After I’d taken roughly ten pictures, Kokoro looked in my direction with a very surprised expression on her face. Intrigued, I stopped and looked back at her. As it turns out, she was actually looking behind me, so I turned around... and saw a line of photographers waiting to take pictures after me. They couldn’t have known that I was her private cameraman, so to speak, so they must have assumed that I was just some random guy who had asked her for photos. I did the only thing that made sense to me: step aside and let the next guy have his turn.
“Hey, nice cosplay,” the photographer said, smiling at Kokoro.
“Wha...?! A-Ah! Th-Thank you!” she replied, quickly going back to her pose. This time, however, she looked way more stiff and contrived.
The man took seven or eight pictures and thanked Kokoro, who grabbed one of the business cards out of her bag and handed it to him. One down, plenty to go. Some of the photographers only took a couple of pictures, while others took more than a dozen, which obviously required a considerable amount of time.
Just as I feared...
The line was growing longer and longer. Even if it stopped growing, there were probably enough people there already to take up our entire morning. However, since Kokoro herself had said that she’d like a good photographer—myself obviously not included—to take pictures of her, I thought it better not to intervene. That being said, I didn’t have the courage to start up conversations with the cosplayers passing by, and lining up in front of someone else didn’t seem like a good idea, so I just stood there, waiting.
I noticed that in the few seconds between one of the photographers leaving and the next taking his place, Kokoro was staring at me as if desperately trying to tell me something. Intrigued, I walked up to her.
“I just saw the most handsome cosplayer doing Toppo from HypMic! And he’s probably a guy too!” she whispered, clearly excited.
HypMic, short for Hypnotic Mic, was one of the games that Kokoro was obsessed with. It starred several voice actors in the roles of various handsome rappers.
“Yeah? Where?”
“He just walked past us!”
“Wha—”
“Excuse me...” one of the photographers interrupted, as if to ask whether it was his turn yet.
Kokoro and I had limited time, and the event venue was huge. If we didn’t hurry, we probably wouldn’t be able to find the cosplayer she liked again.
“What should I do...?” Kokoro muttered to herself.
She probably doesn’t have it in her to make a choice right now... I’ll have to make it for her!
“E-Excuse me! She wants to go to the restroom! Can we stop with the photos for a while?” I shouted at the line of waiting photographers.
“Huh?!”
Kokoro was looking at me, half bewildered, half embarrassed. The people in line didn’t look any less surprised. Unfortunately, that was the best idea I could come up with on such short notice...
“Let’s go, Nishina! To the restroom!” I told her.
“What...?! O-Okay. Sorry, everyone!”
She bowed apologetically to the photographers, picked up her stuff, and followed me.
“What’s going on with you, Ichigaya?! What’s this all about?!” Kokoro asked as we ran.
“It was the only way to get rid of those people! Now, where did that cosplayer go?”
“Which cosplayer?”
“The handsome one! You know, in the HypMic cosplay!”
“O-Oh, so you were trying to... Anyway, he went that way!”
We started running in the direction she’d pointed, ignoring the strange looks directed at us.
“Now I see...” she continued. “I wouldn’t have had it in me to disappoint those people myself, so thanks, I guess. But did you really have to tell all those people I needed the restroom?!”
I couldn’t tell if Kokoro was trying to thank me or if she was mad at me again.
“What else was I supposed to say?! That was the only way to get you out of there without seeming really rude. More importantly, do you see your guy or not?”
“Hm? I, er—Oh! There he is!”
She came to an abrupt halt, quickly followed by me. I looked in the direction she was pointing and found the cosplayer from before standing next to a wall, with a line of girls beside him. I wasn’t all that familiar with HypMic characters, but male cosplayers were somewhat rare, and handsome ones all the more, so I could tell at a glance that it was the right guy.
He had bright red hair and wore a black suit with a striped shirt.
“Whoa! He was right by us just seconds ago and he already has a huge line!”
Even men had hoards of photographers—female ones, in this case—waiting to take pictures of them if they were handsome enough. The world that cosplayers live in is an incredible one.
“For the time being, why don’t you line up too? You can get his picture and try to get his card,” I suggested.
“R-Right!” she said, nervously joining the end of line.
This is why she’s here in the first place. I’m glad we’re working toward her goal at least.
I felt my phone vibrate in the back pocket of my jeans, so I pulled it out to see who was calling me.
“What the...?”
It was Elena, who was supposed to be on stage in about an hour. Why was she calling me at a time like this?
“Hello? Minami?”
“Hi, Ichigaya. I’m sorry for calling you at a time like this...”
The reception was bad in the event hall, but I could just about hear her.
“It’s no big deal. Is something wrong?”
“Can you speak right now?”
“Well... sure,” I said, glancing over at Kokoro. It was finally her turn, and she was the last in line. After taking a few pictures and giving the cosplayer her card, she was now chatting with him.
Good for you, Nishina. Seems like you’re going to be able to chat with him for a while. Perfect timing.
“I’ve just finished preparing,” Elena said, “so I was browsing the internet on my phone, and...”
Her voice was shaking. Could this be some kind of emergency?
“...people found out that I’m Emily Saionji...”
“What?!”
Her words came as a shock. “Really? But how?!”
“Recently, I got my first role as a supporting character in an anime. A clip from the TV show was uploaded online, and someone looked up my information on the company website. Then they compared my voice to my YouTube videos... It all happened between last night and this morning. The timing couldn’t have been worse!”
“This morning? So they’ve only just found out?!” I asked, trying to keep my voice down as much as possible.
“Yeah. I went to check my Twitter account—my voice acting account. My followers have skyrocketed, so I searched around for the reason and found a thread on 3chan, where someone posted about it. People are tweeting loads and the news is spreading! I haven’t been able to read the whole 3chan thread, but I read some posts from people who are attending WonFes today that plan to come see me on stage.”
“What? Are you serious?”
“Completely. The only picture of me that I know about online is the one on the company’s website, and it’s a really old one. So people really want to see Emily’s real face for the first time. No one’s allowed to take photos during the show, but there are already posts saying that they’ll take pictures and upload them to the thread!”
Elena sounded like she was about to start crying. Eventually, someone had been bound to discover her identity. As long as she was both a voice actress and a VTuber, that was unavoidable. But this truly was bad timing. She was already nervous about having to appear on stage in such a skimpy outfit, but now she also had to deal with the weight of expectations from Emily’s fans and people who were going to try to take photographs without permission. Knowing that this was her first time performing on stage, I felt bad for her.
“There’s not much time left before the show, but I’m getting really dizzy and my hands are shaking, so I panicked and called you. I’m sorry...”
“No, it’s okay. I totally understand. There’s no reason to apologize! If I could help you in any way, I really would!”
I wish I could do something more, but right now, helping her calm down is my top priority.
“Thank you... Having to go out in this costume in front of Emily’s fans is making me so scared, but I’m even more scared of not living up to their expectations...”
“Minami...”
Even at a time like this, Elena was thinking of her fans first and foremost. She really cared and had the mindset of a professional.
“Don’t worry! No fan of Emily’s would ever be disappointed with you!”
I tried my best to find words that would cheer her up. Of course, I was just being honest...