Rion Takes the Tank Role
Rion, who tanks === 【This_code】 【EYEAI All Servers】 # All Chat Channels Nekozuka Rion [As staff, I have a quick announcement.] [There’s been a bit of controversy, but the company will handle it at the corporate level.] [So talents, please don’t cancel your streams. Just keep broadcasting as usual.] ===
It had been a while since her last stream. After announcing her switch from VTuber to staff, Rion had barely gone live. Even after becoming staff, she hadn’t planned on quitting VTubing entirely, but honestly, she had zero desire to stream right now.
That was what the president had said. “Speaking for the company’s position” sounded nice, but it was basically just asking her to tank. This is utilitarianism in its own way, she thought.
VTuber companies were always on the receiving end of a lot of hate. The history of VTubers began in 2017 with the “first VTuber” and had reached 2024 this year. At most, it was only eight years of history. Short history meant less accumulated know-how compared to other industries, which also meant more mistakes. How many incidents had occurred while the industry was growing? Countless VTubers had left because of it. Every time a VTuber retired, the company was bound to get flak. Why couldn’t you protect them? Why did you let them retire? Why didn’t you take care of them until their mental health broke? If only the company got hated, that might have been fine, but the other talents got dragged into it too.
Rion wasn’t sure, but when she posted her announcement about quitting VTubing, her fellow generation members might have gotten hate from viewers. Why didn’t you look after Rion more?Why didn’t you guide her better?Why didn’t you collab with her more and share subscribers? Her seniors and even juniors like Anna might have been targeted too.
So from now on, if I’m the only one getting hated, maybe that’s for the best. Was this the completion of a world where no one got hurt? It wasn’t exactly pleasant. Still, she figured someone who had turned her back on her fans deserved this kind of ending.
“I’ll start once a few more people gather.”
-Why aren’t you saying nyah these days
-nyanyanyanyah why not???
-Did you sell your concept somewhere?
“Um… I think I need to talk about something important today, so I’m trying to avoid anything that looks too playful.”
Rion spoke politely. …Ugh, goosebumps. When she worked as a manager, she tried to be careful with her speech. …A manager going “nyah nyah” would be weird, after all. Even so, while she could use polite language in chat, actually speaking it out loud made her feel embarrassed. It was the backlash from acting as a concept-obsessed VTuber all this time.
……If she had known it would be like this, maybe she should have just done normal streams like Anna.
“The reason I suddenly started this stream is because I have something to explain to everyone. The new VTuber debuting from our company this Saturday, Aurora—she has never done smurfing or used an alt account. I’d like to make that clear in advance.”
Rion displayed several documents on her stream screen.
“These documents were issued by Deadraus Korea, the company operating Labyrinthos VR. I personally took Laura-nee to Deadraus Korea.”
“Some parts related to personal information have been redacted to prevent misuse, but these records contain Laura-nee’s account history. As you can see from the documents, Laura-nee has never created an alternate account through bypass authentication.”
“We’ve also prepared records showing she was playing Heroes before starting Labyrinthos. I can confirm that Laura-nee only began playing Labyrinthos relatively recently.”
“…And since some parts are redacted, some of you might wonder if the documents are forged or if they belong to someone else. I’ve also prepared a recording from a Deadraus Korea employee, so I’ll play that now.”
Rion played the recording file. It wasn’t common, but sometimes VTubers debuted and retired immediately. Most of the time, it was because of their past. Maybe they had a history of compensated dating or one-night stands. Naturally, if someone’s past was unsavory, they could lose public support. So Rion had done everything she possibly could.
“And here I’ve brought the VR capsule’s biometric registration records, Laura-nee’s Heroes playtime, and even her PC equipment and VR device purchase history…. I figured the more evidence there was, the more likely you’d be convinced, so gathering all this nearly killed me.”
-Where did all those smurf-alt-accusation losers go?
-They suck so they just call her a smurf~
-So it’s pure skill then???
-She’s a straight-up talent monster...
“Yes. Laura-nee is genuinely skilled…. That’s why our company brought her on.”
Rion quietly let out a breath of relief. It seemed the smurfing accusations against Lora would finally be put to rest. Still, a few issues remained.
“…Ah, I should’ve disabled donations for this stream. Just a moment, I’ll turn off the donation feature.”
Receiving donations during an explanation stream would hurt her image. Rion hurriedly disabled them.
“I already announced that I’m switching from VTuber to staff. But I want to make it clear that this has nothing to do with Laura-nee’s debut.”
“I’ll explain the details on my personal stream later, but the decision for me to become staff was made quite a while ago. Laura-nee’s debut was decided on relatively recently.”
“Since Laura-nee hasn’t debuted yet, I’m explaining this in advance as staff before her first stream.”
“And the fact that Laura-nee is debuting as a VTuber……to be honest, I’m the one who convinced her. So I feel some responsibility, which is why I’m doing this stream. You can think of it that way.”
