A Hungry Day
"...It's tomorrow."
"Tomorrow, yeah."
Preparations were finished.
The 2D illustrations were ready. Beyond that, the VTuber live streams had been prepared as well. The venue for the guerrilla concert was locked in; all that remained was for tomorrow to arrive.
I felt a swell of pride that we'd prepared this thoroughly—
"Thinking about it now... if we debut three of Nature as VTubers all in a single day, won't it be a little too obvious?"
"Then we space them out. One every other day."
In truth, even with that day approaching, we were still revising and re-revising everything. Honestly, I was starting to get nervous. If I'd never touched it in the first place it might have been different, but once the sunk costs piled this high, the urge to make it succeed only grew stronger.
Hyewon and I worked until ten that night before heading home.
"I'm gonna die for real…"
Grrrrrrl.
A deep, foghorn-like growl rolled up from my gut. It was the result of half-assing meals with sandwiches and snacks.
"Maybe I should grab something on the way—"
Grrrrrrrrrrrl!!
My stomach roared like it was about to explode. Why was I so insanely hungry today of all days?
I rubbed my belly with one palm and hurried home.
"First… let's order delivery."
"Pineapple pizza."
"…Fine."
You can have the whole damn thing yourself.
I pulled out my phone and ordered a pineapple pizza on the spot.
"And…"
"Sashimi! Seiren likes sashimi!"
"Got it."
I ordered sashimi too. Still, something felt missing.
"Then…"
"Woof!"
"Right."
Chicken as well.
"And last…"
"Peep!"
"Yukhoe? Out of nowhere?"
"Peep-peep!"
"Well, it's not like I can't…"
I ordered yukhoe too.
Looking at the list afterward, the combination was pure chaos. Pineapple pizza + sashimi + chicken + yukhoe = what the hell kind of meal is that?
"One jajangmyeon and a small sweet-and-sour pork, please."
Ordering Chinese food on top of all that made me the crazy one too. But once the orders were in, there was no going back.
I summoned every single one of my spirits for the first time in a long while and waited for the deliveries.
—Ding-dong♪
"Peep!"
"That one here?"
The yukhoe arrived.
—Ding-dong♪
"Grr, woof!"
"Yours this time?"
The chicken came.
—Ding-dong♪
"Good girl! Good girrrl!"
"Yeah. Yours next."
Sashimi.
And then—
—Ding-dong♪
"Why…"
"Mine this round."
Jajangmyeon and sweet-and-sour pork.
I brought everything into the living room and spread it out. In an instant the place had become a mad feast. I wondered what the hell had possessed me to order all this and whether we could even finish it, but the hunger that had been gnawing at me all day stopped any further thought.
"Where is this body's share?"
"It'll be here soon."
Oh. Free fried dumplings as a service. Only four of them, but those four are precious. Places like this are rare these days.
I was dunking one in jajang sauce and enjoying the crunch when—
—Ding-dong♪
"This body almost got angry waiting!"
Hecate shot up from her seat and stomped over—thud, thud, thud, thud—to take the pizza. She returned with a pleased expression, opened the box…
"…What is this?"
"Huh?"
A Chicago deep-dish pizza had been delivered.
"What exactly is the meaning of this?"
"Hold on."
I checked the app just in case. Pineapple pizza. Exactly what I'd ordered.
"This has to be a mistake."
"This body has been mocked…!"
Unforgivable! Absolutely unforgivable!
Hecate clenched both fists and trembled. Fearing she might actually unleash a full power deployment, I seized her mana hole with everything I had. She only scowled and flopped back into her seat.
"This grudge. This body will never forget it."
"…You're not going to explode?"
"Why explode? The pizza itself has committed no sin."
Nom.
Hecate tore off a piece of the deep-dish with her hands and ate it. For someone supposedly furious, she was putting it away pretty well. Did that mean I could go back to eating too?
"Sunwoo."
"!, Y-yeah."
Hecate held a slice in her mouth, stretching the cheese.
"Tomorrow. This body's turn."
"…?"
What was she talking about?
She chewed the dangling cheese into her mouth and answered.
"Tomorrow's battle. This body will take the field."
"What are you suddenly on about?"
"This body has said it before."
The feast before marching to war.
"Tomorrow. This body will go out."
"Come on, even so—it's not like a fight is just going to break out tomorrow."
"Place a hand upon your chest and think carefully."
"………"
She was right. Every single time something big was about to happen, my stomach had gone crazy with hunger. It had been the same the day Harin was kidnapped.
"Furthermore, every other delivery arrived correctly. Only this body's order came wrong."
In other words—
A situation that will anger this body is coming.
Hecate had suddenly turned into some kind of Delivery-Prophet.
"I have no idea…"
I shook my head and shoveled more jajangmyeon into my mouth.
As a side note, the pizza was redelivered. Since they'd messed up, they told us to keep the wrong one for free.
"Want this?"
Pineapple pizza. Hot. Steaming. Sweet-scented vapor rising from it. Hecate looked at it and said,
"This body will return before the steam leaves the pizza."
"…?"
What do you mean, return, Hecate?
The next day.
Despite Hecate's earlier fit, the work finished without disaster.
"Never in my life did I think I'd end up getting questioned by the police…"
"Huh? If you run dungeons long enough you see cops now and then, don't you?"
"I've thought this for a while, but Unnie Yeonhwa, your common sense is a little off!"
