From VTuber♂ to VTuber♀ - Chapter 34

Met a Really Strange Person. (1)

“They’re not a bad person, really! It’s just… well, when they see something cute, they just can’t help themselves, you know?”
“…”

After the video finished playing, Toya started making all sorts of excuses to me.
So, these are just excuses for that person, right? The person who went on and on about loving little girls?
I tilted my head slightly, and Toya quickly averted her gaze. She seemed to realize she’d made a mistake.
(It’s enough of an explanation for why that person wanted to meet me, but…)
Honestly, isn’t this dangerous? In many ways.

I looked at Toya, and she gave me an awkward smile. If Toya says it’s fine, then surely that person isn’t a bad person…
For a moment, I felt conflicted inside: should I trust Toya and meet this colleague of hers, or should I refuse?

“I’ll meet them.”
“If you don’t want to, you can refuse. Honestly, I’m a little nervous about it too.”
“…So you were nervous?”

I sighed softly, watching Toya fidget with her fingers. I wanted to help Toya’s colleague, but the idea of meeting this person made me uneasy. It almost felt like she was secretly hoping I’d refuse.
But… well, it should be fine, right? Toya’s colleague probably isn’t a super weird person, and most importantly, Toya will be there with me.
Yeah, I’ll meet them and decide later. They can’t be that bad, right?

—

They were strange.

“Cuuuuuuuteeeee~!!!!!”
“Ugh.”

The moment they saw me, their eyes went wide, and they slapped their cheeks three times, shaking their head, then immediately rushed toward me. I was startled for a second as they leaped toward me without hesitation.
In an instant, they scooped me up into their arms and started rubbing my cheeks like a maniac.
“Wait, hold on! I give up, I give up! I was wrong, okay?! I misjudged you?!”
But my silent cries for mercy never reached them.
What a shame.

“What? What? What? What? What?!”
“Hey, just a minute… sniff…”
“Okay, that’s enough. I’ve told you this a million times already!”
“Ah, aah…”

Their gaze felt so intense, like it could pierce through my body. The way they hugged me tightly, pressing down on my chest, made it hard to breathe.
Luckily, Toya was nearby, so I managed to escape quickly. I shuddered to think what might’ve happened if Toya hadn’t been there.

“Cough, cough! Cough, cough!”
“Are you okay? I really didn’t want you to meet someone like this…”
“I’m fine, cough cough!”

After holding my breath for a moment, I took a deep breath, and then an intense coughing fit hit me. My normally precise breathing pattern broke, and I started coughing uncontrollably. At first, the other person thought it was just a normal cough, but as it continued, they started to panic.
They may have overreacted, but if they knew how fragile I was, I felt a bit sorry for them.

“Are you okay?”
“…Yeah. I’m better now.”

The coughing finally stopped after about ten minutes. Honestly, it felt like it had lasted nearly an hour to me.
I still felt a little down, though, as my body wasn’t fully recovering.
“I-I’m sorry!”
“It’s okay. You didn’t know.”

Since both Toya and the person across from me looked equally uneasy, I forced a soft smile to reassure them.
It’s a skill I learned while dealing with kids at an orphanage. Even if I can’t control my voice easily, I can at least control my expression.
Though, it didn’t feel quite the same as it did before my body changed.

“Uh, uh… there’s an angel in front of me… sniff…”
“If you keep that up, I’ll just take Totomo-chan and leave.”
“J-just calm down! I promise I’ll calm down!”

The person trembled while watching me smile, and even Toya looked at them in disbelief.
That person—no, they weren’t just putting on an act. They were, literally, a lolicon.
To think that I, with this transformed body, would end up being loved by someone with such a peculiar taste.
I knew it was nearly impossible, but I decided I’d look into whether there was any way to grow taller.

“See? Aren’t you jealous? Totomo-chan stays still for me like this.”
“Why, Toyaaa—!”
“Maybe Inari made a bad first impression? Should’ve done better at the start.”

