The Strange One's Eve (2)
"Are you free on Christmas Eve?"
The whole thing had begun with nothing worth telling.
It was Christmas anyway, and a weekend besides, so why not go out and enjoy themselves together? That was all it had been. A suggestion as simple as that.
"Uh, daytime's fine. Evening'll be rough, because of the stream."
"That will be quite enough."
It was hardly as though she lived some other life. There was no world in which Han Seoyeon failed to know Mary's streaming schedule, and so the question had never meant anything, from the start, but whether the daytime held anything at all.
"Hmm. Come to think of it, didn't we have this talk before?"
"Halloween was the same. About two months ago, roughly."
They would have met for a little while in the daytime then, too, with Ninomae due to stream come evening. Remembering it, the two of them snickered, small and quiet.
"All right. Let's go out together."
...And so it had been decided.
"Shooting zombies on Christmas is, I don't know. It's a feeling that's hard to put into words."
The thought seemed to have struck Ninomae out of nowhere; she said it as she pulled the trigger. The plastic trigger sank inward against a slight resistance and shivered with a vibration. It struck no firing pin and ignited no powder. It simply launched a bullet made of graphics, and on the monitor a polygon zombie toppled in a spray of blood.
"If the point is the casting out of the impious, could there be any act more sacred?"
Han Seoyeon answered while working a pistol-shaped controller of her own, mowing the zombies down with a hand faster and surer than Ninomae's.
They had come outside, settled lunch in a reasonable enough way, and then wandered without much of a plan until an arcade caught their eye and they went in.
It was perhaps a choice with very little to do with a romantic Christmas. Then again, they hadn't come out in pursuit of romance, and the feeling between them was that so long as the two of them were enjoying themselves, the rest hardly mattered.
"You're good at this, Miss Shion."
"It's my profession."
"Oh—that stance just now looked kind of cool."
Chatting away like that, Ninomae and Han Seoyeon cleared the stages one after another.
It was a game of considerable difficulty, granted, but it had still been built so that anyone with decent instincts could clear it. And when one half of a pair possessed a downright monstrous physique, there was never any chance of a struggle.
Ninomae had even considered backing her up with magic, should it grow too hard. In the end they cleared straight through to the final boss without any great trouble.
"Having to shoot the boss's weak point at the same time was a little fussy, but... well. With you stuck to me, Miss Shion, I suppose this is just how it goes."
Ninomae, who had entered NHXSY on the clear record, smiled a small smile as she said it.
"What shall we play next?"
"Hmm, let me see... Ah! How about that one?"
What she pointed to was a rhythm game of the kind where you stamp panels underfoot and clear the notes as they come down.
"Are you good at it?"
"Mm... honestly, no. I've really only tried it a handful of times."
"And yet, from the stream the other day, you were dancing rather more than I expected."
Han Seoyeon was thinking of the dance rhythm game Mary had played the day she revealed her 3D model. Nowhere near clumsy enough to be called hopeless—if anything, she thought, a touch above average.
"I take dance lessons now and then, too. I'll be doing a live myself before long."
Anathema was a company that sold its VTubers as idols. Song and dance sat close to a basic qualification; if you couldn't manage them, they would hammer the lessons in until you could.
"Miss Ninomae's birthday falls in February, doesn't it."
"Yes. One day before Miss Shion's."
And with the company tradition of a birthday live concert still in place, Ninomae—now that she had a 3D avatar—would be on stage early next year. A week more and this year would be finished; there was truly little time left. Starting the practice even now would be nothing strange.
"Then, with a prayer offered in advance for the success of Shutan's first live, and for the improvement of Miss Ninomae's usual skill—shall we make that the next game?"
"Pfft. You made the whole thing way too grand."
She had only picked it because it looked fun. Ninomae let out a hollow little laugh as she said so.
The two of them fed coins into the machine and stepped up onto the platforms.
"What difficulty do you want?"
"How many levels are there?"
"Uhh... looks like it goes to ten."
"Then how about level three, for a start?"
That would do. Ninomae selected two-player mode and began looking through the songs at the difficulty Seoyeon had named.
"Ah, this song's in here too."
