Ore no Imōto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai:Volume 3 Chapter 4
Chapter 4[edit]
A week passed after she finished the manuscript for her cell phone novel and the morning of the annoying opening ceremony came.
Kirino had simply pushed herself too hard and her cold had gotten worse, so it seemed she was bedridden. I say “seemed” because she was so feverish that she stayed in her room even during meals, so I never had a chance to see her.
While I was eating breakfast, my mother came over to speak with me while looking a bit down.
“Kyousuke~. That girl still has a high fever, but she is insisting she goes to school.”
“She’s complaining about having practice and her job, isn’t she?”
“Yes, exactly. Sigh. She simply won’t listen, so I just asked your father to talk some sense into her.”
I knew it. That idiot brought this on herself.
Well, she isn’t going to get over this cold through pure willpower and she’ll have no choice but to stay home today once dad lectures her.
Tch. She’ll probably insist on going to school each and every day until she gets over this fever.
I could only shake my head.
“I’m worried, so I’m taking her to the hospital today. I’ve heard the flu has been going around lately.”
“Oh, I see.” I sipped at my miso soup. “Just warn her to make sure she doesn’t give it to me.”
“Hah. Why are you so heartless? You’re her brother.”
“Keh. Like I care about her.”
Are you stupid? Worrying for her isn’t going to make her get better any faster.
When I got back from school, my mom told me that Kirino did indeed have the flu. “Oh, I see,” was my honest reaction. I could not think of anything else to say.
After washing my hands and rinsing out my mouth more thoroughly than usual, I headed upstairs.
“…”
After a few moments of indecision, I knocked on my little sister’s door. She may have been asleep, so I knocked lightly.
I received no response. Deciding she must have been asleep, I scratched at my cheek and started to turn around, but then I heard a click and the door opened.
That door that usually slammed forcefully directly into my face had no energy today.
Kirino peered out at me in her pajamas through the cracked door.
“…What?”
…Oh, I haven’t thought of anything to say. Why did I even knock on her door? I don’t have any business with her. Um…uh…
“…Hey…do you want some yogurt?”
I held out the plastic bag hanging from one of my hands. I had bought the yogurt at a convenience store on the way home.
“…Sure.”
Kirino’s feverish head nodded and she took the convenience store bag. She seemed oddly docile, but that was likely because she did not have enough energy to verbally abuse me. Ironically, my sister was a lot cuter when she had the flu and didn’t talk much. It was worth giving up my yogurt for.
“Have you taken your medicine?”
“…No.”
“Take it.”
I then realized Kirino was holding her cell phone in her left hand.
“What are you doing with your phone?”
Don’t tell me she’s still working on that novel…
“Quit being stupid and get back in bed.”
“…”
Despite having been scolded by her brother, Kirino only hung her head down.
She seemed even more downhearted than you would expect of someone suffering from a fever.
Also, it looked a bit like she had been crying.
“What’s wrong?”
“…Nothing.”
Now, that’s a lie. I can’t have you thinking your brother is that stupid. I can tell how you’re feeling to certain extent just by looking at you. And now that I think about it, someone with as strong a sense of responsibility and awareness that she is a professional as you should be doing nothing but trying to get over this illness on her day home from school.
“It isn’t nothing, you idiot. If you’re worried about something, tell me. Tell me and then get to sleep. You need to recover so you can get back to practice and work.”
Kirino’s eyes opened wide in surprise at my bluntness.
“…What’s…with you? You’re being surprisingly kind.”
“Hah. I just want you to recover before you infect me.”
I had been trying to speak harshly to her, but Kirino only gave a small laugh.
“You’re an idiot,” she said. “Well, whatever. Come in. I doubt you can do anything about it, but I’ll tell you if you want to hear.”
“Fine, fine.”
I entered her room despite that meaning it would be my own fault if I caught her flu.
After inviting me in, Kirino sat on her bed and handed me her phone.
“Here.”
“Wh-what?”
I recoiled back at having it thrust out at me so suddenly. I then took it and looked at the screen. The main page for Cell Phone i-Club was displayed on the LCD screen. The site had a large announcement written on it.
“An amazing newcomer to the cell phone novel world is having her debut work published in hard cover! It is being published by MediAscii Works! The whole novel is available ahead of time here on Cell Phone i-Club!”
Apparently, a hard cover novel from Cell Phone i-Club was being put online in full as a sales promotion.
Since the author was referred to as an “amazing newcomer” they must have had a lot of confidence in the novel.
The first thing that came to my mind was…
“Is this ‘amazing newcomer’ they’re talking about you!? Wow!”
“…”
Kirino gave no response. She took the phone from me, pressed some buttons while coughing a few times, and then handed it back to me. I looked at the screen and saw what must have been a page of the cell phone novel this “amazing newcomer” had written.
Its title was “Little Sister Sky”.
“Well, that couldn’t be any more obviously you!”
I could tell without even glancing through the text. This was clearly the cell phone novel Kirino had written.
The novel Kirino had so desperately worked to finish was awash in the limelight in a big way.
Below the title was a button labeled “review this work”. I clicked it and a large number of people’s impressions of the novel popped up.
“What a good story!” “I cried.” “Their pure love was the best part.” “As a girl, this really moved me.”
They went on and on. The book had not even been released yet and there were already over 100 reviews. And they were all favorable impressions. From what I could see, the novel had the strongest support from young girls.
…That’s amazing.
I didn’t actually say it out loud, but that was what I thought. But I was also a little dissatisfied that the readers had seen Toshi and Rino’s relationship as pure love like the author had.
