The Mysterious Love
It first happened in late July 2019 of the Earth calendar. It was a cold and snowy day, at least as far as the game Project Winter was concerned. Sakura Miko had a collaboration scheduled with several members of hololive's 0th to 2nd generations. At that point, Miko was already familiar with all but one of them. The one newcomer, Hoshimachi Suisei, was a new addition to the 0th generation that joined AZKi in INoNoKa Music.
Before the stream started, the newbie wanted to greet each member of hololive separately. When she got to Miko...
"Hello, I'm Hoshimachi Suisei!" If they had met up face-to-face, Miko was sure this girl would've unknowingly backed her into a corner. She seemed that overwhelmingly energetic.
Unsure of how to deal with this outgoing individual, she replied meekly, "U-uh, hello. I'm Sakura Miko." The comet soon went to the next girl, leaving her relieved but still uneasy.
As the game started, Miko breathed a sigh and chuckled, believing, I almost feel bad for her. After all, she's absolutely clueless about how merciless hololive can be! She'll learn to expect the worst from us!
. . . . .
She should've expected the worst from the newcomer! It was bad enough that the bluenette slipped in and spirited away most of their fuel. The only thing Miko could do was get revenge by killing the traitor. But now that her character was surrounded by wolves with about half their health left, a brutal death was all but guaranteed. Then, the priestess saw her target turn to hack at her earnestly, all while cheering about how tasty her heart would be, sent shivers down Miko's spine and made her own heart race uncontrollably.
When Miko decided to watch the others' VODs afterward, she couldn't believe how utterly terrifying the cometzen was. Between creepily singing a nursery rhyme over the radio right when Shion had her figured out and actually eating Mio's heart behind their backs, it seemed that INNK's newest addition was a natural born psychopath! The shrine maiden got so scared that she thought her pounding heart would suddenly stop, or that she'd choke on this weird lump in her throat.
Wait a second, gotta clear my throat, Miko thought. She coughed a bit and drank some water and suddenly, the lump was gone. Huh, gone that easy? That's good. If she had looked down at the floor, the girl would've seen an oddity near her feet.
A blue rose petal. Miko didn't realize it yet, but she was in love. A thrilling sort of love, for it was love at first sight with a psycho.
Instead, the girl got up from her seat, the resulting shift of air blowing the petal of magical origin underneath the desk, where Miko would not find it until after it had long already wilted and lost its color.
The seed inside her hibernated, waiting nearly a year for those feelings to reemerge as it might wait for rain. By then, both Miko and Suisei started rehearsing together, practicing for MiComet's performance on VILLS Volume 2. Though initially hesitant to work with someone who became known as the 'Suicopath' overseas, it was what management decided, so she'd manage. Miko quickly found her partner's professionalism and dedication to the craft inspiring. Even when the pinkette doubted her own capabilities, Suisei would pick her right back up.
. . . . .
"C'mon, Mikochi~. You got enough in ya for one more round, right?"
"Easy for you to say. *pant* You're not the one with a body as weak as mine." While Suisei only started to break a sweat, Miko laid on her back, short-of-breath and unable to move.
"Oh, right. That error in going from digital to physical. Can't you just go back to the virtual world and try again? There should be no problem reverting to your original form."
"No way!" Miko protested. "I love the physical world too much to go back!" Internally, she considered, I haven't messaged the gods of the digital world for some time now… Eh, if I wait long enough, then they'll get tired of being mad. It's not like I'm in danger or anything.
The bluenette raised her hands up defensively. "Okay, okay. I get what you mean. If it's not gonna cause any problems with you, I won't force you. In fact..." The pinkette watched her lie down beside her, maintaining eye contact as she put her back against the dance studio's floor.
The shrine maiden mocked, "Oh? So you were faking not being tired after all?"
The cometzen laughed. "Nah. Just wanted to make sure you weren't all alone on the floor. We're partners, after all, so we've got each other's back, right?"
"Uh, yeah, Sui-chan. Thanks a lot." Her face was still burning from the intense rehearsal, so she didn't notice her cheeks get just a tiny bit hotter.
