Yakumo Beni died. On her way home from a stream, a traffic accident. A sudden end. But when she opens her eyes, she's back in a familiar streaming studio. The date is three months before her death. Beni is confused, but she sees this as a chance. She knows that her friends in VSPO! will soon face misfortune one after another. Because in her previous life, she saw it all. Her best friend, Kurumi Nozomi, falls ill and retires. Her senior, Tachibana Hinano, gets caught in a scandal and breaks down.
The Mint-Green Rewinder - The Price of Going Viral, the Reality That Shows Through
Beni opened her eyes on the bed.
The ceiling. White.
(...Dammit. Couldn't sleep.)
Her body was heavy. Her eyes were wide awake.
She hadn't slept properly in days.
Hinano-senpai's scandal. Nozomi's aftereffects. The man called Kansokusha. The abnormality in her left hand.
Everything spun around and around inside her head.
Beni slowly sat up.
Thin morning light slipped through the gap in the curtains.
(Gotta do something today too.)
She picked up her phone.
Dozens of notifications.
Beni opened the screen.
—Social media.
Hinano-senpai's name was trending.
(You've gotta be kidding.)
Her fingertips trembled.
Beni hurriedly checked the details.
"Tachibana Hinano — Blackmailed by Junior"
"Tachibana Hinano — Secrets"
"VSPO! Ace — Exposed"
(Why. Why already.)
In her previous life, the scandal hadn't blown up this fast.
Two weeks. No — even faster.
(This is my fault.)
The scene from that day flashed through Beni's mind.
The day she'd warned Hinano at the studio.
"Please be careful starting around May."
Those words had made Hinano anxious.
And that anxiety had leaked during a casual stream.
"I feel like my junior is hiding something from me."
That one line had been clipped.
"Ace — Blackmailed by Junior."
A groundless accusation.
And yet, people believed it.
No — they wanted to believe it.
The fall of a popular figure is sweet bait.
Beni gripped her phone.
(I have to put out the fire.)
(I have to do something.)
But how.
How could she stop this scandal.
Beni got off the bed.
She headed to the washroom.
She looked in the mirror.
Mint-green long hair. Pale purple eyes. Slightly cat-like eyes.
A choker around her neck. A star-shaped earring on her left ear. A woven bracelet on her right wrist.
The same face as always.
But beneath her eyes, faint dark circles had formed.
(How pathetic.)
Beni washed her face with water.
Cold.
(Alright.)
(Let's do this.)
——
Beni opened the post screen on social media.
She typed out a long message.
Words defending Hinano-senpai.
That it was groundless.
That as her junior, she believed in her senior.
Letter by letter, carefully.
(If this helps, even a little.)
(If it eases senpai's heart.)
She pressed the post button.
—Minutes later.
Notifications began ringing.
At first, just a few.
Then dozens, then hundreds.
"...Huh."
A flood of replies poured into Beni's account.
"You're hiding something too, aren't you."
"Isn't this just a staged act?"
"You're desperate because you have a reason to defend her."
"Disappear."
"Die."
(Why.)
(Why me.)
Beni nearly dropped her phone.
Her hands shook.
(I just wanted to protect senpai.)
The words on the screen stabbed like knives.
"Hinano-senpai got dragged because of you."
That one cut the deepest.
(That's right.)
(It's my fault.)
(If I hadn't said that.)
Beni sank to the floor.
She leaned her back against the wall.
Cold.
The phone screen still glowed.
Notifications wouldn't stop.
——
That day, she couldn't go to the studio.
No — she didn't go.
She couldn't go.
In the evening, Manager Todo called.
"Yakumo-san. Are you alright right now?"
Manager Todo was a staff member of VSPO!.
A man in his forties. Gentle-natured, trusted by the members.
But today, his voice was lower than usual.
"I-I'm alright..."
"Threatening messages have arrived at the management office."
Beni's heart jumped.
"Threats...?"
"They're demanding Tachibana Hinano be removed. And also, toward you personally... well, not exactly calm content."
Manager Todo paused briefly.
"For your safety, please stay home for one week."
"Stay home...?"
