out a set of keys from her purse, and opened the door, revealing a room not unlike a hotel room from one of the more luxurious hotels. "This is one of Eclipse's private rooms Masato. Don't worry, nobody will find us here," she said, ushering him inside, "Go ahead and sit down. We've got plenty to talk about."

Masato nodded slightly before entering the room. "Thank you. I'm coming in..." He sat himself rather stiffly on a sofa chair meant for one person. His face was downcast, and he didn't look at Chigusa, preferring to stare at his shoes instead. His meekness, his shyness, gave him the air of a boyish-looking girl instead of a young man.

"What do you want to talk about?" he politely asked. He was sure this was going to be pillow talk, or the prelude to pillow talk. He didn't want to do it, but he had to go through the motions. "Is it about Haruka?"

Chigusa saw how downcast Masato was, and sighed inwardly. This was going to be harder than she thought. She walked over to the bed, sitting down on the edge. "Well, yes and no," she said, "There's a lot of things I want to know about you first Masato. Haruka's important I'm sure, but I'd rather get to know you a bit better." She gave him a small smile, putting on her cutest face. Though Masato was hopelessly infatuated with his ward, Chigusa knew exactly what she had to do to win him over, if only for a second.

"First off, why are you doing all this?" she asked, "I mean, you're saddled with a rather hot-headed and inexperienced ward, you yourself are inexperienced, what makes you think you can survive here?"

He could just barely see her smile, her face, despite the way he held his head so miserably. Her smile wasn't like Haruka's, of course. After all, he was Chigusa. But even Masato would admit that she was cute. Not as cute as Haruka, he immediately appended. But cute in her own way.

Though she could have picked a better topic, in his angry opinion. "Haruka is not hotheaded!" he defended his ward. "And she's got a lot of talent! And most of all, she's got a very good heart! That's what's important!"

Having blown his top off, he deflated very quickyly. "I was very lucky to get her. I don't deserve her, you know. I'm a terrible mnager. And she doesn't deserve to be stuck here in AFW. Not with me." His tone turned hopeful. "But she did her best. She always hopes for the best and works hard. So I thought I would do my best as well. But it wasn't enough..."

Such was his deep sigh.

Chigusa was a little taken aback at the way Masato suddenly exploded. It seemed that Haruka really was a sensitive subject for him, and that she should tread lightly. Luckily Masato calmed down quickly, so Chigusa didn't have to do anything.

But hearing his rather depressed words made Chigusa a little put off as well. "Hmm, that's interesting," she said. Leaning forward, Chigusa's smile became a little more sly. "You don't think you're good enough then? For Haruka I mean. Then why do you hang onto her?" She hoped to really get at the point of the matter now. "If you're such a poor manager, why do you stay with her? Or better yet, why does she stay with you?"

He found her comment of "Interesting" to be offensive, but when she quoted back to him how pathetic a manager he was, he couldn't get angry at her, lacking the spine and fury for even a mere glare. In that fugue, he answered, murmuring:

"Because I like her. I could never forgive myself if I left her. And she likes me back, which makes what I did to her even worse..."

"Oh!" Chigusa said in surprise. She was wrong in her judgment of these two it seemed. They knew full well what they felt for each other. This was going to be even more difficult that before. No doubt Masato couldn't even see Chigusa right now without hating her a little bit. "Ara Megumi... you did go a bit too far," she thought to herself.

"How... noble of you," Chigusa said, choosing her words wisely. She didn't want to make Masato any more angry. "It must hurt a lot then, to see what just happened. I'm sorry."

"Noble? Me?" His chuckle was bitter. "If I was truly noble, I wouldn't have come up with that kind of match for her. I wouldn't be turned on when I saw her dominated and raped. I wouldn't have eyes for any other girl. And I certainly wouldn't be here with you!"

But his fury was directed at himself. Masato hated himself more than he had hated anyone or anything before. He looked at last into Chigusa's face. Tears were streaming down his cheeks.

"So what do you want with me, Chigusa-san? It's like what you said... I'm a useless manager... There's nothing you can get from me, except to hurt Haruka," he sobbed, "And I don't want to hurt her anymore..."

"You were trying to protect her," Chigusa said. She slowly stood up, walking over to where Masato sat. She knew that Masato was going to cry soon, this was her best chance. She leaned in and hugged him around her shoulders, holding him tight to comfort him.

"I took you here because I am impressed by you," she said, "What you two have is something I wish I had. No, it's something I had but lost." She looked Masato in his tear-filled eyes, her own showing nothing but compassion. "I don't want anything from you Masato. I just want to make things right." She leaned in for a kiss, while brushing away the tears on his cheeks.