5

A few days later, at school, during lunch break.

I took my bento out of my bag—another bento that Kokoro had made for me. This was the first time she’d given me one after I’d commented about the lack of meat.

Taking off the lid, I saw bacon wrapped vegetables, steamed dumplings, wieners, and broccoli.

Now this looks delicious! And it’s full of meat!

“I thought your last bento was a bit light, but you really didn’t hold back this time, huh?” Ai commented.

“H-Haha, I guess so!” I said.

Kokoro had gotten mad at me when I gave her my honest opinion about the bento she’d made, but it seemed like she’d actually taken my advice about boys’ tastes. She complained a lot, but in the end she always tried out my suggestions... She’d even started cooking dinner every day, after all.

＊　＊　＊

Later that night.

“Hey there! VTuber Emily Saionji here! Today I had to pick up this new game!”

I was in my room, watching VTuber videos on my PC as usual. At that time, I was following around a dozen of them, and every night, before going to bed, I watched their latest videos.

After Ai had told me about Emily, she’d quickly become my new favorite.

She was tall and slender, with blonde hair and blue eyes. She was also half-Japanese, half-English, and since the person voicing her could actually speak both languages, her fanbase had already grown a lot overseas. What I liked the most about her was that she loved otaku culture, but she had one particular love that caught my attention the most: yuri.

In the video I was watching right now, she was playing an idol game, and you could tell from her reactions just how much she enjoyed seeing girls falling in love with each other.

“Kei-chan is tsundere’ing it up! Yeah! Praise be! That cheeky liar, I bet she’s actually worried about Akane! Come on!”

Rumor has it that VTubers managed by corporations usually have a script to follow, but she sounded way too excited to just be reading some lines.

A pretty half-Japanese girl drooling over yuri? It’s so... disgraceful. I love it.

“Eeek! M-My heart! Did you hear that just now?! Did you?! Kei-sama, we don’t deserve you!”

She was particularly fond of Kei Fukanuma, one of the “cool” girls. Every time Kei appeared on screen, Emily screeched and squealed in delight. Most of the comments below the video were along the lines of: “RIP headphone users,” “Emily? More like Screamily,” “A lady of fine yuri taste indeed,” and so on.

“If only a girl like this existed in real life...” I murmured to myself, knowing how unlikely that was. The virtual world allows us to enjoy girls as perfect as Emily whenever we want, but, in real life, they’re incredibly rare.

I started fantasizing about the girl behind the avatar. All I knew about her is that she was bilingual, had a beautiful voice, and liked yuri. VTubers didn’t usually reveal their true identities, but the mystery of it all just made me even more curious.

The next day.

“Have you even tried to look for places to find a girl yet?” Kokoro asked me while we were eating breakfast.

“I’ve been looking... I just haven’t found anything that a high schooler can join. And what about you? Have you given up on using your cosplay account to meet boys?”

“As if you could even meet a boy like that! That’s total garbage!” she scoffed.

“And anyway,” she continued, abruptly changing the subject, “are you free after school today? I want to have a strategy meeting in the cafeteria.”

“Why in the cafeteria? Can’t we just do that at home?”

Discussing our dating strategies in the cafeteria was just asking to be overheard by someone.

“I’ve booked an appointment at a nail parlor near school, so I have two hours to kill...”

“Isn’t that, you know, your problem?”

“C’mon, if we can discuss it at home, we might as well discuss it at school. It’s no big deal! We just have to split up before we walk back.”

“Fine, I guess...”

The next day, after school.

In the cafeteria, Kokoro and I were eating desserts while looking for places to meet potential dates.

“Nothing... again. You have to be an adult to join all of these parties,” she sighed at her phone. There wasn’t anyone around us, so we could talk freely about our plans.

“Yeah. They serve alcohol at all of them,” I said, but my eyes had begun following two girls that were walking by us.

I don’t think I’d ever seen them before then, so they were probably from a different year. They belonged to the popular, short-skirt-wearing variety of girl, but... my jaw dropped when I really looked at one of them.

She had long, silky blonde hair, and her face didn’t look 100% Japanese. She was relatively tall, and her skin was pale and smooth. Her ample chest rested on top of a very slim waist and two incredibly long legs, which could only be compared to that of a fashion model. She was gorgeous.

“I-Is that girl... a foreigner?” I whispered, mostly to myself, after the two girls were well out of earshot.

“What? You’ve not seen Minami before? She’s, like, the most popular first year in the whole school,” Kokoro replied.

“Really?! But I’ve never seen her before.”

“Do you live under a rock or something?!”

“S-So, is she a foreigner?”

“She’s half Japanese, half English, so her full name is actually Elena Minami-Williams. I don’t know the details, but people say that she’s signed up with some sort of entertainment company. It kind of figures. With those looks, she’s probably a model or something.”

“Word...” I said, totally convinced. She could definitely be a model. Unfortunately, that level of beauty made her so unapproachable that I could never even dream of talking to her.

Just as we finished talking about her, Elena and her friend came back into the cafeteria. They had shopping bags in their hands, so they’d probably bought something to eat at the convenience store nearby.

They sat away from us and started talking.

“Sheesh, I’m totally spent,” the non-Elena girl said. The place was now empty except for the two girls, Kokoro, and me, so we could easily hear what they were talking about.

