"Hmmm… I know what's done is done, but should I or should I not have told my chat that I'm using a voice changer when I'm streaming? What do you think, Nagi?"

"I'll ask this then—how much do you stream in a week?"

"Zero to one."

"Then I honestly don't think most of your viewers would care much, at least in my opinion. I'm not saying this to brag and I'm just stating facts, but you have a significantly lower viewership than me. That means that there are less eyes on you.

It probably won't be a big deal, but if that was case, then it might be a different story."

‹Gin›

It was something I decided to do; amidst my lessened free time away from work at the restaurant and helping out on the construction site, my work as an illustrator had somehow turned into my time of comfort, and add to that the live streams I do from time to time.

I recently revealed to my viewers my use of voice changer on streams with the reason of preserving my privacy, which is in fact why I am using it in the first place. Looking back, it doesn't sit well with me now when I agreed to present myself on the internet a few years back.

While I know that some creators do not mind it when their "past lives" are found, I'm very much against my identity getting leaked, especially now that I know that I'm living in a world where there are potentially other people that can read minds. My life has already almost been ruined once and I don't want it to happen again.

But whether it is ephemeral or not, I wanted to pursue this creative chance by streaming.

"If anything, some streamers whether vtubers or illustrators themselves also use them. You know the artist of [the peafowl vtuber], right?"

"Yeah. Oh…"

"You get it now? In this case, you two are kind of the same. Then there are those who use a different pitch of their voice where in some cases it leads to throat issues.

On the other hand, there are also those crazy theories about how behind a moe vtuber is a middle-aged man. People can get insane with their speculations… but I view it as something that's up in the air.

Why do you ask, anyway? Did you stumble upon a forum talking about it?"

"Just a passing thought, really. I kept thinking if it was the wise thing to do."

"Then maybe you shouldn't have mentioned it in the first place if you want to avoid people speculating about it."

"I guess my rationale is that we've decided to eventually reveal our connection before you retire. We've been in collabs before but that's through voice call. I agree to do off-collabs with you so it would probably feel weird if I were to somehow never speak when that time comes."

"We could always cancel that, you know."

"It sounds fun to do, though."

"If this was a few years ago, you'd never have agreed to do something like that."

"I just want to see how creative we can get it to be."

"Talk about broadening your horizons… from trying out streaming to building a house."

"I feel a bit ashamed that Yukihime knows so much more about carpentry than me. Heck, I'm learning about welding from her now."

"And where does that leave me, then? I only know how to build tents and rigs.

But now that I experienced building my office last year, I suddenly have the urge to build furniture."

"Ohh, you're finally getting to that side with me."

"I might need to get used to that. Maybe after I retire from streaming and surrender this room to you."

"Sounds like you're going to live alone afterwards."

"Not immediately. I'll come back to my parents' house then go from there. It's nice that I saved up a lot from streaming and that my few projects were funded with sponsorship. Honestly, my manager is the greatest. I can't imagine spending 200,000 dollars in a year out of my pocket for my projects."

"The effects on your finances will definitely not be negligible if that happened."

"I'm just glad that I can probably rent for a year at most with my savings.

I wish I can get a property too. Good for you and Ringo."

"So you're also starting to think about it now."

"I'm graduating in a few weeks. I'll have to secure myself a job first.

That aside, not helping on the construction today?"

"We agreed that I'll go help in times where I'm feeling it, but if they really need a big hand, they can just call me. Have you never thought why we haven't rented any heavy machinery?"

"Huh. Because they already have one for free.

If you have time then, let's go play some games live. What are you feeling?"

"When's the new season of Ap*x coming out? I can probably go for two hours before I get frustrated."

"Aw, man. Now that reminds me of when we played trios with Eia."

"She really carried me that one time. We met her through Yuuga, but it was a surprise how they got to know each other."

"Before they collabed, he didn't have any YouCube presence at all."

"I got the idea to do streaming from him as he's been doing it since slowly easing from drawing manga."

Sometime like two years ago, it took us by surprise that Yuuga, with his manga artist persona, suddenly started collaborating with a vtuber from the English branch of Yololive named Midoriki Treya or "Eia" as her nickname.

From that point, only select people knew about Yuuga's identity as he refrained from getting pictures taken of him, and he never really touched on video platforms. Then suddenly, Eia's viewers were caught off guard especially to those where there is an overlap with Yuuga and Eia's fanbase, when they collaborated on playing games and such.

