Chapter Text
"Well, I'm heading- OOF."
Just as Satoru reached the door, placing his hand on the knob, a powerful force impacted his leg. He nearly tripped as his leg was embraced, keeping it firmly in place. Peering down, he found a face he was still getting used to: Futaba Tatsuda, the real identity behind Milim Nava.
"Hey, I gotta go..." he urged.
She shot her head up at him, employing glassy eyes and a pouty lip. "No! It's not fair! I came all this way, and you still have to work?!"
"There's no emergency or anything, so it's really hard to justify a sick day..." He straightened up. "I also warned you before that this would happen on the weekdays. That's why you're here for the full week."
"Oi, Futsu!" The call came from the kitchen, where Raiden was just finishing up on something. Chocolate pancake smell was traveling around the open space. "I'm still here. We can have our own uncle-niece time without him."
Her pout deepened.
He held out a plate. "With pancakes!"
Letting go of Satoru, the young adult woman practically twirled then skipped to snatch the plate from him, with gleeful humming.
Yep. She's Raiden's niece, alright. With that final thought, Satoru made his get-away, before she could change her tune again.
They were already pretty close online, doing a bunch of stuff both on- and off-stream. Yet not too long ago, Futsu had been itching for offline hanging out. Raiden, even a long time after handing over the old house to Kura, still avoided it like the plague. It appeared to be one wound that just wouldn't heal for him, even as he was growing more and more comfortable in talking about his brother again - and even his passing. Therefore, Futsu came to them. At first unannounced, with that visit not lasting too long before they handed her off to the rampaging Kura.
After that, they organized a proper visit, lasting a whole week. She slept on a futon in the living room. Not long into the first day of her visit, she had Ranga putty in her hands, with him even curling up with her during the night.
Later, during the weekend, it was planned they would go to an event. Ramiris would actually be there, too, so they'd be meeting Soni Otsuka in the flesh for the first time. Satoru already imagined that Futsu and her would be seeing each other more often after that.
They'd all started as online "colleagues" in the streaming space, before becoming close friends that still didn't know what the other person on the screen looked like. Now, they were actually arranging meet-ups, sharing names, going further...
While on the transport to work, Satoru decided to pull out his phone and investigate the online chatter over a recent announcement stream. One where the world learned what he and the others of the inner circle had known for a few weeks now.
That Dino had moved into Dagruel's house.
Daichi Goto was an older man. As far as he was concerned, he wasn't yet "an elder", but he wasn't exactly in his prime anymore, either. With time marching ever onward, he would one day have to accept that he could not live as he used to.
Deciding to get ahead of this, before it could catch him unawares and even lead to avoidable tragedy, he struck a deal spurred on by Dino's venting in the chat one day. The young man had been complaining of rent and taxes and getting by in this economy... He had been for a while. At his current state, he still made a generous amount through streaming, definitely enough that he had no reason to find even part-time work. The state of the Internet was that sometimes there'd be hiccups and uncertainty when it came to full-time online-only work, but Dino was at a height that even if the worst occurred, he could still bounce back. What the downside in all this was: he was having a hard time maintaining savings. He had enough to get by now , but no future security, for if he could no longer work at all or for when he reached retirement. He was still a very young man, but remarkably was forward-thinking. Admittedly, this was because he idolized the vision of retirement where it was all vacations and relaxation. But he wasn't so naive as to think that would come without a lot of current hard work, careful planning, and loads of saved wealth.
Daichi understood the issue, since it was one his sons had gone through before. It was hard to get a footing, even when you found decent work and had income. Renting a place was simpler, cheaper, and often the one you had more options for anyway. But actually buying your own home, like Daichi had now, gave more security. And freedom. Another of the flaws in Dino's current living state was the lack of freedom he had with his space, as well as being powerless if his landlord decided he was no longer fit to live there.
