Rina was resolved. My brotherly advice, ironically, had been the final piece of courage she needed. The love she felt for Starlight_Knight_01 was too real to keep locked away. It was a terrifying leap of faith, but she had to take it. She knew a simple text message wouldn't do. This had to be personal. It had to be her voice. The risk of him recognizing it was a distant, secondary fear compared to the fear of never telling him the truth.
In the privacy of the studio, her heart hammering against her ribs, she opened the voice recording app on her phone. She took a single, shaky breath and poured her entire soul into the message. When she was done, her face was flushed and her hands were trembling. But she wasn't finished. A confession without a path forward was just a burden. She needed to give him a choice.
She recorded a second, shorter message. That evening, she sent both audio files to Miki with a simple instruction: "Please send these to him. In this order."
I was in my room, trying to cram for an exam, when my laptop pinged. A message from M-Chan.
M-Chan: A private message for you, Starlight_Knight_01. From Ectiqa-sama herself. She said it was very important.
My studies were instantly forgotten. My heart kicked into overdrive as I put on my headphones, wanting to savor every syllable. I clicked play on the first file, 'For my Knight.'
Her voice filled my ears- soft, sincere, and terrifyingly familiar. It was the voice from the livestream. The voice I had dismissed as a coincidence. The voice of my sister, Rina. My brain immediately tried to reject it. No, it's not. You're just tired. Lots of girls sound alike.
But then I listened to the words. She spoke of feeling seen, of his protection, of a connection that felt deeper than anything she'd known.
And then, she delivered the final, devastating blow to my denial.
"Starlight_Knight_01… I think I've fallen in love with you."
The confession. In Rina's voice. My mind reeled. Before I could even begin to process the cataclysmic implications, the second audio file, 'An Invitation,' began to play.
"I know that was a lot," her voice continued, full of nervous hope. "And maybe it's too much to ask. But I want to meet you. Properly. Just once. There's an amusement park, 'Cosmo Land,' on the edge of the city. Would you… meet me there? This Saturday. At noon, by the grand carousel. I won't be in cosplay. I'll just be… me. If you're there, I'll know. And if you're not, I'll understand."
The message ended. I ripped my headphones off, my chest tight, my mind a raging inferno of panic and disbelief. The voice was identical. A confession of love. A proposed date. My logical brain was at war with what my ears had heard. Was this some cosmic, cruel prank? Or was the most impossible, horrifying truth about to be confirmed at a theme park carousel? I had to know.