But of course, even if we rarely talked about it, I did guess that the wise decision was to limit their interaction as it somehow boosted Yuuga's online popularity. Excessive interaction between the two of them would lead to people speculating that he is leeching of someone's popularity which would take a hit on his reputation. Therefore, Yuuga opened a channel and streamed anatomy advice at the start while also collaborating with other creators.

While his several manga have been already popular, it was different to the growth that Yuuga as himself amassed, which can be considered counterintuitive to his plans of retiring as a mangaka. Nonetheless, he even managed to draw for one of Eia's merch.

Because of their surprising connection, we also recently got introduced to Eia herself, and after a few sessions in voice calls, the four of us decided to do live collabs and our group has done three streams to this day.

On the other hand, since I started dipping my toes into streaming partly for the reason to see a bit of Nagi's perspective, I genuinely found it fun. My numbers pale in comparison to Nagi, but that was beside the point as I hardly cared about it. What mattered in that small number is that a similarly small, but also tight-knit community was established.

I took inspiration from the vtubers that I follow and gave my viewers a form or a mascot, first and foremost. I gave them the appearance which is that of a baby capybara with a yellow hat that can be seen worn by elementary schoolers in Japan, holding strawberry milk because why not? I somehow started leaning onto the comfy side of streaming which leaked into the energy of my live chat, resulting into a chill space where I either draw or talk. In the end, it somehow meshed well with my usually listless voice.

▪ ▪ ▪

"Hey, Nagi?"

"Hey, it's been a while. What's up, Yuuga?"

"Are you guys busy? I heard from Yuka Kei that they're building a house nearby?"

"You're close with Gin's brother?"

"Hm? Didn't Gin tell you he and his wife are living in our apartment?"

"Oh, yeah, he didn't. So… is something up?"

"There's someone I want you two to meet. Can you come to our apartment?"

"Uh… sure? I have tentative streams on the weekend so I can cancel just fine. You'll probably have to message Gin in our group if he's up for it."

"Alright, thanks for confirming. If you ever come, go with an empty stomach!"

"O-Okay…?"

‹Nagi›

As much as possible, I prefer to separate work from personal life, but that just isn't the case when I am living under a trustworthy roof as I know that I can open to. While a series of coincidences had led us to a single point, I've put a wall between our friendship and our online connection. The same could be said to my classmates who just happened to be my co-workers where the extent of our conversations would be limited to expressing our woes to how busy work can get, when we meet up in person.

Similarly, I have made an effort to remain as an English-speaking member of Taiyou. I have never revealed any semblance of being an Orion; only that I'm vaguely somewhere in the far east as it was difficult to hide that I am an hour behind Japan's time, and that I announced having gone to that country. Heck, I don't even talk about what that season is.

From time to time, I would be egosearching just to see if there are any indications that something more personal has leaked, and so far, I haven't found any. In the end, I don't have any "past life" to look for.

Still, I couldn't help but feel a little anxious. While my worries frankly might be baseless, I asked Gin if he could inquire through his brother. From what I can recall, Yuuga's family is in the process of expanding their apartment business, but currently, they only have six units. Five of which are occupied, where Yuuga's girlfriend, Yuka Kei and his wife, lives at while Yuuga also uses a room

We had to ask a bit of a sketchy favor to Gin's brother unbeknownst to Yuuga if we could know who are the other tenants, but he obviously could not divulge such information as it was stated in the apartment rules to not say anything about fellow tenants to external or unknown parties.

In the hopes that it won't be anything of concern, I still put on a mask, glasses, and a cap on the way to their sector on the day we agreed to.

"I think you're being too worried."

"You're the last person I wanted to hear those very words. Can't believe you're saying that after all the hell you've gone through, Gin."

"If I am cautious 24/7, then I would've been seclusive since a few years back without trusting anyone.

I say that, but I'm ready if anyone was to jump on us suddenly. I just wish clenching my muscles would make me impervious to knife stabs, at least."

"I was just talking about keeping private as much as possible and not getting recognized. How did we suddenly talk about getting assaulted in the middle of the day?"

With the fear of Gin making the conversation any further grimmer, I sped up my pace and saw Yuuga waving by the street under an umbrella.

