My Childhood Friend, a Vtuber, Treated Me Like Trash—I’m Never Producing For Her Again
A few days passed since then, and the weekend arrived.
During that time, Mizuta didn’t come by to see me.
However, when I checked out her livestream, it seemed she was trying out various things just as I’d advised.
She was doing a singing segment, so I listened for a bit, but there was one thing I noticed right away.
……Mizuta, singing just isn’t your thing.
(It’s important to learn this way, too.)
In reality, what goes over well depends on luck to a large extent.
Sometimes, a project you’ve spent months preparing gets absolutely no reaction.
Conversely, something you came up with in a few days and just threw together can sometimes be received with surprisingly enthusiastic enthusiasm.
Ultimately, until your stream’s concept is firmly established, you just have to try out different things.
After all, you won’t know what suits you best until you try it.
(I wonder if she’ll finish her homework by next week.)
I didn’t set a specific deadline.
To begin with, it wasn’t so much “homework” in the traditional sense as it was a request for her to take a deep, honest look at herself—that intention was much stronger.
Above all, Mizuta’s own will is what matters most.
(Maybe I’ll play a game today for the first time in a while.)
In the past, I would have spent this time planning and scheduling streams with Yue (Teruko).
But now, there’s no need for that anymore.
Even the weekends have become entirely my own time.
So, I’d decided to tackle, one by one, the things I’d wanted to do but couldn’t until now.
I inserted the disc, grabbed the controller, and launched the game.
“Leon’s gotten pretty old, hasn’t he?”
The game I chose today was the latest zombie game.
Maybe because it’s been a while since I’ve played a game properly, it feels way more fun than usual.
Back then, I would’ve been mentally picking out scenes that would look good on a livestream.
Now, I can just enjoy playing for the sake of it.
“Whoa, that gave me a scare!”
My body instinctively flinched at the zombie that suddenly leaped out at me.
The horror elements are pretty intense, too.
…Before I knew it, I found myself thinking from a streamer’s perspective: “If I react like this in a scene like this, the viewers will go wild.”
(I need to truly let go of Yue soon.)
There’s nothing more foolish than clinging to the past.
It’s for my own good to get over a broken heart as soon as possible.
Just as I was telling myself that and mercilessly blasting the zombie with my shotgun, that’s when it happened.
Ding-dong—
The doorbell rang.
I wasn’t expecting any deliveries.
As I walked toward the intercom, tilting my head in confusion, I felt a strange sense of déjà vu.
No way…
“U-um… It’s Mizuta… I brought my homework…”
Her hair was as messy as ever, and Mizuta stood there fidgeting at the front door.
I didn’t mind her coming over, but I wish she’d at least given me a heads-up beforehand.
Wait, come to think of it, we didn’t even have each other’s contact information to begin with.
As soon as I opened the door, Mizuta-san bowed deeply and thrust a bag toward me.
“T-this… is an offering!”
“Wait, an offering…?”
The bag she held was packed to the brim with all kinds of bread.
Both my dad and I love this bakery’s bread, and above all, it’s a welcome way to save on groceries.
“Hehe, well, to me, Komachi-san is like a god among VTubers!”
“If a real pro heard that, they’d just snort in derision.”
“I-it’s okay…!”
Mizuta’s eyes widened even more than usual as she raised her voice.
“W-well, if I become famous, Komachi-san will become famous too…!!”
She looked completely serious.
The passion in her eyes came through to me just as clearly.
Though I did get splattered with a massive amount of spit on my face.
“Well, usually, behind-the-scenes staff don’t become famous.”
Far from becoming famous, it’s not uncommon for them to barely even know the streamer they’re in charge of.
“Huh? R-really?”
“Besides, you could accidentally say something inappropriate and cause a huge backlash.”
“Eek…”
In the end, behind-the-scenes staff are just that—behind-the-scenes.
The most important person is the streamer themselves.