After tagging along when she was gathering data and watching as she worked so hard to write the novel, I was actually moved by this positive reaction. I was amazed at how much talent she had.
…Sigh. She’s increased the gap yet again. How far behind are you trying to leave your brother, little sister? It’s so frustrating and pathetic that I might just get depressed.
As a smile that was a mixture of self-torture and joy appeared on my face, I realized something.
“Wait, then why do you look so upset?”
I didn’t make sense. The novel she had worked so hard to write was being well received, had a huge announcement, and was being published. Normally, that would be a time for joy.
“…else.”
“Ah? What?”
“They’ve made it so it’s written by someone else!” Kirino shouted as if she was about to cough up blood before she started coughing normally.
“H-hey, are you okay?”
She seemed to be suffering so much that I reached out to pat her on the back, but she brushed my hand aside.
She was still coughing pretty badly, so I wasn’t about to get angry with her.
“What do you mean they made it so it’s written by someone else?”
After coughing a bit more and catching her breath, she said, “I-I mean that I’m the one that wrote it, but the author is given as some penname I’ve never seen before in my life.”
I looked and, sure enough, it said “Author – Rino” below the title. The author’s name was the same as the protagonist of Little Sister Sky. Presumably they were trying to make it look like the story was something the author had actually experienced, as was common with cell phone novels.
“So they changed the penname without asking because they thought it would sell better with the author and the protagonist having the same name?”
“No! That’s not what happened…!” My little sister fell into another painful-looking fit of coughing. “I wouldn’t be so upset if that was all it was. Ever since I sent him the password to the site where I saved the manuscript, I haven’t heard anything from him. When I call the cell phone number written on the business card, I just get the voice mail, I don’t get any response to my emails, and this page appeared without warning.”
The site where she saved the manuscript? …Oh, I get it. You save a cell phone novel to your blog-like page on a cell phone site as you write it.
“Maybe there’s been some kind of misunderstanding. How about I call the editorial department for you?”
“I already called them! I told them I wrote the novel and that no one was contacting me and asked them what was going on, but they wouldn’t tell me anything! They listened to what I had to say, but they just treated it like a common complaint and wouldn’t transfer me over to my editor. Also, the password to the Cell Phone i-Club site I saved the manuscript to was changed, so I can’t log in!”
“So…”
This was not a turn of events I wanted to think about. But if what I thought was going on was indeed going on, then having my little sister speak the decisive words would have been too cruel.
That was why I stated my conclusion even if it was a bit premature to jump to that conclusion.
“He plagiarized you? That editor we met in Shinjuku before took the cell phone novel you wrote and is releasing it under someone else’s name?”
“…I think so. …What else could it be?” Kirino muttered painfully while sitting on her bed.
Her face was red from her fever and I could see tears welling up in her eyes. Having this trouble occur while she was bedridden from the flu was like kicking her while she was down.
“So what are you going to do? Surely you aren’t just going to lie here crying.”
“I’m not going to do anything,” was my little sister’s unexpected response. “Make no mistake. I only told you about this because you asked. I have no intention of doing anything about this trouble. In fact, I wasn’t worried about this at all.”
“Why not?”
That had to have been a lie. She had worked so hard on it and it had all been snatched away from her.
I knew just how much she hated to lose, so I knew she had to hate it with all of her being.
“Why not?” repeated Kirino with a scornful laugh. “Isn’t that obvious? What I need to do right now is work my hardest to recover and get back to work and practice as soon as I can. Even if I was tricked, that only affects me. I don’t have time to deal with something like that. I have much more important things to do.”
Her arrogant tone made it sound like she was looking down on the entire world. To me, it sounded forced.
After another fit of coughing, she continued.
“It does piss me off that I was used and I want to kill that faggot. But isn’t all that just more proof of my talent? He only stole my novel because it was that valuable, right? Heh. If that one was stolen, I just need to write another one. I’ll make this one even more amazing.” Kirino folded her arms like usual and gave a small laugh. “Also, that cell phone novel was really nothing more than something to do for fun. I tried to keep it up alongside everything else, but I only ended up collapsing and causing trouble for everyone. I’ve learned my lesson. I’ll make sure that never happens again. In a way, this was perfect.”
If she hadn’t so clearly been crying, that might have sounded pretty cool.
“So just get out of here and leave me alone.”
You really do suck at lying.
My little sister was indeed amazing. She had plenty of talent, put in plenty of hard work, and had an almost creepy passion for something once she started it. As a result, I had thought that everything would always go the way she wanted. However, she was not without her weaknesses.
She had major problems dealing with trouble she had not expected. With difficulties that she saw coming, she was able to thoroughly prepare herself and come up with a plan. But when an attack came from a blind spot or she came across a problem she had not prepared for, she had no idea what to do.
I had experienced that weakness of my sister’s in the troubles with dad and Ayase.
She was only 14 years old and in middle school.
No matter how amazing or talented she seemed, I could not forget that fact.
I was her big brother, after all.
“Hoo…”
What do I do now?
After hearing what my little sister had to say and leaving her room, I bit my lower lip while thinking.
Except I wasn’t really thinking. While the voice of my heart may have been asking what to do, I had already decided deep down.
What I was doing was worrying. I could not accept why I was so settled on what to do.
After all, I hated my little sister. I really, really hated her.
I may be repeating myself, but I just want to make that very clear.
