"So you did overhear our conversation back then after all, huh?"

With Aqua putting on his new shirt and Akane and Kana already in the resting area, Mem was finally able to talk to the person that was threatening to lead the entire stream into disarray right now.

"What conversation?" The fact that Ruby was indeed capable of deception was something entirely new to her. With her unfiltered idealism and positivity, the youngest member of B-Komachi had always been the embodiment of purity in her eyes. A little pushy and direct sometimes maybe but honest almost to a fault. "I don't know what you are talking about."

In the grand scheme of things, a small lie wasn't that big of a deal, but it kind of confused her that it was exactly this topic that she chose to lie about.

"Come on. The T-shirt? Right in front of Akane? Did you really think that was a good idea? I thought you liked her?"

"I did. I still do..."

"Then why did you do it? You clearly hurt her with that, even if she didn't let it show on camera. Whatever did she do to you to deserve this?"

A little meddling in other people's affairs was always fair play in her book. She herself had helped out Kana a bunch of times in the last couple of weeks alone. But that was the point; she always tried to help. She hadn't hurt anybody's feelings with it.

…At least as far as she knew.

Judging by the way she was fidgeting with her fingers and avoiding her look, Ruby at least seemed to feel conflicted about the whole thing as well, but she was trying to hide it behind a very obvious tough girl façade.

"Manipulating someone's feelings by acting as if you were an entirely different person can also hurt people!"

Oh! So that was her reason? She was worried about her brother?

"I already said that this isn't what she is doing! She hasn't even used her character today. What you are doing here is not protecting your brother, but only hurting Akane."

The strong façade broke just as quickly as it had arrived.

"I had anticipated her to use it… I didn't want to hurt her, okay? It´s just a T-shirt, come on! I´m sorry."

Mem laid a hand on the younger girl's shoulder. Now was the time to put that wisdom that came with her age to good use!

…Wow. She was even telling herself that she was old… must be the result of having teenagers around her all the time as of late.

"I know you didn't. Just… tell her that you didn't think about the underlying implications and that you're sorry. She will accept that no problem, I guarantee."

"Yeah, I think I will." Mem smiled at her. God her little birds were growing up so quickly!

Okay, important memo to herself; she had to stop thinking like a grandma ASAP!

"After the stream."

"Say what?"

"It can wait a couple of hours, right? I swear to you, by the end of the Event the whole thing is going to be resolved anyway. Because I´m firmly Team Senpai now and I have a plan."

Oh god. Maybe her little birds belonged back in their golden cage! With the door locked.

"Please don´t-"

"Don't worry Mem. I´m going to force my airhead of a brother to end this madness and finally make a choice!" She was pretty much beaming at her now. Her confidence was feasible.

Wait, so she hadn't been worried about her brother after all?

Didn't matter. All she knew is that she couldn't let this situation fly without arguing against it.

"But the way you are doing it is not fair! If you only push Kana, how should Akane possibly compete with that?"

"Wait, I´m confused here, so you´re Team Akane? Are you seriously abandoning Kana?!"

"What?! No! I´m team no one! Or rather team anyone. They are both my friends is my point!" The difficulties of her position were so blatantly obvious that the fact that Ruby didn't see them was slowly ticking her off.

"Then what's the problem?"

"The problem is that it´s two against one and I can't let that happen."

"So you are Team Akane…"

It felt like she was talking to a wall with blond hair.

"Ruby-"

"If you´re not with me, then your my enemy!"

"…"

"Dramatic... So you finally watched Revenge of the Sith yeah?"

"I did! Thanks for the tip by the way."

"Wasn't much of a tip but you´re welcome." They were getting a bit sidetracked here. Refocus! "Anyway, you know what? I think I might just be Team Akane for the day! Then it's at least sort of fair."

The look on her B-Komachi mate spelled out betrayal. "You can't do that!"

"I have to bring balance to the force!"

Ruby puffed at her. If she wasn't being so unreasonable, she would once again look unbelievably cute while doing so.

"Okay fine! May the better wing woman win then!"

"Oh trust me, I will!"

The air surrounding them was so thick you could cut it with a knife. It felt like lightning was crackling all around them as their egos met. People were actively walking a solid distance around them at this point, while they just stared at each other.

Suddenly, Ruby formed a time-out sign with her hands, and the tense atmosphere evaporation in the blink of an eye.

"We are still good for our group performance later on though, right? I mean it's a big opportunity for us and I bet it´s going to be so much fun! Oh, and the enemy thing was just a figure of speech of course. You´re still one of my best friends and a beloved fellow B-Komachi member!"

