A few days later, I was standing in front of the mirror, checking how I looked.
“Good.”
Hair’s good. Outfit’s good. Eyebrows are good.
I heard Kokoro yawn as she walked into the living room, still wearing her pajamas. It was pretty late in the day to wake up, even considering that we were still in the middle of summer vacation.
“Huh? What’s the deal?” she asked, surprised. “You look all fancy...”
“My date with Minami. It’s today.”
“Ohhh, that explains it. Hmmm...” she said, eyeing me from top to bottom. “You look okay, I guess. Anyway, this date of yours is just so she can find some kind of closure, right?”
“Yeah, that’s the idea.”
“Even then, you... Actually, no. Precisely because of that, you have to be the best date you can! Try to be Minami’s perfect otaku boyfriend for a day!”
“How am I even supposed to do that?”
“Just put her above all else and be as nice and gentlemanly as possible!”
“Oh, okay! That makes sense!”
Even if it was going to be our first and last date together, I wanted Elena to come out of it happy and impressed, so I decided to keep Kokoro’s advice in mind.
“See ya later then...” she said. “Do your best.”
“I will! Later!”
I left the house and walked nervously to the station, where I caught the train to Akihabara. On my way there, I thought about how different things would have been if Elena weren’t a voice actress. Maybe we could have even become boyfriend and girlfriend. The more I thought about it, the sadder I felt.
I guess I really do like her a lot. But if she wasn’t so serious about her career, she wouldn’t be the Minami I know. I’d better stop wasting my time thinking about this impossible scenario.
I reached the Electric Town station exit right before 1 p.m. Elena was already there waiting for me. She was wearing a hat and a pair of glasses to hide her identity, but a girl that pretty was impossible to miss.
“Sorry to keep you waiting!”
“Oh, Ichigaya! Thank you so much for coming!” she said with a huge smile.
“Not at all!”
“Is this weird?” she asked, pointing at her hat. “I know I may be going overboard, but you know, since I’ll be looking at Emily merchandise...”
“It’s not weird at all. You can’t be too careful!”
It wouldn’t have been too much of an issue if she were by herself, but being seen in Akihabara with a guy would only cause her trouble. Maybe we were worrying over nothing, since very few people knew what she looked like, but we were better safe than sorry.
“Let’s go then!”
“O-Okay...”
Is it me or does she have a lot more pep than usual? It’s almost as if she’s faking it to hide the fact that she’s actually sad... I hope I’m just imagining things.
“So, Animate, was it?”
“Yes!”
“I go there a lot, so I’ll show you the way.”
“Thank you!”
We left the station and headed into the town’s main street, toward Animate.
“Wow! Look at that billboard! O-Oh! There’s a maid!”
Elena was moving her head left and right, reacting to every new sight in the cutest way possible.
“I don’t have any friends that can come here with me, so I’ve actually not been to Akihabara much,” she explained.
“Oh, really?”
“Yeah... So, again, thank you for coming with me!”
“Don’t mention it! I’d be happy...”
...to come here with you whenever you want. That’s what I wanted to say—but I didn’t. After all, this was our first and last date.
When we reached Animate, Elena started excitedly going through all the magazines she could find.
“Look! It’s Yuri Princess! And this one is about VTubers!”
Seeing her having so much fun was lovely, but between the way she looked and how well her voice carried, I was worried that someone would notice her and find out who she was.
“Wh-Why don’t we go and look at the VTuber merchandise upstairs?” I suggested.
“Great idea!” she replied, and we immediately headed up there—taking the stairs, just to be safe.
Since all VTuber-related products were on this floor, we were obviously more likely to run into a VTuber fan.
I’ll have to stop her if she gets too enthusiastic... I think the ideal boyfriend that Nishina was talking about would do something like that out of concern for his girlfriend.
Despite my fears, Elena already understood that she had to contain herself. Her face radiated pure delight, but she remained silent as she walked through the shelves, acting as normal as possible.
It wasn’t long before we reached the Emily Saionji corner. There were keychains, notebooks, towels—more merchandise than for any other VTuber. She’d recently seen a spike in followers, and it was now safe to say that she was one of Japan’s top VTubers.
Elena looked at the shelves, smiling, without actually taking anything off of them. When she was done, she turned to me, beaming.
“Thank you so much! I’m so happy I was able to see it in person!” she said. “It” obviously referred to Emily’s merchandise, but Elena wisely refrained from saying that aloud.
“I know. Cool, isn’t it?”
“While we’re here... would it be okay if we took a look at the other floors?”
“Of course!”
The next floor that she stopped at was packed with doujinshi.
Does she want to buy a yuri magazine or something?
“Wow,” she said, marveling at the stacks of books, “I knew they sold doujinshi here, but seeing it with my own two eyes is incredible! Would you mind if I picked up a few things?”
“Didn’t you already buy a bunch of doujinshi at Comiket?”
“I did, but I only bought the ones I already knew I wanted to get. Today, I just want to browse to see what I can find.”
“Oh, of course. I don’t mind...”
I followed Elena through the store’s doujinshi section and watched her pick up books from the VTuber corner. She then headed over to the cashier with a pile of them in her arms, including some that starred Emily Saionji.
“Um, Minami?”
“Yes?”
“Maybe I should buy those for you.”
“What...?”
“It’s not that likely, but if the store clerk knows about Emily, he could end up recognizing you.”
In the worst-case scenario, the clerk, knowing that Elena was the voice actress that voiced Emily, could post something about her being on a date in Akihabara and shopping for doujinshi with a boy. That would be terrible.
“Th-Thank you!” she said, handing me her wallet and the doujinshi she’d chosen. A quick glance confirmed my suspicion—they were all yuri stories.
Once I was done at the checkout, I went back to Elena and handed over her stuff.
“I hadn’t even considered how risky that could be... Thank you so much.”
“I could just be worrying too much,” I said.
“Not at all! I’m really grateful!”
“You bought some Emily doujinshi, didn’t you?”
“Oh, yes! I found one that pairs her up with Bunny Bellhop, so I absolutely had to get it!”