I Will Not Drink Again (5)
"Ah. We're live."
"Serena-chan, you're on the air! Hurry over this way."
"Huh? Oh, we are?"
"Give me a break. What is this unnie even doing."
The countdown ticking off the remaining wait hit zero, and the broadcast image changed. Four avatars were up across a wide set, and the witch character who had been hanging halfway off the corner of the frame scrambled into the camera in a fluster. …It went without saying, of course. They had already given the signal to start any number of times, so this, too, was nothing more than staging.
"Yes. Viewers, welcome back. If you're just joining us, hello. I'll be hosting Part Two as well—Trainee Knight Amairo Tsubasa."
Once all five had settled into suitable places, Tsubasa greeted the viewers. Most of them had likely been watching since Part One, and no small number had probably left the stream running straight through halftime—but form was form, and form still mattered.
To the sound of the other members' whooping cheers, Tsubasa—Hyakurenno Yuri—shot a sidelong glance at the Ninomae standing beside her. They had been speaking of that only a moment ago, and she worried the other's composure might still be a little unsteady; but Ninomae had already swept her expression clean and sunk wholly into being "Mary."
It was something she found herself thinking now and again, whenever she was shown a sight like this. Among the second generation, the one closest to a true professional was probably Mary.
For the most part, the members of Anathema Production hardly differed between the selves they were on stream and off. At most, their manner of speaking shifted a little. In cases like Tenka—Charlotte—or Chiyo—Serena, it felt as though they simply went on air as themselves, and Tsubasa's side was not much different.
Tsubasa, moreover, had already settled into a my-pace concept, which meant she could broadcast without fretting too hard over how the viewers reacted. …Which was surely why schemes like all-night endurance streams spent fully clearing garbage games kept bursting out of her at all hours.
In Gen 2, the people whose real selves and characters diverged—who actually had to act in order to stream—numbered two. Mary, and Sae.
But Bansei Marin, the woman who played Komori Sae, was a veteran who had been cutting loose on broadcasts for well over a decade. Correct for that gap in experience, and the one with the greatest raw talent still had to be Ninomae.
Mary Tepes: arrogant, and yet good at heart. The person within, Ninomae, was exceedingly gentle and modest. The face she showed the world, in other words, was the exact opposite of who she was. For Yuri—who, like most of Anathema Production's members, had a character fitted to the performer rather than the other way around—it was impossible not to admire.
No. Knowing that president, he must have been certain Ninomae could manage at least this much, and that was why he had assigned her a character like this.
If nothing else, President Nakabashi's eye for people can be trusted.
From everything she had seen so far, he seemed like a man who could somehow scrape out a survival even wedged in among the monsters of the Hyakurenno main family. Honestly, had the circumstances only allowed, she would have scouted him from her side herself. If the ones to find him first had been her brothers, and not Yuri—and if only he hadn't been a friend of that Professor Senjoji. Well, by this point the company had become one she couldn't swallow even if she wanted to.
They don't actually keep a totem in the company basement that lures anomalies in, do they…?
No—this was hardly the moment for stray thoughts. Tsubasa gave her head a light shake, flung the musings off, and smiled.
"As we announced beforehand, the Part Two broadcast will be a party-game team battle! In other words, a Gen 2 civil war. We split into two teams, play through randomly assigned matches, and the first team to take three wins is victorious. The losing side receives a penalty."
"Love it. Don't expect me to go easy, so come at me with everything you've got! …Or rather—huh? But there's an odd number of us."
Mary shot an arm up high to show her fighting spirit, then promptly floated a question mark over her head and asked again.
"How do we divide the teams, then? Does the Holy Knight take the referee's role?"
"That isn't a bad approach, but… today I'll be competing as well. Today is a festival for all of Gen 2, and I am Gen 2 too."
"Then it'll be three against two. But I wonder if that isn't unfair."
"I'm told a certain amount of balancing was applied on that point. You may rest easy."
A match of three against two. This, too, had of course been communicated in advance, and feeding the viewers information in the form of questions like these was likewise part of the script. Some of the audience had surely caught on, but at least no chat appeared to point that part out. It was a development that turned up constantly, on ordinary television and internet broadcasts alike, so there was little reason to call it out in the first place.
"And the events for those matches are… yes. I imagine you anomalies of the second generation already know."
"Well, sure. We got the notice from staff ahead of time. I was a little worried we'd each just grab whatever favored us, but…"
"Shar-nee, if everybody brings the thing they're good at, the balance actually works out, you know?"
"Just like Sae-chan says. Well! I simply picked an event that seemed like it'd be fun! …Ehehehe."
"Whoa. Viewer-san. Are you seeing this? This unnie is seriously making a face like some perverted old man."
"Hey now! What exactly do you take me for, my Lenatomos? …As expected, your perspective is as objective and wise as ever! This Serenya Lazania can rest easy again today!"
"This person… it really would be all right if she changed, even a little……."
Mary did press a hand to her brow in the middle of all this, but it was no great problem.
"In any case, I believe most of you will have inferred as much from the conversation just now, but the events for this contest were selected in advance by each member. Concretely, we each chose one event to compete in once the teams were split, reported it to staff, and we will draw from among them at random and play them in that order."
As she said so and clapped twice, a spinning wheel appeared in the center of the studio map being broadcast. The disc, divided into five precise slices, held each of their personal colors and names.
"The team that claims more victories is the final winner. There are five of us, so it comes to a best of five."
