The V-Types Who Board the Ship Are a Little Vicious: Remastered

As a “veteran captain” who spent all his time in virtual livestreams, I never expected to run into my favorite streamer’s real-life identity, until one day after school, in the alley behind the classroom building, I saw a boy from the class next door, the one everyone was always teasing, refusing to leave her alone.

“What’s this about cutting in line when it comes to liking someone?” the boy said, his chin jutting out, his voice full of an inexplicable urge to compete. “We have to see who’s a better match, right?”

She was at her wits’ end. Rubbing her forehead in exasperation, she suddenly glanced up and spotted me hiding behind a tree. Her eyes lit up. “Fine, let’s compete. But I get to set the rules. Whoever beats the other gets temporary ‘access rights’ to me.”

As soon as she finished speaking, the boy turned his attention to me. “Hey, you with the manga. You got the guts to take me on?”

A few people nearby began egging us on. My hand tightened around my backpack strap, damp with sweat. I was so shy I was afraid to speak up in class, yet under her amused gaze, I somehow took a step forward.

I didn’t stop until I’d won that childish “competition,” panting for breath. She walked up to me, her hair carrying the scent of the evening breeze, and asked softly, “So… would you be willing to become the first person to be my exclusive ‘guardian’ in real life?”

I looked up sharply and met her smiling eyes. In that instant, the distance between my virtual identity as a captain and my real-life self came crashing down. My cheeks were hot enough to fry an egg. So the youth I’d only ever dared to spend money on from behind a screen could really burst into the warm world of reality, just like that.

This unexpected encounter, which began with a scene straight out of a melodrama, sent my university life completely off its planned course.