“Ugh, now we can’t talk about otaku stuff in here anymore,” Kokoro whispered to me.

“But they’re in a different year. Does it really matter?” I asked her, whispering back.

“Of course it does! Gossip spreads like crazy around here!” she retorted.

In the meantime, I couldn’t help but listen in on the two girls’ conversation.

“Have you been busy with work lately, Elena?”

“Kind of. I have to go to the company headquarters again this week.”

“Oh. Are you gonna be on TV? Or like a magazine or something?”

“S-Sorry... I just can’t talk about it. It’s in my contract.”

Hm? Haven’t I heard this voice before? This clear, ringing voice... Beautiful, but peculiar... and that intonation...

“Right, right. Non-disclosure and all that. Must be a pain, huh? But can’t you just tell me if you’re acting or modeling?”

“I, uh... I’m acting, I guess? But it’s not TV or any major role like that, so you probably wouldn’t know it even if I could tell you.”

“Too bad. But maybe one day you’ll be on TV, who knows?”

“I wonder... Oh, my phone! It’s from work! I have to take this, sorry!” Elena said, standing up from her seat.

I saw her running through the cafeteria, past us, with her phone in her hand. Her familiar voice had made me so curious that my eyes followed her against my will.

Then, I glimpsed the words on her phone...

Incoming Call: Up-Load

My suspicions were confirmed. I stood up and went after her.

“Ichigaya? Where are you going?!”

“Hello... Tomorrow? As long as it’s after 6 p.m., I can... Oh, that would be perfect! I’ll see you at HQ then... Right now? I’m at school, but there’s nobody around, don’t worry...”

I followed Elena to an empty hallway, overhearing her phone call. I hadn’t planned on eavesdropping, though, so I froze in place, unsure of what to do with myself.

Then, Elena noticed me and, for a second, she froze too, wide-eyed, but she continued to speak.

“...N-No, it’s nothing. There’s no one around. I’ll see you tomorrow, sir. Goodbye,” she said, putting away her phone and staring at me with a concerned expression.

“S-Sorry, I didn’t mean to eavesdrop or anything...” I hurried to explain myself.

“It’s okay,” she said, before slightly bowing her head and turning to hurry away.

I’d ran after her because there was something I needed to ask her at all costs, but, after hearing what she’d said on the phone, I realized that my question wasn’t one that she was likely to reply to.

But if I don’t do it now, I’ll never get another chance.

“E-Excuse me!” I called out to Elena, who looked back at me, surprised.

“This is going to sound weird, but are you, by any chance... Emily Saionji?” I asked.

The reason why her voice sounded so familiar to me is that she sounded like Emily, the VTuber.

The average person would never have noticed, but I devoted years of my life to voice actresses and VTubers. What’s more, Emily was my current favorite. I’d watched all of her videos several times, so I’d heard that exact voice chatter away for hours and hours. Most other VTubers went for a high-pitched, saccharine voice, but Emily was a bit different. Her voice, while beautiful, had a unique ring to it which made me like her a lot.

Of course, Elena’s voice wasn’t exactly the same as Emily’s, but they could easily be the same person slightly changing their tone for a recording.

The biggest hint, however, was noticing the incoming call from “Up-Load.” That was the largest VTuber-related entertainment company today—the exact company that also happened to manage Emily Saionji.

“Huh?!” Elena yelped in surprise, covering her mouth with her hands.

This reaction can only mean one thing! I was right!

“C-Come with me for a second!”

All of a sudden, Elena grabbed my hand and started running, pulling me after her. She brought me inside the science lab’s storage room and locked the door behind us.

This looks like the premise of an adult manga...

“Please!” she started, nipping my daydream in the bud. “I beg you! Don’t tell anyone!”

That proved it. The girl bowing her head in front of me was the actress behind my favorite VTuber: Emily Saionji.

“Y-You don’t need to beg me at all. I won’t tell a soul.”

“You really mean it? If you told someone, you see, it could ruin everything for me! My contract says that I have to keep it a secret. I was able to hide my identity for so long online that I’d never have thought I’d get found out at school...”

“And what would happen if you broke your contract?” I asked her.

“If I were the one who told you, I’d have to choose between being fined or being fired. I didn’t tell anyone myself in this case, so I’m not sure what would happen to me...” she whimpered, sounding utterly distraught.

“That sure is harsh. But your secret is safe with me! Don’t worry!”

“Then... I have to thank you. But, tell me, how did you find out?”

“I’ve watched every single Emily Saionji video so many times that I recognized your voice in an instant,” I explained, a little too proudly.

“You watch my videos?! M-More than once?!”

“Yeah, they’re the best! I always wondered who Emily really was, but I never could have guessed it was someone from my school!” I chattered, as she listened in silence.

“By the way,” I continued, “I heard that you’re half-English, is that true? That’d explain why Emily can speak English so well! Oh, and congratulations on reaching three hundred thousand followers! That’s incredible for a channel that new! Emily’s design is cute, of course, but more than anything, I really like listening to you!”

Words continued to flow out of my mouth without a pause. It was too difficult to contain myself when I was actually getting to speak (in a sense) to the character I loved.

Elena was staring at the floor, covering her mouth with her hand.

Oh no. Did I say too much? Am I being creepy? We don’t even know each other at all and I got carried away with my otaku talk...

“Th-Thank you,” she said at last.

