I Joined the Agency as a Manager to Support a Vtuber, but Somehow I Ended up Becoming the Face of the Company as an Official Staff Member? - 16-17

Chapter 16: Hollow Echo Anything-Goes Commentary Thread Part 2

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684 Anonymous Hollow Squirrel

Anyone who saw Sora-chan’s Space, gather up.

685 Anonymous Hollow Squirrel

≫684 You called, boss?!

686 Anonymous Hollow Squirrel

Honestly, I always felt something like this was bound to happen eventually.

687 Anonymous Hollow Squirrel

The manager committed sexual harassment? No way the Clouds are going to stay silent about this.

688 Anonymous Hollow Squirrel

No official information from the management yet. Stop teasing us.

689 Anonymous Hollow Squirrel

≫688 It’s probably not teasing. Most likely, the management still hasn’t grasped the full details either. The manager’s voice was in the stream, but it sounded like he didn’t realize it was being broadcast at all.

690 Anonymous Hollow Squirrel

The public fans are already in a frenzy.

691 Anonymous Hollow Squirrel

They’ve already organized an ID-hunting squad.

692 Anonymous Hollow Squirrel

Ooh!

693 Anonymous Hollow Squirrel ID:horosukonaMob

https://Hollow Echo.co/notice××××

Official announcement from the management, people!

694 Anonymous Hollow Squirrel

Manager’s getting punished, LET’S GOOOOOOO!!!

695 Anonymous Hollow Squirrel

That was fast. And there’s going to be a public apology stream on the channel tomorrow night?

696 Anonymous Hollow Squirrel

Sora-chan’s getting a one-week suspension. I mean, yeah, maybe she should’ve talked to someone about it first.

697 Anonymous Hollow Squirrel

And yet! No matter how it happened, I respect the courage it took for her to come forward about her experience!

698 Anonymous Hollow Squirrel

It’s probably really hard to immediately speak out about being sexually harassed.

699 Anonymous Hollow Squirrel ID:yuriyuridaisuko

Honestly, Hollow Echo should just fire all the male employees and go full female staff. That alone would cut down sexual misconduct.

700 Anonymous Hollow Squirrel

≫699 If they do that, we’ll lose our divine creator the President, so nope.

701 Anonymous Hollow Squirrel

I get where 699 is coming from. But lately, like with that one entertainment agency, there’ve been cases of same-sex harassment too. It’s not that simple.

702 Anonymous Hollow Squirrel

More than anything, I’m worried about Sora-chan’s physical well-being. I hope she didn’t get hurt or anything.

703 Anonymous Hollow Squirrel

≫702 I really want to believe she’s okay. If that guy so much as laid a finger on her, we’ll go beat him up ourselves.

704 Anonymous Hollow Squirrel

Just FYI, all we’ve got are twigs and chonkers in this squad.

705 Anonymous Hollow Squirrel

Still, we’ll find a way!

706 Anonymous Hollow Squirrel

Kohaku-chan also canceled her scheduled stream today.

707 Anonymous Hollow Squirrel

They’re best friends, after all. Just having her by Sora’s side makes a huge difference.

708 Anonymous Hollow Squirrel

Weren’t they friends since middle school?

709 Anonymous Hollow Squirrel

≫708 Yup, they even auditioned together.

710 Anonymous Hollow Squirrel

Sora×Koha is one of the tightest duos in the whole agency. Top two, for sure.

711 Anonymous Hollow Squirrel

I guess we’ll have to put a pin in this until tomorrow’s stream.

712 Anonymous Hollow Squirrel

Poking around too much is only going to cause problems for our oshi anyway.

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Chapter 17:Long Story Short, I’ve Gone Viral Again (Second Time in a Few Weeks)

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To get straight to the conclusion: I wasn’t given any sort of punishment.

Afterward, I explained the situation to the president along with Ōno-senpai, which led directly to an executive board meeting. Since Aihara-san and I were involved parties, we spoke about the sexual harassment Aihara-san had experienced up until now, as well as Gomi-senpai’s history of being an abuser during our university days. After that, both Aihara-san and I were sent home on standby.

That same night, an announcement was posted on HoloEco’s official Vitter account: the situation would be explained on Amairo-san’s channel the next day, and that the manager had been dismissed. Some of Aihara-san’s fans—the Cloud—were calling for management to take responsibility, but the majority of Cloud expressed concern for Aihara-san’s well-being.

“I’m just really glad Aihara-san wasn’t hurt.”

It was currently 5 PM.—normally working hours. As a former corporate slave, my room had almost no entertainment, so I had nothing to do.

“Hmm… I wonder if that full-dive VR game hardware still works.”

Trying to find something to pass the time, I remembered the full-dive VR headset that had been released a few years ago and was still explosively popular.

The headset had cost more than a PC or home console, and I had scraped together money from multiple part-time jobs to finally buy it. Back when I was part of the airsoft club, we all used to play FPS games together on it, but after graduating, I hadn’t even logged in—or touched the thing, really.