They had grown to know one another a lot, despite the physical boundaries between them. Perhaps this relationship could be seen as odd. Dino was far younger than Daichi - than Dagruel. He was, in fact, younger than his sons. Yet they were friends... They teamed up together the most, they collabed together the most, they talked in private the most... Was it that they had, subconsciously, formed a surrogate father-son kind of bond? Maybe if asked, Dino would admit, he would've liked Dagruel as his dad more than his actual dad. Dagruel also seemed to nag Dino the most, with the furthest second being Guy Crimson - even then, the latter seemed to pull back from the behavior, once Dagruel "took over".
What was important was... it didn't feel weird to forge the deal that Dino - Tadashi Nagisa - would move in. There would be no monetary payment on his end, either. All he had to do was be a roommate - to give company, contribute to chores, and eventually help out as Daichi's age slowly caught up to him. It was a bit similar to the arrangement that Rimuru and Veldora had, with the additional layer of essentially being a future live-in caretaker. All with the reward of a place to stay for a long time he wouldn't have to pay for, giving him more wriggle room in saving up his own money.
Why give this position to someone Daichi only knew online? As said, they'd gotten close despite the online origin, knowing each other for so long it was impossible not to have trust. Tadashi was far from being a stranger; even when they finally met face-to-face for the first time, it felt more like meeting up with a long-distance relative that you had last seen as a baby yet heard referenced enough over the years. This job might've been better suited for actual family... But Daichi didn't want to do that to his sons. Not like taking care of an aging father was a punishment, it was really more like returning the favor. Yet from his perspective, his sons' lives were still just getting started. It would be harsh on himself to call himself a "burden"... But adding "grandpa" into the mix of a family under one roof? It just felt like too much on his sons and their now burgeoning families. Especially when there was someone that he trusted just as much, that wouldn't even need to be paid like the only other option - caregivers - would be.
There were additional bonuses to the arrangement that they had not even considered until after Tadashi moved in. For one thing: tech support. Daichi was better with new tech than most of his generation, but his cognition was still somewhat behind, with it only promising to get worse over time. Rather than have to reach out or even pay someone, now Tadashi could quickly come in and do it for free. Plus, it meant it was even easier to schedule streams together, the amount of which only continued to trend upward after the move. The games they could play together off-stream also went up, with the inclusion of games that were difficult to downright impossible to do online co-op with.
The only concern was how his family would react... He'd told stories of his new vtubing hobby to his sons, enough so that the character of "Dino" was familiar to them. They came over to help in moving stuff, meeting "Dino" for the first time. There was one moment where Daichi had to take a dump for a good portion of the moving, leaving his sons and Tadashi alone for a while. When he came back, he found that the air of tension between them - that between strangers - had eased up a little. Tadashi would never say what had happened, while his sons fervently denied any accusation that came to mind. Still, knowing his boys, Daichi came to the conclusion that they had roughed up Tadashi a little, but the young man had earned their respect somehow.
As Tadashi continued to settle in and the new reality of having his former online-only friend around constantly comfortably sunk in, Daichi started to linger on thoughts of how much deeper this could go. Might he start meeting up with the other vtubers? Might he begin to grow an interest in the fan meets at cons, where he would be a screen to them? Might he even... invite more of his friends to his actual house, organize a friendly party between them all? Did it even have to be his house? Might he go over to some of theirs?
Humorously, he thought about being the next to visit Rimuru and Veldora's place. There had already been Milim's aunts, Milim, and even Luminous... With that kind of precedent, maybe a better suited place for a party for them all would be over there.
Unfortunately, the chances of Luminous Valentine making any appearances to any hypothetical physical meet-ups was low. Before, they had already been basically as low, with the one time with Veldora being a special exception under special circumstances. But going forward...
Takara Tenki had married. She knew for a long time that this would be coming, whether she liked it or not. She knew for a little while who that lucky husband would be. Thankfully, this man was just as interested in the marriage as she was, which meant they barely saw each other even after coming together under the same roof. Just like with her family, they did their own business while she kept to hers in her massive bedroom, with smaller connected rooms at her disposal. Louis and Roy were really the only faces she ever saw - the rest of the staff keeping out of view or focusing attention squarely on their other master.
