Chapter 1 : Prologue

Cover closed.

It was a coincidence.

I was simply trying to watch a video when I accidentally clicked on something else.

The video I ended up watching was full of things I couldn’t understand.

A moving picture in the bottom right corner, a cute voice speaking in an unfamiliar tone.

And a chat window filled with responses to the streamer’s words.

Although it was clearly my native language, the slang was so unfamiliar that it was difficult to understand.

But perhaps that unfamiliarity was what attracted me.

I was mesmerized and continued to watch the broadcast.

It was a first.

It felt like color had entered my monochrome world.

It was a huge shock to me, someone who had been busy studying, to find myself captivated by something else, for no other reason than to live comfortably in the future, without any fun or emotion…

Just to get into a better high school, I was solely focused on studying to do my best on the upcoming exams in my third year.

By the time the broadcast ended with a “Thank you for watching”, the sun had long since set.

Even after the broadcast ended, I remained in a daze until my younger sister’s voice calling me for dinner snapped me back to reality.

This, too, was a first.

Instead of holding my handmade English vocabulary flashcards and memorizing them during mealtime, I started eating while holding my phone.

My younger sister who called me for dinner, and my parents who usually didn’t pay much attention,

They all stared at me with blank expressions as I ate without properly focusing on my food, looking at my phone instead of my flashcards.

But I didn’t care about my surroundings.

The most important thing to me right now was finding out who the host of that stream was and what they did.

I quickly searched for what I had just seen.

The person I had just watched was a Streamerer named Haruka Kanata, created to promote a company called “Colorlive.”

Haruka (遥か) Kanata (彼方)…

With an idiom meaning “far away” used as a name, I couldn’t help but find it strange.

But…

I kept scrolling through the internet and YouTube without properly eating my dinner, and only after a long while did I put my phone down.

I realized what I had to do, what I wanted to do.

“I’m finished.”

Ignoring my parents calling me from behind, I returned to my room.

***

A few years have passed since I learned about VTubers.

After Haruka Kanata, a new type of YouTuber, appeared, the VTuber trend changed rapidly.

The VTubers of the past, who used 3D motion capture technology, disappeared, and new VTubers using 2D moving images with Live2D technology were born.

And Colorlive, which marked the starting point, corrected the company’s direction and started the virtual project.

Starting with Haruka Kanata, the first generation, followed by the second and third generations, and now even the fourth generation is about to debut.

Naturally, other countries also benchmarked this project of creating virtual YouTubers and established new virtual YouTube companies, competing with each other while showcasing their individuality.

The world has ushered in the era of the Great VTuber.

Besides the VTubers that spring up and disappear like mushrooms after the rain, there is another new type of YouTuber.

They are commonly called clippers, but VTuber viewers call them something else, partly due to the origin of the word and the discomfort of calling them “clippers” in Japanese.

“Kirinuki,” a Japanese word meaning “cut out.”

And that’s what they are called.

Cutting out and editing VTubers’ broadcasts into easily watchable videos.

That’s what they do.

And I was one of those Kirinuki creators.

And the one with the most subscribers, too.

“Phew…”

I finished my work for today.

After that day, I became completely immersed in VTubers and started a YouTube channel, thinking that I had to let more people know about them.

Since VTubers weren’t known worldwide yet, it was natural for me to think that way.

With the sole intention of letting more people know about VTubers, I learned how to edit videos and even how to draw, something I had never done before.

Fortunately, I seemed to have a talent for it, as my drawing skills improved day by day, and my editing skills also improved as I poured my time into it.

But perhaps because of that…

I had to spend most of my day watching VTubers, finding parts to clip, editing them, and drawing images, so I ended up sleeping all the time at school.

My image as a model student quickly became that of a problem child, and my grades plummeted, preventing me from going to the high school I had originally aimed for.

Even at that school, I chose to join the Going Home Club, and since I always slept, I didn’t have any close friends.

I constantly worried and burdened my parents, and my relationship with my younger sister, now in middle school, was completely broken.

But I didn’t regret my current life.

Because I believe I’m alive now because I met VTubers.

Well… of course, it would be a lie to say I haven’t had any complaints while living like this.

After scheduling the video upload, I checked the comments section of the YouTube video as usual.

– Is this sister really okay? The frequency of her video uploads is seriously dangerous lately, right?
ㄴ It seems like it’s because of the upcoming Colorlive 4th generation members stream
ㄴ Honestly, I’m looking forward to it…

– Sister… You know videos are less important than your health, right?
ㄴ You really…

– But why do people call her “sister”? Did the owner of the channel ever say whether they’re male or female?
ㄴ It started when Kanata-chan, the owner’s one true love, said she wanted to be friends, and people started treating the owner as a girl, calling it the first love story between a VTuber and a clipper.
ㄴㄴ Kanata-chan and the streamer are friends? Ah… My mind is spinning
ㄴSince they’ve been uploading clips from the debut, it means… The owner has been a clipper for a very long time
ㄴㄴWeren’t they the first Kirinuki YouTuber?
ㄴㄴㄴProbably

How did it end up like this…

I intended only to spread awareness of VTubers to the world as a clipper, so I never shared any personal stories, just uploading clips.

However, as I repeatedly clipped and edited videos of most VTubers, it seemed that I had become quite famous among them.

Especially Kanata-chan, perhaps because I had been making clips since shortly after her debut, showed a lot of affection towards me.

Because of that, more and more people started treating me as a girl, calling it ‘teetee’ between us.

Considering that one of the taboos in the VTuber industry is not to provoke the unicorns and that there should be no contact with men, this was a big problem.

If I revealed that I was a man, it would be a problem, and if I said I was a woman, wouldn’t I be deceiving people about my gender?

Of course, since people perceived me as a machine-like person who only uploads Kirinuki videos, no one questioned me for not answering…

Still, it was unavoidable that I felt conflicted.

Above all…

‘Someone like me doing teetee with Kanata-chan… That’s ridiculous.’

I chuckled self-deprecatingly.

Of course, I’d be happy if Kanata-chan or other VTubers mentioned me, but I didn’t expect it.

I’m content just being an ordinary Kirinuki YouTuber.

“I should get to sleep soon…”

I have school tomorrow.

Even if I go, I’ll probably just spend the whole time half-asleep, thinking about whose videos I’ll edit today.

But I have to attend, at least. That way, I can lessen the burden on my parents.

‘Should I consider myself lucky that I’m not being bullied…’

Still, since I looked normal on the outside, no one bullied me.

I have dark circles under my eyes, but well…

…

I’m normal… right…?

I glanced briefly at the mirror, sighed deeply, and lay down on my bed.

Then I closed my eyes.

Unaware that it would be my last moment as a man.