Hifumi Opener
"– surrounded by idiots, I swear to god, what a fucking noob –"
The door flew open behind her. Hifumi's mouth snapped shut, but the music continued to play from her computer's speakers. She didn't dare look over her shoulder. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the chat scroll by faster. Despite the seriousness of the situation, she felt her heart skip a beat at the sight.
"Outside."
The door slammed shut. Hifumi took a deep breath and refocused on her webcam. "Gotta go," she said brightly. "Same time tomorrow." Some of her viewers tossed out goodbyes, but the rest simply started filtering out. She watched the viewer count tick downwards, from sixty to forty to twenty. Mouth dry, she watched it decrease slower, one by one, until there were only five people watching her as she stared at herself, the light from her screen illuminating her pale face. Then there were four. Then there were three. Then two –
"Come out."
Hifumi shut off her stream and closed her eyes. When she opened them, her computer was off and she could see the silhouette of her father behind her, reflected in the dull, lifeless black. Swallowing, she stood up and followed her father out into the living room. He sat down on his recliner, jerked his chin roughly at a nearby stool, and waited for her to sit.
When she was seated, he began.
"Your brother is doing more to keep this house clean than you are."
Hifumi lowered her head, fists knotted in her hoodie. She had learned over time that it was better to wait her father out than talk back.
"I've tried everything, Hifumi. I've cut your allowance. I've tried politeness. I've tried punishment. I've printed out instructions and taped them to your door." Her father's voice deepened with rage. "I've even tried taking leave from work to personally supervise you. Nothing has worked. Nothing. Is your computer that important to you? Are your games that important to you? More so than me and your brother? More so than this home?"
Hifumi thought of her mother. She visualized her face in her mind and tried to stifle the sinking feeling in her chest that her mother would be more disappointed than proud of her, were she still alive.
"LOOK AT ME."
Hifumi looked up. She focused on the bridge of his glasses and started to count back from one hundred in her head.
"You have to get it into your thick skull –" her father leaned forward and pressed the tip of his index finger into her forehead hard, "– that you're no longer a teenager. You're no longer a student. Your actions have consequences. Your inaction has consequences. You don't want to go to university, fine. But at least get a job."
... seventy, sixty-nine, sixty-eight... Her father stood up with a grunt of frustration.
"Forget it. Waste the rest of your life if that's how you like it. You're clearly not going hungry even with your allowance cut down to the bone." One last parting shot thrown over his shoulder as he stumped off to his room: "And take a shower. You smell."
The living room was silent. Hifumi looked back down at her knees. Her eyes hurt. Most of her life nowadays was spent in her room, in the dark, streaming. Her eyes had grown used to the dark.
At some point, she wiped her eyes and went back to her room. There was a minifridge beside her CPU, which she opened. The cold white light played over her face as she reached inside and withdrew a milkshake. Sezāru had made it for her a few days ago – she forgot how long ago. It tasted great. She usually had these milkshakes for dinner. They'd tasted really sugary at first, but her mouth had adjusted.
After chugging the whole jug, she belched and pulled out a can of beer from the fridge. She was sitting in the chair beside her bed, which was both lower and softer than her gaming chair. And this was how she stayed, beached in the dark, pounding beer after beer until she fell asleep.
Hifumi woke up disoriented. She struggled to stand for a few heart-pounding moments until she was on her feet and lumbering into her bathroom, where she emptied her bladder and gargled some water to wash the bitter taste of beer out of her mouth.
Sezāru had left breakfast out for her. A cake. Wonderful. And since she had nothing else to do, she finished it. There wasn't much to say. It tasted good. Chocolate, maybe. Lots of chocolate. And after that, she went back to her room to sleep it off. The thought of leaving the house didn't occur to her. She usually didn't leave the house in the day, anyway. Though she'd definitely have to go out later, since she was running out of beer. And Sezāru wasn't old enough to buy beer for her (yet).
"Onee-san, I'm home!"