Toya, holding me in one arm, slapped my cheek lightly with her other hand, almost teasing Inari.
And of course, it worked. The moment Inari saw me and rushed over like that, they seemed furious at Toya’s actions.
“I-I want to! I want to touch it too! I want to rub the angel’s cheeks! I want to create friction and burn the whole world down!”
“…Toya, are you sure this person’s okay in the head?”
“…I thought they were fine, but now I’m not so sure.”

Usually, Inari seemed like a normal person, but the moment they saw me, they transformed into someone who looked terribly disturbed.
It seemed even Toya had never seen this side of Inari before.

“I wanna tooooooo…!!!!”
“This is getting a little scary.”
“Toya, are you scared too?”

I shook my head as I watched Inari, now writhing on the floor. It was hard to believe that someone who looked perfectly normal would end up rolling around on the ground like this.
I felt not just frustration but a bit of pity. So, I decided to cut them some slack.
In that spirit, I figured I’d at least help them get back down to the floor. I tugged at Toya’s sleeve to signal for her to lower me, and she hesitated for a moment before slowly bending down toward the floor.

“Are you really sure you’re okay?”
“I think they’ll calm down on their own… but…”

Looking at Inari, who now looked utterly defeated, I felt a small bit of sympathy for them.
Acting out of sympathy isn’t always the smartest thing to do, but… maybe it’s okay this time.
I don’t really get to stand on my own much these days, so the feeling of actually standing on my own two feet was a little strange.
Toya always picks me up whenever something happens. (Though, I know I’m the one who’s at fault for tripping when holding her hand.)

“Um, angel?”
“…?”
“Uh, uhh…”

As I took a step closer, Inari’s eyes began to twitch.
It was like they were restraining themselves from charging at me again. The closer I got, the more their body twitched.
Even when I was right in front of them, they didn’t leap at me this time.
…At this point, I started wondering if this person was seriously ill.
I began considering whether Inari might actually need to go to the hospital.

“Okay. Honestly, if you hadn’t rushed at me in the first place, things would have been much better by now, right?”
“…Ah.”

I reached out and gently grabbed Inari’s hand, which was dangling toward the floor, and helped lift it up.
Their hand was surprisingly light, as if it had no strength at all, but it wasn’t so weak that I couldn’t lift it.
Once I lifted their hand and almost shook it right in front of them, Inari stared at me with awe, their face lighting up with emotion.
They were that moved by simply holding hands? I mean, I spend so much time holding hands with someone that it’s become second nature to me now.

“I’m sorry for being such a burden…”
“It’s okay. I kind of expected this anyway. I mean, I saw it.”
“…Saw what—”
“Inari the Fox’s Type, or something like that?”
“Ah.”

After hearing my response, Inari’s face drained of color, then turned pale, and eventually their ears began to turn black.
You saw it? Really? You saw it? Seriously?
They started muttering specific phrases over and over, like a broken doll.
It felt as if the light mood that had been building up turned dark again.
Was that Kirinuki such a dark part of their past? But honestly, what they showed just now was even more unsettling.
Even though I suspected from the start that Inari was like this, it still shocked me.

“I really enjoyed watching it.”
“…Really?”
“Most parts gave me the chills.”
“Ugh.”
“Well, maybe that’s why it got so many views—people like it, after all.”

Aside from my current state, it was an undeniably entertaining Kirinuki. A charming fox-eared character starting with a rant about loving frail, little children and then falling apart spectacularly—it was certainly something.
Ah, so that’s why they were blushing so much now.
“Of course, when you screamed about loving sickly little kids, that was a bit—”
“I’m sorry! I’m so, so sorry! I’m sorry for being alive! Please, please, just don’t bring that up anymore!!”

Even though they only started to react, Inari began shouting like they were having a seizure. I couldn’t help but smile inwardly at their reaction.
This person’s responses were just too amusing.