Through subtle, dodgy language, the newly-weds came to the agreement that the marriage - outside of business and PR - meant nothing. She essentially gave the silent approval for him to cheat on her, with him agreeing the same for her. She wasn't sure if he was actually doing that, wherever he disappeared off to... But she didn't exactly care to keep tabs on him and his activities. As long as he didn't cause a public controversy for them both, she mostly acted as if nothing had changed.
In essence, it hadn't. She was still the famous vtuber Luminous Valentine. She was still a rich elite who could not be seen in public outside of controlled appearances.
The only thing that was slightly off was an odd feeling she had when the wedding was first being planned - when she first met the man she would "spend her whole life with". It was somewhere between deja vu and familiarity. But she didn't think she'd met him before. She didn't really know of his existence until her parents announced him as her father's inheritor and her new husband.
Yet maybe, at some point in her life, she had seen him, just never coming to know his name? It could have been at any high-status event, where her eyes would've come across many people on her family's level, all people she never bothered to commit to memory. There was that little fun fact of brains retaining the subconscious memory of faces seen throughout life, peppering them into dreams. With that in mind, they could've even crossed paths on the street at some point, making him show up in a dream and his face only popping out to her even more.
Deepening the mystery was a vague sense that even his voice wasn't too foreign to her, but there was also the possibility she was just psyching herself out and inventing things out of thin air. By the time the wedding was over, she decided to just let it all go. What did it matter if they might've seen each other before - had an encounter before their very quick betrothal? He didn't give any indication on his part he felt the same; and anyway, they were in mutual agreement to stay out of each other's lives, until the far-off future day where they could no longer put off "creating an heir", but even then going back to normal once it was done with.
Well... One other reason she decided to just stop thinking about it was the cursed thought that perhaps this familiar feeling was due to the Internet... That this figure was not a stranger to Luminous Valentine, that she might even know him under a different name. She knew it definitely couldn't be Rimuru Tempest, or Veldora, or Dagruel or Dino, or Leon Cromwell... She stopped there. She stopped the entire train of thought that she knew her husband prior to the betrothal right there.
She'd like to think that she wouldn't have to worry about her friendly relationship with Velzard.
Luminous was perceptive enough to catch onto the development. After pining for quite awhile, Velzard's crush on Guy was finally reciprocated. He still messed around on streams, particularly with Leon, but that was all just like a mix between a game and showbiz for him. Behind the scenes, what he said to her in private was a lot more real, a lot more serious, and... intense. She would’ve continued to feel jealous towards the "special" streams Guy's viewers received... But in comparison to what she got, she could only feel smug now.
Their relationship, of course, could never be revealed. It was hidden even from their peers, just to be safe. Some, like Luminous, had their suspicions. Ironically, Milim - who literally lived with Velzard - was mostly unaware... She was naive enough to not think Velzard and Guy were already dating, but she did catch on to how subtly different their behavior was at times. As far as she was aware, her aunt really liked Guy and he really got along with her, with a part of Milim feeling like they were better together... and that she wouldn't mind it, if they got together and he gained a new role in her life. She would encourage it, even. Maybe go as far as to pull a "Parent Trap" level scheme...? She sometimes considered it, but wasn't fully married to the idea.
They were surprisingly careful when it came to on-stream interactions. To the audience, it was like nothing was different. This was thanks, in part, to their dedication to professionalism. Beneath the gaming and the hanging out with people who got along and the lengthy streams of just talking "one-on-one" with the sea of viewers, it was sometimes easy to forget that vtubing - for some vtubers - was a job. That meant behavioral management, even putting on a specially tailored personality. In that regard, both Velzard and Guy Crimson were naturals.
One day, if things between them kept up, they would have to start telling at least the people in their lives. For now, though, they were at the "serious relationship" point of arranging to meet beyond the screen. Given Guy already had a long-standing relationship with Milim, it was easy to mask this meet-up as being for reasons other than an online couple wishing to finally hold hands.
