If the Me of Now Were in That City, I Could Fire a Railgun with Arcade Coins…
My first-anniversary commemorative live was set to begin at 9:30 tonight.
School ending didn't mean I had to go straight to the studio, so I went home first.
"Starting today, th-things should finally ease up a little..."
The 3D debut stream. The birthday stream. And today's first-anniversary stream.
Any one of those three would have been enough to guarantee a packed schedule, but all three had landed on top of each other, and from preparing an original song onward, a whole stack of other circumstances had piled on as well. I had taken it on because I wanted to, of course. Wanting it just wasn't some cure-all that could drive off every ache that comes from being busy.
Even so, it ended today. Once this first-anniversary live was over, there wouldn't be another important schedule for a while. If I had to name one, it would be tomorrow's first-anniversary second-generation group collab—and even that only amounted to all of us gathering at my house, eating something good, and going on stream.
The waiting-room door opened with a creak.
The one who came in was Miss Akabane, just finished with her own first-anniversary live.
"Th-thank you for your hard work, Miss Akabane..."
"Thanks. It's your turn now, Izumi, so hang in there."
For this second-generation anniversary broadcast, we hadn't invited any guests. I knew perfectly well that a lot of viewers expect guests at a live like this, but there had been no helping it. If each of us picked only one senior, someone was bound to be left out—there were five of us in the second generation, and our seniors, Nacchan plus the first generation, came to six. Allow overlaps and call in several of them, though, and the seniors would be the ones to suffer. Someone might end up on a live two days in a row.
In other words, no matter how we chose, the community was built to talk. So we decided not to invite any guests at all. The first-generation seniors' own anniversary lives had been held solo, which gave us pretext enough.
...Well. Back then there was also the small fact that we hadn't had 3D models.
"Miss Izumi. Please start getting ready."
"Ah, yes...!"
Called by the staff, I steadied my breath and stood. When I opened the door and stepped out, Miss Akabane—already packed—followed me.
"See you tomorrow, Izumi."
"Ah, t-take care, Miss Akabane..."
The moment I answered, she patted my head with all her strength, then waved and drew back.
"..."
She didn't have to say it. I knew that gesture meant hang in there.
"Hehe..."
And with that, my first-anniversary live finally began.
"S-so, I've m-made it to my first anniversary like this..."
The first song ended—Bright Your Soul, the ending of Uncle's final episode—and the stage slowly brightened as we shifted into the MC segment.
"Mmm. I-it still doesn't quite f-feel real..."
I understood that a year had passed. It just didn't feel real. Honestly, when I first started as a VTuber, I had thought I'd graduate after half a year at the very longest. And yet here I was, standing on this stage being congratulated on my first anniversary. Life really is impossible to predict.
"Still, I th-think I'm having fun..."
The 3D debut, the first time I stood on a stage, had left my stomach churning with nerves. The second, the birthday live, had been dominated by the thrill of unveiling an original song. But maybe it was because this was already my third stage in three months. Rather than that pounding excitement, a plain, simple joy welled up.
"...Th-that doesn't mean I w-want to turn around and do another live right away, you know? This is i-incredibly hard..."
They could only say that because they had no idea how hard it was. Dance lessons and vocal training were already more than enough, and did they have any idea how busy it got when I squeezed streams into every gap on top of that? I was a high school student. I still had to go to school....
"Why?!"
By any measure, this was a scene where they were supposed to praise me. No matter how busy I had been, I had never once stopped streaming for the Iztomo. They ought to be praising me. To torment me even now—these people's affection was definitely pointed the wrong way....
I had grown.
As I had said on a previous stream, if the other person was only one, I had grown enough to meet their eyes and hold a conversation. If I had to put how enormous that progress was into a comparison, it was about the difference between a powerless nobody and an esper from a certain city. If the me of now were in that city, I could fire a railgun with arcade coins....
That did not, however, mean I was invincible. Not even close.
"All right, first dish out is Nekoto's pasta! Carbonara, huh?"
"Heheh.... Pasta is the dish Nekoto is proudest of."
Today was the second generation's first-anniversary group offline collab, and the meeting place was my house. It was the biggest, Mom was away on a business trip so she wasn't home, and they had chosen it out of consideration for the fact that I was still a student.
Right. Up to there, it was fine. There was no problem at all.
...No. This group offline collab had been full of problems from the very start.
The reason I could talk on the phone with the Stars Flow members these days without getting all that nervous was partly that I had grown close to everyone, but the biggest reason was still that I didn't have to see their faces. Which meant that the moment our eyes met, a little of that nervousness was still there. One person, though, was fine. I had definitely grown. There was no problem.
If it became four people, the way it was right now....
"Th-thanks for the m-meal..."
The tension was so fierce that the words wouldn't even come out properly. The cola-ordering incident at the cheese dakgalbi place last time had been an extension of the same thing. Ordering something from a stranger was already unbelievably hard, but with four people around me I got even more nervous, and the words simply refused to leave.
"Izumi, is it good?"
"I-it's g-good..."
Miss Aki's carbonara really was delicious, so I told her honestly what I thought.
"Hm?"
Maybe she couldn't hear me over the other members chattering around us. She tilted her head. So I cupped both hands around her ear and said it again.
"I-it's r-really g-good..."
"...I'm glad."
"What are you two talking about?"
"I-Izumi says Nekoto's pasta is incredibly delicious."
"Akakat! At this level, it nearly rivals the secret dish this body prepared."
After that I ate Miss Utsumi's takoyaki, Miss Koga's cheese hamburg steak, and Miss Akabane's bacon-wrapped rice balls.
"I-I'd like to e-eat them again sometime..."
I had to pass every one of those impressions on to the members. For the record, the dish I made was cup ramen loaded with pork shoulder.
For some reason everyone in the chat was furious. The others had all said it was delicious. They didn't know a thing.