Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai: Volume 7 The Fall of Yozora Mikadzuki

The Fall of Yozora Mikadzuki

It was now late Sunday, some hours after we all found out about Sena and I being engaged.

We'd finished filming a little bit ago, so I said my goodbyes to everyone, and left the chapel.

As I was walking towards the school gates amidst the sunset, I saw a sister sitting on a bench going "that hits the spot!" like some old man after taking a gulp of her pop.

Apparently she saw me too, because she went, "Yo, Onii-chan," and casually called out to me.

"I've got a bone to pick with you..."

I sighed and knit my brows as I walked over to sister Kate, causing her to go, "Hmm~?" and made a confused look on her face.

"I had a lot of trouble today thanks to you."

"Huh?"

Kate tilted her head as I explained what had happened earlier.

"Ahh, sorry 'bout that."

Kate gave me a light apology along with a wry smile, and added,

"But ya' know, Onii-chan, it's not like I'm the only one who knows about you and Sena being engaged."

".........Eh?"

I could feel my face going stiff as Kate continued on.

"It's 'cause Pegasus blabs about everything. Most of the sisters and the teachers here all know about it, and I wouldn't be surprised if there were some students who get along well with their teachers who know about it too."

Are you kidding me...?

"That old man needs to keep his mouth shut!"

"Haha, I bet it's 'cause he was so happy about it. I doubt he thought there was any need to hide it either."

Kate said along with another wry smile.

"But, I see, so Pegasus was just jumping to conclusions, huh..."

"Eh? What'd you say?"

I asked Kate, who'd started mumbling something in a strangely shy-sounding voice.

"It's nothing~"

Kate made a big happy smile for some reason.

"By the way, Onii-chan, are you guys really filming a movie?"

"Hm? Yeah."

"Sounds fun~ I really like movies too, ya' know. I rent a bunch of 'em to watch when I've got the time."

"Oh?"

"What kind of movie are you guys makin'?"

"Maria didn't tell you?"

I asked Kate, prompting a wry smile to form on her face as she replied,

"She came home one day all happy and told me 'I'm making a movie with Onii-chan,' but... that was all I got out of her."

"Ahh."

I made a wry smile too.

It's true that Maria probably wouldn't really get what the movie's about even if we explained it to her.

Heck, it's pretty doubtful that she even knows what the overall plot is.

"Where to start... Well, the movie we're making is——"

.........

I told Kate all about the movie in pretty fine detail.

Kate seemed to be enjoying herself as she listened, and when I finished, she said,

"I see. Sounds just like The Sun On Top of the Hill."

"The Sun On Top of the Hill?"

I asked Kate, since I'd never heard of it before, to which Kate happily responded,

"Yeah, it's a pretty famous Japanese movie among movie lovers. I like it a lot myself too. I'd love to see your guys' when it's done."

"You don't say. I'll have to go rent it on the way home and check it out then."

"Yeah, you totally should. Let me know what you thought about it after you watch it!"

Kate showed me an incredibly cute smile befitting a girl her age.

☺

On my way home from school I rented The Sun On Top of the Hill from a video rental store I stopped at, and later that night I put it in our DVD player at home to watch it.

I thought watching a famous movie that's similar to ours might come in handy as we finish making it.

According to the summary written on the case, it's a story of friendship where the protagonist is isolated in his class, but then one day he reunites with his old best friend who transfers into his class, and they face many trials and tribulations together.

I see what Kate meant now. This summary is identical to our movie's.

But, it's not like this summary is all that unique. In fact, you could probably say it's more cliché than anything.

It'll be interesting to see how some real movie pros handled the same overall story.

The script Yozora wrote was actually pretty damn good though.

I wonder if maybe our movie's more interesting than the pros'... I began watching the movie with those thoughts in the back of my mind.

——...About an hour and 30 minutes later.

The movie was over.

The movie was, just as Kate said, an incredibly fascinating work of art.

Apparently it was released a whole 10 years ago, but it didn't feel old at all.

The cast didn't have any flashy idols in it, but was instead made up of a group of young actors with some impressive acting skills.

The movie itself wasn't flashy either, but it had meticulous well-done camerawork, and music that always got you pumped up for each of the big scenes.

Of course, the most important part of the movie, the story, was good as well.

The story mostly takes place in the school they go to, and the "various trials and tribulations" feel like things all of us might have experienced, and some are even things that I myself have experienced in the past. They all feel very realistic, and I can understand how the characters feel to an almost painful extent.

However, it's that deep bond of friendship between them that allows them to overcome all those difficulties that's truly moving.

