Ch.41 Concert Main Event : "Futaba Ouka's 1st LIVE" ②
The song goes from the chorus to the outro.
The lively background music gradually quiets down, then stopped completely.
A loud cheer erupted.
A swinging penlight.
After giving a small round of applause to Sakura, who was standing there as if in a dream, I turned on the lights in the venue and came onto the stage from the back.
Cheers erupted again at my appearance.
I waved back at them with a smile and stood next to Sakura.
"Yes, everyone, thank you for coming to see Ouka's first concert today! Did you guys enjoy it?"
I ask, raising my voice.
The cheers and penlights spoke louder than words.
"Yes, yes, that's great. I wonder if everyone watching the stream is also enjoying it?"
Because this venue is a VR space, it boasts an insane capacity of hundreds of thousands.
However, not everyone who wanted to participate was able to.
After all, all you need is a VR machine.
You don't have to worry about traffic at all.
If people can easily participate from not only rural areas but also overseas, you can imagine the number of applicants.
We had to eliminate quite a few people from the lottery.
There was an idea to provide separate seating for each server, but we thought that would be dishonest.
The performers can only see one server.
Those assigned to other servers may not hear the cheers of others and may feel as if others are watching them but not really watching them.
After taking this into consideration, having multiple servers was no longer an option.
Another reason was that some people simply don't have a VR machine.
It's expensive.
In VRMMO light novels, even high school students have them as a matter of course, but they cost more than a high-end computer, you know?
How many parents are there who would hand over hundreds of thousands of yen when their child says, "I want to play this game! Full Dive!"
That's why, like normal Vtubers, this concert is also being streamed on a streaming site.
The comments section was on the monitor behind me, and it was flooded with comments echoing what I was saying.
"I'm glad to hear that you're having fun too. You may already know, but I'll introduce myself anyway. I'm Alpheria Linker. I'll be the MC for this concert. As you can probably tell, it's quite a high hurdle to get Ouka to act as the MC."
Or rather, she needs to come back soon so I shook Ouka's shoulders.
"Ha!... Ah, Aria? What's wrong?"
"What's wrong? Have you forgotten when you threw the MC at me with such force that you nearly bowed down on the ground?"
"Emcy?"
"...Ma'am, have you even forgotten where we are right now?"
"Where?" Ouka tilted her head innocently and looked around.
"Fugyaa!!!?!"
She was shocked by the hundreds of thousands of gazes on her.
She tumbled over and fell.
"Fugyu?!"
Her head slammed into the monitor behind her with such force.
Comical stars fly.
The audience burst into laughter at his absurd antics.
It seems like she has completely lost her memory.
"What on earth are you doing?"
I reach out to Ouka, who is crying from all the fuss, and helps her up.
"B-but, there are so many people...!"
"Well, it's a concert. People will come."
"Concert?"
"Have you lost your memory that much?"
However, as her memories gradually began to return, Ouka suddenly became flustered, crying out, "Oh no!"
"Do you remember now?"
"I... remember...!"
"Shouldn't I be the one to use that meme since i got reincarnated twice and all???"
(From the beginning) I think... I remember...!
I remember those soap blocks.
You don't need soap~!
No, you need soap. The soap is right there!
"So, what do you think about your first concert?"
"C-can I go home?"
Snap.
"I've shaid nothing!"
"Sigh. So, is there anything else?"
"Eto eto... Umm, I was daydreaming the whole tume i was singing, so I don't really know."
"So how do you feel now?"
"Uh, I feel so fluffy and uneasy... What should I say in a situation like this?"
"First of all, how about thanking everyone who came to see the show?"
As I said that, Ouka had her eyes fixed on me and didn't move an inch.
If this continued, she wouldn't even be able to speak properly.
I have no choice. Should I help her a bit?
"For now, repeat what I'm about to say."
"Uh, okay."
"Before that, let's look at everyone properly."
I moved behind her and forced her to face forward.
"Hin"
"Here we go."
I take a deep breath,
"Everyone!"
"E-everyone~!"
"Thank you!"
"Thank you!"
"For coming!"
"For coming!"
"Today!"
"T-today!"
Cheers rose up and penlights were waved around.
"As a thank you!"
"A-as a thank you!"
"I, Ouka!"
"I, Ouka!"
"Will be taking it off!"
"Will be taking it off! …………. ………!? Wait what the...?!"
"Lol"
Ouka's eyes rolled around as she squeezed my shoulders.
More excited cheers erupted, and Ouka, her face bright red, roared, "AS IF I WOUUUULD!"
"Enough! Enough! Aria you idiot! A beast! A sadist!"
"But deep down you don't seem to hate it."
"Wrong wrong wring! Absolutely wrong!"
"Disappointing"
"Whyyyy?!"
"Even though it's about me!" Ouka lamented, to which I gave her a small smile.
"Well, calm down."
"W-Who's fault is this...?!"
"But thanks to that, it helped you ease some of the tension, right?"
"Fuguu."
"Say it again in your own words."
I gently pushed her back, and although she was a bit flustered, she managed to grab the microphone again.
"Eto, eto eto, thank you for coming today."
She bowed deeply.
