Chapter 106: We're Not the Weird Ones. The World Is Just Too Bleak.
A 3D model debut.
For a VTuber, debuting a 3D model means something very special.
Someone who doesn't know this industry might well ask the obvious question. Aren't VTubers 3D models to begin with? They aren't.
From our Boss, the one who coined the term virtual YouTuber, on down, most of the earliest talents did start out in 3D. But a 3D model has one drawback enormous enough to call fatal: it costs money. The modeling itself costs money. The equipment to run the model costs more. Even preparing a space where you can actually use it costs money. And because so many of those early VTubers were the upload type — faithful to their RP, posting scripted, prerecorded videos — they often needed staff on top of all the rest. Put simply, leaping into 3D with no sure promise of profit was a crushing burden.
Then one of the old VTuber agencies began working not with 3D models but with moving 2D illustrations — Live2D — and the industry climbed to the next step. It took far less money and far less time than before, and a VTuber on Live2D needed markedly less gear. The fashion of the industry shifted with it, from the upload type who posted finished recordings to the live type who broadcast in the moment, talking with viewers, never knowing what would happen next. Dependence on staff fell away. That is why a modern VTuber is far more likely to work as a Live2D illustration than as a 3D model.
…And yet, however the era changes, the root of a VTuber is still the 3D model. Which is why a 3D debut comes to a VTuber as something very special. Live2D is cheap and convenient, and that convenience comes with constraints a 3D model simply doesn't share. A 3D debut is a declaration in its own right: From here on I can do so much more, so you'd better look forward to it.
Of course, this isn't the early days, and it isn't the absolute peak either. It is the third golden age — the one that rose after the industry had already collapsed once. Working in 3D no longer demands the money and time it used to, and Live2D has advanced so far that many of the old limits are gone. Baseline avatar quality has climbed high enough that a 3D model or a Live2D illustration, either one, is perfectly fine.
Even so, the sight of a VTuber who had only ever moved as a Live2D illustration debuting in 3D and moving freely was more than enough to move an audience. That is why, even now, a 3D debut remains something very special for the VTuber and for the people watching. It is an event you can experience only once after you debut — special enough that some viewers set it nearly level with an anniversary live.
…Getting that emotional over so little. Isn't that strange?
What are you talking about? Being an otaku means having a rich heart to begin with.
We're not the weird ones. The world's just too cold.
Well. In any case, that hour seemed to have arrived for me too.
"Now that Izumi's finally started lessons, I was starting to think it was about that time."
"Well, you can't put it off forever, can you? She started lessons, and the company probably locked the schedule as fast as they could."
Yeah. Of course they had.
Obvious as it was, everyone said the word about the 3D debut had come by text. The manager had added that the order ran the reverse of our debut broadcasts: me, then Akabane, Koga, Aki, and Utsumi.
Why did I have to be first? I hate being the one who gets smacked before anyone else.
I knew it couldn't be helped. Even so, I was desperately jealous of Koga, third for the debut broadcast and third again for the 3D debut.
"Has everyone… picked a song…?"
"Yep! Still a secret for now, though!"
"I've picked mine. Not locked in yet. I'm still talking it over."
"My manager sent me a bunch of songs that fit my RP, so I'm stuck choosing."
A 3D debut stream usually means singing a song or two. Put another way, the 3D debut would be the first broadcast where I ever sang. My first time singing in front of the Iztomo, and it would be the 3D debut.
I'd seen reactions like that on the community boards. I had never once thought they would become real.
I did have a song in mind. Whether it would actually happen was another question. Wanting to sing something doesn't mean you get to.
"A 3D debut…. Honestly, it still doesn't feel real. Is that just me?"
"We all saw it coming, but feeling it is a different problem."
At Utsumi's words I nodded hard in place of an answer. None of the others could see me nod, of course. I chose to believe the feeling would carry anyway.
My genmates were all kind enough that the air would never freeze just because I opened my mouth — but you never know, do you? If I said something strange and made it awkward, I might bite my own tongue clean off.
It wasn't that I still panicked and lost my voice whenever this many people gathered. I was being considerate.
"I've got a stream soon, so I'm heading out."
"You've got this, Yukari…."
"It's dinner on my end, so I should go too."
"Ah, take care…."
Misscode's notification chimes rang out again and again, and then the call was down to me and Koga.
"K-Koga, aren't you going…?"
"You haven't left either, so don't start. …There's something I wanted to say."
Something she wanted to say. I had a guess as to what. I did not.
"You know this too, Izumi. It isn't over for us just because the 3D debut stream is over."
"…Eh?"
What was that supposed to mean…?
"…Going by the schedule we were given, I have to do my birthday stream right after my 3D debut. And you've got a birthday stream a month after yours."
"…Ah!"
"…You really didn't know?"
"Th-that's…. I forgot. I did…."
My birthday is June 12. Koga's is May 24. Just as she said, the schedule kept stacking even after the 3D debut.
Forgetting a genmate's birthday and my own — did that even make sense? Someone could ask me that. This was force majeure. It couldn't be helped.
Koga's birthday. More precisely, the birthday of the Person Inside Koga — Yuika-nee — is February 1, and I had already celebrated that one. Of course Kayano Mina's birthday is also June 12, and Kaino Izumi's birthday is also June 12… but when birthdays overlap, it's only natural to put my real birthday first, isn't it?
In other words, I'm not in the wrong.
"…Well, that can happen. Anyway, our schedules run back to back, so we're a little busier than everyone else. I've had stretches like this plenty of times, so I'm fine… I just wondered if you were."
"Ah…."
Honestly, I wasn't. The moment I heard her say it, just imagining the stretch ahead made my stomach turn.
But.
"…I'm o-okay."
Even so, this was the moment I had to say I was.
"I-it's not something I can g-give up on and run from…."
More than that, hadn't I set a clear goal? I wanted to stand on a stage and do a live. A 3D debut stream would be hard to call a live, but a birthday stream — that you could absolutely call one. So I really couldn't run.
"…Yeah? If that's how you see it, I'm glad. …Still, if it gets hard, tell me anytime. I'll help as much as I can."
"Th-thank you, Koga…."
"Mm. Then let's both buckle down and get ready!"
"Yes…!"
With that, Koga left the call. I closed Misscode and stretched until my shoulders popped.
If the manager was right, the 3D debut stream was the middle of May. About a month left. The birthday stream was roughly two months out. Short, if you called it short. Long, if you called it long. In that span of preparation, could I really make something I would be satisfied with?
I had no confidence. In the end, all I could do was work hard enough to rub the anxiety out.
So that everyone could be happy.
And more than that, so that I could be satisfied.
"Y-you guys…. Every time I s-stream you tease me, and then you send Mycarongs like this…. A-aren't you embarrassed?"
"What are you, middle-school boys…."
Still, it did feel as if the abuse faction had thinned out a little compared to before.
Or not? Had I just gotten used to it? This was actually dangerous, wasn't it?
"Well, anyway, sorry, but m-marrying you is impossible…. I-if you want to marry me, r-reincarnate as a pretty girl on Nacchan's level and come find me."
"Mmm. Well then, s-since I've pretty much read through the piled-up Mycarongs…. M-maybe it's time I just said it…?!"
"Three…."
"Two…."
"One…."
"Zero…!"
The instant the word left me, the broadcast cut over to an illustration of my avatar. And written across the center of it—
Just as everyone had expected, it was the news of the 3D model reveal.