Go to the Pool of Siloam (2)
"Bonsoir, Chartomos. I'm Charlotte Lupus, the werewolf of Anathema's second generation."
A whole festival of greetings, none of them willing to settle on a single language, stitched itself across the chat. Charlotte only grinned, as if even that pleased her.
"Did everyone get through today all right? Mm. Yeah? I see. At work?"
Most of the replies said the day had gone fine, with a rough one surfacing here and there. Charlotte read a few of them aloud and lightly lifted the room.
"Anyway, I did give notice already, but... today we're making chocolate. Tomorrow's Valentine's Day, isn't it?"
"Hm? Well. It was a girls' school, so I did get a lot, but..."
She said it with a faintly troubled smile. In high school she had been treated as the boyish prince, and getting buried under chocolate every Valentine's had been less a privilege than fate itself.
"Honestly, when you get too much, that's a problem in its own right..."
"Wow. A fraud. We have a fraud in our midst."
It wasn't even time for introductions, but Mary couldn't endure that particular remark and ended up cutting in.
"Ah. Ahem. Forgive the late introduction. — Mary Tepes, the vampire queen who shall one day reign even over Valentine's Day!"
"But before I conquer Valentine's, I believe this insolent, fraudulent wolf must be judged first."
"Agreed. Some of us want to receive chocolate and can't even get any!"
"Ah. So Serena-chan came bursting out too, in the end."
"Con-Sere. I'm Serena Razania, the anomaly pulling double duty as witch and ghost at Anathema."
A beat late, Charlotte worked the PC and brought up Mary and Serena's character art. Unlike Charlotte's model, the images were static.
Ordinarily it would have been better to ready cameras for the two of them and raise the stream's polish, but this time the circumstances were a little different. They had only meant to chat for a moment, kill the camera, and broadcast nothing but the sound of work in the kitchen.
"So that's the plan. Today I'm making chocolate with these two. ...Saying 'make' is generous. We're only melting it and letting it set."
"Even so, with something like this, it's the heart and the care that matter!"
"Mm. True. Then let's get started."
Presently Charlotte switched the stream display. What came up was an illustration of the three characters in a kitchen, whisks and the like in hand, midway through making something.
"Some of you can probably tell from the art style. Maya-senpai provided the illustration."
"Well... in reality it isn't an apron. We're in kappogi — those full cooking smocks."
"It has that perfect-housewife feel, so I like this one too."
"Ahaha... Serena-chan. You were saying that before the stream even went on. Your strike zone is awfully wide."
The clatter of utensils kept going under the talk, and before long a single photograph rose on the stream: chocolate, kitchen tools, and the rest laid out in a row.
When a broadcast involved real work, it was hardly rare to show the in-between only as photos rather than video. It was a way of keeping off camera anything that must not be seen — the person inside the VTuber, the shape of a home.
Anathema Production, of course, hardly fretted over red-pill worries and the rest of it, the business of whatever lay behind the mask. Charlotte and Mary both uploaded photos to social media now and then with nothing hidden but their faces. Serena, though — Senjoji Chiyo — had kept her real appearance comparatively sealed, and they had chosen this method out of consideration for her. It was already known that she worked as a voice actress on the strength of that voice, yet even on that side her face had never been shown. Among the second generation, she was the member whose face was locked away the tightest.
"All right. Shall we melt the chocolate first?"
"Yes. A double boiler, wasn't it?"
"Right. Wouldn't do to scorch it by accident."
Water never climbs past a hundred degrees Celsius while it boils, so a double boiler is handy for holding the heat below a dangerous line. Charlotte explained about that much, and filled a pot.
"Next you unwrap the chocolate and put it in the bain-marie — meaning this pot. Better to break it up a little so it melts well."
"Nice. If that's all it is, even I can do it!"
"I've thought this before, but really, Serena-chan, wouldn't it be better if you learned to cook at least a little...?"
"But modern society has convenience-store lunches and plenty of other things... ah, no. I'm a ghost, so by the setting I don't have to worry about meals."
"And you're all right, hearing things like that?"
"Ahaha... Serena-chan did say she can't cook, didn't she..."
"No! You two just have way too much girl power, that's all! Mary-chan does perfect home cooking like it's nothing, and Charlotte-chan actually went and learned it properly in France — a real study-abroad elite...!"
Looked at that way, the points of comparison really were on another level entirely.
Logic and fairness, of course, meant nothing at all to the viewers. The moment they had a pretext to tease Serena, that was enough.
"No, my girl power is average!"
"Charlotte-chan! Char-chan, say something too! It's because a prince like you has girl power that high that the wedding-dress faction runs wild!"
"Ehh... springing that on me all of a sudden... More importantly, you might want to be careful about what you just said..."
"Aaah. It blew up after all."
Charlotte watched the chat catch fire and smiled a thin, bitter smile.