Surprised, I took a better look at her face, noticing that she’d turned a new shade of scarlet.

Is she blushing because of what I said?

“I... I don’t think I’ve seen you before, so you’re probably in another year, right?” she asked me.

“That’s right! I’m a second year. I’m Ichigaya, by the way. Nice to meet you.”

“I’m Elena. Elena Minami-Williams, from class 1-B. It’s a pleasure,” she replied.

Finally getting to know Emily was like all my dreams had come true at once. It certainly felt like a dream.

“You see, the company lets me choose my content freely enough, so I always get to talk about stuff that I like in my videos. Some viewers like it, but some are a bit put off by how into it I get. This is my first time hearing a viewer praise my videos in person, and... it makes me happy. I’m sorry I got so worked up. I wasn’t trying to accuse you or anything,” she said, avoiding my eye.

Hearing her say that, in turn, made me happy too. To think that anything that I said could make someone like Emily happy...

“Don’t worry about haters! You’re bound to get a few when you’re so famous. Wait, you said that you can choose what to do in the videos yourself, right? So they don’t give you a script?” I asked.

“They give me a general outline, but the words are all mine,” she said.

“So does that mean that you really... like y-yuri?” I asked, my curiosity winning over my best judgment.

She paused, still blushing, looking unsure how to respond. “It’s weird, isn’t it? I mean, for a girl to like yuri. I don’t talk about it with my friends, of course, since none of them are otaku. If they found out about that, or even that I’m a VTuber, they’d probably be pretty disgusted with me...”

Just like Kokoro, Elena was attractive enough to steal any guy’s heart. Based on looks alone, there’s no way anyone could tell that she was an otaku.

“There’s nothing weird about it! Lots of girls are into yur—” I started saying, but a voice from outside the room interrupted me.

“Ichigaya, are you in there?! I can hear you, you know! Why’d you run off like that?!”

It was Kokoro, shouting as usual as she hammered at the door.

I’d completely forgotten about her!

“S-Sorry, Minami! Do you mind if I open the door?”

“Go ahead...”

With Elena’s permission, I unlocked the door and let Kokoro in.

“There you are!” she said, angry. “What were you doing in here?”

However, as soon as she saw Elena standing next to me, her anger gave way to confusion.

“W-Wait, why are you...? What?! What are you two doing in here?!” she asked, bewildered, as her eyes moved back and forth between Elena’s face and mine.

“We were just talking—” I began.

“Just talking?! Locked in here?!”

“That really is all we were doing,” Elena said, but our explanations, unsurprisingly, didn’t have any effect on Kokoro, who was coming up with her own conclusions.

“Oh, I get it now! You locked the door because you were talking about otaku stuff!”

“What?” Elena and I asked in unison.

“I-I might have overheard that Minami likes yuri... I’m sorry! It totally wasn’t on purpose!” Kokoro stammered.

“Is that what you heard...?” Elena asked her, visibly preoccupied. She was probably scared that her secret VTuber identity may have been discovered by yet another person at school.

“Yeah, that’s all though, I swear!” Kokoro replied.

“I see... I’d better come clean then. Yes, that’s why we had to lock the door. No one knows I’m an otaku, you see, so I wanted to talk a bit more privately...”

It was a lie, but Elena obviously wanted as few people as possible to know about her VTuber career.

“But Ichigaya said he’d never seen you before,” Kokoro said, sounding suspicious, so I played along with Elena’s story.

“W-Well, I desperately had to go to the toilet, but I overheard Minami talking about otaku stuff on the phone...”

“Huh?”

“Y-Yes, that’s what happened! He heard me talking with the entertainment company I work for. I’m actually a voice actress, so—”

“No way! A voice actress?! Do you, like, do anime?!” the easily excited Kokoro questioned.

So that thing about VTubers often being budding voice actors was true, and Elena was one of those voice actors.

“I only voice extras and stuff, since I’m a newbie in the industry. It’ll probably be a long time before I get any major roles.”

“That’s still awesome!” Kokoro squealed with starry eyes.

“If possible, I’d like to ask you to keep our conversation a secret. The fact that I’m an otaku and that I work as a voice actress. Nobody at school, not even my friends, knows exactly what I do. I only tell them that I work for an entertainment company...”

“Of course! That Minami, an otaku, huh? Who’d have thought? And don’t worry, we’re in the same boat! I’m secretly an otaku too! So I’d never tell anyone, I swear!”

“R-Really? Thank you so much!” Elena said, as if Kokoro’s words had lifted a weight from her shoulders.

Did Nishina just come out as an otaku to comfort her? I guess she can be kind when she wants. On the other hand, I’ve lied about why we’re in here... but if it’s to protect the secret of Emily Saionji, it’s worth it.

“You had me super shocked for a minute when I saw you two in here, but this explains everything! Anyway, now we know about each other’s secret hobbies, there’s nothing to worry about!”

“Of course, it’s such a relief. Oh, I forgot! My friend is waiting for me in the cafeteria!”

We all walked back, but Elena’s friend was nowhere to be seen.

“Hm? Oh, she actually texted me. She said she left because she had to go to her part-time job...”

“In that case, want to hang out with us a little bit? You’re the first girl I get to chat with IRL about otaku stuff, and I’m sooo hyped about it!”

“I’d love to, certainly! I’ve never been able to talk about my hobbies in person either,” Elena replied.

