"Welcome back."

As unsurprising as it has already become, Rin opened the window of her bedroom for Gin to pass through from his house, listlessly carrying on his arms a folded laptop.

"**I'm so tired… That was a really long meeting…"

"Good work out there. Really looking forward to what you're up to."

"**Yeah… Can I lie on the bed for a minute?"

"Go ahead."

"**How's preparation for your internship going?"

"Pretty much all set at this point. Apparently, one of the reasons why our school invites a lot of restaurants is for the purpose of observing us and evaluating if they'd consider accepting us in the duration of the training.

I'm just waiting for further details."

"**I hope everything goes well, then.

**Also, do you want a hint on want I've been working on in the North?"

"You sure?"

"**Yeah. But some of the stuff I've been doing are under embargo."

"Ooohhh, so that's why you can't say anything—it's scheduled to come out or something. Now it's sounding a lot bigger and I guess you really are working for quite a sizeable company."

"**Sort of, let's just say.

**I'll make some tea, want some?"

"I'd like some, thank you. And you haven't switched off your Japanese."

"Huh? Wait, was I talking to you in Japanese the whole time?"

▪ ▪ ▪

At the same time, Nagi and Shiro, the autumn couple are outside of Cotona, enjoying one of the remaining clean rivers of the country, also having the same conversation amidst the winds alleviating the remnants of summer heat before the fall's temperature drop.

"Hahh… must be nice doing your internship back in Stylo."

"You wish it was oh-so simple, Nagi. Every week last semester I've been out and about doing field work and taking reference images all around the eastern region, you know?"

"Hey, at least you got to travel a lot and you get a commission from it."

"And where does that commission go to?"

"Ah, crap. Travel expenses, huh."

"At least now I have a lot more saved up because of Yuka Kei's wedding.

Gin totally rigged the bouquet toss, didn't he?"

"He's the only one that can do that anyway. I didn't know he's gotten so desperate that he would do that," he joked.

"How about you, though?"

"Oh goodness, I don't think I can take on the pressure right now."

"Idiot, I'm talking about your internship!" completely off her guard, she sent a wave of water towards Nagi and ran off.

"Hooo, that's super coooold… Sorry, sorry."

Nagi felt a huge bout of relief after he saw Shiro returning in the midst of sudden anxiety that his sudden declaration put her off. Instead, she sat back down and lightly whipped the end of a towel to his face.

"About mine… it's the first week of August right now… We'll have a meeting on Tuesday talking about where we will go… but our schedule is tight so we'll probably start off immediately next week."

"Wahh… that sure is fast… Where do you suppose you'll go to?"

"Well, it would be easy if I can get back to the YouCuber I worked with back then, but I also want to try out different things. If anything, I want to observe how a producer works, but I think I can also get something with Kuroko's connections.

Still, nothing is final."

"Sounds rough… but let me know when things are set in stone, okay? It'll be at least a year, right?"

"And then we'll get our diploma… I hope."

"Also, speaking of Stylo, there's news that G is going to come back in the studio, but as a regular."

"Wait, seriously?"

"I heard Sir Corik talking about it, and suddenly his name came up."

"That man's a machine… my goodness. He graduated earlier than all of us and now he landed a job as an artist in Stylo? After his drop out he really committed to just being a passing storm in college, huh."

"Oh, that's a good analogy. You get points from that."

"Eh… what points so suddenly…"

Anyway, I'll get changed and have the grill ready. Where did you put to cooler, Shiro?"

"Ah, it's still in our room."

"I'll bring it out once I'm done."

▪ ▪ ▪

August 8th.

Early in the morning, Nagi has prepared himself from what may be the outcome of their internship meeting. For his college, the semester has only really started in the last week of July. Although he has been processing his papers little by little within the academic break, things have nonetheless become hectic for him.

Ready to accept whatever that is in store for him, he entered his classroom fifteen minutes before the meeting.

At exactly 10 in the morning, the school's head of internships entered the room.

With the nature of his filmmaking course, there are a myriad of ways to get into the industry as the last three years Nagi experienced was not only simply doing camera work, but also studying scheduling, logistics, sound, editing, broadcasting, and basically the entire filming pipeline crammed into him.