"It's for your sake. Please refrain from streaming for a while as well."
Beni couldn't say anything.
"It'll be fine. Things will settle down with time."
Manager Todo's voice was kind.
But that kindness only made it harder.
(I can't do anything.)
(The more I move, the worse it gets.)
"...I understand."
That was all Beni could manage.
She hung up.
The room went silent.
Outside, the wind blew.
The curtains swayed.
(I just wanted to protect them.)
(Nozomi. Hinano-senpai.)
(Everyone.)
Beni hugged her knees.
No tears came.
Before they could, her heart dried up.
——
Night.
Beni called Hinano.
She hesitated again and again, but still, she called.
The ringtone.
One. Two. Three.
No answer.
(I guess it's no good after all.)
Just as she was about to give up—
A click.
"...What."
Hinano's voice.
Cold.
"U-um, senpai..."
"What do you want?"
"Um, I'm sorry. Because of me, this happened..."
"It's not your fault."
"Huh...?"
"This is my problem. It has nothing to do with you."
"But I said something unnecessary..."
"I said it has nothing to do with you."
Hinano's voice sharpened.
"When you get involved, it just makes things worse. Don't you get it?"
Those words pierced deep into Beni's chest.
"...Senpai."
"Leave me alone."
"Please wait. I really just want to protect you, senpai..."
"Protect me? From what?"
Hinano's voice carried emotion for the first time.
Anger.
"What do you know about me? Ever since you showed up, everything's gone wrong. Nozomi, me — everything. Isn't this happening because you're hiding something?"
Beni lost her words.
She couldn't argue back.
Because it was true.
She had brought all of it on.
"Don't call me again."
Click.
The call ended.
Beni stood frozen, still gripping her phone.
(The person I wanted to protect.)
(Hates me the most now.)
That fact tore Beni apart from the inside.
Beni collapsed on the spot.
Her hands hit the floor.
The tears finally came.
They wouldn't stop.
"...No. This isn't okay."
Her voice trembled.
"I just wanted everyone to..."
Be safe.
That was all.
And yet.
——
The next day.
Beni arrived at Aoba General Hospital.
Dr. Kashiwagi had contacted her.
She had something to discuss about Nozomi's test results.
She walked down the white hospital corridor.
The smell of disinfectant.
Someone's cough echoed in the distance.
Beni took a deep breath in front of the examination room door.
She knocked.
"Come in."
She stepped inside.
Dr. Kashiwagi sat behind the desk.
A female doctor in her fifties. Short hair mixed with silver. Behind her glasses, her eyes were calm as always.
"Yakumo-san. Please sit."
Beni sat in the chair.
"Nozomi's test results?"
"Yes. I'll give you the conclusion first."
Dr. Kashiwagi spoke slowly, glancing at the chart.
"Kurumi-san's lesion was completely removed thanks to early detection. Her life is not in danger."
Beni let out a breath of relief.
(Thank goodness.)
(Nozomi was saved.)
But Dr. Kashiwagi's expression was still serious.
"However, there is one thing I must tell you."
Beni's body tensed.
"Due to the treatment, there is a possibility of aftereffects remaining in her vocal cords."
"Vocal cords...?"
"Yes. Because the lesion was near the vocal cords, some damage during treatment was unavoidable."
Dr. Kashiwagi looked directly into Beni's eyes.
"Depending on the case, symptoms may remain — difficulty speaking, hoarseness, inability to produce high notes."
Beni's mind went blank.
(Her voice...)
(Nozomi's voice...)
"Kurumi-san is active as a VTuber, correct? There may be obstacles to her streaming activities."
(No.)
(No, no, no.)
Something crumbled inside Beni.
(I saved her.)
(Her life was saved.)
(And yet I'm still hurting her.)
"...Can it be cured? The aftereffects — can they be cured?"
Beni's voice trembled.
"There's a possibility of improvement through rehabilitation. But whether she'll fully recover — we don't know yet."
Dr. Kashiwagi's words were kind.
But that kindness only made the weight of reality clearer.
"...I see."
Beni looked down.
Her vision blurred.