Hifumi woke up. She was lying on her back, belly-up, breathing heavily as she regained her bearings. Groaning, she rolled out of bed and heaved herself upright. Sezāru was in the kitchen and the air was full of the most wonderful scents. Grease, salt, sugar… her mouth was watering.
"Onee-san, you're awake!"
Hifumi grunted as her little brother ushered her to a chair and sat herself down heavily. Her bloodshot eyes sought out the clock on the wall and noted that she would have to start streaming soon. "Food?" she asked hopefully.
"Food," Sezāru agreed, smiling gently. "Don't worry about a thing, onee-san. I'll take care of it."
Hifumi nodded. Her younger brother was the best. She didn't have to lift a finger to do anything around the house and he did everything for her. It wasn't that she didn't want to do the chores. It was just that her streaming career was more important. When she wasn't streaming, it was perfectly possible for her to sweep the floor, wash the dishes and wash the toilet. And she did do it. Sometimes. Her father was so unfair to her.
Sezāru placed a massive pile of lasagne in front of her. Without further ado, Hifumi dug in. She didn't come back to her senses until she was halfway through. When she looked up, her younger brother was sitting directly opposite her, hands in his lap. His face was a little red, and he was breathing in short, sharp bursts.
"What?"
Sezāru jerked. "Oh, nothing." He sounded choked. "You like the food?"
Hifumi gave him a thumbs-up with one hand and shoveled another mouthful in with the other. He nodded and muttered something to himself. Then he said, "You should throw out your dumbbells."
Hifumi swallowed her food and took a gulp from her energy drink. It was a very generic energy drink, but Sezāru liked calling it "Everlasting Elixir", and she'd caught herself using the same term to refer to it from time to time. Her fans thought it was hilarious. "My dumbbells?" she asked. "Why would I throw them out?" (Her dumbbells were small, pink and weighed about 1kg each.)
"Do you even use them anymore?"
Hifumi felt slightly offended. "I do," she insisted. "I need to keep my arms toned for my followers."
"What about everything below your chest?"
"I don't know what you're talking about."
Sezāru leaned forward and poked her stomach. Hifumi reddened as it wobbled. "That's just water retention. And beer doesn't have calories."
"I was just wondering." Sezāru smiled, dipped his head, and raised his hands in mock surrender. "And thinking of doing some spring cleaning. Throwing out unused junk, you know."
"Don't throw any of the stuff in my room out. It's all irreplaceable."
Sezāru said something in response to that, but it must not have been very important, because the next thing she knew, she'd finished the lasagne. Sezāru pressed another can of beer into her hand and settled onto the sofa beside her. The TV was on. Hifumi drank a few more cans of her energy drink, one eye on the clock. When it was time, she went into her room and started putting on her makeup.
What Sezāru had said had gotten her thinking. Sure, she'd gained some weight. Her face was a little rounder, and her arms were a little thicker. And her breasts had definitely grown, which had no downsides. But apart from that, she looked mostly the same. Well, she got out of breath sometimes, but it wasn't anything to be worried about. She could fix it by contouring her face a little more. If she altered her lighting set up just a little, it'd be like nothing had changed.
Setting up the stream was a familiar process. Hifumi clicked here, then there, and waited for the viewers to flock in. Her audience had grown more refined over the years (smaller), but she still knew what held their attention. "Hi, welcome," she said, smiling at the camera and imagining her first viewer smiling back. "Today I'm starting a new donation goal. If we hit ¥100000, I'll wear the suit."
gengiiscool: youve done this before
"Ooh, looks like we've got a superfan," Hifumi teased. "That's right, I have. But it's been a while since I last wore the suit. We both know that."
gengiiscool: id rather see you on your feet
gengiiscool: full body
"Not going to happen."
A chime sounded as a couple of new viewers filed in. Hifumi greeted them as they came in and tried to change the subject but they were like a dog with a bone.
jessemain: When was the lsat time we saw anything below her tits
gengiiscool: too long
cheerslove3: you don't look good. too little sunlight, not enough exercise.