To no surprise, he had guessed most of the contents of the meeting to an extent, and the two-hour briefing had concluded with him and his other classmates' mind set to a direction they want to aim for.

"Mr. Fonzie, Mr. Kajima, and Mr. Tsuyoshi? Can you please remain to the room?"

Hearing the call of the internship head to these three people, Nagi, especially, panicked as it sounded like the three of them had erred in some way or another that they are not aware of.

With his heart vigorously beating as though about to break his own rib cage, he was ready to start his inquiries in desperation, but the three of them where suddenly called to sit on the long table where the other panelists are also sat on.

All of a sudden, a school staff entered the room carrying bags of what seems to be lunch boxes that was distributed to the table—even to them.

"What the… these look like the pricey ones…"

"Let's have lunch, then. It's on us, so don't worry."

"Uhm, with all due respect, but what exactly is going on here, sir?"

"Let's discuss about this while we're eating. But I suppose it would be easy to understand when I lay out the info I have for you."

Thus, even in the middle of the confusion, the three conceded for now and filled their stomachs a little bit, and then the head started.

"So… I take it the three of you know about Taiyou Digital?"

"U-Um, yes. I think I speak for Nagi, Neth, and myself that we all know about it," Seto Tsuyoshi, who was one of students timidly raised his hand and spoke on behalf of the other two with him.

"And that… Taiyou Digital is the third largest vtuber agency in Japan that was founded at around May 2019, initially debuting three female vtubers in the names of: Himawari Kii, Nobukawa Inku, and Goshiki Penta, respectively. Nine months later, they debuted their first male talents also under the same branch while penetrating through the English-speaking audience at early 2021, introducing three female and two male EN talents. At the moment, Taiyou Digital now has 48 active members, that is excluding two of their talents that have already graduated or retired. As their talents mostly stream on YouCube, the company has already amassed a total of 39 million subscribers including their various official agency channels. Currently, their biggest talents in numbers are JP branch's Himesaki Macaron with 2.15 million subscribers and EN's Licht Burgundy with 1.14 million subscribers, making him top 10 of the most subscribed male vtubers in the world. Additionally, Taiyou Digital started off as a software company developing cutting-edge tracking applications for both of their 2D and 3D technology, but has since than transitioned to talent management and using their 2D proprietary software that is arguably the best tracking tech in the business. Taiyou Digital is also different from, say, Yololive and other virtual idol agencies as they mainly focus on vtubing. Hence, there are no news of the company announcing any concerts for their talents despite a lot of them being talented singers with EPs and albums although none of them are signed on a big label. I would recommend Medea's single entitled 'Ugoku' as it embodies her hardships on…"

"I'm sorry about Seto, sir, he sometimes becomes a walking wiki when it is about these types of things," Nagi profusely apologized, knowing full well that he is speaking to one of the school's board members that he does not usually meet.

"That's totally fine. It's honestly convenient that he knows a lot about that company, especially since that alone proves that it could make this request of ours easier to explain."

"I have to be frank, sir, but we honestly thought we did something troublesome that we were called here."

"Ahahaha, I'm very sorry for scaring you three, but it's nothing of that sort."

"That's a relief to hear…"

"But like I said, we have a request for you three.

This is not really that well known, but this school, Vanta, or at least the president is actually a private investor in Taiyou."

Among the three of them that jolted from the bombshell that had just dropped on them, Seto dropped his plastic spoon and froze.

"If anything, the school president actually gave some of our software engineering and 3D artist graduates a working visa to Japan to help develop their proprietary applications.

Back on the topic, we asked around your instructors and stumbled upon you three. We saw some of your works and from those, we've evaluated that you have a really good grasp of what works and what doesn't in the entertainment side of things."

"I don't think I'm following… is this related to our internship?" asked Neth Fonzie.

"Yes. The reason why we called the three of you is because you all have one common denominator. Can you take a guess?"

"While not extensive, I think we are very knowledgeable about the vtuber industry…"

"Wait, you don't think what you know isn't extensive, Seto?"

"…and that we have somehow incorporated them in our project, one way or another."

