Shine On, Virtual Knight Rayna! (A Vtuber Story)

[Bandresnatch]

In a dark, musty cave of my own making, I collapsed in my gaming chair and wished that I could mute the shouting voices in my headset.

"Shut up. You've got no idea what you're talking about, you cheap hooker," said a tanned, blonde girl with fox ears in a gaudy parody of a school uniform.

"Would it kill you to listen to me for once, you stupid bimbo?!" replied an elegant oni princess, blood-red gemstone-like eyes burning with reproach.

I could only rub at my face as I sat in one of these meetings again. Where nothing productive got done, and these two went at it without a single care for those forced to watch them bicker.

"Please, you two, have some decorum," a magical girl interjected, speaking in a deep, mature voice. "I understand that it's been a trying week for all of us, but calling each other names again is going to get us nowhere."

"Eh, let them scream at each other. This is my favorite part of the day," the sci-fi soldier elf commented casually.

Looking at my monitor, there were six windows open on the online conference. Four of which were occupied by my colleagues – or those in the sphere would call them – my genmates. We were supposed to get along with each other, rely on one another to get through the competitive world of vtubing. But instead, here we were, repeating the same endless arguments in what should've been an important meeting that would decide the direction of our company.

"Now, now, girls, let's put yesterday's problem behind us and figure out our future together." The window beside me lit up. The sole man in the call, his profile picture was that of a chubby, cutesy-looking bird.

"There's no future if she keeps doing as she pleases!" The beautiful oni in jade silks, Hisui, shrieked.

"Oh shut it already, Hisui. As if Miss ASMR over here has any right to tell me off for hanging out with a couple of male vtubers," the gaudy high school girl with fox ears, Kirara, seethed.

"Kirara, how many times do I have to tell you this? It's not about that, it's about you bringing men to a girls' only collab! For our generation's anniversary no less! Do you know how much damage this has caused to mine and Symmy's viewership?" Hisui glowered, an ominous light emitted from her eyes. "And don't you dare make lewd implications about the content I spend days working on for the sake of my fans!"

…Of course, as expected, the two main instigators of drama ignored our pitiful CEO – Burb-san. I stared into my own avatar – a brown-haired knight with horse ears atop her head. Her usual bright green eyes were as dull as a rock. She wore the same weary expression as mine, in her own little corner of the conference call, listening to the constant toxic back-and-forth of insults and accusations.

I was just checked out from the stupid conversation. I couldn't bother with adding my two cents, since these two wouldn't give a damn about anyone else when they really get going.

When did we get to this point? We used to be good friends when we all started together.

What happened to us?

"Heh, if those touch-starved losers freaked out over seeing men on stream, that's not my fault. I can't be blamed for the actions of the mentally deranged weirdoes you court as your audience, Hisui" Kirara huffed. "All I'm doing is for the good of the company, you've seen our numbers, we need to grow if we want to stay competitive in this oversaturated market. It's not like ten years ago where anything goes."

"All for the sake of the company?" Hisui scoffed. "Shove off with that utter nonsense. You're the last person to call anyone a freak, least of all the fans that support our dreams, you fucking control freak!"

"Please, Hisui, don't," the magical girl, ♡Symphonia, said. "Let's dial the name-calling back and–"

"Oh no, Symmy. I'm not letting her get away with this. Not after what she implied about our fans. Are you not upset as I am? I thought that you would understand where I'm coming from, since the both of us work so hard to meet our fans' expectations and fulfill their desires, their needs and wants. They deserve far better than to be insulted by the likes of her."

Symphonia fell silent, her forlorn face looked down to the side. Hisui took it as affirmation to her point and continued.

"If you can't bring yourself to give this smug know-it-all the dressing down she rightfully deserves, then let me do it in your stead. Let me be angry on your and our fans' behalf. I won't let her get away with calling our erstwhile supporters freaks–"

"Woah, hold your horses, bucko," the tacticool elven girl, ELvin_assaUlt said. "Look, I get that you've a lot of issues with our resident stat-obsessed gal, and while it doesn't help that she's very bad at getting her point across, you're letting yourself get lost in your emotions. I understand that you love your fans very much and would do anything for them, which is great, fantastic even! Though, don't you think that's kind of strange in and of itself? I mean, this goes beyond maintaining kayfabe, you're putting yourself way too much at risk by acting parasocial to your fans."

"...What are you trying to say here, El?" Hisui asked, narrowing her eyes.

"I'm saying that there's more than one way to fulfill your fans' desires, ways that don't involve yourself crossing boundaries, both physical and digital," she replied. "While I'm a firm believer of talent freedom and making whatever content you want, I still think you oughta be careful about playing with fire. I've seen so many girls doing the same things as you are and torching their careers over it. It's not a pretty sight, you know."

She then glanced meaningfully at the meek CEO.

"...Start a vtuber company, they said. It's easy money, they said. It'll be fun and exciting, they said." Burb-san muttered quietly into his mic.

"Yeah, you tell them, El. Sure, you can go pigeonholing yourself into some dumb role, but don't go around forcing other people to follow your self-imposed standards, Hisui." Kirara smirked.

Hisui's model shook with rage. But before she could start yelling at Kirara, Symphonia spoke first.

"I understand. The younger generation has their own approach in entertainment, it would be wrong of me to force my ideals onto you. I can't deny the fact that your concurrent viewers have been growing from simply acting as yourselves." The magical girl smiled warmly, not a hint of exasperation nor anger. "Hisui pushes this angle because she and I share the same dream of being an idol. To prioritize our fans so that we may give them the best service possible. Who will in turn support us with all their being. It's only right that we reciprocate their dedication by becoming our best selves. So please, don't be too harsh on her, she's only thinking of the agency when she does this."

Kirara clicked her tongue audibly. She had the decency to look ashamed of herself at the mild rebuke. Which surprised me, I thought for sure she would keep on arguing. But then again, when Symphonia wanted to make herself heard, she could be every bit as forceful as the others.

"That's not fair when you put it like that, Symmy. Now you're making me look like the bad guy." She sighed. "I'll admit, the viewers I brought in don't mesh well with yours and…Hisui's." Kirara hissed the oni princess' name through gritted teeth. "They're rowdier and prefer a more grounded type of content creator; they don't care for the pageantry of idol-culture."

"Oh, so the new age streamer does get it," Hisui remarked, rolling her eyes.

"No shit, I've seen your and Symmy's numbers tanked because of it, any idiot can see the obvious. It's painful watching your fans dwindle, I get that, but I still think you'll be better off for it."

"And Hisui." Symphonia said firmly, turning to the window next to her. Literally, she was very dedicated to her role, even when the cameras were off. "While I do believe Kirara's methods are...reckless at times, like with this latest incident of her extending an invitation to our anniversary collabs to outside parties, she may have a point about one thing. The degree to which you produce your content worries me at times. Are you sure you want to be that intimate with your fanbase? It's one thing to be a source of comfort, but it's another to trade in affection."

"I'm fine, Symmy," Hisui replied, rolling her eyes. "It's just fanservice, like what you do as an idol."

"If you say so," the magical girl relented. "Know that I'll always lend an ear to you, even when I'm not here anymore."

Like flipping a switch, the vibe of the conference call instantly changed. Both Kirara and Hisui looked alarmed, foregoing their earlier hostility.

I blinked, sitting upright immediately. My model reflected my unease with her drooping ears. She couldn't possibly be implying what I think she is, could she…?

"Not here anymore? What are you talking about, Symmy?" El asked, voicing everyone's unspoken question. The usually carefree girl sounded serious for the first time in this meeting. "Are you thinking of…"

No way. Symphonia was the idol of our group. She loved vtubing the most out of all of us!

I felt my hands clutching at the edge of my messy table.

"A-About that." Burb-san stammered. "Symphonia asked me to hold this meeting today to discuss the future of the company because she is, well, ummm…" His voice trailed off.

Sighing, the magical girl spoke with an air of finality.

"I'm thinking of graduating."

The conference call fell into an eerie silence.

No one dared to speak. I could hear my own ragged breathing. My other self embodied the distraught expression I wore perfectly. Before I knew it, the words tumbled out of my mouth.

"But why? You love being a vtuber with all your heart! This was your dream, you told all of us that!"

Symphonia closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

"I'm sorry, Rayna." My heart sank at how guilty she sounded when she addressed me, like she was the one in the wrong. "I'm getting married soon, and as such I can no longer perform my duty as a vtuber anymore."

"Th-That's no reason for you to call it quits, Symmy!" Kirara called out desperately. "There are plenty of vtubers out there still streaming after they got hitched. We're not Internet idols, we're streamers, we don't have to follow these old traditions. Hell, even actual idols these days don't graduate just because they're getting married."

The magical girl, the oldest member of our generation, simply shook her head.

"I won't be able to do my best for my fans, as I'll be prioritizing my soon-to-be husband and our future children over them. I would rather we share one last good memory together than cause a schism and divide them into warring factions. My fans deserve far better than that." Smiling gently at the flashy girl with fox ears, Symphonia continued. "And the company will be alright, Kirara. You've been outperforming me lately in active stream viewership and growth these days. Even when I depart, there won't be a hit to the company's bottom line. Your newly gained fans more than make up for it."

The fires in Kirara's eyes sputtered out at Symphonia's words. Yet, the palpable tension in the call remained. There was one person visibly shaking in her window, fuming with rage.

"Look at what you did." Hisui growled. "If you hadn't invited those men to our anniversary, Symmy wouldn't have thought about quitting. This is all your fault, Kirara!"

"Hey, ease off her. She has nothing to do with this. It's Symmy's choice to get married," El said. "Do you think Kirara mind-controlled her to do that or something?"

"Y-Yeah, she said it was because she's getting married, it's not my fault! I thought, that if, that if I," the gyaru whimpered.

"Thought what?"

"I thought…" Kirara began, her voice quivering. "I thought that if I brought in those guys." Her breathing grew erratic. "I would've stopped you from whoring yourself out to a bunch of parasocial freaks. I did it to stop you from making a mistake. That's right, it's not my fault, it's your fault, Hisui! If you weren't so intent on playing girlfriend to lonely losers, I wouldn't have invited those guys to chase away those creeps!"

"You…! Holy shit, what the fuck is wrong with you?! I didn't ask for your help with my fans! So, don't try to pin your goddamned idiotic mistake onto me, you psycho bitch!"

"You should be grateful to me, you skank! If I didn't filter those creeps from your fanbase, who knows what they would've done to you!"

"I didn't fucking ask!"

"Girl, girls, please, stop," Symphonia cut in. "Kirara, this isn't the time to start another fight. Hisui, stop it with the insults, Kirara's only looking out–"

"Oh please, that clout-chasing psycho only wants to satisfy her ego. She's just jealous of how much my fans shower me with love and adoration, nothing that her sea of casual viewers could ever hope to replicate. Not that they would care to in the first place," Hisui replied haughtily.

"Come off it," El said, rolling her eyes. "If anyone's insecure about her fanbase, it's not Kirara. That girl has worked herself to the bone to get the numbers she's pulling now. You've got no right to sneer at her."

"El, you're not helping the situation." Symphonia snapped her attention to the elf. "Please don't recklessly take sides if you don't have anything better to say–"

"Symmy," Kirara's cold voice cut like a knife, interrupting El before she could reply to Symphonia. "I respect you for what you've done for me and Rayna, but stay out of it. This has been a long time coming. That slut needs to get called out for once, because all she's been doing is throwing a bitchfit when I was doing her a favor!"

"Fuck off bitch! I know how to handle my fans, I don't need your sanctimonious ass to intervene!"

The argument between the two headstrong girls devolved further from there. It was one slur off from being a spirited debate on anonymous image boards. I covered my face as an oppressive cloud of melancholy settled over me. Every now and then, I could hear either Burb-san or Symphonia trying to get a word in. Even El chimed in, but none of her comments really did anything to stop it.

It was pointless, Kirara and Hisui were at each other's throats, they couldn't give an ounce of care about the rest of us anymore. Rayna's live2d model simply watched the chaos unfold. My other self, my reflection was just there, a blank stare to match the emptiness inside me.

I felt hollowed. Detached. As if nothing mattered anymore. The end was inevitable.

"This was such a waste of time. Everyone keeps arguing and talking past each other. It just never ends. Why did I bother joining this agency to begin with?"

All of a sudden, Kirara and Hisui paused their insults to look at me, look at my avatar – Rayna. El blinked, and Symphonia looked down to the side. Burb-san's profile picture lit up, but I could only hear an exasperated breath from his mic.

I looked at my model and realized that her lips were moving.

My lips were moving.

Oh.

"Maybe you're right, Rayna. Clearly, it was a mistake on my part underestimating what it takes to run a vtuber agency," Burb-san said. "A smarter man than me would've been able to stop you girls from getting to this point. I think we should close this chapter on our life together. Do it before it gets any worse."