Ooooh, she loved this girl.

"Naturally! We are good no matter what happens! Just… please don't overdo it okay?"

"I promise!"

The two of them shared a quick hug before the timeout ended and they went back to glaring at each other.

With everything said between them, they joined their friends in the resting area and took their rightful place beside Akane and Kana respectively.

The fact that they didn't say a word while doing so probably confused the two rivals more than anything else that had happened so far.

Be that as it may.

The war was totally on now and Mem was in it to win it!

.

.

.

If one were to look at the event from a strictly business perspective, then the whole thing was turning out to be a record-breaking success already.

The crew had hit the first donation milestone of one million dollars during the Kart race! AKA the first game that they had played. This was a huge deal, considering that the past streams hadn't been able to reach this benchmark until over an hour into the action.

Sure, with the rise of the entertainment industry on the internet, these things were almost bound to escalate year after year, but Aqua believed it was more than that in this case.

The spontaneous promotion campaign most definitely worked out in their favor.

What made the whole thing even more impressive was the fact that corporate sponsoring and other guaranteed donations were being held off for now. The entire money that had been generated so far had come from more or less spontaneous private donors who simply enjoyed what was being presented to them or who wanted to support their favorite talent.

The big bucks were being saved for the end of the stream so that they could finish with a positive headline no matter what.

With the pace at which they were going, they might very well be able to reach a new record in donations by the end of the night.

However, Aqua himself wasn't really certain that he would make it this far.

For some reason, all those closest to him, most notably his sister, had decided that today was the day they were going to settle some sort of score. Or at least that´s what it looked like from his point of view.

It was nothing new that Kana and Akane were competing with each other. Their lifelong obsession to win against the other was bordering on unhealthy for quite a while now, but normally it didn't affect their work all that much. Boosted it most of the time in fact.

Did he wish for them to get along better? Of course, he did. Did he really believe tonight was going to be the night? Not in the slightest.

The problem was that Mem and Ruby had decided to get involved in the conflict as well as it seemed.

Only a couple of weeks ago he would have ignored the whole thing. He had bigger problems to deal with at that time and couldn't distract himself with such comparatively trivial things.

Right now though, he was trying to change his way. Trying to be more like his old self, for lack of a better phrasing, before he actively dug himself into a hole he hadn't expected to ever crawl out of.

Not to mention that it became increasingly more realistic that he was probably also partly at fault here…

Unfortunately for him, he had decided on that stupidity on the worst possible day imaginable. Perhaps he should have kept brooding in his locker room a little longer.

Up until this point, nothing major had happened between the two conflicting parties besides him wearing the B-Komachi T-shirt and the occasional glaring or snarky comment. At least that he knew of. But they also hadn't played a part in the last two minigames so the chances for further escalation had been minimal.

The following game however would involve at least Ruby, Akane, and himself, so he was preparing for the worst.

The concept of the challenge was simple enough. Teams of two, Akane and him against his sister and a famous dart YouTuber, were competing against each other in a contest of skill. The girls were each going to drop an enormous softdart from a platform a couple of meters above the ground, while the boys had to move an equally as enormous dartboard around the floor, all the while being blindfolded. So the girls needed to tell them where they should go otherwise they wouldn't hit a thing. Everything under a soft time limit of course.

Whoever scored the most points with three drops won the game.

Looked easy enough to him at the beginning, but as he soon figured out, he wasn't in sync with his 'girlfriend' at all today and it showed. She nearly hit him with the dart on two out of their three attempts. Surely that wasn't intentional though… right?

In total, the two of them had been able to score a measly 26 points, while Ruby and her teammate nearly accomplished a perfect game with a score of 140.

Frankly, it didn't really matter much to him if he won or lost. The competition was just for the entertainment factor after all and so long as the audience enjoyed it, he was fine with whatever. But Akane seemed to disagree with him on that. For a second, she looked almost heartbroken when she came down from her platform.

He would have never imagined that she would be that competitive in another area than acting.

They were about to draw out their next punishments, just like it happened after every other game but the first one, only to be interrupted by his sister, who seemingly had a better idea once again.

"Hold on a second guys. I think I have the perfect punishment for this situation as well! Maybe we should let the chat decide if they want to see my idea or pick something at random. What do you think?" She was looking at the camera during that last part.

When had she become such an expert at utilizing her environment like this? It almost looked like she had the whole thing planned out miles beforehand.

A side of him was weirdly proud of her.

The only thing he couldn't quite figure out was her reasoning.

