Idle Talk: My Friendship with Mashiron
Since Mashiron and I still had time after reminiscing about how we’d met, we decided to keep talking, the topic shifting to our current relationship.
“This might involve some digging around in your own dark past,” said Mashiron, “but is there any specific thing you remember really vividly, Awa-chan?”
“Hmm...” I said. “There’s actually so many it’s hard to choose one.”
“Yeah, I guess since it’s been a while since we debuted, huh?”
“As an all-around conclusion, I doubt we could have ever imagined back then what we’re like now.”
Mashiron chuckled. “You got that right. Especially in your case, Awa-chan.”
“It’s behind me. Just a fond memory now. But this is getting off-topic—you mean a memory from back then, right?” I asked.
Hmm... What’s a good one? I wondered. I was working my ass off at the time, since I was panicking at my popularity not going up. Though I guess my life is still just as tumultuous as back then. Mashiron was the one I’d done the most collabs with, and she’d helped me with a bunch of equipment issues and other off-stream things. There was so much information tangled up in my brain that I had a hard time picking out any one memory.
“...Oh,” I said.
“Hm? What is it, Awa-chan?” asked Mashiron. “Think of something?”
“Well, I guess so, but I’m not sure I should say it...”
“Hey, quit putting on airs. You don’t have to be reserved about it with me at this point, right?”
“I... I guess so. In that case, um... It’s about something you did on a stream once...”
“But courtesy is important even among friends! Let’s not talk about this!”
“Hey, Mashiron! No take-backs! That’s the coward’s way out!”
“You’re not wrong, but still...”
It certainly wasn’t every day I heard Mashiron refuse something so strongly, given that she didn’t mind always hanging out with the rest of the VTubers, despite all her witty comments about our usual ridiculousness. But I couldn’t blame her. The story was about how Mashiron had almost made a huge, uncharacteristic mistake.
“I am still sorry about that, you know,” insisted Mashiron. “I still feel guilty, so come on. Give me a break.”
“No, no! It’s all water under the bridge, of course. I wasn’t even angry at the time anyway,” I assured her. “But it wasn’t all bad—it was a good experience for us. That’s when we started calling each other by our nicknames, after all.”
“Urk. That may be true, but still...”
“You kind of embarrassed me before and left it at that, so consider this my revenge! Come on, remember what happened?”
“I kinda feel like you blew up your own ship on that one. But, well, if you insist.”
It was a fond memory—one which, even after all this time, I could recall vividly in my mind. The incident happened about a month after our debut, as we were really getting into the swing of streaming. Nothing that day stood out as a particularly foul omen. Mashiron was doing one of her usual zatsudan streams, and since I didn’t want our streams to overlap that day, I joined her chat and became just another viewer.
As expected from someone who could easily handle my Shuwa mode, Mashiron was a great conversationalist. That day, she was discussing her illustration day job and keeping everything moving along at a good pace. It was right around the time when the greater public had begun to notice how talented a streamer she was, so she’d started to get a lot more people tuning in. I remembered her voice being somehow happier than usual...and, considering we’d gotten used to streaming, she’d probably relaxed a little too much. I was smiling to myself, happy for her favorable winds, but a certain comment showed up that ruined the peacefulness of the stream.
: your illustrations are so bad nobody's gonna be into that kokorone-whatever person lololol
“Yikes,” I said to myself. “A mean comment...” And it was the worst kind of mean comment—it was clearly meant to be mean and was even rude enough to use my name as part of it.
There were so many things she could have said in response. Mashiron’s illustrations had been widely praised even before she’d become a VTuber, and when the third generation had debuted—when our visuals were the most important, since people didn’t really know us yet—I’d been the most popular one. Her art left no room to doubt her level of skill. It was true that I wasn’t as popular as the other VTubers afterward, but that was purely because I was the one behind the model.
The commenter had probably just wanted to insult her. Unfortunately, anyone working as a VTuber had to walk a path where they sometimes ran into antis like these. They bothered everyone, including me; in the end, you just had to give up, since you couldn’t do anything about it. The conclusion you naturally come to, though perhaps reluctantly, is ultimately to ignore them, since letting every single one bother you would destroy you.
On that day, though, it was a different story for Mashiron.
“What?” she said on stream. “Whoever made that comment, you wanna say that again? It’s one thing to insult me, but it’s another to insult Awayuki-chan.”