"...Eh, boss, you're not doing what I'm thinking of, right?" El said, shakily. "Come on, it's just one graduation, we can still–"

"Fuck it, it's over." "I think it's for the best." Both Kirara and Hisui spoke at the same time. They glared at each other before huffing away. After a moment of silence, Burb-san continued.

"It seems like some of you girls are keen on the idea too. After Symphonia graduates, let's just dissolve the agency and part ways from there. No point in facilitating a toxic work environment. Sounds like a plan, yeah?"

Another suffocating silence blanketed the call. One that was broken when Symphonia nodded her head slowly.

"I believe this is the best course of action. If the rest of the girls can't work out their differences, forcing them to stay together will only cause more issues in the future," she said, her face crestfallen. "If you'll excuse me, I have a stream to prepare for, so I'll be taking my leave. Goodbye, everyone."

Her window closed out as she left. Kirara and Hisui both looked at me with worry. However, when the two headstrong girls caught sight of the other doing the same thing, they clicked their tongues in the exact same manner before leaving the call too.

"So, if the agency's actually crashing out soon, what's going to happen to our character IP rights?" El asked nervously. "I really like this model, boss, she's the best one I've piloted. She captures my chill gamer vibe real well. It would be a darn shame if everything goes to waste when you close the doors for good."

Burb-san exhaled sharply. "I'll think about it later. We'll have another meeting to discuss our dissolution. I'll figure out what to do with everyone's IPs then."

Our CEO didn't speak any further on the matter. Even through his cartoonish profile picture, I could tell the subtle changes in his voice. How hollowed his words were.

"R-Right, haha…" El's model's eyes darted off to the side. "Rayna, ummm, are you sure about this? It's not too late to reel it back, you know. We're just venting and all that, so we shouldn't really be jumping the gun."

I think she was trying to comfort me in her own aloof El-ish way, but I was so done with everything I didn't bother to humor her attempt with a reply.

"I'll just go and prep for my stream too. Umm, see you guys around? Yeah, see ya."

With that, it was just me and Burb-san in the call. We didn't share a single word as we sat silently in mourning of what had been. Of what might've been. And how we should've stopped this when we had the chance to.

"I'm so sorry, Rayna." Burb-san's tired voice drew my attention. "It's all my fault this happened. I should've put my foot down when Kirara brought up her proposal. At the time, I thought the overall growth would be good for the company, that it could smooth out any damage it would've done in the short run. El, her, and you got the boost, more viewers, more engagement. All the things you girls deserve for working so hard. But I didn't consider the damage to Hisui's brand, and Symphonia's by extension. Their fanbases have lost trust in us, in me. I don't think it would be right for me to keep this agency going when I couldn't see the obvious."

I remained quiet at that. Burb-san was always the worrywart, constantly second-guessing himself, whether he was doing the right thing for us talents. He judged that the gain in views was ultimately a good thing for the health of the company, but in the end, it lit the powder keg between Kirara and Hisui. Their irreconcilable differences became too much, and we kept breaking apart.

"S-Sir, it's not just you," I said. "I thought meeting new people would be fun. I didn't think about Hisui's position at all, and let it happen. I…I–"

"Don't worry about it. What's done is done." He waved me off, refusing to let me take any sort of responsibility for the latest blow up. "It's not your job to vet your genmates' suggestions in the first place, it's mine."

Heaving a sigh, he continued. "However the dice fall, I'll make sure you're taken care of at least, Rayna. I'll put in a good word for you in the CEOs channel. You've a lot of potential, I'll not see it be dragged down by my mistake." There was a hint of determination in his weary tone. "Don't let the fallout of your first agency color your experience going forward. Vtubing is a wonderful medium where everyone can connect with one another without prejudice holding them back. Where everyone can be who they want to be, and let their personality shine through. You still have a long road ahead of you, Rayna, you can come back from this little stumble on the way."

…I didn't know what to say, so I let the silence linger. I knew that he was trying to cheer me up, to tell me that I still have a future as a vtuber. That my time in this agency didn't matter, that nothing that happened here would affect me in the long term. Like the excitement I felt when I first passed my audition and got accepted, how happy I was to discuss the designs of what would become Rayna with Symphonia, the gratefulness I felt when Hisui gave me advice on how to interact with chat, the relief I had as Kirara helped me with the direction of my content, or the fun times collabing with El. These precious memories, these feelings would amount to naught.

Like fallen snow on a spring's night.

Everything would just fade away in the next morning.

I…could only hang my head in resignation. Plastering a small grin on my face, I said.

"Thank you, sir, for looking out after me. This was the best time of my life."

I left the call before he could make a response. Taking off my headset, I threw it at one of my monitors. I trudged myself to my messy bed, past the hanging wall scrolls, and collapsed on the dust-filled mattress. The platoon of pony plushies and gathering of empty plastic water bottles greeted me. I laid there unresponsive, with the beat of my heart providing me company. Tears poured out unbidden, wetting my pillows. I couldn't muster up the strength to hide it anymore.

The buzzing of my phone on my desktop reminded me of something urgent. I quickly rolled off my bed and rushed for it.

Right, I still have a stream scheduled for today.

But looking at my reflection in the phone's blank screen, at how puffy my eyes were, how dull the green in them became, my messy, unkempt waist-length black hair with split ends everywhere, I wasn't in any shape to perform for my fans.

They deserved better.

Sitting on my chair, I announced the cancellation of my stream today and pushed it back to tomorrow, citing a 'health emergency' on my Rayna account on Z. Then, I swapped to my private account and browsed through my follower's list. There were only Kirara, Hisui, Symphonia, and El's alternative accounts, and I wouldn't have it any other way. I dared to skim through their pages, to see if they had said anything about today's disastrous meeting.

Symphonia's, as usual, was bereft of anything besides pictures of her corgis. Not to mention that she was streaming right now too. I turned to one of my monitors, where the magical girl was playing one of those very difficult management games, all smiles and laughs, not a single trace of despair or frustration on her animated expressions.

She was a true idol, I wished I could be more like her.

Kirara and Hisui were in her chat, cheering her on and putting up a show of still being friendly to one another. But on the flipside, they vagueposted about dealing with a…shitty friend, and doomposted about their future. I had also noticed that these two have unfollowed each other on their alts.

My heart sank at that.

And El…she didn't say anything on the alt that followed mine. I checked her MiTube page and found that she had moved her stream back by several hours. Tabbing out of that window, I went to the anonymous image board, and checked out the /comp/ thread. There was a certain poster talking about how she hoped she would get to keep her model if her company theoretically imploded.

I replied to her, agreeing with the sentiment.

With my obligations done, I tossed my phone onto my nightstand and trudged back to my bed again. I glanced at my wall scrolls, seeing the bright cheerful face of my idol, my oshi, Eden, the one who inspired me to follow in my dream, and wondered where it all went wrong.

"...What would you do in my shoes?" I asked the inanimate merchandise. As expected, she replied with a silent smile and an energetic pose.

With the message received, I didn't care to be awake anymore, even if that meant staying in the same sweatpants and track jacket combo for the fifth time in a row this week. I closed my eyes and muttered one last thing before I was ready to move on to the next day.

"I wish we could go back to the way we were."

I loosened my grasp on consciousness and prayed that today was just a bad dream, and that I would wake up and everyone would still be smiling and laughing, in the way only friends could.

But it was a fantasy, and there was nothing in reality I could do to change that.

Nothing to do but to lose myself in sleep's embrace.

.

..

…

….

….. ..ke .p!

There was a weight on top of my head.

…y.a

Something hard and pointy pecked at my forehead.

Ray.. wa.e u.!

I groaned, swiping at it lazily with my arm.

"Five more minutes," I mumbled.

"Sorry Rayna, but we don't have five more minutes, you need to wake up. Now!" Burb-san's voice ordered.

"Hu whaa whut?" I babbled intelligently. My eyelids fluttered as the piercing light stung my eyes. I shielded them out of reflex with my hand. A hand that was covered in brown leather and shining steel…

"Good, you're awake, Rayna! I thought you were a goner when you got backhanded by that ogre," Burb-san continued. I looked around, there were trees and rocks and dirt everywhere, a strange gaping formation in the treeline, and my CEO was nowhere to be seen.

So, where was his voice coming from…?

The steel sword and shield laying on the ground caught my eyes, however. Something about them seemed familiar to me.

Blinking, I felt a sense of dread creeping up my spine. Something wasn't right, last I recalled I fell asleep in my bed, in my dirty room, in my parents' home, in a city, far away from any wooded area.

"Where am I…?" I asked.

"You're at the Murky Forest with the rest of your adventuring party, of course," Burb-san answered. The weight on top of my head shifted as something jumped off from there, and hovered right in front of me.

It was a chubby, cutesy-looking bird. A very familiar one at that too…

The sight of it was impossible. Certainly not in real life. Because I had just seen it before I went to bed, when I was on my computer, sitting in that awful argument with my genmates. Watching as the owner of that profile picture did nothing to prevent the meeting from escalating.

"Is there something funny on my face, Rayna?" The physical form of the bird avatar of my CEO cocked its head at me, and I couldn't believe my lying eyes and ears.

So, I did what any normal and sane person would do in this situation and screamed.


AN: Ohai there, welcome to my shoddy attempt at writing a long form. I appreciate you guys stopping by and giving a piece of your time, means a lot to me! Anyway, I'll be aiming to release a chapter once per week on Monday. Hoping to get to something between 3,000 to 5,000 words. Hoping doing a lot of the heavy lifting, hahaha....

But just for today, I'll release another chapter to close off the hook (totally not because this was originally as one chapter lol)

 

[Bandresnatch]

"Rayna, are you okay? Why are you screaming? Are you in pain?" It asked in concern, speaking with the same cadence, the same deep voice, even the same tone Burb-san would use when he was fretting over everyone's mental well-being.

Which only intensified my screaming.

"Oh no, oh dear." It started flying around in a panic. The more it spoke, the more I couldn't deny it any longer. Because there was absolutely no way this was happening.

"It'll be alright, Rayna," the bird said as it landed on the ground right in front of me. "Don't you worry, as you girls' mascot it's my job to look after you all." It turned slightly to the side and began rummaging through its…chest feathers? "I might have just the thing to make you feel better!"

My scream died down as curiosity overtook panic.

I shouldn't be entertaining this thought at all, but the evidence was staring me right in the face. It was just impossible, my CEO was a human, a bona-fide human, like literally everyone else on planet Earth. A businessman that I've met in real life too! There was no way this talking mascot-like bird was him, no way. Only in a dream could a bird that had the exact same voice as my CEO be talking to me.

However, something in my gut told me that my instincts were right.

Catching my breath, I ventured a guess.

"Burb-san?"

The mascot bird stopped whatever it was doing and turned to me.

"Yes, that's me," he spoke in relief, energetically flapping his tiny wings. "Phew, here I thought you might've gotten some head trauma. Good thing that you're ready and able. We should–"

"What adventuring party?" I asked, feeling my head spinning. My body was aching in weird places too. Like I had been tenderized like meat. I felt around my midsection and winced from the pain when I touched a particular spot on my abs.

Burb-san suddenly squawked in alarm. "Oh no, you do have head trauma! This isn't good. Okay, Rayna, you've to get up and find the others, then we can regroup and figure out what to do next–"

The sounds of explosions rocked the clearing, whipping the winds into a frenzy. Which were then followed by new but very familiar voices…

"Goddammit, Hisui, were you trying to kill me with your spell!?"

"No, you were just in the way, Kirara. Do try to keep up."

"Girls, please, now is not the time to be fighting amongst ourselves."

"As much as I like to watch you guys go at it, I prefer to watch from a safe distance. I don't want to get caught in ground zero in one of your blow ups!"

The foliage at the edge of the clearing rustled. A flurry of footsteps grew closer. I could feel the vibration of the ground too.

"Ah, they're coming." Burb-san turned around. "And here I was worrying that they couldn't fend off the ogre by themselves–"

Suddenly, four girls emerged from the treeline. Four very familiar faces, yet they were ones that shouldn't be possible either. These faces were never meant to be real, after all. They were just fictional 2D avatars.

I recognized the gyaru foxgirl, oni princess, magical girl, and tacticool elven soldier on sight. My mind said otherwise, but my heart knew to be true.

…Were my genmates supposed to be my adventuring party?

I rose to greet them, despite the dull throbbing emanating from my head and muscle aches throughout my body.

But before I could call out to my friends, a giant green ogre crashed through the treeline. Crimson tribal tattoos covered every inch of its skin, powerful, rippling muscles bulging beneath the surface. A mighty horn jutted out of its forehead. Its yellow eyes were horrible to look at, freezing me in place with a hateful glare.

"Oh no, you guys lead the ogre here! While Rayna is having memory issues too!" Burb-san squawked out in panic.

"What!?" Kirara and Hisui squawked simultaneously.

"Rayna, save us!" El shouted as she sped up, holding a sci-fi-looking rifle. What was I supposed to do?! I was just some streamer who barely touched grass!

