Chapter Text
8010 Years, 8 Months, and 3 Days Since Lunar Impact
The forecast for the afternoon signalled a high of 22°, continuing the trend of cooler, milder temperatures for the past three years since the nationwide implementation of atmospheric control drones. Today and tomorrow were supposed to be the last few days of sunshine before a storm front moved in, so everyone was out and about today trying to get their summer activities done while they could. There were no major events scheduled in Tsukuyomi, either, but that wasn’t a coincidence. Yachiyo, as it happened, had announced a major surprise event that was to be held in Tsukuyomi’s plaza, where every user was invited to log in and participate. There would be a simulcast to a real life event as well, but what exactly this all meant was unclear. According to Yachiyo, it was “a big secret~” that would be unveiled a week prior, and that everyone should get ready for the biggest event in Tsukuyomi’s history.
“Thank god we don’t have to order food for all those people,” Roka Ayatsumugi mused, scrolling through a lengthy checklist on her phone. Alongside her was her longtime friend and confidant, Mami Izumi- formerly Isayama, who had just sent her kids off to be with their father at the baseball park. She was currently consuming a blueberry popsicle and was holding onto a strawberry one for Roka once she finished mulling over her phone.
“Ever since they added the taste update, dinner parties are all everyone wants to do these days.”
“They are fun, though,” Mami slurped around her treat.
“They get so boring, though,” Roka complained, “and besides, until Yachiyo adds getting drunk, nothing will beat IRL.”
“It’s an all-ages virtual reality, Roka-chan,” Mami reminded her, “and besides, not everyone drinks as much as you do.
Roka laughed.
“Boring people for a boring mode, I guess.”
“Spoken like a true barfly.”
“I don’t drink that much.”
“Who needed to be picked up last week because she had too much to drink, and Iroha-chan was totally out of the question?”
Roka blushed, caught red-handed, or formerly, red-faced.
“That was different and you know it.”
“I gu-ess~,” Mami teased.
Roka swiped her popsicle from her friend and unwrapped it before each of their phones buzzed.
“Mmmph, sshhhh’s prrrrbbbl rrrr,” Roka slushed around her popsicle, hands full with her phone. Mami groaned at the disconnect between Roka’s fashionable and proper streamer image and the woman she really knew. She felt even worse about perfectly understanding every word.
The pair were coming up to the fashion district where all the best shops were located (Roka’s Official Endorsement™). This would be their third visit in the past month, and hopefully their last. A few blocks ahead of them, wearing her distinctive lab coat and looking completely out of place among the others, was Iroha Sakayori. She waved at the pair when she noticed their approach.
“Hi.”
“Sup.”
“Hi, Iroha-chan!”
“Sorry for being a little late,” Iroha lowered her head with a begging smile, “the update’s coming along faster than I anticipated, way faster than the last one, so I got kind of lost in work again.”
“You look like you haven’t been sleeping,” Roka scolded, noting the bags under Iroha’s eyes appearing again.
“It’s fine, it’s fine, I’m used to late nights,” she tried to brush it off, but Roka took her by her left arm and gave her a piercing glare.
“In. Bed. By. Ten. Got it?”
Mami smirked. Leave it to Roka to be as protective as Iroha’s mother. Considering how often Iroha complained, it was miraculous how much Roka got away with in comparison.
“Fiiine,” Iroha moaned, “but that’s going to mean more nights at the lab, and she’s not going to like that.”
“There’s nothing stopping her from staying with you.”
“She’s extremely busy, especially right now.”
“Maybe we should call it off then.”
“Shut up.”
Roka let go with a haughty laugh, satisfied at how red Iroha’s cheeks had gotten.
“Anyway,” Roka pointed, “let’s go.”
The trio of friends made their way into the district and headed past several expensive shops toward their destination. Roka got several waves from girls who were familiar with her, as she practically lived around here when she wasn’t streaming, while Iroha enjoyed the banana popsicle Mami had been saving for her.
“Are you getting nervous yet?” Mami asked.
“About the update? The bugs are all fixable, and according to Yachiyo-”
“No,” Mami interrupted, “I meant that, silly.”
“The thing we’re accompanying you for,” Roka added, walking ahead a little.
“Oh,” Iroha remembered, or possibly admitted, “a little, I guess. I mean, compared to work, it’s not that big of a deal.”
“It’s a huge deal!”
“It’s a massive deal!”
The pair simultaneously protested. Their best friend had grown up into a worse of a nerd than she was in high school. They were coming down to the wire, and Iroha needed to be absolutely ready- in proper, fit shape, focused, and prepared. This whole thing was her idea, after all.
“I mean,” she pouted, “is it really a big deal if it’s eight-thousand-plus years in the making?”
“THAT MAKES IT EVEN BIGGER, IDIOT!”
Her friends shouted the same line that time. Iroha could be such a stubborn lady. All that prestige and attention from those big robotics grants had probably gotten to her head, let alone that bracelet on her wrist all but announcing to anyone in the know that she was shacked up with a damned alien princess.
Iroha Sakayori was, in many ways, quite possibly among the most important human beings alive. Her work on artificial intelligence integration and robotics have been revolutionary, to say the least. Those atmospheric drones? Her research was used in the creation of the artificial intelligence necessary for them to function. Well, a good amount of it came from having Yachiyo assist and bug test along the way, but she still got all the credit. Mention this to her, and she’ll say it’s not a big deal, how it was just a side thing and her robotic avatar body was all that mattered.
There was being a romantic, and then there was whatever this was.
Good thing Roka had her back to them.
The trio arrived at their destination. Black tuxedos, white gowns, and traditional garments adorned hologram mannequins in the window, and when they stepped inside, they were greeted by a short, stout old lady who gave the initial impression as having done her job for a hundred years.
