In Those Deep, Starry Eyes, I See Cherry Petals Depressed but breathing

Chapter 29: Epilogue: I See Cherry Petals

Today was a very important day. In fact, it might be the most important day of her entire life. Her heart was fit to burst from how hard it was pounding in her chest. Nervous sweats kept breaking out on the back of her neck and on the palms of her hands. Anxiety crept up her spine despite the fact that this wouldn’t be all that different than everything she’d been doing thus far.

What was so important about today to get her so riled up? Well, nothing much. Just her debut with a somewhat small idol corporation by the title of “Hololive.” It focused on streaming on an individual basis, but there was obviously a heavy gearing towards being able to produce in-house music as well.

Yes, this was, in essence, her debut as an idol. Not just as the friendly shrine-maiden-turned-streamer, but as a full-fledged idol. She ran a sweaty hand against her red and white outfit, trying to get rid of the gross clammy feeling. Next was her hair. She’d tried to make sure it was correct so many times this morning, but every attempt had seemed to wind up in more disaster than the last. Her bangs were all over the place, her ponytail wasn’t staying in correctly, and her ahoge was obnoxiously in the way of her vision today.

Man, maybe she should have spent an extra year at the shrine before she turned to the streamer lifestyle. She’d obviously angered some kind of god or goddess to earn their ire on a day as important as today.

Miko shook her head. She had to focus. There was a meeting to be done with the others who would be in her respective “Generation” of talents, along with some extra faces that she’d have to meet who would be essential to the work she’d be doing. She’s been assigned a manager, there were a bunch of staff to meet, her genmates, and then she’d need to hold her debut stream. All in one day. Yeah. No biggie, right?

***

Meeting the genmates had gone easier than she’d anticipated. Well, for the most part. Roboco-san was very kind and gentle. She had a feeling she’d be leaning against her as a senpai in the future a great deal. Then there was Tokino Sora, the idol who was the number one blessed child of the company. Miko would know, having been a fan from the debut of the idol the year prior and being inspired to audition because of her story. She had felt like a panic attack was coming on half the time that she had to speak to the woman, like she was practically speaking to a goddess in the flesh. In a way, she supposed some people would consider her status as an idol to be somewhat an equivalent to the title of goddess.

Her manager was nice. She seemed like she was well put-together, but she definitely hadn’t seen enough of her bed in the past week… or maybe month. Regardless, she gave off an air of competence and reliability that Miko was very grateful for.

Next was A-chan, a general staff assistant. Apparently she was in charge of mainly looking after Sora’s streams, but she also dabbled in a bit of the other aspects of the company. Miko found it hard to resist the tired girl’s charm, and she very quickly came to understand how it was that Sora and A-chan were such good friends.

Finally, she met the CEO properly for the first time and was also introduced to a bunch of staff assistants in charge of rigging, 3D work, and even outreach assistance. It was honestly boggling her mind how the CEO of the company was introducing her to people who would be able to connect her to artists and musicians across Japan or maybe even the world, considering how greedy and self-centered some corporate big-shots out there were.

Then it was time to wait. They actually had plenty of time, so they had done a bunch of testing to make sure the 3D rig was working earlier rather than later. Everything seemed to be in perfect condition, so she decided to just hang around the office.