When Symphonia met my petrified gaze, her face hardened. She immediately pivoted on her heel and faced the ogre, with her fists raised.

"Kirara, Hisui, go help out Rayna. I'll keep the ogre distracted," the magical girl said…in her performance voice. High pitched and squeaky, not at all deep and mature like her actual voice. She then leaped up, leaving a small crater behind as she engaged in a dangerous duel with the monster.

It initiated with a straight jab, aiming to crush her in one blow. However, the magical girl expertly ducked beneath it and threw in a punch of her own at the joints in its elbow. Without an ounce of hesitation, the ogre lashed out with a quick swipe from its other hand. Symphonia grabbed onto the still outstretched limb and used it as leverage to vault herself over, dodging the deadly claws of the ogre by a hair's breadth. Using her newly gained momentum, she launched herself forward and landed a kick right in the monster's jaw. It glared menacingly at her as she delivered another kick to propel herself away from its bonecrushing grab.

… She was actually keeping up with it, blow for blow. How was she doing that?! Symphonia wasn't an actual magical girl, was she?

Kirara turned around and yelled, "Symmy, wait, don't fight that thing by yourself! It's way too strong for you alone!"

"Kirara, trust in our leader." Hisui put a hand on the fox-eared gyaru's shoulder. "She can handle herself fine for now. There's someone else that urgently needs our help." The oni princess glanced towards me meaningfully.

A look of realization crossed Kirara's face as she followed Hisui's sight. Swallowing a lump in her throat, she nodded grimly and rushed over to grab my weapon. Leaving Hisui to retrieve the large shield laying on the ground.

The blonde gyaru then handed me my sword while the oni princess strapped the shield onto my left forearm. I was stuck in a daze, unable to voice my questions, like what the heck was going on, why we were cosplaying as our vtuber selves, what that ogre thing was, how in the world was Symphonia fighting it, or even what had I smoked to be having this crazy dream. Burb-san was saying something to them, but my brain was just too fried to listen.

Until skinsuit-clad fingers snapped at my face, bringing me back to reality. Or fantasy, dream, whatever this was.

"Yo, Rayna, look alive. This is no time to be confused, even if you got a bump on your head. You've gotta go and fight that ogre or we're super fucked," El said.

"Wh–"

Another boom, more frenzied wind whipping up my long messy brown hair. The ogre's strikes were growing sharper and faster as it roared in anger. Symphonia's frilly outfit began to tear from just the sheer force of the monster's glancing blows alone.

El turned around and cringed. Symphonia's tiny fist met the ogre's. The magical girl grunted as she was pushed back, digging deep furrows into the ground.

"Shit," El cursed, shouldering her rifle. "Get your head in the game, Rayna. Symmy is going to get pulverized if you're just standing around gasping like a clueless moron!"

…Symmy was going to die?!

Before I knew it, I took off running. Kirara and Hisui let out gasps of surprise when I charged past them and into the fray.

I raised my shield up like it was the most natural thing in the world as I crashed into the ogre's side. The ogre grunted from the impact as it staggered, giving the magical girl enough of an opportunity to disengage safely. She gave me a look of gratitude as she took up a fighting stance beside me.

"We'll do it like usual. You keep the monster's attention, and I'll back you up," she said in a hurry. I nodded out of reflex. Blinking, I turned to her with furrowed brows.

But before I could open my mouth to ask what she meant by the usual, my ears stood up in alarm and I braced myself, catching a strong punch from the ogre on my shield. A tremendous impact ran through my body, heels digging furrows into the dirt as I stood my ground.

Good God, that was heavy! I didn't know how I withstood that! I could feel the force of its attack nearly turning my arm into jelly.

The ogre looked past me for a moment, casting a baleful glare at the three girls behind me. It tried to sweep me aside but I dug my foot in and refused to budge a single inch. The raging monster growled in frustration and reeled back its fists for another blow.

Symphonia immediately rushed to its exposed flank and rained down a barrage of lightning-quick jabs, each picking up a cloud of dust. But the ogre weathered all of her attacks and swung its other fist at the magical girl.

"Symmy!" I yelled out in a panic.

A crimson beam of light colliding into the ogre's face, catching it off-guard. Aside from a smoking patch of skin, it looked none the worse for wear. It hissed out in annoyance and resumed its swing. However, several paper talismans flew to cover the offending limb. For the first time in the fight, the ogre looked confused before the charms crackled with unknown energy and erupted into spectral chains that held its fist in place.

"Sorry Rayna, I can only deal chip damage to this stupid thing!" El shouted, as she fired more laser beams from her rifle. The ogre scanned the clearing with its unmarred eyeball, quickly jumping from me and to the other girls. The gleam of intelligence in its hateful gaze sent a chill down my spine.

"Kirara, what are you waiting for? I can't keep holding it in place much longer…!" Hisui said, her refined, elegant voice strained from the pressure. The ogre's immense strength started to snap the ethereal chains one by one.

…Putting aside the ogre, Symphonia throwing down with her bare hands, El firing off her laser rifle, and Hisui casting magic with her talismans all but confirmed it to me.

I've been reading too many fantasy novels.

"Yeah, yeah, I've, like, so got this," Kirara said, in her false valley girl accent. She held her sheathed katana in a drawing stance and…vanished.

There was the sound of rushing air, and the next thing I knew, she hung in the air upside down, flying over the ogre's head, with red liquid drenching her glittering blade. An act that completely defied all logic and laws of physics.

According to her lore, Kirara was a gifted swordsman from another time, who became enamored with social media and modern technology, and lost the drive to hone her style as a result. It was no wonder that she could deliver that impossible slash with ease.

But that didn't kill it. It had moved its neck slightly beforehand, letting its horn be shaved off instead of taking the decapitating slice.

It smirked, breaking the last chain on its fist. My stomach dropped, and I saw the look of horror etched on Kirara's face as the ogre changed target. She was still falling through the air, her options to escape severely limited. Symphonia kept pressing her attacks, boring into the monster's side with everything she's got. El fired more from her rifle, beams of light flashed by rapidly. Hoping to shift its enmity.

The ogre shrugged off both the elven soldier and the magical girl's attacks like they were mosquito stings.

"No!!!" Hisui screamed out, fear for the gyaru's safety apparent in her voice. "Get out of there!"

But all Kirara could do was to brace for impact with the flat side of her katana.

I had to do something…! But what? Was this fantasy going to become a nightmare right in front of my eyes?

"Rayna, use your sword. Call upon your sword!" Burb-san cried out.

The world seemed to slow down. The whirring of plasma, barrages of fists, and screams of panic grew distant. The beats of my heart became drums in my ears.

Right, my own lore! If Symphonia was a real magical girl, El a futuristic soldier, Hisui an oni princess who could wield magic, and Kirara a talented swordmaster, then I was a knight.

A knight-in-training, who defended the weak and innocent with my shining sword and shield!

I raised my sword high in the air, and my lips moved by themselves.

"Shine on!"

A brilliant line shone from the steel of my blade. The ogre's eyes were drawn to it in an instant. It shifted target again and pummeled against my shield with earth-shattering strength. I gritted my teeth and held my ground.

It hurt so bad.

But the alternative was so much worse.

I could take it, if it meant nobody else was going to get hurt.

Like a mad beast, the ogre didn't let up its onslaught. With each blow against my shield, every muscle and tendons screamed at me. I refused to yield, however. Pushing past the pain I locked my knees in place. The very ground shook, fault lines spread out like spiderwebs from my feet. Blasts of air buffeted through the clearing.

Every punch rattled my bones. Every hit I took I felt like I was being run over by a truck.

But…

So long as my sword shone brilliantly in these woods, I won't back down from a foe!

"Head's up, Rayna!"

A sci-fi-looking rifle, El's rifle, was suddenly thrown at the ogre's face. Sparks of energy arced through it. It glowed a crimson hue as my instincts screamed at me. I listened to them this time and ducked my head below my shield.

An explosive beam ripped through the clearing. Plumes of dust billowed outward. The strong stench of burnt flesh hit my nostrils, and I nearly gagged. But I held strong, because the ogre was still pounding against my shield.

Less of an onslaught, and more of the exhausted tail end of a rush.

I dared a peek, and wished I hadn't. The ogre was still very much alive, but its face was a pulpy mess. One of its eyes was… eww, it looked dripping egg yolk. This dream of mine was getting too much, just like one of those LiveCrashOut vids that escape containment. I wanted to throw up right then and there, but I had to hold strong. Its remaining eye was glued to my shining sword.

Mustering my courage, I struck the dying monster with all I had…and my sword bounced from its thick hide.

Right…

Rayna was a defender of the people, she possessed boundless courage and vigor, but still lacked the power to subjugate monsters. Which was why she was a knight-in-training, she had much to learn from her friends. In other words, I was a pure tank, in this…adventuring party.

The glow dimmed, and my knees buckled. Alarmed, I looked up into the ogre's ruined face. Its sole remaining eye brightened with clarity, realizing its precarious predicament. The tide was turning, and not in its favor. It stumbled back in a daze, giving me room to breathe. Then a trail of glittering stars swept past its legs.

"Leave the slashing to me, hun," Kirara said as she appeared beside me, flicking crimson rivulets off her glittering katana. Her fluffy tail swished back and forth as she twirled her blade and sheathed it dramatically.

And in that instant, the ogre's blood spilled forth like geysers from the back of its calves. It collapsed onto its knees, its mighty arms stopping itself from falling prone.

"...Behold the chains that bind the forbidden titan down to the earth – Promethean Prison!"

Ethereal chains burst from the ground, wrapping around the ogre's arms. The monster's limbs were forced apart, forcing its downed body into a pose reminiscent of a prisoner awaiting execution. It screamed and thrashed wildly against its restraints, but this time these chains held.

And then, paper talismans floated above it, circling around like vultures. They came to a stop as beams of lights shot out and weaved into a pentagram. The magic circle shone brightly, washing away the weight on my shoulders as I watched it over from a distance.

I could feel it by instinct. The battle would soon be over.

Symphonia came down like a raging meteor. She passed through the magic circle, accelerating even further until she was just a pink and blue blur. I blinked, and held my shield up as a shockwave rolled through the clearing, knocking trees over and kicking up a massive cloud of dust.

Coughing, I closed my stinging eyes. A gust blew past me and cleared the area of the obfuscating cloud. Opening them back up, I surveyed the clearing. Kirara was to the right of me, waving a hand over her face. El had gone prone, covering her head. Hisui held out a talisman, with Burb-san sitting on her shoulder. A barrier of sorts that had protected them from the sheer force of the magical girl-shaped comet.

And Symphonia stood in the center of the newly formed crater. She stared silently into her closed fist. There was no trace of the ogre left, only a brightly glowing gem remained where it once stood.

I breathed a sigh of relief and keeled over to the side.

Amazing…! I could get used to dreaming this kind of fantasy, even if it meant getting into more of these scary encounters. I got to know how it felt to have actual supernatural powers! It was awesome!

"Looks like our knight-in-training is all tuckered out," Kirara said, kneeling by me and poking at my abdomen with the butt of her sheathed katana. "Wonder whose fault that is?" She glanced meaningfully towards Hisui.

"Yours, obviously," the oni princess replied, walking up to me. Her fluttering kimono looked as beautiful as butterflies in flight. "If it hadn't been for your recklessness, we wouldn't have attracted the attention of the King Ogre."

"Hey now, the guild, like, posted a bounty for that eyesore, so I thought why not kill two stones with one bird by hunting it on top of our spider extermination job."

"...We didn't accept the bounty for the King Ogre, so we won't get paid for its defeat."

"Oh."

"Yes. Oh. You put us all in danger with your dumb antics. Once again, because you thought you were, in your own words, hotshit." Hisui crossed her arms under her chest, glaring down disappointingly at the fox-eared gyaru. "And, it's kill two birds with one stone, you stupid ditz."

Kirara rapped the side of her head with her knuckles and playfully stuck her tongue. And Burb-san squawked in fright, hopping away from the peeved off oni princess and flew close to me.

Hisui sighed. "You are so unbelievable. If I were the team leader, I would've kicked you out of the party long ago for your constant idiocy."

"Awww, love you too, Sui-chan! I always knew you'd have my back!" Kirara jumped up and threw herself at the oni princess' shoulder. "That's why you're, like, my bestie in the whole wide world!"

"If you're my 'bestie' I wouldn't need any enemies." Hisui glared at Kirara, but she made no move to extricate the foxgirl from her personal space.

"See, two pods in a pea already!"

"...You're doing this on purpose, aren't you?"

Their banter continued back and forth, without any real heat in their exchange. I let go of my breath. Relief flooded through me. Even as adventurers, these two girls were the same genmates I knew.

"Those two can be such a handful at times," my…CEO? Party's mascot? lamented. A fond note entered his voice. "But so long as they keep it to japes and jabs, I think they'll be fine."