This would eventually have to lead into Guy meeting with Ramiris, as she would undoubtedly get jealous once Milim shared all the details of their get-together... But that was fine with him. Ramiris was just as close a friend to him as Milim. As evident in one interaction that went like:
"Y'know, if you weren't an adult woman, I think I'd be moved enough to adopt you."
"As your daughter? You feel more like big brother material to me. I never really gave thought to you as a dad..."
"Oh, well I'm honored at the thought, but I meant that you would be a fine and adorable puppy to have around."
"Of course you would say that, you jerk!!"
A part of him did feel a little irked that Rimuru - someone who knew her for less time than him - got to meet with Ramiris - and Milim - first. But he also recognized that that was his own fault. It wasn't as if the concept of meeting up in the physical world to hang out wasn't only brought up until Rimuru came along. Guy had shot those kinds of offers down before, in part that he felt no real need to go that far. Whether he knew them in real life or just virtually, that did not change much for him inside. In fact, for a long time, he preferred this physical distance, as well as the absolute control over what his friends got to see of him...
Was it purely because of the relationship with Velzard that Guy's mind on the matter started to change? Was it the slight jealousy towards Rimuru? Was it even just because everyone else was starting to do it? Maybe, it was a bit of all three... and other reasons Guy couldn't recognize.
As he prepared to head off for the agreed upon location - a cafe, where he would surprise Milim, who was the only one not in on the plan - he'd been pondering this. How further did he want to take things, now that Pandora's box had been opened? Would he start trying to meet up with the rest of the circle, one-by-one, until he eventually knew them all by different names and faces? He trusted and respected them all, but even now, he could barely see him going that far...
Well. Maybe he'd fly all the way to England. He'd just have to look for a "Leon Cromwell", in a small little town, where his house had taken on... a unique new situation. That would be easy to locate. So easy... that he should put those thoughts away for the time being, before he started getting too dangerously eager to act upon them.
Which was a good idea on his part. Not that Leon would be too disturbed by a sudden visit from Guy. But all the elders now living there would undoubtedly be confused at first, with the duo likely needing to stay out of the house while hanging out.
Leon's life outside of the computer had changed. His parents fully retired, so he used his stream earnings to hire them a caretaker whenever he himself would be unavailable. By this point, he fully accepted that his best career - his best life - was streaming. With him now being the sole breadwinner of the household, continuing with this career was more vital than ever.
But two elders started to turn into several, until the household became more of an unofficial retirement home. How did that happen? As alluded to long ago, Leon's neighborhood was one that was aging and changing. The old guard remained, but could do very little these days, while the intended new guard left. Leon could no longer watch the community that essentially raised him beyond his immediate family end like that. Therefore, he began offering free rooms in his house to the ones who were beginning to find difficulty in living in their own homes, but who had no family willing to take them in nor any funds to go to the closest facility to town. He was already hiring helpers for his parents, so he saw it as no issue in paying even more to even more hands.
This was mostly paid for by his streaming, which you would think would cause some friction at times, but it surprisingly worked out fine. Leon was quiet for a livestreamer, so there were never any disturbances from his end, especially after the investment into soundproofing gear. In fact, even when trying out horror games during the evening, Leon usually remained stoic and unfrightened. The occasional scare from him amounted to a jump and a grunt. His loudest yell was still one soft enough to not breach the reinforced walls. Neither did he get so dramatic as to begin screaming at people, like the examples of Ramiris or Veldora or Luminous or... frankly, most of the people he knew.
He was also open about this new life development, seeing no reason as to hide it. There was a sudden spike in donations the first time he mentioned it; after that, Guy convinced him that it'd be a good idea to do regular fundraising streams, complete with rewards for certain milestones. While his peers had done such events before, Leon had never seen the need to go so far when his regular flow of income was enough - until now. The logic of it made so much sense that he swiftly and easily incorporated it into his yearly schedule, doing one for each season.
As for when he brought up his new living situation with Chloe...
Her sigh sounded less like she was exasperated and more like she was amused.
