Chapter Text
“So, I ended up going to Tokyo University after all, huh?”
Iroha stretched languidly, looking out the window of her apartment at the setting sun and at the time on the PC screen. She should be done with studying for the day soon. She wanted to keep going, of course, but she had caught an earful often enough about it that she understood her days of overworking herself to the bone were behind her… even if it got her goal further away from her.
“But you have a reason for it now. You’re not just doing it because you’re expected to… you have something you want to do.” Yachiyo smiled at her from her phone, set up for a video call with Iroha. She’d been there for a few hours now, since she’d finished streaming for the day.
It was hard to believe, sometimes. She’d been used to being aimless, or rather, to not being the owner of her own future, for so long, that this new status quo still itched at her. In a pleasant way, of course, but still. She wasn’t used to it.
Iroha grinned at Yachiyo. “That I do.”
It was November of 2032. Iroha was 19 years old, in her first year of university in the School of Engineering. She’d gotten in with flying colors. Everything was going perfectly.
…That didn’t mean everything was perfect.
She looked at Yachiyo for a moment, then another. After a second, she got up. “I think I’m done for today. Meet you in Tsukuyomi?”
Yachiyo gently smiled. “I’ll be waiting.”
Iroha turned off the video call, then grabbed her SmartCons from the nightstand and moved to put them on as she sat back down at her desk. She hated that they had a limited healthy usage time per day. She would sleep with them on, if she could. Even if she couldn’t feel proper touch in Tsukuyomi, the idea of going to sleep beside Yachiyo was intoxicating.
Not that she didn’t often fall asleep while in calls with her, but still. It was different.
When she entered Tsukuyomi, she was surprised to see herself not in the usual login area, in front of Toshin, but in Yachiyo’s private quarters at the top of the pagoda. She often visited here, but it was rare that Yachiyo messed with her login to put her there directly.
Yachiyo was turned away from her, dressed in her traditional garb, though she had her hair down. Iroha couldn’t guess as to why; it didn’t make a difference in the virtual world. As soon as she heard Iroha log in, though, Yachiyo turned around and smiled brightly at her.
“Welcome. I missed you.”
Iroha giggled, tail wagging. “I was here just two days ago.” Her avatar hadn’t changed at all in the past two years. In truth, she hadn’t changed much in the real world either. Just an inch or two of height. Yachiyo, too, looked the same as she always had.
“I still have the right to miss my partner,” Yachiyo pouted. They’d met yesterday, but that was during a collab livestream. They didn’t get time to hang out afterward.
The two collabed often these days. Iroha was busy with college, but she made time for streaming with Yachiyo every other weekend or so. The other weekends, she spent with her friends, Roka and Mami, or with her family.
“So I’m your ‘partner’, huh?” The concept still brought a blush to Iroha’s cheeks. Her idol. Yachiyo. Thought of her as a partner.
They moved into a hug. It felt off, but it was what they could do. For now.
“KaguIroP” had seemed to morph into “YachIroP” in the eyes of the fans. Iroha had gathered her own fans from the time with Kaguya, and plenty of other Kaguya fans moved with her to her collabs with Yachiyo. Not like Yachiyo needed new viewers, but Iroha’s fans were glad she didn’t disappear with Kaguya. Iroha streamed on her own, too, rarely; ranked KASSEN matches, mostly. She still made time for her hobby. She would also sometimes show up in Roka and Mami’s streams as a guest, but that was rare, with the two of them also busy with university; Roka studying fashion and Mami studying gastronomy alongside her boyfriend.
“Not satisfied with it?” Yachiyo asked. “We could arrange something… else,” she said, dragging her finger along Iroha’s jaw, looking into her eyes with half-lidded eyes and a smile. Iroha instantaneously flushed down to the neck, stammering.
She lifted her hand to touch Yachiyo’s own. “I—”
“Teasing!” Yachiyo let go. She put her hands up and laughed, turning away from Iroha. “Come on, let’s sit down.”
Iroha felt cold at the dismissal, hand still held up in Yachiyo’s direction. Her fox ears pinned themselves to her head before they relaxed, and she assented with an “Alright,” moving on after her.
Once they’d sat down, before either of them said anything, the interaction sat with her.
It’d been two years since they’d properly reunited. In that time, a lot had already happened. The one event that kept coming to Iroha’s mind now, however, was one afternoon, the day she graduated high school.
-_-_-
The cherry blossoms were in full bloom, signaling the start of a new school year for the newcomers at Kurakawa High School and the second and third-years.
Roka had asked to meet Iroha behind the school before the day was out. Alone. Iroha had no idea why, but she agreed without a thought. She trusted Roka enough to tell her, alongside everyone else, about Yachiyo’s story, after all.