I nodded weakly in agreement. Kirara and Hisui had always been standoffish around each other, but they came through when it really mattered. Just like back then, before they drew battle lines and drafted the rest of us into their conflict. When we were still friends and able to look past each other's flaws.

"I wish we could stay like this forever…"

"Eh, constant bickering isn't exactly my cup of tea, even if it's just bantering," El said as she sat beside me, watching the fox-eared gyaru high school girl and oni princess make snappy comments at the other's expense off to the side. "I think this bit of theirs is growing stale."

I shook my head. "It could be worse. They could seriously hate each other."

El's ears twitched, eyes widened in surprise. "They don't?!"

"If they truly hate each other, would they still bother being in the same gen?"

El adopted a thoughtful look and shrugged. "Yeah, I guess I can see the logic. They could always quit the party." I winced at that. El then turned to the chubby bird hovering to the other side of me. "How about it, Burb-san? What do you think of our favorite beauty and the beast duo?"

"I'll reiterate, so long as they can keep their bantering to just that, it'll be fine," he answered. "I wouldn't want to force them to change on my behalf."

"Spoken like a true mascot." El chuckled. Burb-san rolled his eyes before flying over to Symphonia as the magical girl climbed out of the crater.

Why were we an adventuring party in a fantasy-like world anyway? Because we were in the same generation? I guess I could see the logic in that. That was how dreams worked, right? Take a bunch of familiar things and faces and voices together, shake it all up until it makes sense, and voila.

Breathing deeply, I shook my head and pushed myself back up. But my noodly arms were too weak to prop myself up, so I was fated to flop like a fish out of water.

"Woah, careful there, Rayna," El said, catching my fall. She then propped me up against her shoulder. My long horse-like ears drooped down over her chest.

"Thanks," I mumbled.

"No problem!"

"Are you two alright?" Symphonia called to us, as she marched over to me and El, with Burb-san sitting comfortably on her head. He inspected the gem with his wings and proceeded to…shove it into his chest? And it just disappeared in there.

The sight of it left me lost for words, it didn't make a lick of sense! But it seemed to be exclusively a me-problem, because no one else looked bothered by it. Heck, El carried on with Symphonia's question without even acknowledging what Burb-san had done.

"Yeah, Rayna is just a limp noodle right now. You can pick her up and toss her around like a doll." The elven soldier poked my cheek. I flicked at her face with my ears, which responded to my will as if I had them my entire life. This dream was really convenient like that.

El merely chuckled and dropped her offending finger.

"That's not alright at all, El. Rayna needs healing," Symphonia said as she stopped in front of me. Even standing at her full height, the magical girl only came up to my neck. "Here, let me see what I can do for you."

Clearing her throat, she started singing a familiar song. The OriSong she made for her fans for their three-months celebration. I hummed along to its cheery beat, full of hope and gratitude for the future spent together with close ones.

A warm, fuzzy feeling radiated through my aching muscles and overtaxed tendons, the sharp pain fading away. Yet, my eyelids grew heavier still. I nearly dozed off on El's shoulder, almost falling for the temptation of sleep.

As soon as she finished her song, Symphonia touched her throat and frowned. "I must've exerted myself more than I thought." Shaking her head, she gave me an apologetic smile and bowed. "I'm sorry, that song should've energized you instead of making you drowsy."

I was about to respond, but a yawn escaped from my mouth instead.

"No worries, Symmy," El said, waving her off. "A catchy lullaby is fine, too." She patted my head, and I grumbled in protest. "Our knight-in-training could use some rest anyway. She earned it after tanking that King Ogre, don'tcha think?"

Symphonia's heterochromic eyes darted to me. "Certainly so."

"Perhaps a break is in order," Burb-san said, flying off from the magical girl's head. Looking around, he continued. "With a little bit of clean up, this makes for a nice camping spot."

"Did someone say camping?! Count me in!" Kirara shouted, causing Hisui, who was still in her grasp, to flinch. "Oh, sorry about that, Sui-chan, forgot you were, like, there, teehee."

The oni princess rolled her gems-like eyes. "No, you didn't. Anyway, it would be night time long before we could even get back to the city. Staying here is probably for the best, who knows if we'll come across any other clearing on the way out of the Murky Forest."

"In that case, I'm gonna go and scout our surroundings. Have to make sure there's, like, no baddies around and all, and maybe catch some grubs too. Toodles!" The blonde-haired foxgirl lifted her arm off Hisui and skipped away.

"...I suppose I'll set up the wards and prepare the campground." Hisui flicked her wrist and a bundle of talismans shot out of her flowing sleeve. She held them like paper fans in her hand.

Halfway across the clearing, Kirara came to a stop and turned around with a dopey grin on her face. "Oh right, Hisui, watch my back, okay? Don't wanna a repeat of the King Ogre, yeah?"

The oni princess didn't say anything, instead she took a talisman and threw it right at Kirara's face. The enchanted paper attached itself to her forehead as it glowed a dim light.

"A barrier ward? Thanks, bestie!" Kirara's grin widened as she turned around and disappeared into the treeline.

"That stupid ditz…" Shaking her head, Hisui began placing her talismans around our impromptu camping spot.

I could only giggle at their antics. Lively and fun banter, not at all full of venom and passive aggressive backhanded comments. Like in days past, before they started tearing each other down for real.

"El, you take care of Rayna," Symphonia said, smiling too. The elven soldier gave her an energetic thumb's up. "I'll go help Hisui with setting up camp. Burb-san, make yourself useful and follow after Kirara. Make sure she doesn't get herself into trouble again."

"The least I can do, hah…" Burb-san replied, flying off to where Kirara disappeared to.

Nodding her head at me and El, Symphonia went up to Hisui and asked what tasks she could lend a hand with.

The sight of everyone getting along made my heart swell with joy.

Though they may look and sound different, these girls were without a single shred of doubt my genmates – my one and only friends. Burb-san acted the same too.

Despite my own sleepiness, I forced myself to stay awake. Just a little longer, in this fantastical dream of mine, of when everyone was still good friends.

"It's okay to take a nap, you know," El said, smiling reassuringly, as if to tell me she wouldn't fade away when I woke up again. "Symmy and Hisui have got everything handled, so go and take your hard-earned hero's rest."

"No, I want to spend as much time as possible with you guys," I protested. "I don't want to miss a single thing."

"You're not going to miss out on anything, silly. Just relax." El poked at my forehead.

I mumbled, "If I go to sleep and wake up again, you guys will still be my friends, right? We won't have to drift apart, and the agency won't die because of it, right?"

El suddenly stiffened and gave me a strange look. But as soon as it came to pass, her face softened.

"Yeah, we won't be going anywhere. The party's not going to dissolve just because of some petty argument."

"You promise?"

"I promise." El looked over at the clearing, where Hisui was preparing her wards and Symphonia was setting up tents. Kirara had just returned with a couple of rabbits in her hand, chatting animatedly with Burb-san. "None of us are going anywhere. We'll still be your friends when you wake up." Her gray eyes gleamed dazzlingly in the sunlight.

Despite myself, I smiled at my friend's little white lie. Closing my eyes, I let my consciousness drift.

"Sweet dreams, Rayna."

The dream – for what else could this have been? – was nice. Even if I woke up and forgot about it the next morning, I believed that my heart would be reminded. Of how we once were, when everyone had gotten along. In this false fantasy conjured up by my overactive imagination, I found the strength to face tomorrow's turmoils.

So long as my sword shines on, I won't back down from a challenge!

…If only it were that easy.

.

..

…

….Beep! Beep! Beep!

I woke up with a start. My body felt like I had run a marathon in my sleep. Groaning in pain, I rolled over to the other side of my bed and picked up my phone. My fingers moved to turn off the alarm by themselves, like a well-honed reflex tempered by decades of experience.

Blinking, I pulled down the notification menu as part of my routine for waking up. However, when I saw the amount of messages in my DMs, I sat up on my bed immediately. I clicked on one of them, taking me to my Rayna account on ChaosComm.

My phone was immediately bombarded by pings and sound alerts, startling me and causing me to drop it. I blushed with embarrassment, and picked it back up to go over the messages. Symphonia asked me what I was doing and where I was. Kirara typed over fifty lines of texts, telling me to respond to her now. Hisui did the same, too, albeit with less misspellings. Burb-san even sent me a message, asking me if I was alright and how I was feeling.

And El…she didn't send me a single message.

Instead, she tried to call me a bunch of times.

ChaosComm's voice call function then caused my phone to ring. I answered it instantly.

"Oh thank God, Rayna, you've finally picked up your phone. Where were you?" El asked, her voice was on the verge of hysteria. The way my normally aloof and cool-headed friend sounded so distraught made my heart clench.

"Rayna, are you there?"

Right, no time to panic, I had to alleviate her worry.

"Sorry, I was sleeping and just got up like a second ago," I answered. El breathed a sigh of relief. Quirking an eyebrow, I continued. "What's wrong? I notice that you guys sent me a bunch of messages in my DMs. Did something happen?"

"Heh, leave it to you to make everyone worry…" she chuckled lightly. "I guess we were all being silly and making a mountain out of a molehill. Burb-san said that you seemed…off when you left the call yesterday. So when you didn't show back up on our server for twelve hours and missed your stream he got really worried for your safety. Which then caused all of us, well, mostly the other fours, to spam your DMs asking where you were, what you were doing, if you were okay and feeling fine, and stuff like that. Even the boards are up in arms and schizoing out."

…Eh?

My jaw dropped at the implications about my mental health. I mean, I was flattered and appreciated that they cared a lot about me, but I just went to sleep! Why did that get everyone worked up like that?!

But first thing first, I missed my stream?!?! The one that I pushed back?!??!?!

"...How long was I out?" My heart pounded in my chest. Oh no, my fans, I owed them an explanation.

"Umm, like nineteen hours, thirty-one minutes, and fifty-two seconds, but who's counting?" My eyes widened as I jumped off my bed and ran to my desktop, stumbling over the trash on the floor.

"Why didn't you call my dad to wake me up sooner!" I said, going over my setup. Shower be damned, I went a week without showering before, I could do it again!

"Burb-san did, I think. Not sure what happened, but I guess your dad thought you were really tired and let you sleep the day off. Pretty nice of him if that's the case."

I slowed down a bit.

"Yeah, that sounds like him." Sighing, I opened up the vtubing and screen capturing programs. Rayna flashed onto the screen, mirroring my panicking movement. I turned to the monitor to my right, the one with my social media. "Anyway, I'll make a post on Z and tell my fans not to worry, I just ended up oversleeping because of a dream, and then I'll get on our server and explain the rest to you guys. I'm really sorry about causing this mess."

"No no no, you didn't do anything wrong, we just worked ourselves up and spiraled into doomposting," El said, drawing a sharp breath. "Must be one hell of a dream if a busybody like you ended up practically sleeping the day away."

I perked up. My memories of it were still clear to me.

"Oh! It was! You were there, Burb-san too, actually, everyone in our gen was in it," I began, typing a post up on my dusty keyboard with one hand, in spite of my stiff arm. El made a noise of interest, signaling for me to go on. "We were an adventuring party in a fantasy world, I think. We were in the forest, fighting some big ogre thing, so I didn't get to see what it was like out there. But I bet it'll be just like any other fantasy setting you can find in stories."

"Heh, you and your isekai slop."

"Hey, they're fun! But yeah, I was the tank, you were some kind of sci-fi FPS gunner, Symmy was a very strong but tiny magical girl, Kirara some sort of samurai, Hisui an elegant mage, and Burb-san was just the party's mascot." I finished the post. Giving it a quick one over, I sent it. Immediately, El liked and re-posted it. A smile came easily to me.

"Sounds like one unbalanced party, you need a thief and one more mage, lol."

I shrugged my shoulders, and pulled up ChaosComm. "Probably, but that would be party bloat, wouldn't it?"

"You can just change out members whenever you want, can't you? In one of those RPGs or whatever." I could hear the smug grin in El's voice.

I hummed, lowering my head. "You know, in that dream, we were still friends. Everyone was happy, laughing and smiling, just like how we used to. Kirara and Hisui were still on good terms, Symmy looked more motivated, Burb-san hadn't given up yet." My lips curled to a forlorn frown. "And you…still cared."

"...Yeah, that does sound nice," El replied softly. The silent admittance hung heavy in the air.

"I wish I could sleep a little bit longer, honestly," I shared, clenching my phone. "Then maybe everyone would still be there, together."

With me.

I couldn't bear to look at the server. My neck refused to budge, my sight won't leave the keyboard. After a moment of silence, El spoke.

"Even if the agency is gone, everyone would still be your friends. We won't be going anywhere, Rayna."

My breath hitched.

"I promised, didn't I?" She said in her usual lackadaisical tone. "Wait, did I? I don't remember making it, but it felt like I did? No, I definitely did. Recently too. But when…" Her confused voice trailed off to quiet murmur.

