Host:
"Our first caller is a university student who's struggling with job hunting!"
Hikaru Amachi:
"Before anything else, I'd like to applaud him for having the courage to come out here."
[Round One — Caller: Yuta, fourth-year university student]
"YUICA. Hello, nice to meet you. I'm Yuta, fourth year at university."
A serious-looking young man in a job-hunting suit appeared on the screen.
"I'm struggling with job hunting. I get nervous in every interview and I can't show them the real me. The final interview at my first-choice company is next week. How do I get myself to talk properly?"
A textbook job-hunting problem. But the look on this guy's face...
I watched the caller's eyes carefully. The technique I'd picked up training at the marriage agency kicked in.
(Though I did wonder what you thought you were making a single woman do there, Yui!)
In his case... this isn't plain nerves.
There's deep exhaustion in his eyes. And fear.
"Yuta, first question. This 'real me' of yours—what is it?"
"Huh? ...Uh, my natural self, I guess?"
"Your natural self, huh. Okay, so what are you like normally?"
"Normally I... play games with friends, watch anime... oh, and I watch both of your streams!"
"Thanks for that. Hmm. So do you tell them any of that in interviews?"
"No, I couldn't possibly say that sort of thing..."
"I see."
I let a slightly mean smile onto my face.
"So while you're going on about the 'real me,' you're hiding what you actually like."
"Ah... that's..."
The caller's face went blank with realization.
"And that's the right call, by the way. Open an interview talking about anime and VTubers and you'll probably get rejected."
"R-right..."
"Then why are you agonizing about not being able to show the real you? Isn't that a contradiction?"
The caller looked stuck. I pressed on.
"Yuta. How many companies have you applied to so far?"
"...Fifteen."
"Thought so. Your problem isn't some nice-sounding thing like the 'real you.'"
I spoke with the instinct I'd earned talking to hundreds of people at that hell of a call center—the one for going straight at the core of what's eating someone.
"It's the fear that here comes another rejection. Right?"
"Ah..."
"Get turned down fifteen times and of course your confidence is gone. You're walking into interviews already thinking 'this one's a bust too,' aren't you?"
"That... might be true..."
The caller's voice shrank. But his eyes said I'd hit it dead center.
"But listen. Here's the part that matters."
I softened my tone.
The core of it was this: how do I get the words out right in there?
I needed to get alongside that and clear it away for him.
"Fifteen rejections means you performed a fake version of yourself fifteen times and it failed, right?"
"Yes... I suppose so..."
"Then change the strategy this time. Start by admitting it, straight out. 'I'm nervous.'"
"If I said that, the impression I'd make would—"
"Get worse? You've been hiding it and getting rejected anyway."
The chat reacted.
my lady with the facts
true, if hiding it still gets you rejected you may as well be honest
"Besides," I smiled.
"A guy who can honestly say 'I'm nervous,' versus a guy stiff as a board trying to hide it. Which one leaves the better impression?"
"...The former, I guess."
"Exactly. Honesty is a weapon."
"But the most important part comes now."
My expression turned serious.
"The reason you've lost fifteen times is that you never analyze why you lost."
"Analyze..."
"Right. After an interview, do you sit down and go, 'today I blew it here'?"
"No, when I get rejected I'm too shaken up..."
"That's exactly it. People who don't learn from a failure repeat the same failure."
The caller's face started to change. First time he'd looked like he was actually listening.
"Before next week's interview, go back through all fifteen. What they asked, how you answered, why it didn't work."
"Yes... you're right, I never did that."
"Do that and number sixteen will be different. Failure isn't shameful. It's a chance to learn."
"You freeze up because you're trying to talk well. Take a proper look at yourself, then say what you find, honestly. That's all."
"...Yes! I think I can see a path now."
The caller's face brightened at last.
classic my lady answer
vicious mouth, kind heart
this might be a real contest
The pigs were reacting well too.
This questioner may have favored me, with actual work experience behind me.
On that front the Captain has no option but to come in heavy-handed, so this caller should be a bad matchup for her.
Host:
"YUICA, that answer—the step-by-step approach was superb."
Hikaru Amachi:
"Yes. First she points out the caller's contradiction and makes him accept reality, then digs for the real problem, and finally offers a concrete solution. That's ideal life advice."
Good. Hearing Amachi say that does wonders for my confidence.
"Hmph... not bad at all, Landmine Princess."
"You seem to have flailed with a certain competence. I'm a little pleased."
The Captain looked impressed and provoking at the same time.
—But you don't get it. What entertainment is built on.
—Allow me to teach you. Right now.
Host:
"And now it's Seira Hououin's turn. Your answer, please!"
