Incorruptible, and Invisible (6)
Yesterday's incident, and the tweet announcing a major statement.
Put just those two together and the situation was not especially hard to piece together — and yet, surprisingly, not everyone actually possessed the information. There were people who had happened to miss yesterday's stream; people who had watched, but on Mary's channel; people who barely glanced at internet opinion, or who never went looking for the tweet themselves. Any number of reasons would do.
At any rate, the chat — a mingling of viewers who had already guessed what today's broadcast would be and viewers who had not — was thick with a peculiar kind of disorder.
Whichever camp a viewer belonged to, almost no one had expected the background that appeared the instant the stream began to be a wedding hall. Those who had roughly grasped what today's "major announcement" meant broke into laughter salted with disbelief, and those who hadn't fell into utter confusion. Even the viewers who knew nothing of yesterday's incident could tell easily enough that the backdrop was a wedding venue — the track pouring out as BGM was that famous wedding march.
It was more than thirty seconds later that Mary Tepes, mistress of the stream, finally showed herself. The picture cut again and settled on a room. Her avatar sat in a lavish chair that brought the word antique to mind, and from the door painted into the background behind her hung a little sign: Bridal Waiting Room.
"Ah, is everyone here? Konmea! I am Mary Tepes, the vampire queen who will one day rule this world!"
While the viewers reeled and scrambled to catch up, Mary smiled brightly and offered them her greeting, the same as always.
It was not her usual model. The kimono outfit had been made for some seasonal occasion — New Year's, or Obon — and between the wedding-hall background and the tsunokakushi on her head, the white bridal hood meant to hide a bride's horns, the concept seemed plain enough. In place of a wedding dress, she had put on an uchikake, the traditional over-robe. In short, anyone looking at Mary now would have taken her for a bride-to-be whose wedding was today.
"...Ah, I'm sorry. I should have explained first."
The chat was, of course, chaos itself. Was this some sudden wedding roleplay, or did she actually have a love-life announcement to make? Even the people who had more or less guessed the truth were glued to the stream, wondering just how she meant to say it.
"I, Mary Tepes, recently married Anathema's Hinata Shion-chan — the one you all used to call Sister. This isn't a bit, and it isn't a joke... Yes. This is a story from what people usually call real life."
And the answer Mary Tepes — Ninomae Hitomi — had chosen was a head-on charge. A head-on charge among head-on charges, the kind delivered by a wild boar that has already committed to the rush. She did her best to keep pace with a chat refreshing at a ferocious speed, and talked on.
"No. I don't mean I'm going to get married. I already did. We actually held the ceremony. It isn't a legal marriage, since we're both women."
Having explained that far, Mary dipped her head in a small bow. The motion was not large — avatars seldom manage much — but it was clear enough that she had lowered her head.
"I apologize for never saying a word about this, and for ending up in a position that amounts to having deceived all of you."
The chat still looked lost. Which was only natural. She had not announced that she was going to get married; she had simply set down, without warning, the fact that she already had. In truth she had offered something that could be called a hint, but as already noted, not everyone had seen her tweet and guessed the truth from it. And even that had been only a few hours ago.
"Yes. I do think this must feel far too sudden. Being told, out of nowhere, that I got married while none of you knew — that isn't something you can just accept on the spot..."
This was not a matter of I will not accept my oshi getting married, or anything of that sort. Even someone perfectly willing to wish happiness on a streamer they loved would have found it far too abrupt to answer, right away, with an oh, I see. And so that part required a countermeasure.
"So! We've decided to hold the wedding one more time, right in front of all of you!"
"No, I just thought... if we did it this way, even my loyal servants might find it a little easier to accept...?"
In fact, when Mary herself had first heard the proposal, she had wondered whether anyone involved was in their right mind. Thinking it over, though, the logic itself was not wrong, and in the end she accepted. Turn the stream on, hold a wedding, and declare starting today, it's day one of married life! and just about anyone would take it. Never mind that accepting it might still send some viewers away in disappointment — that was a separate matter.
"I imagine all of you have a great many questions, so I thought I'd take a Q&A about this. The method, as always—"
"But do you really think the viewers can accept something like this?"
