Soul Taker Fan Fiction ❯ Nurse Witch Komugi: Asuka's Story ❯ Chapter 2

Nurse Witch Komugi: Asuka's Story Two

 

Yui Kirijara watched her girls helping work the cosplay cafe, her emotions still a bit unsettled from her earlier meeting with Richard, her former manager and now the head of his own agency. Their love affair had nearly destroyed her career as a actress, and it still haunted her now.

 

'And that damn Shiro had to blab what he knew to Komugi,' Yui thought with annoyance, 'it'll probably be all over the agency in hours.' She shook her head, trying to gather her control as she saw Asuka Sakurai race to serve another customer.

 

All the waitresses had dressed up, of course, they all knew that sales and their pay would depend on their looks. Kogumi looked adorable dressed in her gothic catgirl outfit, Megumi was sexy as hell as a pseudo-cowgirl, little Runa was sweet as a fairy and even Koyori looked daring as a maid... but Asuka stood out.

 

Deciding not to go with the ultra girly look chosen by the other girls Asuka wore an adaptation of a waiter's outfit, with a blood red jacket with black lining, white ruffled shirt and long black pants. Even with her girlish black hair she looked dashing and handsome, drawing the eye of more than one female fan.

 

Even Yui found herself feeling a faint twinge of attraction, something that she found oddly surprising. Men were always her weakness, not someone like Asuka, and it was disturbing her quite a bit. 'Concentrate on work,' she reminded herself firmly.

 

"How's it going?" Shiro asked from right behind her, nearly making her jump.

 

"Don't do that!" she whirled around to glare at the spikey haired man who had crept up behind her. With his scar on his face and the cheap cigarettes he liked to smoke the gray haired man looked like a bad boy, but in reality he was quite good at his job. Recovering her composure she asked, "How's the project going?"

 

Casually drawing on his smoke Shiro said, "We're looking good. I've got threads going on several of the yuri fan groups speculating on her sexuality, and the demographics look good. I'd say her fanbase is increasing steadily."

 

Yui smiled, the first real comfortable smile she'd had all day, "Good."

 

After some serious consideration Yui had realized that just hiding Asuka's sexuality would do them no good. All the rumors circling around her old agency along with what was known of her history would cause the truth to be revealed eventually, and probably disastrously. So instead they were subtlety building it into her profile, steering her towards ambiguously sexual roles and building a positive fan base.

 

Shiro tapped ash into a empty cup as he asked, "So when are you planning on breaking our campaign to her?"

 

"It'll have to be soon," Yui admitted, "the script for the lesbian character I've been trying to get for her just hit my desk."

 

"I'm glad I'm not going to be there for that conversation," Shiro chuckled.

 

"Coward," Yui sighed.

 

"Excuse me," Shiro finally put his cigarette out and collected his ash cup to throw out somewhere, "I'd better go make sure Kogumi and Megumi don't kill each other."

 

"Good luck," Yui smiled slightly.

 

Asuka saw Yui and Shiro talking together again and felt a sudden stab of jealousy. The two had a closeness that was intimate, yet also casual, and it was much like that of a pair of lovers. 'Never mind,' she reminded herself as she hurried to serve a table full of girls, 'keep it professional.'

 

Still, it was easier said than done. Yui was almost everything Asuka liked, a beautiful, self confident and mature older woman, one who knew the ways of the world. The occasional sad, regretful look that would pass on Yui's face only made Asuka want to comfort her, and the flares of temper showed passion beneath a cool surface.

 

Taking a break by the kitchen Asuka smiled a bit wryly at Kogumi's friend, the idol Koyori. The busty, beautiful black haired girl looked gorgeous, and if she was older she might have even atracted Asuka. Sadly, she was just too immature.

 

"So are you enjoying the cafe?" Koyori asked, adjusting her skimpy little maid's outfit entirely unselfconsciously.

 

"Yes," Asuka nodded as she admitted, "though I was wondering why the lady customers are mostly asking for me."

 

Koyori blinked innocemntly, "Didn't you know? I understand most of them are your fans from the websites."