Many things have changed since the last time I was here. Behind the apartment building is a larger one being in the middle of getting constructed. A rest area under the shade of a roof had also been built, and it was very much noticeable to find a vending machine on the lot.

I then took a seat on the shade putting a bottle of ice-cold water on my forehead as I was reminded how much I hated the heat, while Gin stopped by at the third room of the second floor where his brother and sister-in-law live at.

While giving Yuuga a short gaze from the distance as if he's doing something, the middle door of the apartment building's first floor loudly opened with Minase, Yuuga's partner running at him with a wide smile while showing her hands right at his face. In contrast to the sudden ruckus, another person came out of the room.

As though almost instinctively, I then lowered my cap further.

Gracefully walking under the sun, the woman's brown hair that was highlighted with a bleach blonde around its ends danced free flowing with the warm summer wind. In the midst of the almost blinding brightness, I caught of a glimpse of a unique countenance.

I immediately looked away to my phone before I got drawn in by those blue eyes housed on a visage resembling an oriental one.

"Hey! No sliding down the stair rails, dammit!" Yuuga's shriek then resounded upon seeing Gin momentarily sat on the railings having skipped the steps of the stairs.

"I always tell you it's faster that way and no way they are going to break from my weight. I could've jumped from the second floor to here if I really wanted to."

It has been so long that I forgot that even Yuuga is privy to the fact of Gin's physical abilities upon seeing it firsthand in high school. Sliding down a staircase appears closer to normalcy when compared to the insane stunts he had done in the past, but one minor problem is that he has been heard by a stranger, all the while Minase can probably get a pass.

Somewhat dumbfounded by the words, the lady's eyebrows rose a smidge and stared at Yuuga emptily.

"Sorry, that guy makes a lot of wild jokes, Ie-san," he then replied to the gaze before looking back and waving to where I am.

"Naaaaagi! We're going up to your office."

…

"Woah, now. What in the world happened to your room, sensei?"

Granted, I'm not one to frequently visit Yuuga's places, but even from what I remember, his apartment room had changed so much. Somehow it became a lot more utilitarian and resembled more of an office—as he just said—than a house.

The kitchen was barer, the fridge got smaller, and there was now a somewhat saddening lack of a dining table as I can remember how small it was and now it's also gone. Thus, there is now a lot more space but his living room now houses all of his equipment from the computer, printers and a fax machine. Yes, Yuuga still has a fax machine.

Apart from that, it looks like the lounge space had gotten bigger and more accommodating. Still, I'm pretty sure that someone would be exclaiming "You live like this?" seeing the change in his room's layout.

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

"Did you move back to your parents' house or something?" asked Gin as it seems we were thinking the same thing.

"Well, you could say that this has turned to just an office and my bedroom…?"

Hearing that, Gin then silently examined the kitchen unprompted. From that, though, even I could see concrete evidences that the room is a lot less livable. Maybe it's because I've been living at a house with a pantry akin to a paradise that the incredible amount of bare space in his cupboards could probably get two Saiyans fighting there.

Upon a pause, Gin looked back and pointed his thumb at the room's kitchen side.

"Might as well make a hole in your wall and put a door here for easy access."

"No, no. Maybe waaay more to the right closer to the bathroom. That's her room, you know."

Realizing that Gin had vaguely pointed out something again that my brain needs to be spoon-fed, I just sat on the couch while listening to the two somehow thinking about smashing a hole inside the room.

"You guys finally done? Care to finally fill me in?"

"Huh, no. I actually still don't know what exactly is going on. I just kept guessing," Gin tepidly responded.

"Your mind really works in different ways…" Yuuga sighed as he joined me on the couch. "I'm pretty much just living next door with Mina."

"Good for her. She doesn't have to pay rent anymore."

After being reminded of the couple he sees everyday in the place he's living at, that's the best that I could say.

"Well, half of the original rent."

"For now?"

"I wish I have the confidence you have after getting engaged."

A ring from Yuuga's phone then interrupted the conversation and he prompted to step out.

"Mind helping me out, you two?"

A large delivery of food suddenly arrived at the apartment complex needing three people to carry them all back into the room. With Minase's entry, she started preparing the coffee table while Yuuga went out to bring food to his parents' house and to the other tenants.