“M-Mashiro-chan?” You didn’t need to be familiar with her to realize she was furious. But she wasn’t just angry for herself—it was mainly for me.
“Awayuki-chan is doing her best, you know. She spends so much time every day thinking about what to stream so that everyone enjoys themselves. And I know because I’ve been watching her do it. Though, judging by your lack of forethought with that comment, I doubt you’d understand, being the kind of trash that has never worked hard in their life.”
“Mashiro-chan...” I was shocked, both since I’d never heard her voice get that upset before and because she was thinking about me so much.
“...Yeah. Anyway, watch what you say. Make fun of people without knowing anything and you’re gonna get your legs swept out from under you one day.”
It resulted in a big ruckus appearing in the chat, but since Mashiron was in the right on all fronts, it actually made people support her more, and the anti who had made the comment disappeared.
But things didn’t end there—in fact, this was where Mashiron got really out of hand.
“Anyway, that’s about all I wanted to say... But that person criticized my art too, right? This is a good opportunity. Why don’t I talk about how much passion I put into designing Awayuki-chan? It should be a good topic for this zatsudan.”
Mashiron pulled up the completed design of Awayuki, which had all its little particulars written on it. And then she started to talk all about Awayuki’s body, in minute detail...
It started with the gloss of the hair and the springiness of the skin, eventually turning to things like the ribs and the armpits, all of it sounding like a parade of fetishes. Eventually, it evolved into an explanation of the meatiness of Awayuki’s thighs—which were normally hidden—and the size of her breasts...
As Mashiron got more and more passionate, I started to have misgivings. This was venturing into territory it should probably be veering away from—and my prediction was right on the mark.
“And you know what? I made sure to describe even the color of her nipples in detail! Fweh heh heh. You’re all interested in her nipples, right?”
“Wh-What?!”
“Anyway, I’m gonna draw them now.”
“Whaaaaaaat?!?!”
She’d made the absurd remark with a tenacious, enraptured tone that I couldn’t believe came from the cool, androgynous Mashiron. And she wasn’t lying either—she pushed the design to the side for the moment and started opening a new canvas!
“Haah... Haah... Haah...!!!”
“Whoa, whoa whoa whoa?! Wait a second!!!” I shouted to myself in my room. The chat was total pandemonium! Despite my confusion, I could tell this was a crisis! “She won’t see a comment in time! I have to call her!”
I hastily called up the still-streaming Mashiron to try and stop her berserk rampage. “Please, pick up!” I prayed, hoping that she’d notice my call so I could protect my private areas. But with Mashiron so zoned in, she didn’t notice anything. “She doesn’t see it!”
So I continued trying.
“...Huh? Awayuki-chan?”
“Did she notice?!”
My efforts had borne fruit—after about a minute of me trying to call her, she finally picked up. I learned later that Mashiron’s manager just so happened to not be watching the stream, so this had been, all joking aside, a life-threatening crisis.
“What’s up, Awayuki-chan?” she asked. “I’m a little busy. Can this wait until after the zatsu?”
“Mashiron! Tell me right now what you’re about to do!”
“Hmm? I’m about to draw your nipples. Why?”
“How can you say that so casually?! If you know what you’re doing, then stop! This is bad! Like, really bad!”
“Hrm. Why do you want to stop me so much? I just want to see your nipples.”
“I’m saying that’s exactly the point! What’s going on with you today?! What happened to the cool, collected Mashiro-chan?!”
“Aw, shut up! What’s wrong with a mama wanting to see her daughter’s nipples?! It’s weirder to get embarrassed over it! I’m your mom!”
“It’s not about being embarrassed! You’re on stream! People are watching! The whole world can see this!”
“Huh? ...Oh.” At last, Mashiron stopped her unceasing hands. She seemed to finally realize what she was doing. “O-Oh, uh... Sorry, everyone,” she said to chat. “I’m gonna go cool my head for a bit...”
After those words, the day’s stream came to an end. We remained on the call, though, and Mashiron apologized to me so sincerely that I started to be the one worrying about her this time.
“I’m so sorry for causing trouble,” she said. “I really blew it this time. What’s going on with me? And also, seriously, thanks for helping me out.”
“Don’t mention it—all’s well that ends well,” I replied. “But what’s wrong? I’ve never seen you lose it like that before.”