I had only ever accepted that life consultation way back when as a careless way to end that conversation with her as quickly as possible. My efforts to help her with the trouble with dad or the issues with Ayase were nothing but abnormalities. I had only done those things to put an end to the life consultations I had started. That was why, since she had said she wasn’t going to do anything and had not “consulted” in me, this had nothing to do with me. Seeing that damn conceited brat suffer a defeat like that should have been a refreshing scene to behold.
“Shit…What is going on?”
These vague feelings had not started just then. They were a major problem I had been carrying for a little bit at that point. My distant relationship with my sister had changed when I had learned her secret and she had come to me with those life consultations. The vague distance between us was continuing to change even then. I was losing the indifference I had for my little sister.
What was going on? I tried to peer into my own heart, but I only found a jumbled mess of swirling feelings there. That was no help.
I felt nauseous and annoyed and disgusted…
Agh! This really pisses me off. What am I supposed to do? I can’t get over this.
Tch. What is this? I wish I knew someone in a similar position, so I could ask them.
Why do I have to feel so bad for that brat of a little sister?
Don’t tell me I’m wrong about hating her. Don’t tell me I actually…
“Gyahhh!! Like hell I do!”
As my true feelings came out in a yell, I began doing what my sister would normally do on her own since she was too sick to do it herself.
But really, all I could do was consult those who I felt would be reliable.
“Thank you for being so open with us, Kyousuke-shi! I do not know how much I can actually do, but I will help in any way I can!” said Saori exaggeratedly as she sat across from me.
As usual, she was in full otaku fashion with her spiral glasses & flannel shirt tucked into her pants.
“I get the general situation. However, I find it hard to believe that rape novel ended up like that. But from how displeased you seem, it must be true,” said Kuroneko as she sipped iced coffee while sitting next to Saori.
We were in a McDonald’s near Matsudo Station. I had emailed the two of them to say I wanted to discuss something about Kirino and they had agreed to meet on the weekend because they had both happened to be headed to the preliminaries for a national Siscalypse tournament. The preliminaries had already been held in a nearby arcade called Tokyo Gulliver, and the bag sitting on Kuroneko’s lap had a badge indicating she had made it through the preliminaries. (It had the same design as an important item in the game and it had the words “True Little Sister” engraved into it with holographic film placed over them.)
That all-black gothic lolita girl was monstrously good at video games.
The arcade version of that game had come out during the fall, but I had yet to play it.
It was just too embarrassing to play a game like that in front of other people. I had actually been to a local arcade and one in Akagi, so it wasn’t that I simply hadn’t gone. How can people just go to an arcade and play games like that Something-or-Other Master where you raise an idol or that quiz game called Something-or-Other Academy? Do you overcome the embarrassment just by getting used to it? I don’t really get it myself.
By the way, the badge on Kuroneko’s bag had the player’s name carved into it, but what it said was Chiba District Representative – Matsudo Black Cat-sama.
Was that something like a ring name?
“Hmm, I see. So that is why she did not come to Winter Comiket.”
“Kyousuke-shi. Kuroneko-shi has actually been worried about Kiririn-shi ever since that. We had known she had caught a cold, but Kuroneko-shi had been wondering if she was okay with it lasting so long. And she looked so lonely.”
“Hah. I would prefer if you did not add in dramatizations like that. I have not been worried about her. It is just that I was planning to have her cosplay and sell my circle’s book if she had accepted my request. I need to get back at her for before. And yet she caught a cold and could not come. She lamented how unlucky she was while clearly sneering.”
“I see…”
So she wanted Kirino to take part in that winter event… She put together all sorts of plans and then Kirino couldn’t come. I can see why she would be feeling lonely.
“Sorry….and thanks.”
“I have no idea why you are apologizing or why you are thanking me.”
Kuroneko turned away in displeasure. For some reason, she always got like that when someone praised her or thanked her. I had thought she must have been embarrassed, but Kirino had told me it was something else.
“Oh, no, no. The way that black thing always does that is not her being a tsundere. She’s feeling ressentiment. Whenever a rebellious and disgusting otaku like her receives approval from someone on the winning side like me, they always get really pissed off. Really, the jealousy of a lower life form is just disgusting.”
I don’t really understand what she meant, but that was what she had said. In any case, she really spoke poorly of the girl.
“Getting by without seeing that sweets girl who thinks she is on the winning side during the whole new year’s period was most refreshing.”
I still think she is just shy, though. After all, I had been the one to compliment her and I was certainly not on the “winning side”.
Hearing what Kuroneko said, Saori came to the same conclusion as me.
“Hah hah hah. What are you saying, Kuroneko-shi? You did not find it refreshing at all. It hurts my heart to think about how sad someone without a boyfriend like you must have been during that time without seeing Kiririn-shi.”
“That certainly is arrogant of you. Heh. I can tell just by looking at you, that you are forever alone. If you want to prove me wrong, just tell me what you were doing on Christmas.”
“Oh, me? Let’s see, last Christmas I was painting my Gabthley and making my avatar for Xbox Live. Ha. I was so pleased at how the avatar looked exactly like me that I uploaded a picture to our social network group and bragged about it on Twitter.”
What a sad way to spend Christmas…
“Oh? But I think the person I was speaking to online during that was you, Kuroneko-shi.”
“…Th-that’s right…”
The topic Kuroneko herself had brought up had blown up in her face. She had been trying to mock Saori by asking her what she had done on Christmas, but the response had been “chatting with you”.
Matsudo Black Cat aka Kuroneko cleared her throat to smooth things over and said, “To get back on topic, you said this ridiculously titled Little Sister Sky cell phone novel may have been stolen, but can you give us more details?”
