Half an hour later, the front door of the apartment was practically kicked off its hinges. The sound of Yuna's high-heeled boots hitting the hardwood was a rhythm of impending doom.
"MAKOTO! MIKA! YOU ARE BOTH DEAD!"
Yuna's voice reached a frequency that probably shattered glass in the next neighborhood. She didn't even take off her shoes when she stormed down the hallway. Her face was a nuclear shade of crimson, her phone clutched in her hand like a holy grenade.
Ayane followed close behind, laughing so hard she was leaning against the wall for support.
Yuna burst into her bedroom. Makoto and Mika were still there. Makoto was sitting on the edge of the bed with the black leather collar still around his neck, looking like a man who had accepted his execution. Mika was calmly adjusting her glasses, her brown hair slightly mussed, but her expression entirely calm.
Yuna's gaze didn't land on them first. It landed on her bed and stopped at her precious, limited-edition Genshin duvet of Raiden Shogun in her bikini. Now that was stained with several large, damp white patches that landed on Raiden's face and boobs.
The room went totally silent. Even Ayane stopped laughing.
Yuna didn't scream or shout. She simply pointed at the floor. "Floor," her voice trembling with an intense rage. "Seiza. Now."
Makoto didn't hesitate. He dropped to his knees, his joints complaining as he settled into the traditional Japanese kneeling position. Mika followed suit, her movements fluid and dignified. Even in seiza, she managed to look as if she were presiding over a boardroom meeting.
"Yuna, I can explain," Makoto began, looking up at his stepsister.
"Silence, you fat, degenerate pig!" Yuna shrieked, finally finding her lungs. "You defiled my bed sheet! You let this this bitch lure you into my room and use my sheets as a target for your disgusting jizz!"
She turned on Mika, her violet eyes blazing. "And you! You sent the photo! I was in the middle of a crane game, Mika! I lost a high-tier Klee figure because my hands were shaking so hard from rage!"
Mika didn't flinch; she adjusted her position slightly, her eyes meeting Yuna's. "I needed to make an impact, Yuna-chan. Your bed was the best way to hit you where it hurt. Besides," she added, her voice smooth and unapologetic, "the sheets are washable. Your dignity, however, is not."
"I'LL KILL YOU!" Yuna lunged, but Ayane caught her by the waist, hauling the thrashing gremlin back.
"Easy, easy!" Ayane wheezed, still grinning. "We can't have a murder right in this house. The paperwork is a nightmare."
===
Yuna's trial lasted an hour. By the end, Makoto's legs were numb, and Yuna had finally exhausted her supply of creative insults. The mood had shifted from "Homicidal" to "Interrogative."
Still on his knee, but desperately looking for a change of subject, Makoto looked at Mika. "So, Mi-sensei," he said, rubbing his sore shins. "How long has this VTuber business been going on?"
Mafuyu hovered in the doorway, looking back and forth between the kneeling couple and the ruined bed. "Um… what is a VTuber?" she asked softly. "Ayane-chan showed me the video, but I don't understand. Why is Mika-chan a cartoon lady on the internet?"
Makoto continued, turning to Yuna and Ayane. "Did you two know about it too?"
Ayane plopped onto the dirty bed, kicking her feet up and showing Makoto her phone. "Know about it? Honey, we're the production team. Yuna is Tech Support, and I'm the PR agent."
"PR agent?" Makoto blinked as he saw the account on her phone. "Wait… What? You even made cross-posts about Mi-sensei on the GloryToMankindsASSets and Harem Scarem account?"
"Bingo," Ayane winked. "You think a Corporate Mommy VTuber can just trend on her own? It takes a village of perverts to raise a star."
"And the hardware was mine," Yuna grumbled, crossing her arms when she looked at Mika. "She was going to try and stream on her pathetic, five-year-old MacBook. Can you imagine? The framerate would have been lower than your IQ, Makoto."
Mika sighed and looked at Makoto, her brown-pink eyes soft. "I didn't want to tell you until I knew it was viable, darling. I didn't want to add another worry to your plate while you were struggling with the internship."
Then she started telling him the whole story, about the birth of a Corporate Mommy.
===
It happened in a "group study session", three days after the Tokyo Anime Festival.
The apartment was very quiet. Makoto was in his room, and the four women were gathered around the dining table. The high of the convention victory had faded, replaced by the cold, hard reality of the household ledger.
Mika sat with her laptop, her brow furrowed. "The photobook money was good," she noted, tapping a pen against her chin. "But it's a one-time thing. Our monthly bills keep coming: fabric costs, Ayane's food, Yuna's gacha addiction, and my gym membership."
