12 The Two Otafais
Erea and Yatochan are good friends.
Simply put, these two have similar sensibilities.
Both are women, one a secret organization agent, the other a monster.
They share the common ground of being special fighter-types.
And then——
“Hello there, Shop Manager. Erea.”
“Welcome, did you come to hang out today?”
“Um, sorry. I actually came to see Erea today.”
Saying that, Yatochan approached Erea who was idling at the counter.
“I’ve been waiting for you, Yatochan. Manager, I’ll be stepping away for a bit, that okay?”
“Ah, you said you had something in the afternoon, to play with Yatochan?”
“Yes, something like that.”
Indeed, I had heard Erea wanted to step away in the afternoon.
To hang out with a friend, it seems.
I had already made arrangements assuming that would be fine, so no reason to stop her.
It’s a good thing for Erea to have made a friend.
“So, what shall we do? Talk upstairs?”
“Hmm, anywhere is fine with me. We could even fight while talking.”
“Ah, then let’s do that. I tweaked my deck and wanted to try it out.”
And so, the two borrowed a table at the shop to chat while dueling.
A common occurrence.
“So, getting right to it Erea.”
“Yes, Yatochan?”
The two placed their decks on the table and began their fight.
By the way, when Erea starts a fight she flips into her spy-mode, but not this time.
That’s because her deck doesn’t include the “Imperial Vanguard Eclraire”.
Well, including that would give away her identity, so it can’t be helped in two ways.
And as the two began their fight——
“——Did you watch OtaFai yesterday?”
“I did, it was so much fun!”
——They started discussing the anime.
These two, no need to hide it, are otakus.
Hardcore, waist-deep in the otaku swamp types of otakus.
That Erea, who streams, is an otaku is no surprise.
But Yatochan, unexpectedly perhaps, is quite the otaku girl herself.
Her outward punk fashion is a stark contrast, but she seems drawn to otaku hobbies too.
By the way, OtaFai, formally “Can an Otaku Girl Become a Fighter?”, is a cute-girl anime adapted from a yonkoma manga series.
The so-called Kirara style.
It’s not uncommon in this world for Ignition to be involved in such premises.
It’s infrastructure here, after all.
“OtaFai is just the best, isn’t it? Little ‘Miri’ is so cute, I want to bury myself in her fluffy hair.”
“It really is…cute girls…infinitely lovable…”
Otakus come in all types, with various fixations.
But these two seem to love all things cute.
Erea’s room is filled with all sorts of cute items, from acrylic stands of cute girls to plush mascots.
Yatochan’s room is apparently similar.
Well, Erea’s room is half taken up by streaming gear too.
And Yatochan’s is partly filled with punk stuff, apparently.
“I like ‘Anna’ myself. She’s tough but has an uppity side, I just want to pat her head forever.”
“I get it…her being a bit petite is nice, feels like I could even pick her up myself.”
The two hit it off pretty much right when Yatochan started coming to this shop.
In other words, they have been good friends almost from the first time they met.
Their wavelengths must really match.
Back in my previous world, card games were considered an otaku hobby.
But in this world, even non-otaku play card games all the time.
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So the crowd at card shops is quite diverse, not guaranteed you’ll find like-minded folk.
Even amongst otaku, niche interests can differ slightly.
“Oh, you got the Manager to watch it too?”
“Yeah, well the Manager likes anime and manga in general, so he get it to an extent.”
“But our obsession levels are just different, huh?”
I can hear them chatting away.
As someone drenched in trading card games in my past life, of course I’m an otaku myself.
But for me, an entertaining story is key when evaluating any work.
OtaFai depicted the protagonist’s worries and growth skillfully alongside its slice-of-life, which I found very engaging.
Erea and Yatochan want to gush about the cute girls, so our perspectives differ slightly.
Not that I don’t appreciate cute girls myself!
I just tend to focus more on the story aspect.
Plus, as a guy, going on about cute girls with female company feels a bit iffy.
Not like I’d have that kind of talk even with Daia around.
Speaking of Daia, he’s quite the otaku himself.
But whenever he tries to geek out, his dated archaic vocabulary like “focanupoh” comes out, not to mention his unsavory appearance making it hard to talk freely.
Though honestly, looking shady while geeking out is way worse!
Anyway, putting that aside.
The two continued to chat animatedly while dueling.
It’d be rude of me to eavesdrop too intently.
I kept an appropriate distance and focused on work.
Time passed, customers came and went, but the two seemed to be enjoying their conversation.
However, after a while, Yatochan started to look a bit flustered.
Not wanting to intrude, I simply observed, until——
“Manager, may I have a moment?”
Erea called me over, so I went to join the two.
There weren’t many customers around anyway.
Might as well chat if they want.
But when I arrived,
Yatochan had her face down, looking embarrassed.
What was going on? As I tilted my head,
“I think Yatochan would be a huge hit if she appeared on my stream, what do you think?”
“No way, no way, absolutely not! I’d die of embarrassment!”
Ah, I see now.
Of course Yatochan would be shy about that.
Though wait, isn’t she an agent of a secret organization? Is this okay?
“I got permission from Ren san.”
“If you say so…”
Erea seemed to sense my concern and whispered to me.
Ren is Yatochan’s boss, an acquaintance of mine even before meeting Yatochan, and a regular here.
“It’s a secret organization, but not the kind that has to completely hide its existence. Even if it gets out, it’s not really a problem.”
“I see, so they can just, like, make people forget and stuff?”
I wonder how they manage that.
Anyway, this is about whether Yatochan will appear on Erea’s stream or not.
“I think it’d be fine, Yatochan. You show your face at tournament streams all the time, and get lots of praise.”
“That’s…different, tournament streams happen at shops and I’m not the only one.”
She’s right, consciously appearing on Erea’s personal stream is very different from shop tournament streams with various faces.
Even I’d be shy about constantly being on Erea’s stream, though briefly is fine.Erea seems to realize she can’t push further, and gives up for now.
Then I get an idea and voice it.
“Yatochan, what if you don’t appear solo, but with others instead?”
“……What do you mean?”
“Invite some other regulars too. Call it a girls’ hangout, with Atsumi, Ren and the others.”
“——!?”
The two froze, looking shocked at my suggestion.
Did I say something that surprising?
“……I’ve got it! An OtaFai girls-only evangelism stream!”
“Yeah, that’s it…!”
“What the heck is that!?”
——These two are trying to use a stream to lure other women into the otaku swamp!?
Somehow the means and ends got flipped in an instant.
And then the two otaku fighters—OtaFais for short—got all excited…
While I had some qualms, a customer came to the counter, forcing me to return to work.
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Daia gets referred to with feminine pronouns twice despite being a guy.
Thanks, should be fixed