Chapter 5: Before Debut

Chapter 5

Before Hiro went home, Lucy, Nana and Luna all shared their Social Media(SM) ID and created a group. Hiro realized today that his voice was unlike any women. When he went home, he desperately racked his brain and came to a conclusion. Hiro needed a voice-changer apps. His voice sounded terrible in the recording earlier. He was nervous, a Vtuber is supposed to be presenting their real selves.  However, he was a pragmatic. He needed a backup plan in case his voice doesn’t cut it to be a female character. So, he went on with his Voice Changer idea.

Idol was all about a sweet lie. There are idols that presented themselves as pure and innocent. Some of them were like that. However, Hiro is different, he is a monster. Like a wolves in sheep clothing, he presented himself as sweet and pure idols even though he was a dark incarnate. He was going to play as a cheerful idols even though he is an introverted NEET. He must not be his real self. He needed to fake himself. He needed to mold himself to the liking of his customer, his fans. Otherwise, he won’t survive in this world.

Hiro hated this world. He hated that this world couldn’t provide for him. However, his pragmatic side also reasoned that it is impossible for the world to provide for everyone with their different personalities. That’s why, his credo was to mold himself to fit the society. However, the society rejected him. He learned job interview. He tried to be polite. He tried to be sociable. However, society rejected him because of his looks for five years.

However, that’s already in the past. He couldn’t do anything about it anyway. He is not some reincarnated protagonist with nuclear bomb magic that could level an entire city with a flick of a finger. That’s why he needed to grovel to the ground and kiss the foot of his customer to survive. He knew that most middle income people also did the same as him to survive.

After browsing through the internet he found one such app. He was working now. So, he assumed that purchasing an app instead of using the free ones would net him better result. He purchased a voice modulator. An app that can change your voice in real time.

Sounding like a girl was harder to do than he thought. He couldn’t get his voice to sound cute no matter what. He started to regret his decision. However, there is no pulling back. He simply needed to do his best.

“aaaa” he practiced his vocal.

Then he looked into a mirror. Then started to recite his opening line “Hello!! I am lily, the queen of Imperion Dominacor. Hello everyone!! This is my debut stream, I am so nervous. I have never streamed before! >_<. Please be nice to me.🎵.” Hiro spoke.

Unlike cute streamers like Maria, he found his voice vile. Like a vomit thrust into your mouth. When he saw the mirror, revulsion came up from the pit of his stomach. He considered quitting the job. However, he don’t want to let his team mates. Nana wasn’t exactly nice. But she wasn’t hostile nor did she ignored him. After the initial comment, she behaved normally. Maria was also nice and helped him through a lot. She showed him and the new generation Vtubers the ropes.

“Why did I get this job….” Hiro whined. Hiro got what he wanted, he got a job. He knew he shouldn’t ask too much now that he got a job he didn’t even qualify for.  But it couldn’t be helped that he felt frustrated. He didn’t have any skills for this.

*ping

His SM(Social Media) rang a single sound for the first time in 5 years. Nana pinged him in the group chat. When Hiro saw the message, he felt happy as nostalgia in his school and college days washed over him. His school days was not all sunshine and rainbows. He was known as the class nerd. A lot of people came to him to see his notebook and be taught and it filled him with a sense of accomplishment.

“Hello. Did you do the homework yet? I want to invite you all to this cafe to talk about our greetings and debut stream announcements. Did you know what greetings to make? It have a VIP room!” Nana started the conversation.

“I am in!”

“me too!”

“Alright!” Hiro replied.

“Then, let’s meet at 10.”

“Wait! We aren’t going to the company?” Hiro asked

“Why? The debut is still in a week.” nana answered.

“Will we be okay not appearing in the company as a newbie?” Hiro asked. He finally got a job and his mother has hammered that it is very important to be polite and look diligent when working. One of them is to have 100% attendance at least for the first six months.

“Marie Senpai hasn’t said that we need to go to the company right?” Nana asked in the chat and Lucy answered.

“Nope. She didn’t say anything about tomorrow. It will be until the day before debut before we need to attend.”

“Well, that’s it then.”  Nana said

“No need to be too diligent, Hiro. Nobody cares about that. Even our senpais didn’t come everyday. All we need to do is make our viewers happy.” Lucy answered. She apparently has the same behavior as Hiro when she first got recruited. While Marie did come to the office everyday due to work unrelated to vtubing, the other senpais barely came. Among the other senpais except Marie for example, Ruru only come three times a week. Sherlie came only every Tuesday and Justina only come during an event.

“Okay, tomorrow at 1! don’t be late!!” Nana said. She changed the schedule nonchalantly since she felt 10 AM was too soon. And then there was no further reply after an ok from everyone.