That night, as Miko was asleep, she dreamt of... someone, a girl that made her feel warm and fuzzy inside. Instead of the stereotypical sakura petals swirling around that mystery girl, blue petals danced elegantly through the air. The dream suddenly came to a halt when the dream-her felt her throat start to burn, as if she wanted to throw up.
She woke up in the morning with a few petals on her abdomen and a dry throat. Miko picked one up, examining it. Having already forgotten her dream, she questioned, … What happened last night? What kinda flower is this from? She had never seen a flower petal with both that shade of dark blue and that curved shape before...
Ah well, there'd be time to interrogate Kintoki later about what he dragged in. Miko had another dance practice session soon, and if she heard one more tease about tardiness from Suisei!
Finally, the big day came. The two were a spectacle onstage, and the crowd loved them both! After getting back home and crashing onto her bed, Miko debated on getting the VOD herself so she could watch their performance herself. She didn't debate for long, as the comfiness of the mattress and sheets lulled her into a deep sleep.
As she dozed off, the virtual miko pondered, I wonder what cute girls saw us up there. Me and… Suisei, together...
*snore*
She woke up with a dry throat and covered in a light covering of petals, the same ones she woke up in before. Once was a coincidence, twice meant something was up. Kintoki also denied having anything to do with them. Thus, Miko went to her doctor to get a diagnosis.
. . . . .
"Hanahaki? Like the 'unrequited love' disease?" Miko recalled.
The earth elf nodded. "So you already know of it. Good. That makes it easier to explain what we can do about it."
She shook her head. "That's not good! I don't even know who I'm in love with! How am I supposed to get them to confess if I don't know who they are?"
"It does not have to be romantic, Ms. Sakura. It might not even be linked to a person! There are cases where the matter is caused by the person either being in denial of or being denied an activity they enjoy immensely. The first recorded incident happens to involve a person that was banned from farming," the doctor clarified.
"That only makes it harder to figure out! What am I supposed to do, wait until I'm puking entire flowers to know?"
"Not quite. You see, there are two major strains of this noninfectious disease. The former, based on platonic love for a friend or for repressed passions, only ever comes to petals and poses no major threat to one's health. The rarer strain you're more familiar with, based on romantic love, could potentially grow to lethal flowers if left untreated."
"And how rare is it?"
The earth elf rubbed her head. "About two million new cases are diagnosed yearly, across all of the planets and the three Linked Planes. Of them, roughly 10,000 are the lethal strain. I myself have only come across the second once before."
Tens of billions of people, and I'm one of the two million, Miko snarked. Great. My terribly bad luck strikes again. She asked, "Is there anything we can do about it?"
"Well, there's medication to help curb your emotions and thus the illness's flowers, but it's not so simple. Hanahaki is as much a disease on the mind as it is on the body, eating away at your thoughts and body alike."
Miko contemplated. "So if I got the deadly version, then what? Could I hypnotize myself into believing I'm loved back? Would that work?"
The doctor froze. She started whispering to herself, trying to decide what she should say next. This elf had decades of experience, so Miko would believe any advice she had to give.
"I don't know if I should be saying this when you're still in the sprouting phase… Fine." She slowly nodded her head. "There were a handful of cases throughout history where the inflicted, despite being turned down, managed to delude themselves into believing they were loved back. Thus, the Hanahaki hibernated in the body. As it still knew that love to be false, the plant created by magic remained at its most lethal stage, ready to kill at a moment's notice.
"In their desperate bid for survival, these people would sabotage and eliminate anyone who risked shattering that delusion. They went so far as to kidnap and even kill their beloved, all to keep that false reality, and thus themselves, alive." The maiden was rightfully unnerved.
"So, all of the yanderes from anime and manga are-?!"
"Inspired by such real-life events, I'm afraid. I'm sorry to lay all of this on you all at once, Ms. Sakura. However, since you still cannot tell who or what's causing it, it's best that you know the dangers of trying to use such a loophole."
The priestess sighed. "No, it's fine. Thank you." Knowing was half the battle. As for the other half, where would she even begin?
