The file Ryuko sent had arrived.

‘This is it?’

I downloaded the file and opened it then dragged the outfit onto myself.

A halo of light wrapped around me and in the blink of an eye I changed into a hanbok.

I checked myself on camera.

A white jeogori and a sky-blue chima (clothing).

I especially liked the blue ribbon that tied the front.

‘Seeing it on cam doesn’t hit the same.’

The screen is small too.

I want to see it in more detail.

I should go look in the mirror.

“Ah.”

I almost tripped over the skirt.

I grabbed the table and barely avoided disaster.

If I’d been even a little slower my head would’ve gotten replaced by the monitor.

Clutching the hem I pattered over to the mirror and stood in front of it.

I spun around and watched the sleeves and skirt flare out.

‘This is more fun than I thought.’

I kind of get why women take so long shopping.

If I had to describe it it feels like customising a cute heroine character in a game.

It’s a shame I only have one outfit.

‘If this goes well I should ask her to draw more.’

Next time I’ll pay properly and commission it.

With the prize money.

I clenched my fist.

“I can do it, fighting!”

I shouted at my reflection.

I’ve never done anything like this before but with this body I wanted to try it once.

Even though I was alone my face turned bright red.

For some reason I wanted to squeeze my legs together.

[It’s so pretty! I’ll wear it well!]

I messaged Ryuko.

[Yes! Did you get someone to do the rigging?]

[Don’t worry!]

[Ah, okay! Good luck!]

Ryuko’s replies are still fast.

I replied politely every time.

Last time I got swept up in the mood and spoke casually but speaking casually with this body makes me feel weirdly guilty.

Like I’m turning into a rude kid.

I turned on the camera and checked myself over.

‘The colours are similar.’

White on top and sky-blue on the bottom with a blue ribbon holding the front.

It’s the exact same colour scheme as the sailor uniform Arin from Alpha26 wore for the second anniversary.

‘Is that Ryuko’s favourite colour scheme?’

I brushed it off.

There’s no downside to having the same colours.

‘The skirt pattern is nice too.’

With clothes like this it only takes a tiny misstep before it turns into a grandma quilt but the pattern stands out, flashy but restrained.

All that’s left is choosing a line to say.

Should I practise?

‘What line should I use?’

It has to be short, impactful and something everyone would recognise.

‘But if I pick something famous it’ll overlap.’

The only thing I can think of right now is something like ‘I’ll stand above the heavens.’

‘How am I supposed to say a line like that?’

And if it overlaps with someone else it’s like two suns rising in the sky.

Just imagining it makes me cringe.

I’ll go with a safe and famous line.

My avatar quality and Ryuko’s outfit are trustworthy.

Even if first place is hard, I should at least make the top three.

‘How important can some nerd line really be?’

Anime lines are just a side dish for fun.

That’s what I decided to believe.

Otherwise it’s basically admitting I’m at a disadvantage.

‘I don’t really know recent anime.’

If I recite a fresh line I don’t even understand the ‘real ones’ will spot it instantly.

‘Let’s not pretend to know what I don’t. My one rule is to do an honest stream.’

That was the conclusion I reached from my talk with Hako last time.

* * *

“Huah…”

It’s still dark outside.

I sat up in bed and stretched.

The reason I’m awake at the crack of dawn is because I stayed up all night.

‘Ah, it’s sticking with me.’

The anime I watched for the contest was more fun than I expected.

I couldn’t sleep because I was watching Kill La Kill, the anime I got recommended through shorts.

“Should I just do a Kill La Kill line?”

I muttered while brushing my teeth late.

It’s a manga from more than ten years ago but it should still hook the core crowd, right?

Putting aside whether it’s morally correct to be brushing now when I should’ve brushed last night.

Smack, I slapped my cheek.

‘I’ve overdosed on anime power, get it together.’

Too much of anything is bad.

If you have too much anime power you end up with side effects like aggressively recommending anime to people around you.

All you get back is stinging looks.

How do I know that so well?

Who knows…

* * *

The remaining days passed quickly.

And as each day arrived my legs started shaking more and more.

Thank god the camera doesn’t show below my waist.

“Hoo—”

I wiped sweat with a towel.

Whenever I felt anxious I planted a single corn stalk in The Last Farm.

You became a farm owner before even harvesting.
Lmao.
This’ll be fun later.

As the contest day got closer the cornfield expanded by a handspan at a time.

If the contest got delayed even a week the whole planet would be covered in corn.

“Kyaaaagh!”

Even when I screamed the grip squeezing my heart wouldn’t go away.

If every time I shook my legs I lost good luck I’d end up building a bonus stage using only the lucky pouches that ran away.

Maybe because I shook so much time felt slow and fast at the same time.

* * *

[Are you all ready? Can I see it in advance, maybe?]

Ryuko messaged me on the morning of the contest.

We decided to talk for a final check.

“How is it?”

I spun in front of the camera.

“Wow, it’s amazing! The rigging is god-tier!”

I hear the sound of Ryuko clapping through the headset.

Maybe a messenger call doesn’t count as a game because we’re just talking normally with the headset on.

“Did you decide on a line?”

“Ah, about that…”

I scratched my cheek.

Ryuko looked like the type to only watch niche manga so I hadn’t even tried asking her for advice.

“Do you know any good lines?”

“A good line, hmm…”

After thinking about it, Ryuko's answer was, of course, exactly what you’d expect.

“The world isn’t made of a single piece of cloth.”

