Chapter 16: One Tokino Soda, please!
"They appear so bright that that are nights I grow dizzy~"
The pink phone on the desk vibrates, playing music and signaling its owner that someone has dial in.
"...Hmm?" With a sleepy and confused voice, a small hand moved over to pick it up, receiving the call in her reflex. "Yes-"
"ONECHAN!!!" Shouting from the phone echoed through the room and piece through her eardrum, waking up the girl in the process.
Covering her eardrum with her other hand, she didn't expect she would be greeted with a morning call like that.
"Where the f*ck are you now!? Did you go sleeping at another woman's place again!? God, I should have never trust you to be back home on time, I'm telling you-"
With Suisei going on a storm of rage over Anemachi's disappearance, the sleepy girl is fully awake now.
"Sorry, sorry, I just accidentally fell asleep in the office, I'm fine." Explaining herself while Suisei goes on berserk, Anemachi meanwhile checks the clock hanging on the wall.
7am, two more hours before their work starts.
Pain.
'Ah, it's been this long huh?' Thinking to herself, the tiredness begins to kick in, her back straining from the long hour on the chair.
And her stomach is empty now.
"You think just an apology will work!? Did your boss do anything to you? Are you alright now? I swear if anything happens to you-" Suisei however is still outraged over it.
She can't afford to let anything bad happen to Anemachi, cause if that's the case, blood definitely will flow.
'I really don't have time to deal with this.' Anemachi's head meanwhile is still dizzy. Moreover, A-chan and the others will be back very soon.
"Suisei, I need to prepare for work now, leave other things for when I'm back home alright?" And with a slight pause of hesitation, Anemachi continues. "See you later."
"Wait a second-"
"Di!"
And with the phone hanged, Anemachi after a breath of relief proceeds to leave the office for a while, and later comes back with a sandwich and cold latte from the family mart nearby.
Unwrapping the plastic, Anemachi takes a bite from the food on her desk while she lets her mind run again.
The research she did last night ended up using much more time than she thinks, with her digging through some decisions made by Hololive these few months to find the possible cause. And to be frank, she may need more time before she discovers anything useful. There is just too much to look through.
"Ahh...Why am I such a busy body? I should have just ignored it and gone on with my days." She had around two hours of sleep last night if she remembered correctly, the sleeping demon got her in the end. "At this rate, I probably will die of exhaustion someday…"
But Miko's face again appears in her mind, that day when Miko breaks down before her, alone and vulnerable.
'...'
Anemachi doesn't like that look on Miko's face, so she will try to avoid it from happening again, if it's possible.
She is a selfish person after all.
As the cold, sweet latte floats through Anemachi's throat, its aroma going through her nostril, Anemachi starts compounding the information she has collected so far, picking up a pen and writing down her thoughts on a piece of paper.
Recently, Cover is planning to establish Hololive as an official idol group. All the talents so far have been acting independently under different branches of Cover, and now they are bringing all of them together hoping to create a wider and bigger community.
So far, the talents involved will be Tokino Sora, Roboco and Sakura Miko, and recruitment is underway to expand Hololive even bigger. Though regrettably, not much resources are provided to them for PR or anything, really.
Thinking for a while, Anemachi crosses off the possibility that the troll's attack is organized by an insider in Cover.
There isn't any reason for that, the project hasn't even officially started yet with many things still on the drafting table. If there are any corporate spies, the sabotage should happen after everything has stabilized, not now.
Rival companies? After a few taps on the paper, she crossed it off again.
The Vtubing genre hasn't really gained much popularity, with the most successful example being Kizuna Ai for now. Miko meanwhile, with no offense, is still too small of an influence to be considered a threat of any kind.
There are some indie Vtuber, or even Vtuber groups out there, but everyone is still mostly on the same starting line, and there is no reason to believe that Miko will have a boom in popularity anytime soon.
So...Why? Or is it that she is overthinking too much?
Miko hasn't said or mentioned anything sensitive recently as far as she is concerned, so is it all just a coincidence?
But something tells Anemachi that she is missing a piece of the puzzle.
"Guess this will take some time…" With the paper before her filled with writing and scribble, Anemachi gives a sigh and keeps the paper in her bag, continuing another day.
She can't get caught by the others that she is digging through sensitive information. At worst, she could get a jail sentence for this.
"Anemachi, early today huh?" Suddenly, Anemachi feels a tap on her shoulder, shocking and startling her.
Immediately turning her head, entering Anemachi's eye is A-chan in a white long sleeve shirt, the usual dark circle under her eyes.
"Uhm, you alright? Why the vast movement?" Asking, A-chan feels something is wrong with Anemachi.
"Eh, ahaha, nothing, it's nothing." Laughing awkwardly, Anemachi secretly wipes the cold sweat off her forehead. "Just on edge after working through the night."
"I see...Wait, you didn't go back yesterday? Are you fine?" Realizing that Anemachi didn't go back home, A-chan begins to panic. "You aren't dying right?"
"I'm fine, I'm fine, don't worry. I just end up sleeping in the office, too lazy to go back home." Reassuring A-chan while saying sorry in her heart, Anemachi with a smile faces A-chan. "You are earlier than usual though, unfinished business?"
"Ah, I don't encourage you doing that, it ain't healthy for yourself. Take care of your health alright?" A-chan certainly doesn't mind a diligent co-worker, but it would be a shame if Anemachi dies early. "Eh, not really, just Sora-san will have a 3D stream later, so I need to go set it up early."
"Oh, a 3D stream huh? Talking about it, can I help you with that?" Hearing it, Anemachi's curiosity gets stimulated. "I would love to learn about the handling of those pieces of equipment."
"I never get the chance to touch them before, would you mind?"
"Eh...Sure, just don't get too clumsy, they aren't cheap." Thinking for a while, A-chan nodded, knowing that it won't cause harm to let Anemachi learn about it.
And with that, Anemachi follows A-chan to the recording room that is above their floors.
"Here, strap that tightly to your limbs, it is responsible for detecting your movement." Instructing Anemachi to become her test subject, A-chan begins to tinker with the settings. "No, wear that closer to your feet, it won't work well if you wear it like that."
Following A-chan instruction closely, there is an odd excitement in Anemachi from trying out these high tech "toys" that she normally wouldn't be able to get her hands on, especially one that is used by idols in particular too.
Eventually putting on the heavy VR glasses, Anemachi for the first time ever truly enter the world of virtual reality.
"W-wow!" Under the control of A-chan, the glasses simulated many different locations in the world. From a normal street in Japan to the pyramids in Egypt, to many natural wonders around the world. "T-this really is amazing!"
Astonished by the scenario, the feeling of seeing the world around every corner really is irreplaceable.
"Hehe, amazing right? This isn't something you get to buy easily after all, it's much more advanced than all the available models on the market, a prototype." A-chan always enjoys the reaction of people experiencing VR for the first time. "Anyway, enough playing. Let's teach you about some setup so you can do it in the future."
And with that, A-chan sitting on the chair begins teaching Anemachi about the hardware and more importantly the software for the whole program. It's not too complicated, but it definitely will take some time for her to learn.
And as time flies by, before she knows it, a certain brown hair female has already entered the room.
"U-uhm, is A-chan here already? I'm supposed to be here 5 minutes earlier, sorry for the delay."
Saying in a sorry tone, the female bows toward the general direction of the other staff who is already on standby.
"I'm Tokino Sora, a pleasure to work with you all."
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
A_stray_kat
A_stray_kat Ah...A bit late, but here is your chapter BAKA!
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