Miko decided to go on hiatus, only explaining her need to go as 'fulfilling the requests of the gods of the virtual world'. In reality, she mostly stayed home for days on end, scouring her memories, trying out anything she couldn't before like scrapbooking, finishing any games or manga she never thought she'd finish, or even contacting anyone she hadn't seen in a long time.
Along the way, she also posted daily scrapbook entries on how her life was going, all to let her fans know she was doing well. But in the end, even after extending her hiatus, the sprout remained, defiant to any and all attempts to appease it. Waking up once-a-week to those blue petals was agonizing, knowing that her body knew who was causing this, but she didn't.
It seemed like she had no choice. She had to return to hololive. Miko hoped that just going back to Vtubing would solve it, since she remembered taking a short break before the VILLS show to cram in a bit more practice.
However, from the way her heart panged as she announced her return in late October, the virtuan guessed that she loved somebody there. But who could it be?!
With help from a florist, Miko identified the strange petals as a rose, practically ruling out everything but romantic love, and looked into what it meant. As she investigated, the shrine maiden realized that she read about the blue rose before, but just didn't commit it to memory.
"Impossible in nature?!" Miko exclaimed. "Does that girl… just not exist?" That made no sense. The elf told her that romantic Hanahaki only occurred when it involved a real person, unless someone was that mentally unstable for their heart to long for a fictional character.
She deduced, "If not from nature… what about 'not of this world'?"
Her immediate first guess was AkiRose, who was from another universe. But the more she thought about the alien, the more she realized that she just didn't think of her romantically.
She admitted, As much as she checks off both of my favorite things in a girl… I just don't love her like that. Is there anyone from space that wears blue? Like… Suisei?
Miko felt her heart skip a beat and her BPM spike up by at least two dozen beats at the mere thought of the girl who was way too into killing to have not tried it out personally.
Nope! She still just scares me shitless, even now, Miko reasoned. So she decided to move onto other people that she felt attracted to.
She ranted to her pet. "Maybe it's Akai Haato? I mean, she's perfect, just… I can't see it. Her being the 'one'. Same with Mel and Choco." There went the blonde boing-boings she coveted so much. Though, there was still that one person she loved that didn't fit that niche...
"Sora- No, no. I could never," As she felt hope flicker away more and more, the door cracked open. Kintoki, who was asleep on Miko's bed, opened one eye and then slept more.
She suggested desperately, "Pekora- NonoNO! I don't like her like that at all! She's the closest friend I have, but we're practically sisters. Even if she's always annoying me..."
She thought about the rabbitfolk that showed her everything the physical world had to offer. Though Miko joined hololive first, she'd always have Pekora to thank for helping her get this far. It pained her to keep Pekora in the dark.
Miko didn't feel attracted to any of the girls that debuted later to consider them, save for that detective she could've sworn she saw somewhere before. Maybe she was that employee she found talking to YAGOO nearly a year ago?
She yelled,"I can't let them know. How would I even tell them? 'Oh, sorry. I might be in love with you, so if I am, please love me back or I'll DIE'?!" The pinkette hated this predicament forced onto her. It seemed that this was something Miko had to deal with all alone.
"Or you'll WHAT?!" Miko fell out of her seat and landed on her side. She quickly forced herself upright to gaze at the now-open doorway. Standing there was the last person that she wanted to know about her crisis: Usada Pekora.
The rabbitfolk's eyes darted to Miko's desk, seeing the petals and blue rose article on her monitor. She realized the implications and turned back to her best friend with a look of abject horror plastered on her face.
"You're coming down with Hanahaki, right, Miko?"
Miko couldn't bear to look her straight in the eye. "I..."
"Tell me the truth! You said you didn't 'like me like that' and that you're gonna die if that person didn't love you back! What else could it be?!" She moved towards her friend.
"...Yeah, that's right. I… have the deadly version." Miko got up and sat down on her bed. Kintoki crawled onto her lap and continued his rest, letting Miko pet him as he purred.
"Then, who is it?"
"I-I don't know." They stared at each other for about five seconds until Pekora stamped her foot down and crossed her arms, looking mighty unpleased.