That was the worry Ninomae Hitomi had been carrying. Her priorities, of course, were perfectly clear. If keeping the stream now meant growing distant from Han Seoyeon, she would sooner throw the job away. Still, human nature wants to hold on to both for as long as it can. Even if Seoyeon came first in the end, that did not mean the viewers were not precious to her. It might have looked as if she had blurted the truth out without a second thought, but until about thirty minutes before the broadcast she had still been coordinating with the company over how she ought to proceed.
"This isn't a secret-partner reveal, and it isn't an offline-hookup scandal. A secret marriage is the sort of thing I don't think you can even find a precedent for..."
Hitomi, of course, had already committed the first two.
"Very well. Then let's try imagining it."
At that, President Gyokichi smiled. She had been watching him for nearly two years now, and she was finally reaching the point where she could ignore her instincts' warning and recognize that as a smile.
"You watch VTubers from other companies as well, not only Anapro, don't you?"
"Mostly the big agencies. I can't catch the live streams — only the clip compilations."
That much could not be helped. She could not even keep up with her own coworkers' live broadcasts, making do with clips and summaries, and even then she could not watch all of them; VTubers from other companies were out of the question. If someone else had been her favorite, perhaps it would have been different. But for Hitomi, even setting the workplace aside and considering only the fandom, Anathema Production was home base. Even so — whether purely as a hobby, or as reference for her own streams — she did check in on other companies' talents now and then.
"And of course you're watching the pairs with such good chemistry that the chat is forever screaming teetee."
"Yes. There's a lot worth learning from..."
When a stream felt that friendly and the back-and-forth clicked, she watched it often simply because it was fun, study aside. Clip videos of collab streams, after all, were usually edited to lean — somehow — into the yuri of it, romance not required, friendship included, which only made it more so.
"From among those, would you think of just one pair? The one you enjoyed most, or watched most often."
"Ah, yes. I've got one."
"Those two go on streaming. So long as no particular disaster strikes, that's what they would actually do."
"Yes. Probably?"
Gyokichi continued, to the nodding Hitomi.
"Then, through some mistake or other, it comes out that the two of them in fact got married a month or two ago. And before long, they even admit it themselves on stream. In that situation, Miss Ninomae — how do you suppose you would feel?"
"Married? Those two, a month or two ago...?"
Hearing that, Hitomi sank for a moment into the fantasy.
"Ah... well, you know. It just sort of happened. We ended up dating, and about a month ago we got married... I guess that's just how it went...?"
"...Should I send the wedding gift as a Super Chat first, and think after?"
"Precisely. Strangely enough, most unicorns have the habit of not breaking their horns over love between women. If anything, they cheer rather loudly."
If it were truly a woman the viewers had never heard of, that would be another story. But if two people who had shown their chemistry so often that they had everyone chanting teetee turned out to be the real thing? Strictly speaking, this was not bad news. It was closer to good news. Depending on how the stream was planned, it might even be possible to rake in money like mad.
"Of course, in a case like this it's better not to look as if we mean to cash in, so let's mention that today's Super Chats will be donated in full."
"Ah, yes. Understood."
An answer without a scrap of hesitation. It was a donation, of all things — what was there to balk at? And it was certain that this gentleness, rooted in her at the essential level and nearly impossible to manufacture with mere acting, was one of the reasons the viewers in Mary's chat had been so thoroughly caught.
"Even so, among viewers like Mary's, there will still be people who take it badly."
Unicorns whose horns would break anyway and who would throw a fit even under these conditions, or viewers who would call it deception that the truth had been hidden all this time... Mary's audience was on the larger side for Anapro, which meant its members were varied, too.
"Making sure no one says anything at all will be difficult."
"I thought so...?"
"So we bury it under overwhelming momentum and sheer weight of numbers. We turn it into humor as far as we can, and make it a fun event. Then we drive it forward with a pace so relentless, and a commotion so loud, that no one has a moment to come to their senses."
"...This is about our stream, right? Not a war?"
"Is the essence not rather similar?"
Gyokichi laughed as he said it. And then what was it he had added...? Hitomi recalled that moment for a second.
"In particular, in that a single blow of asymmetric force can turn the entire war on its head."
Yes. She was sure he had said it just like that.
"I am Sarah Groothuizen, and I have the honor of serving as officiant. I offer my thanks to Miss Mary, and to Anathema Production, for entrusting me with this glorious role."
And that was why this "nuclear weapon" had ended up being deployed.