Maid Haruru
Once we got in the car, I was immediately bombarded with an absurd amount of attention. For the record, the driver’s seat was occupied by Future Manager, and Chae Money was sitting in the front passenger seat.
“First, should we give her a round of applause? For our Haru’s ten-thousand-subscriber milestone—no, wait, twenty-thousand-subscriber celebration.”
Starting with Chae Money, I got a storm of applause and congratulations. It was… weirdly nice, and at the same time incredibly embarrassing.
“Thank you. But Mizuki’s probably going to hit ten thousand soon too, right? Wasn’t she at 9,100 subscribers?”
“Yep. I’m thinking about what kind of event I should do, just like Ru-chan did. But no matter what I do, I don’t think I can beat Ru-chan’s maid outfit.”
I coughed awkwardly. Then I hurriedly looked at Jua.
“By the way, Senior Jua, aren’t you busy with music work these days? Are you sure this is okay?”
“I’m fine. It’s our junior’s promise for hitting ten thousand subscribers—her first big event. I have to do my best to help.”
“Kh.”
These people were more excited than most of my viewers. They were even talking about details I hadn’t thought of at all, the lot of them carrying on like this was some huge festival.
“So, junior, have you decided what kind of maid outfit you’re going to wear?”
“What do you mean, what kind? Isn’t a maid outfit just a maid outfit?”
“Come on now~ There are so many kinds of maid outfits. The original maid dress was—”
Out of nowhere, our Senior Jua started explaining the history of maid fashion. That was a little overwhelming. Still, I nodded as if I was following along so I wouldn’t seem rude.
“Well, I was planning to wear the kind you see in anime… I figured that’s what the viewers would expect, too.”
Just saying, out loud, that I’m going to wear an anime maid outfit. My own mouth still felt weird saying it. I was dying of awkwardness.
“Right. Then the next important thing is the color, isn’t it? I think Haruru would suit sky blue really well.”
That was when the normally quiet Mizuki suddenly exploded.
“Ru-chan looks best in pink! Pink would suit you too!”
She even shoved her phone in my face to show me all the maid outfits she’d been picking out. Then Jua came over too, asking me, “How about this one? How about that one?”
The problem was that they were crowding in from both sides, and I felt like a dried squid about to get flattened. Their perfumes were mixing, too, and I was getting a headache. Just as I was stuck unable to move either way, my light, Chae Money, stepped in to mediate.
“You two, calm down. Don’t corner Haru like that. I already picked one out. Since she’s the black fox Haruru, I’m dressing her in the most classic maid outfit of all: black.”
“A kuro maid! I’m excited... Ru-chan, are you excited too?”
Excited wasn’t exactly the word. I was more in the mood to yell, Since when do you need black knights for a promise made while drunk? Wait—hold on. I just realized I’d forgotten the most important thing. Maybe there was still a way out.
“But will you even have a maid outfit in my size? Aren’t maid outfits usually only made in adult sizes?”
“I already asked about that, and apparently there are so many parents these days who want to dress their kids up in cute clothes that demand is huge. They’ve got all kinds. Especially around Halloween, apparently they sell out faster than they can make them.”
Nyaaagh!
With that, every possible escape route disappeared. I was already wearing the face of someone half-resigned to her fate when we pulled up in front of the clothing shop.
Just like Chae Money said, this place really seemed to have everything. Once we went inside, I could see that they didn’t just sell clothes—they also did alterations and custom tailoring, because all kinds of equipment were lined up around the shop.
“Boss, we’re here.”
“Our Chae CEO~.”
A friendly-looking woman greeted us warmly. Judging by her appearance, she seemed a little older than Chae Money? As we exchanged greetings, we heard the introduction to the shop owner.
“This is the person who handled Shining Parade’s clothing designs. You know each other, right, Jua?”
“Ohhh.”
So that was her background. No wonder she didn’t seem ordinary. And in life, you never know, so I quietly activated Insight.
Nice. Three S-ranks.
I could relax a little. But then she stared at me for a moment longer, and turned to look at Chae Money.
“Your hidden daughter?”
“That’s right. She was born and raised in my heart.”
Before I could answer, Chae Money hurriedly corrected herself with a flustered expression.
“What do you mean, ‘that’s right’? We get that misunderstanding a lot, but she’s our employee.”
But how was I supposed to introduce myself? Should I say Haru? Or Black Fox Haruru? I was still short-circuiting when the woman, as if she recognized my voice, said,
“Now that I think about it, your voice sounds familiar. Could this person be… Black Fox Haruru?”
For some reason, hearing that made me feel like a celebrity. I was both dazed and embarrassed at the same time.
“Y-yes. Yep.”
“I’ve been watching your broadcasts. You really do them well. You’ve got natural livestream talent. My apologies—I’ve made a mistake.”
“Oh no, not at all.”
While we were at it, I also greeted Mizuki properly.
“Like the boss said, we were already preparing new outfits for Shining Parade’s second generation, so it’s nice to finally see your faces like this.”
“Really?”
They were already preparing new outfits for the second generation? We’d only just been streaming for a month! How much money were they investing here?
“Hehe. Haru, yours is already ready.”
“Boss, could you show her?”
“Of course.”
The shop owner brought over a large A-pad and showed us a beautiful illustration. Looking closely, it was Black Fox Haruru in a maid outfit.
“We checked the rigging and everything else, and it all worked out fine.”
“Wow. You prepared this in just one day?”
“Not really. I’d actually been preparing it ahead of time, thinking I’d use it when you hit ten thousand subscribers. But somehow our hearts were in sync—before I could even bring it up, you said the exact same thing first. Pretty amazing, huh?”
So, if you thought about it, there was never any way to avoid wearing the maid outfit? No, wait. If I hadn’t gone around flapping my mouth, I could’ve avoided wearing one in real life after all.