Anyways, there was no way that anyone could refuse the chat-card when it was used so publicly, and to no one's surprise, the people sided with the adorable teenage girl.

"I believe our moderators are dressed far too differently from each other at the moment and they should match! Soo, I brought another one of our T-shirts!"

For a quick second, he could have sworn that his moderating partner looked like a ghost. Obviously, she was fearing the same thing that he was. Namely, that it was another Kana fan shirt. That… would honestly be pretty humiliating and he really didn't know if he would have stood for that.

Turns out, he didn't need to worry, because the shirt that his sister presented Akane with was all yellow without even a sprinkle of white. It was a fan shirt for Mem.

The relief on the young actress's face was noticeable this time.

Also, his sister whispered something in her ear as she gave her the shirt and it looked like it lifted Akane´s mood even more. Had she apologized for going a little overboard before? He hoped so.

Well, there was no use in guessing. The fact that it seemed to take away some of the tension between the two was good enough for him at the moment. Maybe the hottest phase of the Cold War was already behind them before it had really started?

Optimism of this sort wasn't really his thing, but today he wanted to believe in it.

However, now it was his turn to clear up any misgivings between himself and his co-moderator. They had all planned to enjoy the event after all and he was more than willing to play his part in it.

That would have to wait a minute though, because first, it was up to the both of them to transition the stream into the next game.

A giant Speed-Chess match, between two gaming Youtubers, focused on strategy games. The clue was that the pieces weren't in fact pieces, but people dressed in oversized costumes, and the two queens were colored white and yellow respectively, hinting to who was hidden inside them.

The audience of course didn't have to guess, since both of them were miced up and had a camera on top of their costume.

"I swear to you Mem. You hit me with that staff of yours, I will go full-on medieval on you!"

"You don't seem to understand the rules of chess oh dear centerpiece. If I get to hit you you´re out!"

"Just try me! I will hunt you down even as a ghost! That goes for all you other goons out there as well of course! …As soon as I can run again when I get out of this thing that is!"

The bickering between the two girls was admittedly hilarious. And a major part of him was very much tempted to simply continue watching the match when he finally was able to give it up to the professional commentators.

That said, he had something else to do right now, something more important. So he joined his co-moderator on the sidelines, where she was currently drinking a glass of water, after having changed into the yellow B-Komachi shirt backstage.

"It looks good on you." She actually smiled at him at the compliment. It didn't last long though.

"Thanks. It suits you to- …never mind."

"A couple of days ago you couldn't wait for the stream to start, but now… you don't look like you´re enjoying the event very much." It was rather obvious, although she tried to hide it pretty successfully in front of the cameras.

He knew that she had looked forward to today and it was sad to see that the stream didn't seem to live up to her expectations. If at all possible, he would like to change that somehow.

With a skeptical expression, she looked him up and down before answering "You´re one to talk."

"People tell me I look emotionless all the time so it´s nothing special in my case. On camera, it´s even something of a gimmick for me these days. You on the other hand are a far more positive person." She quickly raised an eyebrow at him. "At least in my personal experience."

When she didn't answer, he knew that he was definitely on the right track.

"Would you please tell me what is going on? Have I done anything to offend you?"

A little bit of energy seemed to return to her body as she answered him right away in an almost accusatory tone. "I don't know. I can't look through walls you know?" So his initial assumption had been right. It was about earlier today.

"Look. Nothing much happened. Kana… cheered me up."

"I bet she did."

"Not like that. Remember what we talked about in the café the other day?"

Akane seemed surprised. She clearly didn't expect him to go to this topic.

"Yes?"

"Well, I pursued the thing and… it turned out to be in vain once again." He wanted to close this chapter already, so it was difficult for him to talk about it again so soon. But it was his best chance of appeasing Akane, he believed. "For just a moment… I lost it. I gave up on everything, even on myself. But somehow Kana managed to bring me back just by talking to me. That´s all that happened."

In contrast to his initial belief, the blue-haired girl didn't look relieved in the slightest. Instead, she almost seemed even more offended.

"Great. So I offer to help you with this countless times and you shut me down without a second thought, but when the child prodigy swoops in she 'rescues' you in only a couple of minutes, did I get that right? Wow, that makes me feel so much better. Thank you very much."

"No. I didn't want her to rescue me she just-"

"And why did she look so flustered when she practically ran out of your room if all she did was talk to you?!"

"Akane I-"

"Never mind! I don't want to hear it." The girl looked even sadder than at the beginning of their conversation. This was not turning out the way he had hoped.

