[Aya’s PoV]
The morning after such a stream.
“Huh!?” (Aya)
Shirayuki Aya, with her pajamas on and bed hair sticking up, looked wide-eyed at her smartphone after stopping the alarm.
The drowsiness disappeared in an instant, and she made a noise reminiscent of a squashed frog.
“W-What’s going on, wait, what is this!?” (Aya)
In front of her was an overwhelming number of notifications from Twitto.
She had seen this notification count several times before after collaborating with famous streamers or achieving good results in tournaments.
However, this time, nothing noteworthy had happened. This caused her to become uneasy.
“I-Is it… trending…!? M-Maybe that teammate spread it after all!?” (Aya)
The only controversial thing yesterday was when she played games with Oni-chan in private.
…But it wasn’t even supposed to happen in the first place.
She just wanted to play with Haruto who coincidentally turned out to be Oni-chan.
If she were a normal streamer, there’s room to wiggle her way out of the situation given the circumstances but the challenging aspect of being in the VTuber industry is that things don’t end that easily.
Her channel, which has garnered over 80% male viewership, tends to spark wide controversy with even a hint of a male presence.
“Uuwww… I really didn’t mean for that to happen…” (Aya)
For Aya, who earns her living and education expenses through streaming, getting involved in controversies is the most frightening thing.
She wants to just forget everything that happened right away—such feelings overwhelm her, but as a streamer, she must fulfill her responsibilities.
“W-Well, first, I need to check the contents…” (Aya)
With trembling fingers, Aya brought her hand closer to the screen, closed her eyes, and tapped on the notification bar. Slowly, she opened her eyes.
“Huh.” (Aya)
And at that moment, upon seeing the screen, she realized that all her previous anxieties were unfounded.
Twitto Post: [Ayaya is the best after all! Please continue doing your best!]
Twitto Post: [I’ll keep supporting you! Woo-hoo!]
Twitto Post: [As expected of my Ayaya!!]
Twitto Post: [I’ll support you even more!]
“Ha…?” (Aya)
She rubbed her eyes in disbelief at the unexpected words of praise and double-checks, making sure it was not a hallucination.
The notification bar is lined with compliments.
“W-What’s going on…?” (Aya)
It’s natural to be unable to keep up with the situation.
Without doing anything, somehow her reputation has gone up.
To find out more about the details, she dug a little deeper into the notifications…
Twitto Post: [Yesterday, Oni-chan praised Ayaya in his stream! Here’s the URL!]
Finally, she found the cause.
“Huh!? O-Oni-chan praised me…!? During his stream!?” (Aya)
It’s unprecedented for the toxic Oni-chan to compliment a streamer.
Aya reflexively clicked on the sent URL which redirected her to a video on MouTube and she quickly scrolled through the comments.
At the top of the comment section was a list of notable timestamps of the stream posted by a viewer.
04:27 Oni-chan’s Q&A session.
07:13 Interaction with imouto-chan.
09:10 Oni-chan gets upset.
12:49 Complimenting Ayaya 1.
14:10 Complimenting Ayaya 2.
17:41 Interacting with Ayaya 1.
18:20 Interacting with Ayaya 2.
There are many intriguing details, but what catches her attention the most were those related to herself.
Gulping nervously, she pressed the timestamp 12:49, and immediately, Oni-chan’s voice could be heard.
“(…Honestly, there’s nothing to criticize her about. Even from a streamer’s perspective, I can only think that she’s amazing.)” (Oni-chan)
“!?” (Aya)
“(Her channel has, what, 300,000 subscribers…? Oh, it’s around 350,000 now. In this industry, power dynamics are often determined by subscriber count, and even with a huge difference between us, she never looked down on me. She treated me politely, even when dealing with someone like me. She’s seriously amazing. That’s why she has so many fans, and I hope she continues to grow. It would be strange if she didn’t.)” (Oni-chan)
Then, perhaps after reading viewer comments, a panicked voice could be heard.