“Of course, I wasn’t planning to make you do a maid half-cam either. As expected, our Haruru really has stream instincts.”
That wasn’t stream instincts. I’d just been drunk, insanely happy, and said something without thinking. But whatever. Let’s just go along with it. It’s not like complaining changes anything.
“I’ve got Mizuki’s outfit prepared too. Spoiler alert: it’s one of the idol costumes.”
“I’m excited! I’ll work even harder and hit ten thousand subscribers.”
“Don’t feel pressured. For Tama too, ten thousand subscribers is only a matter of time, so you can just keep doing what you normally do.”
While the conversation stayed warm and cheerful, one question kept nagging at me. I asked the shop owner right away.
“Why am I getting the maid outfit?!”
“Because foxes and maid outfits look like they’d go well together?”
Not wrong. I lost the words to argue back.
“Then the virtual character’s ready. Now it’s time for the real one.”
“Yep~ The maid outfit our real Haruru’s going to wear~ I’ll go get it right away.”
“...”
She was hyped up, too. Everyone was hyped up except me, seriously. She came back with a black maid outfit that would fit my frame perfectly. Even though it was a plain black maid dress with no major exposure, it still looked like a design far too much for a guy like me to wear.
“Ghh… It’s really here. I’m really supposed to wear this, right?”
“Yep. Hurry up and change. The fitting room’s over there. I haven’t even seen you in it yet, but I already know it’s going to suit you.”
“Then don’t wear it… just…”
No, forget it. The more I talked, the worse this got for me.
“Ru-chan! If it’s too hard, want me to help?”
“I’ll pass.”
“Wung.”
I went to the fitting room, changed into the maid outfit, and came back out. My legs felt weird and the fit was awful, but the reflection in the mirror looked so good on me that my mouth had fallen open without me realizing it.
“Hah… this is me?”
Looking at the mirror, I could see everyone else’s expressions reflected there too. Mizuki, who should’ve been the one screaming and losing her mind, just stood there with her eyes wide, speechless.
“Ru, Ru-chan...”
“Yeah. What?”
That meant I was that cute, right? The next second, she let out a shout that could’ve hit the third octave of G. Was this a delayed attack?
“The maid is so cute!!!”
“R-right.”
I thought some kind of pterodactyl had just appeared.
“Can I hug you?”
“I’ll have to decline.”
“Wung.”
Not just Mizuki—shop owner and Jua were both smiling in obvious satisfaction as well.
“Boss, don’t you think a daughter like this would be great? Should I take her home with me?”
“The problem is how extravagantly you spend. Could you even handle her?”
“Hmm. Fair point.”
“I can do it! Ru-chan! I’ll make the money. You can just stay home and play games.”
“Oh…”
From today onward, Mizuki the Money-Maker! Except no, she probably just had no idea how much I was spending. When I casually mentioned the number, she nearly fainted on the spot. She was so shocked her native language started mixing into her speech.
“Sugoi! As expected of Ru-chan! I can’t even come close… but that makes you even cooler?! I’ll try harder too.”
“Thanks.”
I had some doubts about whether “trying harder” was the right word for constantly borrowing money and throwing it around, but Mizuki’s positive energy was always a huge help.
“But since we’re here already, how about trying a bunch of different outfits on Ru-chan?!”
Wait, hold on.
That kind of positive energy is bad…!
“Oh. Nice! I’ve got clothes I’ve wanted to put on her, too.”
Leaving the shop owner out of it, the two of them grabbed one thing after another and started holding them up against me. Of all things, they were all one hundred percent women’s clothes, which made this feel incredibly burdensome.
“How about this, Ru-chan? Wouldn’t it be perfect for sleeping in?”
“I think this one would suit our junior really well, too.”
Why did these people have so much energy and strength? I just couldn’t keep up. At times like this, I had no choice but to lean on Chae Money’s power again.
“B-boss! Let’s stop here. I still need to do the maid stream.”
“Right. Boss, thanks to you I got some beautiful clothes.”
“You’re going to stream wearing this right away, aren’t you? I think I’m going to have to shut the store early and watch.”
“N-no. It’s not that serious…”
“What a shame! Ru-chan, how about streaming in a cute outfit every time our subscriber count goes up by ten thousand?”
What does it feel like to become the main character in a dress-up game? I barely managed to stop things at the doorway, but who knows what’ll happen next time.
Inside the company, in the cooking studio.
It was the same place as last time, but my state of mind was completely different. That’s because I was wearing the maid outfit now. I hadn’t even turned on the monitor yet, so I could only catch little flashes of my reflection in the black screen, and I still couldn’t get used to it.
“Haru. Should we start?”
“Yes, Chae Money.”
“Ru-chan, fighting!”
“Our junior is so pretty! So cute!”
Jua and Mizuki claimed they’d come to cheer me on, but no matter how you looked at it, they seemed more like they’d come to watch the fun. It had pretty much turned into an unintended Shining Parade family collab stream.
But goddess who humiliated me.
If you think something like this is enough to break me, you’re making a mistake.
I’ll show you what it means to turn a crisis into an opportunity.
They say if heaven itself enjoys the show, then it won’t know what to do. Fine. If that’s how it is, I’ll give them the most outrageous maid half-cam cooking broadcast in history.
Broadcast title: Fulfilling the ten-thousand-subscriber promise! Maid half-cam and victorious, fiery pork stir-fry cooking stream
The broadcast screen showed the cutting board and, behind it, my body in the maid outfit. It was, in the truest sense, a half-cam stream, so only my body from the neck down was being transmitted. Beside that was my in-character Haruru avatar, also in a maid outfit. Come on, let’s greet them with confidence.
“H-hello ev—!”
Damn it! I can’t enjoy this. This is way too embarrassing!