 

"Websites?" Asuka asked, feeling a odd sinking sensation.

"Yes," Koyori nodded firmly, "one of them talked about it to me. They were called yuricon and shoujoai, I think."

 

"Oh my..." Asuka felt her knees give way, grabbing on the counter as it seemed like her worst nightmare was about to be coming true, the revealing of her deepest, darkest secret. "Excuse me," she said, hurrying off to find Yui.

 

Yui looked up, seeing a visibly pale Asuka rushing towards her. Straightening up she looked at Asuka, "Are you all right?"

 

"It's.. I..." Asuka gulped. Gathering the tattered remnants of her self control she said to Yui, "They know!"

 

Yui gave her a sympathetic look, taking her by the arm gently. "Come on," her voice was softly, "let's go talk." Together they went out of the cafe tent, standing alone out in the sun. "So," she smiled, "what happened?"

 

Quietly, Asuka explained what Koyori had revealed, feeling a deep sence of dread and remembering the dire warnings of her previous management. "I'm sorry," she finally said softly, suddenly certain that it was all her fault.

 

"No, I am," Yui said as she reached out to comfortably squeeze Asuka's arm, "if I had realized you'd be this distressed I would have told you sooner." With that Yui explained the strategy she and Shiro were using, including the hinting at her true sexuality.

 

Asuka was gaping at her, her expression faintly stunned. "But..." she started weakly, "my previous manager said revealing that would be career suicide."

 

"With your previous image it might have been," Yui agreed. "Your film roles were mostly heroines who ended up with the guy, or were pure good girls," she said, "and if the truth about you came out your fans would have been shocked."

 

Asuka felt a light dawning, "Which is why you've been having me do such different roles."

 

"We've been sliding you away from your good girl image as well as spreading a careful sort of speculation online," Yui agreed. She looked thoughtful, "I can't say your popularity won't suffer somewhat, but it won't be nearly as bad as it could have been."

 

"So I can finally be open," Asuka murmured softly, her eyes filled with a kind of wonder.

 

"I'd still like you to be descrete," Yui cautioned, "but yes."

 

Asuka looked up at Yui with eyes filled with adoration, her smile a bit weak but growing. "Thank you," she managed, "I never thought...."

 

Yui felt her cheeks coloring faintly, looking away from the other woman's gaze. "I'm glad you're happy," she said, "I didn't want you to regret coming to Kiri Pro."

 

Asuka stepped a bit closer, "I've never been happier since meeting you."

 

'Oh dear,' Yui thought as it almost seemed like Asuka was hypnotically drawing her closer. Softly she managed to say, "This isn't a good..."

 

Asuka pressed her lip's to Yui's, cutting off the words as the fire of their mutual attraction sparked between them. The lingered a moment, then she drew back as Asuka sighed, "I wanted to do something like this since I first saw you in your office."

 

Yui had unconsciously slid her arms around Asuka during their kiss. "I'm your manager," she managed, drawing back.

 

Asuka tightenned her grip, "No you're not, Shiro is. In fact, you've deliberately kept away from me professionally..."

 

"It's still inapropriate," Yui said, remembering her own painful affair with a manager, "people will think I hired you as a bedmate."

 

Asuka actually chuckled at that. "If you had you would have slept with me weeks after you hired me," she smiled, "you knew I was willing." She reached up to caress Yui's cheek, "I'm not some innocent, and you're no predatory boss."

 

Yui gulped, knowing that this was a bad idea, but feeling her resistance crumbling on many levels. "Let's try dinner first," she managed to get past a tight throat, "then we'll see."

 

"I'd like that," Asuka quickly kissed her again then rushed back into the cafe with a spring to her step.

 

End

 

Notes: The Nurse Witch Komugi series mentions that Asuka is a successful actress who switches to Kiri Pro, but why she does so is never revealed... except that it's really a step down for her. It sort of nibbled at me after seeing the series, and this fic eventually came out of it. Asuka appears in episode #1 but she's not formally named as a member of Kiri Pro until #2.5, so I assumed she joined sometime in between.