“Ah, Sakayori-chan, Ayatsumugi-chan, Izumi-chan, welcome back.”
“Yo, Sena-san,” Roka waved, “how’d it go?”
“Wonderfully,” the old seamstress clapped her hands, “come, come, Sakayori-chan, please come with me.”
Iroha removed her lab coat and handed it to Mami before following Sena back into a dressing room.
“Hey,” Mami poked Roka after folding the coat, “you wanna check that punk store across the street while I handle this? They got those new chokers you were doing a video on.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Roka retorted.
“I’m not stupid, y’know.”
Roka sighed.
“I’m fine.”
“I won’t get a call at 2 A.M. tonight?”
“No.”
“Promise?”
“I promise.”
“Fine.”
Roka chuckled.
“You wanna know why I was out that night?”
“Don’t I already?”
“Nope.”
“Why, then?”
“Because I re-watched our summer concert and read the comments.”
“Huh?”
“Yeah,” Roka laughed, “one of my own subs was in there, I recognized the name, and they pointed out that I was crying during a closeup.”
“Oh, yeah, we all were tearing up by the end of it, even, haah, Mikado~.”
“It wasn’t at the end, though. I was holding it in through the whole thing, and I thought nobody noticed.”
“I didn’t.”
“I know, but the internet did.”
“So?”
“I dunno,” she leaned back and stared at the concrete ceiling, “I just felt vulnerable, is all.”
“Oh…” Mami regretted starting this conversation.
“Like I said, I’m fine now,” Roka, picking up on Mami’s negative vibes, course-corrected, “that was just the first time sharing a stage with her, and it was weird for me.”
“Yeah, thinking about it, it probably was. Sorry for bringing it up.”
“S’fine, from now on all my tears will be tears of joy.”
“I’m gonna cry harder than you.”
“It’s a competition now?”
“Yup.”
“You’re on.”
The duo continued conversing, waiting for Iroha and Sena to finish and return. Eventually, they returned, and after months of visits, alterations, and re-measurements, Sena’s work was completed.
The researcher-idol-streamer with the unsightly bags under her eyes looked as radiant as the sun in her custom-fit white gown. She had chosen a ball gown, one whose skirt sparkled like diamonds upon catching even the faintest light. From above, she looked like a full moon. She had been given several options, including Mami’s favorite idea of forgoing the dress entirely and choosing a tuxedo like some women did, but Roka conked her on the head the second she suggested it, so it was quickly cast aside.
She looked stunning, so stunning that Roka was brought to tears on sight. Mami chuckled at just how weak she really was.
“It’s kind of like a lab coat,” Iroha dryly joked, “you know, white, and… uh, white.”
She had some blue glitter sprinkled on her shoulders, a nod to her avatar in Tsukuyomi, and as Roka suggested, she wore her hair down in it.
“Well, is it okay?”
“It’s perfect!”
“It’s fabulous!”
Iroha smiled, ignoring the butterflies that had just appeared in her stomach. She was an expert at planning things; talking about this had been fine these past months, despite how much her mother protested and how often her brother teased her, though in his case, she could just retort by claiming she was beating him at something else.
Despite the large bloom of the skirt, it was easy to move around in, which was a huge help considering the scope of the event and what extra she needed to do as a result of it. She spun around and watched herself in the mirror, almost surprised by the person reflecting back at her. She looked like this? Maybe Kaguya saw her this way all of the time. Would explain a lot, actually.
“Yes, yes,” Sena nodded, “I think this is my finest work.”
“You say that to every girl who trots in here, don’t you?” Roka teased.
“Oh, I’m serious,” Sena waved her off, “she’s going to look like such a princess on her big day.”
“Yeah, I’m not the princess here, though,” Iroha absentmindedly commented, “I need to send pics to mom. Mami, phone.”
Iroha commanded Mami like she was a dog.
“Woof!” Mami replied, shamelessly.
Snap, snap, snap. Photos from every side of Iroha were taken and sent to Iroha’s mother, who replied instantly with praise and declarations of awe. Iroha couldn’t believe she had no criticisms, especially considering her fretting with everything else.
“You are objectively gorgeous,” Roka retorted, “even your mom won’t be able to find a flaw here.”
“Very well, I’ll take it,” Iroha waved for her phone from Mami and prepared to pay. It was pricey, but compared to the sticker price of her recent expenses, it was a drop in the bucket. After purchasing the dress, she and Sena went back into the changing room to undress the bride-to-be and package the dress. Iroha planned on dropping it off at her mother’s place to avoid accidentally giving Kaguya a glimpse of it.
“You did good,” Mami jabbed Roka again, who was wiping her eyes.
“Oh, shut up.”
“Did you see the look on her face when she saw herself in the mirror?”
“Of course I did.”
Roka took some tissues out of her purse and blew her nose.
“I’m so happy for her.”
Mami smiled at her best friend.
“Me too.”
After everything was finished at the bridal store, Iroha bid her friends farewell, thanked them for helping her with the dress selection process these past months, and headed for her mother’s house with a spring in her step, calling Kaguya on her phone as she left to give her the rundown. Mami had some errands to run before picking up her husband and the kids, so she left as well, but not before quadruple-checking that Roka was okay. Once re-re-re-reassured, she said her farewell.
Roka, unburdened from familial duties or a significant other to marry, had a free day to herself. She could log into Tsukuyomi and play some games, or maybe stream something, but thinking about it, she really didn’t want to do much at all, so she decided to go home and take a nap before dinner. Maybe she could schedule a stream about trendy bridal gowns later, since she had more secondhand experience with them now. That would probably do really well.
~ 🦊 ~