Amidst the festivities, she made her way down stairs and hallways, finally making her way to the school grounds behind the main building. And there was Roka, in her uniform. Her manicured nails sparkled in the sun as she looked up at the sky. She always got in trouble for her makeup at school, and always seemed to just barely squeeze through until her next scolding.
“Hey!” Iroha called out, and Roka turned around with a radiant smile. But it didn’t reach her eyes.
“Hey,” Roka responded, walking up to meet Iroha halfway. “Thanks for coming like you said you would.”
“Well, yeah,” Iroha scoffed. Obviously she would come. “I don’t know what this is about, but I’m sure it’s important enough for you.”
“It is,” Roka agreed.
A moment passed. Roka’s smile slowly crumbled, before returning at double force.
“Iroha.
I love you.”
Iroha stood there, a second passing before the words traversed from her ears to her brain. When they did, she was… confused. Roka loved her. Roka loved her? They’d said they loved each other before, they were best friends after all, but this felt… different.
“Huh?” was all Iroha could make herself say. She didn’t get it.
“I love you,” Roka repeated. “I would love nothing more than for you to have me as your girlfriend.”
Girlfriend.
The word hurled a lightning bolt through Iroha’s spine. Girlfriend. She knew about this. She’d heard about it, at least. Girls who liked other girls, guys who liked other guys. She was a streamer, and especially during her time with Kaguya, she’d seen plenty of fans ‘shipping’ the two. It always felt like a joke. Unserious.
This time, it felt real.
“I…” Iroha started—
“But,” Roka interrupted, “I know you don’t like me back that way. And… I know you won’t.”
What was Roka saying? Sure, this was all out of left field, Iroha didn’t know Roka had felt this way for however long, she needed time to process it, she didn’t understand why someone would like her, it didn’t make sense, but… why was she just giving up like that?
“After all…” Roka’s smile dimmed. “You have Kaguya, don’t you? And Yachiyo.”
Iroha’s heart stopped.
“I’ve seen the way you two look at each other. I never managed to make you look my way like that. That’s my own fault, of course. I never tried. I didn’t want to risk what we had together already. I was fine with things as they were. And I still am.
“I really don’t want this to change our friendship. I was scared, really scared, for a long time, of what telling you this could do. But I figured that, if it meant you d-didn’t want to talk to me any more, then it made sense to wait until graduation. You can just… cut contact with me now, if you want. I’ll get it if you do.”
No.
“No!” Iroha yelled, her hands moving on their own to hold Roka’s. “No, Roka, I would never—I would never do that to you. What are you even saying?”
Roka smiled a bit brighter. “Mami told me you’d say that.”
Mami knew?
Roka continued, “Well… I’m glad, then. We can keep being friends. Hang out in Tsukuyomi. Maybe meet up sometime, on a day off soon? I was thinking of going to karaoke to sing some Kaguya songs,” she laughed.
Iroha was still looking into Roka’s eyes, her every interaction with Roka in the past flashing through her mind. Her first friend, right beside Mami. When she had just moved to Tokyo. How long…?
“Well,” Roka said, moving her hands away from Iroha’s. “I’ll be off, then. Talk to you soon?” She started walking away.
“Wait!”
Roka stopped.
“What… did you mean, about Kaguya? And Yachiyo?”
“What?” Roka asked, turning around, confusion on her face. “I mean… you love each other, don’t you?”
For the second time that day, Iroha froze.
A name to a feeling.
‘I love her’ was something she’d thought before, about Kaguya, about Yachiyo. When she was rescuing them. When Fushi came to bring her to them. They were special to her. Both of them, if you could even separate them. Yachiyo had been for a long time, a fancrush, something stupid she knew was never going anywhere. With Kaguya, because she was the one who brought light into her life, who changed her.
‘Love’ was going through her mind when she’d said “I want to be with you, Kaguya.”
‘Love’ was going through her mind when she heard Kaguya say “Iroha. I really love you.” moments before her weight on Iroha’s shoulder was gone and she heard the clatter of headphones falling to the floor.
But she never thought…
When Kaguya had joked about marrying her…
Was that… not a joke…?
Roka upturned her eyebrows a bit, concern written into her expression as she read Iroha’s own. A moment later, it seemed she’d understood, fully turning around to face Iroha. “Did you not… know?”
Iroha shook her head.
Roka brought her hand to her face. “Ah, jeez… What are we gonna do with you?” Then she brought forward that hand to point at Iroha. “Listen. I can talk to you more about this later. Right now, I need to go cry because I got rejected by my crush. Got it?” She laughed. “Text me.”
And then she was gone.
And Iroha was still there, with her world turned upside down.
