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“Mirror, mirror on the wall… who’s the fairest of them all?” Toudou twirls a brush with his right hand, glamour light glow radiates from his face as he grins at himself staring back from the small monitor placed by his filming camera. “No need to answer that because of course it’s me, your favourite resident beauty guru – Toudou Jinpachi!”
It was just another day in the life of one of YouTube’s most popular beauty influencers. Toudou throughly enjoys spending his days recording new footage to be posted online. Interacting with his fans was the highlight (and sometimes headache) of his day, but their praise and encouragement keeps him striving forward.
“I’m here today to share some of my secret beauty tips with you all!” He adds in a gasp of shock for effect, stops to pull out a Japanese fan before it opens sharply, moving his bangs around his face for the camera. “Well- maybe not all of my secrets… a guy has got to keep some of them for his own-“ Toudou is interrupted by the sharp ring of his cellphone, the notes from ‘Thriller’ carries throughout the room interrupting his recording session. “Dam it Arakita! Did you have to phone me right at this moment? How do you always seem to know when I’m filming-“
“Don’t blame me shiny hair! I could phone you at eight in the morning or eleven at night, and you’d still be either filming, editing, shopping, or smack in the middle of watching that other masked guru’s videos you love so much…” So much irritation bleeds through the line that makes Toudou roll his eyes in response.
“What is so important that you just have to interrupt my newest, going to be most viewed, and hotly requested video?” He makes a show of twirling his phone screen towards the lens, Arakita’s wolf-ear clad photo stares back in his monitor as a harsh growl resonates through the line.
“Of all the people I get stuck being friends with… have you been cooped up in up your room the entire day? Have you eaten or even taken a quick glance online in the past few hours?” Growl turning to a snarl heavy with impatience. “You have some fan girl competition showing up at that convention this weekend.”
Competition my ass. The only influencer I would even be remotely interested in seeing is S-
“Spiderweb Strandz is going to be there!” Arakita barks out, his voice dies quickly at Toudou’s sharp intake of breath. “I’m still shocked I’m the one who broke the news to you… I thought for sure your phone notifications would have crashed it already-“
Now thanks to Arakita, all he would be thinking about the rest of the day is the masked, unknown YouTuber who many considered his rival in the beauty guru field. He never shows his face on camera, and voice is always altered, but Toudou swears he is familiar in some way (that and he’s addicted to their hair style videos which put his own to shame…) But the fact that he might finally get to meet the person behind the online mask sets Toudou’s heart beating almost too fast.
“Thanks Wolfie!” Toudou turns his killer grin to the camera for no ones amusement but his own, “but it’s back to filming for now! Can’t keep my fans waiting especially now that I have to reshoot this scene all over again thanks to you.” He fluffs his hair with emphasis just waiting on the explosion to happen on the other end of the phone line.
“WHAT?! You’re a shitty example of a friend! After I wasted my time following that green-haired monster’s channel for you too-“
Toudou laughs cutting him off, “Sounds like I owe you dinner to compensate… let’s say seven?”
“Are you actually going to be done by then?” Arakita snarls again questioning him.
Toudou dislikes the impatient tone that bleeds through the line, but it’s a fair question with how many times he’s kept his best friend waiting for hours when inspiration hits. “Pfft. You question my abilities to keep to a schedule? I’m already pretty much halfway done-“
“Yes! Now I’m hanging up this phone and you had better get your ass in gear to be done on time!” Arakita threatens once again.
“I’ll be all good to go, polished ass and all just like I said-“
“I’m hanging up now!” Forces Toudou to pull the phone away from his ear with Arakita’s sheer volume, before he sets it down loudly on his desk.
He realizes his camera is still rolling, and Toudou immediately turns back into his charming persona. He picks up where he’s left off and plays up exagerating the latest exciting news with his normal swagger. “Well, never a dull moment on my channel is there when Arakita is your friend… Now... where were we?” Toudou continues, deciding to include Arakita’s little interruption as part of his newest hit video instead of wasting additional time re-filming.
Already counting down the minutes in his head until the weekend when he can finally satisfy his curiosity, and hopefully start a new friendship at the same time.
“Why in the world do I let you drag me to these events, again?” Arakita snarls, body weaving around the crowds of people blocking their path.
“Oh don’t growl at me… you love the attention these things bring- especially because you get to see Sh-“
“Don’t you dare say his name here…” Arakita’s voice ends in a whisper as his hands move directly in front of Toudou’s face, “And I don’t even know if he’ll have enough time to see me with all the running around he has to do all weekend – just like you.” His shoulders drop even as Arakita’s eyes move away from Toudou’s face.
“Oh I wouldn’t worry too much about that,” Toudou catches a glimpse of red hair, intense blue eyes hold his gaze as Arakita continues to stare only at the ground, “I mean, how do you know he isn’t here already?”
Toudou watches as Arakita turns to look over his shoulder, as an old friend both of them know very well walks slowly forward to pull his best friend’s attention away for a brief while in distraction. “Well, I’ll leave you both to it. Shinkai, take good care of Arakita and keep him entertained while I have to deal with all of my adoring fans?”
“With pleasure, Jinpachi.” Shinkai’s response growing quiet as they both disappear into the swelling crowds, before Toudou makes his way back to a more secluded VIP area for invited guests.
He knew that Arakita wouldn’t have been allowed to go in with him, and is relieved to see that Shinkai could actually be on time, and more importantly, keep his friend entertained while he was left to see to so many guests. Toudou also can’t keep still, anticipation courses through his veins as fingers tap mindlessly against his twitching legs as the room slowly fills up with more online celebrities.
You see – no one truly knows who exactly is behind the channel for ‘Spiderweb Strandz’ (although Toudou has picked up hints here and there), only that every time he saw the flash of green hair with red highlights he swore he could remember flash backs… of a time many years ago when he was back in high school and competing on a national stage with his friends…
“Toudou-san! We’re gathering everyone into a green room to wait until the meet and greet begins with fans if you want to wait over here-“ A volunteer leads him into a corner to rest, hands him a lanyard and name badge before they head off to the next attendee.
He can’t help but smile at his own smirking face staring back underneath the plastic, even a little impressed by the delicate blue text displaying his channel name that he would have picked out himself. Toudou is so distracted by tracing the curved lines, he misses the lone figure crossing the room to him.
“I expected a lot more noise from you, if your videos were any indication.”
Toudou looks up to see a familiar face staring back at him- one he remembers from many summers ago as he chased that head of green and red hair up the sides of steep inclines until one of them came away a victor, and the other a loser.
“Maki-chan?” Toudou doesn’t dare believe his eyes. He notices the mask perched awkwardly on Makishima’s head as it finally sinks in why he’s been so keen to watch his favourite creator’s channel until he knew the material by heart. Frozen with shock and for once unable to make his mouth form the words coiled on the tip of his tongue.
“Ready to go meet our adoring fans?” Makishima replies reluctantly. Looks the part of uncomfortable that Toudou remembers from the past of being trapped within large crowds.
Toudou pauses only briefly before reaching out to curl his arm around Makishima’s shoulders, “Don’t worry Maki-chan! I’ll get us both through this!” He responds brightly, and pushes down any nervous butterflies trying to fight their way to the surface in his stomach.
“Oh I have nothing but faith in you, Jinpachi,” Makishima replies, and Toudou knows he lost. Lost, and also why he fell so hard in the first place many summers ago.
Tries to hold back his emotions as they join the other creators through a set of doors to face the crowd of fans. Arakita and Shinkai grinning like the pair of demons they are that their plan had so completely come to fruition.