Chapter 94: Who am I? Arcana Shooter Purgatory and…

She sometimes dreams.

The dreams of that time, now beyond reach.

“Oh, really! What would you do without me?”

“Don’t mind it. Anyway, you… no, forget it. Go inside.”

“Okay. See you tomorrow!”

I chose to isolate myself.

So I spoke sharp words to you without hesitation, but even so, you stayed by my side until the end.

Unlike me, who has changed, you always had a bright personality and many friends around you.
If I said I never felt envious of you, it would be a lie.

And the fact that you were always the first to take care of me, even though I never mentioned it, was one of my hidden prides.

“Ugh! Do you know how grateful I am for you taking care of me every time? I wish… I wish my sister could be a bit happier!”

“It’s not that grateful, so don’t do it. You’re doing it alone anyway. And you’re older than me, aren’t you? ‘Sister,’ what a joke.”

“…I might be mentally older. And how could I leave you? Well, maybe when you’re done with your puberty, you’ll understand how much I tried.”

Sometimes I think,

What if I hadn’t made that choice back then?

If I had just ignored it, saying it wasn’t my business, would I have been able to stay with you until now?

Of course, I’m not in any way unhappy with my current life.

In fact, if I only consider the little things, I could say I’m living a happier life than my past life.

But still, sometimes I wonder,

How are you doing now?

Did you shed tears upon hearing that I was gone?

Or did you feel relieved that I, the burden, was gone?

If you were kind, wouldn’t you have struggled to take care of your mother, now left alone?

It was a regretful life, but since it was already over, I didn’t hold on to it.

But still, sometimes I become curious about how you’re doing.

And that curiosity turns into a single thought:

That because of you, I could make that final choice.

That because of you, I found the courage to move forward again.

I’m grateful that you never gave up on me until the end.

I wanted to say that to you.

“Huuugh…”

The pounding heart, frantic with tension, is calmed by deep breaths.

After all, no matter how much I made promises, the reality approaching me was unavoidable.

“Kayanou-san.”

“Oh, yes…!”

Finally, when my name was called, I took a deep breath and lifted my head.

In front of me sat a woman with a kind atmosphere, wearing glasses.

“Is it the result of nervousness… this slightly off rhythm?”

“Well, I… I’m not really sure.”

Indeed, where I am now is a vocal training academy.

Inspired by Kayanou’s encouragement, I mustered up the courage and sent a message to my manager saying I would

take vocal training, and in response, the manager immediately suggested starting right away, along with sharing the

location of the academy.

Thus, I arrived at the academy, and just now, the skill test had ended.

“I thought I was singing as accurately as possible…”

“Mmm. It could be that you’re focusing so much on not stuttering that it’s causing the problem. When I listen to your

singing, it’s not just a few beats being late, but it feels like there’s a vague offbeat rhythm. Especially before entering

the highlight section…”

The teacher began explaining the upcoming training step by step.

Starting with the basics of vocal techniques, followed by how to correct the offbeat sections.

She said she planned to teach various things gradually and asked if I could come daily, if possible.
And I…

“…If I don’t have any important schedules, I’ll come every day.”

I nodded quietly.

Objectively speaking, it was already a very late start.

In that situation, I couldn’t say something like, “It’s too hard to do daily training, it would be too much.”

I had to try my best and put in as much effort as I could, no matter how little time was left.
For my goal.

[Kaino Izumi★Star’s Flow @Kainolzumi. 3 minutes]

I’m planning to play Bloody Night after a long time!

https://ontu.be/XXXXXXX

StarsFlow Season 2 #KaNoIzumi #BloodyNight #BN

[Thread discussing VTuber Kaino Izumi, Thread #378]

51. I checked the schedule, today Mei-chan’s broadcast is Bloody Night.

52. 51 << This is her first time after the collab with the lady, right?

53. 52 << Right. There was a big fuss because of it.

54. Looking at how she played back then, it was good enough to make it her main content.

55. 54 << But since it got attacked for ridiculous reasons, the game that caused all that drama must have been hard to look at.

56. I heard she’s doing solo ranked, anyone know Mei-chan’s past rank?

57. 56 << I saw it on Matome(乙), she was Knight Raid rank.

