But Whoever Has to Sit in a Chair Like That Must Be Mortified
"Th-that's why I... ended up joining the sports festival cheer squad..."
"Ah, i-it's fine. They said I don't even have to, um, show up to practice, and on the day itself I can j-just sit in the back.... Honestly it's, uh, basically like being a ghost member."
She was right. Just as Miss Koga said, I have been terribly busy lately. Even this call with her is the first we've managed in nearly a week. That was why, the moment they told me I could go home right after class the way I always did, I joined the cheer squad on the spot.
"Ah, understood...!"
By now every 3D debut stream for the Stars Flow Second Generation had come to an end. That hardly meant our schedules were finished. Miss Koga and I, especially, still had a mountain of things left to do—so much that since the last time we'd all been on a call together, there hadn't even been time to stay in touch.
Our manager and the other Stars Flow members had suggested I ease off streaming for a little while, but the Iztomo unfortunately liked me far too much, so I decided to tough it out instead. Did these gremlins even know how hard I was working for them? These days, the moment school ended I was out running around for work, and the second I got home I washed up, ate dinner, and went straight on stream....
Honestly, I'd reached the point of wishing I had two bodies. Even so, the reason I could still hold on was that the 3D debut had taught me something. You get back as much as you give.
"I-I'm really sorry I couldn't come on as a g-guest..."
"Th-thank you..."
Only very rarely, but sometimes I catch myself thinking—isn't Miss Koga actually on her second life, the same as me? I'm certain my mental age is somewhere in the forties, and yet the moment I start talking to her I feel like so much more of a little kid. Wait. No. Flip it around, and doesn't that mean I'm living incredibly young? So I'm a middle-aged guy with a youthful sensibility, not even falling behind the new generation?
"Eep..."
Saying Trying to read my mind in the first place is the weird part, you know...?! was, predictably, too frightening, so I let it go.
Up on the stage, a pure-white angel was smiling with her whole face and waving, and the seats before her glittered with pale-green penlights and placards scrawled with cheers. Everyone looking up at her shouted.
The angel's teary voice rang in my ears. I knew full well that wasn't an act. She truly loves it—that heat boiling up from the very center of you, the kind you can only feel when you're standing on a stage. Hadn't she told me so herself, last time?
And at last, those words left her mouth. My heart pounded. My stomach turned. Of course it was nothing next to actually walking out onto that stage as a guest, but just the fact of intruding on someone's special stage was tension enough for me.
With those words, the ring of a call connecting spilled through the broadcast, and right on cue Misscode's ringtone burst from my computer as well.
"Hnnn..."
I drew one last deep breath and checked the title of the stream in progress.
Do not mess this up. Absolutely do not. I swore it to myself once more, and quietly clicked accept.
"K-K-Konzumi...! With Stars Flow, the mood maker who dreams of a world where e-everyone can smile...! Kaino I-Izumi...!"
"A-anyway, h-happy birthday, Miss Koga..."
"It's y-your birthday, Miss Koga, I c-couldn't miss it, hehe..."
We were trying to keep the conversation going in that warm little mood, and yet for some reason the chat had gone completely chaotic.
"Ah..."
Only then did it hit me. I hadn't been talking the way I talk on stream. I'd been talking the way I talk when it's just me and Miss Koga on an ordinary call.
"Auu, um, M-Miss Koga! Next l-live, let's definitely sing together...!"
"Th-then I'll get going! Do your b-best on today's live!"
Those were the last words I gave her. I hung up on Miss Koga at once.
...And the community filled to the brim with glowing comments, all of them wanting to see more of that natural relationship of ours.
A relief... was it?
Before I knew it, it was Saturday—the day of the sports festival.
Just as Hinoshita-senpai had said, I didn't have to stay at school while everyone else prepared. Only the once. The day before yesterday I'd been called to the Science Room for a little while, but that was merely to check the cheer outfit I'd be wearing on the day, and I was free to go straight home afterward. It was a splendid blue dress, a little awkward to move in, but they'd told me it was fine if I simply sat in the back by myself, so I didn't make an issue of it.
...I did wonder how the senpais and everyone else were supposed to dance in something like that.
"Haaah..."
I passed the main gate and looked out over the field. It was the day of the sports festival, and even though the weekend had barely reached dawn, there were more people around than usual. And the thing that stood out most among them....
"...A chair?"
In a corner of the field sat an enormous chair. Or would throne be the better word? Pitch-black for a base, flaunting gaudy ornament all around it—no matter how you looked at it, a prop that had no business being on an athletic field.
...Had the school prepared something extra? Well. A sports festival only comes once a year. I could understand wanting to spend it as splendidly, and as joyfully, as possible.
...But having to sit in a chair like that—the person in question would be mortified beyond belief. If it were me, I might pass out halfway through. Not that any of it had the slightest thing to do with me.
Leaving the gaudy throne behind, I went into the classroom, followed the notice posted on the blackboard down to the locker room, and changed into my gym uniform.
...I don't care who wins. I just want it over quickly. Sports festival.