“You…will help too?”
“…You surprise me. Is your head okay? I am of course asking out of sheer curiosity. Why would I clean up after a pathetic human like her? I would prefer if you thought before you spoke.”
Kuroneko gave lovely little sigh.
“…I see.”
Kirino had not asked either Saori or Kuroneko to help with her difficulty, but they had still gathered and were willing to listen. The thought very nearly brought a tear to my eye.
“You two are such good people.”
“I do not want to hear that from you of all people. Do you just interpret what people say however you want, you masochistic dog?” spat out Kuroneko with extreme disagreeableness.
When I had first met her, I had thought she was an unsociable girl, but that may not have been true. Deep down, at least.
“Heh heh. Very true,” said Saori when she heard what I had said. She also put on her usual ω-shaped smile. “Come to think of it, this is the first time we have met with you without Kiririn-shi being here. There is something I had been meaning to ask you if I got a chance. With the offline meeting where we first met and Summer Comiket last year, why do you keep going above and beyond for your sister? At least on the surface, it seems to be nothing but a bother for you.”
Saori asked me the question Kuroneko had before.
But as before, it was a difficult question to answer. After all, I had been constantly asking myself that very same question and had yet to come up with a satisfactory answer.
While I was thinking, Saori leaned in toward me.
“Are my suspicions correct that you two are in a more ‘serious’ relationship?”
“What do mean by ‘more serious’!? No! Don’t get the wrong idea!”
And what was that about your “suspicions”!? Have you been looking at us in that way all this time!?
This is why I hate erogamers! They always see incest wherever they look!
“Mh,” said Saori while sticking out her lower lip when I denied it, but she then put on a horrifying expression. “Oh, is that not it? Then Kyousuke-shi, are you – shall we say – masochistically inclined?”
“That’s not it either!”
Why do otaku all seem to have the exact same thought patterns? I can’t stand it!
As I scratched at my head, I received unexpected support from Kuroneko.
“It is not that surprising. Being worried about one’s little sister and getting a bit overprotective is something that goes beyond liking or not liking someone.”
It was possible she was saying that because she had little sisters of her own.
“That is just what a little sister is. It can’t be helped. You do it even if you do not get anything in return for your efforts. It is like taking in a cat on a whim.”
After concluding her comment, she closed her eyes. She must have been imagining her own little sisters as she spoke. Her words came as smoothly as when she had been speaking about her doujin work at Summer Comiket and her words were also kind.
Her comment also put an expression on Saori’s face like you would expect of someone soaking in a hot spring.
“Hm…You must be a wonderful older sister, Kuroneko-shi.”
“…Not really. I tease them every day.”
Seeing the sadistic smile on Kuroneko’s face, I felt saved. The strange feeling in my chest was still there, but I now felt like there was nothing wrong with it being there.
It was okay for my brother/sister relationship with Kirino to advance at whatever pace I was comfortable with.
I felt convinced.
“Okay, let’s do this!”
I slammed my fist into my opposite palm.
Saori gave thumbs up with a smile and Kuroneko shrugged expressionlessly.
I had chosen Saori and Kuroneko to discuss this with because they both knew Kirino’s secret side and Kirino was important to both of them.
Due to Kirino’s position in the world, I had to be careful about who to discuss this kind of thing with. They worked from that standpoint and I figured they would know a thing or two about the writing business, so they were perfect. I was truly thankful.
By the way, there were actually two others who met the requirements I mentioned.
Those were my dad and Ayase. If I got the help of either of them, I doubt there would have been any more powerful helper and their efforts would have rivaled that of a thousand others. However, even if Kirino was extremely important to both of them and they would certainly have listened carefully and helped out had I consulted them, they both had major problems preventing me from doing so.
I’m sure you understand. Their help wouldn’t exactly come easily.
First of all, my dad still did not now Kirino’s cell phone novel was being published because she was sure he would be against it. And yet Kirino had pushed herself too hard and collapsed from the flu. It was hindering her track team practice and the model work she had gotten special permission for. It would make no sense to rely on our dad for this. If we did, we would need to be prepared for his opposition to her otaku interests to be ignited once more once it was all over.
As for Ayase, I had actually had a chance to speak to her a few days before. (She had called me about Kirino collapsing from the flu. Even though I had warned Kirino, I still got one hell of a lecture about it.)
What she had said afterwards was, “Everyone always praises Kirino for her attitude toward her work, so it really is no big deal if she takes a bit of time off because she is sick. However, I know Kirino. She is going to feel really bad about missing work due to her own mistake.”
Apparently, Ayase had spoken to their office and the magazines and volunteered to take on the model work early in the year that Kirino had been scheduled for. She said it would be best if she did it and that Kirino would not feel as bad than if anyone else had done it.
“So I will not be visiting her,” she had said.
“I understand. If you catch her flu, you can’t fill in for her. I’m not quite sure what to say, but tha-“
“No, do not thank me. I am only doing this because I want to.”
Ayase was helping Kirino in her time of need in her own unique way.
We were not the only ones getting overly involved in this.
I could leave that kind of thing to her and take care of what I could here.
And so, I treated Saori and Kuroneko to fries and refills to their drinks while I explained the details of how Kirino’s cell phone novel might have been plagiarized.
“I see…”
“Hm…”
Saori and Kuroneko both listened with patient expressions.
“Really, I just want to check if what I think is going on is really what is going on. This editor named Kumagai Ryuunosuke seems suspicious to me,” I concluded.