58. What does Knight Raid rank mean?

59. 58 << It’s in the top 1%
★

[[Bloody Night] Solo Ranked after a long time! #KaNoIzumi #StarsFlow #BloodyNight #BN]

• (≦)>ZumiZumi!
• (≦)>ZumiZumi!

“Mmm…”

Before starting the broadcast, I was reading the patch notes for Bloody Night after a long time.

Since this was my first time playing after the collab with Kurokami-senpai, it had been almost half a year since I last played.

So, I needed to check if there were any big changes.

“The tank positions have been buffed overall.”

In the early, mid, and late game, the reason was that the dealers had it too easy.

Well, when I watched some play videos on Ontube, most of the time, the team compositions were all dealer and

supporter combinations.

In Bloody Night, there were three character positions: tank, dealer, and supporter.

It may seem simple and ordinary, but Bloody Night had one significant difference from similar games of its genre.

That difference was that each team only had two players.

While there were three character positions, each team could only choose two.

Because of this, every composition had its weaknesses, and those weaknesses had to be overcome with the character’s traits and items.

For example, the most basic and balanced combination was a tank and a dealer.

The combination of a tank holding the front while the dealer clears the enemies is a simple and straightforward strategy.

However, this composition has a weakness—there’s no supporter. If the fight drags on, it becomes a problem.

That’s why it’s weak against a combination of a tank and a supporter in prolonged battles, and item farming must focus on recovery items.

That was the reason for the game’s difficulty, but it was also part of the fun element.

“Mmm… done.”

Fortunately, the game hadn’t changed so drastically that it was hard to adapt from the beginning.

And my main character, Lina, had been buffed, so there was nothing to complain about.

“Hmm hmm.”

I cleared my throat and checked the time before starting the broadcast—it was 4:59 PM.

And the moment the clock struck 5:00…

“Konzu… atmosphere maker… Izumi…”

• Hi Izumi!
• Hi Izumi!

I began the broadcast as usual.

“Mmm. The matchmaking is… taking a bit longer than expected.”

Even though I hadn’t played Bloody Night in a long time and hadn’t touched ranked for over two years, my record on

this ID wasn’t completely erased.

Since it was an ID that had reached Knight Raid rank, my MMR was high, and longer matchmaking was inevitable.

So I decided to look at the chat and engage in some casual conversation in the meantime.

But suddenly, a thought crossed my mind. Why BN?

I knew the question was floating around.

There were quite a few people who questioned me about playing Bloody Night.

And it was a perfectly valid question.

The biggest controversy I went through started with Bloody Night.

In fact, the reason I hadn’t played Bloody Night since the collab with Kurokami-senpai was partly because of that memory.

But after doing several game streams recently, I started thinking about it again.

Honestly, I can’t say I had no fault in what happened back then, but the game itself wasn’t the problem.

So why was I avoiding this game?

It’s fun to watch, and I’m confident in my skills.

Once I had that thought, I found myself naturally writing Bloody Night into the schedule.

But well, I didn’t really need to mention that.

I didn’t want to talk about that time.

• Do you play any characters other than Lina in BN?
  “L-Lina? Hmm… I’ve played a bit of Sirun. There’s a bit of fun in aiming for one-shot kills…”

“Ah, it’s starting.”

As I chatted, the screen shifted to the character selection window with a loud “Kuung” sound.

Of course, my position was a dealer, and the character I picked was Lina.

The tank position on my team was taken by an ally who, after seeing that I picked Lina, chose Luke.

Lina and Luke—a classic combination that was popular right after the release of Bloody Night.

This guy knows how to play!

In my mind, I couldn’t help but feel a bit more favorable toward this person I’d never met before.

[Please take care of me.]

“I-I’ll take care of you too…”

Since Bloody Night is an FPS, it demands quick decisions.

Normally, using voice chat or system pings provided by the game was standard rather than regular chat.

Of course, I usually rely on system pings, but since I was streaming and the other person greeted me first, I couldn’t

just ignore them.

If this was in the past, I would’ve responded via chat, but now I’ve grown.

Who am I? The Arcana Shooter, Purgatory…

[…Are you a woman by any chance?]

Ah, should I dodge this?