“I... I messed up real bad on my stream.” Dagger-chan’s despondent voice continued to reach my ears through the phone.
“As have I,” I responded with as much composure as I could muster.
“No, no, you don’t understand. This is way, way worse.”
“Actually?”
Finally feeling the urgency of the situation, I sat up straight and mulled over Dagger-chan’s words seriously. Fired? Way worse than even what I’d done? Was it even possible? To get fired from Live-On, that is? This was the organization that put up with me, whose most uneventful stream was another’s worst PR nightmare. This was the organization that could take one look at me and say, Oh, you want to be a VTuber that focuses on showcasing all the different names eroge developers give LINE-like messaging apps to avoid copyright issues? Sure! Go right on ahead! without batting an eye. How...? How was it possible to get fired from such an organization?
My own thoughts were getting me nowhere. But I could at least continue to hear Dagger-chan out. “Can you...explain what happened?”
“Yeah,” Dagger-chan replied. “Do you remember the Valentine’s event?”
“When we made chocolate, yeah.”
“Do you remember you slipped me a gift on that day?”
“S...”
“It was a can of StroZero, yes.”
“Z...”
Strange. How very strange, indeed. I know I just decided to continue to hear Dagger-chan out, but a very big part of me suddenly wants to hang up, throw my phone out the window, and change my number.
“Master? Are you okay?”
“I’m... I’m fine! Totally fine! Ha ha ha. I did do something like that, didn’t I?” My voice had started to tremble, so I compensated by speaking extra loudly. Either way, my nervousness was seeping through.
Calm down. Calm down, Awayuki! Your very important and very adorable kouhai has come to you with this pressing issue for advice. You’ve been through something exactly like this. The least you can do is share your experiences. Don’t get all flustered now just because the SZ word was mentioned. And besides, you don’t know the story is going to end like you think it’s going to end yet! Hear her out!
“G-Go on,” I urged.
“You sure? Okay, then. So yeah, you gave me the can of StroZero, and since it was a gift from you, I didn’t want to just drink it. I wanted to save it for a special occasion.”
“Okay.”
“And then, when I shared the news with my viewers, they told me that I should drink it on my next stream.”
“Okay.”
“So I was like, ‘Yeah, that sounds like a great idea!’ and agreed. And yeah, that ‘next stream’ was yesterday.”
“Okay.”
Okay.
Okay, okay, okay, okay.
“Dagger-chan, what’s your address if you don’t mind telling me?”
“My address? Sure, but why?”
“So I can go to you right now and drop down to my knees and beg for forgiveness.”
“You... What?!”
“You’re right. I don’t need to do that. I can beg right now. I’m on my knees right now, Dagger-chan, begging for your forgiveness.”
“What?! No, no, that’s not what I meant! Why are you begging? Stop, stop!”
My forehead rubbed the floor as I shouted at the top of my lungs, “Because... Because this is basically all my fault, isn’t it?!”
“No! Hey, Master, listen to me! I’m the one who screwed up here!”
“It wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t snuck an alcoholic beverage into your bag! Why did I ever think that was a good idea?! It was basically equivalent to telling you, ‘Got a problem? Feeling down? Have a drink!’ I’m supposed to be setting a good example for you, not telling you to drown your problems in alcohol! I’m so, so sorry!!!”
“Don’t be! Your present made me really happy! What happened yesterday was entirely my fault for getting carried away! I don’t think you did anything wrong. In fact, you’re the best senpai I could’ve asked for!”
“Do you mean it? Did you really just come to me for advice, not because you want me to take responsibility?”
“Yes! You were the first person I called because I trust your advice, Master! I didn’t mean to sound like I was blaming you. Sorry if my words didn’t come across right. I’m not really thinking straight right now.”
“No, no, I’m sorry. That was my bad. I asked for the full story, I shouldn’t have reacted that way. I panicked as well, but I think I’m okay now.”
Hearing Dagger-chan calm herself, I managed to do the same. Dagger-chan is the least cynical, least sarcastic girl out there, I told myself. You should’ve heard her out in full before jumping to conclusions. Calm down. Be the woman Dagger-chan thinks you are. If you can’t even listen properly, how are you going to give advice?
“Okay, I think I get the gist of it,” I said after collecting myself. “I realize this might be painful for you, but I need you to tell me exactly what you did to ‘mess up.’ This is important—do you think you can do that for me?”
That was the crux of the issue. I had to know in detail what had happened if I was to give proper advice.
Dagger-chan whimpered quietly before acquiescing with a quiet, “All right.” It still seemed like she trusted me, despite my immature initial response.
Now, what was the source of this “mess-up” that was so bad it had Dagger-chan panicking like this?
“They say a picture’s worth a thousand words, so...here.”
I received a video link from Dagger-chan. The title of the video was “With the help of a little liquid courage, Dagger-chan finally... [Live-On].”
So this was a clip of the problematic bit in question? Seemed a bit tasteless for someone to clip it, but whatever. The title also, in true clickbaity fashion, raised more questions than it answered.
“Watch this and you should understand,” she said.
“Okay. Give me a sec.”
I clicked open the link and was greeted by a clip of Dagger-chan’s stream. The clipper had added a time stamp, indicating it was from the day after the Valentine’s event.
“Ta-da! Look, everyone, look! Look what my master gave me as a parting gift yesterday!”
Alongside Dagger-chan’s lively narration, her screen showed a photo of a single can of StroZero prominently placed in the center of her fridge. All but certainly the one I’d given her.