I snapped my head back up, staring at the agency's server on ChaosComm. Both my hands were shaking.

That dream. It shouldn't be possible. It was just fantasy, a product of my unconscious mind.

But it did something.

The El in the dream made that promise to me before I returned to reality. And the real El reaffirmed it, even if she didn't remember making it. She couldn't, because it was just a dream.

My dream. It shouldn't have any effect on her.

But it did.

She started caring again.

I didn't know why or how, but I did know one thing. We weren't over yet. I was given an opportunity of a lifetime, I could do this, I could still fix this.

With the wall scrolls of my oshi watching over me, I vowed to set things right.

"I can do this!"

My smile returned, brighter than ever. Rayna looked at me with determination in her eyes. Nodding to myself, I found my resolve.


AN: Thank you once again for checking out my schlock! I'm grateful that you guys came and gave me a try. I'll endeavor to entertain you folks for as long as possible! It's going to be a long ride because I've no idea what I'm doing lmao

 

[Bandresnatch]

Because I couldn't help myself, here are what the characters look like!

Spoiler: Rayna, our pitiful main character

Drawn by @/snowkindred over on X

Spoiler: Hisui, everyone's wife!

Drawn by @/snowkindred over on X

Spoiler: El, the distant and aloof tryhard

Drawn by @/snowkindred over on X

Spoiler: Kirara, reactslop connoisseur!

Drawn by @/IdaSasoria over on X

Spoiler: Symphonia, a magical girl looking to retire

Drawn by @/IdaSasoria over on X

 

[Bandresnatch]

Alright, after staying up all night without showering and alleviating the worries of my CEO and genmates, it was time to truly start the day! I just needed to complete my start-up routine, and I should be ready to deliver content to my anxious fans.

V-Stage running and working as intended, no stuttering nor lag. It showed the screen what my fans would see, and the screen only I saw. Check.

Web-cam tracking. I shimmied back and forth, Rayna did too. Check.

Expressions and toggles. I pressed the combination keys, Rayna went through a cycle of exaggerated blushing, shocked, sad, and happy expressions. Chestplate on, chestplate off. Ponytail on, ponytail off. Check.

A bowl of mildly spicy peppers sitting on my cluttered desktop. I poked at one, grimacing at the briny smell. Check.

Rage game, one where I restarted all progress if I slipped up even a little bit. I would be playing ALTJUMPER, a rage-inducing game all about avoiding unfair traps as the players run through an endless obstacle course. El recommended this one to me a while back. Check.

Parents, informed of my early morning stream. Mom and Dad checked in on me before going out on their morning jog. They were very thoughtful about my work, which was nice of them. Check.

Prayers for guidance, directed to my oshi. The wall scrolls in her likeness graced me with their divine light, easing the pre-stream nerves. I won't fail in my mission! Check.

Mods, I messaged one of the global mods available at this time slot. Multiplier responded, telling me he was good to go. Check.

Anonymous image board check-in… they were just doomposting about my health. The stream should settle them down. Check…

Mic test, I screamed and shouted my frustrations at the top of my lungs. To see how much it can handle before peaking, and totally not because I wanted to vent. Check.

Preparations done, I fired up the stream and took us to the intro screen. Already, my fans, Rayna's fans, started to show up one by one. In these scant few minutes before showtime, I looked into Rayna's eyes one more time and nodded with determination. She was me, and I was her. The girl known as Zofia, the nineteen years old NEET who still lived with her parents, took a backseat. And the bright and cheerful tomboy knight-in-training Rayna came to the forefront.

I sat up straighter and smiled brightly. My other self appeared on screen, and I lent her my voice.

"Howdy Neighbors, it's me, DreamLink's first gen, AnaChronoclast's spunky knight-in-training Rayna Klus! Sorry for the mishaps yesterday, and the day before that. I felt really under the weather, and didn't think I was in any shape to hang out with you guys. So, I'm gonna make it up to all of you with this guerilla punishment stream, yay!"

'howdy!'
'howdy Rayna!'
'Rayna's back!'

The Neighbors, Rayna's fans, displayed their collective enthusiasm by responding back to me with a slew of 'howdy' and happy, crying emojis, excited at the horsegirl's return. About eighty came to see me, a much higher count than the usual fifty I would get before the anniversary stream. This put me solidly among indies with about a three to four thousand follower base, and ranked middling among small agency vtubers.

But at the bottom of my generation.

Or, according to MiTube's ranking system – a Tier 7 vtuber. I still couldn't believe the wider streaming community decided to accept this piece of lingo from anonymous image boards' /#/ threads. Even the fleshtubers used the Tiering system to rank each other, that was how widespread it became. To the point that legitimate, clean sites normies used like Z and ReadTome embraced it so readily. If it weren't for El showing me where it originated from, I would be none the wiser.

The Tiering system measured solely by the number of CCVs, concurrent viewers, a vtuber had per stream. The posters on the /#/ believed that to be the best indicator of a vtuber's performance on a day-to-day basis, disregarding following and follower count across all social media entirely. They argued that those were a faulty way to judge who was better than who, since it was so much easier to fake most of those numbers with various means, like botting or inactive followers. Active members of a community that engaged with the streamer were weighted more considerably in this system.

As a Tier 7 vtuber, that meant I stood above the 1views, streamers that had only one digit of watchers on average, that populated Tier 8, the lowest Tier, but remained below those that had a consistent CCVs in the triple digits. So, the more CCVs you achieved, the higher you climb on the Tiering system. With the very top standing at Tier 0, those who could pull tens of thousands of people on any given stream.

Of course, my oshi, Eden, shone the brightest among those stars. She was the very best, after all.

While I could appreciate the peak of vtubing as much as I wanted, I wouldn't be there anytime soon. My focus should remain in my agency, DreamLink. Compared to the other girls, I had a lot of catching up to do.

Kirara and Symphonia streamed to an audience of at least four hundred, putting them in Tier 5. While the former's content had mass appeal with fleshtuber watchers, the latter emphasized maintaining kayfabe and lore consistency to entertain her viewers. Due to the diametrically opposing style in content creation, their audience had very little overlap. The vibe of their respective chat was like night and day.

As for Hisui and El, both of them were Tier 6. They consistently had CCVs in the lower rung of the 3views. Though, neither of them minded their numbers that much. Hisui cared far more about building a closer relationship with her fanbase, and El just streamed hardcore, competitive multiplayer shooters whenever, even if they limited her growth potential in the long run.

Despite their different approach in content creation, all of my genmates were amazing! So, in order to not be deadweight to them, I had to put in the effort too.

The Neighbors were here to be entertained by Rayna. I shouldn't let Zofia's insecurities and issues seep through to her and mess with her vibe. I had to be my best self for the people that took the time of their day to see the bright and cheerful knight-in-training!

"You guys know the deal. I've got a bowl of mildly spicy peppers at my side and some absurdly difficult platformer ready to stream. Because I like a good challenge, every time I die, I'll rawdog these peppers while I keep going! This is what training is all about!"

'Sounds painful, you sure you should be doing this after your health issue?''
'Please take care of yourself!'
'lol nice wording bro'

The Neighbors expressed their concern about me doing a punishment stream right off the bat after my 'health emergency'.

Awww, they were so sweet! They were the best fans a cheerful tomboy could ask for!

But I couldn't betray them, not after leaving them high and dry for two days straight! I had to make it up to them. I toggled on Rayna's ears, making them erect, and mustered the best smile I could to convey her energetic disposition.

"Aww, you guys are such great Neighbors, but don't worry about little old me! These are just mildly spicy peppers you can get anywhere, it's not like I'm pounding back ghost peppers or anything."

That seemed to calm them down. However, they were still telling me to not overexert myself. I did cause a bit of a panic in both the agency's server and my own fanbase, so I had to put their worries to rest.

"So, let's get to it, guys! I have to give it my all for this training session to make up for the ones I skipped out on!"

The stream started in earnest. Instead of being patient and watching my timing between jumps, I bulldozed through the obstacle course with nothing but guts and glory. The Neighbors cheered me on, lifting my spirit up. I made Rayna put on a smug expression and flattened her ears with a toggle as I huffed into the mic.

'ezpz'
'You've got this Rayna!'
'Watch out for your momentum, you're going to slide.'

As expected, I died in about a minute flat.

"Dang, looks like I'll have to take this more seriously." I muttered softly, but still loud enough into the mic. Then, my hand slowly inched towards the bowl and my fingers hovered over it. Gulping, I grabbed a pepper and took a big bite out of it, like how Rayna would. I immediately regretted it as I tried my best to muffle a whimper and powered through the pain.

"Y-Yummy! Now I'm really feeling the burn! Next time I won't go down as easily."

'You don't sound so good.'
'Are you okay?'
'You should have a glass of milk on hand if you want to push yourself like this.'

"C-Come on, guys, what kind of punishment stream would this be, if I would get off without a scratch! No pain, no gain!" I said, feeling tears clouding the corners of my vision.

…Truth be told, I was very bad about handling spices. Even the mildest ones would knock me out of commission. But for the sake of the Neighbors, I wouldn't back down from this challenge!

It was Kirara who suggested that I shape my stream this way, actually.

The first few months of vtubing were a rude wake up call for me. Although I had made it past the auditions, I had no idea what I was doing and ended up wasting my debut buff. I would struggle to stay above Tier 8 while my genmates grew leaps and bound by settling into their niche. The only advantage I had, if you could call it that, was that I had all the time in the world to stream.

Because I was a NEET, get it?

So, I spammed six-hours long streams every day of the week. Instead of growing like I wanted, I ended up bleeding viewers because they couldn't keep up with my pacing. That was a stupid strategy in hindsight. It nearly caused me to have a mental breakdown from seeing my own fans leaving me one by one.

Thankfully, Kirara was the first to notice me having troubles, and pointed out that I was being horribly inefficient with my time. Rather than doing nothing with it, I should've built my content around it. She suggested that I should take advantage of my…living situation and try incorporating challenges into my stream. Like taking punishment if I fail with a task. This slight change in my content would certainly keep the Neighbors interested in what was happening on screen.

And she was right, I was able to reverse the decline and have a consistent audience of twenty people, achieving Tier 7 status as a result.

The Neighbors watching me right here and now were proof of that. I had to lock in and live up to their expectations!

The second time I tried the obstacle course, I did much better despite me shrieking into the mic like a banshee from the spice. It was a real hurdle to get past the flying projectiles with this game's purposeful clunky movement and control, but I couldn't have done it without the Neighbors being there for me. Thanks to their supportive comments, I pushed past the burning sensation in my mouth and jumped my way to success.

Finding a good place to stop, I let my focus drift. Being a vtuber wasn't just about being good in a game, I had to make sure my fans were engaged with my content too. If I took too long to talk to a Neighbor, he would probably get sad from being ignored and dip from the stream a second after. Hisui taught me better than that.

In the past, when she noticed me having troubles keeping up with the increased number of chatters, Hisui told me to address my chatters by name as opposed to calling them 'chat' and reply to them as if we were in a group call together. The advice was simple and effective. It helped me gain another ten CCVs.

"Phew, see, Outlawed Coalman? Easy-peasy," I bragged, huffing my chest. My eyes lingered on the Neighbors' names in the chat. "You and the others are just being worrywarts over nothing. I'm still at the top of my game!"

'I was just watching out for you, but good job getting through there.'
'Nice going, Rayna!'
'not gonna sugarcoat it, but you're playing like trash. you good, miss strimmer?'

Some of the Neighbors were swayed, while the older fans, my regulars, expressed doubt. I couldn't help but be flattered by their attentiveness, but it was my job to entertain, not worry them.

"I'm glad that you guys think so much of me, I really am," I said as I resumed the game. "But even if some IRL stuff gets to me at times, I would never let it sour the mood. You guys deserve far better than me moping on stream."

I blinked. Oh no, I let a little bit of 'Zofia' seeped into Rayna!

In that lapse of judgement, I died again, this time by complete accident.

"Oh crud, welp, down the hatch…" I ate another pepper and wished I had a carton of milk on hand. Hissing through my teeth, I did everything in my power to push a scream back down my throat.

"A-A-Ah, th-that tasted great!" I forced myself to speak through the tears. The Neighbors were quiet.

Sighing, I did owe them an explanation.

"Heheheh…I can't hide anything from you guys, can't I?" I felt my forced smile faltering. My fingers automatically moved to toggle Rayna's ears to a lower position. "It's just that a lot of stuff's been going on, and sometimes I feel lost." The Neighbors paid rapt attention to my sudden confession.

However, as much as I wanted to tell them everything, some details were better off kept hidden. The drama of behind-the-scenes stuff shouldn't be allowed to taint the experience of the fans.

"You know how sometimes life throws you a curveball, and the only thing you can do is just to bear with it. No matter how much you wish it wasn't the case," I continued. My character in the game jumped through the initial obstacles and returned to where I was the second time around.

'i geddit'
'It is what it is…'
'Story of my life.'