It didn't change the fact that he didn't know what to say at this point. Sure, he could argue that they had mutually agreed beforehand to only be in a business relationship, so anything that had or hadn't happened in his locker room was none of her business. Or he could truthfully explain that nothing really happened with him and Kana except a small kiss on the cheek. However, he was positive that neither argumentation would resolve this problem.

So he just stood there, trying to look as apologetic as he possibly could and waited for her.

After a short moment of silence, Akane took a deep breath and looked him straight into his eyes.

"Why can't it ever be me who truly helps you?" The anger that had been there before was all but gone now. Her voice was calm and collected. "I won't deny that I´m jealous, but it's about more than that for me!" She wasn't holding anything back anymore. "You rescued me Aqua. You didn't really know me at all and yet you rescued me. All I wanted was to help you in return. Relieve you of some of the burdens that you clearly struggle with. But I can't even accomplish that much."

Aqua was once again rendered speechless for a second. Of course he had known that the girl in front of him had felt indebted to him. He had even calculated with that when he needed to keep her around because of his mission. However, it just wasn't true anymore that their relationship was so one-sided. She had already repaid him in his eyes.

"You did help me before." She was putting far too much pressure on herself when it was actually him who was at fault with this one. Had he been more stable around her, she wouldn't have felt the need to assist him all the time. "During Tokyo Blade, you helped me bring out the best in me. Without your support, it wouldn't have been possible for me to perform the way I did." Regardless of how incredulous she looked once more, this was nothing but the truth. "More than that, you cared for me when I first collapsed. Without you everything would have been revealed to my family. I cannot thank you enough for that."

If he had ended his monologue here, maybe he had a chance to actually reach her, but that wasn't all unfortunately.

"However, you couldn't help me with this. I just wouldn't let you."

"But Kana could?"

He hesitated for a split second, pondering if he should lie or not, but then decided to be brutally honest for once.

"Yes."

The girl in front of him looked almost defeated. Which was not what he was aiming for in the slightest and made his earlier resolve waver.

"But I would have died before I would have let her 'help' me in my original quest. That's what the both of you have in common."

A small part of him knew that he was being too vague here. That in his attempt to ease her mind, he was simultaneously keeping her hopes alive. He just couldn't help himself. He did not want to hurt her. Especially not in a situation like this.

He could… break her heart another time… right?

Just like he wanted, Akane´s mood seemed to improve after his words.

"I understand." Judging by the expression on her face, he had at least achieved his goal of clearing the air between them both.

"That said, I won't lose to Kana Arima so easily."

Suddenly her whole demeanor changed and his eyes went wide in shock.

She grabbed him by the hand and ran towards their next set.

"Come on! We can´t miss another donation target can we?" When she looked back at him his heart began to speed up once more. Her eyes were shining like the brightest stars in the night sky and he couldn't help but get swept away by her mesmerizing smile just like anybody else would.

She wasn't playing fair, and she knew it too.

.

.

.

"I warned you!"

The game lasted only for about half an hour, but Kana was incredibly happy to finally get out of this stupid queen costume that had caused her to sweat much more than she had ever thought possible. It was like the Pieyon mask only for the whole body. Perhaps she should take a quick shower on her next break.

However, she was even less enthused about the fact that her player had not only lost, but sacrificed his own queen not once, but twice after he had reanimated her!

She didn't even know that was possible! Chess was such a stupid game.

What´s worse was the fact that Mem seemed to enjoy it all far too much!

"Come on I only poked you a tiny bit with the thing. I can barely move in this outfit as well, so there is no way I could actually hurt you."

"You don't know that! I have sensitive skin. Ask anyone!"

"All you have is a sensitive ego. Now come on and let me help you out of there."

Her anger didn't go deep enough to not accept the help of her fellow B-Komachi teammate. However, the sudden arrival of the third member of their crew could only mean trouble for her.

"Senpai!" Ruby looked like enthusiasm personified as she ran over towards them, cameraman in toe. "Would you believe it? The chat again voted for me to choose your punishment! These fine people out there definitely have faith in me wouldn't you agree?!"

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me!" Her annoyance was only half-pretend. "Weren´t you the one coming up with the random punishment rule? How come you´re the only one that's constantly breaking it?!"

"…You rather have your hair cut off because someone felt a little too funny?"

"…No."

"Very well then!"

While Ruby was fishing for something in her backpack, Kana was wondering if karma would eventually serve the young blond justice or if her usual luck simply continued during this event as well.

"Ah, found it! Put that on your wrist would ya?" It was a small armband with a digital display that wasn't displaying a clock as far as Kana could see. "It´s a heart rate monitor. A special one at that! It is connected to the stream in such a way, that our dear viewers can see on screen at every moment how strong your pulse is. Kind of cool isn't it?"

She couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at that. Ruby really had the weirdest ideas. How was that supposed to be a punishment for her?

"Okay. Fine. I don't mind it, hope you guys get a kick out of that." She did a double peace sign at the camera.

"See? I´m not so bad, right? If I were, I would have made you wear that clown costume our dear Shinzo has to wear for the rest of the stream because he lost that chess match."

"That guy killed me twice! He deserves it! No offense though."

With a smile, Ruby turned back to the camera. "Well then, I think it´s time to give back to my very own brother and his lovely partner! Back to the studio!"

After a couple of seconds, the cameraman gave them a signal that told them the camera was off and their microphones were muted for the time being.

"So? What do you two think? The stream is going pretty well so far isn´t it?"

"Yeah…" Mem didn't seem to pay too much attention to what she was saying right now, instead, she was intensely staring at her wristband. "Ruby, what´s so special about that heart rate monitor?"

The girl simply shrugged. "Nothing much. I just thought it would be funny if people saw how exhausting such an event could be, you know?"

"Right…"

Okay, something was definitely going on here. Ever since that T-shirt incident, Mem and Ruby acted more than a little weird around each other.

Even before that… why would Ruby make her brother wear a fan shirt of herself? Up until now, she thought that the girl was head over heels for Akane, yet she did something so tactless to her?

Knowing Ruby meant it wasn't completely off the table that the whole thing simply was an unfortunate coincidence. One that worked out in her own favor for once.

… Aqua looked more than a little cute in her colors after all…

And Akane didn't seem to hold any sort of grudge as far as Kana had noticed.

The only thing that made her suspicious about the whole thing was Mem´s and Ruby´s behavior around each other. Normally the two girls were pretty much always on the same page, teaming up on her more times than not, but right now, they seemed to be butting heads about something at every given opportunity.

Perhaps it was better for her peace of mind that she didn't know what it was about though. She has had enough drama for today and really didn't want to get dragged into anything more.

She just wanted to do a good job here, get back home, have a solid amount of sleep, and perhaps try to search for the courage to approach Aqua in private about what had nearly happened between the two of them before the start of the show.

Well, that was a whole different package to unpack for later. One that would most definitely push her to her absolute limits and one she needed to be mentally prepared for.

Consequently, she decided to ignore the fact that both her teammates were glaring at each other the whole way back to the main studio.

When they eventually came closer, the three of them already noticed that something was going on inside, because it sounded like people were celebrating.

The reason was obvious as soon as they stepped into the main hall because the digital donation signs were blinking like crazy and music was playing.

"Oh my god! Look at the wall! Have we already hit two million dollars?! This is insane!" Mem was completely flabbergasted and Kana couldn't blame her. She knew that there was lots of money involved in this stream, but actually being a part of the whole fundraising process was impressive in an entirely unique way.

Surprisingly though, Ruby didn't seem to care all that much. Instead, she was staring at something on stage, with big eyes, an open mouth, and an intensity that one wasn't used to by the young girl.

Only seconds later, once she too had noticed what Ruby was looking at, she was pretty sure that she had the exact same expression on her face.

On the main stage stood that… that damn womanizer that not even two hours ago had given her her first-ever kiss on the cheek (if you discount her family at least). He looked like a dear in headlights. Not too unsimilar to his sister right now.

But he wasn't alone. No. Not by a long shot.

In his embrace was Akane Kurokawa, both arms tightly swung around the idiot's neck and this time, he was the one getting kissed on the cheek.

Apparently, they were celebrating the benchmark just the way an official loving couple should.

In a matter of seconds, her initial surprise gave way to an entirely different sort of feeling. One that made the color of her skin look similar to the color of her hair. That feeling doubled in intensity as soon as she realized that the girl currently in the arms of her crush, was actually staring right at her over his shoulder.

Luckily, there wasn't a camera around during this time, because her reaction would surely have confused the viewers, since she didn't look remotely happy anymore.

However, thanks to her last punishment, her emotional state didn't go completely unnoticed for some of the people paying attention in chat.

"Ehm, guys? Look at that pulse! WTF?!"

"What the hell is going on with Kana? LOL?"

"120?! That can't be right can it?"

"Has she joined Pieyon in his Marathon?! Oh, and shouldn't he be done by now? Where the heck is he?!"

"It´s still going up! Somebody check on her!"

"XxLegendxxBooStarxX has just gifted a ten-dollar sub! Thank you for your generous donation 😊3 !"