A blur of activities.
Jump cuts showed Niko heading back to the church, followed by a Komodachi.
Paladins rushed out, horrified she was still alive.
But the Komodachi, controlled by chat, of course, took care of everything.
Like an interactive monster stomper, Niko just stood back and laughed as chat went wild.
And then they headed towards the ball where Lady Zen went on her rampage.
A few more jump cuts showed that Niko was the one who brought Lady Zen back to life for one last hurrah.
And then...
"And here we are, Chat!"
...Niko's body crumbled to dust and after another transition, she was walking around an apartment in Roppongi Hills. "That room over there is Zen's. She's probably watching the stream now, actually... say hi, Zen~!"
Zen's muffled voice echoed from behind the door. "NIKO! YOU CAN'T JUST JUMPCUT LIKE THAT! THE ANTICIPATION! THE EXCITEMENT! WHAT THE HECK?!"
Niko laughed. "My stream, my edits~ Cope. Seethe. Mald."
> @meryl_enthusiast: ...what happened to my oshi?
> @miraiz_enthusiast: Were we watching the same thing? She literally died fam.
> @komodachi_ichiban: WHEEZE
Niko stretched and held her arm out, staring into the camera. As she did, her outfit was on full display... if you could consider it an outfit.
Unlike in the 'past life' as Priestess Niko Manser, or even as Meryl Kodomo, right now, Niko... or 'Nicole' as her legal name stated, was just wearing an oversized black shirt that dangled dangerously down to her thighs, along with white stockings.
> @inquiringiguana: Is... that safe to wear on UTube?
> @epicpenguin: don't care, hot, approve.
> @yuri_enthusiast: 11/10, would love seeing you wear again.
...
> @irateigloo: So what I'm getting is that Protest is a group of returnees? No, reincarnators?
> @john_enthusiast: A returnee recruiting reincarnators... I feel like I've read this before
> @yu_ilhand: Is everyone else around here a returnee or something?
Niko plopped herself on the sofa and idly kicked her legs, holding out her phone to stream herself. "Sooo, hi chat. We're both reincarnated now, so you don't get to call yourself 'that' anymore. Like how I'm not calling myself 'her' either."
> @meryl_enthusiast: YOU LITERALLY HAVE MERYL'S CORPSE IN THE BACKGROUND!
> @nekomanser_ichiban: Understood, oshi!
> @project_penguin: Dang, you quick with it
> @white_night: I guess this gen is just 'we vibe', huh?
> @vibes_are_us: I'm game with that
Niko hummed and propped her phone up on the side of the sofa. Then she grabbed a pillow and propped herself up to stare at the camera, making an intimate close up of her face. "There. That's better, right?"
> @miraiz_enthusiast: WAIT. I JUST REALIZED. THIS ISN'T A 2D MODEL.
> @unlimited_powah: HOLY SITH. IS THIS REALTIME ANIME REMAPPING?! WITH A PHOOOONE?!
> @blackbox_techguru: WTF IS THIS TECH?!
Niko tilted her head, reading the comments. Then she chuckled and said, "You'll find out how this works over my dead body~"
> @meryl_enthusiast: MERYL NO!
> @nekomanser_ichiban: MERYL'S DEAD. LONG LIVE OUR SAINTESS NICOLE.
> @nice_kite: I am LOVING this idgaf attitude.
Niko happily smiled and said, "Man, this is fun. I forgot how nice it was to just talk shit with you guys."
> @flamingfox: RED ALERT. IDOL HAS CURSED.
> @peace_breaker: RIP John's dream
> @happyhippo: o.o
Niko laughed and said, "What? A girl can curse if she wants to, right? I think I deserve it after all the bullshit I went through... but fiiine, I'll keep it to a minimum. Don't want H- 'Her' getting on my butt about it."
> @keen_ai: 'Her?'
> @pillowpal: 'H...' WHO IS H?!
> @HVG: me obv
> @Mira-Chan🔧: @HVG was bonked! Timeout for: 999 days
> @hvG: that sign can't stop me because I can't read
> @Mira-Chan🔧: @hvG was bonked! Timeout for: 999 days
> @ecchiveegee: you cannot prevent the inevitable
> @purplepenguin: bruh
> @irateigloo: who the heck IS this HVG guy anyway...?
> @JohnSmith🔧: @HVG I see what you're doing. I appreciate it. But cease.
> @keen_ai: GUYS IT'S A PSY OP. QUICK, FIGURE OUT WHO HAS A NAME THAT STARTS WITH H
> @JohnSmith🔧: 🤦
Niko chuckled and waved at the camera. "Hi, Mister John. Don't worry, I won't slip up again. Maybe. Just in case, uh... how do we turn on the autofiltering stuff?"