The Neighbors empathized with me, a couple of the more well-articulate ones shared similar stories of going through pain.

"Yeah…at times, I felt like I took everything for granted, and now it feels like if I blink for even a second, everything could disappear. And that there's nothing I could do to stop it. It sucks."

I overshot my jump and died again. Another dreadful pepper, and more tears in my eyes. More muffled whimperings.

"B-B-But even so, I don't think I should give up just yet. After all, it's not a challenge if it's not something worth doing!"

My breathing became harsh. My nose was stuffy from the fiery sensation building up at the back of my throat. Maybe I should run out and grab some milk… But I stopped myself when I saw a familiar name in the chat.

El dropped by and typed out a hug emote.

"Hey El, welcome, welcome! Thanks for popping by!" Both Rayna and I perked up at seeing our friend. She was usually asleep by this time, seeing that it was the early morning and all.

'hey rayna you breathing fire yet?'

I giggled at her comment. It was no secret that among my genmates, I had the worst spice tolerance.

It was El's idea for me to play ragegames in particular. After hearing Kirara's advice, she recommended a bunch of difficult games to serve as the basis for my challenges. They were perfect for my new direction in content, netting me ten more viewers.

So, seeing her here, I felt my determination renewing. I jumped my way past the first leg of this aggressively hard rage game, with a smile on my face and beads of sweat rolling down my forehead.

"But yeah, even though things are hard right now, so long as I have the Neighbors and my genmates supporting me, I think I can get through it. No, I will get through it!"

'Become the girlboss you know you can be.'
'That's our knight-in-training for you!'
'RAYNA LOVE'

My fans expressed joy at hearing my declaration. Heart emotes and words of gratitude flooded my chat. El was among them.

I made more progress into the game, further than I had gotten on my second try. It felt like a tremendous achievement in and of itself, I think I deserved a breather. So as a spur of the moment decision, I toggled off Rayna's chestplate, leaving her on with just her tank top. The Neighbors went wild from the sudden fanservice, another bit of Hisui's advice, and I couldn't help but feel giddy at their unbridled joy.

With my burden lightening up, I pressed on with the game.

"You guys probably have been curious about my post on Z," I started, unsure of where I was going with this. But one look at Rayna's determined face, I followed through with resolve of my own.

"Like, what kind of crazy dream must it have been to get me to sleep the entire day away? Well, I'll tell you! I've been wanting to share it with you all, too. And I don't think a post on Z would do it justice."

I deftly avoided the guillotine blades and barrage of thrown tomatoes. The clunky control nearly ended my run however. There were several close calls where I almost slipped off the edge after dodging the traps. The success in this attempt fueled my mood.

"Anyway, you know how sometimes you have one of those vivid dreams where it feels super lifelike? Kind of like lucid dreaming, but I couldn't control it like a god or anything, just live through it, I guess." A majority of the Neighbors didn't get it, but understood the gist of it. While a handful knew what I was talking about, one of those life-like dreams that seemed so real. El kept quiet, so as to not spoil the surprise. How nice of her.

"So, in it, I was in a fantasy world where I was an adventurer in a party alongside my genmates and CEO."

'lol is this the start of your isekai fanfic, miss strimmer?'

One of the regulars, Sheepboy Digital, picked up on it really fast and made a correct guess. I nodded in affirmative.

"Yeah, you guessed it, I was Rayna, like actually her – a knight-in-training! I had my horse ears and everything! It felt so surreal, man. I was swinging my sword and bashing my shield and stuff." I then scratched the side of my cheek while chuckling awkwardly. "Though, I barely got to explore because I got caught up in a life and death battle right off the bat. It was pretty nerve-wracking, but we somehow made it through."

Then a superchat popped in. I chuckled at the name.

'A whole harem of girls to yourself? Must be nice.'

"Thank you for the donation, NubianMILFMissionary! Yeah, I got to hang out with all the girls in my dream–whoops!" And then I fell into the void because I misjudged the distance. Another pepper eaten, more tears to be shed. And me making more unpleasant noises into the mic.

"S-So, basically, you guys know about lore in regards to my gen – the AnaChronoclasts? Like how we're warriors from all across time and space thrown into a contemporary fantasy setting and banded together as an adventuring party to figure out a way to return home?" The more involved Neighbors, the ones who also hung out in the other girls' chat, understood our setting. The newer ones brought in by Kirara's anniversary stunt were lost initially until the mod in my chat, Multiplier, explained our gen's gimmick to them.

Symphonia, Kirara, Hisui, El, and me were DreamLink's (the agency we all belonged to) first generation of vtubers – the AnaChronoclasts. A band of time-displaced and dimensionally-uprooted adventurers on a journey to return home, to our rightful time and world. That was the base setting we all shared, then each talent had their own in-depth story to expand on our lore. Like, Kirara and Hisui had a very intricate background about what their characters were doing before they got dragged into the new world.

Mine, or rather Rayna's backstory, was a bit simpler. She was just a knight-in-training from an idyllic, pastoral kingdom in a medieval fantasy world. She had just taken the first step on her path to be a defender of the weak and innocent when she tripped and fell into a portal in the midst of her training. The rest was history.

"I think the dream I had followed that. Like I said, I didn't get to explore much, but everything about it felt kind of right. Like a gut feeling, you know," I continued, both my explanation and the game. "Everyone was there. We were a party. Burb-san was the party's helpful mascot, I was, of course, the tank, El's a gunner with very out of place guns and stuff."

Said girl posted a gun emote and typed out 'pew pew'. She sure knew how to brighten my day, I loved my friend so much.

"Kirara was a cocky sword prodigy, Hisui could actually use magic, and Symmy was literally a magical girl. It was amazing to see everyone act out their lore! It's like watching a real-life anime, and I get to be in the front row seat!"

Giggling, I swayed back and forth in my chair. Rayna bounced around energetically.

"Though, I suppose I was one of the characters, hehehe," I mused. Getting through the initial obstacle course had become routine by this point. I cleared it with ease. "But yeah, apparently, I got knocked out by some ogre and when I came to, I was Rayna, for realsies!"

I began recounting the event of the dream as I expertly navigated through this troublesome rage game. All the while, my other self never looked so animated than in this moment. The Neighbors chimed in, talking about how that would've been such a cool first episode for an anime. They said it was like the beginning of a transmigration isekai story, where I took Rayna's place and had to live in her shoes while making sure that no one else caught onto the swap!

Indeed, it would've been a banger!

…El was uncharacteristically silent. Usually, she would be the first to tease me about my apparent bad taste in anime and light novels. But she didn't.

That conversation we had must have been weighing on her mind.

After all, it seemed like dream El and real world El were connected in some way. I just didn't know what, how, or why. They simply were, and if I were a gacha addicted degenerate like Hisui, then I would bet that my other genmates in my dream shared this connection too. I needed a way to test this theory of mine.

Which should be simple, I had a dirty but comfortable bed waiting to take me into its embrace. Once I closed my eyes, a fantastical realm of wonder should be on the other side of consciousness. When I arrived there, I believed I knew who I should interact with next.

The one whose farewell spelled the doom of this small agency…

As I jumped on another floating platform, the person of interest appeared with great fanfare.

"Hey Symmy! How's your morning going?" I excitedly blurted out when I saw her name among my chat. The Neighbors greeted her with as much enthusiasm as mine.

Symphonia was at one point DreamLink's top vtuber. She helped me settle into the role of Rayna Kluz, a knight-in-training, bridging the character concept with my streaming activities. All of my challenge streams became training sessions, the Neighbors became the people I met on my patrol. Such a thematic link allowed for better immersion, making my streams a much more fun experience for those who stayed and watched. Earning me ten more CCVs.

Putting me at the fifty viewers mark I had before the anniversary stream.

I would never be where I was now without my amazing genmates. Have I mentioned how amazing they were yet? Because they totally were and I would scream it out for everyone to hear!

It was as they said, the chat reflected the streamer!

…And then I slipped up on my landing and had to restart again.

'you gotta pay attention, miss strimmer'

My shoulders sagged, and I accepted my punishment with gusto. Weeping on the inside.

"D-Darn it, looks like I can't hold in my spaghetti around cute girls. Now I know how you guys feel!" I giggled despite the urge to get off my desktop and bathe my tongue in cold, running water.

'Literally me right now.'
'So relatable.'
'I wish I could talk to cute girls on a daily basis…'

The Neighbors seemed to enjoy my joke at least. Especially El, she spammed the laughing crying emoji faces.

I pressed the combination keys for Rayna to stick out her tongue as I tried to ignore how my own mouth was on fire. Pleasing the Neighbors was worth enduring the pain!

'Hello, Rayna. My morning has been treating me well, thank you for asking. I'm glad to see you in good spirits too. I came by to see what you were up to before preparing for my own stream.'

Blinking, I looked at the corner of my monitor and nearly jumped out of my chair. Two and a half hours went by without me noticing! Time sure flew by when I was talking about the dream with the Neighbors.

Wait…There were twenty more Neighbors watching me live right now too! Yippee!

But as much as I wanted to continue, I felt a yawn emerging from my burning throat. It was probably a good time to wrap it up and wind down.

Besides, I had a dream to visit if I wanted to change the destiny of the AnaChronoclasts.

"Awwww, thanks for coming by, Neighbors. You too, El and Symmy. It's always a great day in the neighborhood hanging out with all of you. But it's getting late on my end, so I'll be ending the stream soon." I exited out of the game and put on the 'just chatting' screen, where Rayna hung out in front of a barrack with the chat overlay on the other side.

El sent the saluting emote, while Symphonia typed another message in my chat.

'Thank you for the stream, Rayna. Your training session went very well today. Take a rest, you earned it.'

I blushed at her praise. I didn't deserve it, but I loved my genmates so much, I had no choice but to accept it. I wished we could remain as we were, before the cracks began to appear.

Wiping away the tears, I still had a job to do.

"Let me set up the raid to Symmy's waiting room, and we should be good to go!" Taking a deep breath, I worked up my resolve. While I was addressing the last of the Neighbors' comments, I sent a DM to Symphonia on ChaosComm.

'Symmy, can we talk? You know, about the thing. I don't mind if you don't want to, but I really want to know if you're actually going through with it.'

Rayna continued to read off more comments and bantered with her fans. El waved the both of us off and logged off, citing that she should go to bed after staying up all night. Symphonia didn't make a comment there.

Instead, she replied to my DM.

'Yes. However, I believe this is a delicate matter, so it'd be better if the both of us meet face to face over it. Please come to…' She listed an address and the time I should meet her by tomorrow. If I recall correctly, it was the little coffee shop by her workplace.

…I absolutely couldn't meet her without cleaning up first!

Rayna faltered for a second on screen before recovering her poise and finishing off the last of the comments.

'OtsuRay!' 'otsuray' 'OTSURAY!!!'

The Neighbors bid their farewell. Swallowing my spit, I matched my other self's resolve and sent them off.

"Later, Neighbors! I hope to see you guys around the neighborhood again. It's thanks to you guys that I get to do my dream job and meet all the amazing girls in DreamLink. Next time it'll be our usual slot instead of the early morning!"

With that, I transitioned to the ending screen and turned off my mic. The stream was set to disconnect in several seconds, so I stood up from my chair and ran to my bathroom. I went to the faucet and turned on the cold water to the max without a second thought.

A flood of relief soothed my aching, burning tongue, and I felt myself slumping on the wash basin. I probably should've used milk for this, but eh, who cared, this felt so much better…

After a couple of minutes of thorough washing, I rinsed my mouth one more time before I started brushing my teeth. It had been several days since I last did this, it was high time to take care of my hygiene.

I was going to meet with Symphonia, after all. She deserved me no less than me at my best.

Once I was done brushing and rinsing my mouth again, I exited out my bathroom and marched to my desktop. With the stream over, I turned off V-Stage and the other screen-capturing programs. I left the bowl of the peppers where they were and grabbed my phone.

I went on Symphonia's chat, said my greeting alongside the Neighbors. Then, I checked in with the rest of the girls and staff on DreamLink's ChaosComm server. Burb-san seemed happy that I was doing well and already back to streaming. Hisui was probably asleep after working the night shift, so there was no response from her. Kirara, who had just woken up, posted a funny gif of Kermit the Frog falling down from a building, to subtly tell all of us how her day had been going. I shook my head and prepared myself to go back to that wonderful dream.

But first thing first.

"Please watch over me. I'll do my best to keep everyone together," I uttered a small prayer to my oshi. An errant ray of light hit the wall scrolls just at the right angle. Pure white wings gleamed with an angelic shine. Her serene smile graced my lowly self with the brilliance of the divine.

And with my ritual done, I set my alarm clock and threw myself into the blankety embrace of my cozy bed. It may be just the beginning of noon, but taking an extended midday nap wouldn't hurt anyone. Putting on some boring podcast, I closed my eyes, heart beating with anticipation. I laid waiting for the dream to claim me, to spirit me from chained down reality and into unfettered fantasy instead.