“I have a habit of getting too passionate when it comes to illustrations... I guess with that and how relaxed I felt during today’s stream, I was a little too easily riled up... I won’t repeat this mistake ever again.”
From that day on, while Mashiron would sometimes get passionate about illustrating, she never, ever crossed the line. This was purely a result of some unlucky situations coinciding.
But she didn’t seem satisfied yet, so she kept on piling on the apologies. “Again, I’m really sorry,” she said. “In the end, I caused you trouble too. I’m ashamed of myself...”
“Seriously, it’s all good! Please don’t apologize that much.”
“Really? Okay, good... But I’ve been so reliable and dependable in the past that I’m kinda losing confidence.”
“P-Please don’t say things like that!” I pleaded. She seemed really depressed about it, and it hurt to see her blaming herself. She’d done so much for me. Now it was my turn to cheer her up! “People like you are supposed to have confidence, Mashiro-chan! Your art is amazing, the voice sounds super cool, you’re great at talking, you’re nice, and you cheer me on!”
“O-Oh? I-Is that so?”
“And to tell you the truth, I was happy you got angry over me. I thought it was really cool! And, and—”
“Okay, okay, thanks. You’ve made your point, Awayuki-chan. Now you’re just embarrassing me, so please!”
I’d never been able to say the right things in these situations, so I’d just started listing off the things I liked about her to try and get her to cheer up a little. Apparently that had made her bashful. But it seemed to pull her out of her depressed thoughts, which was a relief. I wanted to go back in time and pat myself on the back for a job well done.
“Yeah, you’re right,” said Mashiron. “No time to wallow in my depression. First I have to apologize to my viewers, and then I just have to put my nose back to the grindstone.”
“I’ll be there with you when you apologize,” I assured her. “Although I doubt this will cause that much backlash.”
“I hope not...”
(As it turned out, I was right. The fact that she’d started off by getting angry for my sake had worked wonders, drawing many reactions from people who felt like Mashiron was a mom who loved her daughter that much. Criticism was in the minority, and eventually even that disappeared on its own.)
“Anyway, no matter what happens, I’ll do my best,” she continued. “I said I love people who always work hard, so I guess I should work hard myself—that way I can come to love myself. Thanks for cheering me up.”
“No worries. I’ll always be your ally and good friend, no matter what. I might not be that reliable, but still...”
After a pause, she asked, “Hey, Awayuki-chan, since we’re here and all, what do you say we give each other nicknames?”
“What? Nicknames?”
“Yep. I do still love you, after all.”
“Whaaat?! Wh-What do you mean?!”
She chuckled. “I mean as friends. Why are you so ruffled?”
“R-Right, of course! Naturally! Right, right, right!”
“Anyway, nicknames. What do you think?”
“I’m fine with the idea, of course. It kind of reminds me of my school days.”
“Same here. What do you want to call me?”
As someone for whom life hadn’t involved friendship for a long time, nicknames were an honor to me—maybe even too much of one. I strained, trying to come up with something. Hmm... Finally I suggested, “What about, like... Mashiron...?”
“Mashiron?” she repeated.
“D-Do you not like it?”
“That’s not it. I was just curious why.”
“Well, you know how Hareru-senpai gets called Harerun? I really admire her a lot, and if you took that same level of admiration but changed it to friendship—you’re on the same level as that, I guess, so I wanted to call you something that sounded kinda like it... Should I change it?”
“I see, so that’s why you put the ‘n’ on the end. I like it! Plus, it sounds like macaron, which is pretty cute.”
“Really?! I’m glad...”
“Next is me, then. I’ve already decided. What do you think of Awa-chan?”
“Awa-chan? I think that’s great! Can I ask the reason?”
“Well, you’re always very awa-awa, so Awa-chan.”
“W-Wait! What is that even supposed to mean?!”
Mashiron chuckled again.
After the call, we both did an apology stream. That must have been around the time we’d started doing way more collabs together. This incident had begun with Mashiron making a mistake, but it had been absolutely crucial to our friendship growing, which is why I’d brought it up as a memorable experience from our past.
Anyway, as for how we reacted to it in the present...
“Ugaaahhh!!!” groaned Mashiron. “No more, please! It’s kinda making me anxious! Stop it or I’m ending the call!”
“Yes, you’re right! Let’s stop—right now! Ahh, it must be hot in here, since I started sweating!”
We’d both ended up being taken down by our own shyness and embarrassment.