She, the Idol

Let me tell you a strange story.
No, no, please, it won't take long. Shouldn't take long. Just stay in your seat for a bit. You drank anything yet? No? Good. Here, take some of this soju. Good stuff, right? It'll go great with the meat.
Okay, where was I... oh yeah, that day. Six or seven years ago. I was in Tokyo back then, around... I think January, yeah. I was there for... A job. Yeah, a job. Translation services - a friend of mine opened up shop in Shinjuku and asked me to work for him. His customers were all authors who wanted to get their novels translated and printed by Penguin Press.... but I'm getting off-topic.
It was when I was headed to his office that this... thing happened. So I was walking along the Golden Gai when I noticed this woman standing around, wearing a blue costume. I figured she was one of the girls there. There are a lot of places like that along the Golden Gai, you see. We should go sometime. Anyway, I would've not paid her much mind; I was in a hurry, after all.
But I noticed that, for some reason... she looked like my oshi.
Sorry, that must've confused you. Look at my phone. You've heard of her? Tokino Sora? Yeah, that's her. The woman I saw looked exactly like this. You're laughing, but I'm serious. Well, she didn't look like an anime character, of course; she was... what's that word... "realistic." Like us, flesh and blood and all that. And she was drop-dead gorgeous. Like she fell out of a magazine! If you think you've seen beauty, I'll tell you right now that you haven't seen beauty. Not the kind of beauty I saw. Long, flowing brown hair... bright blue eyes - like Elizabeth Taylor, but bluer! You'd swear she was wearing contact lenses, but no, I'm telling you, she wasn't. Her eyes were just like that. Angel eyes.
And those curves! God. Haven't seen anything like it before, or ever since. She was wearing this outfit! Yes, blue vest, white shirt, short skirt, bare midriff. I remember thinking whether or not there was an anime convention - there wasn't. If there was, she would've been one hell of a cosplayer.
But she wasn't.
Come. Come closer. There. Look at me when I tell you this. She was the real deal. The real Sora Tokino. In the flesh.
No, no, it's not the alcohol talking. Stop being so uptight about things and drink for once in your life, will you? If you're gonna be doubting me, then order more skewers. Get me the chicken liver. You should get... I'll cover it. My treat, my treat. Just sit down there, will you? Please. I haven't told this story to anyone. Ever since. Not a soul! I kept it in me for almost the last decade.
Because... just let me finish it. I'll make it worth your while, please. Help me here. Help me understand too.
Like I said, she was the real Sora Tokino. She was lost, she was alone, in an alley full of... what? Yakuza, old men, you know... sure, it was early morning and most of the shops were closed, but her type attracted attention. You just can't help but look at her because it was obvious that she wasn't supposed to be here. You know how the world looks... looks... gray, right? You look around yourself, and nothing really catches your attention. Your brain's used to seeing it all already, so it filters out anything unimportant.
But her... there was no ignoring her. How colorful she was. You just couldn't.
It was she who approached me, you know? She noticed that I was staring at her, so she ambled toward me like this. In her eyes, you could see she was lost.
And then she went like, "Excuse me?" in this soft voice. Exactly like her! I watched Sora Tokino a lot back then, you see. So, I got goosebumps! In fact, the first thing that came to my mind was, 'oh my god, is this her?' 'Her' as in the person playing the vtuber, you understand? Virtual YouTuber... yeah, they used to do that. These days, it's all AI, but... back then they had real people behind those faces.... yeah, I liked them. I liked them more than the current lot we have, for sure. Robots! They think they could replace real... real people. But then again, it was the 'real' part that caused most of the problems.
Where was I? Ah, right, she approached me. Of course, this was a very beautiful woman. So I straightened myself up, you know - back straight, eye contact, but not too stiff or whatever. I didn't want to creep her out.
So I told her, "Yes?"
And she asked, "Where am I?"
Look at this! I'm still getting goosebumps just remembering it.
So. I told her the obvious. We were in Shinjuku, Kabuki-cho. The red light district. I thought she ought to know. Like I said, I thought she was from around there.
Then with this confused look on her face, like I told her we were on Mars or something, she said, "Is that... is that in Tokyo?"
At least she knew the name of the city she was in. So I said, "Yes, that's right." Then I asked if she was lost.
Get this. She said that she got hit by a car! Of course, I looked around her head. There was nothing - spotless. I smelled her for a bit; maybe this cosplayer just got too drunk. But no. She smelled of... peaches. And clementines.
...
Sorry. It's just that it happened a long time ago.
She wasn't drunk. She didn't get into an accident, either. She was just lost and confused like the rest of us.
So I asked if she wanted some help. Maybe I could get her parents. She looked young! Maybe around... early twenties or so. Maybe even below that.
She asked, "Could you help me... call Hololive?"
She didn't even have a phone on her! Could you believe that?