"Come again?"
Miko waved her arms around in self defense. "H-hey now! All I know is that it's probably someone in hololive, but I can't tell who."
The rabbit princess sighed and brought a hand to her forehead. "So it's one of us. Well, that narrows it down, at least. Hmm…"
"Hey, Pekora. Please don't tell anyone about this," Miko begged.
"You don't have to worry at all, peko. Your secret's safe with me," the blue-and-white-haired girl reassured her, placing a hand on Miko's shoulder.
"B-but how long do you have left?" she nervously continued.
"That's the thing. I've been told that as long as I don't know who it is, the seed can only make bloodless petals, so I shouldn't be in any serious danger."
"Then why search so hard? Wouldn't it be better to just wait until you suddenly realize one day, so that the Hanahaki doesn't get too much in the way?" Her eyes widened as Miko shook her head furiously. The virtuan looked angry that she even suggested waiting.
"And what if someone else swoops in and takes her for themselves? That person won't love me back if she already has another! I don't wanna be the girl that was too late to confess under the blossoming sakura tree!"
As cheesy and cliché as Miko's imagery was, she had a point. There were already quite a few pairs in hololive already, with some just kinda happening spontaneously. If the woman wanted her love to be reciprocated, she needed to act fast.
The rabbitfolk lightly teased, "Still such a hopeless romantic. You're right, peko, but I blame those VNs for getting that thought in your head.
She continued, "But blue roses? How about Aki-"
"No, definitely not her. I considered all of the other girls too, but nobody came to mind that could be the one," Miko interrupted, looking quite down.
Pekora contemplated her options, and then balled her fists in front of her with determination. "Alright! I decided!"
"Eh? On what?"
"I'm gonna pekome your wingwoman!" She proclaimed proudly and confidently, doing her best to comfort her friend and let her know that everything was going to turn out alright.
"EH?! B-but where do we even begin?"
"With who it is, peko! We'll start with finding whatever girl makes your pekokoro race, and then I'll help you two get together!"
"A-are you sure you wanna do this for me?" Miko lamented, I don't want her to go through so much effort, not when there's a chance it could lead to me dying...
"Certainly! That's what best friends are for! I'll pekommit myself to helping you, and hey, maybe you pekould help me when I need a wingwoman down the line." In her bid to encourage her friend, Pekora left an opening for Miko to exploit.
The pinkette joked, "Ah, coming to the Elite Miko for help on clearing the Moona route, huh? Well, you made the right choice!"
"Pekome on! I-It's not like that, stupid!" Pekora's cheeks flushed a scarlet red as she looked away. The girl across from her started to chuckle.
"Yeah, yeah. Sure thing. So when can we expect the Moon rabbit?" She laughed herself into a coughing fit as Pekora stomped off.
Despite her embarrassment, Pekora returned with a glass of water for Miko and a smile on her face. Good, Pekora thought, she's already starting to feel better about all this.
The Pekoland royal extended her hand and asked, "Ready to find your 'blue rose', peko?"
Miko stood up and accepted it. "If you're pekoming along, absolutely."
Pekora flicked the shrine maiden's nose for that one.
"Oi. That's my schtick-o. Don't pekopy me."
In truth, Pekora went to Miko's house that day because she wanted to be the first to welcome Miko back. She wanted to surprise her, but the look on her friend's face immediately told her something was off. And there was no way she'd turn down a friend in need.
Even if Miko refused, Pekora would've done her best to secretly lend a hand. Thankfully, it seemed that she didn't have to go behind her friend's back to assist her. And now this Hanahaki was something Miko wouldn't have to deal with all alone.
A/N: Hello, fellows! Now that September has ended, I can finally wake up and start getting this story out! I swear, once I thought, 'imagine if Miko threw up stargazers… no wait, blue roses!' this idea lived in my head rent-free. If anything, I'm PAYING it with this fanfic.
But yeah, this fic's gonna reference a bunch of actual streams but contextualize them with the Hanahaki disease and the 'holoverse' in mind, hence the 'canon', 'alternate universe', AND the 'canon divergence' tags. Hope you're cool with that!