Since nobody else was in the cafeteria, we sat together and started talking about all things otaku. The topic that the two girls seemed particularly fond of was IMS.

“I must say, Nishina, I was pretty surprised to find out that you’re an otaku too,” Elena said.

“Oh? You mean you knew about me already?”

“Of course! Everyone at school does. But I’d imagined you were the complete opposite of an otaku.”

“Eheh...” Kokoro laughed awkwardly.

“So, the two of you,” Elena asked, looking at us, “are otaku friends? It must be so nice to have someone in the same year who shares your hobbies.”

“W-We just kind of ran into each other outside of school, and now we’re, like, helping each other,” Kokoro said. I was pretty sure that such a vague explanation would only cause Elena to ask more questions.

“Helping each other... do what?” Elena asked, as I’d expected.

“We can tell her, right?” Kokoro said in my direction, and I nodded in response.

There’s no real reason to hide it from Minami—we already know a secret of hers.

“You see,” Kokoro started explaining, properly this time, “we’re trying to find otaku dates, you know? He’s helping me find an otaku boyfriend, and I’m helping him get an otaku girlfriend. Neither of us are gonna be able to find anyone at school, so we tried other stuff... but, to be totally honest, we kind of suck at it so far.”

“Oh, I see now.”

“By the way, Minami, do you have a boyfriend?” Kokoro asked.

“I-I... I don’t.”

“What?! But someone like you could get any guy they wanted in the world!”

“I’m not really interested in dating... and the contract I signed with my company doesn’t allow me to date either...”

“So that’s a real thing?!” Kokoro shouted, surprised. “I guess it makes sense though... When a voice actor starts dating someone, fans get all mad about it online... I guess people in your industry have to be super careful about love scandals and stuff—more careful than movie actors even!”

For what it was worth, I, the number one fan of Emily Saionji, was very happy that Emily didn’t have a boyfriend and wasn’t planning on finding one any time soon.

“But isn’t the same true for you? You could get a boyfriend so easily!” Elena asked Kokoro.

“I want an otaku boyfriend, you see. But it’s not that easy, since I keep it a secret in school. Say, you wouldn’t know how I could, like, find one, would you?”

“Why are you asking Minami this?!” I demanded to know, offended by the very idea, but Elena seemed to be seriously pondering the question.

“I’m not sure it would work in this situation, but a friend of mine said that she found her boyfriend on a dating app,” she replied.

“A dating app?!” Kokoro and I, who weren’t very familiar with the concept, exclaimed with excitement.

“The one my friend used, more than for romance, is meant for people who are looking for friends. That’s why you can use it even if you’re underage. I don’t use it myself, but I hear that it’s very popular with high schoolers. And you can set it up so that you can find people with the same hobbies as you. That’s what my friend did, since she wanted a boyfriend who shared her love for music. I can’t quite remember the name of the app though...”

“That sounds super interesting,” Kokoro said, clearly already sold on the idea.

Isn’t that a scam? There are probably going to be a lot of fake profiles, or maybe you have to pay to create an account... I thought, but admittedly, the idea of a method of searching for girls with the same interests as me was also really appealing. Maybe I’d finally be able to find an otaku girlfriend...

The bell ringing throughout the cafeteria announced that the school was about to be locked up, so we had to leave.

“Wait! You use LINE, right? We should totally add each other!” Kokoro said to Elena.

“Oh, of course! I’d love to!” she replied, and displayed her account QR code on her phone.

I looked on, green with envy, as Kokoro used her own phone to read the code and add Elena as a contact. I want to add Emily too!

“Ichigaya,” Elena then said, “if it’s okay with you... would you like to give me your contact too?”

“Wha—?!” I blurted out. As soon as I regained control, I answered her. “O-Of course!” I pulled out my phone with shaking hands, finding my own QR code, and added Emily Saionji as a friend.

I just became LINE friends with Emily! I can’t believe it! Why would she even ask me? Is it to avoid offending me? What does it even matter?! I’m so happy!

We split up at the subway station where Elena caught the train that would take her home.

Kokoro and I went to the supermarket for some groceries before walking home. While my housemate cooked dinner, I took out my phone to check my games, but then I remembered something.

That app that Minami was talking about...

If I used an app like that to look for matches who shared my interests, maybe I could make friends with an otaku girl.

I typed “dating app” into the app store’s search bar, and an overwhelming amount of alternatives appeared on my screen. Based on what Elena had said, I had three hints to find the right one: it was originally meant for people who wanted to make friends, you could use it even if you were underage, and you could search for people with similar interests.

The top results were all dating or marriage-related, so I scrolled past them. I looked carefully through many of the promising ones, but the store descriptions all said that you had to be eighteen or older to use them. Until...

“Friendz: Find Friends and Have Fun!”

I opened the store page for this Friendz app and, sure enough, it was what I’d been searching for. The description said that it was recommended to users over eighteen, but you could still use it if you were younger. I kept reading and found out that Friendz had “communities,” theme-specific forums, that you could join.

There has to be a community full of otaku girls just waiting to befriend me... maybe... Well, only one way to find out, I thought, and I downloaded it.

