Grow Up Healthy (4)

It looked precarious, but thankfully, nothing went wrong right away. There was no way a gun fired without proper aim would hit the boss, so the character died almost immediately and triggered a game over. If even one piece of equipment broke, I’d have to file an expense report while eating a McMuffin, Dora would have to write an incident report, and the stream would explode. You might think expensive gear wouldn’t break so easily, but even a smartphone worth over a thousand dollars can get wrecked if you drop it badly on a bad day. Electronics are as fragile as a goldfish. So if Dora kept flailing those blind hands around like this, it wouldn’t be strange for something to break at any moment. Honestly, I bet the mouse cable would be the first to go.

I leaned close to Dora’s ear while she was busy whimpering without a clue and whispered softly.

“Hey, tell them you’re going to the bathroom and turn off your mic for a second.”

“Huu… huuuu… I’m gonna go to the bafroom… huuung…”

Leaving the chat filled with that kind of chatter behind, I confirmed the mic was off and spoke to Dora.

“I figured out why problems that never happened during regular horror games keep popping up.”

Dora wiped her damp eyes with her sleeve a few times, then blew her nose loudly into a tissue she’d grabbed from the side.

“What is it…?”

“It’s your habit while gaming.”

“Habit…?”

I showed her the clip I’d recorded of her earlier. In the video, Dora was shaking her head left and right while her right hand frantically scrubbed across the desk like she was trying to wipe it clean with a rag. Dora stared at it with a dumbfounded expression and muttered.

“I do this when I play games?”

“Yes. Impressive, right?”

“It’s… not impressive at all?!”

Anyway, now that we’d found the cause, it was time to fix it.

“…What are you doing?”

Standing behind Dora’s chair, I firmly held her head so she’d face the screen straight on.

“I noticed you keep looking around and swinging your arms. That’s why the mouse keeps flying off in random directions.”

You might think we could just move the equipment farther away, but it was already positioned at a weirdly far distance for her to reach. After several past incidents, we’d adjusted the setup so it was convenient for me to manage while staying out of Dora’s reach. In short, rather than rearranging everything and causing a fuss, the simplest and quickest solution was to just stop her from extending her arms.

“I can’t play like this. It’s scary, I’m scared!!”

“Are you going to end the stream because you’re scared?”

“Ugh. I can stream just fine without doing this, you know?!”

“Then we’ll get another equipment issue. This is the right way.”

“Ughhh…”

Because Dora’s return was taking so long, the chat was starting to get noisy.

Staring at the chat, she frowned and let out a sigh.

“I’ll just try to keep my eyes straight ahead and make sure I don’t touch the equipment…”

“You said you’re scared. Don’t you think it’ll be hard to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠do that alone?”

“W-well… If you could help me in a slightly different way…?”

Dora hesitated, glancing back and forth between the chat and my face before finally saying,

“This might sound weird, but it’s really just for a sense of stability, no other reason. Could I… put you on my lap………?”

I knew this was coming. I’d just been waiting to see exactly when it would happen. And hearing that naturally brought something else to mind. Right. There were no equipment issues when Komari was with her, were there? That stream was from a while ago, and I’d been so dumbfounded by what I saw earlier that I hadn’t thought of it until now.

“Will that stop you from going crazy like before?”

Dora pouted her lips and nodded. If that’s what she wanted, then that’s what we’d do. There was a simple solution, and I wasn’t the type to take the long way around. Even if it meant feeling strangely like I was being embraced by an older sister. If it solved the issue, then fine.

“Then let’s do that.”

When I hopped up onto Dora’s lap as she sat ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠in the chair, she carefully wrapped her arms around me from behind. Since upper-body motion tracking wouldn’t work in this position, we turned off Live2D entirely and switched to a static illustration. The viewers quickly caught on and the chat filled with laughter. They remembered we’d used this exact setup to barely clear the game when Komari was here too.

Dora immediately turned her mic back on and dove into the game. Just from what she was saying, she sounded like a newly awakened hero. A mission was even posted to cheer her on for that dramatic voice change.

“Hoo, time for some serious gaming! Thanks for the mission! Guys, did I put on my gaming suit? Let’s go all the way for real this time. I can do this, I can do this.”

The funny thing about “serious gaming” was that simply having me sitting on her lap had completely changed the person. She was still a huge scaredy-cat, but at least she’d stopped running away like before. Now she actually faced the monitor straight on and properly dealt with the monsters.

“Dieeee! Kyaaaak, die! Die already!!”

Her aim was still sloppy, and she occasionally made people burst out laughing by sniping monster cutouts with bullets, but unlike before, she was actually aiming at enemies and moving forward.

Of course, I still had no idea why her behavior changed so drastically depending on whether I was there or not. She’d never mentioned anything like that on stream. But thinking back to the conversation we’d had at the time, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I could form one hypothesis that covered both the Komari incident and this one.

The company doesn’t interfere too directly with the VTubers’ personal lives. After all, a company’s goal is to find talented people who can stream without problems, nurture them fully, and raise them to the top. So what I needed to know was that as long as Dora had backup, horror games wouldn’t cause issues. It would be even better if Komari could come, but on days she couldn’t because of her schedule, it would be fine if I substituted like this. Compared to standing night ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠duty at the company or just watching from the side—where the work environment wasn’t all that different—this perfectly prevented the problems that occurred when Dora played horror games. Perfect. This was exactly Mazia-style thinking. Lucky for me.