Overall the story is sort of dark, but there are comedy scenes as well, and in the end it's not just the protagonist and his best friend, but the all the people around them too—— including some of the people who tormented them before—— who come together and create an astounding and beautiful happy end to the story.

The movie was practically identical to ours aside from the names of some things, like the characters and the school, and surprisingly, everything from the order of events, to their resolutions, to the flow between them, and even the movie's lines were exactly the same as ours.

"........."

.........Yep.

.........I know... It's OK, I know...

It's not that The Sun On Top of the Hill is just like our movie.

It's our movie that's just like The Sun On Top of the Hill.

.........No... It's not "just like" it...

Basically, the point is,

that Yozora's script,

"IS A DAMN GIANT RIP- OFFFFFFFFFFFF!!"

☺

It was now after school the next day.

By the time I got to the clubroom, everyone aside from Kobato was already there.

Our scriptwriter and director Ms. Mikadzuki had her script on the table, and was mumbling, "...Hrm... How should we do this scene..." while tapping the script with a red ballpoint pen and making a difficult look on her face.

I cautiously started talking to Yozora as she was in the midst of doing all that.

"...Hey, Ms. young writer in distress."

"What is it, Kodaka? I'm busy right now."

Yozora ran a hand through her hair and looked over at me with a grumpy look on her face, to which I responded by taking the DVD for The Sun On Top of the Hill out of my bag.

The case wasn't a colorful one you'd get if you bought it, but rather a simple clear plastic one from the rental store, so I doubt she could easily see what it was.

"......?"

Yozora made a confused look on her face, so I told her,

"This is the DVD for The Sun On Top of the H——"

Clang!! Bam!!

Yozora got up out of her chair and started to make her escape from the clubroom before I could even finish my sentence!

"Wha- Yozora!?" "Senpai!?" "Anego?" "Wah!?"

I yelled to my fellow club members, who were shocked by Yozora's sudden action,

"Don't let her get away!"

"As you wish." "Yayy!" "I don't really get it, but OK!"

Yukimura, Maria, and Sena all moved to block Yozora's path as soon as I gave the order, and then lunged at her.

Yozora was easily caught by the group of three.

"Ugh! You bunch of little...! ......Kh..."

Yozora gave up soon after, and hung her head in shame.

☺

It was now about two hours after Yozora's little incident.

We made Yozora sit seiza-style on the floor.

A placard that read "I plagiarized someone else's work" was hanging down from her neck.

The placard was actually Maria's beloved(?) one that Kate always makes her wear while sitting in the same seiza-style when she does something bad.

...Anyway, back to right after we captured Yozora.

Once it was clear Yozora wasn't getting away, I explained that it was highly likely Yozora plagiarized the script for our movie from The Sun On Top of the Hill.

Yozora denied any wrongdoing (she said it was only a coincidence they were similar, and that she simply had to go to the bathroom really bad at the same time I showed her the DVD), so we quickly formed a "Yozora Mikadzuki Plagiarism Inspection Team," and compared Yozora's script with copy of the movie I brought.

The verdict: everyone declared her to be guilty.

Even the ever-stubborn Yozora admitted she "used a part of it as a reference."

The remains of my hopes that she didn't actually plagiarize were dashed when I heard that.

"So, why did you try to pull this bullshit? Well?"

Rika interrogated Yozora, who was still sitting seiza-style with her head hanging dejectedly, while loudly chewing some gum and acting like a punk trying to pick a fight.

Incidentally, Rika was dressed in the boy's uniform she was using for the movie, and had her hair all slicked back.

She also had a fake sword with her, although I have no idea where she got it from.

"...I'm sorry."

Smack!!

Rika hit the ground in front of Yozora with her sword as hard as she could after Yozora apologized in a feeble voice.

"Eep..."

Yozora let out a faint yelp.

"The hell do you mean you're sorry!? You deaf? I'm askin' why the hell you did what you did!!"

"......I thought none of you would ever find out if I copied a little Japanese movie, since you're all a bunch of idiots who've probably never seen any movies aside from some anime or big Hollywood ones."

Yozora said, her lips pursed as though she were pouting.

Smack!!

"Who're you callin' an idiot!? You think it's OK to steal as long as you don't get caught!?"

"Uu..."

"Listen up, ya' goddamn bitch!! Stealin's the one thing an author should never do! That's like pissin' all over the work other authors worked their fuckin' asses off to make! You got that!?"

"...I'm very sorry."

Yozora apologized again, in a near-mumble this time.

Smack!!

"You sure you got it, you fuckin' dumbass!?"