When the download was over, I opened the app, and was greeted by a tutorial explaining how to use it. If I found the profile of a girl I wanted to talk with, I could send her a “like,” and then she’d get to choose whether or not to like me back. If she did, we’d have a match. Vice versa, if I got a like from a girl, I could check out her profile and decide whether to return it. In both cases, once we were matched, we would be able to chat with each other.

Since all communication happened within the app, it sounded safer than giving someone my LINE details.

“I found that app that Minami was talking about,” I told Kokoro, who was busy stewing something in the kitchen.

“For real?!” she asked. “Do you think it’s safe? Can you really find otaku there? You try it out first and tell me how it goes!”

“All right...” I said. At first I was annoyed by the way she said it— as if I was supposed to taste her food for poison before she ate it too. But after all, it was safer for a boy. The worst that could happen to me was finding out that someone was catfishing me.

After the tutorial, the app prompted me to enter the required information to create my account.

“How is it?! Found any dates yet?!” Kokoro jumped at me as soon as she was done cooking.

She looked at my phone, her bright eyes sparkling with expectation.

“I haven’t even finished setting it up yet... I’ll create my account after dinner,” I said.

“Perfect!” she replied, and set dinner on the table.

She’d made pork curry today, which was up to her usual cooking standards.

“This is so good!” I said after taking a single bite.

“I-It’s nothing I can brag about. The roux is store-bought...” she said, failing to hide a smile. Even small compliments toward her culinary skills seemed to boost her mood.

When was the last time I ate homemade curry? I never go through the trouble of cooking it, so I’ve only had restaurant and convenience store curry for so long. But this! This is full of meat, potatoes, and carrots, and everything is so nice and flavorful. It even tastes healthier! Mom had a point when she said that it’s better to cook at home.

I demolished it, barely chewing. After finishing my serving, getting seconds, and finishing those too, it was time to check out Friendz.

I pulled out my phone as Kokoro sat next to me on the couch.

Isn’t she even a little bit concerned about sitting so close to a guy? Am I still not even a boy to her? I thought as my gaze, against my will, slowly drifted toward her chest, where her low-necked pajamas were very close to uncovering her bra. As if the visual stimulation wasn’t uncomfortable enough, she also smelled dizzyingly sweet.

She hasn’t even bathed yet. Is it her perfume or something? How am I supposed to act natural with all of this?!

“What are you waiting for? Sign up already!” she urged me, seeing that I wasn’t moving.

“What? Ah, yes, the app...”

Seems like she doesn’t see me as a guy at all, huh.

“The first thing I need is... a profile picture? No way I’m uploading a picture of my face!”

Letting strangers on the internet see my face sounded unsafe as hell, but the main reason I didn’t want to do it was pretty obvious—a mug like mine would discourage any girl from speaking to me, never mind my otaku dream girl.

“Yeah, me neither. I don’t want my friends to find out that I’m using a dating app, let alone one to look for an otaku guy,” she said, so we both agreed not to show our faces in our profile pictures.

The next step was entering my name, but people visiting my profile would only be able to see my initials.

“I’ve added my birthday, my blood type, my address, and now... hobbies. Let’s see: gacha games, VTubers, anime, manga, internet, and...doujinshi, I guess,” I said.

“Are you serious?!” Kokoro stopped me. “You’re really going to put that your hobbies are nothing but otaku stuff?!”

“I’m looking for an otaku girlfriend, so why wouldn’t I?”

“Ugh, you’re so dumb. When a girl says she wants an otaku boyfriend, she doesn’t mean that she’s looking for Otaku McOtakinson, with his moe t-shirts and body pillow waifu! What she wants is a guy who has those interests but has enough self-awareness to be able to at least pretend to be a fine, well-adjusted human being! On an otaku scale, from one to ten, you should be aiming for a six or seven! Not eleven! And doujinshi?! Are you out of your mind?! Any sane girl would run away from you! But even without that, a guy that only mentions otaku stuff as if it’s a personality trait just sounds like he has issues! Don’t you have any... cooler hobby? Anything will do!”

“But this stuff is really all I’m passionate about...”

“Jeez! It doesn’t matter if you’re not full-on passionate! Even stuff you do occasionally is fine! Even stuff you just did once! Who cares!”

“Cooler” hobbies? Hm, it was fun taking Nishina’s cosplay pictures the other day. Maybe... photography? The only camera I have is on my phone, but oh well. Guys who are into photography are cool. Maybe I’ll even meet a cosplayer who wants me to take her pictures! What else...? I guess, sometimes, I ride my bicycle all the way to Akihabara to save the train fare. Cycling is a cool hobby too, right?

In the end, I listed anime, games, photography, and cycling. It certainly looked like the profile of an extroverted, well-adjusted otaku.

Kokoro also downloaded the app, skipping through the tutorial faster than she could read it.

“What are you going to write down as hobbies?” I asked her.

“I’m doing it now, don’t rush me! I have games, anime, BL, male voice actors, cosplaying, shopping, cooking...”

“Whoa there! What happened to presenting yourself as a ‘fine, well-adjusted human being’? How’s BL any better than doujinshi?!”

“I know it sounds bad, but... being a fujoshi is part of my identity! Like, I can’t date someone who isn’t gonna accept that!”

Huh? What kind of identity is that?