"I can't even say I'm surprised," she replied, over the phone. "I somewhat thought about it to myself, but still mostly as a joke..."
She had been his best friend since childhood... but also his only friend, up until he got into vtubing. Before that, besides Chloe, it seemed like Leon got along better with older folks than he did people his own age.
"But that all sounds so sweet. It's good those people are being helped. Actually... I've been considering what exactly I'm gonna do, once college is done. Maybe I should come back over and help out with the place? I know you already got professionals, but even a friend working for free would be able to add something, right...?"
Yet, unlike what even he expected, Leon replied with, "No, there's no need for that. The situation here is going completely fine, and I know your life plans for so long have involved living and working in a big urban area. You do not need to change plans for me. I will be fine."
He couldn't exactly pinpoint when his sentiments had changed. It felt like for years he wanted nothing more than for Chloe to return to being at his side, being right within his arm's range. Now, he no longer felt an ache at the thought she was an ocean away, nor a longing for her to change her mind on her entire life vision. It wasn't like he cared less for her now - she was the same, most important person in the entire world to him. But now... it felt like he didn't need her anymore. His loneliness had other cures, his life had other purposes. If, for some tragic reason, they would never cross paths again... he would still grieve her - dead or alive - but he felt he could recover and live on, unlike how he felt when she first moved away.
"Really? 'Cause I just..." She trailed off for a bit, trying to find words. "It wouldn't entirely be because of you. Lately, I've just felt... Different? Like, why was I so adamant on the choices I made to begin with? Is there really no room to try something else? Should I... really live my life away from my childhood home?"
"We are both still young, Chloe. I have heard plenty of how people our age can sometimes have these existential and identity crises, second-guessing themselves, beginning to feel the effects of time and aging, as well as the loss of the past." He paused. "I know it looks like I am fully settled now, but that still took a long path of questioning and dedicating myself. I never expected my life to go like this... But I am happy I let it. I feel like I finally understand what you spoke of, when you first started your classes."
"I'm just starting to think that back then, I was making my choices based on not actually wanting to live in the city and do all these ambitious things, but actually just wanting to live somewhere else for a change and do things people back home didn't even consider... But now that it's been awhile, the appeal is draining, and I'm back to thinking about all the problems of where I'm at now, and looking forward to all the benefits of deciding to do something else in the future..."
"If it truly is a temporary confusion, it'll go away with time. Acting on it immediately might lead to a cycle of regrets. So how about I make a suggestion?"
"Sure."
"Continue with what you're doing for another few years. As I said, if it's not actually your true feelings to change course, then the desire will go away. If they don't, I will accept your assistance when you return. As another, related point - if you find you still like the work you've cultivated over there, but don't like the city itself, I believe you can always continue your career online. Some changes might have to be made, but with the Internet gaining more and more of an influence, there are many who make a decent living without leaving their bedroom."
Taking a few seconds to think it over, she replied, "I see. In that case, I think I'll keep going until I hit my 30s. I'll have adventures while I'm still young, then come back home and settle down, unless I change my mind about being homesick again."
"That sounds like a good plan." To be completely honest, he was not entirely sure of his response as he said it. He had little knowledge of "good" life plans before, with only the vague idea you wanted a stable, probably respectable career that you could stick with until old age. Even now, his views on life were still being continually challenged. He and his vtuber friends made it big with streaming, but there were thousands of others who could still only pursue it as a hobby. Some people have the capability to make big bucks in one career path, but their life still feels empty and unfulfilled, yet others are just satisfied by getting their bills checked off and don't care how it happens. There really was no one size fit all answer for what a person should do when they've grown up. And even the paths that feel right can end up a nightmare just by pure luck, it seemed.
As for himself, he would just be grateful with where he ended up between the border of fortune and misfortune. He had a sizable stable income for the time being, with room to stay afloat should the tides change suddenly. His career was doing something that fulfilled other personal needs besides money, while on top of that he was doing side work that made him feel good and better about his world. He was doing all of that with minimal stress leeching in to ruin things, keeping on guard for the early warning signs of burnout or a sudden crisis.
