This Is Peak Virtual, I Swear...
A 3D model debut is broadcast live. That much is obvious. Now and then they record one, when the quality has to be protected, but live is the rule, and it could hardly be otherwise. It is an event that comes only once in a VTuber's life. Just as obvious is the rest of it: a broadcast like that can't be run from home the way an ordinary stream is, so of course it means a professional studio.
"Haaah..."
Nerves set my heart hammering, wild enough to hurt. I was the only one in the waiting room, which meant there was no one here to settle me. A little earlier I had stepped outside, hoping a look around the studio might take the edge off, only to find more people rushing about than I had expected. I turned around at once and came back. I absolutely did not flee because I was scared. I came back because wandering around would only have gotten in their way.
I had begged the second generation's group Misscode server for help, but the only one who actually comforted me was Utsumi. Koga was cold. Akabane was cool and detached. Aki didn't even answer; she was probably asleep.
The seniors, meanwhile, were cheering for me in force. So this was a second-generation bond...? The second-generation bond is dead....
"Uuuu..."
When my manager had suggested inviting a guest, I turned her down, certain it would only make me more nervous. I regretted that now. Of course, if I had invited one, I would have regretted that just as much. Truly, I am a remarkable person, fully capable of seeing myself with perfect objectivity.
"Hnnngh..."
"Are you in there, Izumi?"
I was breathing as hard as I could, trying somehow to soothe the nerves, when someone knocked from outside and called my name. A woman's voice, strange and familiar at once.
"W-wh-who is it...?"
"Ah, it's me. Renka. Or perhaps the name Rena is more familiar?"
"...Eh?"
The Renka I knew was the name of Stars Flow's president and executive producer. And if she was bringing up Rena right after that...
"May I come in, Izumi?"
"Ah, yes...! I-i-it's fine!"
At my answer the door opened slowly, and in came the very face any Stars Flow fan would know. Rena—British-Japanese, blonde hair and blue eyes her trademark—stepped into the waiting room.
"I believe you just bit your tongue. Are you all right?"
"Augh, I-I'm, I'm f-fine...!"
The moment she entered, she asked after me with the corners of her eyes lowered, as if she truly were worried. I had bitten my tongue, and it did hurt, but I could hardly let that show.
"You needn't be nervous... though I suppose that is a rather difficult thing to ask."
"Hah.... I-I'm f-fine..."
I wanted to say something else to the president, who was smiling gently down at me, but my head seemed to have broken. The only thing that made it out of my mouth was that I was fine. What else could I do? However familiar she might be to a viewer under the name Rena, to me she was unmistakably a superior—the president, no less. Keeping my composure in front of someone like that was impossible at my current level.
"Hmm.... You really do take after your father more than your mother, Izumi."
"...Ehh?"
I had my head bowed under the weight of my nerves, and the president dropped a bomb like that.
"U-um... you know my parents?"
"Oh? You didn't know? I was certain Seon-a would have told you...."
Mom, saying anything about the president...
"Ah..."
Just from reading those papers, Mina, they almost certainly won't realize you're my daughter. At most, that president kid will know.
I was fairly sure she had said something like that, the first time she urged me to apply to Stars Flow. I had never imagined it was proof they were close. Then did the president, like Aunt Sia, have some tie to me from the past? The thought flickered, but the president's next words made it easy to see that wasn't it.
"Seon-a and I had an ugly fight not long after she married, and we parted ways. To think we would end up working together again like this—and with you, her daughter, no less. Fate really is a strange thing."
"Ah..."
In exchange, I had also learned something I would rather not have known. Mom and the president had fought.
"Hehe.... In any case, I stopped by in case you were terribly nervous. Being nervous is only natural, of course, but there is a saying, isn't there? If you can't avoid it, enjoy it. This is a wonderful day that comes only once in your life as a virtual ontuber, so I do hope you'll enjoy it."
"Auuu.... Yes..."
"You've got this!"
"Th-thank you..."
With that, the president held out her hand. We shook. She smiled, and then she left the waiting room.
...Right. The president had it right. I already knew this was something I couldn't avoid. Something I couldn't run from. So I would try to enjoy it. Everything I had worked for, right up through today, could not possibly have been for nothing.
"Urgh..."
But first... the bathroom....
The stream had not even started, and already the chat was packed, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, with Hyperchat in every color. The nerves I thought I had pressed down began to creep back up, little by little. Even so, it felt good to know there were this many people who liked me.
"Would you like to try it on?"
"Ah, yes..."
One of the women on staff came over and held out a VR HMD, a head-mounted display.
"Hoo..."
I let out a long breath and pulled the HMD down over my head, and my view changed completely. Where I stood was, unmistakably, a stage. My avatar's model wasn't up yet, so I had the odd sensation of floating in empty air, but looking around was comfortable enough. Brilliant lights poured over the spot beneath me. On the screen behind, the words were written plain.
Along the sides, a flood of chat and Hyperchat whipped past in an instant. Out front, blue penlights swayed beside support signs crowded with every kind of cheer.
"Can you see all right? If you feel dizzy, or anything else is wrong, please say so."
"Ah, yes. I-I can see fine. I don't think I'm d-dizzy, either.... But, um, is that...?"
"Yes! Every one of them is watching your stream in VR. The penlights are a model we distributed, but the support signs were all made by the viewers themselves."
An internet broadcast is, as a rule, something you watch on a computer. Stars Flow had said they would be trying a new technology for my 3D debut, though, and this was it. Put on a VR HMD to watch the stream, link the Stars Flow broadcast server with the viewers' IP addresses, and something something.... In short, if the Iztomo watched through a VR HMD, they could feel as if they were sitting in a real audience, looking up at a real stage.
"If you try the earphones in a little while, you should be able to hear the applause as well."
This is peak virtual, I swear....
"First, the rundown. The moment we begin, you'll sing the song you prepared, and after that..."
I took in what the staff member was saying beside me, and still I kept looking around. Chat racing past without end. Penlights and support signs already waving for me, though the broadcast had not even started. Had Natchan always been looking at a sight like this? Had she always been dreaming of one? The thought that I was standing where the person I longed for stood sent the nerves rushing in, but more than that, my chest began to swell until it ached.
Before I knew it, it was just before eight in the evening. I had every piece of gear on, and all that was left was to wait for the broadcast to begin.
"Please get ready, Izumi. Five!"
Five seconds left.
"Four!"
I could say it with confidence. Up through today, I really had worked hard.
"Three!"
And today, just as the president had said, was a wonderful day that would come only once in my life as a VTuber.
"Two!"
This was the road my idol had run ahead of me and built.
"One!"
So I would enjoy it. Enjoy it to the fullest, so I would have nothing to regret.
"Zero! We're starting!"
Holding that feeling close, I drew a deep breath and shut my eyes for a moment.
"Haa..."
When I opened them again, the stage that had briefly gone dark lit up once more, and brilliant lights fell across another me—Kaino Izumi. The intro began to play. I matched it, and shouted as loudly as I could.
The words Natchan shouts at the start of every live.