My Little Sister Is a Hakko VTuber
The day after I got back from my trip, I was still staying at my parents' place rather than returning to my own apartment.
Whenever I finished a long trip, I always stopped by home first to drop off my gear. This time was no different—I planned to unload all the travel equipment I'd hauled back from Papua New Guinea, rest for a day, and then head out. After spending weeks abroad, nothing called to me quite like my mother's home cooking.
All the footage I'd shot in Papua New Guinea was still sitting untouched on my external hard drive. Normally I would've started editing the moment I walked through the door, but this time I just didn't feel like it.
The travel alone had eaten up several days, and on location I'd been hauling a camera around from morning to night. Sure, flying first class was comfortable, but a long time in a seat doesn't get any shorter just because you're used to sitting still.
So today, rest. Video editing could start tomorrow.
Researching my next destination—also tomorrow.
My plan was to do absolutely nothing, lie in bed, and catch up on all the sleep I'd missed.
I had barely closed my eyes when—
BANG BANG BANG!
"Oppa!"
I opened my eyes.
BANG BANG BANG!
"Oppa! Are you sleeping?"
I shut them again and pretended not to hear.
"I'm coming in, okay?"
"I'm sleeping."
"No, you're not!"
The door flew open.
"Oppa! Help me with something."
"No."
"I haven't even told you what it is yet!"
I rolled over to face the wall.
"Whenever you come through that door, it's never good news."
"It IS good news!"
"Then do it yourself."
"I'm asking because I can't do it myself!"
"Tomorrow."
"No. I need your answer by today."
"Answer to what?"
"Will you do it or not?"
"How can I say yes or no when I don't even know what it is?"
"Then just listen first!"
My little sister plopped down on the edge of my bed.
"Oppa, I got into a really, really big collab stream!"
"A collab?"
"Yeah!"
"Congrats."
I lay back down.
"Hey, listen to the whole thing first!"
"You said you got a big collab. Good for you."
"That's not the end of it."
"There's more?"
"This collab isn't just me going on alone."
"Then who's going on with you?"
"You."
A moment of silence.
"...Who's 'you'?"
"My oppa. You. You have to go on with me!"
I opened my eyes again.
"Why me?"
"Because this collab is a VTuber Older Brother Special!"
"VTuber Older Brother Special?"
"Yeah. VTubers who have real older brothers stream together with them."
"Why would anyone do that?"
"Because it's fun, obviously!"
It made no sense to me, but I supposed that was just how internet broadcasting worked.
"Anyway, it's a huge collab. Tons of famous people are joining."
"Like who?"
"Members of Fantasy Idol, members of Black Jump..."
"Who?"
"...What do you mean, who?"
"Both of those."
My sister stared at me like she couldn't believe her eyes.
"Oppa, are you seriously a YouTuber?"
"Does being a YouTuber mean I have to know every VTuber out there?"
"No, but you might've at least heard the names! These people are on YouTube too. Esterina, Sama Chunja, Kang Segu—they all have over five hundred thousand subscribers, and..."
She counted off names on her fingers, one by one.
"...Nope. Don't know them."
"Not a single one?"
"Nope."
"Well, that's not true!"
"What do you mean?"
"There's someone in that list you DO know. Esterina."
"Never heard of her."
"Remember that cover song I played for you a while back?"
"Cover song?"
"Yes! The one I told you that you HAD to listen to. You said you liked it too."
Only then did something click.
It was a cover of a song by a famous Japanese singer, rewritten with Korean lyrics. The original was apparently pretty well known, but since I almost never listened to Japanese music, it was my first time hearing it.
I'd liked the song enough to look up the original, but to my taste, the Korean version was better. I'd added it to my playlist and gave it a listen now and then ever since.
"Oh, that one."
"You remember?"
"Yeah. That was a good song."
"The person who sang it is Esterina."
A flicker of interest stirred in me.
I'd heard the song without knowing anything about who sang it, and now I was supposed to actually talk to that person. That did make me a little curious.
"Is she going to be there?"
"Yes!"
"Hmm..."
Truth be told, that one cover wasn't the only song of hers I'd heard.
The first song had hooked me badly enough that I'd dug up a few of her other tracks, and every single one suited my taste. These days, whenever something new popped up, I'd occasionally go listen to it.
"So?"
"Yeah?"
"What exactly am I supposed to do?"
My sister's eyes went wide.
"You'll do it?!"
"Let's hear what it involves first."
"It's nothing hard. You know VRChat?"
"I've heard of it."
"That's where we do it. You just make an avatar and hop in."
"An avatar?"
"Yeah. Your face never shows. All you have to do is whatever I tell you, right beside me."
"How long?"
"Two hours or so?"
"TWO hours?"
"It'll fly by! You play games, chat around... it'll be more fun than you think!"
"What would I even talk about with a bunch of VTubers?"
"Don't worry about that. All the segments are already prepared. You just show up and have fun."
It was less of a burden than I'd expected. No face reveal required, and two hours wasn't so much time that I couldn't spare it.
More than anything, my sister was begging this hard—I couldn't keep playing dumb forever.
Not that she'd ever noticed, but I'd secretly dropped into her streams a few times.
I never typed anything in chat. I just watched for a few minutes to see how she was doing, then left.
The problem was that her viewer count never looked great, no matter when I checked.
She'd be chattering away on air, buzzing with energy like the stream was the best thing in the world, while only a handful of people were watching.
