A Shut-in VTuber Doesn't Dream of Collabs
In the end, I didn't make it back until four in the afternoon—one hour before the collab was set to begin.
Miss Koga apologized with those words, and yet—why did she look just a little pleased?
...No. She didn't. Right?
Still, maybe I ought to call this a relief for now. Everyone except Miss Koga had already dropped out of Misscode. We'd have to get on a call again before long anyway, but it wasn't as if I'd shaken the nerves off ahead of time, and being swarmed so suddenly was, as ever, far too much for an ultra shut-in like me.
After I'd spent about thirty minutes listening to what you could barely call light small talk—more Miss Koga talking at me, one-sided—she came out with that suggestion. I felt the need for it too. She was right. At this rate I wouldn't stop at setting off a Calamity on the collab. I might actually pass out in the middle of the broadcast....
"Th-then, um, i-instead of calling e-everyone at once like before, c-could you bring them in o-one at a time?"
The person I'm most comfortable with...?
Wait. This is that thing, isn't it?
Pick one name, and the others come back with So I was incredibly uncomfortable, was I?—that kind of choice. No matter who I chose, only a doom ending remained. For a shut-in like me, the difficulty was absurd.
Ngh. So Miss Koga wasn't an angel after all. She was a demon.
She could have just called whoever she liked and made it easy. She definitely asked knowing full well, didn't she...?
"Th-that's..."
What do I do? Who do I name if I want to get through this cleanly?
"Yes, yes, yes, yes!"
Miss Koga really was an angel after all! Thank goodness I'm friends with her....
True enough. If it was Miss Utsumi—the mature, cozy big-sister type, cut from cloth similar to Miss Koga, who looked like a young girl and yet carried a gentle motherly attribute—then talking might be a little easier.
"I th-think th-that would be the most o-okay, too."
"P-pardon? Pardon? N-no? I wasn't th-thinking anything at all?!"
What. Don't tell me Miss Koga is psychic?
I have memories of a past life, so whenever something uncanny happens, that's where my mind goes. Not that I've ever actually met anyone like that.
"Th-then, anyway, M-Miss Utsumi first...?"
The moment she said it, Misscode chimed—ding!—and brought me the news.
Along with that status message, which I was seeing all over again, the sound of Miss Utsumi joining the call rang out beyond my headphones.
"Ah, uh, h-hello. I-I'm really s-sorry about earlier."
She must think I'm strange, right? Showing that side of myself on stream could be written off as RP whose whole concept was RP collapse. But I'd done it even when we'd simply gathered early to talk. S-somehow, a way to fix my image again....
...Huh?
What is this. Somehow I'm the one receiving the apologies? Why?
"Ah, uh, n-no. The b-bad part is all th-this personality of m-mine, so..."
S-so Miss Koga did it because she wanted me to get close to everyone? And the one who failed to answer that kindness was me? Isn't the fault on my side, Miss Utsumi? Of course it's a shock that she mixed a prank into it, but if I'd been normal to begin with, we would have just been having an ordinary call.
"I d-don't think Miss Koga did anything wr-wrong..."
I was thinking that, quietly reading the air between them—which seemed to have frozen over just a little.
...A saint. First an angel, and now a saint had appeared before me. Maybe the world still had a little kindness left in it after all.
Somewhere along the way, Miss Koga's voice had gone nearly tearful. Ah—right. I still hadn't answered her apology.
"It's r-really okay, Miss Koga."
"Yes. I kn-know how much you h-help me, ordinarily."
No matter how far the joke went this time, Miss Koga is my precious first friend. Even if I beat odds as slim as the end of the world and somehow walked the path of a super socialite, that one fact is a truth that will never change. So I will never hate her. Even if she gets tired of me first and leaves, I will always hold her dear...!
"A-and I w-want to fix this personality that f-freezes up around people. So I'm r-really okay."
After all, one of the reasons I became a VTuber was the personality correction Mom had talked about, wasn't it? Honestly, it seems like it'll be really hard. Even so, I can't just throw my hands up completely.
"Hehe. Th-then please stay f-friends with me from now on, t-too. Close friends."
H-huh? No answer from Miss Koga. Was asking someone like me to be friends for life too difficult a request after all.... I should have lowered my ambitions and just asked her to stay my friend while we were still in the same generation....
"Th-then, how about we c-call Miss Akabane and Miss Aki now?"
But I deliberately don't make a topic of it. Even among ultra shut-ins, I'm one who can read the room—an upper-tier shut-in, no less.
The one who answered was Miss Utsumi.
I... kind of feel like I've earned those two's dislike...?
On the broadcast screen, the head manager of Stars Flow's VTubers—better known as M-chan—was carrying the talk. The subject needed no explanation. It was this group collab of our 2nd Generation.
M-chan clapped, bright and crisp. I watched that screen with my mic off, my heart pounding. If I mess up on my own stream, the only person who gets hurt is me. If I mess up on a collab, the damage spreads to everyone like a wildfire. Even a shut-in with no sense for the room isn't stupid enough to miss that....
The moment she said it, the screen cut, and there we were: the avatars of the entire 2nd Generation, me included.
From the left, in order—Aki Nekoto, a cat beastkin, long hair of pale pink threaded with sky blue, amber eyes worn like a point of pride. Then Miss Akabane, an arrogant chuunibyou girl with gray eyes and a long sidetail of a red so pure it might as well have been RGB 255, 0, 0. Then Miss Utsumi, the kind teacher of the Starlight Church, a swaying golden bob and sky-blue eyes. Then the angel, Miss Koga: pure-white hair falling to her knees, a diamond-shaped golden ring set above it, soft pale-green eyes, and a beauty mark for accent.
And last, me. Black hair down past the shoulders, a hat perched on my head, eyes of a very deep red, a silver choker at the throat that left an impression—the Water Avatar, and a high school girl. Kaino Izumi.
Once the greetings had gone down the line, every gaze gathered on me.
"K-Konzumi~. With Stars Flow...."
That alone set my chest trembling. Still, the call with Miss Koga and Miss Utsumi earlier must have helped a little, because it wasn't so bad that I couldn't speak at all....
"A w-world where e-everyone can smile, that's what I dweam—?!"
C-calm down.
I am Kaino Izumi, a VTuber of the company Stars Flow. Even if I bit my tongue and it hurts, I finish a self-introduction with a professional's spirit...!
"Dweamin' of— th-the atmothphere maker, K-Kaino Izumiii...!"
My tongue hurt like crazy. I'm not bleeding, am I?
At the real worry in Miss Koga's voice, I quietly nodded.
"I-I'm fihne."
Aside from being mortified, anyway.
...Yeah. I think so too.