While Erie and Juliet were out in Akihabara...
Back in the apartment, Hope had dragged her blankets and pillows to the living room and built herself a fortress of solitude.
Hugging a plastic container filled with ice cream (rocky road this time), Hope scooped up bites while scrolling through the comments section of Arenbi's livestream.
===
> @jumpingjackal: I can't believe M+N was actually here AND a mod of Arenbi.
> @inquiringigloo: How does Arenbi even know M?
> @floppybird: What does Arenbi even MEAN?
...
> @righteousrabbit: PEAK
> @epicgiant: The stream was such a rollercoaster...
> @killerqueen: Depression, fluff, and then hot takes on food. 11/10 woudl watch again.
...
> @loreenthusiast: I can't believe there's MORE lore coming out...
> @worldlysage: I know, right?
> @upset_hippies: There's premieres for three different lore PVs... I'm not ready...
...
> @moneybags: DID ANYONE SEE THE MERCH?!
> @broke_ninja: Bruh... I spent my paycheck on the Raid drip already. I didn't realize we were getting debut merch... T_T
> @silverfox: trading nood(le)s for debut merch. Will give hot and heavy...
...
> @kahns_piracy: OKAY. So we've pinpointed that the girls are real since we've got people who heard Zen singing.
> @open_secret: The real question is who tf are these people?
> @meryl_enthusiast: Niko is the reincarnation of Meryl... literally and physically apparently. But idk the others...
> @gala_girlie: Can't tell how I know, but I CAN say that Zen is from money.
> @kahns_piracy: @gala_girlie we don't care. We're trying to figure out if these gals are ACTUALLY reincarnators
> @john_enthusiast: at this point, it's a genuine question...
===
Hope giggled to herself as she scooped up a bite of ice cream. "They think we're really reincarnators... that's funny."
It *did* fit.
After all, the only one who had a social media presence until now was Erie. And even then, people were still debating if Niko was *really* Meryl or if it was a person who had a similar voice. Especially since Erie had dropped the lawsuit against Variant Hue.
Mostly because Titor was the CEO now and it would just be wasting everyone's money. But also because Erie got the rights to Meryl Kodomo in the process.
That was why Erie could drag Meryl's corpse around and do all of her shenanigans.
But as for Hope and Juliet...
"Hm..." Hope scooped up another bite of ice cream and said, "I think I'm probably going to confuse them..."
It was by pure luck that Hope knew M+N.
Apparently, Haley Masters distinctly remembered Hope as that 'ditzy and clumsy girl with pure white hair who made me laugh when Dad was touring.'
M+N's words verbatim when he reached out to Hope... somehow.
Hope ate another bite of her rocky road and mumbled, "It was probably Mister John..."
Although he hadn't been around recently, Hope was sure that Mister John was keeping a close eye on things for them.
After all, he had gone out of his way to do the audio mixing for Hope's stream and interact a bit with the chat too.
It wouldn't surprise Hope if he was keeping an eye out for anyone looking for them. Both as precautions on doxxing, but also to see if there were any important things.
For Juliet, that would probably be in case the Morettis tried something stupid. Like sending an assassin or some people to start trouble.
Hope giggled at the thought. "That would be funny..."
Mostly because Tokyo was, unironically, Asako-senpai's turf. And even if it wasn't, Yuri-senpai had connections to the underworld too. And if THAT wasn't enough, there was the LEGENDS security company on standby. And then, if somehow someone got past all of that...
Mister John himself allegedly had a secret crew of super skilled martial artists he could tap in when he wanted.
Hope took another bite from her ice cream and hummed. "I kind of want them to try something now..."
It would seem like it was dangerous...
But Hope was sure that Mister John would keep them safe.
It would just end up with whoever Juliet's family sent getting egg on their face. Maybe literally too.
But anyway, for Erie...
Hope scooped another big chunk from her ice cream container and mumbled as she chewed it. "Probably her parents and ex-coworkers, right?"
Erie didn't talk much about her parents, but the few times she did implied they didn't get along.
And that was an understatement.
"Mm... now that Erie's doing well for herself, they'll probably try to step in, right?" Hope frowned, making a mental note of that.
