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Eight: "Ah, ah—can everyone see me? Don’t change that channel! Sending you love from TV You Gotta, it’s Sasahara Eight’s Channel 8! We’re starting now!!"
The woman wearing a dazzling smile snaps her fingers.
At that exact moment, countless shooting stars streak through what should be a real-world studio like a meteor shower, and a brightly designed pop logo appears directly above her head.
Eight: "Look at this! This! I don’t even know the details myself, but apparently today’s a special edition, so instead of our usual location, we’re broadcasting from TV You Gotta’s Studio Two! Amazing! It’s full-projection AR!!"
The woman—Sasahara Eight, an idol currently being heavily promoted—raises her index finger and traces circles through the air.
Following the motion of her finger, a tiny galaxy forms in midair.
This isn’t full-dive VR.
Although VR defeated it when it came to widespread adoption in ordinary households because of the cost involved, there is another technology employed by companies and other organizations capable of overcoming that financial hurdle.
That technology is AR—so-called augmented reality.
If VR is technology that creates a world inside cyberspace, then AR is technology that colors the real world itself more vividly.
And thanks to the intentions of a certain individual, Sasahara Eight’s Channel 8—which had originally been scheduled to film in a small studio—had undergone a massive leap forward.
It was now being broadcast live during prime time from one of TV You Gotta’s large studios, one of the few equipped with an AR system.
Eight: "Seriously, I genuinely haven’t been told much about what’s going on... If this is some kind of prank, I’d really appreciate being told sooner rather than later for the sake of Eight-chan’s mental health?"
[This seriously isn’t a prank. —Director]
Eight: "Eek! A projected cue card!? This is the kind of thing you use for full-on specials...! Oh, it can display comments from the stream too... Viewers, you’re making your AR debut right now! Amazing... What a time to be alive... The future is here!"
Presumably at the staff’s controls, a UFO flies past behind Eight.
Apparently the staff are just as excited about getting to use top-of-the-line equipment. Eight herself still looks somewhat giddy, but she pulls herself together and turns a smile toward the camera.
Eight: "And today, believe it or not, we have a special guest! Personally, I’m starting to suspect he might know something about why all of this is happening... so let’s bring him out right away! Professional gamer, Uomi Kei-san!!"
The next instant, a man—Kei—steps out from behind a set piece that the AR system had cleverly concealed from the camera.
His entrance is embellished by the AR system in real time, so to the people watching the program, it probably looks as though he suddenly teleported into the studio.
Kei: "Hahaha... Hello, hello."
Eight: "We met during GGC, so... has it been around three months? It’s been a while!"
Kei: "Yeah, about that long... Hello, everyone. Uomi here."
Even as the stream comments projected throughout the studio instantly become a torrent of text, Kei greets the audience with an easy smile.
Compared even with athletes, professional gamers spend much of their careers having their gameplay shown on-screen—in other words, working under circumstances somewhat similar to appearing on television.
In that sense, they’re half entertainers themselves.
Kei’s practiced manner as he directs a professional smile toward the camera makes that obvious, and the program proceeds smoothly.
At least for the moment.
Eight: "So, Uomi-san? Are you going to explain this to me after the director suddenly told me, ‘By the way, this week’s Channel 8 is a special broadcast and we’re using Studio Two,’ with literally no advance meeting whatsoever?"
Kei: "No, no. I’m definitely not completely unrelated to this, but I’m a victim too, okay? It’s a long story... Let’s see. I told you before that I might be bringing in a secret guest, right, Eight-san?"
Eight: "Yes! Exactly! That’s right! We actually got a request from Uomi-san’s side asking whether it would be okay to bring in a secret guest! So is that person the reason for all this?"
Kei: "Well... things got even more complicated from there. Because of that secret guest, another two people more or less forced their way in..."
Eight: "Hm? So there are three of them altogether?"
Kei: "One of them is seriously kind of extra... Ah, whatever, let’s just bring them out! All right, entrance effects, please!!"
Eight doesn’t know this, but the staff behind the scenes know exactly what sudden circumstances arose during the production of the program.
At their controls, three separate entrance effects are projected through the AR system.
And from within them emerge three figures.
One is a petite figure who appears to be a young girl, wearing a mask that covers only the area around her eyes and frankly contributes very little toward concealing her identity.
Sylv—
A mysterious person.
Another is a woman who, in complete contrast to the masked girl, possesses enough height to rival a man while still retaining a distinctly feminine figure.
For some reason, she’s wearing a Hannya mask.
Ameli—
A mysterious person.
And the third has his face completely concealed by what is presumably a cosplay full-face helmet modeled after a jack-o’-lantern carved with a human face.
For some reason, several energy drinks are hanging from his waist.
Sunra—
A mysterious person.
Eight: "Um, Uomi-san? I’m pretty sure I know about two of these people already, and unless I’m seeing things, isn’t that other person also a ridiculously huge name...?"
Kei: "They’re Mysterious Silver Mask-san and Masked Hannya-san."
Eight: "Huh? No, um..."
Kei: "America’s number one wouldn’t appear on Japanese television while she’s on vacation, hahaha. Officially speaking, she’s Mysterious Silver Mask."
Mysterious Silver Mask: "Miss Eight! Long time no see!"
Eight: "Whoa, Eight-chan does not have enough hosting skill to smoothly handle a killer pass that’s making absolutely no attempt to maintain the cover story!?"
Kei: "Hmm, I don’t think I’ve got the nerve to cover for that either... Hahaha. Hey, hey, don’t write stuff like, ‘Dead-eyed Uomi-kyun is strangely captivating,’ okay?"
Eight turns toward Kei as though demanding an explanation for what the hell is going on.
When she recognizes that the murky resignation in his eyes is completely genuine rather than an act, the edges of her smile twitch slightly.
Still, idol or not, this is her own show.
Trying somehow to drag the flow of the program back under her control, she shifts her gaze away from Syl—
Rather, from the mysterious silver-masked Mysterious Silver Mask toward the remaining two guests...
Masked Hannya: "Are you No Face?"
No Face: "............"
Masked Hannya—Ame, no, Masked Hannya—stares directly at No Face with absolute focus, paying no attention whatsoever to how it might look on camera.
No Face silently stares straight back, his right hand touching one of the energy drinks hanging from his waist almost as though he were praying to it.
And in that moment, Sasahara Eight senses a storm unlike anything she has ever encountered, even amid the turbulent seas of the entertainment industry...