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nThe lights slowly turned on. As they did, John chuckled and adjusted his tie. “Not sure what happened there. Looks like Titor might have changed the world line too many times when he pulled in the girls for that presentation.”

nLaughter echoed in the auditorium.

nJohn smiled and said, “In any case… I suppose I should start off with what you’ve all been waiting for from that setup.” He snapped his fingers, causing the lights to dim again. At the same time, static started forming on the stream.

n“Let’s begin.”

nPlay Anata no Eranda Kono Toki wo – Kanako Ito

nMusic started up. High pitched piano notes, soon joined by a driving guitar and distorted drums.

nWith the music, the screen started to clear up, showing a young woman wearing a katana at her left side paired with a black kimono. Her silver hair was tied in a ponytail and her eyes were a clear blue color.

nThe last of the static faded, showing that the woman was standing at a funeral.

nTwo photos were on an altar, the faces blurred by glare.

nThe young woman took a shuddering breath and walked forward before bowing her head at the altar, tears falling from her eyes. After that, she took off her katana and leaned it against the altar.

nAt that time, people suddenly stood up, panicking.

nBut the young woman ignored them and walked past, her head held high and determination in her gaze.

nYou, who reached out to those whose futures were fated in ruin. Who saved those who would have perished in tragedy and granted them brilliant and joy filled days. …Will you continue to lend us your light?

nThe camera panned, showing a side profile of the young woman. Ignoring the people running after her and being held off by an old man, she swung her arm, causing the sleeve of her kimono to cover the screen as it swept past.

nThe darkness cut to a black-haired beauty wearing a drab gray smock fiddling with a clockwork doll at a desk. She paused, staring at the gears inside for a while. After adjusting her blue glasses, she sighed and then knocked everything to the ground.

nIgnoring the clattering gears and broken doll, she stood up from her chair and walked to the side. The camera panned, revealing a floor littered with broken clockwork mechanisms. At the same time, they revealed easels with canvases depicting beautiful scenery. Mountains, lakes, starry skies…

nThe black-haired beauty walked over to the closet and then pulled out a blank canvas. As she did, the camera panned again, focusing on the canvas.

nThe canvas filled the screen before colors started sketching in. Like a painter tracing out the lines, another scene began to form.

nA shrine in the mountains, with a shrine maiden greeting visitors. Light brown hair and a kind smile. Wearing the traditional red and white robes, jump cuts showed her helping out various guests and guiding them along.

nBut then night fell. Alone beneath the gates to the shrine, the shrine maiden sighed and then looked around. Seeing no one, she smiled and then started to dance, twirling around like a ballerina. As she did, the camera zoomed into her robes, turning into a swirling blur of red and white.

nThe swirling colors stopped, turning into a Japanese flag fluttering to the ground. As it disappeared, the scenery changed, revealing a purple-haired tomboy marching out of a dojo.

nOver the entrance, the characters for Iron Fist Dojo were written out on a traditional wooden board.

nThe tomboy adjusted her sweatshirt before tucking her hands into her jeans and stomping off.

nThe doors slammed open, revealing an old man with spiky white hair yelling at the girl.

nShe spun back and stuck out her tongue before running off. The camera panned, turning darker and giving the girl a side profile view. And then the shadows vanished, showing the girl leaping towards a towering man in a fight ring. Wrapping her arm around the man’s neck in a fluid motion as she jumped through the air, she pulled him down to the ground in a single bound and put him in a chokehold.

nA referee from nearby jumped to the ground, slamming his arm next to the man. Once. Twice. Three times…

nAnd then the screen cut to black, turning into a split screen of four different scenes playing out at the same time.

nIn the top left corner, the silver-haired beauty held a scroll in her hands with the Japanese character for ‘Future’ sealing it.

nIn the top right, the black-haired beauty with blue glasses yawned and opened a mailbox. Reaching inside, she pulled out a bunch of letters, flipping through until she saw an envelope sealed with the words MIRAIS printed across it.

nIn the bottom left, the shrine maiden finished her dance. As she did, a bamboo talisman hanging on the gate fell to the ground, clattering. She flinched and then walked over to pick it up. But as she did, she noticed some writing on the back. Flipping it over, she started to read it while revealing the Japanese character for ‘Future’ on the back of the talisman to the camera.

nFinally, in the bottom right, the tomboy walked to a locker and paused when she noticed a flier stuck on it, one with MIRAIS printed across its top.

nAt the same time, all the girls started reading what they picked up.

nAnd when that happened, the screen cut to a black sky filled with golden lights.

nThen three lines of text appeared across the screen.

nProject MirAIs

nGeneration 1: Prodigy

nShow the world what the future could be.

nThe text remained for a bit before fading away. When it did, a shimmering diamond appeared in the center of the screen before breaking into four different colored diamonds in each corner of the screen. Green, yellow, red, and purple.

nIn order, each diamond flickered before revealing one of the girls.

nFirst was the silver-haired beauty. Beneath her green diamond, the name Miya Musashi appeared.