"One you know?"
"Honestly, not really. I've heard it once or twice..."
Ninomae let the words trail off and pointed at the screen. The title sitting under the cursor, and the artist listed beside it—VV. A song by Bansei Marin, who streamed as Komori Sae, Ninomae's fellow VTuber of the same generation.
"If it caught your interest, Miss Ninomae, then this one is perfectly fine. We are hardly required to find a song that suits us to perfection, are we?"
"You think so? ...Then I'll start?"
Seoyeon had no particular objection, and so the song was decided. They selected it; after a brief wait the screen changed, and the music began to flow.
Arrow-shaped notes fell from the bottom of the screen toward the top. True to a three out of ten, the pattern was neither too fast nor too tightly packed. Ninomae didn't know this song's chart in the slightest, but she could more or less see what she ought to handle first.
"...Hueh?"
—She could see it, and only see it.
"Ah? Wah—?!"
If it had been a keyboard, where a flick of the fingers was enough, it would have been simple. Even another arcade rhythm game, one you played with your hands, would have left her a little room. But this, where she had to move her own feet and step, felt entirely different. She could see it. She could see it, and her body would not follow.
She mixed up the layout and stepped wrong, caught the edge of a panel and ate a miss, tangled her legs so a foot never quite reached the panel at all... It was a disaster in every direction at once.
Seoyeon's side, meanwhile, was exactly as expected: smooth little movements, the panels tapped out one after another. Ninomae, in the middle of watching the screen, stole a glance her way. Well, the woman had learned martial arts; footwork of this level was only natural. Ninomae was impressed, and to some extent she accepted it.
"Ngh—?!"
But she had let too much of her attention wander that way, and nearly let a note slip past. Even that would have been fine, except that in rushing to catch it her foot slid out from under her. One foot left the floor, then the other. Her body tipped, and gravity took her.
"Miss Ninomae. Are you all right?"
The fortunate thing was that Seoyeon moved before Ninomae could sprawl all the way down. She gathered the girl, balance lost, into her arms.
"Ugh... I-I'm fine. Thanks to you."
"You haven't twisted your leg?"
"That seems all right, too."
"Thank goodness." Han Seoyeon let out a breath of relief.
"Hyit—?!"
The trouble was how close the two of them were, held almost in a back hug, so that the breath tickled the nape of Ninomae's neck.
"Um—ngh—could you let go first? It tickles way too much every time you breathe..."
"Ah. I see."
Ninomae asked it even while she flushed, and at those words each of them remembered something. Han Seoyeon, for her part, recalled that Ninomae was rather severely ticklish by nature.
"Huuu—."
"Hyah?! Wind, in my ear—kuh?!"
And the fact Ninomae recalled, with unpleasant freshness, was this: the person currently holding her was, in truth, quite the villain. The tormenting kind.
Somehow, as the days passed, Han Seoyeon's peculiar streak of mischief only grew.
"Wh-wh-what are you doing?!"
"Ah. My apologies. I saw you in distress, and it simply happened."
Badly startled, Ninomae shoved her away a beat too late. The difference in strength was such that Seoyeon could have held on for as long as she pleased, but she seemed to have no intention of carrying the joke any further, and let herself be pushed off without resistance.
"Uuu..."
Even afterward, Ninomae clutched her own ear, as if the ticklish feeling were still hovering there. Then, face gone red, she turned a sharp glare on Seoyeon.
"You put your ear out too, Miss Shion. This time I am genuinely not letting it go, you hear me?"
"Hm. I must respectfully decline."
"Grr...! Get over here!"
"Hup."
Set on payback, it was Ninomae this time who tried to catch hold of Han Seoyeon—but Seoyeon, dodging in earnest, was a formidable opponent indeed.
Even so, she could hardly just give up...
"Customers. I'll grant you the machine is meant to be stepped on, but if you're going to run around on top of it like that..."
"We're sorry......"
...They got scolded.
After that, the two of them went on wandering the arcade.
Ninomae, who lost to Seoyeon in raw physicality and in mind games alike, was crushed outright in a fighting game and had to be comforted; a racing game coughed up nothing but ridiculously overpowered items; and midway through a co-op round, when Ninomae's character looked about to die, Han Seoyeon glanced around at the eyes nearby and quietly cast a heal......
