My Room's First Guest and the Overly Devoted Teammate
In VR there was a system called My Room. Simply put, it was exactly what the name suggested: a feature that let you decorate your own personal space inside the virtual world. When I had been teaching Anna, the usual routine was for her to invite me into the My Room she had created. The recent collaboration had also taken place in Sora’s My Room. Which meant this was the first time I was inviting anyone into the one I had made.
“Why is your My Room so empty?” Sora asked the moment she arrived.
Sora’s avatar was designed far closer to her 2D plate than to her real-life appearance. That was only natural. Rather than risk letting viewers glimpse her true self, it was safer to base the VR model on her illustrated one. These days the AI was advanced enough that you could feed it a plate—or any illustration—and it would generate a VR avatar for you. One might wonder why they didn’t simply do that for every VTuber, but the technology was not yet perfect. The surface looked convincing enough, yet the underlying data apparently suffered from various problems.
Perhaps that was why Sora, despite her bard concept, looked remarkably plain.
“Aren’t you going to decorate it?”
“Hehe. Have you ever seen a noble duchess personally adorn her own residence? At least, I have not.”
“…No, just decorate it a little. Give me permissions.”
Once I granted Sora partial rights, she began transforming the space. Carpets spread across the floor that had held nothing but a giant monitor, and pieces of furniture appeared one after another.
“Your main content is VR anyway. You really should decorate your My Room at least a little.”
“More precisely, Labyrinthos is my main content.”
“Still, you’ll have to show viewers your My Room from time to time. Most collaborations are held inside them, just like the one we did earlier.”
“I see.”
I nodded. Just as it had been in Minecraft, housing and decoration were clearly not my domain. I had left the room neglected until now, but Sora’s observation was correct. Even the parts no one could see had to be maintained if I wished to call myself a proper noble lady. Besides, I might find myself inviting others here again in the future.
“You want to practice even more?”
“Yes.”
“How unexpected.”
I sat on the recliner and unconsciously folded my arms.
“I assumed you disliked Labyrinthos.”
“Dislike it? Me? Why?”
“You rarely play physical games, you know.”
I had therefore thought she was only participating because she felt she had no choice. Our sixth-generation members simply lacked the seniority to refuse. When I said as much, Sora shook her head.
“I’m not used to it, but I don’t hate it.”
“Then did you find the game enjoyable?”
It did not seem as though she had fallen for it as deeply as she had for Minecraft. After all, Sora seldom won, so it could not have been easy for her to have fun. She did not bother denying the point.
“There’s a tournament, so I want to improve.”
“Rion told me it is not a competition where victory or defeat matters.”
“Senior Rion?”
I nodded and recounted what Rion had said. After hearing the mafia-game story, Sora let out an understanding “Ah~.”
“There is a little of that, isn’t there? The same thing happens in real life. Even if the person who did something wrong cries, the one who made them cry ends up being treated like the villain.”
“That sort of atmosphere certainly exists.”
“I think so too. But isn’t it funny? That VTuber A was simply playing the game more seriously than anyone else in order to win. Isn’t that what Mafia is supposed to be?”
Sora continued.
“Of course I understand. To the viewers, their oshi is precious. They know that when their oshi is happy, they can be happy too. But viewers are not fools. They can tell whether a VTuber is genuinely serious about a game or not. As you said, winning or losing is not what matters in this tournament. Which means the important thing is producing ‘entertaining moments,’ correct? And in the end, I believe those moments only appear when we approach broadcasting with sincerity. No matter how hard you try to calculate and manufacture ‘entertaining moments,’ the viewers will eventually notice.”
Even if they did not notice, a calculated scene could never surpass one that occurred unintentionally. That was Sora’s theory, and her conviction.
“If that is what you believe, then very well. I shall keep you company.”
I nodded.
“But it will be Spartan training. Do you think you can keep up?”
“…Suddenly I feel anxious.”
Sora’s expression grew stiff.
Before long September had arrived, and the tournament date was set: September 22nd, the Sunday after Chuseok.
With the new month came various changes. Our sixth-generation channels had officially begun monetization, and Rion had formally retired from VTubing.
On August 31st she had held her “Retirement (Not Really) Stream.” Every VTuber in EYEAI had adjusted their schedules so none would overlap with hers. Thanks to that consideration, Rion had managed to reach twenty thousand subscribers, yet she still planned to continue working as staff.
