Ch.21 About Kusunoki Momiji

"ーWhat's the reason you're singing for?"

Those were the last words her teacher at the training school said to her.

In a dimly lit room.

The girl turned over in her sleep to escape the sunlight filtering in through the gap in the curtains, then slowly picked up her smartphone.

As she pulls the covers over herself and blinking her heavy eyelids, she runs her fingers across the screen.

She opened the streaming site app and opened the channel she has been watching almost every day recently.

It's a Vtuber that is currently a hot topic.

She has a 3D avatar that's just as complete as those in the anime, and to match that avatar ー No.

Even more than that ー an idol who captivated over a million viewers overnight with an exceptional performance.

 ーAlpheria Linker.

She was also the girl's junior.

The girl is watching Alpheria's first live stream.

The girl continued to watch it, a scene she had already watched dozens of times, without any sign of getting bored.

In those eyes dwells envy, admiration and jealousy.

Even though the girl was particularly knowledgeable about singing, had a crystal clear, beautiful voice and the expressiveness it contained, It's still impossible to contain the dark emotions Inside her.

"Even, I..."

Her fingers tighten as she hold the smartphone.

surely there are many fans who, like the girl, have watched it over and over again.

It has already garnered hundreds of millions of views and is still showing incredible growth.

But what about the girl?

Gritting her teeth, she switches to her own channel.

There were many cover songs posted there.

The live streams mainly consist of singing, with occasional gaming stream and casual chats.

The girl was what they call a "good singer."

This is recognized by her own fans, as well as by fans of the group and others.

Of course, she herself believes so too.

But what are the results?

The songs she submitted haven't shown as much growth as she'd hoped, and are stagnating around the middle.

The girl felt intense anger at the fact that songs posted in a casual manner by live streamers who were clearly less skilled than her were getting more views than her own.

She knows. Live streamers make a living off their popularity.

The number of fans directly translates into results.

But if that's the case, then how can a live streamer with the same number of fans as me be getting more views for their songs than me?

Even though I'm better at it.

I'm definitely better at it...!

"You don't know anything at all...!"

ーI know she's good at it, but there's something missing.

ーHmm. I don't really get it, but it feels like something is missing?

 ーI can't put it into words, but it's a shame

Comments such as "Just one more step" left about her songs shatter the girl's dignity.

What is missing? What is a shame?

An amateur who pretends to be a critic and is enthusiastic about the songs of people who are worse than me!

She was frustrated. She was so frustrated she couldn't help it.

In the end, it's the same as back then.

Even if the girl changes location, her position does not change.

Just like back then, those inferior to me are walking ahead of me.

Why does such an unreasonableness go ahead?

Only those with talent should be recognised.

As if to further corner the girl, a new problem emerges.

There was a plan to remodel one of the girls' genmate, led by the aforementioned Alpheria.

Even though it's called "remodel," it's more like creating a foundation for her to be able to sing.

Let's be honest.

The songs sung by her genmate was unbearable to listen to.

It's not that she's tone-deaf in a way that is laughable, but rather that she simply can't produce a voice.

She probably feels embarrassed and don't even know how to open her throat.

It was clear that she was not used to singing at all.

Nevertheless,

ーSaku-tan is so cute when she tries so hard to be able to sing.

ーHang in there~!

ーIt really touches my heart.

The comments section was overwhelmingly positive.

That is even more than hers.

Why. Why.

I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.

So the girl took out a five yen coin with a string attached.

Uhh, seriously?

The girl grabs the string and swings the five yen coin back and forth.

"I am slowly turning into Kusunoki Momiji. Kusunoki Momiji, Kusunoki Momiji, Kusunoki Momiji."

The girl begins to doze off.

The girl knew that her personality would definitely not be well received.

She always struggled to build relationships, so there's no point in trying to fix things now.

So when the girl thought about becoming a Vtuber, she thought this.

"That's right. All I have to do is hypnotize myself. Ha, I'm a bit of a genius after all. If I get serious, Fernmar's Last Theorem is a piece of cake."

On a side note, the girl was always barely passing in all five subjects. Who is Fernmar?

And the girl had a really poor resistance to hypnosis.

If the hypnotic uncle that Alpheria is wary of actually exists, she would be the first to fall prey. Her existence is only a tutorial.

By the way, her childhood friend, who is also her genmate, cried when she heard this.

She knows she should just fix it. If she could do that, she wouldn't have this trouble. but since she was the one who invited her friend to become a Vtuber, she couldn't say anything harsh.

Thus, the girl was hypnotized within ten seconds and acted on impulse.

She jumped into Alpheria's livestream and made the following comment to her as she was selecting the punishment game.

ーHave a 10 games showdown with me!

Furthermore, when the hypnosis was released, the girl held her head and wondered, "Why did I do that?"

But the girl considered herself extremely, extremely, extremely intelligent and believed that she would never act impulsively, so the answer never came.

