Chapter 5: I Gained One More Viewer!
“A-Amazing!”
“Haikawa-san, you’re really an incredible person!”
“Eh?”
“Eh?”
Kitagawa Minami, who had seemed to be quietly listening until now, suddenly burst out.
She was praising Haikawa so enthusiastically that she looked ready to cry tears of admiration.
“No, all I did was play a sutra recording from the internet…”
“I never would’ve thought of that!”
“It’s like Columbus’s Egg!”
“Besides, it wasn’t even a serious curse…”
“I couldn’t do anything at all!”
“If you hadn’t come, Haikawa-san, I might have died!”
“Thank you so much!”
Kitagawa Minami showered him with praise.
From Haikawa’s perspective, he hadn’t done anything particularly impressive.
He certainly hadn’t expected to be thanked this much.
He remembered what Eris had told him before they came here.
Minami was shy and easily frightened.
Considering that, her mental state must have been far worse than he’d originally thought.
And because he had helped her during that vulnerable time, she now felt an enormous amount of gratitude and respect toward him.
The wall she’d kept between them had suddenly become much thinner.
“You’re overhyping him, Minami.”
“Haikawa-san looks kind of uncomfortable.”
“That’s not true, Eris-chan!”
“Haikawa-san is an amazing psychic and a wonderful streamer!”
“Eh?”
At that moment, Haikawa remembered something he’d completely forgotten.
‘Oh right… I told them I was a streamer!’
A sense of panic washed over him.
“Haha…”
“Man, this is awkward…”
He was indeed a streamer.
But compared to these two, he was separated by a gap as wide as heaven and earth.
Since he hadn’t explained that part earlier, Minami had apparently assumed he was some incredibly successful streamer.
At this point, Haikawa calmly reviewed the specs of all three people.
Mitsuhashi Eris
A corporate VTuber affiliated with Happy Relay, the most prestigious streaming agency in the industry.
She was on the verge of reaching one million subscribers.
Her bright and cheerful streams were her trademark.
Her chat was always lively.
Countless people created clip videos from her streams.
Her storytelling and conversational skills were exceptional.
She had numerous merchandise lines that sold extremely well.
Recently, she’d even begun appearing in anime as a voice actress.
Super Chats flew across her streams like snowballs in a snowball fight.
Kitagawa Minami
Another VTuber affiliated with Happy Relay.
She had eight hundred thousand subscribers.
Many fans were drawn to her gentle atmosphere and kept coming back.
Her choice of topics and conversational style were soft and comforting.
Recently, she had gained attention after appearing as a character in a popular mobile game.
Her singing streams and viewer Q&A streams were particularly popular.
Haikawa Mobius
An independent streamer.
Not a VTuber.
He streamed without showing his face.
His subscriber count was twelve.
Seven of those subscribers were spam accounts.
Viewers almost never showed up.
And even when they did, they usually left after about five seconds.
He frequently lost his temper while gaming and started swearing during streams.
He possessed psychic abilities, but they were completely useless for streaming.
His company had recently gone bankrupt, leaving him unemployed.
At twenty-five years old, he was rock bottom both as a streamer and as a working adult.
It was the perfect picture of winners and losers.
From Haikawa’s perspective, it made him want to ask, ‘How did my life end up like this?’
“What’s your channel called?”
“I’d love to subscribe!”
“Haha…”
“Uhh…”
“The channel is called ‘Haikawa Mobius’s Gaming Streams.'”
“W-Wait!”
“Why are you telling her that!?”
“As if you could keep it secret forever.”
“It’ll help your subscriber count.”
“Isn’t that a good thing?”
Sure, she’d probably find out eventually.
But after earning Minami’s respect, having the truth exposed immediately was painful to his pride.
“Please wait a moment!”
“I’m not allowed to follow people freely using my Kitagawa Minami account.”
“So I’ll make a sub account and subscribe from there!”
Her actions were astonishingly fast.
This was hard to believe was the same girl who had been trembling in fear just a short while ago.
Meanwhile, Haikawa desperately searched for excuses in his mind.
“…Huh?”
“Fourteen subscribers?”
“Did I open the wrong channel?”
“Oh.”
“You gained two subscribers.”
“Congratulations, Haikawa-san.”
“Ugh…”
At some point, his subscriber count had somehow increased by two.
They were probably spam accounts.
“You’re still fairly new to streaming.”
“But even so, having twelve… no, fourteen subscribers is amazing!”
“Haha…”
“T-Thanks…”
Haikawa had no idea what standard Minami used to define amazing.
Perhaps her admiration had simply inflated so much that her judgment had stopped functioning properly.
“I subscribed!”
“When will your next stream be?”
