Chapter 56: The Two Olive Trees and the Two Lampstands (2)

The storm of an incursion by two Apostles had passed, and Ninomae Hitomi had called Han Seoyeon in a rush, as if she were asking to be counseled. Seoyeon, having heard her out, had given that answer with perfect calm.

"You don't seem particularly surprised."

Their purpose was to observe Ninomae, and to judge her. Know in advance that they were coming, prepare for them, and the point of the thing would of course be lost. Making ready in hopes of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a favorable evaluation was one option among others, certainly… but Han Seoyeon herself knew better than anyone that these were not opponents who could be taken in by the likes of that.

To be chosen as an Apostle Candidate was to possess several specialties of a superhuman order. If Han Seoyeon was the nose, then in their case it was the eye.

"So you're saying they didn't take the inspector's role for nothing."

"The truth is, I hardly felt as if I were being observed. One of them simply went on a rampage, and the other did nothing but hold them back……."

In any case, so long as the verdict was a pass, that was enough. Han Seoyeon went on, unruffled as ever.

"Yes. We're having a meeting about a collab."

Komori Sae was a second-generation VTuber under Anathema Production. She roleplayed a demon—a vassal, specifically, of Gremory, the fifty-sixth spirit of the Lemegeton. Her real name was Bansei Marin. She had debuted some ten-odd years ago, out of an idol group that had been active for about two years, and unlike the rest of the second generation, all of whom had come through auditions, she was the only one who had been scouted. Mary had arranged to meet her ahead of a stream not far off.

If there was anything puzzling about it, that was surely the part. A meeting about a stream was the sort of thing a phone call would have covered well enough.

"Ah, that would be… the business side of things."

"Business yuri, you might say."

Komori Sae—Bansei Marin—had once missed the second generation's group trip to a hot spring, thanks to an ill-timed stay in the hospital. Everyone knew it couldn't be helped, and they had taken care, more than once, to show that nothing was wrong between them… but conspiracy theories were like weeds. Give them the least bit of nourishment, and they grew however they pleased.

"To put it bluntly, it's to head off rumors of a falling-out. We don't have an offline collab lined up for a stream yet, but…"

"A problem knotted up offline is easiest undone offline, isn't it?"

And what pulled a rumor of bad blood up by the roots more cleanly than proof they had met in the flesh and enjoyed themselves? All the more so for VTubers, whose relationships lived first and foremost on the internet.

"I'll be back." Ninomae answered with a soft breath of laughter.

She looked for a moment at the call that had ended, then placed another. Trrrr—after a few rings, noise filtered in. From the other end, most likely.

"Bansei-san."

Bansei Marin, the very person she had arranged to meet. Her voice came through.

"I'm sorry, but would it be all right if we changed where we're meeting, just a little?"

"Mmm, this might take a little explaining……."

Hesitant though she was, Ninomae laid out the situation.

"A pair of foreigners—acquaintances of an acquaintance of mine—showed up dressed in something very close to cosplay, and they drew an incredible number of stares."

"I don't even know what I'm saying, so please just accept it……. Personally, I think of it as something like a rather dynamic meet-the-family."

Bansei's earnest little struggle to understand, by whatever means she could, carried through the receiver. Regrettably, without any mention of the anomalous, explaining the situation had about reached its limit.

"Anyway, since that's how things turned out, I thought it would be better to move somewhere else."

Just then, the sensor on the café door chimed out a little melody.

"…If it was something like that, I do wish you'd told me a little sooner."

Ninomae lifted her head toward the entrance, and her eyes met Bansei Marin's. The older woman was smiling, awkwardly.

"Oh… you're here already?"

"And you were here first yourself, weren't you, Ninomae-chan?"

What caught the eye in that first instant was her height. Somewhere around five foot seven. One could not call her very tall, but she was a woman, and set against the average in Japan it was a considerable stature all the same. What seized the gaze even more than that, though, was her looks.

The features were neat and well-set, of course, and though the makeup did not even look heavy, not a wrinkle or a blemish showed. Blessed skin, impossible to believe the property of a woman in her mid-thirties. And yet there hung about her an air one might call strangely bewitching—lush, voluptuous—and it let one guess that she and Ninomae were not of an age. The sort of appearance that made one think, ah, so this is what they mean by a mature beauty.

It was not only the face that wore its maturity. The body beneath did the same. She sat some distance from words like slender, or firm. Soft, with a gentle fullness to her—and yet never to excess. Only the direction differed; she did not step outside what one would call a good figure. There would be people, depending on taste, who preferred this all the more.

A beauty with nothing in particular to fault. …On the assumption, that is, that one did not know her virtual self.

Even counting the meetings that had been no more than a passing brush, this was the third time Ninomae had come face to face with Bansei. And still she had not grown used to the gulf between the woman and the character she played.

No matter how many times I look, I just can't get used to it……. This person plays that cheeky little loli demon?

To put Komori Sae's character in a single stroke: a little loli brat you itched to flick on the forehead. A character, in short, with one foot planted in what people commonly called mesugaki. Was there anyone else whose real self and virtual self fit together so poorly? Every time Ninomae met her, she ended up thinking it.

