Everyone Has Talent. If Only We Could Realize It - Volume 1 Chapter 1.5

Episode 1: Admission

After indulging in sushi to the point of near death and making our way back home, I shook Shika, who was dozing off in a food coma, vigorously to wake her up and get her ready for streaming.

Eating your fill and then falling into a deep sleep is an unforgivable sin.

“He who does not work, neither shall he eat.” Or rather, if she doesn’t earn good results through streaming, we won’t be able to recover the cost of the sushi.

“Let’s see, the settings should be good around here. I’ll remove the wall poster so ‘Seeker’s’ illustration can’t be seen…”

Shika’s room, a secret recording space inside the closet. Stepping over scattered underwear and empty snack bags, I adjusted the PC settings, set up the streaming microphone, and fixed the orientation of the smartphone stand.

Essentially, “Seeker” was just meant for uploading “Sang it” videos and wasn’t set up for streaming.

But as if anticipating this, I, the sagacious brother, had prepared streaming equipment!

Dreaming of the day when I’d overcome my aversion to talking and earn enough through popular V-SINGER live streams to be showered in Super Chats.

I, Ikebukuro Gakuto, am a person who doesn’t shy away from effort if it means I can earn a living without working.

Anyway, with a little adjustment, a proper streaming environment was set up.

“Alright, the easy streaming setup is complete.”

“Ooh. Applause.”

“Do you know what we should do for the first stream?”

“Busty appeal & dance.”

“Completely correct yet fatally wrong.”

Indeed, there are streamers who hook male viewers with physical attributes and rake in the numbers.

But that’s not only risky for a BAN but also far from what Shika should be doing.

“The first thing is an introductory stream. While we were eating sushi, I looked it up on my phone and it seems there are quite a few heavy users on One-Eight Live who look forward to the streaming debut of Ryoran High School’s freshmen. There’s a group that watches all the self-introduction streams and their archives tagged with “#RyoranNewFaces,” and if they like you, you can earn stable numbers. If you’re lucky, you might even go viral and skyrocket to stardom overnight.”

“Huh. Convenient.”

“Having a hashtag that guarantees viewership is insanely lucky.”

It took quite some time for “Seeker” to gain a certain level of recognition on WAYTUBE.

Virtual idol-like entities are popping up by the dozens each month, and with so many in existence, merely having a two-dimensional appearance doesn’t cut it anymore in this brutal world.

…This might be our chance.

Shika’s singing ability has already garnered a fanbase on WAYTUBE despite the high discovery hurdle.

In an environment where there’s a guarantee of being seen, a buzz on the first day and a surge in numbers are inevitable.

“Heh, heh heh. Hahaha… We’ve won!”

“What happens when we win?”

“Don’t you know? If we win… we can add an extra piece of fatty tuna to our sushi.”

“Fatty tuna…!”

Shika’s eyes sparkled.

“Now, just follow the script I wrote for the introduction, and while you’re at it, casually sing a currently popular song a cappella. That’ll easily snag the One-Eight Live viewers! A fortune in one stroke! A world of luxury! Hahahahaha!”

“For the sake of fatty tuna… I’ll do my best…”

With her little fist clenched, her determination was palpable.

Please, Shika.

Show them the true talent of a singer who’s gained underground popularity, the real deal!

***

“What… is this…”

The next day, on the train to school, I was shocked to see the number of views and likes on our introductory stream archive. My grip on the handrail loosened, and I slumped down, wilted like soggy seaweed.

Shika peeked at the smartphone that had fallen to the floor.

“Brother. Is this… fatty tuna?”

“Fatty tuna is impossible.”

“A chance for medium fatty tuna…?”

“None.”

“Ugh…”

Her eyes, which had been innocently shining, suddenly lost their light and turned dull.

She must have been shocked. I understand. I’m shocked too.

But the despondency lasted for about a second.

“Seriously… impossible!”

Immediately, that negative emotion exploded into anger.

It’s absurd, isn’t it, for a stream featuring Shika’s singing, including “Sang it,” to end with such results?

The numbers displayed on the smartphone were as follows:

【Views】178【Likes】3【Tip Amount】0 Yen

【Subscribers】3

We were at the very bottom.

Looking at other Ryoran High School freshmen’s streams with the same tag, most had over 200 views.

Meaning, it’s no exaggeration to say Shika’s stream hit almost the lowest numbers.

Only three people, including me, liked it, making it easy to track who did.

Only two real fans… Well, liking is an action anyone can do casually, so they might have just pressed it randomly.

“Why… Are all the others more of a genius than Shika…?”

I hastily plugged headphones into my smartphone and tapped on a classmate’s stream archive.

“Thank you for coming to my stream wooooo Yay!”