"Or rather — didn't this person set the powder keg alight because she didn't want to be the one under attack...?"
"Ufufu. Everyone who cornered me is the villain here! Come on, let's burn them all!"
"No — people who don't usually watch Char-chan's streams can't follow any of this right now, you know? Viewers who only watch ours, the Servants and the Renatomos, are in complete chaos."
As if she had anything to preen about. Mary hit her with everything she had and let out a sigh.
"Mmm. So, to explain it simply for everyone, it's like this. Whether a tuxedo or a wedding dress suits Char-chan better... a bit that's been around since fairly early in the streams."
"Me? I'm the faction that wants Char-chan in a tuxedo, going all-out with the needy-girl act."
"Koff?!"
She hadn't seen that one coming, not even a little. Charlotte choked.
"Cough... n-needy-girl act... mm."
"You know. The kind where you get all shy and your face goes red."
"No — and what do you intend to happen if you egg them on any further."
They'll run wild demanding we show them what you showed those two. Mary added as much, and that is exactly what happened.
"So. Which faction is this Shutan, then, talking like that?"
"Me? Mmm..."
At Serena's follow-up, Mary let a brief hum slip and answered.
"Doesn't Char-chan suit a traditional wedding ceremony, somehow?"
"If I had to choose, a full, billowing hanbok rather than a kimono... no, her proportions are good, so a cheongsam that shows the legs, or something..."
"A traditional ceremony... mm. Now that I think about it, that might be nice."
Perhaps picturing herself married in traditional dress, Charlotte nodded, small and faint, with a thin smile. A soft red lingered across her cheeks.
"I already said it, but this is exactly the thing, Char-chan."
"...?"
"The viewers should have seen this face."
Watching her, Serena's brow pinched tight again.
"Well... I agree it's almost a waste that only we get to see it. She's so gallant the rest of the time that the gap is rather large."
"Mary-chan, not you too?!"
The camera was off anyway, so Charlotte had let her wolf ears out without a care, and the way they kept twitching and perking was thoroughly worth seeing. Between the red pill and the Secrecy Protocol, two locks stacked one upon the other, it was nothing but a pity that none of this could be shown to anyone else.
"Anyway. What's the next step?"
"The next step, is it."
Ninomae, straining to hold down the urge to pet that head, rustled the wrapper off the last of the chocolate and quietly steered the talk elsewhere. Charlotte seemed just as glad not to linger; she took the opening at once.
"You set the bain-marie on the pot of water, wait for it to melt, pour it into the molds, and let it harden again. That's the end. Depending on taste, mixing something else in is fine too."
"Depending on taste?"
"If you'd like it a little sweeter, or a hint of fruit... You could even try salt, though get the ratio wrong and it's a catastrophe."
So saying, Charlotte took the chocolate she had just peeled from its foil and, instead of dropping it into the double boiler, bit straight into it.
"Well. If you're going to adjust anything, you have to know what the original tastes like first. Here, Mary-chan — you try a bite too."
She smiled and held the chocolate out toward Mary.
"Th-this is an indi— an indirect ki—"
"Hm?"
"...Yes. I'm the one overreacting. Yes. Of course."
Mary seemed to hesitate a moment. In the end she sighed, took the chocolate, and chewed.
Mary might have talked herself into accepting it, but there was no chance the viewers would miss her muttering about an "indirect" something. Her attempt to act as though nothing were wrong had failed long ago, and the chat only drove the color higher in her face.
"Huh. Shutan? Coming down with a cold?"
Charlotte watched that reaction, and her expression turned, somehow, worried—
"...No fever, though."
"H-hnyaaah?!"
She had simply leaned in and set their foreheads together. At the face that closed in all at once, Mary sprang back like a cat someone had upended a bucket on.
"Wh-wh-what are you doing, you idiot wolf?!"
"Hm? No, I was just checking for a fever. I'd heard that without a thermometer, forehead to forehead is the most accurate..."
"Be quiet! You damned natural of a wolf...!"
"Mmm...?"
Mary forced down the heart pounding in her chest. For a girl who had only just awakened to her own sexuality, a natural like this was far too dangerous.
No. I mustn't let something like this shake me. I have Lady Shion...! She told herself so, and pulled her heart back into line.
...If she were honest, it was not her feelings for Han Seoyeon that had driven the temptation off. The instant she pictured Han Seoyeon, the "Lady Shion" inside Ninomae's head pitched a giddy fit — So when's the Charmea wedding? — and that, of all things, was what settled her down.
"Mmm. Anyway, if I eat this after Char-chan and Shutan have both had their mouths on it, that's an indirect three—"
"Q-quiet, you...!"
"Mmph."
The calm did not last, of course. Horrified, Mary sealed Serena's mouth with the chocolate still in her hand.
"There is no such thing!"
It was a complete mess. Same as always.