A VTuber's Hidden Side - Prologue

“To Atori-kun, the Legendary Artist Atelier.”

“Will you be my ‘mother’?”

“I’ll tell you more details at 7 in the morning tomorrow on the school rooftop. You have to come, ok? ~Kamio”

“…What on earth is this?”

It was a Monday morning. I threw myself back onto the bed after being woken up by my alarm and opened up my phone to check my Tmitter, and realised that I had received a DM – and in that moment, the drowsiness that surrounded my body vanished, and I was on full alert. 

The username of the person, which was also written at the end of the DM, was “Kamio”. Even though her profile picture was a distorted seal which kind of had a fluffy, cute feel to it but, I felt some kind of killing intent after reading the contents of the DM again. 

Given my job, I could understand what this person was trying to say.

However, to simply take this as another commission…… is kind of difficult.

I, Atori Chikake, am known as “Atelier” outside school, and I work as a freelance illustrator. If I were to be further classified, I would be one of those high school students who are also artists. In addition, I’m not just any regular illustrator.

I am known in the art world as one of the top Legendary Artists and stuff like that.

♦ Atelier is a Japanese illustrator and lead animator. His birthday is on the 27th of December. He was born in Metropolitan Tokyo. He produces really cute art pieces, and even ecchi works(lewd) that somehow bypass the R18 tag at such high speeds that people sometimes call him the “God Atelier”. He likes black coffee, and dislikes sweet coffee. 

That description was taken from the “Atelier” page on the Pixev wiki.

……And if I were to add on to this description of myself, I would add that I upload at least one complete artwork onto Tmitter every day, and every month I create at least ten character designs and concept arts, posting all of them to my PixevFANBOX.

Besides my abilities, I’m very polite in my business conversations and deals, and have never missed a deadline. Therefore, I’m sure any client will trust me more than anyone else. 

That is why, I’m an undisputed Legendary Artist. I’m more trustworthy than anyone else, and I’m sure that’s how the rest of the world thinks of me too. Just see for yourself, the pinned artworks on Atelier’s Tmitter profile page have more than 150000 likes. I’m popular, really popular……

Oh, I suddenly thought, is it because of my artwork that this person found me? 

I’ll leave the Atelier thing aside for now.

This message, “Can you be my ‘mother’?”, to accept it would mean that I would have to consider many things.

Why would you contact me about this? Well, in the first place, how did you know that I was Atelier? Of course, I’m referring to her, Kamio. Kamio. Umigase Kamio.

I only know of one person named Umigase Kamio, who is my classmate. How am I supposed to feel about this message now? Me being her ‘mother’, that is.

…I got out of my bed and grabbed my blazer and face towel from the closet. Normally, after I get dressed, I would make a cup of coffee and complete a few quests in my social-network game as my daily morning routine but, today I couldn’t do a single one of them.

I had to leave immediately and head for school, after all.

I was also too busy trying to recall what could have caused this situation to even come about. 

Now all I could do was tremble in fear.