"...Uu... I'm really very sorry..."

"I can't hear you! You at least know how to speak, right!? Then do it for fuck's sake!"

SMACKKKK!!

"I'm sorry!! I'm so sorry I plagiarized!!"

"...Keh, you goddamn worms who only know how to steal other people's works are such a pain in my ass. If you're gonna apologize for it later, then don't do it in the first place you sack of shit! You have any idea how much of a pain in the ass you are? Well!?"

Rika continued to insult Yozora, who was now teary-eyed, with a cold look in her eyes as though she were looking at a pile of trash.

"Haaa... I thought it was weird, too. There's no way you could ever write a script that good."

Sena added, with a let-down look on her face, followed by,

"...Anego... you big idiot..."

"Aghua...!?"

Yukimura stared at Yozora with a sad look in her eyes, causing Yozora to make a pained expression on her face.

I've had it done to me too, so I know that having Yukimura look at you like that hurts way more than any insult.

"Uu... I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry..."

Yozora continued to mumble out apologies to us.

Rika then went, "Phew..." and let out a sigh.

She then quickly went back to making a serious face, spit out her gum on a piece of paper, and said,

"So, what should we do now?"

I was a little bewildered by the sudden change from insult mode to her now serious tone of voice.

"Eh, what do you mean?"

"I'm talking about the movie, and whether or not we should continue filming using Yozora's plagiarized script or not. Technically speaking, I don't think there's any real problem with it, even if it is a bald-faced rip-off, since we're not trying to make any money off of it. We're not entering it in a contest or putting it online either. The final product would just be an inferior copy of The Sun On Top of the Hill, but we could still keep filming it, if everyone's OK with that."

"Don't be ridiculous!"

Sena completely rejected the choice Rika had just explained.

"I, the Sena Kashiwazaki, am not going to make some rip-off movie! We're done with Yozora's script! Let's go with a new one instead!"

In response to Sena's enthusiasm, Rika calmly replied,

"Rika would like to do that too, but making a whole new script now would be..."

"You don't have to worry about that."

"Eh?"

We all looked confused, so Sena puffed out her chest in pride, and declared,

"I secretly prepared a script of my own, just in case that idiot Yozora couldn't write one! I only kept quiet about it up until now to let that idiot Yozora save face!"

"Wow... You're awesome, Sena!"

"Nicely done, Sena-senpai...!"

"I would expect no less from you, Sena-anego."

"Ahaha, Sena's pretty cool~"

Sena made a supremely triumphant look on her face after hearing all the praise we had for her.

"Heheh, that's right! You better be thankful, foolish commoners!"

Sena then looked down at Yozora sitting seiza-style on the floor,

"Heh, heh, heh~" and laughed happily.

"Gh..."

Yozora looked irritated as she frowned and looked away from Sena.

"Heh. Hey hey, Yozoraaa~ What's it feel like~? Come on, tell me, widdle Yozowa~ What's it feel like to have everyone find out you ripped off another movie, and then have your role as scriptwriter stolen away from you by me~? What's our pathetic widdle Yozowa feel like right now~!?"

Wow... Sena's merciless...

"...Ughhh... Aghughah..."

Yozora's face was completely red, she had tears in the corners of her eyes, her veins were popping out on her forehead, and her fists were trembling on top of her knees.

Usually Yozora would have flipped out by now, but she was holding herself back, since she was clearly in the wrong this time.

Sena then stooped over Yozora, and said,

"Everybody, look at her~ It's our failure, widdle Yozowa~♪"

Sena then took it a step further, and started lightly smacking Yozora on the cheek.

"!? ~~~~~~!! Ghaugh, Gughhh, Kgogyofgh, Fhoegharghugrraghgouhguoaghooagheghhfrrr!!!!!"

Yozora's bloodshot eyes were opened wider than I thought possible as she let out a sound that no girl... no, a sound so terrible that no human should ever make.

"...Yozora."

Sena said, changing to a serious face all of a sudden.

"You better make up for this mess with your acting in the movie."

"........."

Yozora simply sat there without saying a word.

Sena then got up, and said,

"Heheh, anyway, just do the best you can, OK? In my movie, that is!"

"Kh..."

Yozora groaned in frustration, but I could see there was a light of will in her eyes.

"All right, I'm going home for today! I've gotta fix up the script and all! I'll blow you all away tomorrow!"

Sena said in her usual ridiculously condescending attitude, and then left the room.

And so, that's how the script for the Neighbors Club's movie changed all of a sudden.

We're down to the last two weeks before the school festival.

......Are we really gonna be OK...?

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