It still felt strangely like he was living two lives at once... that he always had to cross an invisible border between Leon Cromwell the vtuber and Leon Cromwell the real life human being. But that definitely didn't translate into a desire to slowly unify the two - if anything, the fact there was such a strong divide between the two lives is what made everything feel like it was fitting into place. In his opinion, everything would be ruined if that divide stopped being upheld.
Somewhere deep in the back of his mind, there was a feeling he couldn't quite put into words, in part because he was unfamiliar with the right vocabulary. He was aware of the terminology of "cringe", but did not take it seriously enough. But from an outside perspective... Yes, it would be so unbearably cringey if his neighbors discovered his streams; and like hell he wanted to cross paths with any of his fans in the real world, even if they ended up being oblivious to his secret identity.
"Wait just a minute, Satoru!"
Just as Satoru had finished packing up for the end of the day and entered the hallway, his coworker Tamura rushed in to stop him in his tracks. He needed a second to catch his breath, seemingly all pumped up from the urgency of reaching Satoru before he left the building. Given the timing, Satoru was feeling his own breathing threatening to go unstable. Getting stopped in a hurry right at the shift's end was never a good thing, especially if you were the senior coworker.
His eyes darted towards the elevator, which was already packed with the first wave of people. Even if he escaped the situation now, he would be held up in waiting for the next one to take him down. Which would only give Tamura more of a leverage in suddenly dropping something into his lap...
"You okay, Tamura?" He decided to go with friendly concern, keeping the focus on Tamura's current condition. This might possibly stall progression of the conversation long enough to avoid the dreaded "can you help with something" line.
"Sorry, but I just heard you wouldn't be at the office this weekend, so I had to catch you now!"
Dammit. He's too focused on his goal... Please forgive me, Milim and Ramiris, if I end up having to bring the work laptop along!
As he thought this, Tamura fished for something in his pocket. Satoru's feet were itching for flight, but the density of the crowd around the elevator was too much, while the elevator itself was still in motion away from this floor. Tamura would just catch up to him. It'd be a whole scene. There was nothing else to do but to submit to this fate.
Shifting his dominant hand to be free of his briefcase, preparing for that submission, he was surprised when the parchment placed onto his palm was all decorative rather than bland and formal. Big letters caused some keywords to pop out immediately: “invited” & “wedding” being the most important.
"We're kind of rushing it, so I needed to make sure everyone got their invitations before next week," Tamura explained.
"Rushing it? Are you sure that's a good idea?" Satoru was still dazed from the twist this conversation took, making absent-minded comments that - while they were on his mind - were ones he didn't completely care to be responded to. However, Tamura did just that.
"Well, we were gonna give more time for more elaborate planning... But the place we wanted to honeymoon at is having something special happen for this season, so we had to squeeze things in order to take advantage."
"We" of course referred to the fiance, the soon-to-be bride: Miho Sawatari. Satoru was already a bit familiar with her, their biggest encounter being when Tamura invited Satoru out to go meet up with them both, as a thinly-veiled ploy to show off and announce the engagement. It was pretty memorable, as some crazed criminal broke through the crowds with a knife, just barely missing the trio and stabbing into some other poor sap before getting away. Tamura attributed Satoru's presence as good luck for why Miho survived - had Satoru not stalled their walking by yelling at his roommate over the phone, Miho might've been in the danger zone of getting stabbed. Satoru earnestly shrugged this so-called "good luck" away, mainly as he did not want to think of Raiden's manga addiction - to the point of interrupting Satoru's day with requests for him to stop and buy more - as anything but the annoyance it was.
Anyway, Tamura had a beautiful bride and the two were such a happy, young couple... Out of politeness, Satoru swallowed down all the envy, always wishing the two well. And while it was nice that Tamura went out of his way to ensure Satoru would make it to their wedding...
Dammit, man! Twisting the knife even more, with all this talk of a special romantic honeymoon, so great you just gotta rush for it?! If only I'd actually been stabbed that day, maybe I could've reincarnated in a world where my one true soulmate was waiting for me!
