Hololive || Unlikely Ties (Pekora x Suisei)

Turnaround

"Suichan!"

A pink-haired shrine maiden calls me with a smile as bright as day.

"Suichan."

A bunny girl calls me, her face full of worry and care.

I ignore the voices in my head and keep on moving. To where? I don't know. I turn several corners, cross some roads, walk through some alleyways. I don't know how far I've gone, and I don't care. I just want to get away, escape somewhere else.

"We are business partners, after all. You can always count on me."

"You're so cool and capable. I could fall for you, Hoshimachi."

"Suichan, to me you are--"

STOP IT!!

The memories flood one after another, causing my face to contort in pain and agony. Gritting my teeth in a futile attempt to contain the tears that keep on streaming down my face, I cover it with my arm to at least hide it away.

The city landscape constantly changes as I aimlessly wander while hiding my face, until eventually, be it by luck or fate, I end up arriving at an empty park. I flop on the nearest bench with both hands on my face.

While sitting down and despairing, my mind goes into overdrive. Surging more and more of my precious memories, slowly but surely chipping away at my heart.

I remember countless hours we spent talking to each other until morning.

All the games we streamed together, the time spent at the studio having fun between recordings.

Going out at night to dinner together, and the rare moments where I'd be able to hold her in my arms.

And even when she took all the carbonara home after a party at my house.

I remember why I love her so much.

And yet, I still feel conflicted. My heart belongs to Miko, but the one I want the most with me right now, who I want to hold me and tell me everything will be alright is...

"Pekora..."

They are two sides of the same coin, two halves of a whole. Their personalities and attitudes are different, but they have so much in common despite that. It's uncanny at times how much two different persons can resemble each other.

And it's in their deepest, hardest to reach parts that it gets more evident. Pekora's unconscious actions, sense of humor, tendencies, and preferences it's all too familiar. The longer I spent with her, the more my memories and reality would overlap.

"I'm not a substitute for Miko-senpai!"

Of course, she would think that. In reality, I wasn't using her in Mikochi's place. But I also wasn't looking at her as solely as Pekora.

Who even is Pekora to me? Someone who understands me? Who, despite everything else, cared for me and even indulged in my selfish demands? Someone who quickly grew to be very important to me?

Maybe everything above, but just as noteworthy is that she is also the living memory of Sakura Miko. Someone who closely resembles Miko while being her own person.

But of course, she doesn't want to be thought of as being similar to someone else. She wants me to think of her as Usada Pekora.

And what I did was to disrespect her and everything she did to me. With a loaded and conflicted heart, I tried to fill the gap in my heart while painting her in the colors of someone else, a continuation of Mikochi.