"Eto eto. S-speaking in front of this many people is a tough game, so I-it would be appreciated if you could be a little lenient."
A deep bow. That's a lot of bows.
"The first song has finished, um, so, how did it go? Ah, no! You don't have to say it after all! Please zip your mouth!"
I pulled out a sign out of nowhere.
I held it up behind her so everyone except Ouka could see it, with the words "Say it!" written on it, and winked.
Comments like, "You were great!", "You really worked hard!", "Sakutan is the best!", and "That made me cry!" were heard from all over the room.
"I told you to zip your mouth!"
Ouka turned around in surprise, but by that time I had put the sign away and was standing there as if nothing had happened.
"Wha- did you do something?"
"What do you mean? What time, where, at what hours and minute, and how many times has the Earth rotated?"
"The most annoying response ever!"
I gesture for Oula, who is giving me a blank look, to face forward.
Ouka reluctantly turned around and after a few seconds,
"Eti, if it you guys are happy, then I'm glad, I guess..."
She let out a genuine smile.
Looking happy. Looking ticklish. Looking embarrassed.
I guess this shot straight through the heart of the Yotsuba group.
"I'm going to sing a few more songs, so please look forward to it."
After a hesitant bow, she turned around as if to ask, "How is it?"
"Yeah, well done. At the very least, you're far better than me, who punched the audience at my first concert."
"You did that?!"
Because he acted like a know-it-all and lectured me in a condescending manner.
Neither Kaguya-senpai nor Risha stopped him.
Now that I think about it, they were pretty prickly back then. Every single one of us was such a problem child.
"Well then, it's time to start the next song, so I'll step back."
"Ah. Uh, yes."
"Do you remember the setlist?"
"Eto, next I'll have to play two songs in a row, right?"
"Exactly. It's okay. I know you can do it, so do your best."
After patting Ouka on the head, I disappeared to the backstage and the intro started playing.
Ouka continued the concert smoothly after that.
I was on stage again as the MC.
After some talking in between, we moved on to the singing part again.
Just when Ouka's tension was beginning to ease, she suddenly started running around in a panic, exclaiming "Eh? Huh?"
She was flustered like a lost child and sent me, who was watching from the back, a look asking for help.
According to the setlist, I should have been back on stage as the MC, but suddenly another intro started playing.
Ouka is confused by the unexpected trouble.
When our eyes met, I smiled brightly and lip-synced the words to her.
"Surprise" I said.
The next moment, three spotlights shone down.
They each illuminate a spot near Ouka, but there is nothing there.
But change was soon to come.
Kikyo-senpai, scattering bellflower petals.
Momiji-senpai, scattering maple leaves.
Suisen-senpai, scattering daffodil petals.
They appeared under the spotlights of each star, creating a fantastical effect.
The surprise stunned everyone, but the biggest surprise was probably their appearance.
Now, their avatars looks more elaborate, but they still had an undeniable 3D model feel.
Just like me and Ouka, they had been updated to have an anime-like texture.
Everyone was left speechless by the exceptional level of perfection that was obvious at a glance.
With pop background music and a monitor in the background, Kikyo-senpai speaks first.
"Good evening everyone! I'm Natsukawa Kikyo, one of Ouka-chan's genmates, from "Autumn, Summer, Spring, Winter!"
"Likewise, Kusunoki Momiji noja!"
"I'm Yukino Suisen nano."
"Huh? Huh? Huh?"
And there's Ouka, who hasn't been told anything.
"Thank you for coming to see Ouka-chan's concert today!"
"We are what you would call a surprise guest noja."
"By the way, Ouka doesn't know anything about it nano."
"Huh? Huh? Huh?"
And Ouka is left behind by the situation.
"There are many things I want to explain, but the intro is about to end, so please listen to our song first!"
"Pray tell, how long are you going to keep acting like a fool noja, Ouka?"
"Ouka should also sing with us nano."
The audience finally managed to comprehend the situation.
As the three singing voices reverberated throughout the venue, an explosive cheer erupted, just as loud.
"Huh? Huh? Huh?"
By the way, Ouka only joined in after they moved to the second verse. Lol.
"Nii-saー Alpheria."
As I was growing grass in the back, Mitsuki - No.
Sanka (the CEO) called out to me.
Her eyes were red and there were traces of tears.
As expected, she had been crying her eyes out just a moment ago at her daughter's beautiful appearance.
Well, as I had promised, I'll makes sure to keep it a secret from Ouka.
"What's wrong, Prez?"
"From here on, let Kikyo be the MC."
"Huh? What do you mean?"
The plan from the start was for the seniors to appear as surprise guests at the live show.
The reason I decided to collab with them was precisely for this day.
But this plan is completely new to me.
I wonder if something happened?
"ーThere are people I would like you to meet."
ーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーー
TL note :
I tried my best to incorporate Momiji's accent into the translation.
Sadly, I'm still not familiar with old English speech pattern so all i can do is add 'noja' at the end of her dialogues and some fancy words. But what do you think?
Also, I'm changing the way the MC called Mitsuki from 'CEO' to 'prez' to make it sound as casual as the one in the raw.