"That's absolutely correct.

This is very confidential, at least currently, but Taiyou is actually going to debut a new generation of five EN streamers in the coming months. I trust that what I'm.about to say will not leave this room but the thing is… they were supposed to debut five female talents, but one of them fell ill, another immediately breached contract, and… the third one got arrested in their country.

That all happened last year, which made the company reconsider things, so this year, they are going to debut three male streamers alongside the two remaining female talents. The problem is that there isn't enough time to conventionally pick from their audition entries."

In a flash, Nagi has finally caught on.

"Doesn't this sound a lot like… a business risk, sir? And…" suddenly Nagi took a nervous and deep breath, "I mean this as a genuine criticism and nothing against Taiyou, but I do believe that the last two incidents you mentioned reflect detrimentally on their recruitment. Although granted, this might be the first time it happened."

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

"Even I do think of it that way, honestly. But Taiyou reached out to us if it we have potential candidates for that, and upon further review, we think that the three of you fits the bill both in character and competency."

"I still don't quite understand… surely there are other people that fit the entertainer aspect of this? Personally, I see myself more inclined in film, and I'm not really sure I can meet the criteria."

"Mr. Seto Tsuyoshi, you know a lot of the vtuber industry extending from even other agencies. You have good analysis of the public-facing structures and frankly, you seem to know more than that, and even the controversial things. In other words, in this table, you have the most knowledge of the ins and outs of the industry even without having connections, but you are aware that they are sensitive information.

On the other hand, you have excellent communication skills and you're praised with your creativity in your projects.

Mr. Nagi Kajima, you seem to doubt yourself, but do you remember that one film you did when you were in high school in northern Cotona with your group TheArtClub? I've only recently found it and I'm quite disappointed that you did not include that in your portfolio when you were applying here. From a very small team without additional gear apart from what you already owned, you created a piece that surpasses the standard in your age back then coupled with the resourcefulness reflected in the film. Oh, and the cat is cute too.

And to add to everything, you are a member of TheArtClub, like I mentioned. Meaning that you also have an experience as an illustrator in that regard. You really have to look back to yourself to see that you have some handy skills in your arsenal.

Mr. Neth Fonzie, you have promising talent as a director and a producer. You sometimes have a vision that is difficult to execute, but you find ways to make them happen. Also, after repeating a year, you significantly stepped up with how well you write scripts now and you were able to invoke your messages well in your vtubing-inspired works.

I have looked through your works and documentations and that is how I personally evaluate you three. See, I'm known to have a good eye on people when I was a jack of all trades in the creative industry."

While it was not as specific as Seto's earlier ramblings, the three of them honestly felt that it was quite a lot of info dump. But beyond that, all they heard are commendations and perhaps even validation of the three or so years they have worked on in their academic endeavor.

"So yes, we would like to ask you to become their streamers, knowing all that. We're not forcing you, but we highly encourage you to take it. For now, what Taiyou and the school has agreed upon is a tenure of until your graduation… well, baccalaureate graduation."

"Then…" Seto interjected, "I'm guessing we will all retire once that is over?"

"We are still in discussion with them, but if you take on the role, you'll have to wait for their decision. And if I'm not making this clear, this will count as your practicum.

In this case, you will receive the common privileges their talents have, like overall support, an avatar, monetization, membership, ability to communicate with artists, etc.

I don't think they will give you 3D models as it involves getting you to their overseas studios, but regarding the monetization, after subtracting the cut from YouCube from donations and membership, you will still get a sum of that share, while the remaining split will be distributed to Taiyou, to taxes, and the school gets the remaining small fraction of it.

Well, things will be clearer in the event that you agree and attend a meeting with them. Of course, we're not rushing you to make a decision, but we wish that you will think this through."

"We understand."

"For now, let's finish this lunch and we can dismiss you."

▪ ▪ ▪

For the rest of the week, the three had talked to each other about the offer that was given them. Either through in-person or virtual meetings, they have thoroughly discussed among themselves what it is in it for them if they accept the school's request, and talked through their reservations and lack of confidence in such an important matter, with Seto leading the motivation as he seemed to be the one that is most on board with the thought.