“Sure, yeah, but is that really the first impression you want to give? Guys are going to think you’re the type of girl who’ll force her hobbies down their throats! Wouldn’t it just be better to tell them that you like BL after you’ve become friends? And honestly, ‘male voice actors’ doesn’t look good either... I mean, if you’re looking for a boyfriend, you can’t just go and say that you’re crazy for this or that other guy,” I said.

“R-Really? Ugh... Fine! I’ll delete those...” she said, reluctantly following my advice.

“Now the profile description...”

I’ve got no idea what I should write... But I definitely need to make it clear that I’m looking for an otaku girlfriend.

We both started typing in silence.

“I’m done!” shouted Kokoro after a while.

“Show me!”

17yo @FujimiCity. NS / TouRabu / HypMic / D.Donan / Ai5 / IMS. My DMs are open!

“Were you trying to write a Twitter bio or something?! Nobody’s going to contact you like that! The average person can’t even decipher what half of that means!” I said.

“I know! It’s on purpose! It’s like a hidden otaku message. Only guys who get what it means will message me!”

“I get what it means, but that’s just because I’m a huge otaku. The average otaku boy doesn’t know the first thing about girls’ series! To them a profile like that is just intimidating! Can’t you add something more normal? And also... why the hell did you write down the name of the station next to my house?! Is this your first time using the internet?!”

“You think it’s dangerous to do that?” she asked.

“Of course it is!”

“Okay then... But, when you say to write something more normal, what do you even mean? Give me an example!”

“I just mean something that a guy would want to respond to. Like...” I coughed and put on my best girl voice. “Hi! I’m new to this app! Heart emoji. I signed up because I want to meet people who share my hobbies! Heart emoji. Let’s become friends and watch anime and play games together! Heart emoji... That’s the general idea.”

“Hm, I think I see what you mean... But let me see what you wrote first!” she said, pulling my phone toward her.

I am an otaku boy currently in high school. It would be a pleasure to become friends with otaku girls. In particular, girls who like IMS, FG0, or VTubers would be ideal, but I have no problem with girl stuff too. If you’re not familiar with the otaku world, I’d be happy to teach you a thing or two. Then maybe, if you’d like, we could watch anime together. Thanks for your time.

“Creeeeepy!” Kokoro screeched.

“Huh?!” I said, shocked. “What’s so creepy?! I tried to be as gentlemanly as I could!”

“You sound like an old man... and if you’re going to talk about shoving hobbies down someone’s throat, you should sort out your own profile first! I’d be happy to teach you a thing or two? What about learning about what they like?”

“B-But that’s not what I—”

“Also, this is an app for making friends, but you’re only creeping on girls! Tone it down a notch and make it say, like, I don’t know a lot about girl stuff, but I’d like to learn more, or something!” she said.

Her words hit me hard enough to halve my health.

“And don’t forget to make it sound like you’re not just some otaku dweeb—you’re a cool guy who also likes otaku stuff, got it?”

“Tsk. Fine, I get it. I’ll rewrite it,” I said.

“What’s with that attitude? I’m trying to help you here! Like, if you posted that there’s no way you’d get a single match!”

“As if yours was so much better! It’d take a miracle for anyone to match with you! You should be thankful for my advice!”

“Huh?! Like, you think I need your advice! I can do perfectly fine on my own. You know what? That’s totally what I’ll do. Let’s just both use the app without any advice from each other, since my advice offended your poor self!”

“G-Good! That’s exactly what I want!”

“Just wait till I find a boyfriend on here!”

“Hah! I’m on the edge of my seat!”

Done shouting at each other, we went to our respective rooms, closing the door firmly behind us.

Maybe she’s right, but can’t she just say it in a less annoying way? Anyone would get mad hearing that! Hmph. Who needs her anyway? I’m going to do it all by myself! But still, she is an otaku girl, so I’d better take a little bit of what she said into account.

I want to become friends with other otaku. On my days off I like to watch anime, play games, cycle with my friends, and take photos. My main interests right now are IMS, FG0, and VTubers, but I’m also curious about girl stuff, so I hope you can teach me more!

After rewriting my profile description with Kokoro’s advice in mind, I reread it and nodded to myself with satisfaction. Perfect!

I then went back to the app’s home screen and began my hunt through girls’ profiles.

I’m a university student from Tokyo! My hobbies are going to concerts and snowboarding. Take a look at my communities, and if you think we have similar hobbies, feel free to like my profile! I’d like some friends to drink with, either male or female!

This girl sounded like the average extroverted university student. Her picture looked kind of cute too, but, with filters that heavy, I couldn’t help but be suspicious about her true appearance. In any case, she wasn’t an otaku, so I wasn’t interested. Next.

Hobbies: visual kei, anime, cosplay, etc...

Oh! This girl sounds like an otaku! And she cosplays too! I wonder what she looks like—

“Eek!” I squealed to myself.

Her profile picture was a point-blank selfie, featuring a face that no amount of filters could fix. Not to mention that completely unapologetic visual kei outfit and hairdo. Looking at her was physically painful.

I don’t reply to accounts that don’t have a profile picture. If you’re going to like my profile without messaging me, please don’t waste my time. And if you’re slow at replying, don’t message me in the first place.

Whoa. Just writing “crazy woman looking for crazy man” would have been faster. She’s a real piece of work... And she’s... thirty?!

Even considering how much of an asshole I was being, I still hoped that no girl would think the same things about me. I got the feeling that, had I posted my profile description without Kokoro’s advice, that might have been the case.