"How are you splitting the teams?"
"Lady Mary and I are one team. The other three are the other."
"There is a question as to the criteria, but in short, it is physical ability. First—you understand why Lady Charlotte and I are on different teams, I trust?"
"If those two were on the same team, there'd be no contest. We'd be trash on the spot."
"Obviously you can't stick the unnies who have abs the second their tops come off on the same team!"
"A-haaah?! That has nothing to do with this, okay?! Asking a lady a thing like that is vulgar!"
"Ahaha… Sae-chan's embarrassed, so shall we leave that part as no comment."
"E-embarrassed…? I-it's not like that, okay?"
"Mm-hmm. Sure."
When Sae flushed scarlet and overreacted, Charlotte shot her a wink and played along. Of course that only fanned the viewers hotter… but since it was the intended reaction, Sae didn't particularly mind.
To speak honestly, Sae had never once laid eyes on Charlotte's—that is, Tenka's—stomach. Yuri's was the same. All she had done was happen to overhear that they "had abs." Still, carrying on as though something had happened off-stream was, in all sorts of ways, excellent for drawing a reaction.
"To continue: once those two had been placed on separate teams, three people remained. And the conclusion reached among the staff was that Lady Mary would be roughly a match for the other two combined."
"Eh? Me?"
"Ah… well, yeah. Those other two are in a different league, sure, but Shutan's physical ability is ridiculous too……."
"That powerful dance you did at the live—I'm not even sure I could have pulled it off back when I was still active…"
Mary reacted as if the whole thing were utterly unexpected. Serena and Sae, by contrast, nodded as if to say of course. But when she thought it over carefully, she realized it wasn't wrong, and in the end even Mary had to concede. This body of hers was, after all, one she kept reinforced with magic.
"Um, more to the point, Sae-chan's inner Gremory is leaking out. Is that all right?"
"Oops. Let's say you didn't hear that. It's common knowledge that Sae-chan is still 1X, right? Right?"
"Ah, yes."
"At any rate, that is why we divided things into Lady Mary against the other two, for a total of three against two. Is that understood?"
"Yeah. I'm for it."
"I'm convinced as well."
"Okaaay~"
Laid out in the open, it was a fairly convincing rationale. Having secured everyone's agreement—not that anyone could have thrown a tantrum and refused their team in the middle of a broadcast that had to go on—Tsubasa spread both arms wide.
"Now then, before we begin the game, let us settle the most important matter first."
"The most important matter? What is it?"
"Deciding the team names!"
"…Is that important?"
"It is, from a broadcast perspective. Every variety program under the sun splits into teams and then insists on naming them, and they do not do it because they have time to spare."
"They don't…?"
Honestly, even turning it over again, it didn't feel strictly necessary—but Mary was swept along by the momentum and agreed for the time being. It wasn't as though they would lose anything by going along.
And so the party, broken into their two clusters, put their heads together and began to murmur.
"A werewolf, a demon, and a witch, so… how about Fourteen?"
"Hmm. Serena-nee. In this industry, fourteen gets you treated like a grandma, so speaking as Sae-chan, I'm a little less than thrilled…"
"No, I don't think that's what Serena-chan meant……."
"Then shall we take the H from Hungary and make it Team Ecchi?"
"That one, well…?"
"…Serena-chan, were you actually saying it that way on purpose?"
"What should we do?"
Letting the absurd proposals drifting over from behind go in one ear and out the other, Mary had put the question to Tsubasa. And what name was Serena even trying to stick on them, anyway. Early in her streaming days, the story went, she had tried to set her fan name as Sefure—clipped from "Serena's Friends," and a perfect homophone for the Japanese slang for a friend with benefits—only to be shut down by staff.
"Isn't plain AmaChepe fine?"
"No—you were just going on about how team names matter, and now this is far too sloppy, isn't it? Besides, that's a ship name."
"The Wing of Tepes, then, since tsubasa means wing? Or twist it a little further—Dracula Wing?"
After talking it through, they settled in the end on the simple name "Wing," the reason being that Mary was a winged character as well. It did feel a touch too plain, but it was a team name they would have no cause to use once today's broadcast was over.
…Anything, at any rate, was better than H.
Presently Tsubasa gestured, and something like a whiteboard appeared beside the roulette. She took up a pen, drew a vertical line down the center, and recorded the decided team names to either side.
"Yes. Then we will now officially begin the match between Team Wing and Team H—"
"Ah. Tsubasa-chan. You have to pronounce that clearly as 'Ecchi.'"
"Yes. Team H."
"Ecchi…"
"Team H."
"……Hnnngh."
Having put down Serena's continued attempts at sexual harassment with a look, Tsubasa cleared her throat and went on.
"Let us proceed directly to the first match. Roulette—I'll spin it."
"Ooh!"
The roulette began to turn. The gaudy disc spun at speed, its afterimage blending into a wash of many colors.
"Yes!"
The speed fell away little by little, and the wheel, coming to rest, pointed at Serena's name. The name flickered, on and off, and then the text itself changed. Most likely the game proposed from Serena's side.
"……."
"……."
"No, um, could everyone please not stare at me with such cold eyes? The viewers get a nice wholesome moment out of it, and I get a little something pleasant on the side, so……."
"Honestly… you stay true to your inner voice every single time, don't you, Serena-chan…?"
"Don't look at me with kind eyes eitherrr! A gaze like 'Mommy understands her little girl' actually hurts my heart…!"