nNext was the black-haired beauty. Beneath her yellow diamond, the name Rhea Davinki appeared.

nAfter that, the brown-haired shrine-maiden in the red diamond with the name Tsubame Akari.

nAnd finally, with the purple-diamond there was the tomboy and the name Kuromi Tekken.

nThe diamonds shattered, for a brief moment showing different items on each.

nRandom cookware for Miya.

nArt appliances for Rhea.

nRibbons and musical notes for Tsubame.

nAnd then masks, wrestling belts, and weight training equipment for Kuromi.

nAfter that, the screen faded to static, leaving only a single line of text in the center.

nShow the world what the future could be.

nWith that, the audience started to cheer and applaud.

nBut the video wasn’t over yet.

nRealizing that, a hush fell back over the crowd.

nThe moment that happened, the flickering screen panned out, revealing that it was a smart phone.

nA hand reached out to pick it up and tapped the screen. When it did, the message vanished along with the static. Replacing both was a logo and a trademark sign.

nMIRAIZ

nMyth Inc.

nThe hand tapped the screen again and then held the phone up, for a brief moment reflecting a silhouette in the screen. But then a golden flash filled the screen. When it died down, a cute anime girl with short starry blue hair was smiling in the screen, holding her phone out for a selfie.

nThe background behind the girl flickered with golden dust before furniture started appearing. An ordinary bedroom, but stylized as if it was a visual novel background.

nThe girl hummed and then walked over to a desk before propping the phone up on a stack of books next to a computer monitor. After leaning in to adjust it, she smiled and then opened turned towards the monitor.

nAs she did, the camera zoomed out, revealing a UTube livestream with chat scrolling by and the Anime girl laughing as she talked about random things.

nThe screen flickered and then it zoomed out again, revealing more Anime people… No, Anime avatars streaming on UTube.

nA beautiful young woman with silver hair and blue eyes wearing a black headband paired with a lacy black gothic dress.

nA kind-looking but busty Sensei-type woman scolding the chat…

nCountless UTube videos and streamers filling up the screen and lighting it up in various colors. And then it all blinked out, revealing the smartphone screen again with three lines of text.

nMIRAIZ

nMirrored Anime Interface Z

nProject your reality onto new futures.

nA hand reached out to grab the smartphone again before pressing the power button at the side. When it did, the screen faded. At the same time, the lights turned on over the stage, revealing John standing there… and holding a smartphone just like the screen had been showing.

nSilence. And then the audience exploded with noise.

nJohn laughed and rubbed the back of his head, waiting for the noise to die down. When it did, he smiled and said, “Looks like you’re all excited.” Lowering his phone, he said, “Everyone in this past month has worked harder than ever to make dreams come true. Not just Project MirAIs, but I’m sure everyone presenting here today was on major crunch mode to make sure everything was perfect. So first off, a round of applause for everyone presenting at this expo!”

nApplause filled the auditorium.

nJohn smiled at that. But then his smile faded and he put on a serious face. “With that settled… I want to take a moment to especially thank everyone that’s supported Project MirAIs. Because of you, the girls in Project MirAIs are happier than ever. The concert was a blast… and now they even have cute new kouhais coming, just like Hana wished.”

nCheers filled the air.

nJohn laughed and then waved them down. “I’m grateful. *We’re* grateful. But because of that… it wouldn’t be fair to not give something back in return, right? So… since we’re leading the charge in this brave new world of VTubers… and since you all are the people who opened the gate to this new future… It’s time that you joined us there.”

nHe held up his phone and turned it back on. As he did, the screen flickered, mirroring the phone on his screen.

n“For you people out there who want to stream. For the people who want to be UTubers or play games on Twotch but are too afraid for your safety… or who simply don’t want to reveal your identity… Or maybe who just want to stream as a cute Anime girl. Well, now you can! Let me go over just what exactly this handy app does and how it works…”

nJohn tapped his phone, causing a stream of him holding his phone out for a selfie to show up on the screen. “MIRAIZ is an application that runs parallel to normal streaming applications and works in tandem. It’s an automatic process, so there’s no need to worry. All you need is a computer and a camera. Then, if you run the app…”

nJohn tapped a little floating bubble with the MIRAIZ logo… and then the stream of him flickered before turning him into Jenny. “You become someone else.” He winked and flashed a peace sign, causing Jenny to do the same. “See?”

nGags. Laughter. The sound of people falling out of their seats.

nJohn chuckled and then ended the stream, returning back to the home screen. After that, he tapped on the app again. This time, it showed a plain Anime bedroom with Jenny idling around.

n“This app actually does a bunch of things, but we’ll go over the important stuff now… Like character creation. There’s a few different levels. First is the basic, which is like any old character creator. Then there’s advanced, with more sliders and option… And then there’s a built-in CAD workshop with useful tools and plugins to further customize. And if you upload pictures, you can automatically generate your own model… or you can upload your own model and have the system automatically refine it… Ah, and then there’s the voice changer function to create a custom voice filter…”

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