I messed around with the app a bit more, before remembering the unique feature of being able to look people up by community.

I started entering keywords like “otaku” and “anime,” which immediately brought up loads of related communities. There were some generic ones like “Anime Lovers’ Community” or “Otaku Friendz Community,” and even more specific ones like “Idol Producer Community” and “VTuber Community.” They all seemed to have quite a few members.

There are more otaku than I thought on here...

I opened some of the member lists and started looking through girls. There were plenty to look through, and some were even pretty cute.

Cute otaku girls who love my favorite series?! And there are this many?! I’d thought dating apps were just meant for desperate losers, but if being desperate gets you this... sign me up. I could never find girls like these in real life.

A week later.

I’d continued using the app and even sent a few likes here and there. However, none of the girls with cute pictures ever liked me back, which meant that I hadn’t been able to talk to any of them.

There was too much competition, or something like that. So I compromised and tried looking for girls who didn’t have a picture at all, just like me.

I’d come up with a few conditions to screen them: they had to live in Tokyo, be in high school, be an otaku (of course), and be into the same genres as I was. Then I’d read their introduction and judge whether they seemed pleasant or not.

I sent a like to eight girls like this and got three matches. The first quickly ghosted me, and the second, probably because our conversation was really dull, slowly started taking more and more time to respond until she began ignoring me completely.

Basically, there was only one girl left.

I’d found her profile on top of the search results, marked with the word new. Her profile said she lived in Tokyo and was in her second year of high school, also like me. She liked IMS and was growing to like VTubers, not to mention she was a cosplayer.

The list of hobbies alone was enough to make me excited, but I also liked her profile description: “I’m looking for friends with the same hobbies as me. If we click, let’s watch anime together!”

Based on what I knew about her, she was the closest a real person could come to being my dream girl. I didn’t know what she looked like, but to be a cosplayer she must have been at least somewhat cute. My excitement kept growing and growing the more I read about her.

“K”—that was the first initial of her name—also made me smile a lot, and she was really interesting to talk to. Our conversations never seemed to die out.

I really want to meet her... But if I’m not careful she’ll think I’m creepy...

That night, before going to sleep, I did my best to come up with a message that made my intentions clear without sounding too aggressive.

“I really enjoy our chats, K! Wouldn’t it be fun to meet sometime?”

She replied after a few minutes. “Yes! That’d be fun!”

For real now?! She’s okay with it?!

“I heard that they’re going to put on an IMS event at a café in Akihabara. Would you like to go there together?”

Since IMS was one of our main topics of discussion, I thought she’d like the idea.

K, who usually replied immediately to my messages, remained silent for enough time for me to get scared.

Here we go... I creeped her out! I have to take that back! But how?! We were getting along so well, and I ruined it! My heart was crying with distress when I got a notification on my phone.

“I would! Actually, I wanted to go there to begin with.”

“YEAH!” My shout of joy echoed in my room.

Friendz is awesome! I’m going to meet a girl! At this rate, I’m gonna find a date before Nishina does!

The next day.

“Morning.”

“...Mornin’.”

Kokoro and I had kept conversation to a minimum lately, barely greeting each other and only speaking when it was absolutely necessary. I was still slightly annoyed with her, and the feeling was probably mutual.

“You still using that app?” I asked her. I had no idea if she’d made any progress in the last week.

“I am, now you mention it, and it’s been going pretty great for me!” she proudly replied.

“I see...” I said, slightly nervous.

“B-By the way,” she started asking me, not looking particularly proud anymore, “you’re not, like, free on Saturday, are you?”

“Not really. Why?” I said. It was the day I was supposed to meet K.

“Oh, well... Never mind then.”

“Come on, spit it out.”

“I said never mind! I’m going out now!” she said as she left, back to being mad at me.

I groaned to myself. Why is she mad this time?

A few days passed, and it was Saturday—time for my date with K. We’d agreed to meet at 1 p.m. at Akihabara Station.

I woke up at around ten, and Kokoro had already left the house. Even if she was an otaku, she had lots of friends so, unlike me, she went out most weekends.

When I was starting to get ready to leave, I checked my phone.

“What?!”

“I’m very sorry! I can’t come today!” K had messaged me around two hours ago.

B-But why?! What happened? I thought, continuing to read another message that she’d sent just before I woke up.

“Forget about it, I’m so sorry for canceling on you like that! I think I’ll be able to come after all! Sorry!”

What’s going on?

“Sorry for replying so late. Is everything all right?” I wrote to her.

“Yes, don’t worry!” K replied instantly.

I still wondered what kind of problem she could have had at 8 a.m. on a Saturday, but I had to hurry up and get dressed if I didn’t want to be late.

I tried to find something in my closet that looked better than the “weird rock band t-shirt” I wore when I attended the otaku party, since Kokoro had roasted my entire outfit. I settled for a black and red checkered shirt and a pair of less “cheap-looking” jeans.

To be honest, I’d wanted to buy something new for my first date, but I had no idea what to look for or even where to look for it. I could have asked Kokoro for help, maybe, but lately she’d been acting all weird. She kept starting to say things, then would just halt mid-sentence, telling me to never mind—over and over again.

And since I couldn’t count on her help, I had to do my best to dress up nicely on my own. I’d even tried putting on hair wax, but no matter how long I stood in front of the mirror, moving my hair this and that way, I couldn’t make it look particularly good. It was a bit too late to wash it out now.