But all of a sudden, the lady from the first floor entered the room upon Minase's welcome after a knock, now dressed less of "I'm going out" but more casual than a loungewear that could probably still work outdoors. At an initial glance it would seem that the two ladies are on friendly terms.

She suddenly shot us somewhat of a surprised look and tensely turned to Minase if there is anything she can help with.

"I honestly don't know what's going on," I then whispered to Gin. "You?"

"Nope… and I'm going to level with you, I'm just thinking about the food right now.

By the way, who's she?"

"How are you so aware of your surroundings and not at the same time? She was outside earlier, you know—a tenant on the first floor."

"I don't look at stranger's faces unless they're suspicious, you know that."

Then our conversation was cut by Yuuga coming back, "Ah, you're here already, Mina, Ie-san. You could've sat down with them."

"I-I'll help Min for a bit."

"Okay. Gin, Nagi, the room below shouted a beer crate when I gave them the food. You guys up for it today?"

"Sure, sure."

With any and all prep done, the two ladies joined us on the table as we moved to the floor chairs that were apparently imported from Japan, and their backrests somehow felt better than the couch. Nonetheless, it was still a bit early but the clinks of the bottle caps dropping on the floor sounded and we bumped glasses to start off this get-together. (Minase has non-alcoholic seltzer.)

And amidst the sheepish and tense look from the still unnamed woman, Yuuga finally introduced her.

"By the way, this is Rio. She's renting a room downstairs and she's the one I wanted you guys to meet. We call her Ie or Ie-san as per her request."

"Nice to meet you."

"I'm Nagi and this is Gin. Nice to meet you too, Ie-san. I take it… you're from the North?"

"Kind… of. I was raised in England then I moved to Japan for university. I originally started living here because of work."

Then out of the blue, Minase tapped Ie-san's shoulder perhaps noticing the awkward air floating around her, "If you're just going to get shy, maybe we should just be out with it?"

"Uh, can you give me a minute, Min?"

"Sounds like Minase's name is getting shorter and shorter. You call her Mina, right Yuuga?"

I don't exactly know if it's the right call but I tried to lighten up the mood as it seems like something's up with the way Minase just asked. While I can't read the room as well as Gin, he doesn't really do it socially but that's the best I could do at the moment.

Besides, while Ie-san might be feeling shy, she doesn't appear to not want any of this. If anything, the mood probably shifted when she saw us, so maybe… it's on us?

Is this the part where I say women can be an enigma sometimes?

"Hahh… your one minute will be two, three, five if you're left alone, Eia… and you already agreed to meet them."

All of a sudden, Minase called her with a different name.

Nevertheless, I had to do a double take. I've heard the name before; well, even uttered it multiple times. It's just that "Eia" and "Ie" sounds kind of close, so my first thought was that it was just a twist of the tongue.

Once again, Ie-san sheepishly chuckled… and her tone of voice changed to a higher one as her words shook.

"W-Well… I've always wanted to meet you two… after collabing a few times…"

Gin shuddered so hard that his chair almost fell backwards and caught himself with only her fingertips as if nothing happened.

"No way, Yuuga… You're cheating right in front of Minase?"

I know Gin's not that stupid, but he made it sound incredibly dumb to ask something like that with a straight face.

"Pff… I didn't expect your voice to be that low, Capysan… Of course you'd make an out of left field joke."

It wasn't even funny, and yet Ie-san was chuckling to herself and reverted to her normal voice.

It was as if someone we met for the first time somehow knows about Gin and his antics, like they had known him for a while. Nevertheless, our questions have been answered, but it didn't mean we're exempt to the shock that came with the abrupt reveal.

I can't believe that I'm drinking in the same table as the person who I've only ever talked to online many times, and besides that, a fellow vtuber to boot.

Beside me, Gin suddenly raised his glass, hit mine with his, and downed them at once. Thankfully, it was only a light cider.

"Haaaahh… What a way to meet in person for the first time, huh? Not nervous anymore, Eia?"

"Now you look like you're the one tensed, Michelo."

Ahh, now this feels at home. Suddenly, it felt like the food will go down much easier.

"So Minase also knows about your job, Eia?"

"It was supposed to be a thing kept between me and Sensei, but Min's intuition was scary."

"More like I knew that the person at 102 is a woman and Yuu keeps meeting her," Minase understandably grumbled.

"Yeah, that's totally on you, Yuuga."