"Yuta. Look at my face."
The Captain's voice dropped, suddenly low and overbearing.
"Y-yes..."
"You are weak. Small fry who has lost fifteen times."
"Wh-what?!"
The hall stirred.
captain going way too hard right off the bat
isn't this kinda brutal?
"Job hunting is war! Do not imagine you can win it with soft thinking!"
The Captain's voice rolled out like thunder.
"Th-that's..."
"What can a weakling like you accomplish out in the world? The interviewers see right through you!"
The caller was going pale.
captain, this is too much even for you
feel bad for the guy
this is just straight up bullying
The chat was turning against her.
"Right now, in front of me alone, you are on the verge of tears."
"With a spirit that weak, do you think you can face down a company's executives?"
"Uuh..."
The caller shrank into himself completely.
This is awful. The Captain's answer has gone completely off the rails. Does that mean I win?
That was the moment.
"But... Yuta."
The Captain's expression turned gentle, like magic.
The chat went silent in an instant.
"You have just withstood pressure from Seira Hououin herself. From the absolute ruler of the galaxy."
"Huh?"
"With three hundred thousand people watching, you showed the courage to lay your own shame bare."
There was a deep tenderness in the Captain's voice.
"Fifteen defeats stacked up, and you still have the courage to go for the sixteenth."
"Do you understand how precious that is?"
"Ah..."
Tears welled up in the caller's eyes.
"Your problem is not technique. It is a lack of confidence."
"But today you withstood the strongest pressure in the galaxy. Next to that, some normie interviewer is nothing at all."
"Have confidence! Stand tall! Behind you stands my Galactic Opera Fleet, four million two hundred thousand strong!"
"Yes! Thank you so much!"
The caller's face transformed.
aaaaaaaah
it was all calculated!
pressure into kindness!
this is too perfect
that's our captain!
okay I'm actually moved
The chat, now three hundred thousand strong, had flipped and was showering the Captain with praise.
Pressure, then win them over. This was probably a technique that came out of the Captain's own past.
She's likely worked a real job. In a fairly brutal environment, at that.
...I'd read her wrong.
I should have considered that the Captain has a past like that too.
More than anything, she's good at grabbing hold of a room.
She used my quiet, careful first half as fuel and yanked the whole current over to her side.
It hit me here: I'd underestimated the Captain. Arrogance, plain and simple.
Host:
"That was... as entertainment, perfect."
In response to the host, Hikaru Amachi chose his words carefully.
Hikaru Amachi:
"Deliberate pressure to tighten up the room, then kindness that turns it all into emotion at once. I'd call that an advanced technique for controlling an audience's feelings."
Host:
"So where YUICA's answer put the weight on 'standing beside the caller,' the Captain put it on 'captivating the audience.' Both were wonderful."
He was right. I was trying to stand beside the caller's heart.
The Captain went for the audience's.
Hikaru Amachi's face turned serious. Here came the ruling.
Hikaru Amachi:
"Purely as life advice, YUICA's answer was the more appropriate one. Step by step, careful, seeing through to the caller's real problem and offering a concrete solution."
Something warm moved in my chest.
But.
Hikaru Amachi:
"However, this is a contest between VTubers."
"What a VTuber is asked for is entertainment. Seizing the viewers' hearts, moving them, giving them an experience they'll remember."
"Seen that way, Seira's 'emotional control through hard and soft' was overwhelming. She built a moment where three hundred thousand viewers were moved as one."
Host:
"Then, the ruling for Round One..."
The host announced the result.
"Weighing the caller's satisfaction, the viewers' response, and Amachi's opinion all together..."
"The winner is Seira Hououin!"
The comments exploded into cheering.
knew it, the captain!
that switch-up was godlike
straight up cried
YUICA was good too though
careful, kind answer
Even the pigs, sore about it, were acknowledging what the Captain could do.
"Heh. A decent showing, Landmine Princess."
The Captain flashed me a fearless grin.
"But the gap in skill is obvious."
"Nngh..."
I clenched my teeth, furious about it.
My answer should have been the one that actually helped him.
But... the audience really had been swept away by the Captain.
Hikaru Amachi added quietly:
"This is a personal impression, but I see enormous potential in YUICA."
"I'm looking forward to Round Two."
Hearing it warmed my chest a little. But if I don't win, none of it means anything.
I'm not standing here to be complimented.
I didn't put in all that work in order to lose.
"Round Two! This time I go first."
The Captain's eyes lit up like a predator sighting prey.
If I lose Round Two... it's over.
In my own specialty, I was already cornered after a single round.
(To be continued)