The Idol Collab Stream
"Hello. I'm a little nervous... ehehe."
Haruka's voice acting was flawless.
She'd mentioned once that she used to dream of becoming a voice actress. That soft, gentle voice of hers really was ridiculously cute.
And the viewers had absolutely zero clue that this mysterious Botsuni was actually Haruka.
Yeah. All of that was fine. Except—
"Hmm..."
Something about this was rubbing me the wrong way.
What's with the "ehehe" the second she shows up? Is she trying to play cute right now?
And chat was even worse.
What was with the "don't be nervous" stuff. They were being so sweet I could feel myself rotting.
"Hey. Chat."
"Aren't you guys liking her a little too much?"
I said it just to be petty, and chat flipped a switch like I'd hit a button.
Now they were losing their minds telling me not to be jealous.
What jealousy. For the record, that was absolutely not it.
I was just doing the usual WWE that streamers always pull. I was not jealous. Not even a little.
In other words, my heart was completely unmoved.
"Again."
"That's better. Heh."
There really was no emotional disturbance whatsoever. I had simply banned the chats I didn't like.
A timeout, technically. Not a ban.
"Alright, alright~ there was a bit of a commotion."
Now then. Time to actually run this thing.
"Hello, LuminCouple. Ah, is it okay if I just call you Lumin?"
"Yes, yes."
"Alright then, Lumin. You are a viewer of my stream, right?"
"Of course. One moment. Ahem, ahem."
Script: ON. This part had been planned in advance too.
To prove she was a real Bocchi-viewer, Haruka was supposed to recite that whole long thing about Bocchi being rank 9 in Legend of Legends and even earning True's recognition, and then—
"Bocchi~ Bocchi~"
Has she lost her mind.
"Uh, why are you suddenly doing that..."
"That proves I'm a Bocchi-viewer, right? Ehehe."
"Ahem. Ahem ahem. She's definitely a Bocchi-viewer. Next..."
I changed the subject as fast as I could. Because I was embarrassed.
"Let's skip the boring interrogation. We're going to play Block Craft — do you have it installed?"
"It's installed Bocchi~"
"...Please stop with the Bocchi."
Maybe I shouldn't have agreed to this collab.
Haruka, you little—!
She was having the time of her life, wasn't she? Did she even ask to collab just so she could mess with me?
I could tell even without seeing her face. Mouth corners cranked all the way up, hand clamped over her lips — yeah. She was definitely fighting for her life trying not to laugh.
Sheesh.
"I'll send you an invite, so just wait."
"Waiting Bocchi~"
"...Got it Bocchi."
I swallowed my pride and logged into Blocky World.
Then I invited Haruka immediately.
"Lumin, you know how to play Block Craft, right?"
"Yep yep. I even have a Block Craft pro license, you know."
"Ooh, now that's reassuring."
And with that, we got straight to work. The first thing you do when you log into Block Craft is, of course, punch trees. Gotta make a crafting table.
Thud-thud-thud. Punching wood with my bare hands, something about it felt nostalgic.
"Lumin, take this."
I crafted a wooden sword on the crafting table and dropped it on the ground.
"Ooh, thank you Bocchi~ But what do I do with this?"
"What do you mean. Go hunt some animals and make food. From now on, you're doing all the housework."
"By myself...?"
"Yep. You're a girl, after all. Pffft."
"Hah."
A petty little revenge from earlier. Women should just stay in the kitchen cooking and doing dishes.
"Hmmm... alright then."
Haruka picked up the wooden sword with a meaningful little laugh, and then she kept going without missing a beat.
"But doesn't this kind of feel like we're married?"
"Excuse me...?"
What is she even saying. I was still scrambling for a response when—
"Want to just get married while we're at it? Heh."
"......"
Haruka struck first. What was I supposed to do with this marriage parrot.
Haruka was already famous for how affectionate she was toward me on regular broadcasts. That was why the internet was drowning in those... kinds of posts shipping Jimin x Haruka, with people pushing the couple so hard it was almost a problem.