It was a terrible stream. Next.

“Hi, now I’ll try singing that song that’s been number one on the Royal Board for ages, from memory♪”

Don’t decide to be a gimmick from your first stream. Next.

“I’m gonna try eating every item on the Nack’s Burger menu all at once!”

That has nothing to do with music! Next!

Swiping left to right, I went through my classmates’ streams, but they were all lackluster.

Many streams had nothing to do with music, and it was completely baffling why these could beat Shika’s “Sang it.”

If forced to point out what these streams had that Shika’s didn’t, it would be loud voices and good looks.

Regardless of their average vibe and singing ability, they indeed seemed to have some talent.

Just looking at those with similar view counts suggested that the top tier was probably filled with talented and attractive students.

“I’ll have to take a closer look when I have time… It’s tedious to watch them all now. It’d be convenient if there was a compilation of notable students somewhere… Huh?”

“Brother, this. Mana.”

“Ah, right, this is Akiha. She streamed this morning?”

The thumbnail that caught my eye showed the girl who sat next to me yesterday—Akihabara Mana—making a peace sign.

“Being in the Musician Department means she’s also a music creator, right?”

“I’m looking forward to Mana’s sound. I want to listen.”

“Alright.”

At Shika’s request, I placed one earphone in her small ear.

I opened Akihabara Mana’s stream archive.

“Welcome to Mana’s Ryoran High School Summary Channel! Here, we’ll pick up and rank streams posted with Ryoran High School-related tags!”

“Riding on the coattails, aren’t we!”

“No song… Disappointing…”

“Hmm, this year’s freshmen vary greatly in quality. The top tier is filled with geniuses, but the middle tier is thin. This isn’t good.”

“She’s started critiquing other students’ streams… Where does she get off?”

But frustratingly, Akiha’s stream had far more views than Shika’s from the night before.

Views already over 1,000. With a broadcast this early in the morning, the archive is likely to hit 5,000 views by the end of the day.

“Sure, if there’s a dedicated fandom chasing the tags, there’s a demand for summaries…”

Exactly what I needed right now.

Actually, Akiha’s summary was handy. It allowed me to grasp the general caliber of the Musician Department students.

As expected, Shibuya Elio was in first place. Her haughty classroom presence matched her overwhelming stats.

【Views】304860【Likes】9830【Tip Amount】284950 Yen

【Subscribers】46000

The numbers were on another level. Not something even active professionals could easily achieve.

In addition to introducing herself, it seemed her main content was “Sang it” covers of existing hits, just like Shika.

“I want to listen to this.”

“Sure thing.”

Closing Akiha’s stream, I searched for Shibuya Elio’s stream archive.

No need to search… It was already in the top ranks of the trending page.

Opening it, a heavy sound pressure hit my ears immediately. At first, I wondered what it was, but it turned out to be Shibuya Elio’s greeting.

As expected of a singer’s voice volume, even her normal speaking voice was quite loud.

Though loud, it wasn’t an unpleasant sound; rather, every word easily entered the ear, naturally drawing the gaze to the screen.

But to Shika, someone else’s tedious self-introduction held no interest, and she impatiently tugged at my sleeve.

“Skip to the song.”

“Right… Here, maybe?”

I stopped the seek bar around the point where the preamble to singing began, “Now, I’ll sing for you, mmm, mmm…”

And hit play again.

What came out was a whispery voice with a clear transparency, tickling the eardrums like feathers.

She was delicately and beautifully singing a popular ballad in a fragile maiden’s voice.

Yeah, incredibly skilled.

Honestly, I feel like Shika is better, but that’s just because Shika is too good.

No doubt she’s professional-level, and compared to the other students’ terrible “Sang it” attempts I saw earlier, it’s like comparing the moon to a mud turtle. The difference between Princess Kaguya and Urashima Taro’s turtle.

“… Huh?”

Shika tilted her head.

She seemed to have caught on something, continually twisting her neck.

“Hmm…?”

“Is something bothering you?”

“Hmm… Slightly? But with earphones, it’s hard to see clearly.”

“Ah, I see.”

Shika’s synesthesia involves seeing “colors” in sounds.

The clearest “colors” come from perceiving live sounds directly in front. Anything in between, like earphones, makes the “colors” blurrier and harder to see.

Feeling uneasy about sensing something off in Shibuya Erio’s singing but not being able to pinpoint what it was, Shika started shaking her head vigorously.

“Ahh ahh ahh ahh”

“Woah! Hey, stop swinging your long hair. It’s hitting my face.”

“Annoying! Annoying! Annoying!”

“Stop, hey Shika. Blah! Hair! In my mouth!”

The relentless soft hair slaps continued until we got off the train.