“Hmm. I understand where you are coming from,” said Saori in a grave voice as she gathered her thoughts. “But would a mere employee take such a great risk? Even if he was sure that Kiririn-shi’s novel would sell, he would lose his standing if this plagiarism came to light.”
“And even if this editor did this, I do not understand why he would steal the manuscript. Instead of stealing it, would it not be better to sell the author herself? I think it would sell even better if it said ‘the debut work of a beautiful middle school model’ on the cover. They could get her face out there with interviews for a cheap and effective means of advertisement.”
Those are excellent points.
“But it’s hard to imagine this editor had nothing to do with this,” I said.
“Kyousuke-shi, if you have his business card with you, could we see it?”
“Sure. This is it.”
On Saori’s suggestion, I pulled out the business card that editor had given Kirino.
The card read, “Kumagai Ryuunosuke – MediAscii Works Second Editorial Department Mobile Publication Division”
I placed it in the middle of the table and the two of them leaned forward to give it a serious inspection.
“Hmm. Does this Mobile Publication Division run Cell Phone i-Club?”
“I have actually seen a business card for this publisher before, and this looks real to me. I doubt it is a forgery. And even if it is a fake, detailed knowledge of the original would have been necessary to make it,” said Saori in agreement with what Kirino had said before.
Kuroneko then said, “Is there actually a Kumagai working for the editorial department?”
“Yes, I called and checked with the receptionist, and there is. It was treated as a prank call, though.”
“This is only what I have heard, but supposedly the editorial department receives complaints about plagiarized works all the time. Of course, most of them are incorrect assumptions or downright lies, but the department still hears complaint after complaint along those lines. They may think this is just another of those.”
That was the “Boy who Cried Wolf” effect. Finding the one true complaint amid the hundreds of lies would indeed be difficult.
Kuroneko picked up the business card and narrowed her eyes.
“This has a cell phone number and email address written in pen underneath the editorial department’s contact information.”
“Is that a problem? He said he was out a lot, so it would be easier to contact him via his personal phone and address.”
“How trusting are you? You need to have some suspicions about people. Did you never think he was having her call him because it would be a problem for him if she called the company? It’s just…Oh, I see. Given what Saori said, I am betting this card itself is real.”
“Meaning?”
“Are you thinking the person Kiririn-shi met in Shinjuku was a fake taking on the name and occupation of Kumagai-shi, Kuroneko-shi?”
“Yes.”
Kuroneko nodded.
“You mean that bastard wasn’t the actual editor?”
“I believe so.”
“But this is the actual business card of this Kumagai Ryuunosuke. And they met up at the publisher’s office building.”
“Don’t be stupid. Neither of those things proves he is an editor that works for that publisher. She was told to meet him in the publisher’s lobby, right? And you said the actual meeting took place in a nearby café. The lobby isn’t locked, so an outsider could easily meet someone there. Also, he could have handed over a business card he had gotten from the real editor to give credibility to his claim. It is a fairly popular means of fraud.”
“…Fraud?”
“Yes, there is a type of self-paid publishing fraud where someone approaches a hopeful author while pretending to be an editor. The fake editor suggests he publishes the hopeful author’s book, has them give a down payment, and then is never seen again. …A bit similar, don’t you think?”
“But Kirino never had any money taken.”
“True. In this case, it was the manuscript that was stolen, and it is being published by a proper publisher under someone else’s name. The trick is similar, but it is still a bit different. I think these differences are rather important,” said Saori prudently. “Perhaps this man pretending to be Kumagai-shi has some kind of connection with the publisher. Otherwise, he could not have gotten the novel published even with the manuscript and he would not have been able to acquire Kumagai-shi’s business card.”
Saori took out her cell phone and held it out so everyone could see the screen.
It was displaying the introductory page for Little Sister Sky.
“I cannot be sure, but it seems likely this Rino person is the one who stole Kiririn-shi’s manuscript. I do not know what position this person has, but he must have some influence at the publisher. First, Rino-shi must have noticed the popularity of Kiririn-shi’s cell phone novel on the upload site, so he used the real Kumagai-shi’s business card to take on the identity of an editor and approach Kiririn-shi. Once Rino-shi received the manuscript from Kiririn-shi, he took it to the editorial department as something he had written, and successfully had it published. Does that seem realistic?”
“Yes, except for the fact that this…criminal?...set his sights on that rape novel. How could he read that and come to the conclusion that it would sell? It is incomprehensible,” said Kuroneko as she tilted her head back and forth in confusion.
“That cell phone novel was first in the monthly rankings and had 350,000 views in just a month after being submitted. Maybe he decided Kirino would write a novel that would sell because of how the amateurs were receiving it.”
“That is what makes no sense to me. Any readers who enjoyed a shitty novel like that seem like the residents of the demon world to me.”
That’s going a bit too far.
Not only did Kuroneko have a sense of rivalry and jealousy toward Kirino, but she also seemed to have a negative impression of cell phone novels as a whole. She picked the cell phone up from the center of the table and stared coldly at the screen that was displaying Little Sister Sky’s prologue. (It was the scene where Tetsu was hit by the dump truck and turned to mincemeat. The text was as full of newlines as ever.)
“Hmph. Look at this. The shitty writing starts on the very first page. Someone getting hit by a dump truck isn’t going to make a ‘bakohn’ sound. Honestly, just glancing through this is bringing its author’s triumphant smile into my head and making me want to crush this cell phone more and more.”
“K-Kuroneko-shi!? That is my phone!” Saori shouted as the phone started creaking in Kuroneko’s grip.