If you get that wrong, you’ll end up following in my footsteps—just like when Yue cut me off not too long ago.
Just like last time, I showed Mizuta-san into the living room.
“T-This is Requiem…!”
Seeing the zombie game still playing on the TV, her eyes lit up.
She recognized it at a glance—she’s definitely a gaming geek.
“I’ve played this through three times. Right here, Leon goes on to—”
“No, no, no—please, spare me the spoilers.”
“I-I’m just kidding.”
It didn’t sound like a joke at all, though.
“But does that mean you were playing OPEX on your stream and Requiem in your free time?”
“…Y-yes. Do you think I should’ve played Requiem on my stream too?”
“Well, that’s part of it, but do you even have enough time to begin with?”
If she’d made it through three playthroughs, she must have spent a ton of time on it.
She’s at school during the day and streaming at night—does she even have time to play games?
Or did she do it all at once on her days off?
“W-well, of course, late at night after the stream ended…”
“Huh? You don’t sleep?”
“Sleeping at school is plenty…!”
“……”
School isn’t really a place to sleep, though.
Well, I guess I can’t really say anything.
Back when I was helping Yue with her activities full-time, I used to do nothing but doze off at school, too.
“Well then, shall we take a look at your homework?”
To get down to business, I pressed the Home button on the controller to pause the game.
At that, Mizuta-san’s eyes widened.
“Huh? You’re not going to play anymore?”
“…Mizuta-san’s homework comes first.”
“Huh? But just for 10 minutes.”
“If we keep doing that, it’ll be dark before we know it. Besides, Mizuta-san, haven’t you already played through it three times?”
“W-well, that’s true, but I wanted to see how Komachi-san plays…”
If she’s going to do that, I think it would be way more worthwhile for her to watch other VTubers’ gameplay streams than to watch me play.
That’s when it suddenly dawned on me.
Oh, right. Mizuta-san has hardly had any real friends up until now.
So maybe she just wants to experience that atmosphere of playing a game with someone else.
“In that case, if we have some time left after going over your homework, maybe we can play a little then?”
“Y-yes…!”
Her expression lit up instantly.
…Come to think of it, this homework is actually for her VTuber activities, isn’t it?
“Your homework is in that bread bag from earlier.”
“Why would it be there…?”
I stood up and walked over to the dining table where the bread bag had been sitting.
Inside the bag was a piece of paper folded in half.
When I unfolded it, I saw it was densely covered with all sorts of information.
Starting with Mizuta-san’s birthday, it listed her zodiac sign, blood type, and even which kindergarten she attended.
“Wait, this is…”
My eyes were drawn to one particular entry.
I froze without thinking.
Three numbers and one letter.
No matter how I look at this, it’s definitely that, right?
“Um, Mizuta-san. Why did you write your measurements here…”
“W-well, that’s… I-I’m actually pretty confident about that part.”
“Huh? Confident?”
“My face is a little… well, not great… but I take after my mom, so I think I’ve got a pretty good figure!”
Admittedly, looking at these measurements and cup size, there’s no room for doubt…
Is this some kind of trap?
Could the police actually be waiting in the wings?
Without thinking, I chose my words more carefully than usual.
“It’s certainly one of your personal strengths, Mizuta-san, but…”
“Y-Yeah, I guess so…!?”
“You’re going to be working as a VTuber, right? Since your actual body won’t be shown directly, it doesn’t really matter…”
“…Oh.”
Even though not having to show your actual self is one of the biggest benefits of being a VTuber.
However, Mizuta-san said something unexpected.
“W-well, what if I just show my body? W-what do you think?”
“Huh?”
“I’ve been watching a lot of different VTubers’ streams lately, and it seems there’s a style where they don’t show their faces—just from the neck down.”
“Well, that’s become more common recently.”
“Th-that’s exactly why…!”
Mizuta continued, tapping her ample cleavage with her finger.
“How about a 2.5-dimensional VTuber…!?”