All of Us, Together in One Place (6)
The Shirayuri Music Festival, spread across two days, came to a close in splendid fashion.
From the artist lineup alone, it had been the sort of project that could hardly help succeeding, at least to a reasonable degree. If there was a variable, it was the no-name anime characters tacked on among a fairly formidable roster—to put it a little unkindly, crashing the party—but in the end, the negative opinions never really found the spotlight.
"If it were just moe-style characters coming out and dancing, it would be a festival only otaku love. Throw money at it, though, and it becomes a convergence-technology demonstration from a company running at the head of the Fourth Industrial Revolution."
The worry that they were shoving VTubers down people's throats had, of course, been murmured even inside the company. That had been Yuri's answer to it. The stage, piled with every dazzling effect imaginable, was enough to leave a mind blank just from looking, and honestly, even if no one had been singing and they had simply left the effects running, most of the crowd would probably still have watched in awe.
"And we had plenty of shills in the audience besides, so failing would have been even harder."
Once everything was over, Yuri added that with a bright little smile.
Hitomi's mouth twisted at the word shills, but it was difficult to call the statement wrong. There was Bansei Marin's fandom, half held hostage by her first stage in ten years; there were the anomalies who had gathered ever since receiving Han Seoyeon's help... and even if no one had told Yuri, there was no chance shills hadn't been prepared for her sake as well.
Short of some actual accident, it was a set of conditions in which problems were hard to come by—and the personnel the Hyakurenno Group had mobilized were far too formidable for an accident to break out. Setting aside that they had brought in two legends of the Onmyoryo, stationing an Apostle in a crowd-control post was, however one looked at it, a move bordering on cheating. Still, that connection was Hyakurenno's power too.
"It is an honor to meet you, Grand Duke."
"The honor is entirely mine, Chairman."
A conversation of a scale that had no business happening in a place like this—something about rockets, of all things—seemed to have just been exchanged, but Hitomi made a point of looking the other way. Living alongside the Apostle Han Seoyeon, she had been through truly every kind of mess, and even so, instinct told her that getting carelessly tangled up in this one would be a genuine disaster.
At any rate, the schedule came to a complete end, and everyone who had attended as VTubers gathered and headed for a nearby restaurant. Seated in their respective places, they watched the food come out little by little.
"Everyone. Truly, thank you for all your hard work."
Hyakurenno Yuri, beer glass lifted high. She was, for all practical purposes, the one who had hosted this festival, so not a single person complained about her taking the role. Right on its heels, shouts of thank you for the hard work burst out one after another, someone clinked glasses, and one figure held no glass at all, tipping an entire bottle back alone.
"No manners whatsoever..."
The one grumbling, faintly displeased, was—sure enough—Ryuumai Fuu. She scratched lightly inside her eyepatch with a fingertip, then shot a sharp glare at the maid, Chisa.
Chisa, of course, paid her no mind whatsoever and simply went on chugging straight from the bottle.
"Fighting, even on a day this good? Just for today, let's get along, yo!"
With that, Osean—who had come as Guroyuki Sui's companion—slipped neatly in between the two of them. At a glance she looked oblivious to the room, but most of the Anapro talents knew perfectly well that it was all an act. Not everyone here was from Anapro, of course, so it wasn't an entirely meaningless gesture.
"So this is the next generation, is it..."
Watching them, Akane let out a sigh and muttered. A duo who, given half a chance, didn't stop at tearing each other down and didn't hesitate to land physical blows, plus a black-hearted foreigner whose every spare thought went to picking up women.
"Can that Honoka kid even keep them in line?"
Well, of course a sigh was coming. As an alumna of the Coronet Girls' High basketball club, Akane had met Sakuragi Honoka several times, and she knew full well the girl was far stronger on the inside than she looked. Even so, she couldn't help thinking that everything had a limit.
"Have you ever heard it said that if a lamb sits peacefully alone among wolves, that lamb is no ordinary lamb either?"
"...That's true, I'll give you that."
At Seoyeon's follow-up, Akane shut her mouth again.
Sakuragi Honoka, already slated as the leader of Gen 3, was currently captain of the Coronet basketball club. And that roster consisted of an Apostle Candidate, a member of Vampire Syndrome who had screwed the Church over and fled, and—however close to the lowest seat—a scion of the old imperial house who attended the National Friendship Society.