...Well. A number of things happened. A great number of things.
"Oh. It's already this late."
"So it is."
Lights glittered in every direction like neon signs, and yet the sunlight from outside never once reached in. Whether the place had simply committed to a dim concept for its interior, or whether the entire point was to make you lose track of time, there was no telling.
"What time was the fried chicken we reserved?"
"Five. Once evening comes the crowd will only grow, so we'd do better to pick it up a little early and head back."
"Eating it then might be a bit soon, but... well, we won't finish it all anyway. If we're really hungry, we can just heat up what's left and have it at night."
Having settled on that, Ninomae looked around. If five was the hour, it was about time they started back. One short game, at the very most.
"Ah."
Thinking as much, she found something.
"The last one ought to be that, don't you think?"
"...A photo sticker booth. I have seen a great many of them in manga."
"Well... it's my first time since middle school, too."
Perhaps at the memory of the ruinous relationships that had run from high school through the early days of university, Ninomae's face tightened, just a little. She composed herself almost at once, though, and caught Han Seoyeon by the arm to pull her along.
Han Seoyeon lifted the curtain, stepped into the box, looked around the inside, and spoke with a note of mild admiration.
"It's flashier in here than I expected."
"Huh? Didn't you say you'd seen them in manga?"
"Those were in black and white."
"Mmm, so if I do it like this......"
"Ah, got it."
Ninomae took up the stylus and worked the screen, and a guide voice in a bright, cheerful tone came through.
"Ah, Miss Shion. A little closer, please."
"Will this do?"
So the camera would catch them properly, the two of them closed the distance. Ninomae tucked herself lightly against Han Seoyeon's arm, almost linking elbows, and Seoyeon glanced at the gesture—then turned her eyes back to the camera without any particular reaction.
Just like that, they took several photos as the voice directed. They hurriedly held up peace signs beside their faces, and they also faced straight ahead on purpose, expressions solemn.
"Keh. 'Anything goes'—a formidable enemy has appeared, Miss Shion!"
"Well, a perfectly safe peace sign... except we already took that one. What to do."
Had nothing come to mind? Han Seoyeon handed the decision over to Ninomae.
"Something I thought of... a pose I want to do......"
Ninomae seemed to sink into thought for a moment—and then...
"Ah... n-no. Not this one."
"If something occurred to you, that will do. The timer is going as well."
They had been given more time than when a concept was assigned outright, but not so much leisure that they could think forever.
"Uh, it's... well......"
In the end, hesitating all the while, Ninomae put the thing she had thought of into words.
"A b-back hug......"
As she said it, her face went pink.
"...Did you take a liking to that?"
"Bl-blowing air in my ear is absolutely forbidden, okay? You hear me!"
"Yes. Understood."
With that, Han Seoyeon stepped in behind Ninomae and wound her arms around her waist. Warmth, touch, and the scent of each other all mingled.
For a moment, neither of them spoke.
This is considerably more embarrassing than I expected. Looking down at Ninomae, gone rigid in her arms, Han Seoyeon thought it. It was a posture they had taken only a little while ago, but doing it consciously was another feeling entirely.
"Fuu—."
"Hnyah?!"
And so it was less that mischief had stirred, and closer to an attempt to loosen, somehow, the tension and the air between them. At least, that was the intention.
With the click of the shutter, a startled Ninomae whipped her head around—
"Ah."
"Ngh."
—and their faces collided.
Fortunately, the impact was not great. At most, it went only a little further than a brush. The problem, if one had to name it, was the place.
At the soft, moist sensation that met and parted in a single instant, Ninomae set a hand against her cheek before she knew what she was doing. As if that feeling were still resting there.
Neither of them spoke.
Han Seoyeon, too, unlike her usual self, covered her lips in an awkward gesture.
"...Mmmnnngh!"
So there was still a redder than that. Watching the change that came over Ninomae's face, Han Seoyeon thought it without quite meaning to.
S-soft......
...Not that her own expression was likely to look particularly calm.