Honestly, What Did Mei-chan Even Do Wrong?
Did she smash her RP from day one and set off a Calamity?
On day two of streaming, did she slam down a two-week break?
Other members post casual chatter on Nater all the time. Did she just clamp her mouth shut and sit there by herself?
Did she call out a senior's RP?
Did she say humanity has to disappear before the Earth can know peace?
Did she tell Iztomo they were friendless otakus?
Did she sexually harass Ayaka on the 2nd Generation group collab?
Did she trash Stars Flow as a garbage company on an official stream?
Did she compare her own face to her older sister's and tear herself down?
Did she ever call Suzuha onto a stream and not prepare a single thing she was supposed to do?
On a collab, did she try to pause the broadcast because she didn't want to play a horror game?
Did she openly mock Suzuha on stream for being short?
Did she dump her own mistakes onto Iztomo?
On a collab with a senior, did she laugh at that senior for making a mistake?
After a collab review stream, did she go dark for a week without a word?
She calls herself the Eighth Star every other breath — did she not even relay Natsune's first-anniversary stream?
Did she finally turn a stream on, talk about nothing but Natsune, and then just shut it off?
Did she open a membership stream, satisfy herself all alone, and kill it in five minutes?
Did she lose a bet to Yukari and still, ugly to the very end, refuse to admit it?
Did she scam her viewers with Fate's Battle gacha?
On Shiroki no Umi, did she openly tease Suzuha's height again and get chewed out for a full hour while they were still live?
Did she come right out and say she'd fought with Suzuha?
On a viewer-participation membership stream, did she rage-quit because Iztomo wouldn't let her win?
And after that, did she lament about it on Nater and make people who knew nothing misunderstand?
So what the hell did Mei-chan even do wrong, that you keep losing your minds?
And that is how Izumi became the owner of the V-gallery.
Something had gone wrong. Once the membership stream ended, that was the conclusion I reached.
What is the foundation of a TS net-stream story? It hardly needs saying. Viewers cherishing the streamer, loving her for no reason at all — the so-called nadenade. Isn't that it?
I never show my face, fine. I'm a VTuber. Even so, if they're Iztomo, isn't it only natural that they cherish me at least on a membership stream? I'm such an incredible pretty girl that I could pull a crowd doing ordinary internet broadcasts, VTuber or not. So why do I always have to end up like this?
I can't take it anymore. The owner of my stream isn't Iztomo. It's me. Yes. This means the time has come to restore discipline.
Only — how does one restore discipline?
"Hmm."
I turned it over. What if I simply stopped streaming, no warning at all? That wouldn't work. Early on I'd already served two weeks of self-reflection, and I'd vanished for a week without a word. If I went dark again on top of that, with no explanation, it would be a Calamity of the highest order. One hundred percent. More than anything, I am a streamer who belongs to Stars Flow. I must not do anything that damages the company's image.
Then what if I ran a stream so wretchedly boring it hurt? A dull game is usually dull for the people watching, too. But I could use the fact that, because it was my stream, Iztomo would have no choice but to watch.
"Pass on that, too."
The catch is my personality. If I'm not having fun, I get sick of it immediately. If it isn't even fun to watch, there's no way I — the one actually playing — could enjoy it. And if I pulled something like that, my subscribers would vanish in a flash.
"..."
There really is no way, is there? Does that mean I'm stuck, for as long as this stream lasts, in the role of the one who gets picked on? I hate that. I really do.
Which leaves the trump card.
"So what you're saying, Miss Izumi, is that you'd like to change the mood of the stream a little, and you want to be taught a way to do it?"
"Yes. I thought Senior Hikari would be able to explain this kind of thing better than I could."
"Ah, uh. Th-that... y-yes."
Something was off. I had very clearly asked Miss Koga for help in a DM, so why was I on a call with Senior Kurokami as well?
Of course I understood Miss Koga's thinking. Senior Kurokami was in a situation like mine. She could give me advice that actually held. But wasn't chat enough for that? This wasn't even a stream, and here I was making small talk with two people at once. At this rate I was going to throw up.
"Hmm. It's true my situation is similar to Miss Izumi's. Plenty of Butlers deliberately try to break my RP. But is that a bad thing?"
"Isn't it bad? They're forcibly collapsing a VTuber's RP and trying to shake the stream..."
Miss Koga answered Senior Kurokami's question in my place. Hearing that, Senior said it wasn't what she meant, and went on.
"Of course, if they did it out of malice, Miss Suzuha would be right. But for me, and for Miss Izumi, it's fans who like us, doing it in a playful spirit. A VTuber's stream — more precisely, an internet stream — follows a certain pattern, as you both know."
She called it a very simple rule, and continued.
"For example, if a choice of mine throws off the game's progress, the Butlers will say I have no talent as a villainess young lady. When situation A comes from me, answer B comes from the Butlers. Miss Izumi's case is similar. If Miss Izumi tries something, Iztomo interfere. Viewers get their fun from that."
I already knew what Senior meant. Of course I did.
"That back-and-forth gives the stream stability, and people who enjoy it gradually gather. Even if the pattern brushes against RP, in the end what matters most to streamers like us is the fun, isn't it? I think that part of the streams Miss Izumi does is exactly what fills in the fun. Is there really a need to change the pattern, or the mood?"
But that wasn't what I wanted.
"...What do you think, Izumi? I think Senior Hikari is right."
How was I supposed to answer? Was quietly nodding the correct one?
"I-I..."
No. I couldn't do that. It would be a betrayal of the two people who had gathered, meaning well, because I had asked.
"A-actually... I-I'm sorry."
In the end I apologized to both of them, and told the truth.
"...So it wasn't about the direction of the stream, or the mood. You just wanted Iztomo to praise you?"
"You wanted to be praised for no reason at all, and because they wouldn't, you went looking for a way to punish Iztomo. Is that what you mean?"
"Yes..."
This was humiliating. If I looked in a mirror right now, wouldn't I find my face dyed redder than a ripe persimmon?
"...Sometimes I really don't know what you're thinking, Izumi."
Liar.
...But I hadn't known it would turn into a conversation this serious, either. How was I supposed to expect Miss Koga would go so far as to ask Senior Kurokami for help?
"Well. If that happened on a membership stream, I can see getting angry. Even so, this is too much, isn't it..."
"I-I'm reflecting..."
All I had wanted was to be praised by the people around me, the way I'd seen in those TS net-stream stories. Why had it turned into this?
The world is bullying me....
"I'm sorry, Senior. I knew Izumi was this kind of girl. I should have talked it through with her properly first..."
"It's all right. I was glad we could talk, even like this."
"Apologize to Senior Hikari. Now, Izumi."
"I'm sorry..."
In the end I was lectured for two hours.
"Next time you want to talk about something like this, say it properly from the start. And if you put what happened on the membership stream onto Nater like that, people who don't know anything might misunderstand."
After that, on a private call with Miss Koga, I got scolded for another hour.
...But no matter how I turn it over, I still think the ones who are worst are the Iztomo who wouldn't praise me from the start.