"At this point, one might as well call it a mini Anapro, don't you think?"
"Comparing that combination to us and having it come out 'mini' is starting to make me think Anathema is the insane one."
"A rather belated observation. It has been quite some time since the Church designated Anapro a group under special watch."
"...I'm going to lose my mind."
True enough. By Gen 2 they were already being treated as half a bomb, and once Gen 3 had been selected, they had even been handed a ruling that, for the sake of safety, every single member of the company had to be aware of the hidden world. This wasn't some secret foundation out of a work of fiction. Akane could only wonder how on earth the company had ended up here.
"And if I may add one further remark, speaking as a viewer—I am not even certain the other generations were ever under control to begin with..."
"Fuck... ah, sorry. That slipped out."
"No. Not at all. You are entirely entitled."
Seoyeon's words dragged a certain reality into the light—come to think of it, I have never once seen these bastards actually listen—and Akane's face crumpled hard.
Gen 1? Aki, the leader in name only, was everyone's punching bag, and the one left somehow hauling along the wildly rampaging Maya and the unexpectedly temperamental Rin was Akane herself. Gen 2 was hardly different. Holy Knight Tsubasa did hold the center, more or less, but she came with a gimmick that sent her rampaging harder than anyone else at a fixed probability, and the resulting picture of Mary suffering for it had long since stopped being a one-time affair.
And in the middle of all that, the company president was the greatest lunatic of them all. Her head clearly worked, and most of her judgments even looked rational—the problem was that every venture she launched that way had a screw violently loose somewhere. A company with ties to Hyakurenno, or to an Apostle? Possible. Entirely possible. But playing existences like that as cards without a shred of hesitation was difficult to call sane. If she would at least fail spectacularly, that would be one thing, but in most cases she pulled off a respectable mid-tier hit at minimum, so it was hard to even take her to task.
"Honestly, I have no idea what's going to become of Gen 3..."
"I'm sure it will work out somehow. The way it always has."
Hitomi added that with a bitter smile, took another sip of beer, and leaned lightly against Seoyeon.
"Speaking of which, when do the third-gens debut?"
"The end of this month. Originally it could have been moved up a little, but I hear they delayed it so it wouldn't be swallowed by the festival buzz."
Seoyeon answered her. Had things gone to the original plan, the debut broadcast would have happened about a week ago.
"There also seems to be some promotional intent in announcing a new generation's debut right when outside attention is at its peak."
"Now that you mention it, there was a TV broadcast planned too..."
There had been a broadcast arranged beforehand for the sake of promoting the festival, while the schedule set for Mary Tepes came after it—riding that momentum to promote Anathema Production. In all likelihood, some instruction to casually bring up Gen 3 would be coming out of that.
"Mmm..."
Minor network or not, the moment she actually pictured appearing on television, the feeling turned strange. The question of what on earth she was supposed to do began to creep up on her.
"Well. For this moment, at least, let us forget later's worries and drink. Not that something like this could get either of us drunk."
Seoyeon leaned her head lightly against hers, giving the beer glass—its rim caught lightly between her fingers—a little shake.
"...Yes. You're right. Let's think about later later, and for now just be glad the festival succeeded."
Hitomi turned to face her and smiled, soft and bright. Right. Don't think too hard. For now, just enjoy it. Even if this was a body that could no longer get drunk with any ease, atmosphere, at least, she could enjoy as much as she liked.
"Huuuurgh! Thank you sooo much, for real, for giving us this chance, Hyakurenno-niiiiim!!!"
"Nnngh..."
"Yessss! I got Sara-chan's numberrrrr!!"
"Hic... huh? Huuuh?"
"Ack! Give me my eyeball back right now, you damn bastard!"
"Heeheeheek, the maid's special magic show! Now wherever shall it gooo!"
"...Couldn't I just be allowed to get drunk?"
"...Regrettably."
What they had forgotten, though, was that the Anapro talents went without saying—and everyone else present was likewise a personality distinctive enough for Yuri to have scouted them herself. And what happened when alcohol got into people like that.
If Hyakurenno hadn't bought out the whole restaurant, they would have been thrown out on the spot. Hitomi pressed a hand to her forehead.