Wasn't this dangerous?
I was wondering if I should secretly warn her when—
"Wugyeol? Ah..."
No need to warn her, apparently.
Come to think of it, Wugyeol content in Block Craft had been pretty common on Chijijik. If anything, shutting it down here would look more suspicious.
"Sure. Let's do it."
Yeah, yeah. I'll give you that married life you've been wanting so badly.
"Really? Then can I call you hubby...?"
"Of course~ Make yourself at home."
"Th-then... hubby..."
"Mhm mhm, honey~ Pfffft."
This was funnier than I expected. And chat's reactions were delicious.
Were these guys jealous? They were just telling me not to be jealous a minute ago... heh.
"Honey, can you grill me some meat?"
"Mmh... I'll grill it right now. Wait."
Haruka cooked some chicken over the campfire and held it out to me.
"Eat up. Ah, it's hot — should I blow on it for you?"
"Yeah, blow on it. Hoo."
"Hoooooo... here, say aah~"
"Aah. Mmm, it's good. There's really no one but you."
"Really? Eheheh."
This girl had actually lost it.
What even was this acting. She'd been unhinged ever since she pretended to be a Japanese girlfriend last time. And the fact that she was pulling this off while maintaining the voice impression the entire time was honestly insane.
"Stop being weird and donate so we can go on our honeymoon."
"Where should we go for our honeymoon? I've got lots of money thanks to all our viewers donating."
"I... I'm happy anywhere as long as you're there, hubby. Heh."
"Yeah? Mmheheh."
Hunting the dragon in the Blocky Isekai.
All in all, it went pretty smoothly. It could easily have been a boring grind-fest for the stream, but—
"I'm back."
"Welcome home? Heh, let me wipe your sweat."
"Alright. Bocchi took off the armor."
Every time we did the lovey-dovey bit, chat's screaming was just delicious.
Anyway. We steadily built up our progress, and then—
The End — Unlocked
We beat Block Craft's final boss, the dragon, in a single day.
Maybe because the difficulty was low. We saw the ending so easily it was almost anticlimactic.
Short and sweet. A good time. Honestly, without Haruka it might have been a bit rough... ahem.
"Don't glaze me. Even elementary schoolers could beat this, come on."
What's with the Bo~cchi. People had been spamming that ceremony way too much lately.
That was only supposed to be for when you pulled off something actually insane in Legend of Legends...
"Bo~cchi."
"Aah aah aah aah."
Since I wouldn't do it, Haruka did it for me.
This was so, so, so, so, so unhinged.
"...We're getting divorced now."
"Ehh, that's so mean. But it was fun."
"Same here."
The vibe was wrapping up. Perfect timing to end the stream, except—
"Chat, before we say goodbye to Lumin, there's something I need to tell you."
"It's not a confession. One, two..."
On cue, Haruka and I opened our mouths at the same time.
"Tada. Lumin was actually my friend this whole time."
"Hello~ I'm Bocchi's friend!"
I told the truth.
It would have felt icky to just lie and move on. And she was probably going to show up on my stream a lot going forward, so it was better to come clean now.
...Not that I could reveal Haruka's identity, or mine, of course.
Anyway. Did you enjoy Bocchi's WWE so far?
"We prepared it as a surprise event. I mean, there's no way a real Botsuni would exist in this chat, right? If you had fun, smash that upvote~"
"I'll definitely do a viewer participation stream soon."
I was planning to do a viewer participation event soon anyway.
Wugyeol together in Block Craft. Augment Abyss dates together. Advice sessions together.
I'd do it all someday... yeah.
"Anyway, Lumin. Good work today."
"You too, Bocchi. Good work, good work~"
"Okay. Chat, I should get going too..."
The vibe was actually wrapping up for real this time. Yeah, I was about to end the stream when—
"Y-yes? She does. Yeees..."
"......"
...The bit was already presenting itself.