"Anyway. Shall we head out for now?"

"Yes. I think that would be best."

"I've got the car parked outside, so let's go that way."

Bansei got a coffee to go, then left the shop with Ninomae. Among the VTubers of Anathema, she was one of a bare handful who owned a car, and just as she'd said, a pure-white one waited at the curb near the café. Ninomae knew little about cars, but from the outside alone it seemed rather neatly kept. Before long the two of them climbed in side by side. The interior felt just as tidy.

"Have you decided what we're doing today?"

"Mmm, no. The truth is, I don't have a plan yet."

"Then shall we just drive for a while, nowhere in particular? If a good idea comes to you, tell me then." Bansei started the engine and cast a brief glance Ninomae's way.

"And in the meantime, shall we talk about what to do on stream?"

Feeling the vibration of the chassis climb through her whole body, Ninomae nodded.

"Since part of the point is to show that we're close, I think cooperating would be better than playing against each other."

"Right? Then something like 'Friendly Words'?"

"While we're at it, wouldn't something the two of us can actually finish together be better than an online game?"

Inside the moving ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠car, the two of them traded one idea and another.

"What about this game?"

And then, around the time the shape of it had more or less settled into a cooperative puzzle game, Ninomae held out her phone and showed her a video of a game she'd found.

"I think it's a game that would suit 'Mary.'"

"For 'Sae,' it's not really a game she'd find herself wanting to play. Then again, maybe it's different with someone else?"

A slightly peculiar way of putting it. It went without saying that the two of them had not suddenly awakened to the habit of referring to themselves in the third person. Of the nine at ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Anathema, they alone had real personalities that differed from their virtual characters. There was, in fact, one more who wasn't here, but strictly speaking the cause in that case was a roleplay-community syndrome, so it stood a little apart.

And so one could say that in this company, the only people truly acting a character were the two of them. Whether that was the reason or not, both Ninomae and Bansei had a faintly obsessive streak when it came to their own characters. To put a slightly finer point on it, they were the sort who would declare, without a moment's hesitation, My Mary would never say that!

They had their characters in hand down to the finest grain, so simulating how that character would react in a given situation was easy work indeed.

There were, on the other hand, problems born of precisely that.

"Unnie, send me the link for this too? I'll take a proper look once I'm done driving."

"Yes?"

"……Ah."

At the unexpected form of address, Ninomae stared blankly at the woman in the driver's seat. Only a beat later did Bansei realize she had made a slip of the tongue.

"Ahem…"

She cleared her throat and took the wheel in a hard grip once more. Red rose from the nape of her neck. It seemed she was rather ashamed of having unthinkingly called unnie—older sister—a girl a good ten years her junior.

On stream, of course, she called her Mary-unnie almost without fail. But that was a matter of being online, where they never saw each other's faces. It was all the more so for Bansei, whose gap between virtual and real was especially wide.

"Yes. I'll send it to you right this instant."

And so, when Ninomae answered a moment later, the voice was Mary Tepes's. A kindness of her own, most likely—meeting her in the place where she had slipped, and spoken not as Bansei Marin but as Sae. Grateful for that kindness, Bansei gave a small, wry smile.

"…You really are a good kid, Ninomae-chan."

"I don't know about that. If it were 'Mary's' concept, maybe, but as for me, not so much……."

Ninomae murmured it and turned her gaze aside. Seeing that look—she seemed almost embarrassed—Bansei's eyes lit up, like a brat who had just found a toy.

"Th-that aside, Bansei-san."

Whether the look had stirred in her the survival instinct of prey, Ninomae changed the subject in a hurry. Bansei, for her part, did not seem inclined to sink her teeth into the point and hold on; she listened in silence.

"Could I get your autograph later? There's someone who asked me to bring one back. They said they were a fan."

"An autograph? Under Sae's name?"

"Mmm. From the way they put it, I think they wanted the Bansei Marin side. They did say to get both, if I could."

At that, Bansei hummed and tipped her head. With the turn of the wheel, the car took a smooth right.

"A fan from the VV days. I thought there were hardly any of those left."

Vice Versa. More than ten years ago, Bansei Marin had been the leader of that girl group. One would be hard pressed to call them a great success, but considering how many idol groups vanished without ever seeing the light, one could never say they had failed. Even taken critically, they had been a modest hit, more or less. A minor among the majors, a major among the minors—that was the position VV had held.

Fans, of course, could not have been few. But time was time, and whenever she heard that some still remained, Bansei was surprised. All the more because it had been, in the end, an ill-fated group, one that miscarried in a blast of infighting among its own members.

"Will that be all right?"

"Of course it will. No—even if they said they didn't want it, I'd still have to write one, wouldn't I?"

"That's… true."

Mary had not been debuted a year. Even so, a fan who had followed from the earliest days stirred all sorts of feelings in her. A past of more than ten years—how much more, then?

Ninomae looked once more toward the driver's seat. That grown-up air about her seemed, somehow, different again—more so than it had a moment before.