“…Come to think of it, I think Kurama-san said she was going to play it soon.”

It felt a bit wrong to be goofing off while other employees—especially Ōno-senpai—were still working, but things might’ve changed over the past year. Maybe I could even give Kurama-san some helpful advice. So, that day, I decided to dive into the game.

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―Meanwhile, as for Aoi…

“Phew…”

I had returned to my room in the company dormitory where many of the talents lived, and I was reflecting on what had happened today. A few days ago, I had asked Hiori-san for help, but I’d really just wanted to get away from that manager as quickly as possible.

That was when I came up with the idea of using Space for a borderline-illegal eavesdropping stream. I thought I could solve the problem by making the sexual harassment public. But in the end, all I did was cause trouble for the company.

If I had talked to someone sooner—or even just confided in Kohaku, my best friend—we might’ve resolved this much earlier. I also owed Hiori-san an apology for what I dragged him into.

“…I’m sorry.”

I apologized again to Hiori-san, who had been sent home with me. At first, I had just been vaguely curious about him. But watching him carry equipment around, I realized something.

He’s just like me—uncomfortable around the opposite sex.

He always took a step back when speaking to women. It was especially noticeable when he was around Ōno-san, Kohaku’s manager. Even when talking to Kohaku, he’d stand behind Ōno-san. So I thought—maybe he’d be someone I could talk to. Someone who’d understand.

Even though I had no solid proof, I reached out to him based on that sense of kinship. He made the effort to talk to me in a way that was easy for someone like me—who struggles with men—and it didn’t take long to see he was a kind person on the inside.

Especially… When I told him the details of the harassment, his usual calmness disappeared, and he reacted like any ordinary mischievous guy my age.

“…Mmph.”

As I recalled everything, the moment that stood out the most was what happened in the conference room. In just a few days, Hiori-san had investigated the past misconducts of that manager from their university days and made a real effort to help me.

Then, when the manager tried to take his grudge out on Hiori-san, he dodged the punch as if he knew exactly where it was coming from. And when I became the target, he was suddenly beside me, and just like that, he kicked the manager away from me.

It was an incredibly satisfying moment, but what truly stayed with me was what he said next. It lit a fire in my chest.

“You’re safe now. No one’s going to hurt you anymore—and even if someone tries, I’ll protect you.”

It sounded like a line straight out of a novel. Like something from a romance scene. Way too cheesy—but I felt a level of reassurance I’d never known before. Since then, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about his face.

“—Mmm… No, no! I have to write my apology for tomorrow’s stream…”

I’d started daydreaming again, but the apology stream was scheduled for 7 PM tomorrow. There was still over a day left, but I needed to write it out and memorize it early. I had to make sure my feelings reached the Cloud and all the viewers properly.

“…Ah, maybe I should at least mention Hiori-san’s actions, even if I don’t name him directly. He really was my hero.”

Thinking that, I began typing out the apology on my computer.

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The next day. I got a message from Ōno-senpai in the morning. I was still officially under house suspension. I knew this punishment was coming anyway, so I killed time until the 7 PM apology stream.

『…Ah, ahem, can everyone hear me?』

On the laptop I booted up, a blue-haired avatar began streaming with a paper labeled “Apology Stream” placed in front of her.

『I’m Sorane Amairo, second-gen HoloEco. Today, I’d like to explain and apologize for the Space broadcast on Vitter the other day.』

With that, Aihara-san… no, Sorane Amairo-san began to explain what had happened. That she had been sexually harassed by a newly assigned manager. That, due to her discomfort with men, she hadn’t been able to talk to anyone about it. That in her desperation to be freed from the situation, she turned to a Space broadcast to force the issue into the open.

The comments were full of people praising her for having the courage to speak out, but she rejected the compliments.

『If I truly had any courage, I should’ve spoken to someone about it. This happened because I was weak. So please, don’t praise me.』

And then, as a closing statement:

『Even someone as weak as me had someone who came to help. To that person, I want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart.』

She said “thank you” with a slightly tearful voice. 

『Thank you for saving me.』

“…I just did what anyone would do. I’m a HoloEco fan, after all.”

I muttered it at the screen, even though I knew it wouldn’t reach her.

『Hm… I feel like he just tried to play it cool.』

“Huh?”

The mood on-screen shifted.

『I won’t allow anyone to belittle the person who saved me. Not even if it’s that person themselves. Got it? You’re my hero.』

“…Uh, yeah, sorry about that?”

『…Mhm, I think the message just now got through.』

It was hard to tell from the screen, but when she said “my hero,” I could’ve sworn Aihara-san had a mischievous little smile.

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Note: Immediately afterward, a group of jealous Cloud members began flooding Vitter with wild speculation and naturally, the apology video blew up into a full-blown scandal.

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