As it stands, the talents of Taiyou Digital are averaging 600-1000 concurrent viewers at its lowest which puts pressure to the three of them, especially with their lack of any streaming or any online content creation background. Being under a big agency assures new talents that they will receive large viewership in their debut, go down, and pick back up again depending on how popular the streamer will be.

At the end of it all, they have only seen themselves in the eyes of the viewers, and not the ones behind the avatar.

…

With the weekend arriving, Nagi had set out feeling the new cool winds, and towards to the Kirishima household to visit his significant other.

As he had unfortunately expected, Shiro's father, Junpei, is present in the house—always silent, never greeting him. But these days, he has somewhat mellowed out and would leave the two of them and not meddle with their matters. While he would still have a naturally sharp gaze, he would not be too apprehensive of Nagi's presence anymore.

"Thanks for having me."

"Ahhh, sorry for making you wait. My hair was really bad earlier."

"Now I want to see it. Too bad you already fixed it… But it's always nice to see you with hair down."

"You asked that from me so long ago, geez… You sound like you haven't gotten used to it…

…

Maybe you're the one with a hair fetish!"

"W-Woah, where did that come from?!"

"Ringo told me that Gin might have a hair fetish, but he denied it. Maybe you have it."

"What the heck… but cut him some slack. I'm sure he's just so happy with how Ringo looks like now.

Anyway, you said you bought a co-op story game?"

"Yeah, yeah! I got it on sale and it looks like interesting. We probably can't finish it in one or two sittings, but the story seems good.

Let's play later after we clean our gear."

"Alright.

But hey, Shiro?"

"Hmm?"

"You said that I should tell you where I'll go for my internship, right?"

"Yeah, I said that?"

"Well… things suddenly got really complicated, and… Wait, don't get me wrong, though, I've already decided on the place. It's just that… I can't tell you right now what it is about. There are no issues with it, but it's just that I'm legally obligated not to mention anything about it, at least not right now.

Again, it's nothing bad, but I just had the thought that I'd surprise you with it when the time comes. So, sorry that I can't tell you."

"…

That got heavy all of a sudden. I don't know why, but hearing 'legally obligated' gives me chills, hahaha. But that sounds really big with how you said it, so don't be sorry. It's not that big of a deal as long as we graduate.

Well, I guess I'll be looking forward to that surprise, then."

"Oh, you will be very surprised."

It was a fun visit as always, Nagi thought. But upon returning home his body somehow felt heavy and exhausted as he landed on his bed the first thing once he entered his room. Perhaps, it was the most difficult commute he had all his life as so many things begin to sink in his mind.

With a new week coming, things began to become more real. Reluctantly, he got up to sit on his desk, grabbing a pen and opening a new page of his notebook.

"Hahh…"

Him agreeing to an incredible undertaking has placed him in a myriad of predicaments, mainly being there is no way he will be able to stream in his current room as the noise he will most likely make will be a problem for his family, and that he had realized that his current computer may be very old and underpowered as he checked its specs. While it is still capable as a video editing and processing machine, he predicts that it would not take the toll of the heavy multitasking needed for high definition streaming and potentially running games at the same time. There is also the issue of his internet connection, especially its upload speed, not being enough for the work that heavily relies on it.

Thus, he started weighing in his options, with renting an office with a capable connection being the main concern, coming in second the issue with his computer's performance, which would most likely wind up making him purchase a new one to satisfy his work.

But while everything is becoming clear in his head, the most important issue that he needs to consider is his financial condition. While he may have his personal savings, it would only be enough for a deposit to an apartment, but not enough for a new computer. As much as it pains him to think about it, his last resort would be to sell his cameras and lenses he saved up for and only settled its financing recently.

Every single day ever since the special meeting he had, these issues have echoed in his mind, wracking his brain to find better solutions to no avail, yet he still chose to say yes to such a request, considering what is in it for him in an uncertain future.

"After the debut, would I be able to retain even a good fraction of the viewership I got from that afterwards? Will I be able to market myself as a good entertainer? Am I even sure my persona would become popular? Can I even produce a good enough content that would pull in new and existing viewers? Do I even actually deserve this opportunity, anyway?"

