Chapter 29. [Transfer Students and Classmate]

“Well, do you know what this is?”

“I don’t know, desu.”

“Ah, well, it’s inevitable.”

An elementary school classroom.

A gap was forming between the Ukrainian transfer and the rest of her classmates.

Or perhaps it would be more accurate to call it a language barrier.

Russia currently invades Ukraine.

The situation is very unstable.

So she evacuated from Ukraine with the help of her relatives.

However, because of the sudden change of school, her Japanese language study has not caught up with her.

“Hey, Iroha-chan. Can’t you do something about it?”

“Smartphone.”

“That’s still not working, the teacher said.”

It would be easy if I could use a translation app, but unfortunately, the school rules prohibit its use inside the school.

The teacher would like to tell me, “You can use it.”

“Still negotiating. I guess…”

Well, if we get permission, there will be students who will use it for fun.

There are inevitably a certain number of parents who care.

Mai looked at the new student with a twitchy expression as if it were her own.

I’m never going to help you, you know!

I don’t want to spend any more time on something that has nothing to do with VTubers, and I’m not going to stick my neck out to get into trouble!

Because it’s true! Absolutely!

＊　　＊　　＊

“So the new semester has started, and I’ve successfully received my first earnings. Thanks to all of you, thanks.”

>Oh yeah, a new semester.

>Grats on the earnings!

>You can finally watch the member-limited streams on the web.

“Really! Weell~ I no longer miss the days when I struggle to even pay for premium. I won, Gahaha! From now, I am invincible!”

>Be careful, having so much money suddenly makes you lose your financial sense.

>Be careful with taxes.

>Don’t forget to file your taxes.

“Ah-nee introduced me to a tax accountant, so I’ll be fine.”

>Anego is good at this?

>Let’s disclose your earnings. www

>What are you going to use the earnings for?

“As for how I’m going to spend it, first, I’m going to finalize the membership fee, and I’d like to talk to you guys a bit about the rest of it ……. I’d like to use some of my earnings to pay for my exams.”

>That’s good.

>You said you decided to take the exam.

>It’s Iroha-chan’s money. Iroha-chan can spend it however you want.

>It would be bad if Iroha-chan gets sick again.

>I want Iroha-chan to get proper rest.

>Why is the member’s fee fixed and the exam is a bonus www

“What? Because you have to give back to the VTubers industry the money you make from your VTubers business, right?”

>LOL

>Yeah, it’s business as usual!

>Iroha-chan, you’re usually so firm, but I’m afraid you have a habit of wasting money.

Well, the new semester is off to a good start for VTubers.

I’ve been able to watch membership-only videos, and everything is going well.

>Iroha-chan, how are you doing?

At that time, a comment caught my attention.

I felt as if I got hit right on the head.

Oh, my! I knew the cause.

It was Mai’s expression. It was about a new student.

After finishing the stream, I put my cursor on the search window.

That is not for her.

I had planned to learn Ukrainian eventually.

So this was just a little bit ahead of schedule.

＊　　＊　　＊

–A few days later.

I was walking to class with dizzy legs.

I was drowsy, tired, and on the edge of my limit. It was extremely hard.

I felt as if my brain still had a fever.

I had to spend several days on this language.

It was the first time I had learned a single language with such concentration and in such a short period.

I need a large amount of input to use my cheat-like linguistic abilities.

Therefore, it takes a certain amount of time to learn a language, no matter how quickly you do it.

That’s why I had to prioritize.

I started with languages used by as many VTubers as possible.

“Good morning~……”

The classroom door rattles open with a tired voice.

Looking around the room, many students had already arrived at school.

However, there was no one around the transfer student from Ukraine.

She was sitting alone. It was as if there was a barrier around her.

“You owe me one.”

I said to imaginary Mai.

And I will complain to my homeroom teacher later.

I wanted to watch the VTubers’ videos with a pure heart, unencumbered by anything.

I can’t fully enjoy the streaming if I’m worried about it!

I approach the new student straight away.

The transfer student must have noticed my presence because she lifts his face from its prone position.

<Oha…>

“Do, do-burobo, ranku!”

A loud voice called out to the transfer student as if interrupting me.

Her gaze was drawn not to me, but to the person who jumped in front of her.

It was a boy, a classmate.

In his hand was a notebook.

Behind the boy were several other students.

One after another, they said <Good Morning> to each other in Ukrainian, albeit poorly.

Then, looking at the notebook, they were desperately trying to spin words to say <I want to be friends with you><Teach me Ukrainian><I’ll teach you Japanese>, and so on.

I was shocked to see them. I get overcome with a sense of defeat.

“Ha, ha, what am I doing?”

I was disgusted with myself for unconsciously relying on my ability to translate.

I was also dismayed at myself for unconsciously relying on my translation skills and thinking I was helping her.

The first thing to do is not to improve your Ukrainian.

First, I need to speak to her in Ukrainian, even if it was not very good, and put myself in her shoes.

<Let’s be friends!>

I had to speak to her as she would speak to me.

Oh, my God! What a great idea, an elementary school student.

“Arigato!”

The transfer student replied with a smile that almost made me cry.

It was a complete defeat.

I rummaged through my school bag and pulled out a stack of prints.

I held them out to the boys.

“Here.”

“What’s this, Iroha?”

“Use it if you want. <It’s for you too.>”

<What? >

The printout I handed her had a chart of correspondence between Japanese and Ukrainian printed on it.

Among them, I made sentences often used in school life, choosing words that are as easy to understand as possible.

“You can speak Ukrainian!

“I learned it. If you have trouble speaking Ukrainian, just call me. I’ll teach you.”

I told the same thing to the new student.

The transfer student rolled her eyes, my classmates looked at me with somewhat puzzled eyes.

I wondered if I had alerted them.

When I was thinking that. The boy who was talking to the transfer student first said to her.

“Ah, well, thank you. And, Wali. You’ve been weird lately, so I was a little prejudiced.”

“Eh. Uh, yeah.”

Soon the rest of my classmates were like, [You learned Ukrainian!], [Wow!], [Teach me too!]. I get surrounded by my classmates.

Is it possible to switch so quickly?

No, I don’t think so.

Now I know. In the first place.

–In the world of children, there are no national borders or age differences.

“Thanks, Iroha-chan!”

Mai comes up to me with an expression as if to say, “I know.”.

I felt somewhat embarrassed, scratched my cheek, and replied, “Shut up.”.

＊　　＊　　＊

Then I talked about this incident on my stream.

I was inundated with comments saying, “I want to learn Ukrainian, too.”.

Some even told me some people had recently evacuated from Ukraine to their workplaces or schools.

Before I knew it, the country of Ukraine seemed to have become surprisingly familiar to me.

Surprised by the unexpected response, I decided to give a lecture on the Ukrainian language, saying, “Well, since I’m here, why not?”.

The response was very positive.

Many people who normally don’t watch VTubers came to watch.

That was the first time my stream grew so much, and it was neither a collaboration nor a clipping.

I felt like I had a better idea of what I should be doing as a VTuber.

＊　　＊　　＊

…… By the way.

The next day. My homeroom teacher made a similar printout and brought it to me.

The homeroom teacher said, “What? You already have ……? And it’s better than the one I made!” I was confused.

Too late!