But it was something she genuinely loved, so I wanted to support her. If this collab really was such a golden opportunity, I didn't want to be the reason she lost it.
And besides, I was a little curious about this Esterina person.
"Fine."
"What?"
"I'll do it."
"REALLY?!"
"But exactly two hours. Not a minute more."
"Yes! Two hours is plenty!"
"And if you make me do anything weird, I'm leaving immediately."
"I won't! I promise I won't!"
My sister's face lit up in a huge smile.
Seeing that expression made my stubborn refusal feel like it had been for nothing.
"Thanks, oppa! Love you."
"Shut up. Get out."
"Okay!"
She bounced up and darted out of the room.
When the door clicked shut, I lay back down on the bed.
I was finally going to get some proper sleep, but strangely, drowsiness felt further away than before.
Esterina.
For the first time, I searched that name.
A few days later, I was back at my own apartment.
With the collab stream approaching, a huge box arrived at my door. Inside was a dense array of equipment I'd never seen before—a VR headset, trackers for my hands and feet, and more.
My sister said it was all gear for the stream.
I'd handled just about every kind of filming equipment there was, but this was a first.
"I have to wear ALL of this?"
My sister's voice came through the speakers.
"Yes. That's how your body movements get reflected on your avatar in real time."
Following her instructions over the call, I put the gear on piece by piece—headset on, trackers strapped to my hands and feet.
"Done."
"Okay, I'm sending the invite. Come on in."
I launched the program.
A loading screen flashed by, and the world in front of my eyes changed completely.
"Oh."
It was more fascinating than I'd expected. When I turned my head, the view moved with me. When I raised a hand, the hand in front of me rose too. When I moved my feet, the avatar's feet moved as well.
A short distance away stood my sister's avatar. Her voice, which I'd been hearing through the phone, now sounded inside the headset itself.
"Can you see okay?"
"Yeah."
I stood in front of a mirror and waved.
The avatar on screen waved exactly the same way.
"Works fine."
"See? Once you get used to it, it feels just like your own body. Try walking."
As instructed, I pushed the stick on the controller forward.
The scenery in front of me began to move.
"..."
"How is it?"
"Hold on."
I stopped.
Something was wrong.
"What?"
"I feel kind of sick."
"Don't tell me you're getting motion sickness?"
"Looks like it."
"That can happen your first time. Go really slowly for a bit."
I tried moving again. Even slower this time, but it made no difference.
My eyes clearly registered motion, but the sensations from my actual body told a different story. After turning in a few directions, my stomach started to churn.
I figured I could power through, so I kept going a little longer.
Nope.
In the end, I pulled off the VR headset.
"Can't do it."
With the headset off, my sister's voice switched back to the computer speakers.
"Already?!"
"I'm about to throw up."
"You never got seasick on all those boat trips!"
"This isn't a boat."
I sat still for a while, waiting for my stomach to settle.
"Hey."
"Yeah?"
"Can this thing run on a regular computer?"
"Technically, yes, but..."
"Then it works."
"Hold on! If you join from a computer, you can't move your body properly."
"But I can still stream, right?"
"I mean, the stream itself would work, but..."
"Then we're good."
"We are NOT good!"
Ten minutes later, I had tossed the headset and trackers aside and was sitting in front of my computer.
As it turned out, you could access VRChat just fine with an ordinary monitor, keyboard, and mouse. But as my sister had warned, there was one problem.
My avatar was stiff as a board.
Instead of mirroring my body's movements like everyone else's did, it was closer to a game character controlled by keyboard.
On one side of the screen, my sister's avatar stood waiting.
"This is how you move?"
"Yeah. That part's just like a regular game."
I moved forward. The avatar trotted along briskly, walking and running like a game character.
"Seems fine to me."
"...You think THAT looks fine?"
"It's moving, isn't it?"
"It's moving, technically."
Moving the mouse turned the view as well. And then there was jumping.
I pressed the spacebar.
Boing.
"Oh."
"What?"
I pressed it again.
Boing.
"Huh, it can jump too?"
"That goes without saying."
Boing. Boing.
"Oppa."
"What."
"Stop jumping. You're giving me a headache."
Waving my hands or bending at the waist was beyond me, but there were a few preset poses I could trigger instead. I tried one of the keys.
The avatar crouched slightly. The camera angle dropped, putting me in the position of looking up at my sister's avatar from below.
"What's this one?"
"...Why are you doing that pose?"
"You told me to try pressing things."
"I said look around and see what functions exist! I didn't say do THAT!"
I pressed the key again. The avatar stood up. Once more.
Swoosh.
Back to looking up from below.
"So this one, and jumping."
"Yeah."
"That's all I'll need."
"That is NOT all you need!"
Boing.
"Oh my god, seriously!"
I had more or less gotten the hang of the controls. The real problem was the stream itself.
I'd been doing YouTube for quite a while, but I'd almost never done a live broadcast.
Talking in front of a camera was second nature to me. If I didn't like a take, I could just shoot it again, and any boring parts could be cut in editing. A live stream was a different beast entirely—words that left your mouth could never be taken back, and mistakes couldn't be edited out.
And this wasn't even a solo broadcast. It was a collab with people I'd be meeting for the very first time.
Thinking it over, I felt a little nervous.
"Oppa."
"What."
"You HAVE to behave yourself during the stream."
"What did I even do?"
"You're literally still jumping right now. First of all, stop with the jumping."
"Fine."
Boing.
"OPPA!!"
The collab stream was tomorrow.