"The hell are you watching?"

Julius stopped beside the couch. Gabriel was sprawled out like a corpse, phone raised above his face and his eyes glued to the screen with disturbing focus.

On it, a pastel-colored anime girl with cat ears was screaming at a boss fight while her avatar bounced with exaggerated expressions.

"A VTuber," Gabriel replied, unbothered. "Her name’s HikariMeow. She’s doing a no-hit run."

Julius stared at the screen, then at Gabriel, then back at the screen.

"She’s not real."

"And you’re just a hater."

Julius sat down beside him and sighed. "You know, in Germany, we have actual human interaction."

Gabriel waved him off. "And in Japan, we have superior interaction."

On the screen, the VTuber giggled. A barrage of animated hearts flew across the chat.

"...Why does she do that?" Julius asked.

"Because she loves us."

"She loves your credit card."

"That’s love."

"How much did you spend?"

"Not important."

"Gabriel."

"...Fifty euros."

"...."

Julius gave him a deadpan stare.

"Fine. Seventy."

Julius rubbed his temples. "Gabriel, you’re a Revenant Knight. You could bench-press a car. Why are you folding for a catgirl with motion tracking?"

"Because she respects me," Gabriel said. "Unlike someone here."

Julius looked again. The avatar’s eyes sparkled as she shouted, "Yamerooo!" and unleashed some kind of special attack. The chat exploded with donations.

"...Does she always yell like that?" Julius asked.

Gabriel nodded proudly. "A queen commands her battlefield."

"She’s fighting a pixelated slime."

"A king respects his queen."

"...."

Julius pulled out his phone and let out another long, exhausted sigh as he leaned back on the couch.

"Alright. Be honest with me. I’ve never once seen you watch... whatever this is."

Something about Gabriel’s posture didn’t match the usual clownish behavior he displayed whenever Japanese media was involved.

"It’s an investigation," Gabriel replied without looking away from the screen.

"Of course it is."

He expected some ridiculous answer, something about hidden lore or secret easter eggs, but the tone Gabriel used was too flat. It made Julius move slightly closer, intending to confirm just how absurd the situation was.

Yet the longer he watched the stream, the more something pricked at the back of his neck. HikariMeow’s avatar bounced energetically across the screen, yet every gesture felt off.

Gabriel spoke first, "Watch her left cheek."

Julius narrowed his eyes and leaned in. Every time the avatar turned its head to the left, the real woman behind the rig tapped her cheek twice.

It wasn’t random. Once Julius saw it, he couldn’t unsee it.

Gabriel murmured, "Short-short. Repeating on an interval."

"...Morse code," Julius whispered

They continued watching together. On the screen, HikariMeow swung her sword in-game, then abruptly paused mid-motion. Her avatar’s ears twitched once, then twice, then once again.

"Long-short-long. That’s intentional."

"It’s a coded response," Gabriel said. "She’s confirming the signal."

Julius muted the phone to silence the bubbly voice and game effects. Without the noise, the underlying details became evident.

The real breathing behind the avatar came through the mic. Slight shaking was seen through the motion tracking, quickly smoothed by the software, but detectable if one paid close attention.

Her posture lagged by a fraction of a second whenever she turned toward her left, as if something or someone was just out of frame.

Julius frowned. "She’s forcing her breaths, as if she’s trying to hide it."

As if on cue, HikariMeow froze again. She forced a loud laugh to cover it up. Her avatar moved normally afterward, but they couldn’t ignore the subtle tension in her shoulders.

Then Julius heard it, just barely.

"...Twelve."

HikariMeow immediately drowned the slip with another loud, scripted giggle.

"She repeats it every few minutes," Gabriel said. "Twelve. Again and again. There, she said it again.

"A distance marker. Or a count of exits. Steps between rooms. She’s mapping her surroundings while she still has the chance."

Gabriel nodded. "Someone’s behind the camera."

The signs were becoming too clear. The avatar made another cheerful spin. Whenever her gaze turned toward the far right of the screen, a tightness formed around her eyes, like she was bracing herself.

Of course, it was all subtle and quickly corrected by some sort of software. Any casual fan would never be able to notice the signs.

"Whoever’s with her is close. Probably within arm’s reach," Gabriel said. "That’s why she’s using eye direction and micro-taps. Anything bigger would get her hit."

Julius didn’t respond at first. He studied her posture, the unnatural stillness in her lower body, and the way her head tracking jittered whenever she shook her avatar’s ears.

"She isn’t allowed to move freely," Julius said. "Her legs aren’t tracking at all. She’s sitting locked in place."

"And look at this. Every time she looks left, she taps twice. That’s not random. That’s ’I’m aware. Still alive.’ "

"And to the right," Julius added, "she doesn’t tap. She freezes."

The avatar giggled again before pixel-celebrations burst across the screen in celebration of some in-game milestone.

"A warning. She just got threatened."

Gabriel nodded grimly. "And she’s hoping someone watching can pick up the cues."

Julius leaned back in his seat. "She doesn’t know who she’s signaling. But she’s desperate enough to try anyway."

Meanwhile, the stream chat overflowed with flashing emotes, gift notifications, and fans cheering for what looked like a fun moment. It was almost comical, thousands of people watching, laughing, donating, unaware that behind the animated mask, a real woman was begging for help.

Japan, with all its charm and technological marvels, had deeply rooted issues behind the scenes.

Despite how aggressively the country marketed itself through anime, music, media, and culture, the darker side of its technological integration could not be ignored. Julius had long known about human-trafficking fronts disguised in entertainment, but seeing it firsthand through a VTuber stream was sobering.

He glanced at Gabriel. "Are you planning on getting involved?"

Gabriel didn’t look away from the screen. "You came here for a vacation. Unfortunately for me, the Revenant Knights Corps saw it as the perfect opportunity to deploy me to Japan."

"Is that so?"

Julius had his suspicions. Gabriel had no reason to join the trip. He never traveled unless ordered, and he certainly didn’t have time for vacations.

"Your assignment is connected to this situation, isn’t it?" Julius asked.

Gabriel finally turned his phone off, placing it face-down on the table.

"Three German nationals disappeared last year in Tokyo under the same pattern. Two were students under scholarship programs. One worked remotely for a German research institute. All of them vanished after crossing paths with these virtual-entertainment rings."

"...."

Germany had always taken pride in its international security. The Directorate had strict protocols for German citizens abroad, and the Revenant Knights were authorized to operate whenever foreign crimes posed a threat to national interests.

"Interpol flagged several trafficking cases linked to Europe’s black market. Germany’s intelligence traced the digital signatures back here."

"So you’re saying this situation connects to our own domestic cases."

"It does," Gabriel confirmed. "The Revenant Knights believe this ring is supplying to the same underground networks that armed the Revolutionaries in the gray zone. If that’s true, then Germany has every right to intervene."

The gray zone.

A territory where ideology and criminality blended until both sides became indistinguishable. Revolutionaries who did not distinguish between crime and morality. To them, disruption was patriotic and violence was a declaration of freedom.

The only thing that categorized them as Revolutionaries was their refusal to uphold the German Republic. Anything against the government was flagged as terrorism, and terrorism equated to revolution.

Julius leaned forward with a serious expression. It was clearly an international chain that directly endangered Germany’s internal security.

"The Corps received intel that one of the trafficked victims was still alive and actively signaling. Tonight’s stream confirms she’s one of them."