It took far longer to get across town from Akari’s apartment than Sachi had anticipated. The traffic, even for an early Thursday afternoon was bad. Sachi guided her dark red Mercedes expertly through traffic, still raging inside. She had warned him. She had told him not to pressure Akari and he had done it anyway. Her fingers tightened on the steering wheel, her knuckles turning white from the strain.

“…and now for entertainment news,” the radio burbled to itself as Sachi was cut off again by a delivery truck, causing her to slam on her brakes.

“Learn to drive!” Sachi yelled, though with her windows rolled up she couldn’t be heard. “What an…”she trailed off and turned the radio up.

“…close to the group say Kunoichi, the popular group that have been tearing up the charts lately may be breaking up. According to reports Akari, the lead songwriter is going to be replaced for the group’s upcoming world tour by Sakura Dreams lead singer Koemi Tanaka in anticipation of Akari going solo once she’s recovered from her unfortunate accident. The band has not responded to this report, yet.”

“What in the hell?” Sachi whispered, her mind reeling. “What is going on?” With a scowl she jammed her foot down on the accelerator and roared off the highway and on to the side streets.

“What are you playing at, Hiroto?” Sachi demanded, bursting through the door of the office ahead of a very flustered secretary. Hiroto jumped in shock and hit his knee hard of the solid desk he sat behind.

“I’m sorry, sir!” The secretary, a waif of a girl looking no older than Akari, cried in distress. Hiroto recovered as well as he was able and waved his hand at her.

“It’s ok, Hana,” he replied. “One of our biggest stars never needs to wait!” Hana glanced at Sachi for a long moment before realization spread across her face.

“Oh my GOD! You’re Sachi Tanaka!” Hana squealed. “I-I love Kunoichi! You all are why I wanted so badly to work here! Thank you so much for all of the amazing music on your last album! It was incr…”

“That’s enough, Hana,” Hiroto interrupted. “I think Sachi has something she’d like to discuss with me.”

“O-oh, yes,” Hana blushed fiercely, her thin frame seemed like it could be blown away by a brisk breeze as she fidgeted. Sachi smiled warmly at her and Hana beamed back, bowing as she left and closing the door behind her.

“You startled me, Sachi,” Hiroto said, rubbing his knee.

“Good, I hope it hurt. What is going on? “Sachi snapped. She had a headache and was not in the mood for this.

“I’m not sure what you’re talking about,” Hiroto replied.

“I told you at the hospital not to pressure her and as soon as I turned my back you were filling her head with crap,” Sachi snarled, folding her arms over her chest.

“I did no such thing!” Hiroto looked hurt. “I didn’t pressure her at all! I simply told her the truth! Kunoichi is on the cusp of something great and I wanted to encourage her to keep doing her best since she was so upset.”

“That is exactly what I’m talking about, you toad!” Sachi’s headache was getting progressively worse and the frumpy, balding little man sitting behind his desk was at the epicenter of it. “That is pressuring her! I mean, you have zero moral fiber, I always knew that, but I warned you I wouldn’t forgive you if you did.”

“I don’t want her to get hurt, either,” Hiroto said with a shrug. “Not only because I love Akari like a daughter, but because, from a business sense it’s self-defeating.” Please, Sachi thought, rolling her eyes, let him not have any children. “We’ll see how she’s doing and make a determination on what to do about the tour, ok?”

“No,” Sachi shook her head. “I’ll be making that determination. I don’t trust you. If I think she’s ok to go we’ll go ahead with the tour. If not we’ll be postponing it. That’s the only deal I’ll accept from you after the crap you pulled.”

“I told you I didn’t pres-“ Hiroto began.

“That is the only deal, are we clear?” Sachi snapped. Hiroto paused for a moment before shrugging.

“Well, that’s the reason you’re the leader of the group, Sachi,” his face slipped into an easy grin which always made her skin crawl a bit.

“Now, what’s this crap about Koemi coming on tour with us while Akari prepares for some solo career? Where’d that come from, hmmm?” Sachi demanded. Hiroto looked genuinely shocked.

“What, now?” He asked. “What are you talking about?”

“I heard it on the radio on the way over. What’s the play with that steaming pile?” Sachi was taken aback. Was it really just a stupid fake rumor? It was her, albeit somewhat limited, experience that rumors like that in show business always had some small grain of fact buried inside somewhere but Hiroto seemed to be more than a bit taken aback.

“That’s preposterous!” Hiroto replied forcefully. “Don’t get me wrong, we’ve tried to get Akari to do a solo album for some time, but that’s in addition to Kunoichi, not in the place of it.”

“You need to talk to the press immediately and clear this crap up, then, Hiroko. That’s all. I’ll see you tomorrow at Akari’s walkthrough.” Sachi turned on her heel and headed toward the door.

“Just keep in mind, Sachi, Akari doesn’t have your money, family or connections,” Hiroto called to her, causing her back to stiffen. “This is an ephemeral business and it doesn’t take much to slip from the peak of fame into the valley of obscurity. While you and Mari would probably be ok Akari and Yukiko don’t have a safety net. Not to mention Akari’s not as strong as you three emotionally-speaking.”

“Speaking of Yukiko,” Sachi murmured. “Did you set her up to date Jin Nakamoto?”

“Of course,” Hiroto replied breezily. “We figured they could go out to dinner once or twice and it would boost both Kunoichi and Hansamu’s profile. You know, secret love, that sort of thing.” Sachi closed her eyes and hung her head slightly. Figures, she thought to herself. I should have known. I suppose I owe her an apology. “We didn’t expect her to spend the night over at his place, though. That was unfortunate and not what we had in mind.” Nope, she’s trash; Sachi corrected herself, shaking her head sadly. “Still wish I knew who leaked it to the press, though.”

“You seem to be caught flat-footed quite often of late, Hiroto. I worry about you. Let’s just hope your superiors aren’t as worried as I am. Oh, and Akari’s stronger than you think,” Sachi said, opening the door. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”