This Is as Far as I Go…
It really did come out of nowhere: a DM like that, from Miss Utsumi.
To think she would make a request this fierce, emoticons and all. I had been thinking it for a while now—didn't Miss Utsumi like me a little too much?
A TS heroine, by rights, is fated to be showered with love by everyone around her for no reason whatsoever. I hadn't particularly had that experience in this life, so I had decided novels and reality were different after all. Fate, it seemed, was not so easily rewritten.
"Mmm..."
...Honestly, though, I wanted to refuse. Miss Utsumi was just too much. I was grateful she liked me this much, but how was I supposed to put it? It felt like I was going to get devoured.
But with her going that far, how on earth was I supposed to refuse? I thought it over, and my communication skills—weaker than a flea—failed to produce an answer. And yet I, a 175,000-subscriber VTuber who had attitude-cleared Arcana Shooter: Purgatory and ST Cerberus, managed to discover one path besides refusal.
Miss Utsumi, however, was a superboss.
"Yahoo!"
At Izumi's answer, Ayaka let out a cheer before she knew it.
Ever since she had met every one of her Stars Flow second-generation genmates before debut, how long had she been waiting for this day?
Ayaka had always been the youngest. At home there were only two older brothers, and the childhood friend she had known since she was little was an onee-san a full two years older than she was. At school her friends had put her in the big-sister seat, but that was nothing more than friends teasing one another. She had never gained a younger sibling in any true sense, and so she carried a private fantasy of what a little sister would be.
Later, after she came of age and wore herself out drifting from company to company, that same childhood friend urged her to apply to Stars Flow—and she passed, proudly. Then, on the day before debut when she gathered with all her genmates for the first time, Ayaka understood that this place was her hope. Because her genmates, all but one, were younger than she was.
And the one her eyes went to most, of course, was Izumi. Her looks were her looks, but what seized Ayaka's heart back then was the simple fact that Izumi was a whole seven years younger.
Of course the other genmates were precious to her too. Yukari had the feel of a prickly little sister, which actually made her easy to grow close to, and together they had become the pairing called Ayakari. Nekoto's particular airheaded nature sent a different maternal urge welling up—the wish to look after her in a way that wasn't how she looked after Izumi. Suzuha, from the start, was closer to being the one who got looked after.
...Even if Ayaka was much taller.
In any case, Izumi—now six years younger—was someone Ayaka wanted to treasure. But Izumi's extremely shy nature and Ayaka's habit of closing every distance with the people around her were badly opposed. So after the group collab celebrating monetization, they had no private point of contact, and Ayaka was always the one courting her from one side only.
The first to grow close to Izumi had been Suzuha. After that, Ayaka heard that Yukari had gone to Izumi's high school festival. Even in Ashen City, the first game they were playing together, there was almost no reason for their paths to cross. Ayaka couldn't help being disheartened. Later, when she heard Izumi was going to hatsumode for the New Year shrine visit, she joined out of a wish to grow a little closer, but even there the harvest was small. About all she came away with was that, from then on, Izumi would call her Ren-onee when they met in real life, and that she herself would call Izumi Mitchi.
In the end the loneliness piled up and up until it burst today, and she had pushed Izumi—no plan, no preamble—into an offline collab....
"I didn't think it would actually work."
And in the direction of Izumi coming to her house, no less. The fact made her so happy that a loose, silly smile spread over her face.
But the anxiety arrived right after. If the offline collab had been forced into being like this, might she actually drop in Izumi's private estimation? Izumi was terribly shy to begin with, so the hypothesis was plenty plausible. Ayaka fidgeted, tapping her feet in place, but no clear answer came.
"Ugh..."
In the end, Ayaka asked for help—from the onee-san who had always given her an answer whenever she hit a wall.
The time we had promised was five in the afternoon. Weekend days meant dance lessons for me, so it couldn't be helped, but Miss Utsumi had sounded disappointed, saying she wished they could meet earlier and go on a date.
Speaking of dates, that reminded me of something. In Korea, if you say date, it usually means spending time with a lover—but overseas, I hear people surprisingly call it a date even when friends just go out to play. I always think of the Korean meaning first, though, so every time I hear it I can't help but flinch.
"Haaah..."
Dragging a body worn out from dance lessons, I reached the meeting place—the Hachiko statue in front of Shibuya Station—at 4:53 p.m. And the plaza in front of Hachiko was, well, noisy. No explanation required. It was already Saturday evening, and this was one of the classic meeting spots at Shibuya Station, in one of Tokyo's great subcenters. Of course it wasn't going to be quiet.
I was already exhausted down to the bone, and I had to stand in a place this crowded. At this rate, wasn't I going to collapse? So please, Miss Utsumi, get here fast.... Thinking that, I began to recite the Heart Sutra silently to myself.
"Mitchi!"
I had gotten about halfway through the sutra when Miss Utsumi caught my left hand, smiling like the sun, and I jolted back to myself. The time was 4:55. Exactly five minutes before we were meant to meet.
"You said you'd head out right after dance lessons, right? Did you get here early?"
"N-no. I really just got here too..."
"Good. Then shall we go get dinner right away? I reserved the place ahead of time."
"Yes, Utaga—"
"Mitchi?"
"...Ren-onee."
"Okay! Let's go!"
The place we ate was a Kobe-beef yakiniku restaurant supposedly famous even in Shibuya. I had every intention of splitting the bill, of course, but Miss Utsumi shut that down at once.
"Times like this, your big sister pays!"
Free meat. I love it so much.
It's delicious.
"Anyway, thank you so much for coming all the way out today."
"Ah, um.... Yes. I-I'm grateful you invited me, too...."
"I was actually a little worried. You get really shy, Mitchi, so I kept thinking you might hate that I called you out like this...."
"I-I don't... hate it."
"I'm glad."
Miss Utsumi heard my answer and smiled, bright and small. Honestly, it was enormously burdensome—but of course I didn't hate it. Not even a little. I knew perfectly well how gentle she was. Even on the call before the monetization group collab, she had taken my side, saying Miss Koga's pranks had gone too far, and whenever I caused an incident, the one who worried the loudest was Miss Utsumi. There was no way I could dislike someone like that.
More than anything, a woman this pretty and this sexy liked me this much. If a guy existed who could dislike that, he was the one with something wrong with him.
"The truth is, I wanted a little sibling so badly. All I ever had around me were older brothers, and an older sister...."
And so Miss Utsumi began her story, and I happily ate the yakiniku she grilled for me.
I-I've already heard this whole story, so it's fine, right...?
"Are you nervous?"
"Auu.... A-a little."
Still, it was less than the first group collab, or the offline collab with Miss Koga, or when I met Miss Akabane. I really was a 175,000-subscriber VTuber who had attitude-cleared Arcana Shooter: Purgatory and ST Cerberus. I had grown. I definitely had.
And above all, before the stream started, if I just looked at my legal drug—the framed photo full of Nacchan's encouragement...
"...Huh?"
Now that I thought about it, this was Miss Utsumi's house. The frame with Nacchan's encouragement wasn't here.
"I... I think I'm the one in the wrong, Miss Utsumi..."
"Izumi...? Izumi?!"
This is as far as I go....