When she went to her home that day, she looked things up. Terms. Orientations. ‘Lesbian’. She felt she finally understood why she had never been a fan of most romance stories she found. Why Kaguya had seemed so pissed off when the heroine and the capture target had gotten together, that time she’d played an otome game. It clicked.
She loved Kaguya.
She loved Yachiyo.
-_-_-
It had been a few months since then. Iroha had talked to Roka and Mami about it. They’d given her advice. They’d told her to tell Yachiyo how she felt. She hadn’t. It never felt like the right time.
And though Kaguya had, she realized it now, always expressed affection towards her, Yachiyo was always…
Distant.
Just now, too.
Iroha heard the sound of the artificial fires from outside on the pagoda’s balcony crackling, the wind winding through them. Yachiyo was staring at her, head resting on her hand.
She looked transcendent.
…
“What if I do?”
“Hm?” Yachiyo intoned.
Iroha had had enough.
“What if I do want to be more than just your friend, than just your stream partner?”
For a moment, Yachiyo had absolutely no expression on her face. Then, her half-lidded eyes and smile came back, and she laughed. “What are you even saying, Iroha?”
“Yachiyo.” Iroha got up. She walked around the table, gently grabbing Yachiyo’s hand and pulling her up. Without force, but Yachiyo followed anyway. She looked like she didn’t know what to do.
That’s fine, because Iroha did.
“I love you.”
A beat. Then, Yachiyo flushed. Tears started to form. She blinked them away. “I love you too, silly.” She grinned.
Iroha was angry now. Her fox ears downturned and her tail laid low. “No. I mean it. I love you, Yachiyo, Kaguya. I want to be with you. Like I told you years ago, that hasn’t changed. I’m dedicating my life’s work to you. I won’t let you keep avoiding me.”
That seemed to finally shut Yachiyo up. “I…”
“I guess all I have to ask is…” Iroha was determined. She knew the answer. She hoped she knew the answer. She knew she didn’t deserve it, it had been eight thousand years for Yachiyo since she’d said it, but… she had to hope. She’d come too far. “Do you… still love me…?” Her voice broke, at the most inopportune time.
Yachiyo heaved. The tears came back, and they poured. They ran down her cheeks in rivulets. She sobbed. “Of course.” She sobbed again, “Of course I do, Iroha. Of course I love you.” She buried her face in Iroha’s shoulder. Iroha felt the weight of it, and not much else. She wished she could feel her clothing get wet from Yachiyo’s tears. “I waited so long for you. Only you. I… I’m an old lady now. I couldn’t imagine you’d still want me. I thought you wanted Kaguya. Not me.”
“You’re still you,” Iroha affirmed. “You’re still the Kaguya I fell in love with. Hell, you’re still the Yachiyo I fell in love with, before I even met Kaguya. Back when I was just a stupid fan drunk on her crush with an idol. You’re you. And I love you.”
She pushed Yachiyo away a few centimeters so she could look at her face, and took a page from what Roka said she had really wanted to say that day.
“Will you be my girlfriend?”
Yachiyo cried as she said yes.
Iroha cried at how little she could feel them kiss.
-_-_-
“Has a lot even changed since we started dating?” Iroha talked into her phone. She was on the train home from the university post-graduation ceremony. She had the cards of a few contacts for where she could start, or join, a robotics lab. She was over the moon, but the subject was on her mind as Yachiyo had had a guest appearance on video call for the celebration.
Yachiyo was becoming a household name now. She’d been the love of otaku everywhere for years, but she had recently started spreading herself a bit. Guest of honor appearances. Awards. Iroha couldn’t be more proud of her girlfriend.
“Weeeell, our viewers certainly seem to have noticed a difference in behavior in our streams together,” Yachiyo replied. “Also, the kisses are nice.”
“They are nice,” Iroha agreed. “Even though they don’t feel like a proper kiss. N-Not that I know what they normally feel like in real life! I’m saving my first just for you, Yachiyo.”
“What a gentlewoman!” Yachiyo laughed.
It was April of 2040. She had just finished her PhD on Virtual Reality and Intelligence Proxies for Prosthetic Applications. She had finished prototypes of several body parts. She was making progress.
Their goal was in sight.
“It shouldn’t be too long now,” Iroha said, getting off the train at the station closest to her apartment. “With how well-received my thesis was, it should be easy for me to get into a lab and start the project properly. We already have some of the basic bits, too. There are gonna be setbacks, of course, but… your body is within sight, Yachiyo.”
“...About that,” Yachiyo began, after a moment.
“Hm?”
“Could you…” Yachiyo hesitated. “Could you make a body for Kaguya, too?”
“T-two bodies?”
Truth be told, Iroha hadn’t really thought about what the bodies would be made to look like. She was still too embroiled in making the internal circuitry and hydraulics and electronics and interfaces to think about aesthetics. But… thinking about it, given how she talks to Yachiyo every day, Iroha guessed she had been thinking of a body with silver hair and blue eyes.