Zen's voice echoed from the background. "YOU DIDN'T HAVE IT SET UP?!?!?!?"
Niko winced and then turned her head to shout back. "Give me a break! I haven't streamed since I broke every bone in my body!"
> @meryl_enthusiast: WHAT?!
> @nekomanser_ichiban: BROKE EVERY WHAT IN YOUR BODY?!
> @keen_ai: I KNEW IT!
Niko stared at the suddenly buzzing chat. Then she rolled her eyes and said, "You know what? Since Zen spent an hour spilling tea, I might as well spend an hour spilling even more. Now... Mister John, I sure hope you really have fuck you money because I am NOT holding back."
> @JohnSmith🔧: 🤦🤦🤦
> @john_enthusiast: LMAO
> @miraiz_fan101: WHEEZE
> @idol_oshi_fest: rip John
Niko grinned and said, "Alright. So... did you guys know that a certain VTuber company used to only pay their talents a tenth of what they earned? And no salary? And that the only time they made more money was through sponsorships or merch drops?"
> @tea_enjoyer: ...Go on.
> @vshowgirls: NOT US.
> @miraiz_enthusiast: Friendly reminder this is NOT Project MirAIs she's talking about
Niko glanced at the chat and said, "Oh yeah, not Mister John. He's cool. Did you know I make like, 60K just by existing? And that's USD baby. That means that I don't need to stress about working hard to live. We get to just have fun here, friendos."
> @final_delusion: I'M DYING
> @legalbeagel: You can't just... I mean, if it's John and he says okay you can... but girl, plz...
> @open_secret: Jealous... but deserved, I guess.
A door suddenly slammed open in the back and Zen rushed over, wearing her pink hoodie. "NIKO!"
Niko laughed and jumped off the sofa. "What~?"
"We're shutting this down! You can't do that!" Zen strained to reach Niko's phone.
Niko kept moving it out of reach, making the stream show a blur of the apartment. "Mister John said we get to stream how we want, Bestie. It's fiiine."
"It is NOT fine!" Zen strained against Niko's outstretched arm, trying to reach the phone. "It's common courtesy to not talk about salaries... and how are you this strong?!"
"I've been working out with Alfi-senpai and Aoko-senpai in the mornings while SOMEONE here just keeps pigging out on ice cream pints."
Zen blushed. "I-I do not pig out on ice cream pints!"
Niko rolled her eyes. "X to doubt. I bet if we go inside your room right now we'll find a garbage bin full of them. In fact, you probably were eating one while watching my stream, weren't you?"
"W-What? Psh, of course not- WHERE ARE YOU GOING?!"
Niko laughed and ran over to Zen's room, pushing past the open door. The moment she did, she swept her phone around and revealed a half-eaten pail of rocky road ice cream sitting on Zen's desk. "Told you chat~"
"NIKOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
> @meryl_enthusiast: Meryl... really is dead... T_T
> @nekomanser_ichiban: I'm digging Niko-chan. She's amazing.
> @laughingloon: Oh my god. We have a chaos gremlin. I repeat, we have a chaos gremlin.
Niko stole the pail of rocky road ice cream along with the spoon and started sprinting out of the room, stealing bites as she went. "Mm... So, chat. As I was saying..."
"GET BACK HERE YOU THIEF!"
Niko turned back and said, "I'm not the one who keeps stealing our leader's ice cream from the fridge! This one even has her name on it!" She turned the pint of ice cream around to reveal a blue sticky note with a redacted name on it.
> @keen_ai: DANG IT
> @jumpingjackal: John's tech is too strong...!
> @lore_enthusiast: We still don't know the third member's name?!
Niko giggled and ran out the door. "My ice cream now~"
"NIKO YOU CRAZY WOMAN! YOU'RE STILL LIVE!"
"Oh right." Niko waved at the camera. "See you, Chat! Love you! Bye! I'll be on Tweeter all night, so talk then~"
After that, she reached out and stopped the stream.
[Thanks for watching!]
> @pinkpuppy: Truly the stream of all time
> @clifford_bigdoggo: Niko is crazy high school sister vibes and I dig it
> @killer_queen: WAIT. DOES THIS MEAN THEY ALL LIVE TOGETHER?!
...
...
...
> @keen_ai: WE HAVE A REAL LIFE IDOL DORM SITUATION?!
> @lucky_star: guerilla streams! All day, every day!
> @miraiz_enthusiast: GUYS. NIKO ALREADY HAS MERCH ON THE MAIN SITE
> @nekomanser_ichiban: WHERE?!
...
> @JohnSmith🔧: I will not be answering any questions about Nicole.
> @JohnSmith🔧: She just is.
> @JohnSmith🔧: Thank you for coming to my ted talk.
> @miraiz_enthusiast: WHEEZE