What Is Hidden Shall Be Revealed (2)

Han Seoyeon and Ninomae Hitomi — their first ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠meeting had been nothing but chance. A paired report assigned in the middle of a major course; they had simply been sorted into the same group, the kind of name-order arrangement one might find anywhere. That the order in question was iroha was, admittedly, a little peculiar. Fitting enough, perhaps, for a department of folklore.

On that slender pretext, the two of them became people who could call each other friends. Han Seoyeon was a better person than expected. Ninomae was a better person than that.

Mid-memory, she blew into her straw and set the soda fizzing. Strictly speaking, it was poor manners. But there was no one with her just now, so surely it was fine. She had only just finished eating, and Ninomae had stepped away for a moment, saying she would stop by the restroom before they left the shop.

"Hm?"

It was then that a bright chime rose from her phone — the alert of a voice-chat program. Seoyeon tilted her head, and picked the phone up all the same.

"Huh?"

The sound slipped out of her before she could think to stop it.

Red pill?

No — she knew what the words meant. An expression borrowed from the film The Matrix, signifying that a cold, unsparing truth had come to light. In the VTuber industry, it commonly pointed to the person inside — the identity behind the streamer, or the moment that identity was revealed.

Before debuting as Mary Tepes, she had streamed on her own for a little while, but the stretch had been short, and her face had never once been exposed. Nor, so far as Seoyeon knew, was there any other detail that might give her private life away. The netizens had managed to track down even the past life channel, she had heard, only to give up when no clue led any further than that.

Seoyeon stared at the blue-glinting hyperlink and swallowed.

A VTuber's identity was, fundamentally, a secret. That was the policy of Anathema Production, at the very least. To go thrusting one's head into what another person meant to keep hidden ought, properly, to be called a sin. And yet.

Lord, forgive me.

Curiosity was simply not an emotion one could endure with any ease.

Seoyeon drew a long breath and tapped the link. At once she sent the page scrolling down, fast. The road to the conclusion stretched on at tedious length, but she had no interest in the blog owner's relentless account of their own cyberstalking.

"...What?"

Her finger stopped cold. Her expression, she was sure, had frozen with it. She could picture the vacant, dumbstruck look on her own face without needing a mirror.

A photograph from some university event, no doubt. Of the two women in the frame, a circle had been drawn around the one on the right, and beside that circle a name had been written.

There was no room to mistake it.

Someone who only happened to look like her... No. It couldn't be that.

The face was one she remembered. This was not a resemblance she could dismiss and set aside — not when the person standing beside that woman was the problem. The one photographed with her was Han Seoyeon herself.

"—Shion?"

At the voice from just behind her, she flinched and turned. Standing there was the very woman ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠she had been looking at in the photograph a moment ago. Ninomae Hitomi.

There was no telling how long she had been there. One thing, however, was certain. She was staring straight at the screen of Seoyeon's phone.

"...This isn't the place for this conversation. And we don't have the time. Would you be able to wait until my classes are finished?"

"Yes. I'll wait in front of the main gate."

They knew one another's lecture schedules well enough. Not down to every particular, but they knew when the day's classes all came to an end. Today Ninomae's ran about an hour later, and so she had asked, and Seoyeon had nodded.

That parting had been a few hours ago. Seoyeon sat on a bench near the university's main gate, a hymn pouring through the earphones in her ears. Veni, veni, Emmanuel. She turned the words of the hymn over quietly, inside.

"Um, excuse me."

A voice slipped in through the music. Slowly, she opened her closed eyes.

The first thing to enter her sight was a crisply proper suit. Hair bound neatly back stirred, just slightly, in the passing breeze.

"Would you be Ms. Han Seoyeon?"

The question came from a woman who might have stood as the very model of an office lady. Past the glasses, their eyes met.

"Yes. That would be me."

"I am Hatsuna Miho, of Anathema Production."

And what business would that be? When Seoyeon turned the question on her in a look, the woman — Hatsuna — held out a business card and began. Hatsuna Miho of Anathema Production. Her position, by the introduction she herself supplied, was manager. This was the agency to which Mary Tepes belonged — which was to say, Ninomae Hitomi.

"Would you have a moment?"

"Ah... I'm waiting just now, actually. I have a prior engagement with Ms. Ninomae."

"If that's your concern, I've already spoken with Ms. Ninomae herself."

They would not be going far — only a conversation in a car waiting nearby. When the lecture ended, Ninomae would join them. Hearing Hatsuna out, Han Seoyeon nodded at last. The woman did not seem to be deceiving her. Identity fraud was even less likely. And above all, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠if anything went awry, she could simply force her way out. The judgment was that simple.

"Then let's go to the car."

Where the manager led her, there sat a passenger car of no particular distinction whatsoever. Seoyeon climbed into the front seat as Hatsuna opened the door for her.

"First... may I take it that you already know about the matter concerning Ms. Ninomae?"