Gradually, my consciousness receded. A wall of blackness crept from all sides and…

.

..

…

….Beep! Beep! Beep!

I woke up with a start. I looked around in a hurry, only to freeze when I realized where I was.

Instead of being greeted by the fantastical sights of my dream, I was met with the same trashy room I knew for practically all my life. The cluttered desktop was over there, with the bowl of peppers exactly where I left it. I was on my plushie-filled bed, holding my phone next to me.

Looking at the time, I had a couple of hours to prepare before I met up with Symphonia, and I hadn't taken a shower or bath for at least seven days now.

My heart began to pound faster, loud enough to be heard from my ears. A conclusion was dawning over me. I couldn't deny reality, only accept it.

It was entirely possible that the fantastical dream I had might have been a one time thing…

So, with the disappointing start to my day, I groaned and looked to Eden.

"It was stupid of me to hedge everything on a dream, wasn't it? So much for not failing my mission."

She replied with a silent look of pity in turn.


AN: Originally, I wanted to base Rayna/Zofia more on Filian, but it just didn't panned out during the writing process. Ended up playing more into the NEET angle, which resulted in her taking a lot of queue from someone like Pippa. Anyway, here's our heroine in full view, hope she doesn't come across as whiny lol.

 

[Bandresnatch]

This is where I'll be putting in the pictures of the talents behind the vtubers! I'll put them up as they get introduced. The first one up is of course our protagonist herself -- Zofia!

Spoiler: Zofia, a bloomer NEET trying her best!

Drawn by @/snowkindred over on X

 

[Bandresnatch]

I stared at my reflection in the mirror. My hair was an unsalvageable mess. No matter how much I tried to tame it, the split ends and cow licks wouldn't go away! I hadn't had it cut in a long while too, so this rat's nest on my head had grown long enough to reach to my waist. A consequence of me becoming a shut-in the moment I dropped out of high school.
Sighing, I gave up on managing it and checked my face instead. My make-up was minimal, but presentable to the public at least. I'd never been keen on dressing up more than necessary. Just enough to bring out the shine in my dull green eyes and accentuate my round cheeks. As long as I didn't look like a creature that crawled out of a cave, that was good.

Blowing a loose strand of black hair out of my face, I continued with my last minute once-over. Obviously, I couldn't come out here in my days old tracksuit combo, so I had on a clean green track jacket over a bright, poppy magical girl t-shirt and wore some leggings I threw on from the dresser. The fanny pack kept all my essentials and, most importantly, my phone and accessories.

I lifted my arm over my face and gave myself an experimental sniff. I had showered and scrubbed myself thoroughly, even poured on some deodorant, before I biked it to the coffee shop. There was no hint of 'girl smell particles' as the boards would put it, so I was good to go!

Looking into my reflection one more time, the confident and upbeat Rayna was nowhere to be found, just plain old Zofia with all her anxiety and distress stared back.

"I can do this, be my best self and meet with Symmy, get her to open up, and ask her why she's graduating. The worst she can do is deflect and avoid talking about it. No sweat off my back," I muttered quietly, hunched over the sink. The nervous girl in the mirror didn't change her expression of uncertainty, no matter how much I tried to psyche myself up. Pep talks weren't getting me anywhere, so it was time for my secret weapon.

Taking a deep breath, I quickly opened my phone, but instead of entering my passcode, I just turned it on and stared at it. At my phone background, the official wallpaper art of my oshi – Eden Grailsphere. A beautiful, angelic idol sent forth on a holy mission to stir mankind's heart from apathy once more. A light in the dark, a shining beacon of hope and dream, a saintess who showed unequivocal, all-encompassing kindness to even the lowliest of worms.

"Embrace your dream, and let it shine," I read the motto – Eden's motto – written on the art. A motto which I would shamelessly steal and lazily simplify to 'shine on!' for Rayna to use. Confident words of encouragement that I sought to imitate.

Words that I sorely needed right now.

I took another deep breath, feeling my flaying nerves resettled beneath my skin. The palpable tension bled off me as I repeated this breathing exercise for several more rounds. As soon as I put a lid on my broiling emotions, I stared at my hazy reflection and resolved to meet Symphonia head on.

With no time to waste, I forced myself to stumble away and exited the restroom.

The pleasant aroma of roasted beans greeted me, beckoning me to go to the counter and buy some frappuccino. As much as I wanted to scramble off to the nearest corner, it was rude to come into a quaint little store like this and not get anything, so I went up there and confronted the biggest hurdle to any self-respecting NEET.

Ordering from the cashier.

I could hear the sound of my own heartbeat as I made my trek to the counter. I could feel the judging stare from the fish-patterned apron-wearing girl behind the cash register, picking apart my choice of outfit and silently criticizing my messy hair. My steps grew shorter, unsure if I should keep going forward or turn tail and run back out to my bike.

But that would betray Symphonia's trust in me.

Gulping, I closed the distance and faced my fear.

"Hello, how may I help you?" the girl asked with a practiced smile. Though she hid it well, I could sense the subtle annoyance at my presence in her genial tone of voice.

"U-Um, uhh, I," I replied, refusing to meet her eyes. I focused on the fish-shaped stylized menu behind her. While there were many drinks to choose from, I wasn't much of a coffee drinker. Couldn't stand the bitterness, in fact. Hated it. I preferred sweeter flavors.

Which was to say, I didn't belong here, and she knew. She and those googly-eyed fish on her apron could sense my childish tastes! Everyone knew proper adults like bitter coffees, only little kids would be unable to let go of sugar and sweets.

"It's okay to take your time. Please, don't feel pressured from ordering."

Translation: Get on with it already, I don't have all the time in the world to wait for you stinky loser.

I gripped the edges of my jacket with trembling hands, heart pounding much louder. I became keenly aware of my flaws. Like the way I walked, my posture, the smell of my breath, my lack of fashion sense, how dirty I looked.

How much of a disappointing loser I was.

"Ma'm, are you okay…? Do you need help?"

I began to breathe harshly. The girl behind the counter looked at me with naked disgust. All the fish-themed decorations scattered across the counter and windowsills gazed into the core of my being, whispering among themselves. They picked apart my choice in clothing, how utterly childish I looked with the magical girl t-shirt. Asking why I'd even bother coming here, dressing up like a slob that crawled out from a mountain of trash. What was a cave-dwelling creature doing here, out in the open? Where everyone can see how much of a failure I was. This was no place for me.

I couldn't refute any of their accusations. They were all correct. I was nothing more than a wretched little creature. I didn't deserve to be here. The pounding in my head was my just dessert, and the room spun round and round until bile rose up in my throat and I–

"Can you get her a medium-sized hot chocolate and some banana bread?"

A gentle hand laid on my shoulder. I felt myself calming at the familiar deep, mature womanly voice.

"I can certainly get her those, but–"

"Don't worry, she's with me," Symphonia said. I nodded vigorously.

The barista stared at me for an agonizingly long second before she turned around to brew my hot chocolate.

"Why don't you get us a table, Zofia?" The tall, stylish woman let go of me and stepped forward, rifling through her purse. I nodded at her listlessly and did as I was told.

I found a spot faraway from the windows, away from prying eyes. Judging me for every mistake I'd made. Every flaw on display.

I sank into the chair and made myself appear smaller. I wanted to fiddle with my phone, but I thought better. Just because I distracted myself didn't mean those stares would go away. If anything, I would be judged even more for being on it instead of having a proper meet-up.

After what felt like eternity, the clacking of heels alerted me to my purpose being here.

"Sorry for the wait, but here's something for you to eat. I'm sure you must be tired from biking all across town to come here." The woman with Symphonia's voice then took her seat opposite of me. She casually exuded an unmatched level of grace and elegance just by handing me a cup of hot chocolate and a plate of banana bread.

Her long, pale blonde hair glistened even in the dim lighting of the cafe. That alone spoke volumes of how much she took care of it, of the effort she put into herself. Even the way she dressed exemplified her meticulous nature. The tight-fitting black turtleneck sweater and high-rise khaki pants highlighted her gifted figure. Behind a pair of thick black-rimmed glasses, beautiful blue eyes full of confidence peered at me with concern. Though her sharp features would normally strike fear into an unworthy pest like me, I felt at ease in her presence.

She was a ray of light shining through the dark clouds of anxiety, warm and beautiful, everything I wasn't.

"Umm, thanks, Symmy–I mean, Catherine," I said. Blinking, I glanced down at the beverage and snack placed in front of me. "Wait, you didn't buy these for me, did you? Oh, I'mterriblysorryletmerepay–"

"Think nothing of it." She waved me off, smiling kindly. Demurely picking up her coffee cup, she took a small sip. "It would be remiss of me as an adult to not fulfill my responsibility towards a young girl like you."

"B-But I'm already nineteen…" I squeaked out as I curled in on myself.

"Practically a child in my eyes. Speaking of." Catherine Howard, the woman who piloted the magical girl ♡Symphonia, looked me up and down. I felt myself trembling under her scrutiny. "You haven't been skipping your meals, have you? A poor diet can lead to malnutrition, which gives way to many lifelong diseases, including sleeping disorders. I understand that you're young and still have a relatively healthy body, but once you get to my age, those issues will rear their ugly heads when you least want them to. Take it from me, you don't want back pain to be a constant in your life."

I stared at her hefty chest, and then back down at mine. Barely a bump in my stringy silhouette. I highly doubted I would encounter the same issues as her.

But nonetheless, I nodded and accepted her wisdom. Catherine and Symphonia were my and Rayna's role models – our aspirations.

Eden may have shown me the path, but it was Catherine and Symphonia who helped me along my journey as a vtuber.

"Well?" She tilted her head, lowering her coffee cup.

"Err…" I began. "Besides the peppers for yesterday's stream, I, uhh, had a cereal bar?"

Catherine gave me a flat stare.

"Was this before you came to the coffee shop, or before yesterday's stream?"

I turned away from her.

"...Before yesterday's stream."

My famished stomach, traitor that it was, growled at that moment.

Catherine took a long seep of her coffee and got up from her seat.

"Stay put for a minute, that banana bread isn't enough to feed an overgrown child."

Guilty as charged. Though it might've come off as a teasing remark at my expense, Catherine was too kind for that. She sounded more exasperated at how I treated my own body more than anything.

After shaking her head, she walked back to the counter with purposeful strides. I munched on the banana bread and drank from my tasty hot chocolate. The tide of sugary sweets appeased my empty stomach. By the time I finished a slice, Catherine had returned with a healthy-looking sandwich and a bottle of fancy mineral water.

"Save the desserts for later, you need actual food in your belly." She placed the sandwich in front of me before going back to her seat. Sighing, she pinched her brows. "Your fans would be saddened if they learn that their favorite content creator has starved herself because she forgot to eat three properly balanced meals a day. You will encounter more health emergencies if this keeps up. Even your oshi, Eden, isn't an exception from health issues. Great as she may be, she was still susceptible to burn out from not taking care of herself properly. Now, she only streams once every blue moon as a result."

"...I know, I'm still kind of peeved off about it. She barely streams anymore," I replied, grabbing hold of the sandwich. Instead of eating it, I hid my reddened cheeks behind it. "My fans deserve better than me doing the same thing too."

She nodded in agreement. "Yes, you can't be your best self for them if you hold no regard for your own health. You'll needlessly worry them otherwise. They truly care for you, you shouldn't take their feelings for granted." Her voice then softened as she relaxed her shoulders. "That's why you need to take better care of yourself, Zofia. Without you, there would be no Rayna."

"I understand." I then started on the sandwich. Catherine watched me with a gentle smile on her face as I worked through my meal. Due to my NEET lifestyle, I didn't need to eat much to maintain my body at an acceptable weight. Forcing myself to munch on a granola bar or two was enough to last me for a couple of days.

But if Catherine said that being my best self for the Neighbors entailed eating food, then I must. They deserve no less.

She waited patiently for me to finish my meal, leaning back in her chair. I hurried and took the last sip of my hot chocolate. My gaze roamed to the fish-shaped clock on the wall behind the barista. Thirty minutes until nine o'clock AM.

I already wasted enough of her time as is. Her shift should be starting soon if I remember right.

"Umm…Catherine, this might be a bit sudden, but." I fidgeted in my chair. "Were you serious about going through with your graduation plan? Did the fighting between Kirara and Hisui get to you that much?"

The elegant, older woman heaved a long suffering sigh before shaking her head.

"No, it's to be expected that not all of our colleagues would get along. I've long since made my peace with that simple fact," she said, voice kept in a neutral tone. "I'm just moving on with my life, a woman in her late thirties should have her priorities in order, like settling down and starting a family, not going around and chasing dreams from her childhood." The engagement ring on her finger glistened from a stray light. She glanced down at my t-shirt, at the magical girls from an old anime she recommended to me. "That's a privilege that belongs only to the youth."

My hands clenched at the finality in her declaration.