Kuroneko clicked her tongue and put the phone back on the table.
“So there are really people who would publish writing this bad with no shame? Both the editor and the readers have no aesthetic sense whatsoever.”
…Why does she view the editor in such a hostile light?
Did something happen to her in the past?
“Now, now,” said Saori to pacify her. “At any rate, Rino-shi is someone who can tell what will sell and has guidance on the level of a real editor. He really did meet with Kiririn-shi, advised her, and actually convinced her. And now he has gotten the novel published. I may not be an expert, but it feels to me like Little Sister Sky will be a major hit.”
“Maybe. After her meeting with him, Kirino completely trusted him. She had been really excited, but she had not taken any of it for granted until she had actually met him.”
“Hah. To be honest, I want to tell her this serves her right. I had a feeling it was something like this. Do you have any idea how many dozens of hours she bragged to me about this last month?”
…Why am I not surprised? I knew it was unlikely Kirino hadn’t bragged to Kuroneko…
Saori looked very interested in that comment.
“Ya ha ha. Come to think of it, the online battle between you two reached even our SNS group. Was the direct confrontation over IM?”
“ ‘Kya ha ha! With how you are, you’ll never be anything but a wannabe! You should try to learn from me! Oh, but I guess you can’t! You don’t have the talent!’ I had to put up with that for an entire night on Skype. I will never forget my grudge over that.”
“…Ah, sorry about that.”
I had no choice but to apologize when she stared at me with those red eyes filled with hatred.
Kuroneko must have been quite a good person to help Kirino even after experiencing that.
Anyway, that was how we deduced who the thief likely was.
But we could not come up with any concrete ideas regarding what to do about it.
“We have a good idea what the situation is now, but what are we actually supposed to do? I know it would be best to make them realize Kirino was the one that wrote that cell phone novel. But…”
“That will prove quite difficult.”
“Yes, we have no proof.”
“What about the original manuscript data?”
“The site she saved it to was taken over by this guy. The second she gave him the password, he changed it so she couldn’t get into it anymore…or something like that.”
That meant we had no evidence that Kirino had written the novel.
Refusing to give up, Kuroneko said, “Is the manuscript data still on her computer? Like a backup or…”
“Kuroneko-shi, even if Kiririn-shi has a backup, I doubt it will change much. The entire novel has already been released on the web. If we came forward saying she had the original manuscript data, they would simply say we copied it from the web.”
“…Hmm. That may have been done as insurance made to look like advertisement. …This guy thought this through surprisingly well.”
He was always a step ahead of us. If our assumptions were correct, he was quite crafty.
Silence fell over our table. The three of us each ate the fries that were cold by that point, sipped at our drinks, and gathered our thoughts in our own way.”
Saori was the first one to give an idea.
“It seems to me, the only thing we can do is explain the situation to the editorial department and convince them that Kiririn-shi was the author. As Kyousuke-shi mentioned before, calling by phone merely gets treated as a common complaint. To avoid that, we need to get in direct contact with someone working on the Little Sister Sky project.”
“…Hmph. Thanks for pointing out the obvious. So how are normal middle and high school students supposed to get in contact with someone from the editorial department?”
“…I do happen to have a connection.”
“R-really?” I replied in surprise.
Come to think of it, she did say she had seen that publisher’s business card before.
Natural curiosity grew within me, so I started to ask for details about this connection, but I stopped once I saw her expression.
Looking troubled, Saori was scratching at her cheek. It looked like she was having trouble saying something.
“…Yes. But it is not all that strong a connection. I cannot exactly say the novel was stolen and directly ask to have something done. I can only use some reason or another to get an appointment at the publisher. Unfortunately, that is all I can do. It seems Kumagai-shi belongs to the second editorial department’s mobile publication division, but it would be difficult to get an appointment with that specific division with my connection. I do not directly know anyone in the editorial department.”
“No, that’s enough. Thanks, Saori. You really are reliable.”
I was truly thankful. I may have been the one to ask her, but I felt bad about being that indebted to her. It seemed she did not really want to use this connection.
I bowed my head deeply, but she stuck both hands forward to stop me and said, “Ah ha ha ha. Stop that. You are making me blush.”
Saori rubbed the back of my head and suddenly switched over to a serious tone of voice.
“If it gets that kind of response, then it was worth playing the role of Saori Bajeena.”
“…Ahn?”
“Hah hah hah. Nothing, just talking to myself.”
I decided to let the comment go.
“Okay, I can get us into the publisher, but what do we do then?”
“I have an idea for that. Just leave it to me. …Heh heh heh. If it goes well, I can create a reason to go to the editorial department not just once, but two or three times.”
Hearing that, I felt a chill run down my spine. Kuroneko’s thin, eerie smile was similar to the one my little sister had when she handed me an eroge box.
Two days later, at morning, I went to the Shinjuku publishing company together with Kuroneko.
Saori wasn’t here, probably because she needed to use her connection to give us a chance to enter. Since she acted like it’s a touchy subject, I didn’t ask any further.
The truth is, deep down, I knew that there is no need to ask anymore.
“…Fourth floor, editor department huh….”
“….”
No answer. Just like the usual Kuroneko.
…But, how should I put it, she is the type who rarely speaks anything. By the way, compared to Kirino who wore formal clothing to the meeting, Kuroneko still wore her usual black gothic loli. Does she have any other clothes?...Of course there is no way I could dare say that out loud, thus I remained silent. Beside, these clothes…
She looked like an adult from games who always wore the same clothes whenever they went outside.