◇◆◇

It's time for dinner and I head to the living room.

Apparently I was the last one there today.

When I sat down next to Sakura as usual, Sakura jumped and stepped back.

"What's wrong?"

"What do you mean?! After what you've done to me!"

I grin as Sakura screams, her face red, protecting her ear that had been gently bitten.

"Hmm? Perhaps you want me to do it again?"

"mmm! "

As Sakura shrieks, I crawl up to her on all fours and whisper to her in a sweet voice.

"Sure. I'll do it anytime if it's for Sakura."

"Stop it!"

"Ouch."

Mitsuki hit me on the head with a smack.

"Really, you went too far. Please stop twisting my daughter's sexual preferences."

"I- it's never twisted to begin with!"

"Oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Sakura's reaction was so innocent and cute that I couldn't resist."

"I… I’m not innocent at all! If anything, I only have experience!"

"You'd better be careful. It's already hopeless for you to be a wife."

"Listen to me!"

Lol.

After such a lively meal, we took a break.

After all, the taste of home is the best.

Right now, everyone is watching TV together in a peaceful atmosphere.

Until recently, it was my routine to go back to my room straight after eating, but because I was working too much, I decided to relax this time.

"Hey, Sakura."

"Huh... what?"

Perhaps because of our previous interaction, she seemed a little wary.

"I won't do it again, so don't be so cautious. I just have something I want to ask you."

"What do you want to ask?"

"Yeah. Ah, and if possible, Mitsuki too."

Mitsuki, who was slowly sipping her tea, glanced my way.

"There's a live streamer called Kusunoki Momiji who is in the same generation as Sakura, right? I'm going to collaborate with her, but I wonder what kind of person she is."

 ーKusunoki Momiji.

As her name suggests, she is an autumn-themed live streamer, and like Ouka, she is a blonde loli half-beast with animal ears and a tail.

In fact, all of Ouka's genmates - Aki, Natsu, Spring, and Winter - are beastwomen.

In preparation for my collab with her, I've been looking through various clips to try to get a better understanding of her personality, but in the end, the best way to find out about this kind of thing is to ask people who are close to her.

ーThat's what I thought, but those two have rather strange reactions.

"Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..."

That's too long.

After thinking about it for a while, Sakura blurted out,

“……Split personality?”

"Real?"

this should be the place where i reply with "is that true?", but my background is much weirder than that.

"I, I don't know"

Sakura said with a lack of confidence.

"Which one is it?"

"Well, in my case, Our interaction when she's not wearing a mask is completely different from the feeling I get when i talk to Momiji."

"That's not particularly unusual, is it? They're VTubers. There are plenty of VTubers who do roleplaying, right?"

"That's true, but... well, um... Okaa-san!"

 "Help!" Sakura asked Mitsuki.

 Mitsuki sighed at the sight of her daughter.

"...That's true. I met her during the interview, not only did we interact when she's mask-off, but we've also collaborated on a project. It certainly did seem like she had two sides to her, but you could also say she was thoroughly role-playing."

"Hmm, thorough."

"That's right. As long as she's performing as Kusunoki Momiji, she acted like that no matter if it's on or off stream."

"Hmm, so she's completely immersed in it?"

Rather than switching the switch during the stream, it feels like the switch is flipped the moment she becomes Kusunoki Momiji.

"I think that's a good understanding."

Nod nod nod! Sakura nodded her head.

"Well, regardless of her true personality, she is a kind person when she is Momiji."

"...And when she's mask-off?"

Sakura looked away and said, looking uneasy.

"...Scary."

"What's the point in being scared of your genmate?"

"No, no! Even though we're in the same gen, she's older then me!"

"Oh, now that you mention it, that's true."

Just because they debuted at the same time doesn't mean they're the same age.

"To put it in a way that would be easy for Nii-san to understand, that girl when mask-off is like Aniki. Though I feel like that's a bit of an exaggeration."

"I understand what you mean now."

The hurdle is suddenly being lowered.

"...Really, I really respect that about you, Nii-san."

"That's not how you should evaluate your siblings lol"

I laughed when Shin-nii is getting beaten up for no reason.

"It's Aniki you know? He's difficult and has an elitist mindset. If he wasn't family, he's the type of person you definitely wouldn't want to get involved with."

"(Nod nod nod nod nod nod!!!!!!)"

It looks like her neck is going to snap.

Well, it seems like he's the type of person Sakura wouldn't get along with very well.

"That type of person is also hard on themselves, so they easily accumulate stress. So the right thing to do is to flatter them a little and then wait for an opportunity to take advantage of their weaknesses."

"As i thought, you're a wicked woman!"

"Nii-san, I think you understand..."

"It's okay, it's okay. I don't intend to do anything brutal to a live streamer."

...As long as they don't act cocky.

I've had enough of people using seniority as an excuse to harass me out of pure jealousy.

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