"I'm society's trash… a rebel… H-hiiiik! No! I don't know anything!"
"…Mm-hmm."
Still, "despite Hecate's fit" was the key phrase.
"I never dreamed the police would actually show up."
We'd gotten every permit. We'd even opened the stage as quietly as possible so no one would be inconvenienced…
"They said too many complaints came in so they had no choice."
"We kind of expected that, didn't we?"
Stage snatching. Mass-report terror on the streams. And now they were even blocking guerrilla concerts.
The silver lining was that the stage Hyewon had paid for out of her own pocket was untouchable, and—
"How was the stream?"
"…It went better than I expected."
VTuber debut: success. At least the absolute worst case had been avoided.
I leaned back against the car seat and let out a long breath.
"Even after years of this, I still can't get used to it…"
"Really? I'm used to it."
"What's good about getting used to crap like this?"
"At least I can go on business trips of my own free will?"
The way she danced around "I won't get banished" was masterful. I exhaled softly and turned to look at the back seat.
"You guys okay?"
"No red marks on our records, so I guess we're fine?"
Yeonhwa didn't seem bothered at all. It felt less like she trusted me and more like she'd simply been through this kind of thing plenty of times before.
Well, she is a Spirit Contractor.
Run around as a Spirit Contractor and clear dungeons long enough, and you're bound to meet the police sooner or later. Not necessarily in a bad way, either. A fire Spirit Contractor might lose control of their output and torch a forest. Or they might fail to restrain their spirit and it pops out on its own. Unintentional accidents happen often enough.
"Um… Instructor?"
"Yeah? What's up? For the record, tomorrow's a day off, so do whatever you want."
"R-really?!"
Sujin's eyes sparkled at the word "off." Consistent as ever. I silently applauded her, and then Harin spoke up.
"Instructor. The spirits here…"
"What, are they bothering you?"
"No! It's not that they're uncomfortable or anything."
Harin slowly looked around.
"These kids… they're all your spirits, right, Instructor?"
"Why? Curious?"
"Woof!"
"Peeep?"
The three Nature members each had a spirit settled on their lap. I nodded.
"Just in case something happens. I only have one body, so this is the best I can do."
Bringing human bodyguards around would just be a nuisance. And if something showed up that ordinary Awakeners couldn't handle, private security wouldn't cut it anyway. Better to stick one of my own spirits on them.
"…Instructor. You said before that you're A-Class, right?"
"Yeah?"
"Why aren't you S-Class?"
"………"
Asking that out of nowhere was a little awkward. I stared at her blankly until she realized what she'd just said and hurriedly shook her head.
"I'm not criticizing you, Instructor! It's just, um… I'm sorry…"
"…Nothing to be sorry about."
Quick apology. I nodded and answered her.
"Because I contracted too many spirits."
"…What?"
"To form a contract with a spirit, part of your mana hole gets put up as collateral, right?"
"Ah…"
I had a lot of contracted spirits. And the contract with Hecate—a Supreme Spirit—had been especially heavy. I'd only ever contracted lower- and mid-rank ones before, so suddenly taking on a Supreme Spirit hit me with a hell of a backlash.
"I used to be pretty confident in my mana hole, but this was just more than I could handle."
"Is this body being mocked right now?"
"It means you're that amazing, Hecate."
"Mm. This body will let it pass."
Hecate was nestled in my arms. I wrapped both arms around her tightly; she seemed satisfied and rested her head against my chest.
"You asked why I couldn't reach S-Class? In raw firepower I could probably take the rank. The problem is my body can't handle using it."
"But Lady Elysia of the Hero's Party…"
"That's because she's weird."
In my case, if I severed the contracts with the other three spirits I could probably hit S-Class. But how was I supposed to cast out kids I'd already grown attached to? I wasn't exactly aiming for the top anyway, so I was fine staying solidly A-Class. A-Class isn't low, you know? Barely one in a hundred Awakeners ever reaches it.
"Thank you for your hard work today!"
After we returned to the company, everyone headed home. I waited anyway until I was sure the kids had arrived safely, texting and calling to confirm. Every answer came back: safe arrival.
"…Whew."
After what Hecate had said yesterday, I'd half-expected something to explode, but apparently not.
Yeah. Even if heaven is heartless, there's a limit. It's not like something has to go wrong every single time we throw a feast—
"Woof!"
—wait, wait, look at that guy!
"Ran! What now?!"
"Woof! Woof! Grrrr!"
He suddenly bolted. What had he spotted this time?
Ran sprinted hard, not toward the city center but into an alley.
"Tsk… the atmosphere here is a little…"
Dark, damp alleys. He wove through them until he stopped at the wall of one particular building…
"Whiiiine…"
"…What the hell is all this."
Syringes. Needles. And—
"Uuuuugh…"
"Eheh… eheheh…"
"Gurgle-gurgle—"
"…Jesus."
People who did not look good at all. Ran sniffed among them, nose going to a syringe.
"Hey. No. Leave that alone."
"Whiiiine…"
A low, mournful whimper. First things first—I needed to call the police and 119…
"Hey, buddy. What do you think you're doing there?"
"…Ha."
From deeper in the alley, figures approached. One look at their faces told me they weren't friendly.
"See? This body told you."
"…Yeah."
I stroked Hecate's head and answered.
"Wipe them all out."
In the end, it looked like we were going to have to fight.