A Collab with a Fan?
"Hello!"
"Hello...?"
"Ah, um.... hello."
"Yo-ona....."
I was currently in the middle of a collab stream with Elmil and Yo-ona.
Ah, but hadn't Elmil only sent the collab invite to me?
That was true.
So how had it ended up like this?
That was how.
It wasn't anything dramatic, really. Jumping straight into a one-on-one collab was a great way to get the fans thinking something weird, so we'd decided the two of us would just appear as guests on the quiz show Yo-ona hosted. The responsibility for all of that, of course, I left entirely to her.
She'd sold it as a situation where she'd invited both of us at once because it looked like fun — and that way, nobody would get the idea that the two of us already knew each other.
As for Yo-ona herself....
Eh, it was probably fine. She was running a 4D concept anyway.
Hmm.
Well, it wasn't my fault, so it was probably fine. Elmil was the one who'd proposed the collab, and Yo-ona was the one who'd actually put it together. I hadn't done a thing.
I closed Discord.
"...... Alright~ shall we get started?"
She kept a poker face like the professional she was and pushed the show forward. See? This was why I'd bothered expanding my network with all those tedious collabs. I had no intention of dealing with any more of that hassle myself, so from now on I was leaving all of it to her. I offered a vague, noncommittal reply.
"Shall we start with introductions? Elmil?"
"Yep! I'm Elmil, and I just debuted — total rookie."
"And you've met Miren before, haven't you?"
"Yes. Last time was fun."
I checked the chat. Same vulgarity as always, right on schedule.
I glanced through Elmil's chat and Yo-ona's as well. Fortunately, the overall sentiment wasn't bad in any of them.
She read the room for a moment, then opened her mouth.
"So Elmil did say on her debut stream that she wanted to collab with Miren~ How did you two end up crossing paths?"
"I just happened to catch the stream. And I guess I wanted to get to know her?"
"Ahh, so because Miren has that slightly masculine vibe, you wanted to try being friends?"
She said it while watching my face for a reaction.
"Yeah, something like that~"
But why did it feel like this room held two women and one man, instead of two men and one woman?
........ Come to think of it, from the viewers' perspective, that was exactly right.
I decided to just tell myself that the men in this world were all like that — feminine. Elmil was, after all, the first man I'd met here.
"Shall we get the quiz show started, then?"
Fortunately, the short talk segment passed without incident. Chat was in a good mood, and the atmosphere felt like any other stream.
"Alright.... here comes the question!"
"Among the works below.... which one is BL...?"
You little shit.
I hammered out a message as fast as my fingers would go.
"A-alright~ everyone looks like they're thinking hard~"
She fired off that typo-riddled message in a panic and immediately pushed the show forward. Even so, just handing the entire thing off to your manager? Was that even allowed?
I flicked a look through the chat.
I supposed I should be grateful. Instead of anything about me and Elmil, the chat was just doing its usual simple rejection dance. Elmil and I had similar audiences, so we'd probably be fine — and as for Yo-ona's side....
"M-Miren, what do you think the answer is?"
"Ah, beats me? I wouldn't know. I've never seen this kind of thing."
She looked a little flustered, but she kept the show moving without a hitch, so it didn't seem like anything that would actually blow up.
"Ehh~ is that so? What about you, Elmil?"
"Ah, I don't know either... I don't like it."
Elmil's tone was oddly sour. Chat didn't seem to have picked up on it yet.
"For the record, I did not write these questions!"
"Manager! They both said they don't know! Are you just going to keep throwing these with zero read on the room?!"
She slipped back into her usual act to loosen the air.
"Alright~ time's almost up... three, two, one, ding!"
When the clock ran out she pretended to slap the desk, then revealed our answers.
"Alright..... Elmil picked number two! Miren picked number five!"
For the record, I had just guessed. They all looked like BL art styles anyway, so I picked without even looking. Yeah. This was better for my mental health.
"And the answer is..! Number two! That's correct, Elmil!"
Huh. He'd actually gotten it right. He'd probably guessed too.
"Oh....! How did you know?"
"....I just hate it."
"I hate it so much that even the tiniest hint of it comes through."
So he hadn't been guessing.
"I-I see."
"I hate it more than you can imagine. Enough that I can't even stand a masculine woman dating a real man."
"......."
His avatar turned its head slightly to the side.
Is he looking at me right now?
No — I don't have so much as a speck of interest in dating a man.
"Ahaha.... I see! Elmil takes the first point!"
The quiz show rolled on from there without any real trouble. I hit the ones I knew and missed the ones I didn't, and he did the same, so the score kept tipping back and forth in a genuinely decent contest.
"Wooow! What a nail-biter!"
"Then here comes the final question!"
I was ahead for the moment, but if he got this last one right he'd overtake me. The final question landed right on that knife-edge between sealing the win and watching it get snatched away.
"This one is going to work a little differently!"
What now. I silently prayed it wouldn't be another question like the first one.
"And it is..... ta-da! This!"
".....An anime debate question?"
"Yes! I'll throw out a topic, you split into for and against, and whoever persuades more people wins!"
.....So it was basically a popularity contest.
Anime debates never amounted to more than a clash of equally stubborn titans. They grew out of people's imaginations, so of course the branches that grew from them were endless. Neither of us had a particularly dazzling way with words, which meant this would come down to popularity more than actual debate.
Unless the outcome was overwhelmingly obvious, he had a slightly better shot. To the viewers, after all, he was a real man.
......Forget it. I'd trust my viewers too. I'd been streaming longer, so maybe I had a chance.
And if not, whatever.
"Alright, I'll reveal the topic, and then we'll decide who picks first with rock-paper-scissors!"
"The topic is! The protagonist of One-Punch Woman can beat the protagonist of Dragon Ball? For or against! Choose!"
"........"
"........"
"You anime-illiterate bastard...!"
I lost at rock-paper-scissors, but he took the "for" side — maybe as a courtesy to me. That left me with "against" by default, and I won by default.
A handful of people did vote for Elmil, whether because they were anime-illiterate or just that down bad for a guy. Still, most of them had some shred of conscience left.
And so the quiz show ended in my victory, and the collab itself started winding down.
"So, Miren, did you have fun today?"
"Yeah, the quiz show was fun. Invite me again sometime."
"I definitely will! Ah, and sorry about the anime-illiterate thing!"
"Haha, don't worry about it."
She and I tossed the ball back and forth for a bit, and then it rolled over to Elmil.
"Elmil, did you have fun today?"
".....Heh, yes. I'm just really happy I got to know my new friend a little better."
Those eyes of his looked a little off. Must have been my imagination. It wasn't like you could actually see a VTuber's gaze.
"...I'd love to collab again sometime."
I flinched.
Those eyes were genuinely wrong. It was the kind of bone-deep creep you could feel no matter how far apart you were.
"Ahaha.... I see."
She'd felt it too. She laughed a little too vaguely and started steering toward a sign-off.
"Alright~ shall we wrap it here? Good night, everyone~"
She traded one last goodbye with us and ended her stream. I'd filled my hour as well, so I signed off too.
"Ah, ah, you're leaving already...."
"Yeah. I usually end it after an hour."
He clung for a short, reluctant moment, then let me go.
........
Ding!
The second the message came in, I opened Discord.
Of course. She'd picked up on the same thing I had.
She was sharper than I'd given her credit for. It made me wonder why someone this smart was running a 4D concept in the first place.
..........Huh?
As we would later come to learn — it was both.