The Eve of the Strange One (1)

"Hwaaah……."

By the time ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Bansei Marin woke, it was already noon. The day was overcast and the sky couldn't be seen, though it was the hour when the sun ought to have stood at its peak — or perhaps, given how early the sun sets in winter, that peak had already passed.

Weekends possessed a mysterious magic; of that there was no question. Bansei lived as a full-time VTuber, so weekday and weekend ought to have been the same thing to her, and yet somehow she always ended up lingering in bed longer than usual. Since it's come to this, maybe I'll just sprawl until it's time to stream, she thought. Today was an artful little anniversary, Christmas Eve fallen square upon a Saturday. The streets would be heaving from midday, and she felt no particular wish to go out. It wasn't as if she had anyone to wander them with.

"Nnngh, I'm out……."

But the very first step of that grand plan — crawling back beneath the covers — was shut down at once.

Ding-dong. A tinny chime smacked her across the ears. Perhaps that was what had woken her in the first place. What on earth could it be, on a holiday like this? A delivery, maybe. Thinking so, Bansei hauled herself upright, slow and reluctant, and pulled a drab hanten on over her rumpled pajamas. Her hair was up in a frizzy cloud, but she was only going as far as the entryway. It would be fine, she figured. She opened the front door with one hand shoved inside her pajamas, scratching her stomach —

"Yo."

And met the eyes of the woman standing there.

Long hair, worn straight and loose. A beret set at a slant over it, reddish in color. The face was thoroughly blank, and the eyes turned on her were just as inorganic. Guroyuki Sui. By another name, the first generation's Tachibana Rin. A coworker, in short.

"Long time no see, Bansei, you litt—"

BANG! The steel door slammed shut before the greeting could finish.

"Turned away at the door. Profoundly hurt."

"Th-that's not it…! Just wait five minutes, all right? I only need to do something about my hair…!"

"I'm fine with it."

"I'm the one who isn't fine with it! …Ugh. Letting someone I know see me like this."

"Hmm."

Guroyuki folded her arms before the closed door. Did a girl remain a girl, however many years she put on? She kept herself company with the thought while she waited.

It was some minutes later that Guroyuki was permitted inside. The Bansei who faced her now was considerably tidier than the one from a moment before. Nothing could be done about the clothes themselves, but she had neatened her appearance as far as it would go, and the still-damp face and the hair that hadn't finished drying made the rushed washing impossible to miss. She must have splashed a good deal of water; beneath the hanten, a strip of pajama showed, darkened where it had soaked through.

She had always carried a strangely bewitching air, and in several respects she looked even more so now. Guroyuki did not bother saying so.

"For now… have a seat."

"Oh. A kotatsu. Plenty of homes don't have one these days, I hear."

"Guroyuki-chan's place doesn't?"

"It does. There's probably a cat in ours right now, purring away."

Guroyuki said it with a smile — by her standards.

"Hm? Did you keep a pet, Guroyuki-chan?"

"Well. Something along those lines."

A pet. Well, wasn't it close enough? Guroyuki swallowed the rest of that thought. Bansei, for the time being, was someone who knew nothing of what lay underneath.

"That aside, why show up here without a word?"

"It's Christmas, for once. A weekend, on top of that. No one to hang out with."

She said it with perfect brazenness, in her usual blank face.

"In the end, the options came down to fellow VTubers."

"Then there are people besides me, aren't there?"

"The second-gen kids aren't quite close enough for that yet."

Guroyuki shrugged. As she said, among the second generation the only one she had met in person — aside from the Bansei in front of her — was Ninomae. Even that had been closer to a chance encounter, which left Bansei as the only one she was close enough with to call out and spend Christmas Eve beside. There was, besides, a problem that came well before any question of closeness.

"Everyone was busy."

Mary had a date with Sister. Charlotte had a date with her childhood friend. Serena, by the look of it, meant to spend the time with her family.

"…And Tsubasa-chan, as you ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠know, is hand-copying the Bible even at this very moment."

"Er, um……."

Bansei let out a small groan and nodded.

"And first-gen?"

"Relationship-wise, they're fine. Most of them have scheduling problems."

Saying so, Guroyuki recalled the messages exchanged a few days earlier.

This is what passes for first-gen kizuna?

In truth, that last one had been Guroyuki's own doing. She had taken one look and canceled in a fright. However she turned it over, it was bad enough that she half-expected a new ghost to be born into the world — one that had died while still drawing.

"Which is why I came to hang out with Bansei-chan. The only option left."

"Haa. Honestly, you. What's fun about hanging around with an ajumma like me?"

Bansei answered on a sigh. Eight years between her and Guroyuki, was it, or nine. Either way, the two of them were closing in on a full ten apart. Even granting she had no friends worth meeting, what good could there be in going out of her way to come see her?

"What ajumma."

"Ehh?!"

Guroyuki poked the tip of that nose with a finger. At the sudden ambush, Bansei's head snapped back.

"And 'you.' It's unnie. You have to call me unnie, Bansei-chan."

"Eh— huh? Wh… what?"

What threw Bansei into even deeper shock was not the physical contact, but the remark that followed it.

"You used to call me unnie, in that cute little voice. Deeply regrettable, that you've changed."

"That was a penalty for just that one time, wasn't it?"

"Hmm. So I only need to hand you another penalty. Bansei-chan. You said there was a console at home. We'll settle it on that."

"Out of nowhere…?"

No sooner had she said it than Guroyuki was already nosing around by the TV. Difficult to predict, from a face that never moved — but Guroyuki was a thoroughly willful, emotional person. On stream it was often Bansei, running Sae and her cheeky little-brat concept, who struck the first blow; yet when a duel stream actually landed on the schedule, it was Guroyuki who drove it more often than not.

She couldn't begin to say why, but Guroyuki seemed to have acquired a taste for tormenting her by way of penalties. Getting her to call a girl nearly ten years her junior unnie, and to do it readily, was surely of a piece with the same thing.

"Fine. Let's see you try, then. But there's a stream to make, so only a few rounds, and then you go home. Understood?"

"Confirmed. Brief as it is, I'll enjoy it to the fullest."

Bansei picked up a controller soon enough. Well — she was not without a competitive streak of her own.

…Good. I knew she'd go along with it.

Watching her, Guroyuki smiled. For this once, at least, she was grateful for a constitution on which almost no expression showed.

What drifted through her next was a thing her housemate had told her that very morning.

"……."

Damn it. What in the world is about to happen out there today? Of all days — on holy Christmas Eve.