"I know already…"

"Isn't it hard to be constantly traveling especially when you have 3D recordings or the expo, then?"

"Hmm, I guess I kind of like it here…? Maybe I just prefer the culture here a tiiiiny bit, but you really can't beat how good transportation is in Japan."

"Oh, I experienced it firsthand in March. I don't see this country catching up anytime soon. That said, you've been in Yololive for almost three years and I would've never guessed you're in Orio.

Man, it feels weird hearing you speak in our language, and you've gotten really fluent."

"I could say the same to you, Michelo. But it's really nice to finally meet you and Capysan."

"Same here," is the only thing Gin said as he chomped on a fried chicken.

"He's very different online and in person, see. He's not very wordy when talking with people outside those he's very close with, but I guess he found out he can be unhinged when he's streaming."

"Can you not call me out?"

"By the way, he used to work as my assistant from time to time."

"Wait, really? How did you guys meet?"

"We were classmates in high school. Then Gin found out I was Yuki. Really, we're so close yet so far to Japan, so who'd expect they will meet someone that speaks the language?"

"And that's also on you, Yuuga."

"Shut up."

"Now I see where the dynamic came from."

"Dynamic?"

"Well, one time the topic came about with my chat after we've all collabed a few times. They always told me how well we meshed together."

"Great to see nothing changed in person, then. The only difference is that we're seeing each other's faces. Still, it's surprising how we hit it off quickly.

Still though, did us collabing with you cause issues on your end?" Gin posed an interesting question.

"It… wasn't really as bad. My chat understands now that this is the direction I want to take my activities to, and those who don't like it probably already left or are waiting to find some dirt to weaponize against me."

"No way you didn't get red donations making some passive aggressive comments?"

"I guess I did, but thankfully I quickly learned how to pick what I read. In the end, I'll do what I want with the streams I want to do with the people I want to play with."

I won't get to the specifics, but Eia's company has a very, very small subset of fans that are a vocal minority. They are by no means representative of the company's activities per se, so it's great to hear that she is standing her ground.

"I'm glad that you two didn't get harassed because of that."

"Well, my chat is very small so I'd see immediately if there's any. It makes it easy to moderate."

"In my case, I think my manager just has fast fingers and he'll just say they were from trolls or antis. Don't worry, we know what we're getting into. Well, Gin here had a period where he was a bum so he knows the ways in some sites; even the unhinged ones."

"You know, you could have omitted that last part. While it's true, I hope that doesn't change your view of me."

"Not really," somehow, Eia's laugh just then sounded somewhat bitter. "I'm probably the same before my current work."

Her words flowed out as she opened a new bottle, filled her glass, and downed it with a slam putting the glass down.

With an incredibly furious frown in her eyebrows, she asked, "This is off the record, right?" to which we all nodded to.

"It's good and all now, but damn did my first company royally screwed me over."

Countless curses left her tongue that the author would have to filter them out. If this was happening live on a stream, the amount of swears would probably land her a warning or perhaps a disciplinary action from her management. Not even the many voice calls we've had with her work account outside streaming had shown this immature side of her as the pent up frustration had built up within.

Perhaps at this moment, this has turned into just a drinking party more than anything.

But her unprompted story is as follows:

Having grown up in England and born with part Japanese blood, she was not aware of the undesirable sides of Japan until she came across a YouCuber living in Japan formerly based in Sendai who also happened to be from the same country she grew up in. After finishing high school, she entered a Fine Arts college in UK but she chose to drop out as it ultimately conflicted with her vision. At that time, she had already become almost native in Japanese and then decided that she would study at a university in Japan on a different field.

And after obtaining her diploma, she had come to see the full reality check that, if not in all, the working conditions in Japan are not something she would comfortably adapt to. Thus, she initially thought to come back to UK to apply for a job, but a much better job offer had stumbled upon her in a neighboring country.

It was a rather big company in the Capital here in Orio where she successfully landed a job, but it just so happened that at her fourth month at work, the leadership changed as the company was acquired… all for her to be laid off after a total of ten months coming from a comfortable workplace devolving to a hellish environment similar to black company. The next month, the company filed bankruptcy.

For the next 11 months, job hunting had become incredibly difficult due to what was in her resume, as in a lot of cases, applying for a job in Orio can have some misaligned requirements. So, she made do with part time jobs while also doing commissions on Skheb and admittedly became a couch potato watching vtubers in the middle of applying for jobs. Unfortunately, none of the applications came through and out of desperation, she auditioned for Yololive and she was accepted in her first try. With that, she moved to this sector.