Putting on a grin, he outwardly replied with, "I'm extremely honored. You can expect me there, and extend my deepest thanks to the bride."
"Of course! I don't think I could go through this wedding without you... You've been a really great senior to me."
Stop that! Or else I'll start feeling guilty over my envy! "Really, I just try to do the right thing every day. I'm nothing too special..."
From behind, the ding of the elevator returning to the floor sounded. At this point, the amount of people getting in would be less. He'd just have to make it before they closed the doors...
"No, seriously, man," Tamura continued. "This is a generic invitation, but I wanted to ask in person... We're going for a Western-style wedding, which means I need a best man... The position's still open, and you're my first pick."
His throat went sore with silent, internal screaming - so visceral it felt like the muscles were being strained, despite nothing actually occurring. Taking a page out of Kura's book, his face went stone cold to hide from the world his desire to burst out into tears.
I'm so sorry, Tamura! This is so wholesome of you... But also basically the male equivalent of "always the bridesmaid, never the bride" for me!
"Well, since you went so out of your way to tell me in person, I'd be a jerk to just refuse." Then, a lightbulb started to glow... "That also means there'll be a maid of honor, though? Don't they usually..."
That lightbulb had been purely metaphorical, all in Satoru's head... So was it just a hallucination: that glint shimmering in Tamura's eyes?
"Miho's still deciding between her bridesmaid choices on who'll be the maid of honor... You're only acquainted with Miss Ibaraki, but I heard her mention that another point towards Miss Ibaraki getting picked or not is her relationship with you."
You know, I've always thought Tamura was a good boy's name. If I ever have a son, I should honor him by passing it down. "I see..."
With a second to spare, Satoru made it into the elevator - the last onboard. He adjusted his suit as they went down, smoothing it out, trying to match what Raiden accomplished with an iron.
The silent dare was crystal clear to him. Miss Ibaraki was a beautiful, ideal woman. He had admitted that himself during one drinking party, between just himself, Tamura, and two other male coworkers that first brought it up. Since that event a few years ago, Tamura would occasionally bring her up out of the blue, with a coy smile as he did. Just as Satoru politely hid his resentment, Tamura kept his own thoughts contained... but he had much to learn in the art of acting.
"Go and finally make a move, tiger," was what Satoru had taken from him. He might as well try, after all this time. You miss all the shots you don't take, you have to gamble just a bit if you want a jackpot, that sort of thing.
Once he was out of the elevator, he stepped to the side to allow everyone else to pass him. At this point, the population in the building was thinning. Less people to awkwardly get in the way or cut in.
Giving it another minute, he went on the move once he saw the last of his previous elevator companions make it to the front doors. He started off with a casual walk, as if nothing was amiss, before slowing and stopping right next to the front desk. Shion Ibaraki was still there.
"Good evening, Miss Ibaraki." As this was a regular phrase she heard countless times, it didn't immediately catch her full attention, her only response being an echo and a wave while still looking at papers. So he continued with, "I've been thinking over this awhile now... Have you heard of that new cafe opening up nearby?"
Her head jolted in startlement, the usual social script going off course. "Ah... Oh, that place! Yes, I've heard a lot about it from a close friend. She's actually familiar with the owner... Er... Yoshi...ta? Yoshiya?"
I'm pretty sure the cafe name included something mentioning a "Yoshida", but I think I'll just avoid mentioning I know that... "Really? It piqued my interest when walking by the lot this morning, but since you seem even more knowledgeable, maybe I should just come out and ask-"
"Oh yes, I'm sure it was Yoshiba's." She seemed like she hadn't even heard him, being all too focused on her own train of thought. Now that the workday was coming to a close, her professionalism was dropping. It was a state of being that Satoru usually was absent for. "Honestly, the one menu item I was interested in is the one I helped with the taste-testing... My friend helped conceptualize it, to add another touch to the menu Yoshiba lacked, or something like that... I'm supporting the opening day with my friends, but all these men keep asking if I'd go with them to it. I just tell them I'm focusing on my career for the time being and that usually shuts them down."
