Achievement unlocked: Wooly's lifetime honorary fan

The next morning.

Clatter, clatter, clatter.

Dania had been sleeping peacefully, immersed in a pleasant dream, when a discordant clatter rudely kicked down the door to her dream. She frowned in annoyance, but showed no sign of waking.

Then a bang sent her bolting upright in bed.

Dania looked both bewildered and extremely displeased. Her pink hair stood on end, vividly displaying just how foul her mood was.

Seriously, she'd finally gotten the chance to enjoy sleeping in without a care on her mind, and some heartless bastard had to make all that racket first thing in the morning?!

Dania was a little irritable now. She sat on the bed and rubbed her face twice, then climbed out to see which little bastard had woken her up.

The door clicked open, and Dania stepped out to find that Sigrika's room across the hall was still silent.

There was no response from Lynae's or Chisa's rooms either. Principal Roccia and Professor Morning, who had stayed the night, seemed to have left on their own, restoring their room to its original state before they went.

That left only one answer.

Dania headed for Aemeath's room and, sure enough, found the door open.

At the doorway, she found Aemeath crouching on the floor in her loungewear, her hair tied in a ponytail, watching Xiao Ling work and occasionally handing him little gadgets. Xiao Ling took the tools and used them to assemble something, though Dania couldn't tell what.

Clatter, clatter, clatter.

Well, she'd found the culprit.

"Xiao Ling!" Dania immediately entered hakimi mode and leaped into the room without hesitation, startling Little Ai, who was crouched on the floor.

"Yo, Yaya, you're awake... Shit, ow, ow, ow! Take it easy!" Xiao Ling had been about to greet Dania when she grabbed him by the ear and pulled him up.

Watching Xiao Ling grimace in pain, Aemeath instinctively felt her own ear.

"Can't you be a little quieter?!" Dania demanded through gritted teeth. "I finally had a chance to sleep until I woke up on my own, and you woke me up again! Are you asking for it?!"

As she spoke, she kicked Xiao Ling twice with her fair little feet, as if venting her anger.

"That's how assembly work goes. How am I supposed to put things together without using some force?" Though his ear hurt badly, Xiao Ling still sounded quite self-righteous.

"I don't care! Just keep the noise down!" Dania wasn't letting him off, and gave him an ultimatum. "If you wake me up again, don't even think about sleeping tonight, because I'll make sure you can't sleep even if you want to!"

"All right, all right, Sister Dan, go back to sleep. Your humble servant will watch the volume and won't disturb your rest," Xiao Ling agreed helplessly.

Dania snorted and turned to leave. Before long, a somewhat heavy door slam came from nearby.

"You didn't even stick up for me just now?" Xiao Ling turned on Little Ai, who had been smiling and enjoying the show the whole time. "Has our bond really grown that weak?"

"Why would I have any reason to stick up for you?" Aemeath didn't take the bait. "If you'd woken me up, I wouldn't have just pulled your ear like Xiao Ya did. I would've bitten you."

Xiao Ling's expression was quite a sight. People said the pinker the hair, the harder the punches, and as far as he could tell, pink-haired people were no slouches when it came to waking up grumpy, either.

"I should be glad the noisiest part is already over, or I probably really wouldn't get any sleep tonight."

Xiao Ling sighed helplessly. If it were still the holidays, staying up all night wouldn't really be a problem, but he had to go back to school after tonight, and he probably wouldn't get another chance to ask for leave.

"I probably won't need your help with the rest. Thanks for the effort, Little Ai."

"It was nothing. All I did was hand you things. I didn't really do anything," Aemeath said, shaking her head, her pink ponytail swaying with it. "But what did you buy me? It's taking so long to put together."

"You'll know when it's finished."

Seeing that she couldn't pry any information out of Xiao Ling, Aemeath leaned against the doorframe and waited for him to finish assembling it.

After tinkering for a while longer, Xiao Ling wiped away his sweat and checked to see if he'd missed anything.

Computer tower, okay. Monitor, okay. Microphone, okay. Camera, okay. Keyboard, okay. Mouse, okay.

Hmm... It seemed like something was still missing.

Aemeath watched Xiao Ling suddenly leave her room. A little while later, he came back carrying a figurine and placed it in front of the monitor.

She took a closer look. Wasn't that her younger self? She was even holding up the hero's sword. It looked pretty cute.

"Finished?"

"Not even close. Don't rush me."

Xiao Ling started the computer and began testing the equipment. The sound of the cooler inside the tower was so faint it could almost be ignored. The monitor displayed everything properly, the keyboard and mouse both worked, and there were no problems with the external camera or microphone. The microphone picked up sound clearly, too. Finally, he ran a benchmark with some dedicated software.

Hmm, the score was excellent, and the graphics card's performance passed muster too.

Last of all, he spruced up the desktop-

A quarter of an hour later.

"Done. Does our Wooly have time to try it out herself now?" Having finished everything, Xiao Ling called Aemeath over to try it out. She was leaning against the doorframe and looked ready to fall asleep.

"Mm... Huh? It's ready?"

Aemeath immediately perked up and trotted over to the computer desk. The gift before her took her breath away.

A big-head photo of her was printed on the tower. In it, she made a V sign with her left hand and winked with her right eye, smiling so happily that even her pearly teeth showed.

Her image was printed on the keyboard too. It was very quiet to use, and when she pressed the keys, pink and blue light flowed beneath them.

A row of stickers ran around the monitor, printed with cute chibi versions of her. The camera worked perfectly, and she tested the microphone by humming a short tune. Its sound pickup was excellent, and she was very satisfied with it.

The desktop wallpaper was the photo she'd taken with A-Yu near the end of the Wooly fan concert. A chibi figure of her stood in the lower right corner. When she clicked the mouse, the little figure clicked a mouse too; when she pressed a key, it pressed a key as well.

The most thoughtfully prepared part was the little Savior figurine placed right in the center in front of the screen. Her younger self held the hero's sword high, looking both cute and valiant. Looking at the little figure reminded her of the girl who had once resolved to become a Savior.

"Amazing..." Aemeath was so stunned by the overly lavish gift that she couldn't speak for a while. After a long pause, she finally managed those words of praise.

"These... must've been expensive."

"They were pretty expensive. So our big star won't let her fan down, will she?" Xiao Ling grinned with one hand on his hip. "At least give me the title of lifetime honorary fan."

He had been absent as she grew up. Now, he was supporting her virtual singer career in this way.

He wanted more people to hear Aemeath sing.

Hearing Xiao Ling's humorous request, Aemeath said, her voice catching, "Of course! You're my one and only honorary fan!"

Before Xiao Ling had time to react, she couldn't help throwing herself into his arms and shedding little pearls of tears again.

"Hey, look, you're crying again." Xiao Ling sounded helpless, but he still held the big pink-haired bundle who was crying with joy in a doting embrace. "Aren't you happy with my gift?"

"Wh-what are you talking about...?" Aemeath sobbed. "I'm crying... because... because I'm so happy!"

Looking at the pink-haired bundle nestled against his neck and shedding tears again, Xiao Ling felt that everything he'd done had been well worth it.

And so, at noon that day, all of Wooly's fans saw their idol post an update with a photo.

"Look! A gift from my lifetime honorary fan! (=^▽^=)"

The photo showed the streaming equipment Xiao Ling had carefully prepared, the little Savior figurine bathed in a pale golden glow under the early morning sun.