Such is the villain origin story of Midoriki Treya, and no, I don't think she's drunk yet. She's just really pissed off that she could have flipped the table, I think.

Suddenly, I feel sorry for her fans if they saw this extremely "unseiso" side of her.

"Now that I finally let out three f***ing years of pain and suffering, let's eat more!" she cheered as if she is not currently out of breath.

"Just so you know, I shouted this," Yuuga blankly reminded.

It indeed felt weird. It was our first time meeting her in person, but if I were to close my eyes, it was just like we were talking to the same Eia that we know.

"Still… I didn't know that you guys are still at uni. Well, not like it's uncommon for streamers but it's weird that I'm somehow the eldest here."

"My opinion is that the platform we met on mostly transcends age because we keep a bit of anonymity. I'm already working full-time, though since I didn't go to college.

If I knew it was Eia I would've whipped up something to eat rather than Yuuga ordering a boatload of food."

"I'm guessing you work at a restaurant, Capysan?"

"Since 17. I kind of paused high school so I'm not that far your age, or are you going to say you're also forever 17?"

"Stop that, she might be in her 30's but you'll make my senpai cry. Wait, you really know your stuff, huh?"

"I never imagined I'm talking to the kouhai of my purple oshi, okay? I'm still keeping up, but time zones suck."

"Now that you mention, you have the same vibe as your oshi when you stream solo."

"He's always been chill ever since high school," I commented.

"So you guys have been friends since that long?"

"Also from the same club. Aside from Gin and another two of us, I suppose we've been in the side of multimedia, though."

"That's right… I was really impressed when you showed that short film in your debut! It's not something done frequently in our space so it was really unexpected. How did you get a robot arm, though?"

"I didn't."

"Eh? How in the world did you film those dynamic scenes then?"

"That's a secret."

"Still, though. I have so much ideas but most of them I don't even send to management because of restrictions. I'm kind of envious with how lax Taiyou is with showing a bit of your IRL self with your account."

"They don't really fuss over a talent's other personas, right?"

"I don't have one, though. I came in this totally on my own. It's a miracle I got accepted at my first try.

But speaking of projects… I have some stuff in the burner and I'm wondering if you three can take part on them?"

"As long as it's not a song, I think I'm down," Gin flatly answered.

As for me…

"If it's within the next few months, I think I can."

"I'll see what I can do. It'll get hard with overlap when you also have things cooking later this year."

"Uhh, I guess I should just say it straight, but I have plans of retiring this year."

What used to be something that's just between the agency and then Gin, I have finally said out loud. To no surprise, Eia and Yuuga did not take the declaration smoothly. I trust that what's talked about in this room will not leave this room.

"You mean… you're graduating?"

"Don't get me wrong, though. It's not like I was burnt out or anything. It's just that I wasn't supposed to be a vtuber, but here I am and I'm enjoying it. The worst that probably happened to me is severe impostor syndrome, but if I really graduate, then it will be on extreme good terms."

"I-I see…"

This is assuming that Eia also was a fan, but even as a member, she is not exempt to the pain of someone's departure. If anything, it makes it more painful for her, as those who she only used to talk with using the chat box, she was now talking and playing with, with that limitation gone. Over the nearly three years of her streaming, she had seen off friends as they retire.

On the other hand, a part of me feels somewhat happy that the sadness in her face is proof that I left a trace in the place I thought I wouldn't fit in well.

"Hey now. It's not like I'm dying. Well, Michelo might be sunsetting but I'm probably not going to erase myself in the face of the internet. I think there are a lot of ways to work at the industry without being behind the avatar.

I'm still thinking about whether I should reincarnate to a different persona where I can be at my own pace completely. But school-wise, I'm graduating earlier than being a vtuber so I'll put my foot down on it once things calm down."

"Man, you better show up at my stream at some point then…!" seemingly at the cusp of being drunk, Eia exclaimed after slamming the glass to the table she just downed.

As if ready for it, Minase already got a glass of water nearby, implying that this has happened before.

"Ahhh… now I feel lonely… Sensei's a no-go because he already has Minmin…

Capysan, maybe-"

"My fiancee will chase both of us with a knife."