It was midnight. After finishing her short stream, Do-hee left an ending message in preparation for work tomorrow.

“Then I’ll see you in two days, my Mongmongies.”

Right after the broadcast ended, Do-hee logged into her sub account and immediately headed to Dora’s stream.

[Kyaaaak, kyaaaaaaaak! Don’t come! Don’t come! No bullets! No bullets! What do I do, what do I do!!]

The moment she turned on the stream, an ear-splitting scream burst out. Do-hee frowned and turned the volume down by half.

At this late hour, for a game that was already past its peak popularity despite being a new release, nearly eight thousand people were watching. Considering Do-hee, who had more than five times the YouTube subscribers, had just finished her weekday midnight stream with around thirteen thousand viewers, this was an astonishing number. Assuming Dora normally held five to six thousand viewers during horror games, it meant roughly one to two thousand of them had come because of Jia.

Those people could have come from another genmate’s stream, from Momo’s stream, or perhaps they were simple Battle Coliseum users who had never watched Parallel before. But one thing was clear: Jia was starting to build a steady fanbase. Those one to two thousand people had dropped everything—other streams, chores, games—just to come see Jia. Considering the first generation’s average viewership hovered around three to four thousand, it was a remarkable figure for someone who had only shown her face twice on stream without even using a model.

If those people fully integrated into the Parallel fandom, Do-hee couldn’t ask for anything better. It was good, but…

‘This is probably the limit.’

These were cyber ghosts, floating viewers who chased trends. Without a fixed oshi or favorite channel, they subscribed to many but didn’t necessarily watch. Their numbers could easily drop to zero at any time. In other words, to firmly lock down more than two thousand people, she needed the next weapon.

For someone who did facecam streams, it would be dressing up beautifully and investing in expensive camera equipment. For a VTuber—or someone who would work alongside VTubers—it would be an attractively drawn illustration. In other words, a model.

‘But well… it’s Jia, so I guess it can’t be helped.’

Still, Do-hee didn’t want to pressure Mazia just to hold onto those two thousand viewers. Anyone who had been in the VTuber scene as long as she had would probably think the same thing the moment they saw a paid-for model: “I’m debuting, huh?” And because Mazia was an extremely devoted employee who believed that any investment made in her had to be repaid with equivalent value, Do-hee had to be even more careful. She probably wouldn’t accept it even if the hardcore Mazia fan club showed up offering tributes with a “This is a gift.” She’d say something like she wasn’t someone who should have fans.

Anyway, while Do-hee was organizing her thoughts, Dora finished Chapter 2 and was taking her final break before entering the long-awaited Chapter 3.

[Chulini, I’m gonna go to the bathroom and get some water… Wait, why is this game so long? The runtime is insane. It’s like a huge mountain of rice…]

Just when it seemed like Dora was heading to the bathroom, her phone buzzed.

It was perfectly timed for right after Do-hee’s stream ended. In fact, Do-hee had only watched for about five minutes before planning to go to sleep.

Suddenly?

The logic was sound. To Dora, Mazia had undoubtedly been a savior and backup today.

The sleepiness that had been creeping up on Do-hee vanished in an instant. It was because pure curiosity had boiled over inside her.

…What happens when a managed VTuber offers a tribute to Jia?

Mazia answered without much thought.

“Sure.”

“Huh? Really?”

“Yes. There’s no particular reason to refuse.”

Just as Do-hee had expected, if a fan had sent a gift, Jia would have refused it, saying she wasn’t qualified to receive such things. But Dora wasn’t a fan. Even if it didn’t seem like it, she was higher in the hierarchy than Jia, and Dora wasn’t bad at drawing either. She just hadn’t had time to draw seriously lately. When she put her mind to it, Dora could produce illustrations good enough to sell for money.

What would her cuter self look like in 2D? Honestly, it would be a lie to say she wasn’t curious.

“I’ll draw you really cutely. So if you come on stream again, you’ll use my drawing, right? Hehe.”

But this wasn’t the time to continue the conversation—Dora was still streaming. The viewers were starting to wait too long, so Jia quickly nodded and said she understood.

“Got it, so just go back to streaming. The viewers are waiting.”

“Ah, just let me send one more message…”

“You keep texting someone in the middle of your stream.”

“It’s the boss! The boss!”

Do-hee’s mind went blank at Dora’s reply.

“She’s accepting this?”

Thanks to that, the future of those two thousand viewers was now certain. In any case, she had accepted one more task. It was essentially agreeing to appear on stream and assist the VTuber. She could calm the fans’ excitement with a suitable excuse. After all, it was an unwritten industry rule that when a VTuber’s family or friends appeared on stream, they would prepare similar illustrations for them and fit them into the same universe.

However, now that a model existed and Jia had agreed to use it, this marked a major crossroads for Mazia. Between signal flare and staff deer, Jia’s identity had not yet been clearly decided. If she met the viewers’ expectations and showed star quality here, it would be debut. If she maintained her current stance, she would be recognized as staff. Since the starting point leaned heavily toward the latter, it was more likely she would end up as a staff deer with a model. But the former wasn’t entirely impossible. When you considered how eerily identical D-Rain had been and how Signal Flare’s name value continued to grow even now…

Of course, this wasn’t something that would be decided overnight. In the end, Mazia’s own wishes were what mattered most to Do-hee.

“Haaaam…”

So thinking about it now wouldn’t mean much. With a big yawn, Do-hee drifted off to a comfortable sleep.