Satoru shut down.
"But if you're asking for a recommendation, then yeah, I'd say to go give it a visit. I personally think my friend is the better cook between the two, but Yoshiba is a solid second place baker. Or, well, third place, since I definitely could blow them both out of the water, if they'd just let me into the kitchen!"
Now it was Satoru who was zoning out, barely catching a word of what she was rambling about. He honestly should've expected this, one zone of his brain told him. Why else would a gorgeous lady be single for so many years, if she wasn't like that on purpose? It was a rejection excuse he'd heard a few times before, as well. Another zone of his brain reassured him that it was for the best. Sure, the most women he was familiar with were from the office, but really, dating a coworker could go awkwardly wrong and add whole other layers to work stress. Not to mention that he should really keep the two worlds - the office world and the personal world - separate. He just dodged a bullet, not missing another shot.
"Oh, and by the way." Satoru tuned back into the conversation, thanks to that phrase. "The still-currently Miss Sawatari asked me to be a bridesmaid, in that wedding she and Tamura are having? She also mentioned your name, but I forget what you have to do with the wedding..."
"I'm actually going to be the best man..."
"Oh..." There was obvious disappointment, as long as Satoru wasn't hallucinating out of desperation. "Then you'd be paired with the maid of honor, while a bridesmaid like me would be with a stranger... I think I'll have to back out, then."
With hope turning him into a fool once more, he nearly yelled out, "Now wait, I'm sure with my position, I could talk to the couple about this! So do you want to be the maid of honor, or just paired with a familiar partner?"
"Ah, well, since I barely know anyone else, I was sure it'd be less awkward to do all that fancy stuff with a friend. Someone who will keep things casual between us."
"Yes... a casual friend... I'll forward that to Tamura..." His eyes went downward, dropping voluntarily, leading him to notice his watch. "Ah, my train... It was nice talking to you a bit more than usual, Miss Ibaraki. Have a nice night."
"You two, Mikami."
Despite the urgency his watch should've given him - what he used as his excuse to leave in the first place - Satoru still walked slowly, barely cognizant of the world around him. It felt like he'd been rejected twice, even if he never actually said his crush out loud. First her lack of seeking a boyfriend, then the friendzone... Well, that was better than what he expected, to be honest. Him and Miss Ibaraki usually only exchanged pleasantries and the occasional nice small-talk at work events... To think that in her eyes, they actually had a friendship, developed enough that it wouldn't be awkward to take part in a wedding as a duo... Even if it wasn't how he saw her, that still had to amount to something, right? Not a romantic future, but at least a nice platonic relationship?
A call sounded on his phone. The caller's name was Raiden. Satoru mentally went through his memory's catalogs of manga release dates. When he reached one date - tomorrow - he also recalled the event that he, Raiden, Milim, and Ramiris were attending.
That's right. He had plans to look forward to. His life was full of friends - it always would be. He may never end up marrying before his passing, or even finding a girlfriend... But then again, how would a dynamic like that change his current lifestyle? It wasn't like he could just have Raiden bunking in a family home with him, his wife, and their kids... And all the dates that would take up slots in his schedule, a woman who might be uncomfortable with his online fanbase and their fervor for him...
Thanks for the opportunity, Tamura. I needed this final push - to realize my luck's already blessed me.
Before a cynical voice could claim he was just coping, his mind filled with the usual plotting of his commute and how the rest of the day would go, ending any other thoughts right there.
Still at her desk, Shion wasn't even trying to hide her smile as she packed up. The earlier conversation initially brought up some hard memories and feelings... But it led her back to her happy place.
Lord Rimuru. I say I'm focused on my career each time... But really, there's no other man for me. I could never love anyone like I do for him. And I know he may never single me out and ask me for a date, but I'll still stay single anyway.
She thought of this with pure bliss in her mind. And thanks to the separation of online and offline lives... She would never have to live with the despair that she just friendzoned her one and only oshi.