I just finished reading volume 9 of the Sasaki to Piichan (佐々木とピーちゃん) light novel. It delivered another great volume focused almost entirely on Neighbor and her struggle to become a popular VTuber after the contest that was proposed by Type12 in the last volume.

As mentioned, Type12 wanted to get the attention she seeks by becoming a VTuber, and Futari Shizuka hopped on the idea by turning it into a contest. Everyone in the family will participate with a channel, and they will be ranked by the number of views obtained within a period of two weeks.

The person with the highest views will be able to give one absolute order to the person who finishes last. There is no help allowed from Pii-chan or Elsa, as they have both been doing business for a while, so it would be unfair considering their established popularity.

Futari Shizuka is using her gamer ability to stream while acting out a mesugaki persona (the typical little girl who would shout "Zaaako zako zako!" to other players), which turns out to be quite popular with viewers. It is quite impressive to see how she can dynamically change her personality while she is on stream.

Hoshizaki seems to be doing something too, but after a while, she becomes a bit too interested in how to file a DMCA paper. This brings a bit of suspicion from other people. Type12 asks if she needs help, but that doesn't seem to be necessary... yet.

While everyone is struggling to think about what content to make to avoid coming in last, Type12 goes to Neighbor's room. She proposes that Neighbor become a full-fledged VTuber, offering to handle the technical parts (3D Model, devices, etc.) as a way to bond with her and to repay her for the chaos she caused in her class.

Neighbor accepts, and Haruno Misaki is born! She is a cheerful, energetic, and popular high school girl! Well, the cheerful character doesn't really fit her image though. So, after a few days of failure, she shifts to a darker, gloomier character called Kareki Ochiba. The setting is that she is the result of Haruno Misaki failing to make her "high school debut" and spiraling downward.

The character turns out to be quite popular. Neighbor is scouted by a big VTuber agency and gets involved in the business there. We get lots of amusing scenes as Neighbor gets to know other VTubers. She even gets nearly assaulted by a group of males hired by a woman who didn't want her to become popular (easily neutralized using the demonic powers of Abaddon). In the end, she even does a live event after achieving second place in the company rankings.

I really like Neighbor as a character and as a deuteragonist. Seeing her move from the underfed, poor girl abused by an irresponsible mother to a normal middle school girl having fun with her newfound family and experiencing new things was really refreshing.

Among the other interesting things from this volume, we have Futari Shizuka becoming more and more like a mother to Magical Pink and Neighbor. We don't know why yet (it could be something we explore if we ever get to see her past), but she becomes a lot more mellow whenever she interacts with them compared to the other characters.

We also got confirmation that Elsa is probably very sadistic toward people she likes. I mean, she confirmed herself that she feels a weird thrilling feeling whenever she sees Sasaki in trouble, and she wondered if that was her being "tsundere".

Oh, and Hoshizaki? Remember the DMCA thing? Well, it turns out (as per the screenshot I attached) she ended up getting flamed after posting some videos of her dancing in skimpy clothes. Of course, the videos started spreading outside of her channel and it spiraled beyond control. Type12 ended up intervening and clearing them out from all computers in the world.

The final winner of the contest was Sasaki with his video of him getting attacked by a bear. He wasn't planning for that either, he just happened to be at the right time. Futari Shizuka ended up last and got ordered by Sasaki to limit her obscene requests toward him.

The volume ends with Sasaki and everyone else getting "invited" (ordered, really, by their superior) to go to the United States of America to work with the military there. Their mission is to clear out some terrorists who want to take control of Type12. I guess it is time for a foreign country travel arc!