-I didn’t know Rion was this scary
-“High promotion desire”
-Rion, you had ambition!
“Performance…. Let’s go with that…. If Laura-nee succeeds, it’ll all be thanks to me bringing her in……?”
She was being misunderstood in a strange way, but it wasn’t entirely wrong, so Rion decided to accept it. She knew that the more someone tried to stay clean, the more they ended up getting dirty. Rather than trying to be a half-baked clean person, it was better to just let weird memes stick.
…It’s better for me to be seen as promotion-obsessed than for Nee-san or the company to get weird misunderstandings.
It wasn’t that she didn’t feel it was unfair, but what could she do? …If she was going to tank, she had to endure at least this much. Actually, this was pretty mild. Being called promotion-obsessed was a cute misunderstanding, wasn’t it?
……Probably?
“Next……as for the question ‘Nekozuka Rion is the princess of Cat Planet, so is her blood-related Aurora also from Cat Planet?’……I’ll leave that to your imagination. Please look forward to Laura-nee’s debut stream.”
After that, Rion continued answering various questions from viewers one by one. Whether she was really living with Lora. What that appearance on Anna’s stream before debut was about. When exactly Lora’s debut had been decided. There were all sorts of comments, but once the biggest issue—the smurfing accusations—was resolved, the rest went smoothly.
Except for one thing.
“……”
Rion paused for a moment. She had optimistically thought the comment might get buried among the rapidly scrolling chat, but reality didn’t work that hopefully.
-Stop bullshitting and explain the smurfing
-We get that it’s not an alt, but why teabag??
-Her personality is definitely the problem
“About that……”
That part couldn’t be proven with documents. She had records showing Lora had never received warnings or game bans for toxic behavior. But then the question would come flying: “Just because you weren’t punished, does that mean toxic behavior is okay?”
In the end, people only saw what they wanted to see and heard what they wanted to hear. That was especially true for abstract things like morality. Some people took casual remarks or actions and read too deeply into them. Countless times, statements made with one intent were twisted and received with completely different meanings. Small things often became big problems. How many VTubers had ended up apologizing for things that weren’t even their fault?
…Looks like they dropped coordinates on Mi-gung Gallery too.
There were people who hated Lora after losing to her. Among them were those with complaints about Lora. Some of them probably vented on the gallery. And there were probably people who used Lora to provoke those complainers. People whose favorite pro team lost to Lora and used her as an excuse, which only made them hate her more. Maybe they just didn’t like the idea of someone they hated becoming a VTuber. But since the smurfing accusations were cleared, they had nothing left to say. So the only thing remaining was that Lora’s personality had to be bad. If the personality controversy grew big enough that Lora ended up with the shortest retirement in history, someone would definitely feel good about it. Whether modern society’s harshness had made them crave instant stimulation or whether that was just their nature from the start, she couldn’t tell.
Haah. Rion let out a sigh.
“Laura-nee is……”
Creak.
Before Rion could continue, the door suddenly opened.
“Huh……”
Rion was flustered by the sudden situation. Her door had never opened like this before. If someone needed her, Lora would just call her on the phone. Lora had never come looking for Rion herself.
“…Ah, Nee-san?”
“Move aside a little, would you?”
Smiling faintly, Lora approached. Her steps were as elegant and relaxed as always. But they were so natural that Rion couldn’t read the shift in her center of gravity. By the time she realized it, Lora was already right beside her. When exactly had she closed the distance like that?
Before Rion could even wonder, Lora casually leaned in and looked at the monitor.
“Nice to meet you. I’m Aurora.”
Lora spoke into the mic. Naturally, it was the mic Rion had been using until just now. The mic was positioned close to Rion’s face, so Lora’s hair brushed against Rion’s cheek. The scent of rose-scented shampoo. For some reason, the fragrance at the tip of her nose made her dizzy. If she turned her head, their cheeks would touch. Even so, at the sight of Lora’s profile, Rion unconsciously swallowed.
“I’ll start my stream soon. See you on my channel, everyone.”
With those words, Lora placed her hand over Rion’s on the mouse. Slender fingers pressed into the back of her hand. Soft. …It was hard to believe this belonged to someone who played games every day. Somehow, it felt like her soul had been stolen by a demon.
Click.
Lora applied a little pressure, firmly pressing down on Rion’s index finger. At the same time, the mouse Rion was holding clicked, selecting the “End Stream” button.
The stream ended.
“…Huh? W-wait…! What are you doing, Nee-san! Why did you end the stream on your own……!”
“You looked tired, Rion.”
Swish.
Lora’s hand lifted from the back of Rion’s. But the warmth of her touch still lingered on Rion’s skin like an afterimage.
“Rest well.”
“……”
Rion opened her mouth, but no words came out. Lora simply smiled and left the room.
@Aurora_EYEAI
[I’ll do my first pre-debut stream as a test broadcast. 【Viewer Participation】 How well does retirement bread pair with black tea? 【Aurora/EYEAI】 Please participate a lot, everyone.]