Two nights. For two nights, he was plagued with those doubting questions that quickly ate up at him. With little to no sleep, Monday arrived, meaning that he would officially start with his work and preparations.

▪ ▪ ▪

"My word, you're looking quite rough, Mr. Kajima.

You're not supposed to come at school today, and you have your first meeting this afternoon, right? Anything I can help with?"

"Yes, sir, I'm aware… Hahh… I'm not going to beat around the bush, I need help with my situation if I want to push forward with this."

And so, he explained his current situation and predicament to its fullest, without omitting anything to his school's head of internships.

Letting out everything, the reaction of the head sent a surge of despair inside him, seeing the shock and stress on the head's face as he slowly rubbed his head.

"We almost messed up big time…"

"Wh… What do you mean, sir…? A-Am I going to cause the agency a huge problem because of me…?"

"No, no, no! Compose yourself, Mr. Kajima. You're not causing anyone problems… more like we are the ones that caused you a problem."

"Can you please explain further…?"

"It seems like we weren't able to tell the three of you, but since this is a favor from Taiyou, they are most willing to cover some of your expenses, including sponsoring your equipment, from a PC, all the audio equipment, capture devices, a tracking smartphone, to all the assets you will be commissioning, so you don't have to worry about that. But as for an office you are looking for, the best we can do is help you find a suitable one so that would be on your expense.

I'm very sorry that this caused you so much trouble. I'll be informing the other two about this, so for now, I'd like you to rest at home and focus on the meeting you will be having later."

From a whiplash to a sudden relief, all energy from Nagi has sapped away as if his body crashed on his seat.

"Aaaaaahhhhhh… That's such a relief…"

"Have some water, Mr. Kajima. Again, I'm holding myself accountable for not being able to tell you such an important information. I'm really sorry for this."

"Thank you very much… I'll be leaving for now…"

~ ~ ~

"We're home."

Back in the city of Ginga, Gin and Rin met in front of their household as they coincidentally came home at an early time with the sun still very much present at around 2 in the afternoon.

"I forgot that you don't have a lot of afternoon classes, Potato."

"How about you? A professor wasn't around?"

"No… it's about our practicum.

Mom? Can you join me and Potato in the living room?"

After getting dressed back to more comfortable clothes, Sumi joined her daughter and Gin on the couch, as Rin intends to discuss something about her job training.

"Well… how do I even start this? Firstly, I've locked in to a place where I will do my training."

"Oh, that's great. I'm waiting for the 'but' though. It's obvious from your tone," Gin caught on.

"It's nothing really bad per se. If anything, it feels like things are going really well.

Like I said, I now have a restaurant where I'll be doing my term… and it's in Claude."

"Wait, the one ran by Chef Raien?"

"Yup."

"Oh, wow. That's the one where you took my daughter to a date, right, Gin?"

"Yeah. The only thing is that we went out at a time that's not very busy. I can already guess that the commute in trains would be really bad at rush hour, and that's a total of almost two hours to and from factoring them in."

"Here's the thing, Potato—we talked with Chef Raien himself earlier since we are at least three that are going there, and he highly encouraged me to get a driver's license since I'm the only one that doesn't have it among us."

"Huh, why? No way they are lending you cars to commute, right?

…Right?"

Gin was half-joking, but one look at Rin and he was convinced from his expression that it was indeed what is going to happen.

"It seems like they've done it for previous CCI students, and it looks like the trend is that they only accept very few people every year… and that I am going to be actually employed this year."

"You mean, you're going to be working there… like work-work?"

"Yeah, work-work. Although at least they will let us decide whether we would continue to work there after graduation or we can resign without renewing a contract."

"Hmm, we'll need to discuss this again with Shuu tonight. From my understanding, you would retain your benefits if you continue working there, and I personally think that's a good thing since it's an opportunity to secure work for yourself, that is if you wish to remain.

Can you let us talk about this in private later, Gin?"

"I got you. I have some work to do in my office later anyway, and I'm really just a freeloader here, hahaha. Wait, if anything I need to be there in a few minutes so I better go back and get ready.