I left home just in time to reach Akihabara station ten minutes before I was supposed to meet K. As I rode the train to get there, my stomach started to ache from all the nerves.

Will I really be able to talk to a girl I’ve just met for the first time? I thought. I was starting to regret that I hadn’t asked Kokoro for hints on how to dress for a date or how to behave during one. Had I just done that, maybe I wouldn’t have been so nervous.

Right before reaching Akihabara, I sent K a message.

“Almost there! I’ll wait for you next to the Electric Town exit!”

“Okay. Actually I’m already at the station, so I’ll go over there.”

Maybe I should have left earlier...

Once I got off the train, I quickly headed toward the Electric Town exit.

She’s probably there already... Now that I think of it, how am I even supposed to find her? I’ve never even seen her face. Maybe I should have told her what I look like or something.

Trying not to get in anyone’s way, I began to move next to a pillar to message K, but someone was already standing there.

“What?!” I accidentally said aloud, noticing Kokoro’s familiar figure. Taking a moment to compose myself, I considered saying hello, but I hesitated as I took a better look at her.

She looked dreadfully pale as she held onto her phone, her hands shaking.

What’s wrong with her? Is she feeling sick?

“Nishina?” I called out to her.

She yelped in surprise when she saw me.

“I-Ichigaya?! What are you doing here?!”

“Never mind me—what are you doing here?!”

“I-I’m supposed to see someone I met on Friendz. But, like, now that I’m here, I’m so nervous that I thought maybe I should tell him I’m sorry and leave,” she said, her voice trembling.

“Actually... I’m here to see someone I met on Friendz too. We’re supposed to go to that IMS event together...”

“What...? WHAT?! You’re K?!” she asked me.

I froze in place for a second. “Y-You don’t mean... You’re K too?!”

On Friendz, I’d only been able to see her first initial—and she’d only been able to see mine. K... Kokoro? No, it can’t be...

“Your first name is... Kagetora. It’s you, isn’t it?!”

Both of us were shocked out of our minds.

“Now that I think about it, it totally makes sense... K likes IMS and VTubers, just like you... and his profile says that he wants to learn more about otaku girl stuff! That’s what I told you to put! You complained so much, but you even took my advice?!” Kokoro said, as I realized my own K also perfectly fit Kokoro.

No wonder I liked that profile...

“You also rewrote your profile like I told you to, didn’t you?! After you said you didn’t want any of my advice!”

“When I first liked that profile,” I said, “it said that it was new... Was that because we started using the app on the same day?”

“That’d make sense...” she said. We sighed, looking at each other awkwardly.

“Ugh, gag me with a spoon! Do you have any idea how much time I wasted on you this past week?! All that effort for nothing!” Kokoro lamented in desperation.

“That’s my line! I wrote every single message being as careful as could be! My stomach hurt from all the nerves all the way here!” I replied, but Kokoro was not giving up.

“Anyway, what’s that outfit?” she demanded to know. “You dressed like that for a date?! You better hope your dream girl brought you a gold medal for being the biggest, geekiest dork there is! Even if you did manage to get a date with a real girl, she’d totally run away the second she saw you!”

“Wh-What?!” I said, shocked and depressed that I was still having insults hurled at me for an outfit that I’d thought would pass.

Kokoro sighed. “Well, I’m kind of relieved, to be totally honest,” she said, as a smile played across her lips.

“What do you mean?”

“Meeting a guy I don’t know is super scary, you know? I even tried to ask you to come along with me, just in case... I was so freaked out that I considered standing him up last minute, which would have been the worst thing I could do!”

I finally understood the message I’d got this morning and the thing that Kokoro had tried to ask me the other day. But I couldn’t be mad at her for trying to stand me up—I could see where she was coming from. Up until now, I’d been nervous as hell, but it was probably a thousand times worse for a girl. Kokoro wasn’t even used to speaking with guys.

“But why didn’t you just say you couldn’t go when I invited you? I mean, it was only me, so it turned out fine in the end, but what if it’d been some dangerous stranger?” I asked her.

“I’m trying to find a boyfriend, duh. What’s the point if I refuse to meet anyone?”

“Hm, you have a point. But your parents kind of gave me the responsibility to look after you, so try not to do anything too dangerous, okay?”

“Huh?! Wh-What’s that supposed to mean...?” she stammered, hiding her blushing cheeks by turning to walk away from the station.

“Where are you going?”

“I came all the way to Akihabara for this! So I’m going to that café!”

“Oh, sure...”

“You can go back home if you want, but if you really want to tag along, feel free,” she said.

“I was planning to go there anyway!”

I’d come all the way to Akihabara for this IMS event. It would have been a waste to go back home now.

We entered the café and were immediately surrounded by IMS. The walls were literally covered in illustrations.

“Look at thaaat! Ah! And all the drinks and desserts have names of girls from the gaaame! It’s so cuuute!”

Each item on the café’s menu shared a name with one of the main IMS idols. Kokoro and I each ordered a dessert based on our favorite girl.

I was having so much fun that I entirely forgot about the whole “K” embarrassment.

Before going home, we took a bunch of pictures of the place, finished our desserts, bought some merchandise, and had more fun at the event than we ever could have had with a total stranger.