“If I’m busy with school or my own stream, I’ll watch the archive later!”
“T-Thanks for subscribing.”
“Feel free to stop by anytime…”
“Haha…”
“Absolutely!”
“I’ll definitely come watch!”
“And Haikawa-san, if you’d like, please come visit my streams too!”
“I feel like I’ll be able to work even harder!”
With that, the commotion finally settled down.
Kitagawa Minami’s poltergeist incident had come to an end.
Afterward, as a precaution, Haikawa gave her a protective charm and a talisman.
Both Minami and Eris seemed much calmer.
He was just about to leave when—
“By the way, Haikawa-san.”
“How should we handle your fee?”
“I asked for your help without knowing how much exorcisms cost.”
“T-That’s right!”
“How much is the purification fee?”
“Ah…”
“Come to think of it, I never considered that.”
“What should I do?”
The price of exorcisms varied wildly depending on who performed them.
Some people did them for free.
Others charged several thousand yen.
Some charged twenty or thirty thousand.
At the extreme end, some demanded millions.
Fraud was common as well.
There were plenty of shady spiritual businesses that insisted clients needed repeated exorcisms and extracted huge amounts of money over time.
The worst cases involved brainwashing victims, taking all their savings, and even forcing them into debt.
Haikawa wasn’t a professional psychic.
He didn’t advertise exorcisms or purification services.
There was no contract.
There wasn’t even proof that he’d performed anything.
Legally speaking, the girls had no obligation to pay him.
That said, they were almost certainly extremely wealthy.
They might be first-year high school students, but they were also incredibly famous VTubers.
“I don’t need any money.”
“And you don’t need to thank me either.”
“Eh?”
“Eh?”
Haikawa had thought about it carefully.
Until a moment ago, he’d considered using this favor to get himself into Happy Relay.
But when he thought about it, trying to leverage his psychic abilities to gain entry into a major agency sounded suspicious as hell.
In the worst-case scenario, the company might sue him.
And if fans found out?
They might track down his address.
Maybe someone would blow up his apartment.
Maybe he’d get stabbed while walking down the street.
The chances weren’t exactly high…
But they weren’t zero either.
At the very least, he couldn’t imagine anything good coming from it.
When it came to himself, Haikawa always overthought things and became excessively cautious.
That was just who he was.
“We can’t do that!”
“You helped us so much!”
“That’s right!”
“If not money, please let us do something for you!”
He’d expected this response.
Which was why he already had an answer prepared.
A favor owed.
Simple and clean.
“Then help me someday if I ever get into trouble.”
“That’ll be enough.”
“Hmm.”
“Alright.”
“If you ever need anything, just tell me, Haikawa-san.”
“If that’s really what you want…”
“Then okay.”
The matter of compensation was settled.
He had earned a favor from two famous VTubers.
‘Yeah.’
‘As a streamer, I should just work my way up honestly and at my own pace.’
He might be unemployed, but he was still receiving unemployment benefits.
There was no reason to panic.
If he got greedy and reached beyond his abilities, he’d only end up hurting himself.
“By the way, Minami-chan.”
“Are you really okay now?”
“If you’re still scared, maybe you should ask your family to stay with you for a while…”
“I’m fine.”
“I have the charm and talisman Haikawa-san gave me!”
“I-I see…”
“Well, as long as you’re okay.”
Minami’s trust in Haikawa showed no signs of slowing down.
His stock price in her mind was skyrocketing.
“Well then.”
“My job here is done.”
“I’ll be heading home.”
“Then I’ll walk you to the station, Haikawa-san♪”
“Huh?”
“No.”
“It’s already nighttime.”
“High school students shouldn’t be wandering around outside.”
“That’s right, Minami.”
“Haikawa-san is an adult.”
After some more back and forth, Haikawa concluded that everything would be fine.
He quickly left Kitagawa Minami’s apartment.
“Haaah…”
“I’m exhausted.”
“It’s been a while since I had to deal with an exorcism.”
Back in his own apartment, he flopped onto his bed.
Compared to Minami’s luxurious apartment, his room looked downright miserable.
All he’d done was play a sutra recording from the internet.
Still, it had been a long time since he’d spoken with girls that young.
And socializing wasn’t exactly his strong suit.
His body had also grown sluggish lately, making him tire more easily.
“Whatever.”
“Maybe I’ll watch someone else’s stream and relax.”
He turned on his computer and opened the internet.
Immediately, a stream appeared on the front page of Your-Tube.
[Kitagawa Minami @ Feeling Better! Return Stream! Eris-chan Is Here Too♪]
He clicked it instantly.
And subscribed while he was at it.
The stream had apparently started on short notice.