Hatsuna began as she settled into the driver's seat and shut the door behind her.

"Shutang... no. Mary Tepes. Isn't that it?"

"Just as you said."

Seoyeon had found out who she was. That was why Ninomae had asked her to make time for a conversation about it, was it not?

"But why the manager?"

Ninomae had not said a single word about a manager coming to find her. A word of notice would have been easy enough to give, and the fact that she had not meant that, at least at that moment, no visit from a manager had been planned.

"Because we determined this matter required a response at the company level."

"...I was under the impression that the standing principle, on matters related to a VTuber's past life, is no response. At Anathema Production, at least."

When a VTuber's past life was made public, most agencies did not respond. On the surface, at the very least.

"In principle, that is so. In principle."

If the company moved, it risked officially confirming that the speculation circulating as rumor was, in fact, the truth. That was surely why Ninomae had not expected the manager either. For her part, she had likely meant only a personal conversation about an acquaintance discovering who she was.

"But declining to respond on matters of past life or personal information holds only when the subject is the VTuber — and only when the situation has not gone too far."

The words carried the implication that this was no longer such a case.

"What concerns us is a problem regarding you, Ms. Han."

Hatsuna held out her phone, a single photograph already open on the screen. It was the picture of Ninomae Hitomi circulating online. It was also a picture of Han Seoyeon.

"Of all things, for the photo going around as Ms. Ninomae's to be..."

"A photo with my face in it as well."

Only then did she nod.

"Truthfully, had it stopped here, it would not have been a serious problem."

The subject, after all, was the identity of the VTuber Mary Tepes. Han Seoyeon was little more than background beside her. At best, the reaction would have amounted to Oh, a friend of hers, is she?

"But Ms. Ninomae mentions you rather often, you see... In a manner of speaking, a character has formed around you."

Enough that the nickname Sister had stuck to her. That alone said all that needed saying. Hatsuna sighed, and went on.

"Digging into a broadcaster's private life and doing the same to an ordinary citizen carry very different degrees of reluctance, you understand. In practice, both are wrong."

"The world has no shortage of strange people."

In any case, she understood the conclusion. Considered as things stood, there was a real concern that certain strange parties on the internet would turn on Sister — would strip Han Seoyeon's private life bare — with the same appetite they brought to digging up VTubers.

"Accordingly, the company accepts responsibility for this situation and is considering a response at the company level. Other measures within our power as well, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠should you wish them."

Hatsuna bowed her head, apologetic.

"Mm..."

Watching her, Seoyeon sank into thought. Then, a little reluctantly, she spoke.

"Then... won't that bring harm to Shutang?"

A response this far outside ordinary practice could, by its very strangeness, breed controversy. There might even be blame — that she had carelessly brought a private citizen up on stream, and caused harm by it.

"Ms. Han. This is not a decision to be made on mere fan devotion."

Hatsuna did not sound pleased with the reaction.

"This could bring real harm upon you personally, so if you would consider it a little more carefully..."

At the reply that followed, she had no choice but to shut her mouth, words stopped cold. Hatsuna's expression went rigid.

It was not that a frivolous joke had been tossed into a serious moment. Quite the opposite. In those perfectly clear eyes there was not a speck of play to be found. On Han Seoyeon's face — wearing the look of someone who had said the most natural thing in the world — one could almost glimpse a faint madness. Perhaps the woman before her was more dangerous than Hatsuna had ever imagined.

"—And, before Mary Tepes, I don't want Ms. Ninomae to be hurt."

The one who broke the awkward silence was its own cause: Han Seoyeon herself. Hatsuna stared at that faint smile, a little dazed, blankly.

"She's a precious friend. I'd rather she not have trouble on my account."

"Even though, depending on how one looks at it, one could not say Ms. Ninomae bears no responsibility for this either?"

"The Lord has forgiven me, after all. A trifle like this is nothing."

She could not, as Scripture bid, forgive hundreds of times over the one who wronged her... but this failed to qualify as a wrong in the first place. Better that the blame fall on the thief than on the one who had been careless with the lock. That, at least, was how Seoyeon saw it.

Facing her, Hatsuna let out a sigh at last.

"You are a truly impossible person to get a read on, Ms. Han."

It was not a sigh of lament. If anything, it carried the color of relief. Hatsuna offered a light smile.

"...But I think I understand now what Ms. Ninomae meant. The thing she so often says."

"What did she say?"

"That Sister is, contrary to first impressions, an exceedingly gentle person."

"Me?"

Han Seoyeon tilted her head.

Hardly the thing to say about someone whose hobby is splitting monster skulls. The mismatch was enough that she even wondered whether Ninomae had some other clergy acquaintance — someone who was not her.

For some reason, the sight of that reaction sent Hatsuna into laughter.

"Manager. I'm here."

A dull knock tapped the window. It was around then that Ninomae joined them.