While I was thinking randomly, Kuroneko had entered the lobby and walked toward the elevator.
Right after we exited the elevator, we saw a phone right in front of us and two ways leading to both sides. Looks like we could call the editorial department from here.
Took the phone, I inputted the number:
“Please to meet you. It’s Dengeki Bunko Editorial Department.”
“Ah…well, we had a meeting with someone there, I’m Kousaka.”
“Kousaka-san right? Please wait a moment.”
“Sorry, is this the second department?”
“Yes, this is Media ASC II Work, second department, Dengeki Bunko Editorial Department.”
So that Kumagai Ryuunosuke is here, in the Dengeki Bunko’s phone novel editor department huh?
In short, I’m at the right place.
I put the phone down. A short moment later, one door on the left opened, a glasses man appeared, probably to get us. We followed him inside till the large working area.
“Sorry for intrude….”
So this is the editor department…To tell the truth, it was a bit chaotic.
Although the floor was clean and everything was cleaned properly, there was a lot here.
Aside from the many paper boxes on the floor, there were a lot of figures of girls. It looked like an otaku’s room. It didn’t look okay for a working area.
“Please sit here.”
“Thank you.”
We entered a workshop with four chairs. Should we begin discussing it here?
Kuroneko and I chose our place and sat down.
After we removed our cloak, putting our bag down, and taking a sip of tea ---
“Phew ---“
Okay, I can start now.
“Ah…I feel a bit nervous…I wonder if any workshop is the same ~”
I spoke to Kuroneko (who was next to me), but….
“……….”
Her eyes opened wide, her face stiff like a zombie; there were cold sweats on her forehead.
“…Hey hey Kuroneko! Calm down. Are you okay?”
“I’m fine…..”
No you are not. It looked like your soul could escape through your mouth any moment!
This is the battle plan that YOU prepared!
“……But it’s true. You should be more nervous than me. Sorry for making you to go through this.”
"No need to apologize to me.”
With her eyes half closed, Kuroneko replied.
“Beside, this is just an excuse for me; I had no reason to be nervous.”
Kuroneko tried to act tough, but one could easily tell that she was lying.
Okay, I should explain thing now. Today we came here because of a ‘contribution’.
In short, contribution meant that you brought your manga or novel directly to the editor department then begged them to use your work. I heard that – after they looked at your work and decided whether or not they could be used, sometime they would give an instruction or told you how to improve your work, or introduced you to another department. Of course, if your work is not good enough, you might be heavily lectured or outright rejected. Worse case, you would leave while they laughed at you from behind.
Kuroneko once told me: “You really had no real experience, stop saying so much.”
Here wasn’t as noisy as I thought (I predicted this place would have a scary editor who always screamed loudly, and many staffs who were busy with writers), but I could hear the staff talking with other authors.
So this is Dengeki Bunko’s phone novel editor department like.
Thanks to Saori’s connection, we can safety entered this place to let them see our ‘contribution’.
In other words, we were here to do recon. Let me summaries our job here for you.
We were at ‘Degenki Bunko, second editor department’.
And ‘Kumagai Ryuunosuke’ belonged to ‘Second department, phone novel group’.
He is the one we are looking for.
After carefully considered Kuroneko’s novel, we decided to ask Saori for a favor to go to this ‘Dengeki Bunko second Editorial Department’. If we are lucky, we might be able to meet that ‘Kumagai Ryuunosuke’.
Since it wasn’t something we had experience in, we were very nervous.
“Say, why are you here empty handed? Where is your novel?”
“I sent them ahead…How could I denied them the right to read it until now?”
Ah ~ yeah, that’s right.
“By the way, what did you send…?”
“Before…I came to your house, remember? There was a black notebook. That was the one ---“
“……………..You meant….that?”
“Is something wrong?”
“Nothing….”
That… that book…that Kirino rated ‘not worth a single coin’…you sent that?
Will…will it be okay?…But there is something else that demanded my attention immediately…
“About that…because we are going to meet with an adult, you shouldn’t speak to them like a friend.”
She wasn’t behind Kirino in badmouthing others.
“…Hm...I know that without you telling me.”
Kuroneko raised a hand to cover her face, then her other hands quickly rose to the side.
Then – her iris turned black.
“….Camouflage success. This personality should be fine, right?”
Wait what? What is with that ‘I had switched my personality to something suited for a formal meeting’ development?
You just removed your contact lens, didn’t you?
“Are you for real…?”
I had no time to confirm, because someone just entered the room.
That was a man who wore a white scarf like a pirate. He had a warm sheep-fur cloak, which made him looked like a manager.
“Ah, sorry sorry! The one that you are supposed to meet still hasn’t arrived! Sorry, can you please wait five more minutes?”
“Ah..sure.”
“Really? Thank you! During that time, feel free to look at those magazines over here!”
Because he was apologizing non-stop, he seemed to be a good man.
But he told us to read those magazines…and then he sat down right in front of us.
“Please to meet you, my name is Henkutsu. I might look like this, but I’m an editor too.”
“Then…Henkutsu-san?”
“Haha, strange right? Everyone here had a nickname for themselves. We always called each other via nickname.”
Why does it sound like a secret evil organization? I really wanted to get out of here!
“But you two are a rare case. Usually, we don’t accept contributions from outside unless they are from professional or semi-professional author. Not to mention that your work was quite special.”
“I see…”
From the beginning, I could only say ‘I see’. I never thought that he also had read Kuroneko’s work.