Eris had decided to stay over at Minami’s apartment, and the two were doing a collaboration stream together.
They were playing a crafting game where players built various things.
At the moment, they seemed to be constructing a stylish house.
They had already greeted viewers and explained Minami’s absence.
Apparently, they’d turned the poltergeist incident into a lighthearted story about strange things happening around the house while she wasn’t feeling well.
The explanation perfectly stimulated the audience’s concern and curiosity.
“You know what I think?”
“Modern games don’t have enough excitement!”
“We need more guns!”
“More flashy magic!”
“Blow everything up!”
“Wipe out the enemies and the cities!”
“Ahaha!”
“I see, Eris-chan.”
“But I think I’d prefer something cuter.”
“I’d love to play a game like Animal Fantasy 3 again.”
Their avatars appeared in separate windows on the screen.
The two expressive CG girls chatted happily while playing together.
Eris’s avatar had short blonde hair.
The design emphasized her energetic and cheerful personality.
Both visually and as a character, she was incredibly popular.
Many viewers watched her to laugh and feel energized.
Minami’s avatar featured long light-blue hair that gave off a soft and soothing impression.
It perfectly combined cuteness and kindness.
Many viewers came to her streams seeking comfort and relaxation.
She was famous as a VTuber who could heal emotional exhaustion.
“I’ll become a streamer who can compete with them someday!”
There were plenty of famous male streamers too.
Haikawa believed he could become one of them.
He had absolutely no evidence to support that belief.
“What if I just became a female VTuber?”
“That’d probably be the fastest way to get popular.”
Since VTubers used CG models, men could play female characters and vice versa.
Stories about beloved cute VTubers secretly being middle-aged men were surprisingly common.
Of course, even among VTubers, only a tiny fraction ever became truly successful.
The world wasn’t that easy.
“Now that Minami’s back, are you planning any new streams?”
“Though maybe you should avoid scary story streams after what happened.”
“You had your own strange experience too, Eris-chan.”
“I’m thinking about doing an anime or movie watch-along stream next.”
“A stream where everyone watches together and has fun.”
“Oh, those sound fun!”
“Got any good shows in mind?”
The conversation continued.
Meanwhile, recommendations flooded through the chat at incredible speed.
[Comments: Isekai anime are trending right now.]
[Comments: Watch Golgo 13!]
[Comments: Go all-in and watch a historical drama.]
[Comments: Watch the anime Eris-chan voiced in lol.]
Neither girl gave viewers a single second to feel bored.
One energetic.
One gentle.
Together they kept the conversation flowing naturally.
Eris and Minami had collaborated many times before.
Their fans often talked about how close they seemed.
From Haikawa’s perspective, their talent was extraordinary.
Their conversations flowed smoothly.
Their pacing was excellent.
Their voices were pleasant.
Even their word choices had distinct personalities while remaining broadly appealing.
But those abilities hadn’t appeared out of nowhere.
Since becoming streamers, both girls had worked hard behind the scenes to improve their speaking skills.
That was the fundamental difference between them and Haikawa.
They had talent.
They put in effort.
Meanwhile, Haikawa had neither clear goals nor proper dedication.
A twenty-five-year-old male streamer being outclassed by two first-year high school girls.
That was Haikawa.
At least he had them beat in psychic powers.
“Thank you all for joining my return stream today.”
“I have another stream planned tomorrow, so please look forward to it.”
“And I’ll be doing lots of stuff too!”
“I had fun today!”
“See you all later!”
The stream ended.
Even the viewers seemed reluctant to leave.
But Minami’s return broadcast concluded successfully.
It was almost ten at night.
For someone with a completely broken sleep schedule like Haikawa, the real night was only just beginning.
“Alright!”
“I can’t let myself fall behind!”
“Time to stream!”
Filled with determination, he grabbed an energy drink from his ancient refrigerator and sat down at his computer.
He opened the streaming site.
Prepared the stream page.
Selected a game.
Everything was ready.
“Stream starting.”
“Hey everyone, it’s Haikawa Mobius.”
“Today we’re playing an action game.”
He started talking into the microphone.
Since he didn’t show his face, the stream layout was simple.
Just the game screen and the chat window.
“Whoa.”
“This is harder than I expected…”
“It’s gonna take a while to get used to the controls…”
The game controlled worse than he’d anticipated.
Frustration gradually started building.
He felt the urge to rage at the game.
But he held it in and kept playing.
About five minutes after the stream started, a notification chimed.
Someone had posted a comment.
[Gyudon-chan: Haikawa-san, I came to hang out!]
[Nanzan: Good evening, Haikawa-san. Thank you for helping me earlier.]
It seemed those two had already shown up using their alternate accounts.