The stream was proceeding without much issue when Raphtalia got another donation with a message attached to it.

'Hello Raph-chan! I really like your streams- would you ever consider doing a collab or doing a 1v1 against SwordMaiden?'

As always, Raphtalia read out what was there on the screen, mentioned her appreciation for the donation, but now there was the question of how to respond.

Raphtalia responded spontaneously before I could give her any direction. "I uh... don't know who that is unfortunately."

I then messaged her what she should do.

"Ah, give me a moment to check them out," she said.

There was a bit of pause in gameplay for a few minutes, but for a donor, this was worth it.

I hadn't heard of this 'SwordMaiden' person either, so I looked them up while Raphtalia did the same.

"Wh- is this real?" I couldn't help but say to myself, though not too loudly, else the microphone would've picked it up.

There was a young girl dressed up in a maid outfit of all things, with long black hair. And she was playing Eryuentiu Online? Honestly this was like some sort of weird fever dream... not to mention that she looked pretty young. If you had told me that she was still in high school, I would've believed it. Matter of fact, given the demographic range of this game, that could've very well been an actual possibility.

Despite the strange outfit, it didn't look like she was doing all that much better than Raphtalia. So I guess thirst traps didn't sell so well now then did they? Well, her chest was also flat, so perhaps that contributed to such things...

Although we were in the middle of the stream, Raphtalia still found it in her to give me a disapproving look. Could she really read my facial expression from my reflection in the window in front of her? No- this was definitely proof of it- she almost certainly had mind-reading powers!

That said, from what I could hear from my headphones, her voice was cute. So she had that. As for her playing style, she was almost exclusively playing single player from what I could see. Seemed like she didn't get into multiplayer matches at all. That actually was probably why she was lagging behind Raphtalia.

Keeping all such things in mind though, collaborations with other creators could definitely help us out somewhat. Even if they were a creator with lower views than yours, there was a chance that their viewer pool was different from yours. Not to mention that people enjoyed watching two people duke it out- even if it just was on the virtual stage.

This came with caveats of course. You wouldn't want to do a collab with someone who had much lower views than yours, after all. Not to mention sometimes these things fizzled out.

This 'SwordMaiden' hadn't even done any kind of PvP before- in other words, she was a filthy casual. That said, perhaps she would be open for a 1v1. It couldn't hurt to ask.

"Ah, I'll have to see if they would be okay with it first," Raphtalia said.

Maybe we could've gotten Raphtalia to wear a maid dress as well? At this, she gave me another glare. "Sorry everyone, I just thought I saw something over there." Well, she getting to be a pro at distracting the audience, I had to give her that at least. "Anyway, let's get back to the actual game."

When the stream was over, Raphtalia turned to me. "So, about that..."

"Look, I just thought that you would look cute in a maid outfit that's all..."

"What?!" Raphtalia asked, clearly suprised and confused.

"Wait- what were you asking me?"

"I was going to ask if you think we should do this collab?" Raphtalia asked. She then glared at me. "Wait- what were you thinking all those times earlier?"

"So, you can't read minds?"

"Of course I can't, I'm not Edward Cullen, it's just that you had a very weird expression on your face, now, why were you thinking about maid outfits?"

"Oh, she wears one in all of her streams," I told her

"Oh- so that's why, I thought that maybe..." Raphtalia said as she trailed off.

"Thought what?"

"Nevermind," she said as her face turned a slight shade of pink.

"Anyway, if you want to do this, I can go ahead and send her a message," I told her. "Though, there's no guarantee that she'll say 'yes' or anything like that."

I found her account and she was open to mail of all things- which was surprising. Usually big creators would have that turned off, though she wasn't much of a big creator I guess.

Neither was Raphtalia, and she would occasionally get fan mail.

'Hello, I've seen you play, and I make streams as well. One of my viewers wanted to know if we'd want to collaborate together, would you want to do a few 1v1 streams on stream at some point? I feel like it would boost both of our numbers that way. DM me back if you're interested.'

I sent it, and Raphtalia tapped her chin. "Should I wear a maid outfit for the event if she agrees?"

Would she really agree to do it just for that?

"Or should I do something different so it looks different? Maybe..."

"Maybe a Japanese style kimono?" I suggested. There was this SwordMaiden character who was Japanese but wearing a maid outfit, while Raphtalia was a foreigner, so it would give a good balancing sort of vibe for her to wear something Japanese. Not that I wanted to see her in a kimono or anything. Nope. That was not the case at all.

"...oh? Do you really think they'd like that?"

"I would definitely- I mean, I definitely think they would like that," I told her. "So, I'll let you know when I get a response."

"What's this?" Raphtalia asked, pointing to the work Shindo and I were doing for his little engineering experiment.

"Oh, something my little brother is supposed to show in school," I told her. "I used to do his work for him all the time when he was in elementary school- he did grow out of it eventually when he was supposed to be the 'good son' but now he's back to his old habits I guess."

"Wait- why did you parents not think of you as the 'good son?'" Raphtalia asked, puzzled.

"Nothing- I just guess I never really excelled at anything," I told her. "Anything that mattered to them at least."

"Well, if you ask me, Mr. Naofumi, no offense to your parents, but I think they must be completely blind if they don't recognize what a special person you are!" She then stopped abruptly as it seemed like she realized that she had said too much.

"Thanks for that, but even I know I'm not all that compared to Shindo." As annoying as I made him out to be, he was definitely more capable than me when it came to things that mattered to society, such as getting into a good college and grades. As for me? My greatest notable achievement up till date was my streamer history, something I very well couldn't put on a resume and that didn't matter much, and even that had gone down in flames. There was no doubt who was the 'winner' in between the two of us, even if he had started slacking a bit after getting into college, which to be fair, a lot of students like him did. At least he had managed to get into a good college, and that was what counted, not necessarily what he did in it.

Such was so in Japan.