A Bath Scene: An Ojou-sama's Essential

Zabaan. Saya sank her body into the bath.

"Fwaaah… baths really are the greatest culture Lilin ever created～…"

Normally she got by with a shower to save on the water bill, but today, as a commemoration of her first stream as a corporate-slot B-Caster, she'd indulged herself and filled this cramped little tub all the way up with hot water. With lavender bath salts, no less.

Since it didn't matter in VR how filthy you were in real life, there were in fact quite a few B-Casters who belonged to the bath-skipper faction. Watching them through the monitor, Saya secretly had a slight preference: she felt like she could almost smell them a little more when they hadn't bathed. But let's keep that between us.

Well, being smelly in real life was a hard no, so Saya herself diligently showered every day.

"By the way, Kokuyou. There's no way I can take a bath together with you, so… sorry, okay?"

"It's fine. Bringing a VR goggle into the bathroom risks breaking it from the humidity. It's only natural."

From the VR goggle perched atop the laundry basket just outside the bathroom, Kokuyou replied.

"Yeah, that too, but also, having my naked body caught on camera is… well, you know."

"Oh? It will be all right, Ojou-sama. Even if it were to somehow end up on a live-action stream, I'd apply generous mosaic with a safety margin per the terms of service. You wouldn't get BANned."

"Mm～m, let's just go with 'I'm embarrassed to have Kokuyou see me naked.'"

"I see. Well, if you put it that way, it can't be helped."

Putting one's bare body on stream was utterly out of the question. Even with a safety margin, setting aside the avatar on the outside, there wouldn't be any demand for the person on the inside.

That said, her apartment didn't even have a proper changing area. It was just one cramped room. So whenever she went in and out of the bathroom as usual, her body did flash into view here and there, in glimpses. Kokuyou decided to keep quiet about that.

"So then, Ojou-sama. How was it? Your very first corporate stream."

"… Yeah, how do I put it, it was really, really… watched!"

"The viewer count included our senpais' audiences too, after all. It was a simultaneous-viewer number on a scale we'd never seen on any of our previous streams."

"As expected, corporate is strong… but to think, Akari-senpai and Director Kuroi of Niconoir being parent and child…"

"In other words, Akari-sama is… 'Kuroi Akari-sama,' as it were."

"If the Director's surname and Akari-senpai's name are her real ones, then yes. Though since those are probably character names, it's likely different."

Even so, thinking about it as "Kuroi Akari"… a dark light… would that be a blacklight, or something? Saya mused idly, savoring the lavender scent of the bath salts as she entertained utterly useless trains of thought.

"Director Kuroi turned out to be a good person underneath it all, too… so actually, kind of a relief?"

"Indeed. It was unexpected. What they call a 'staged match,' so to speak. A bit of comfortable mutual understanding."

"Well, personally, I prefer it that way since it's reassuring. Though I do feel a little cheated?"

Chapun. Saya dipped half her face into the water and blew bubbles.

"As an apology, they gave us movie tickets, didn't they? Why not try a same-time viewing stream or something?"

"Blub blub… puhah. Ah, that's a thought too…!"

Splashing her face with the bath water, Saya climbed out of the tub.

"Ah. Constantly coming up with stream material in daily life… doesn't that make me properly corporate now?"

"Please wash yourself up and get out before you get light-headed, Ojou-sama."