The next morning, Hiro was confused at what to wear. it was easy to use a formal wear in the office. However, this time, he was going to a cafe. Like a girl in anime, he scrambled his clothes atop his bed and for the first time in his life, he put a thought in fashion. His clothes weren’t many by any means and thus he could only go out with his best clothes a T shirt with pants.

When he arrived at the cafe, nobody was there. And as he checked his phone, it was 12.50. he came a bit to soon because when he checked the SM group, it said that all of them were on their way there. He sighed as he understand that this is not in japan. People usually came to hangout like this late by 5 or 10 minutes.

Hiro didn’t dare to come to the cafe alone and thus, he walked to the nearby stairs and sat here as he pulled out his earphones and browsed through youtube. Many of his recommendations gave out vtubers content as he diligently researched those lately. Before, it was all about animes and games but it was all vtubers now. Both live2d like Marie or Ana or 3d models dancing with MMD.

Time passed swiftly and Lucy, the shy-looking girl with big breast finally sent a message that she has arrived. Despite being shy-looking, she was socially adept unlike hiro. She waited for Hiro inside the cafe as she ordered a drink alone while waiting. Hiro, pressured by her inside the group chat finally came inside as well. Just ten minutes after, Luna and Nana came. Hiro wondered how they could come at the exact same time but dismissed the thought. They probably waited each other outside just like Hiro and met up there.

“Alright! Let’s have our meeting today. I brought my laptop!” Nana, the energetic petite gamer girl said as she brought out her laptop from the bag. Hiro didn’t have a laptop. However, he still brought a tablet with a keyboard attached. Meanwhile, Luna and Lucy only brought their body.

“Alright! Hiro! How should we do the greetings?” Nana said. “How about, ‘Hey guys! This is me, StealthyTIger! How’s that sound?”

“Oh! Not bad!” Luna said.

“Oh yeah Hiro, since we have two Luna here,  make sure to differentiate them okay?” Luna said. Lucy’s Vtuber is called Luna Wayfarer.

“Of course! In-game is in-game and real life is real life!” Hiro replied while mentally noted not to call them by their vtuber name. Hiro is the type that separated real-life and games, though he barely had any real life to begin with before getting hired by VeeIdol

“Then, let’s begin the meeting!”

The group meeting then started. The female camp’s voice sent shivers in Hiro’s mind. Their voice felt forced and unnatural like a poor voice actor. Hiro himself is no different, but him having watched over 9000 anime he knew that the sounds were off somehow.

“I think you better sound like normal. It felt off.”

“Ehh? This one isn’t cute enough?” Nana replied, shocked.

“No, it isn’t.”

“Is our voice bad?”Lucy finally asked, “Compared to normal voice actor I mean. I am not a celebrity, but I have won awards for singing in my high school you know!” Luna exclaimed. Her confidence was threatened.

“Your natural voice was good enough. But, it felt off somehow. You lacked feelings.” Hiro said. Luna gave him a stink eye.

“Like you could do better.” She hissed.

“Well, I can be silent if you want….”

“No, we need his knowledge to appeal to otakus!” Lucy interrupted.

”Alright.”

“I think you should speak normally Luna. Your voice is good as it is. For Nana, as long as you don’t curse or demean others it is okay, your voice are also pleasant to the ears. For Lucy, a flirty choice word may be better for you. But not too overboard.”Hiro, the otaku’s critic started to show his expertise.

“Hmm… I see.” Nana nodded and they rehearsed the greetings again. Hiro took the time to examine his surroundings. A private rooms inside a cafe, that must have cost at least 20-30 dollars per hour and Nana make a reservation for two hours. Hiro concluded that these girls didn’t come to VeeIdol for money. Hiro also came to VeeIdol not for money, at least it was not his primary concern. So, he is basically the same as them. Although he didn’t know why they applied in the first place, a sense of camaraderie started to grow within him.

“Okay. Time is almost up. Thank you. I think I get the hang about what I should do now.” Nana nodded as the reservation time was running out. Hiro didn’t feel like they progressed that much but nodded nevertheless. Mob mentality was going strong in this group.

After Hiro reached home, he pondered about the meeting. While he felt that he did nothing worthwhile, the other girls seemed to gain a lot from the encounter which made him tilted his his head. He then focused back into his computer, trying his best to mimic the sound of an anime girls. As he tried to listen and recorded his sound for the umpteenth time, he figured something out. Their voices didn’t match real life persona.

It was a public secret that the voice spoken in anime differ so much compared to voices spoken in real life. However, when Hiro compared them directly, he found out that it was not simply the pitch that was higher. The intonations and word choices were completely different.

For example, when you greet in reality, you will say “Welcome to VeeIdol Corporation.” but, in anime, they will say “Hi everyone~♪.Welcome to Lily101’s Channel!♪”It was a minute difference yet felt a lot different. Most people just assume that anime girl’s voice were just a tad bit higher than normal females but hiro realized that they are wrong.

After another session of practice, he went to sleep.