As the leader of Protest, it fell to her to keep the others safe.
Hope was the oldest too. The big sister, practically. And big sisters kept her little sisters safe.
So...
"I should keep an eye out too." Hope scooped up the last of her ice cream and thoughtfully sucked on the spoon.
Unlike the others, Hope didn't have any family ties or friends to worry about.
Hope was an orphan, and her biological parents were long dead from overdoses. As for any family... if there was, they were either dead or didn't know who Hope was.
And even if they did, Hope didn't consider them family.
Twenty years in the foster care system without anyone ever once looking even though her information had been public AND Hope had begged the social worker to keep looking...
"Yeah. That bridge is burned... No, it was never built." Hope wriggled out of her fortress, wincing a bit at the bright light before walking over to the kitchen to rinse out her ice cream container to reuse later.
For a moment, only the sound of running water and a sponge wiping the plastic container echoed in the apartment.
But then, Hope murmured, "I'd forgotten about Haley. I didn't think anyone would remember me. But... I wonder how many other people remember me?"
Hope had always been drifting through life just trying to make ends meet. At some point, she had just assumed people didn't care about her since no one ever offered to help her without asking for something in return.
And by 'something' it was always the sorts of 'things' that only girls could give.
Obviously, Hope declined it all.
But...
"...Did I ever ask anyone for help?"
Hope paused to think about that, resting her wet hands against the sides of the sink.
"...I definitely did when I was small."
Hope remembered that. When she was in elementary school, she asked the adults and her classmates for help all the time. But since nothing ever changed, at some point Hope had just... stopped. And she just took charge of her own life to make ends meet.
Especially after she aged out of the foster care system.
But...
Hope let out a faint smile. "I wonder if I left impressions on other people too?"
If someone as special as Haley remembered her... enough to invite Hope to her wedding next year...
Just how many others had Hope met and forgotten? How many had never forgotten her?
Hope dried the plastic ice cream container and tucked it away in the dish rack. "...I guess I'm pretty special too, right?"
She had always wanted to help people. Do more and be more.
But maybe...
Maybe she was always enough and she just didn't realize it?
Hope dried her hands and wriggled back into her pillow fort, curling in the darkness again while opening up her phone. Then out of curiousity, she opened the analytics for the stream.
And then she saw the peak concurrent viewers count.
"...Over a hundred thousand people? Just to watch me?"
Hope's voice came out in a hushed whisper as she felt awed gratitude in her heart.
Curious, she did some more searches to compare. And she saw that Juliet had around 20,000 watching her at the max while Erie had...
Well, close to a million at the peak.
But that was probably because of the controversy around Meryl Kodomo. It'd be less on average.
But for Hope...
As she watched the retention graph, she saw that it had stayed at around a 100,000 viewers the entire stream. It had gone up at parts, but it never fell below that.
Meaning that there were that many people who had stayed.
Not just because of the glitz and glam. Not just because of Project MirAI's name.
But because of her.
...Even through her rants about food combinations like Mac and Cheese with ketchup and mustard.
Hope's breath hitched and then she laughed. Tears streamed down her eyes, blurring the phone screen. A few even dropped on top of her phone, causing the stream to play.
And hearing her own voice echo, Hope couldn't help but smile. Because...
"...I can do it too... No. I did it."
Just like Hana bringing light into everyone's life.
Just like Alfi making everyone's life a little easier.
Just like Aoko giving everyone a stern but caring older sister.
Arenbi-
No.
Hope.
She had become a part of people's lives. Enough for them to stay. Enough to cheer them up. To make them want to spend a bit more of their time with her.
Realizing that...
Hope hugged her phone to her chest and quietly sobbed, letting out the tension she didn't know she was carrying.
At the same time, her own bright and cheerful voice echoed from her phone, as if comforting herself.
*That's right. I'll always be here for you. So if your day's ever hard, or if you ever feel lost, just replay one of my streams or stop on by! I might miss you, but you'll never miss me, right?*
Hearing that, Hope stopped sobbing and laughed instead. "Stupid past me... I'm having a moment here...! You can't just be all caring like that...!"
*Anyway! Pineapple on pizza! Yes or no?*
"Pft...!"