Mika sighed. "If Makoto doesn't land a high-paying job soon, we're bleeding cash. Six months, or maybe less, and we're in trouble."
"I could take more costume commissions," Yuna suggested, though she looked exhausted. "But my eyes and hands hurt from staring at the tablet and sewing all day."
"I've got some agency work," Ayane said, "but the pay is shit until I get promoted."
Mika looked at them. "We need another income stream. Something that actually pays, not just covers coffee. Something that uses what we've already got."
She looked at her own face reflected over the laptop's screen, remembering the way the crowd at the con had looked at her as Nezuko. She remembered the thrill of being watched and praised as cute.
But more than that, she remembered the way people had flocked to her for advice when she was helping them with their CVs at the university library.
"I'm going to debut as a VTuber," Mika announced.
The room went silent.
"A VTuber?" Yuna asked, her jaw dropping. "You? The Heartless Bitch? You don't have a single drop of Idol energy in your entire body."
"I'm not trying to be an idol," Mika replied calmly. "The Cute Girl Singing And Playing Game market is packed. Everyone's doing that. I'm going to be a consultant, no, a sensei that gives career advice, resume check, mock interviews for guys who can't get dates or jobs."
"I'll play the Corporate Mommy role and make them pay for every minute of it." Mika nodded confidently.
Ayane's eyes lit up. "Oh… oh shit. That's brilliant, Mika! The Office Lady niche is huge right now. And your actual advice is good!"
"I have the money for kickstart," Mika said, pulling up her banking app. "I made 112,000 yen from the Nezuko's photo service at the Anime Festival, plus my share of 40,000 yen. I'll spend that on character design and rigging."
"150,000 yen (~950$) huh? That should be enough for a decent Live2D rig. I know a guy," Ayane said, already pulling out her phone. "A rigger in Osaka who specializes in expressive movements. I'll get you a discount. And I will tell him to give you two big bazongas."
Yuna stood up and walked around the table, peering at Mika's thin Macbook Air. "If you're doing this, you're doing it right," she commanded. "You can't use this potato. You need a dedicated webcam and a GPU for the tracking software. You will also need a condenser mic, a dual-monitor setup, and a ring light."
She pointed a finger at Mika. "Let's do this together: You provide the brains and personality. I'll provide the rig. But I want ten percent of the Superchats for maintenance fees."
"Deal," Mika said, reaching out to shake Yuna's and Ayane's hands.
===
Back to the present, Mika let out a long breath as she finished her story.
Makoto stared at Mika, his mind reeling as he remembered the big-boobed, silver-haired avatar he saw in Yuna's room that night, the part of Mika's profit in Yuna's note, and the high-end microphone he'd seen Yuna buy. It all made sense now.
"So that revenue Yuna showed me…?"
"Most of it was Mommy-Supas," Ayane laughed. "Turns out there are thousands of salarymen out there who will pay five thousand yen just to have Mika call them a redundant asset and tell them to fix their resume."
Makoto looked at his wives. He felt a swell of pride so intense it rivaled the feeling of his own Family Module demo. Without waiting for him to provide for them, they had been building their own empire behind his back.
"You guys are amazing," he whispered.
"Hmph. Obviously," Yuna said, though she was blushing. She looked at her ruined bed, her expression darkening again. "But that doesn't change the fact that you still owe me."
She looked at Mika, a smirk spreading across her face. "Mika-chan, you too, since you were the one who made him soil my beddings..."
Yuna walked over to her closet and pulled out a new, unopened box. "I bought this during the con, but I haven't used it yet. It's a specialized cleaning kit for delicate fabrics."
She tossed it to Mika. "You and the fat pig are going to spend the next two hours scrubbing every inch of my room. By hand, while wearing these." She pulled out two frilly maid headbands, something they must have just bought from the game store.
Mika caught the headband, her lips curving into an amused smile. "Consider it done, Yuna-chan," she mused and put it on her head. "We are the ones who made the mess, after all, we should be the ones who cleaned it up."
She looked at Makoto, her brown-pink eyes sparkling with wicked heat. "Well, darling? The Main Wife issued us a work order. Shall we start cleaning?"
Makoto looked at the headband, then at the bed, then at the four women who owned him. He sighed, but he was grinning. "Yes, ma'am!"
Mafuyu smiled, heading toward the kitchen. "I'll make some tea! Cleanup is always better with tea!"