I couldn’t even guess where that line came from.

“Huh?”

It’s weird.

It feels familiar.

There’s no way I’d know a niche anime line.

“Ah, no, you’re right, I shouldn’t do something no one knows, sorry.”

Ryuko tried to recover too late.

Once water is spilled you can’t scoop it back up.

“Isn’t that a Kill La Kill line?”

It’s a line I heard yesterday, no, this morning at dawn so it’s burned into my head.

“Huh! You know Kill La Kill?”

“I watched it recently.”

“As expected of Shiroring! I thought you were someone incredible! Actually my nickname is from that manga too…”

Watching the same series creates a kind of comradeship.

Just the fact that you watched the same thing drills your favourability straight up through the sky.

“That scene was especially good.”

“Right! The final transformation scene was seriously amazing!”

The genre is cute-girl action battle.

It’s not the kind of genre women usually watch.

I didn’t expect to find an ally here.

‘Ryuko actually knows her stuff.’

My favourability went up too.

It’s like finding a comrade in the heart of enemy territory.

Comradeship surged.

We chatted for a while.

So much that we completely forgot today’s contest war was waiting.

“Still, we can’t use a Kill La Kill line…”

“Yeah… not many people will know it.”

We came back to reality.

There wasn’t a single useful thing in that long talk.

But it was fun so is that enough?

It helped ease my nerves too.

“How about ‘The moment you give up the game ends’?”

“Ah! That sounds good! It fits Shiroring too!”

“Really?”

That’s the line then.

Let’s go safe, safe.

We’ll win with avatar and outfit quality.

“Ah, I slipped into casual speech again, sorry.”

I realised what that lingering sense of wrongness was.

In text I went back to polite speech but the moment we called it turned into this.

Maybe because the VR chat image got burned into me.

“It’s fine, this is more comfortable for me too.”

“Then that’s a relief.”

I’ll just speak casually.

Switching back to polite speech now would be awkward and Ryuko doesn’t seem to mind.

“Then good luck! I’ll watch your stream!”

“Y-yeah.”

I replied in a slack voice and ended the call.

It’s still morning so there’s time.

The second the call ended my legs started shaking again.

‘I should’ve stayed on the call a bit longer.’

Because of the nerves I could barely swallow food.

I can’t ruin the performance from hunger, so I forced it down.

I checked the camera again and again.

I don’t even know how many times I spun in front of the mirror.

I even searched it on YouTube just to rewatch the line.

Finally, the contest time arrived so I started my stream.

“Ah, hello.”

Lol look how nervous.
Hey relax.
Fresh lol.

Even though it’s the time to snap back I couldn’t answer anything.

It feels like someone scrubbed my brain with an eraser.

Now this is the proper small streamer.
Still cute though.

“Yeah! Are you all here?”

I hear Kuro’s voice through the headset.

“Yes!”

“Yeeah!”

One by one people turn on their mics and answer.

“Yehyet!”

I answered too.

I bit my tongue, damn it.

It hurts.

My cheeks are probably redder than my tongue right now though.

Lmaoooo.

Don’t laugh.

Maybe my mind finally broke because I even thought ‘Still, thanks to that guy I’m a bit less tense.’

‘I’ve lost it.’

At least it’s a gentle kind of crazy.

“Okay, I’ll invite you now, come in, VR.”

Kuro started hosting.

Thankfully the sound of me biting my tongue got buried under all the voices.

Hako is kind of laughing with her breath held but it’s not because of me, right?

“Should I turn on the host chat?”

I turned on Kuro’s chat to see overall reactions.

The chat speed is KTX-fast.

It’s so fast it’s hard to even track with my eyes.

“Hoo.”

I took a deep breath and opened VR chat.

The moment the game launched my consciousness blurred.

* * *

Before I knew it I was standing at the edge of a circular theatre.

A stage rises tall in the centre.

There are stairs leading up that you can climb.

Red curtains wrap around it so you can’t see inside.

Pyopyopyong (rabbit-like), avatars began appearing one by one beside me.

I guess I logged in early.

Maybe I’m first place.

“Are there spectators too?”

Around the outside of the theatre there are seats all along.

The spectators are rendered low-quality and blurry.

One of them waved at me.

“What?”

Those blurred graphic scraps move like each one has its own will.

I frowned.

“Today I wanted a bit more of a live feel so I tried it as viewer participation. Viewers don’t have mics so if you have something to say use chat and on days like this if you cross the line you get banned immediately so keep yourselves in check.”

Kuro said it while looking around the audience.

“So each one of those is a viewer?”

Not all viewers would’ve joined VR chat.

But the stands are packed.

Like a baseball stadium during playoffs.

“Well, the people here are vetted viewers so I trust nothing will happen.”

Kuro shrugged.

Even though the avatar is short it’s not cute at all.

I looked at the audience again.

I think I know who the one waving at me was.

“You little punks.”

One of my viewers.

From a crowd of less than thirty, yet they came to a huge stream as participants.

When they tease me it’s annoying but today it’s reassuring.

More Vtubers appear one by one.

Everyone is in hanbok with no exceptions.

I turned my head and looked around.

The outfits are like a historical drama but the leads are colourful-haired comic-style characters.

Somehow it made me laugh.

“Then we begin! Korea-Japan grand unification!”

Kuro spread both arms and declared it.

Scattered clapping poured out from everywhere.

Clap clap clap, I also pressed my tiny hands together as hard as I could.