Hifumi kept her smile but took in a deep breath. So it was going to be one of those nights, huh.
When she finished streaming it was way past midnight. But it was still dark out so it was fine.
Hifumi opened the door to her room and peeked down the corridor. Her parents' father's room wasn't occupied, because the door was open, and no one was in the bed. It occurred to her that her father had been coming home less and less. Almost every time she went out on a beer run, he wasn't in his room. Whatever.
Deliberately keeping her breathing steady, she checked her bag. Taser, check. (It had been one of her mother's last gifts to her.) Phone, check. Wallet, check. Keys, check. Umbrella, check. Okay. She went to the door, unlocked it, and stepped out into the hallway before she lost her nerve. Then she put on her slippers and went to the lift.
She'd done this dozens of times before. Her apartment complex was as silent as the dead. When the lift doors opened, Hifumi felt the completely irrational fear that if she stepped in, the doors would close behind her and never open again. She stood in the lift lobby, paralyzed with fear, and finally decided to take the stairs. She was panting by the time she reached the ground floor, and resorted to coughing into her fist in an attempt to mask the sound.
It was a short walk to her neighborhood's convenience store but it felt like a lifetime. The hairs on the back of her neck were raised. Hifumi resisted the urge to turn around and simply walked as fast as she could, which wasn't very fast. But the adrenaline did the rest.
The bell rang as she stepped inside. The boy at the counter looked up, then down. Hifumi looked down at herself. Hoodie and sweats – okay, whatever. If she came in during the day, fully dolled-up, he'd drool at the sight of her. She was sure of it. She found her quarry, dumped it on the counter, and tapped her foot as he rang up her purchase. "Thirty-six-pack of beer. That'll be ¥6500."
"You got some Everlasting Elixir?"
The boy squinted at her. "Excuse me?"
Hifumi's face burned. "I mean. Fountain Dew. Fountain Dew."
"Oh." The boy disappeared into the back and re-emerged with a family-sized bottle. "You want one?"
Hifumi thought about it. "Three."
She lugged the lot out into the street and immediately regretted it. From where she was standing, her apartment building was miles away. It'd be hell to drag it all the way back. Hifumi gritted her teeth, squared her shoulders, and started to walk back.
She was halfway to her building when something stepped in front of her.
Hifumi gulped, mouth dry. The silhouette before her was a fat man, completely naked, and with thick lips. She knew that such perverts existed, but only on an intellectual level. She remembered hearing about them on the radio or watching newsreaders talk about them on the TV, but she'd never seen one in the flesh before. She dropped her beer and energy drinks on the floor and took a few steps back. But as she did that, the man in front of her grunted and took a few steps forward. It was now that she realized that he gave off an overpowering, eye-watering stench.
Hifumi reached into her bag for her Taser and that was when he struck.
"– okay? Are you okay?"
Hifumi opened her eyes. There was a priest in front of her, shaking her shoulders. She was squatting on the floor, knees tucked as close to her chest as possible, and there was a horrid smell covering everything. As she met the priest's eyes, he relaxed, seemingly satisfied, and took a few steps back.
"Don't worry, miss. I scared him away."
She heard a scoff as a teenager flounced into view. For a few moments Hifumi thought she was a ghost, but then she realized that she was just wearing a lot of black. "Thanks," she told the priest. She was fairly sure that her voice wasn't shaking.
The priest cleared his throat and Hifumi realized that he wasn't that old. He might have been her age, even. "Do you need us to walk you back to your apartment, miss?"
Another loud scoff. Hifumi looked around for her beer and energy drinks and shook her head. "No," she said. "I'm fine."
They (mostly the priest) still walked her back to the lobby. Hifumi took the lift up, stumbled back into her apartment, closed the door to her room behind her, and drank until her heart stopped pounding. Then she drank until she fell asleep.