"So, it's over, just like that?"

Catherine nodded solemnly. "Just because my dreams have ended, that doesn't mean yours will. You're still at that age where you can pursue your dreams with all your heart. Please, don't let this experience deter you from enjoying what you love."

"But…The agency will be dissolved after your graduation," I said quietly. "Rayna and my dreams will die with DreamLink…"

"Not so, I know Michael, he wouldn't leave you girls to fend for yourselves." Michael being Burb-san's real name. "He may be spineless at times but he loves idols as much as I do. Michael'll do the right thing when the moment comes. As he always does when it matters the most." Catherine wore a small smile, as if reminiscing on a memory. She then leaned back in her chair, holding her coffee cup by its rim. "But if his better senses took leave of him, I'll make sure before I leave that all of you retain your character IPs. That's the least I can do for causing this situation in the first place."

"Y-You didn't though," I said. "It wasn't your fault. Kirara did it by–"

"No, I did it by announcing my intent to graduate. Had I known it would cause the dissolution of the company, I would've found a better opportunity to announce it, rather than in a call where Daisy and Jaiden were poised to go for each other's throat. I should've known better." Daisy and Jaiden were the two girls behind Kirara and Hisui, respectively. "While I could've put more effort to put a stop to their fighting before it had deteriorated to this extent, I had turned a blind eye in favor of meeting up with the man who would become my husband." Catherine sighed wistfully and swept her forlorn gaze to the side. "It's my fault that I couldn't devote my all to you girls too. For that I owe you an apology. I'm really sorry for causing this mess."

I…didn't know what to say. Burb-san and I felt the same way. I wasn't sure about El, but I had a feeling despite her aloofness she would take the blame for the generation falling apart as well. We ignored Kirara and Hisui's issues and let the two of them turn our ChaosComm server into a battlefield.

I hated how powerless I was, just standing by the side and watching as everything fell apart around me. How everyone did the same thing, ignoring the obvious in front of our eyes. No one lifted so much as a finger to stop their arguments. I was tired of it all…

An understanding passed between me and Catherine. We sat in an uncomfortable silence together. My senior, in both senses of the word, looked like she was about to say something, but stopped herself every time she was about to open her mouth. Even someone put together like her couldn't overcome the strains in our relationships.

If Catherine failed, did I have any chance to patch up the widening gulf in the AnaChronoclasts? Especially without the dreams to rely on.

I glanced back at the clock. It was ten minutes until nine o'clock. I had already wasted enough of her time, so I should leave soon.

Gathering the dirty plates, I stood up from my chair. Catherine hung her head as she put down her coffee cup.

"I'm sorry Zofia, I couldn't alleviate your worries."

I shook my head. Someone as warm and beautiful as her shouldn't look so lost.

"No…I think I'm coming to terms with it too. I'm sorry, I wasted your time, making you worry more about my eating habits than actually discussing the important stuff."

Catherine smiled wryly as she rose from her seat too. She towered over me, head and shoulders. I became acutely aware that the size of her chest matched my head.

Fate could be unfair at times.

"Spending time with my junior is never a waste. You are much like Jaiden in that regard, always thinking of others, but not about yourselves." Her voice snapped me back to attention. She then patted my head and I stiffened under the sudden physical touch. "And if you eat as well as I do, you'll catch up in no time. Nutrients have to come from somewhere, so make sure you never skip a meal again."

"I-I know, Catherine."

Her smile brightened.

"If I make sure that you can succeed, then my time with DreamLink, you, and the rest of the AnaChronoclasts was time well spent." She gave me one last scruffing before letting go. "When I'm gone, please promise you'll take better care of yourself. It's not the end, it's just the beginning of another chapter in your life."

"I will…" My eyes wandered to the clock. Four minutes left.

"And don't worry, we can have as many offline meetings as you want. Even if life gets in the way, I'll find ways to make time for you, Zofia," my senior said.

"Th-Thanks, Catherine." I brought a hand up to the top of my head. It felt like something was missing, but the lingering warmth more than made up for it. "I would like that."

She looked pleased by my response. "It's about time I head back to work. Be careful on your way home." Catherine turned around and headed for the door. But she paused midway and turned her face slightly around.

"Remember that you have friends, people that care for you. You can never disappoint them so long as you continue to shine on."

With that, she left the coffee shop. The woman I admired, the idol who guided me, the magical girl who lost her dreams, I only wished I could help her find them again. To help her regain her shine.

"If only it was that easy," I muttered quietly as I placed the used plates on the tray for dirty tableware.

Making my way to the entrance, I stuffed my hands in the pockets of my jacket. Left alone with my thoughts, I could only wonder what I was trying to achieve here. Nothing I could say would change the fact that Symphonia was leaving. What did I really want to say to Catherine?

As expected, reality wasn't so kind as to give me an answer. Dreams were merely the stuff of fantasy, after all.

—

"OtsuRay! Thank you all for coming to my stream. You guys are the best! I'll be going now, but let me set up a raid to one of the girls. Let's see which one of them is streaming…"

As I said my farewell to the Neighbors, I looked through the list of my genmates to see who was on and active around midnight. Hisui was a night owl, but she worked the night shift today, so obviously she wasn't streaming. Symphonia and Kirara were long asleep by this time, they actually had busy lives outside of vtubing.

Which left El, who usually streamed in the later time slots. Tuning into her stream, I set up my raid to there.

"Okay, guys, let's give El a big hearty howdy together!"

I closed off my stream, and MiTube's raid function took over. The Neighbors and I were greeted with the sight of El rampaging in a first-person hero shooter.

She smirked as soon as she saw the notification and tide of howdy in her chat.

"Thanks for the raid, Rayna, and howdy to you too, Neighbors. How's the night been treating you guys?"

'It's been going great! How about you?' I typed out my reply. The others joined me with their enthusiasm.

Though, personally I wished things could've gone better with Symphonia, but that was neither here or there.

"Heh, glad to hear it," El said, casually sniping an enemy player across the map. "You guys came in just at the right time, I was about to get to the good part."

Her model pulled out a strange device. While it appeared to be a megaphone for all intents and purposes, I couldn't call it that exactly. Since it looked more like a rifle with its barrel replaced with a huge cone.

This was one of her toggles. El was particular about their designs. Usually us vtubers would have toggles that made minor adjustments to our appearance, like a different hairstyle or me unequipping my breastplate. That sort of stuff.

El wanted a variety of weapons instead.

And if I recall correctly, she used the megaphone toggle for one reason alone…

"Hey you lot, what's going on? Why are you all playing like shit? That time of the month or something?" The reverb in her voice and the way her in-game character portrait lit up meant that she was using the in-game voice chat function.

"Shut up, you aimbot-abusing animal! I'm reporting your ass to the devs. Enjoy your ban you fucking bitch."

And that she wasn't making that comment towards her teammates, but at the enemy team.

"Wah, wah, go cry some more, pussy. If you can't point and aim, why the fuck are you playing this game? Go back to stacking bricks in BloxCraft."

"Ahhh! That does it! You're courting death!"

Suddenly, an enemy hero burst through the wall, radiating murderous intent. However, before he could even shoot or use a skill, El had already shot him in the head in the blink of an eye.

The incoherent scream of rage that followed nearly burst my eardrums. Thankfully, the voice was abruptly silenced with a simple click of the mute button on El's part.

"Better luck next time." She then blew her unfortunate victim a mocking kiss. "Anyway, you can pop on over at my stream in this link, to see your ass getting creamed by pure, raw talent."

El posted it in the in-game global chat, and her viewers went wild at the display of sheer disrespect. The Neighbors were impressed with her quick-thinking and lightning-fast reflex too. And I couldn't deny it either.

…Though, I couldn't help but feel bad for the poor guy, he got farmed for content.

Out of everyone in my generation, I could confidently say that she was the best gamer. The way she handled her chat and paid close attention to the hectic, chaotic games in this genre was downright amazing!

"Enjoying the show, Rayna?" Her model holstered the megaphone-looking rifle, voice no longer carrying that reverb effect. "As much as I would love to show off more to my dear knight-in-training, I think you've had a long day, take some rest. You can always watch my VOD anytime you want."

While in the middle of typing my protest, a yawn escaped me. 'Yeah, I guess so. See you later, El! You keep on winning, okay?'

"That goes without saying, sweet dreams Rayna."

With El's parting message, I logged off my vtuber account. Double-checking my mic and webcam, I made sure that everything was turned off as well.

Exhaling a breath, I looked down at my cluttered desktop, at the bowl of rice and sweet and sour chicken. Dad had placed it outside my room before the start of today's stream.

He even wrote a little note, telling me that if I wanted to project more energy in Rayna, I should eat more and join him and Mom during their workout sessions again.

I appreciated the gesture, but I was committed to the NEET life. There was no going back for me.

And I already ate the sandwich Catherine bought me this morning anyway. I could go without real food for two more days.

But…

"I did promise her," I muttered, picking up the spoon to chow down.

It was okay, I guess. I never really understood why people enjoy food so much. Taste, texture, flavor, none of that really mattered. All that mattered was how many calories I burned per day. As a NEET, my minimum caloric intake was much lower than the average person's. Vitamins filled in the gap in my diet, absolutely no need for traditionally home cooked meals whatsoever.

Honestly, if I could replace my diet with nothing but meal replacement shakes, I would. But they cost so much in the long run, I didn't bother.

Finishing up my meal, I squeezed a bottle of water and chugged it down in a very Rayna-like way. I left the empty bowl and crumpled-up plastic bottle on my desk, alongside the bowl of peppers from yesterday's stream.

I should throw those out soon…

Anyway, I went to the bathroom and brushed my teeth, checking up on everyone on the company's server. As soon as I was done, I set up my alarm clock and tossed myself onto my dirty bed. Closing my eyes, I let my consciousness slip away into oblivion.

Where dreams became nothing more than wishful thinking.

.

..

…

….

"Rayna, are you alright?" Symphonia's concerned voice roused me from my slumber.

"Who-hoozat?" I said. My soft mattress felt rough and prickly for whatever reason. The light pierced through my eyelids, forcing me to return to the waking world.

"Oh no, not again," Burb-san lamented. I felt a weight atop of my head. As my eyes opened, I was greeted by the sight of a bird looking at me with its neck craning down.

"Rayna, how many fingers am I holding up?" The bird unfurled its right wing, holding out three prominent feathers.

"Three…?" I slurred, holding my throbbing head. Huh, I was wearing leather gloves again, just like in that dream…

"Well, technically none, but yes!" Burb-san said and jumped off. He hovered in front of me as Symphonia stared dagger at him. She was a magical girl with pink-and-blue hair styled in long, wavy tresses instead of the stylish, mature office worker I met this morning.

This must mean…

"Birdy, if you think Rayna might have a concussion, could you not sit on her head? That would only agitate the injury even further." Symphonia jabbed at Burb-san's chubby tummy. The bird CEO-mascot squawked in indignation, but the magical girl ignored him. She then turned to me, holding her hand out.

"Here, let's get you on your feet and catch you up to speed. You must be confused right now, aren't you?"

"Huh? Am I dreaming again…?" I said, taking her hand. I wasn't so much as lifted up as I was nearly thrown into the air. Symphonia's tiny frame belied incredible strength, just like the magical girls in those old anime she recommended to me.

"I'm sorry, I've been having…issues controlling my power lately," she apologized. "It seems that I misjudged how much force I needed to exert." She retracted her hand, opening and closing it repeatedly as if her own appendage was alien to her.

Shaking her head, she lowered her tiny hand to her side. "However, my issues aren't relevant. What needs our attention right now is–"

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! Someone save me!" El screamed as she flew through the air, flailing her limbs in a panic.

Without a second thought, my legs moved by themselves and I had broken into a sprint before I realized it. I caught the elven soldier before she ended up face planted into a tree.

Instead, we spun through the air right before we hit the ground, with me acting as her cushion. Luckily, El weighed as much as her lithe build suggested, which was to say, not much at all. She was on top of me as I laid on my backside, sprawling on all four against soft dirt.

"Oww…" I muttered. At least this time my head didn't feel like it was killing me, just a dull throbbing in my spine. No biggie.

"My knight-in-shining-armor," El said, a twinkle in her gray eyes. She then rolled off from me and jumped back on her feet in one smooth motion. Meanwhile, I remained on the ground, groaning, wondering what was wrong with me.

…I must be some kind of freak if I kept dreaming about getting head injuries right before a life-or-death situation.

Because several muscle-bound humanoid fish-looking things suddenly broke through the treeline, with a haggard Kirara and roughed-up Hisui in tow.

The aroma of freshly roasted coffee beans was strong in the air.

Well, nothing to it, if this was the price to pay to re-enter this fantastical dream, then I had to do my best to shine on!

…In five minutes, I wanted to lay in my dirt bed a little bit longer. It was starting to feel nice.


AN: I've tried soylent. They taste like bad chocolate shakes.