(You)r Little Troublemaker

You slip and fall to the floor, shoes covered in copious amount of what you assume is lubricant. While the other coworkers come to see what happened, you, on the other hand, are fully aware of what is going on and who is behind it. Listening closely, you can hear a very distinct laugh from behind. It was her, Usada Pekora. Don’t scream. Don’t acknowledge her. If you let her know, she won’t ever stop. Ever since she noticed you, she keeps setting up traps and pranks just for you, and every time you fall victim to one prank, she is always there, waiting to see you. “Are you okay?” you hear from one of your coworkers. She offers her hand which you gladly take to help get yourself back up. You thank her which leads to a loud BANG from behind, grabbing the attention of your other coworkers.

You hear them call out to your perpetrator, “Pekora, you broke the wall again. What in the world has gotten into you?” This confirms your suspicions. Off-stream, Pekora treats the Hololive office as her own personal playground, taking as many opportunities as possible to mess with the staff and you. It’s common to see someone at the office on the receiving end, but this time, she has set her sights on you and only you. Ever since then, all her efforts have been focused on garnering a reaction from you. She wants to bully you, watch you yell at her and get mad, but no, you won’t give her that satisfaction. You head to the restroom to clean your shoes, making sure to not let her see your face.

The next day, you’ve returned to your workspace to print some documents for a meeting, but you can immediately tell someone’s been here. The desk has been opened, papers are everywhere, and your computer has been left on. Checking your computer shows a desktop littered with pictures of Pekora with the desktop background being a scaled-up jpeg of Pekora’s face. She doesn’t even bother hiding her tracks. She just wants you to just look at her. You search through your documents only to notice that she has copy and pasted that same jpeg of her face throughout several documents. Atleast this one was easy to clean up even if you had to spend most of the day going over your files to undo her work.

The day after, you’re on your lunch break. You notice the damn rabbit looking around for you. Not in the mood for any pranks today, you quickly pack up your lunch and try to leave as swiftly as possible. However, she spots you and runs over with a bottle of water in hand. “Pekora brought a gift for you-peko!” She runs up as close as she can and “trips” over herself, dropping, or rather, throwing the water bottle at you. However, she also forgot to open the water bottle, so in reality, she just tripped and threw her water bottle at you, hitting you in the face. The recoil knocks you down, causing you to spill the contents of your lunch on the floor. God dammit, today too. You just get back up and leave to get some stuff to clean up the mess on the floor, making sure not to look back at her. Meanwhile, Pekora just lies there on the floor, apparently too embarrassed to get back up until you return back to your office, still hungry for the remainder of the day.

Today, however, has been suspiciously safe. No pranks, no mishaps, no Pekora sighted anywhere. Nothing to ruin your work, and nobody to stand in your way. It was a completely clean and productive day; one you haven’t experienced in weeks ever since she started targeting you. While part of you was suspicious that she has cooked up something extremely bad, you also wanted to enjoy the rare moment of peace you finally had. Lunch break, nothing in your way. On your break, nobody there. When it was time to clock out, you have never felt so relaxed at work before. She finally got bored of you and found someone else to bully. You leave and can finally return home without having to be on the lookout for any potential traps or for her presence.

As you head closer to home, you notice a small crowd of people ahead of you, making you little scared. Don’t worry, it’s just someone else. She didn’t do anything today. As you get closer to the crowd, anxiety builds up inside you. Soon, it becomes apparent that they were crowded outside your apartment building. Oh god, what did she do. You get closer to see your apartment buried in a thick layer of smoke, forcing everybody to evacuate the building.

That’s it. That was the final straw. Every feeling of anxiety and fear has been replaced with rage. You scan the area and the crowd to find her distinct rabbit ears. You move past the crowds, searching the entire area until you find her. There she is, sitting behind a car hiding her face. You no longer cared about playing her game anymore; this went too far, and you wanted to let her know that. “What. Did. You. Do?” you ask with slow but furious tone. She doesn’t respond, so you pull her up to see her crying and sobbing. “What did you do to my home?” you ask her again, making sure to look directly at her eyes.

“Pekora. *sniff* Peko. I-I *sniff* I’m sorry!” she cries out, dropping her usual manner of speaking. “I…I just wanted you to talk..to me, but I was. a-afraid. I wanted you to look at me, even if you were mad at me, but, but, but, you never wanted to see me. You never liked me.” She breaks down into further tears and hides herself in your chest.
Part of you wants to scold her further and yell at her more, she did go as far as to find your home and ruin it. But still, if what she is saying is true, you would be partially at blame (not by a lot). This could’ve been stopped if you confronted her and told her off, but due to stubbornness from both sides, it ended up like this, and except for today, you never hated Pekora herself. She was chaotic at the office, but it wasn’t really a boring day without her. She was an entertainer for her audience and for her colleagues. You hold her and pet her head for a moment to comfort her. “If you wanted to talk to me, you could’ve just asked,” you calmly tell her, letting go of your anger. Pekora wraps her arms around you and slowly calms herself down.

She looks up at you, some of her tears wiped off on your shirt. “I was afraid…That you didn’t like Pekora. Do you hate Pekora?”

You briefly consider what to say to her. “No, I don’t hate you. You cause a mess for me and everyone at the office, but still, you’re a good girl even if this is all your fault.”
Her ears perk back up, “Really-Peko?” She jumps on you, hugging you tighter. “Then, do you like Pekora?” She looks back at you in anticipation of your answer.
You take an even longer moment to consider what to tell her, but ultimately, you figure it would be best to cheer her up now. “I guess. I kind of enjoyed having you around,” you hesitantly answer her. Upon hearing your response Pekora’s teary face turns into a wide smile, enough to make you feel warm inside. She proudly gets up and tells herself, “Heh, heh, heh, nobody can resist Pekora’s charm after all!”

You can’t help but return the smile, but still, it doesn’t help the much bigger issue of your home. You let go of her and look through your phone’s contact list, “Well, guess I have to stay with a friend for a while.” Hearing this makes Pekora excited. Her eye shines with enthusiasm, “Wait! You can stay with Pekora! Mama wouldn’t mind. She can make a room for you-peko! Pekora will even share her clothes with you for tonight!”

This sounds like a dangerous idea. This girl has been messing with you for weeks at the office; you can’t imagine what headaches she would pull if you two lived with her. But still, it seems like she learned her lesson, and she was offering a place to stay. Not like you had many options left. “Um, sure, alright, just, no more pranks atleast when we’re home, okay?”

“Eh, really? Don’t worry! Mama will treat you nicely!” she happily agrees. Immediately, she tugs on your arm to take you to her house, forgetting the mess she turned your apartment into. Still, it has been a been a long night, so you follow her back to the street. Hopefully, this won’t lead to any rumors at the company.