[The next day — my part-time job]
"Misaki! Misaki!"
I was mid-shift at the publisher when Mirei, a fellow part-timer (twenty, at a guess), came rushing over in a state of high excitement.
"What's up? You look happy."
"Look! I got a paid membership to YUICA♡!"
Wait. Paid membership?
"Paid... what does that even mean?"
"I'm one of the Pigs now! Five hundred yen a month! From here on I get the members-only streams too!"
"P-pigs?"
"Members-only?"
The questions were out of my mouth before I could stop them.
"It's what YUICA♡'s hardcore listeners are called! It's completely caught on! Everyone calls themselves a 'pig' with pride now!"
"You pigs"—something I said—had somehow become the official term.
The things that get decided while the person responsible has no idea...
"O-oh. Is that so..."
"Yesterday's life advice stream was amazing too!"
"That line—'Turn him into a memory and burn it'—I passed that one on to my friends!"
"They need to make LINE stickers already!"
Mirei kept going, eyes shining.
"Lady YUICA♡ gives you genuinely spot-on advice. No platitudes, just real answers, and it's saving people."
Saving people...
Something complicated filled my chest. I did take those questions seriously, sure, but I had no idea it had actually helped anyone this much.
Members-only, it turned out, meant streams that only paying members could watch. Wait. Does that mean I have to do those?
This is all happening on Yui's account in the first place. There is no version of this where I get to decide anything on my own.
"So, Misaki, what do you think of Lady YUICA♡?"
"Huh? Um... she's, uh, impressive?"
"Right?! I really look forward to the streams. I wonder if there's one today."
Another stream today...
Come to think of it, tens of thousands of people sitting in the waiting room. That's stadium numbers.
This has completely stopped being anyone's personal hobby, hasn't it.
And since yesterday, business inquiries had started landing in YUICA♡'s channel DMs. Cosmetics companies, game studios, and even a collab feeler from one of the big VTuber agencies.
I know that's rude by any professional standard, but I have been leaving every single one of them on read.
Because I'm a fake, and a fake doesn't get to answer them.
YUICA♡ belongs to my sister Yui. Full stop.
And there's this members-only stream the paying members have apparently been promised. What am I supposed to do about that? What even counts as "special"?
I wished Yui were here for this—and in the same breath realized that if Yui ever found out, groveling on the floor was not going to cover it.
I had come too far to turn back.
"Oh, actually, there's something I've been wondering about..."
And with that, Mirei suddenly fixed her eyes on me.
"Wh-what is it?"
"...Your voice is kind of similar to Lady YUICA♡'s."
Oh no. She's going to figure out who I am!
In a panic, I answered a full octave higher.
"Th-that's just your imagination~♪"
"Yeah, you're right."
"Lady YUICA♡ is way more confident. Way cooler."
Safe...?
My stomach genuinely hurts.
I can't go anywhere without antacids anymore.
[Meanwhile — aboard a bullet train]
On the bullet train, Yui was staring at her phone screen.
YUICA♡ subscribers: 320,000
"Three hundred and twenty thousand..."
A number she hadn't reached in two years, sitting right there.
She opened one clip video after another.
[YUICA♡] The Hammer Comes Down on the Cheating Boyfriend [Clip]
[GOD TIER] My Lady's Life Advice Room: Full Compilation [MOVING]
[HILARIOUS] The Listeners Who Turned Into Pigs [YUICA♡]
Every one of them had views in the hundreds of thousands.
"Why..."
Yui murmured it under her breath.
"Why is it this... this big..."
And in the comments—
this stream is what gave me the guts to break up with my boyfriend
thanks to YUICA♡ i finally had the nerve to change jobs
i watch this every day and it keeps me going
"The thing I wanted to do. She just... did it. That easily..."
Yui's face clouded over.
"You're disgusting!"
"You pigs!"
Her sister's voice, coming out of the video. Rough, crude, the exact opposite of the cute idol thing Yui had been aiming for.
"What did I... what did I get wrong?"
Two years. Streaming every day, tiptoeing around her viewers, smiling through every unreasonable comment.
And none of it worked.
"So all that effort was for nothing?"
Her big sister knew nothing, started on a whim, and got this in a matter of days.
Yui's grip tightened on the phone.
"You have no talent."
It felt like her sister was holding reality up to her face and saying exactly that.
This can't go on.
Watching the window, Yui made up her mind all over again.
[Evening — the house]
I couldn't decide whether to stream.
I sat down at the PC and launched the streaming software. The waiting room was already past thirty thousand.
"What do I do..."
Without a word of permission from Yui, YUICA♡ had swelled into something enormous.
Streaming again on top of that was, surely, too far...
But: thirty-five thousand people waiting.
That many people, waiting for me.
And I wanted to know how things had gone for the people who came to me for advice yesterday.
"But if Yui comes home... what am I supposed to say?"
That was when it happened.
Click.
The sound of the front door.
"...I'm home."
That familiar voice, and the blood drained out of me.
Oh no. Oh no. Oh no!
It's Yui!
She's back...
I slammed the streaming software shut.
But the YUICA♡ icon was still up on the monitor.
"Big sis, you home?"
"Ah—ah, yes! Coming!"
I could hear a heavy suitcase dragging along the floor.
I hurried out of Yui's room and into the living room.
"Welcome home, Yui..."
"I'm home, big sis."
Yui was standing next to a big travel suitcase. Tanned, and a little thinner than I remembered.
But something was off.
The usual Yui would have come at me at full volume with "Ugh, I'm starving!" or "I got you souvenirs!"
Today she was strangely quiet, and her face was dark.
"You feeling okay? How was the trip?"
I asked it carefully.
"Yeah... it was okay."
A flat answer. Something was clearly wrong.
Does she... does she know?
My heart started hammering. But there was no proof. She hadn't said anything yet.
What do I do. How am I supposed to bring this up.
"Um, Yui... I—"
"Hey, big sis."
Yui cut me off.
"I already know."
My heart nearly stopped.
"Huh?"
"You pigs..."
Yui pulled out her phone and turned the screen toward me.
"Three hundred and twenty thousand."
The subscriber count, right there.
Ah.
Time stopped.
The blood drained away.
Yui was looking straight at me.
Not with the eyes of my sweet little sister.
Serious, hard, fixed dead on me.
It's over.
Completely, totally over.
She's furious at me for wrecking two years of her work in a matter of days.
I'm the older sister, and I betrayed her trust.
Took her account without asking, got famous without asking, collected offers from companies without asking.
What have I done.
Before I knew it, I was on the floor with my forehead pressed to it.
So. The moment had finally come.
(To be continued)
Next: "Sisters Face to Face! What Is the Truth Yui Has to Tell?!"