“(Well, well, I’m going to be using her as a stepping stone and reap the benefits, so you better be prepared, folks.)” (Oni-chan)
“M-Mouuu… What’s he saying…” (Aya)
Unable to hold back her retort, her cheeks flushed, she presses ‘Complimenting Ayaya 2’ at 14:10.
“(I’d like you to tell us what you find amazing about Ayaya-san from a streamer’s perspective…? Well, it’s probably the effort she put into entertaining her viewers. During her streams, she’s always doing something for them, right? Even though her channel has grown quite big, she still values each of her viewers. Unlike me.)” (Oni-chan)
“Oni-chan is paying attention to that extent… Even though, he himself also cares about his viewers…” (Aya)
Next, she presses 17:41.
“Um, could you tell us the cute parts of Ayaya…? Well, sorry. I can’t find anything cute about her. I don’t think about that kind of stuff during games, and I did have my work mode switch turned on when talking to her.” (Oni-chan)
“…” (Aya)
Finally, 18:20.
“What do you like about Ayaya? Wow, seriously, don’t think I’ll answer anything just because you pay. I can’t think of anything I like about her. Our connection isn’t as deep as you guys might think.” (Oni-chan)
“…” (Aya)
In these two responses, Oni-chan’s persona is on full display.
Many viewers are commenting things like, “No way!?” “Too harsh lol” “Is he serious?” “Oh no, that’s not good”, but… Aya was different.
With narrowed eyes, she wore a joyful expression.
“Thank you, Haruto-san…” (Aya)
She was grateful for the way he handled the situation. As a fellow streamer, she understands.
Regarding the last two questions, the viewers are not looking at their relationship as streamers but rather, their relationship as the opposite sex.
If Oni-chan had answered these questions with “She’s cute” or “I like a lot of things about her”, rumors would naturally start circulating.
Oni-chan is trying to appeal to Ayaya.
Oni-chan has his sights set on Ayaya.
Could they be dating?
Once such rumors spread, Ayaya’s male fans would resent Oni-chan. They would dislike him. Conflicts among viewers would arise. Collaboration would become difficult. They would have to keep their distance to continue their streaming activities.
The environment surrounding them would sour.
The reason both streamers are acknowledged by each other’s viewers is the assumption that “they don’t see each other as the opposite sex but just as streaming colleagues.”
Oni-chan has been careful to maintain that boundary to keep the situation at bay.
“Really, Oni-chan… If you protect me so much, I might start thinking about various things…” (Aya)
He drew a clear line to protect her.
He praised her despite having a toxic persona.
He prepared for the backlash that might occur from talking bad about her2.
Maybe it’s the warmth from the morning sun hitting her body, but her chest feels pleasantly warm.
Her heart was also pounding quicker.
“Seriously, I’m being too easy…! He said some terrible things about using me as a stepping stone, right? Yeah!” (Aya)
She slaps both cheeks to change her mood.
In this room, the only sound is Oni-chan’s voice playing on the screen.
“Haa… I have to be careful not to let anyone know that I’ve started to miss Haruto-san…” (Aya)
Looking up at the ceiling, Aya mutters, letting out a slightly feverish voice.
TL Notes:
Thanks for reading!
Ok so at the beginning of the chapter, author actually specified that Aya received the info through mutual followers’ DM, but I replaced those parts with just ‘overwhelming number of notifications’…
I mean, from my knowledge, VTubers generally don’t follow their fans on Twitter right? It also kinda contradicts her later point of angering her fanbase with a hint of male presence. We all saw how the internet initially responded to Rushia when it came out that she DMed a male.
I still have the original unedited version of that part if you guys are adamant that I should have kept it as it is or something.
Thanks for the chapter!
Yeah you can keep it that way as long as there’s no significance to the story and the reader understands the point.
Aya, don’t you wish, even for a little bit, for Haruto to says that you are cute or something?
I initially thought that she was gonna be slightly disappointed by the response but I guess VTubers got their priorities.