Another change was that the EYEAI Minecraft server—once utterly destroyed—had nearly finished its recovery efforts. VTubers who had avoided logging in during the disaster had joined the reconstruction for fun. Even now, at the beginning of September, the momentum remained; several senior VTubers were still playing. But with the tournament approaching, it felt as though the Minecraft boom inside EYEAI was finally dying down. Since the tournament date had been officially decided, everyone would likely focus on Labyrinthos this month.
And the person leading that charge—my classmate Ayanokouji Sora—was making my life rather busy.
Ayanokouji Sora [@Aurora] [Are you awake?] [I’m logged into the labyrinth right now.]
Whenever my Discord status turned online, Sora would send messages like that. So I would log into VR and teach her. After lunch I would teach her again. Because she started streaming Labyrinthos herself, I ended up teaching her on-stream as well.
“…We really are together almost all day,” I muttered without thinking.
“What are you talking about…? It’s not like that, okay?”
Sora, reading the chat, sounded utterly exasperated.
“This is a tournament where the coach leads the team. I’m receiving perfectly legitimate instruction, you know?”
“Then why aren’t Inagika and Chell here?”
“W-well, that’s…”
“I’m serious! Stop teasing me!”
Sora finally snapped.
For the past several days I had been appearing on Sora’s stream constantly. We had not even scheduled it. While I was teaching her, her broadcast time would arrive and she would say, “I’m starting my stream now. Can we just continue on air?” and turn it on. Five days of consecutive collaborations.
…Thanks to that, I have barely been able to play my own games.
I looked after Sora outside of streams, looked after her during streams, and she even clung to me during my own streaming hours more often than not. I had some free time in the early morning after she went to sleep, but lately I had been focusing on Arcade Mode whenever possible. In order to teach Sora and the other sixth-generation members, I first needed to understand Arcade Mode myself.
Yet every match in Arcade Mode featured a different map and different victory conditions. Each game felt fresh. Analyzing them all took a great deal of time, so recently I had hardly touched Gate Attack Mode or Single Combat.
Would it stay like this until the tournament ended?
“…Am I a burdensome woman?”
Sora suddenly asked, sounding anxious after being beaten up by the chat.
“Honestly, a little.”
“Hey! At least deny it!”
But it was the truth; what could I do? Anna had been serious about Labyrinthos too, yet she had not contacted me every single day. Come to think of it, that was probably because her priorities had been different. Anna’s top priority had seemed to be Hanabane Rui, and Labyrinthos had merely been the means to reach her.
In Sora’s case, her top priority these days was Labyrinthos no matter what. It was partly a matter of her beliefs, but it was also simply part of Ayanokouji Sora’s personality.
She was the type who grew anxious if left idle.
I had realized it after spending the last few days constantly with her. There were people like that—people who viewed rest as a sin. It meant Sora was that passionate, and that serious, so I considered it a good thing. Still, refreshment was important too. Everything had inertia; if you simply followed that inertia, your field of vision would inevitably narrow. A narrow field of vision led to a lack of imagination and biased thinking.
“You must always consider becoming my classmate the greatest fortune, you know. I am the most noble duchess in this world. A single minute of my time carries astronomical value, so many people have had to show considerable sincerity simply to purchase one minute of it.”
“How many minutes can I buy?”
“Hmm.”
I had not been trying to solicit donations at all.
“What are you suddenly saying…? Sincerity? Are you telling me to pay money from now on?”
“As if I would. You must always be grateful, you know. And you must play the horror game I gave you with a reverent heart.”
“I’ll play it! I said I’ll play it! I’ll do it soon, seriously…”
Sora sighed.
“Then for now, digest some horror games, won’t you? It would be good for both of us to have a little personal time. I also need to look after Inagika and Chell.”
“That’s true. By the way, have you been uncomfortable lately?”
“Uncomfortable?”
“Yeah.”
Why ask something like that out of the blue? It felt strange, but I answered.
“Rion has been working a lot of overtime lately. Housework has piled up a bit. That is the only inconvenience, I suppose.”
“So where do I throw the trash?”
The next day, Sora stood holding a bag full of garbage.
“…Why?”
“Huh? What do you mean why? You said you were inconvenienced because housework was piling up.”
I had indeed said that.
“Ah, I asked Senior Rion for your address. Luckily I timed it with her commute, so she opened the door for me. Where’s the recycling center?”