I'll have dinner with Haku there, so take all the time you need! I might come back at midnight."

"Thanks for understanding."

~ ~ ~

As Nagi and his other batchmates decided that they will take up the school's requests made by Taiyou Digital, they had the honor of picking their own avatar from the three models that have been already made. After a thorough discussion among the three of them, they reached a consensus of what models once negotiating with each other has been done, as there was inevitable conflict on the models that they mutually liked.

For Nagi, he settled with the character that has a design with a complexity that is in the middle of the three models. The avatar appears to be older and more mature by a few years from his actual age, having a human visage with dark blue hair and calm golden eyes adorned with specific patterns, donned with a tan double-breasted set of suit and a black tie with slanted stripes pattern, and ending with a pair of black gloves and a shiny set of dark brown leather shoes.

Additionally, as per the reference sheet given to them, the model he chose has a removable fedora and a slightly worn down large, navy blue trench coat riddled with straps as a decorative element of the design.

While it may have been described as a classy character design, Nagi was convinced that it was the least flashy of the three, and it eventually became the design that would speak to himself the most the more he took appreciation from it. And to top everything off, he felt that that the character really suited its given name: Michelo Azuria.

…

At 4 in the afternoon in the Orion time zone, Nagi glued himself to his seat as he burns a hole in his computer monitor while waiting for a call in his Dyscord, as his meeting is about to begin.

For the first time, he will be meeting the Taiyou Digital staff, managers, the illustrators, the 2D modelers, and the two female members of the same generation they are debuting with.

In the private server that he is included on, he noticed that the voice channel has been opened, and the staff has given them the clearance to enter the channel afterwards. Feeling very nervous, he joined the meeting room together with Neth and Seto, greeting the EN staff in English and finally meeting the other two members that they will be working with from now on.

"*I… think we can now formally start this meeting? So while we wait for our illustrators and riggers to join this server, can I ask everyone including the staff to turn on their cameras for a bit so that we can see each other?"

As prompted, they all turned their cameras on, with Nagi especially taking advantage of using his filming camera to get a better quality image on his end. From there, they shyly waved at the staff and their fellow members.

"We're such a bunch of introverts, what did I expect."

"*Alright, I think everyone is present now. So once again, good afternoon… or perhaps good morning to some of you. I know that some of us are in the Pacific time zone so I'm very sorry for conducting this meeting so early in the morning, but with this, we can finally discuss in completion the company's new generation debut!"

Afterwards, the staff and the soon-to-be-streamers introduced themselves to each other with a long briefing coming after. It later made Nagi realize that he would be the second most fluent in Japanese after one of the female talents, as the studying he had done to at least reach a conversational level of proficiency has paid off, although with a lot of room for improvement.

In the midst of the meeting, Taiyou Digital's president then joined in, greeting everyone in Japanese and making an effort in introducing himself in English.

Orientation of the company policies then continued along with laying out guidelines, and it would seem that the company has a tradition of introducing the avatars one by one, and letting the talent get to know the illustrator that made the design for their avatar. Needless to say, it made Nagi giddy to meet the illustrator that created the design that he gave praise for.

"*Now then, for the fourth model with the name Michelo Azuria, please take a look…"

(!)

"EXCUSE ME, WHAT?!"

Nagi could not be more grateful to have his microphone muted after letting out a disturbingly loud scream that would definitely be heard around his entire household.

In the meeting, four screens were then focused with the biggest display being a shared screen of one of the staffs showing the concept illustration of the avatar he will be using. Below that, he could see a thumbnail of his own camera feed and the 2D modeler's… with a screen beside it showing a username tag of "capy_nina" and the person behind the pseudonym cleverly hiding the extreme shock in his face.

"*Once again, this is Michelo Azuria—designed by Capy Nina-sensei and rigged by Altorium-sensei. Thank you for all your hard work!"

…

"I think… things are about to get busier from now on…"

Different places, same thoughts.

With their cameras shut off, their minds drifted farther and farther away from the meeting. Laying back on their chairs, Gin and Nagi tried to process the absolute coincidence that converged the two of them in the most unexpected way.