It just so happened that my friend's office had a phone. We could also check out Cover Corp's number from there, and we did. When I brought her to my friend's office, the first thing the bastard told me was that I shouldn't bring women to work. The nerve of the guy! I told him the story so far, about how this girl who thinks she's a vtuber and needed help. He didn't want to get involved at first. He guessed that the girl was a runaway. Keeping runaways with you gets you in trouble with the police, and there's no shortage of trouble with the police in Shinjuku. But I told him that the girl had nothing. Nothing at all. No wallet, no ID, not even a phone. Just the clothes she had on... No, my friend wasn't being mean. He was a runaway too, so he knew how it was. I guess that's why he ultimately relented and let her use the phone.
I called up Cover Corp's office in Minato Ward. It was the receptionist. I told her that we had one of their employees, and she asked to put them on the phone.
So I gave it to Sora. Until now, I still remember what happened.
She was all nervous, apprehensive when she put the phone to her ear.
"Hello?"
My friend asked where I found her. I said, just outside. He said maybe the girl was crazy.
"Yes! Yes, it's me! Tokino Sora... yes, yes... wait. Shino? Wh-Who's that?"
I told my friend 'maybe, but look at her.' How could anyone say no to that?
"No, I'm not Shino... Sora, Sora. I'm Sora Tokino. I don't know who that is... Hello? Hello?"
The girl then put the phone down. She had a frown on her face. The call didn't go well at all.
"They hung up on me," she said. "They kept saying my name was... Shino. Shino Misora."
"Is... Shino Misora your real name?" That was my friend. He was a Hololive fan too, but he wasn't too familiar with the likes of Sora. He came in when Sankisei came out... Generation 3. You know - Usada Pekora? Houshou Marine? God, you kids don't know anything, do you? You missed out on a lot.
Anyway, my friend asked her if her name was Shino Misora. She shook her head in such a way that was... I suppose you could call it cute if it was in anime. But on a grown woman like she was, it looked childish.
"No!" she said, putting a hand to her chest. "My name's Sora. Tokino Sora. That's the only name I've ever used for Hololive. Not Shino, or... anything."
My friend glanced at me like this. You know, that kind of glance a person gives to you when they think something is fishy? I was a bit more charitable. The girl looked lost and confused.
Looking back at it, I think we should've given her more sympathy.
Instead, my friend says, "That can't be. Sora Tokino is a fictional character."
Then he fired up the computer, put it on YouTube, and showed her the Sora Tokino channel. It's still up there, you know? After all these years. When she saw it, the girl got right in front of the computer, leaning over to get a good look. She even touched the monitor.
"This... this is me," she said, touching her thumbnails with her finger. "How...?"
My friend was probably getting impatient, because he clicked on one of the streams. I think it was a... a Minecraft one. Yeah, I think it was a Minecraft one. The way she reacted was something I remember a lot more, though.
You know how some people just freeze when they hear bad news? Death of a loved one, cancer, they got... rejected for a job, something like that. Your eyes are wide open, and your mouth just hangs. That was the kind of look she had.
It was like she was looking at a fire, and it was her own house that was burning.

She was staring at that screen for a good five or ten minutes when my friend asked me what we were going to do next. We couldn't let a grown woman hang around the office like this, he said. Especially someone in her getup. People would get ideas, you see, and he didn't want that because this was a new business. You know about companies that pose as legit, but are actually 'other' kinds of companies, right? He didn't want people to be thinking that was the case with his... Well, I couldn't blame him. It was his business, after all. His money was on the line.
So I said, "Well, we help look for her relatives."
"Maybe we should hand her to the police," he said. "They'll sort her out."
I didn't want that. Call it intuition, but I felt that the police was the last thing she would've needed. Getting them involved might not help at all at best, or make things more complicated at worst.
So, I said, "If she's okay with it, I'll take her in. Just let me off for a bit so I can bring her to my apartment, and I'll come back."
I know what you're thinking. 'Of course, he'd bring the drop-dead gorgeous woman to his house.' That's what my friend thought too. I won't blame you for that, either. It seems like the natural thing to do for guys, right?
But if I'm being honest, I didn't feel that way. Rather, I couldn't. It was that look on her face that did it to me, probably. That feeling of... desolation. I don't know what word to use. That hopelessness. It's not exactly despair, but something akin to it. And the very fact that it's akin to despair just makes it even feel worse than that. I think it's the sensation of going nuts.
Because I did believe she really was Sora Tokino. Imagine talking to the people you counted on to help you, only for them to refuse because they think you should be somebody else.
And that wasn't even half of it. She was going to find out so much.
So much, still...
Ah, there's the Yakitori. Perfect... chicken liver is perfect for a time like this. Eat. We got a long night ahead of us... What do you mean work? You work for me, remember? Just call in sick. I'll call in sick too and validate whatever you say. Like I said: My treat.