Somehow, it felt like she immediately sobered up hearing that. And then she looked at me.

"I'm also taken, ahahahaha."

Her head sunk so low to the table that you could almost physically feel the despair around her.

"Any lovey-dovey stories you two might want to share then~?"

Now her mood suddenly feels undecipherable with how she jumps from being depressed to pulling out a smirk so curious to hear about others' love lives.

"You look like you'll be the type of drunk that will cry if I say anything further, so no."

"Then maybe you can ask his brother about that, Ie-san."

"Huh, do I know his brother?"

"They're the couple that moved in last year."

"You mean to say Capysan is in-laws with that drop-dead gorgeous Shiina?!"

"Now you sound like you're about to steal my sister-in-law from Kei. But I'd rather if you don't ask them anything. I've had a really embarrassing past, hahaha."

"Makes me want to know more, then. And I just glossed over it, but congrats on your engagement, Capysan."

"Thank you, thank you."

"By the way, Eia, I don't think I've ever said anything about it to you, but we were actually there in person when you performed in the concert. You really wiped the floor, hahaha."

Suddenly, for some reason, her face flushed red. Of all the things she would be embarrassed about, I didn't expect that to be it as she's very spoken about how well she has been doing with her idol activities.

"It feels strange hearing that face to face from friends outside the company…" she mumbled, covering her face with the blonde end of her hair.

"I was so taken aback by how amazing the performance was as a whole and thought about the entire story from the very start to there that I disappeared from the internet because of how I felt bad and didn't deserve where I am now since I'm fairly new to this. Then Yuuga introduced me to you and we got to collab a few times. I really got myself to get a grip knowing how much of a gremlin you are."

"Hey now…! I'm not that insane in real life…"

"I'm not going to ask about the specifics of your company's 3D tech but…" Gin said, as visible veins appeared on his head, suppressing the tech nerd in him, "But it's just so amazing that 3D motion capture has gotten so good in just a few years in this industry."

"I wish I could give you guys a tour in our studio.

…

It's sad to see you go, though. Michelo."

"Her mood changes a lot when she's drunk," Minase then whispered to us.

"…"

It's only been a short few months since all of us got together as some kind of a group, but those words made it feel like something between the four of us clicked. Outside the friendship I've made within the company I'm at, the thing that we have now somehow makes me waver with my decision deep within.

"You know… if your company allows it, I could probably show up from time to time with all of you, although I'm probably going to be available less if I land myself a job.

While it's frankly by accident that I became a vtuber, I enjoyed the experience so I might as well leave behind a trail."

"You better doooooo…!" Eia suddenly exclaimed as it seems like she's starting to tread between the edges of being awake and falling asleep.

"For the record, we've also never seen her this wasted," Yuuga commented.

"You just don't encounter friends that can understand a lot of your circumstances on the daily… y'know that…?"

"Oh, she's still awake."

Thus, Minase stood, "I guess I'll take her back to her place."

"Nyooooo… **I want to be here til the end-doya…"

"That's something I haven't heard in a long time."

"Wasn't that her gimmick early on?"

"She gave up on it already, though. If she remembers this tomorrow she'll be dying of cringe."

"See, she's still quite the gremlin."

"But it really feels like yesterday when we graduated high school, and here we are drinking our hearts out now that we're all about to graduate."

"Why are you suddenly getting sentimental, Yuuga…?"

"I guess that girl's mood is rubbing off on me suddenly."

"Hard to say I relate a lot but I'm living the experience vicariously through Rin. Heck, her passive stream of stuff she learned is even getting to me over these years. You sure had things tough in your own ways."

"Tell me about it. At least now all I have to think about is slowly transitioning from manga work and getting a job while looking after our business."

"Ahh… adulting…" Minase grumbled.

"Aren't you guys planning on moving to Japan, though?"

"That's not set in stone yet. There are so much things to think about with that.

What's the plan with Mr. Groom-to-be, then?"

"Some stuff are set in stone, but there's so much things to think about with that."

"Why'd you have to say it word for word… Things just never changed with you, huh?"

"Nah, I guess some stuff changed? I think we still have a lot of time in the night so let's exchange stories while waiting if Eia will wake up, yeah?"

"And I think I ordered a little too much food."

"That's not a problem," to no one's surprised, Gin let out with a smirk.