(Because I took Nozomi to the hospital.)
(Her life was saved.)
(But her voice.)
(Nozomi's precious voice.)
(It's my fault.)
(All of it is my fault.)
——
She left the examination room.
The corridor was quiet.
Beni leaned against the wall and slid down to the floor.
Tears spilled out.
"...My existence is making everyone unhappy."
She murmured in a small voice.
A voice no one could hear.
"If I'd just stayed dead, would everyone have been happy?"
There was no answer.
No one answered.
——
That night.
Beni stood in the entrance of her apartment building.
She passed through the automatic doors and headed for the elevator.
Only her footsteps echoed in the quiet space.
—Then.
The air changed.
Sound vanished.
The elevator's mechanical hum, the cars outside — all of it.
Beni stopped.
(What.)
She turned around.
There, a man stood.
A black coat.
Black hair slicked back. A few strands of white mixed in.
Deep gray eyes.
But his facial features were blurred.
She could see his eyes. His nose and mouth were there.
And yet, the overall shape wouldn't stay in her memory.
"...Who are you?"
Beni's voice trembled.
The man spoke quietly.
"Yakumo Beni. Your rewind is a distortion of the world."
A low voice.
Flat, emotionless.
A cold chill ran down Beni's spine.
"Rewind... What do you know?"
"I am the one who observes. The one who observes the world's distortions."
Kansokusha.
The sender of that mysterious message.
"Every time you save someone, someone else is hurt."
"...I know. I know that already."
Beni raised her voice.
"When I saved Nozomi, a pregnant woman got hurt. When I tried to save Hinano-senpai, the scandal blew up. It's my fault. All of it is my fault!"
Tears overflowed.
But Beni didn't look away from Kansokusha.
"Kurumi Nozomi's voice. Tachibana Hinano's heart. And — your own existence. All of it is the price."
Kansokusha took a step closer to Beni.
"You say you want to save people, yet you wound them. How long will you keep turning away from that contradiction?"
"...Even so."
Beni clenched her fists.
Her vision blurred with tears.
"Even so, I want to protect them."
Her voice shook.
But the words came out clearly.
"I want to protect everyone. Nozomi, Hinano-senpai, all of them."
Kansokusha stared at Beni.
His gray eyes seemed to measure something.
"Then."
Kansokusha spoke quietly.
"Face your own fate of death."
Those words weighed heavily on Beni's chest.
Her fate of death.
Three months later, that rainy night.
"You will die. That is your fate."
Having said only that, Kansokusha turned on his heel.
"Wait! Who are you!?"
Kansokusha didn't turn back at Beni's shout.
"I am the one who observes. That is all."
That voice was the last.
Kansokusha's figure melted into the darkness and vanished.
—Sound returned.
The elevator's mechanical hum.
The cars outside.
The wind.
Beni stood frozen in place.
Tears traced down her cheeks.
(Face your own fate of death.)
(I'm going to die.)
(Even so, I.)
Beni pressed the elevator button.
Her fingers were trembling.
——
She returned to her apartment.
Beni headed to the washroom.
She thought she'd wash her face.
She turned the faucet.
Cold water flowed out.
She scooped it with both hands.
—Then.
Beni looked at her left hand.
Her wrist.
Her wrist was transparent.
The white porcelain color of the sink showed faintly through her wrist.
"...No way."
Beni lifted her left hand in front of her eyes.
Transparent.
Not just her pinky.
Not just the back of her hand.
Up to her wrist.
The outline of her wrist bones was fading.
"No... no no no."
Beni braced herself against the sink.
Her body trembled.
(I'm disappearing.)
(My body is disappearing.)
Beni pulled out her phone.
She opened the notes app.
With trembling fingers, she typed.
"Scandal worsened because of me."
"Hinano-senpai rejected me."
"Nozomi — possible vocal aftereffects."
"Kansokusha — first contact."
"Left wrist turned transparent."
She stopped there.
Beni tried to write one more line.
"If I die, will everything be solved?"
—She couldn't write it.
Her fingers wouldn't move.
If she wrote that line.
It felt like it would really come true.
Beni clutched her phone to her
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