Let's Go Kill Rui Together
"That's why newbies always say, 'A VTuber instead of a streamer? It's all about the vibes.'"
Anna sat down beside me as she spoke.
"The vibes? Aren't streamers and VTubers basically the same when it comes to content?"
"It's the same logic as telling someone to use a muscular guy instead of a beautiful girl in a bishoujo gacha game. Whether it's a cute girl or a muscular man, the gameplay doesn't change, right? But consumers don't just look at the gameplay—they consider the emotional appeal important too."
"I see."
I nodded. Having played all kinds of games myself, Anna's analogy hit home perfectly.
"In my case, I've loved anime since I was a kid. But when there wasn't much anime to watch, I ended up discovering VTubers. That's how I got interested and became one myself."
"Now that you mention it, Leon seemed to like anime too."
"The reasons people become VTubers are probably pretty similar across the board, don't you think? You need that subculture-loving sensibility to even get into it."
Anna shrugged.
"In the end, the ones watching VTubers are otakus like me. And most of them are men—the complete opposite gender. So it's a job that requires understanding their emotions."
"Emotions, huh…."
That much wasn't difficult at all. There probably wasn't anyone alive who understood a man's emotions better than I did, since I had once been called the most beautiful duke's daughter.
Still, becoming a VTuber seemed to require more reasons than that.
"Ah, it's starting."
Now Loading…
I was currently watching a VTuber broadcast together with Anna.
"I have a VTuber I really like. She usually streams at eleven at night, but today she suddenly changed her schedule and said she'd be on at eight."
"She's a seven-year veteran since debut. And in those seven years, I've never... well, almost never missed a single one of her streams!"
"Ah, would you like to watch with me, teacher? She's incredibly entertaining!"
A VTuber broadcast worth skipping training for. On top of that, a seven-year veteran—how could I not be curious? It was the perfect chance to learn what this VTuber job was really like. So today I had canceled training and decided to watch with Anna.
"Ah, it's started!"
"Just a moment, okay...?"
"Isn't that Japanese?"
"Yes, it's Japanese. Why?"
"I thought it was a Korean VTuber."
"Where in the world would you find a Korean VTuber with seven years of experience? Teacher, you can't understand Japanese?"
"I don't know it that well."
"Hah, this is why newbies... The original Japanese audio is the best flavor... Just wait a moment. I'll change the settings."
Anna fiddled with the settings, and the voice on screen changed.
"Ah, how does my voice sound? Is the BGM too quiet? Hold on...."
"I used the translation feature. This way it comes through in Korean, right?"
"Translation? For a translation, it sounds incredibly clean."
"It's possible because it's VR. The data processing speed in VR is incredibly fast."
And since voice itself was a type of data in VR, analyzing it and converting it to Korean wasn't particularly difficult.
"That's why VR especially has thin boundaries between countries. Language translation happens in real time."
"Everyone, how is it? Is this good? Just right?"
The VTuber on screen let out a small chuckle. Her voice was quite young. The model matched it, looking about middle-school age. But she probably wasn't actually a middle schooler. According to Anna she was in her seventh year of VTubing, so that was impossible. Not to mention the content of what she was saying.
She was telling an incredibly stingy story.
When I glanced sideways, Anna was grinning from ear to ear, looking delighted just from hearing the voice.
"Ah, she's so cute... Hehe...."
"Don't laugh so crudely, dear. It's a bit unpleasant."
"Teacher, being cringe is the default setting for otakus."
I... see? When Anna said it with such confidence, it felt like it must be true. Even as the former duke's daughter, it was hard to argue.
At any rate, Anna seemed unable to tear her eyes away from the VTuber, as if she truly adored her.
As for me... I wasn't sure if it was interesting. The broadcast was filled with nothing but personal stories, so without knowing what kind of person this VTuber was, it was difficult to enjoy.
It would have been nice if Anna explained about her, but for some reason I didn't feel like asking... At the moment Anna seemed completely absorbed in watching. And if I carelessly asked for an explanation, I would probably be subjected to an extremely long-winded lecture.
...After all, otakus especially loved explaining things.
With no other choice, I quietly opened another window and lightly looked up information about the VTuber.
Her name was Hanabane Rui.
A VTuber affiliated with the Japanese company Ink Palette. With four hundred thousand subscribers, she had the most within the agency. Her setting was that she was normally a middle school library committee member, but in truth she led an armed organization called the Rui Cartel... Quite the bizarre concept.
"The chatting went on too long because talking is so fun. I started this stream today to play Labyrinthos."
With a light sound effect, the broadcast screen changed.
"It's been a few days since I last played Labyrinthos because of events. So I was thinking it might be nice to play some~."
"There's a tournament coming up too, right? They'll probably hold one again this year? It was well-received last year as well."
"I've heard complaints that I don't do viewer participation streams enough. How long has it been? A whole year, they say? No way~."
"For the password, I'll only say the first four of the six digits~. 2408xx. 2408xx. ...Wow, someone's already joined."
A custom room was created, and the seats filled at a surprisingly fast pace. From the subscriber count alone, her popularity was clear. Leon had around ten thousand subscribers and Anna had about forty thousand. On top of that, her rank.
She was Diamond. Her rank was higher than I expected.
Soon the game began, and Rui locked in the Puppeteer. The Puppeteer was known as a particularly difficult character in Labyrinthos, but since it was her main, she played it with impressive smoothness.
"The person you said you wanted to meet at the tournament—was that her?"
Suddenly, a past conversation with Anna came to mind.
"Ah, yes. That's right... How did you know?"
"It would be stranger not to notice, wouldn't it?"
"I suppose so...."
Anna hugged her knees.
"As you can see, Rui is a Japanese VTuber. Plus she does a ton of offline events, so it's not easy to attend all of them unless you're a local."
"VTubers do offline events too?"
"Popular ones do quite a few. Collab cafes, handshake events, performances, that sort of thing."
"Hmm...?"
Handshake events? How exactly did one shake hands with a VTuber? I didn't understand, but I nodded anyway.
"I thought it would be nice to meet her at least once, but I kept losing the lottery draws. But since Rui participates in the Streamer League every year... I figured that if I applied for the tournament too, maybe I could meet her."
"I don't really understand. Why do you want to meet her so badly?"
"Well, isn't it natural for a fan to feel that way...?"
Anna's expression somehow turned self-deprecating.
"Rui has two dogs, you know. I even know their names, and I know about her family history too. She shared it all on her broadcasts."
"......"
"You know too, teacher. I don't have many people I can call friends. So besides my family, the person I know best in this world is Rui."
"But you can't say everything shown on the broadcast is the complete truth, can you?"
"No one can keep lying forever. Only showing a fabricated version of yourself is tiring too."
Anna said it plainly. With that single sentence, many things suddenly made sense.
Why Anna had become a VTuber. What kind of profession it was. Why she wanted to improve at Labyrinthos. And what exactly she was trying to pursue.
"Anna, participate in the viewer stream, dear."
After thinking it over, I spoke.
"Really? I was actually debating whether to join or not. I want to play with Rui, but with you here, teacher, it feels like it would be a bother... Ah, how about you participate too?"
"Of course I'll participate as well. As the enemy."
"...Huh?"
"Anna."
Anna blinked at my words. I smiled brightly.
"Let's go kill Rui together."