“That’s… gonna be a little tough. It’ll already be super expensive getting the funding to make one body, even with my connections. If it was a second one after the first was a success, that’d be a different story, but getting the materials to make two at the same time is…
“Actually, why would ‘Kaguya’ even need a body?” Iroha inquired. “You’re just one person. You were Kaguya, now you’re Yachiyo. I loved, love, both of you, obviously, but… are you not the same person at the end of the day?”
“...Kind of,” Yachiyo replied hesitantly. They were home now, so Iroha switched from audio to video as she sat down at the dinner table, and saw Yachiyo’s face appear on the screen. She looked… ponderous.
“I feel like Yachiyo”, she said. “But… I remember being Kaguya. Sometimes, I feel like her, too. Sometimes, I feel more like her than I do Yachiyo. I feel my experience with splitting my self into clones is influencing it. I’m really used to multitasking, nowadays, and for my clones to vanish and take their memories back to my original body. I’ve started, sort of… compartmentalizing ‘Kaguya’ as someone else, like a clone of me. Or like I’m a clone of her. She feels… separate. And… I feel she deserves a body, too; maybe more than I do. I never had one to begin with. Kaguya did.”
Iroha faltered, looking at Yachiyo. She… didn’t fully understand it, but she got it, mostly. Yachiyo didn’t feel like she was the same person as Kaguya had been, from that month she spent on Earth with Iroha. Too much had happened. Way, way too much. But there was one part of what Yachiyo said that irked her.
“Yachiyo.”
“Yes?” Yachiyo looked up at Iroha’s frown.
“You do deserve a body. I know you only said that Kaguya deserves one ‘more’, but you deserve to feel the warmth of a real body. Both of you do. Kaguya, Yachiyo, whichever. I don’t care who deserves it more.” She took a deep breath. “I promise to give a body to you. Both of you.”
Iroha could see Yachiyo tear up through the screen. “Iroha…”
Iroha smiled. “I love you, after all.”
Yachiyo nodded. “I love you too.”
-_-_-
Iroha turned her chair around, gazing at the three men in front of her. Asahi, her brother, and the siblings, Noi and Rai. Roka and Mami were also there, visiting, in the back.
“I’m right on the edge of one last breakthrough.”
That was an understatement.
Everything was ready. It was August of 2040, and everything was ready for the prototype to be booted up. There was just one problem.
“I’ll put it simply.” She clapped her hands together in front of her, and bowed. “Onii-chan! Please! Invest in my project! I promise it’ll pay off!”
“No, look,” Asahi waves his hand, “I’m not some sort of millionaire here.”
“It’s fine,” Iroha reassured him. “You can do it. You’re amazing.” If anything, she was reassuring herself that it would work out. She really needed this last push. She just needed a bit more time, and a few more specific components.
“You’ve really gotten…” Asahi trailed off.
“What?” Iroha inquired.
“Never mind. Sure thing. Leave it all to your big bro.”
Iroha was giddy. He accepted! He accepted!! She could do it now, she was sure of it! The bodies, both of them, they’d finally be complete, after ten years!
And then.
“I want a body of my avatar, too,” Noi said as he tilted his head forward.
…Huh?
Noi?
Iroha looked at him, surprised. What was this about? He knew the body was for Yachiyo, though he didn’t know she was also making one for Kaguya. Making a third one…? Of his avatar, no less. The female-looking one?
An android body for a human?
Rai interrupted her train of thought, “Noi and I will help too.”
“Wait, me too?”
“You ought to do more for other people.”
“It’s not my style, but whatevs.”
Iroha giggled. I see, she thought. So, he was joking, right?
…Right?
The three of them left, leaving her behind with Yachiyo, Roka and Mami. She had to reassure Mami that, yes, those were Black OnyX right then, that was in fact her brother, and everything was fine. Roka made a comment on how popular they must be with other women. Iroha laughed.
“You’ve sure gotten pushy, Iroha!” Yachiyo interjected.
“Well,” Iroha replied, reclining in her chair and looking up, “I’ve been through a lot.” She winked, turning to Yachiyo, and joked, “I might even be ahead of you by now, Yachiyo.”
Iroha wasn’t, she knew that, but she couldn’t help joking about it. Going through university, getting a doctorate, seeing her friends also graduate, Roka becoming a fashion ambassador, Mami forming a family with her now-husband, Asahi and Noi moving in together, Rai becoming a doctor. They’d all changed so much in the past 10 years.
Iroha didn’t overwork herself anymore. She didn’t even feel bad about it, as she now understood just how important rest was for productivity. And finally, her patience was paying off.
It was almost time.