“Yes, but that was back when our company was still small – you see, we used to buy and sell that stuff.”
Henkutsu pointed around.
But the way he said…it wasn’t clear what exactly what he talked about. Looked like Henkutsu-san misunderstood, thinking that we already had basic knowledge about this company, so it’s understandable that sometimes we failed to understand him.
Although I realized that, I didn’t ask him back ‘when exactly is that’. Why you ask? Because Saori looked like she didn’t want to mention this connection of hers.
Kuroneko didn’t say anything too. Or rather, she didn’t say anything since Henkutsu-san entered.
“But we still decided to give your work a shot then meet you this time.”
So he decided to come clear about it?
“Although it’s only my personal opinion, but I do agree that your work is quite special. Your work is a doujinshi about Maschera, in a time travel fashion, right? I liked Maschera too myself, so I understand the desire to make a time travel story. To tell the truth, your story used too much reference from the original, so the reader might not be able to understand it easily. I could read a huge reference without problem, but most people can’t. You should pay attention to that too.”
“Ah…ack….”
Hm, not bad Kuroneko! He got a point!
I secretly glared at her, only to see that there was a hint of red in her usual emotionless face. Of course, that didn’t change the fact that we came here to find out more about whatever happened with ‘Maisora’, especially ‘Kumagai Ryuunosuke’. This contribution was only an excuse.
But if Kuroneko’s story could gain anything from this, that didn’t sound bad.
“Ah right right, you two – since I didn’t know what kind of author you are, I was quite surprise to see that you are so young, not to mention that you are two people instead of one.”
“I see.”
“So, in other words, that story was written by both of you? There was a manga sent together to us…so one of you took care of the original story?”
“No….”
Before I could speak – that I only followed Kuroneko here, she interrupted me:
“That’s right, we brother and sister did that together.”
“I see.”
“Wait..! What are you saying…!”
Kuroneko immediately covered my mouth, and didn’t allow me to speak.
Her emotionless black iris stared directly at me:
“Am I wrong – Nii-san?”
“……..!?”
Since when did we have that setup? I knew nothing about it?
With eyes full of hated, I stared back, but if Kuroneko already said so then there was nothing I could do to correct her.
My only option was to keep up, so I answered him:
“That’s right, we both did that.”
“What exactly is your part in this?”
You asked me what is my part.….Kuroneko did everything, how should I answer now?
I scratched my head and hesitated, but Kuroneko answered in my place like it’s nothing:
“Nii-san helped me about reference, like name for special skill and like….”
“Like, this ‘Divine Demonic Destructive Thrust’?”
“Yes, he came up with this after wreaking his brain.”
I never did that! It’s just your opinion only!
Kuroneko glanced at me…
“The truth is I did both the manga and novel. But Nii-san helped me with reference, which is something absolutely vital to me, so that’s why I said we both did.”
Damn! That look on your face…like you are giving me a reward…I never asked you to do that!
In other words, now, that super big book is my work too? I never actually read it, and wasn’t it the same one that Kirino bashed heavily and called it a black history, a book of sorcery?
“Uhm…but I couldn’t imagine what ‘Divine Demonic Destructive Thrust’ is like.”
Look! He has a very troubled expression!
Hearing a criticized, Kuroneko looked displeased and narrowed her eyes, but she kept asking:
“Then... Henkutsu-san, what would you name it?”
“That….”
Henkutsu-san placed his hand together a few seconds ---
“How about ‘Pure Magic Destructive Killing Wave’?”
…What is the difference?
Ah, sorry. This is only an outsider’s opinion (me), actually I had no idea if there was any difference….
The next part of our conversation was between Kuroneko and that editor about naming (I didn’t notice any different between all the names they came up with). Because all of this was a meaningless topic (my personal opinion only), so I really wanted to find another editor and asked about ‘Maisora’. But since today, the main character is Kuroneko, and she was focusing on her conversation with Henkutsu-san, so I couldn’t interrupt them.
When they had a slight pause, I took that chance and interrupted them:
“Sorry, but what kind of person our editor is?”
“Er? Ah…his nickname here among us is ‘Puurin.
“What a cute nickname”
Could it be that we had female editor? An image of big breast office lady entered my head.
“Everyone thought so at first too! But you were wrong. You will definitely scream when you see him!”
“I see…”
“…Why would we scream?”
Kuroneko asked in confusion.
“Haha, because --- “
Henkutsu-san spoke in a low voice and raised a hand, like he was telling us a horror story.
At the same time, someone appeared behind him.
“He looked like Akuma[1].”
“..Sorry I’m late. I’m Puurin. Please to meet you.”
He introduced himself in a deep voice. What a precisely timing.
Henkutsu-san noticed this too, he ‘Wow’ and turned back, then immediately bowed:
“Sorry! I didn’t know that you were behind me.”
“It’s fine…I’m used to it.”
He was an elder man with white hair that looked like fire.
Just like Henkutsu-san said, he really looked like that hidden character in that fighting game. Even I knew it too.
He had deep-set eyes, his face had wrinkled and his skin was dark. But unlike Akuma, he was incredibly thin almost like a sick person, but his eyes were sharp, so he gave off quite a pressure.
My father’s face was like a gangster too, but this man – forgive my rudeness – he had an inhuman terrified aura
To tell the truth, I could feel him faintly emitted killing intent.
Yet his nickname is Puurin, Puurin! What the heck…? Who, who gave him that cute nickname? Don’t tell me he picked it himself.
“…Please to meet you, I’m Kousaka.”
“Please to meet you.”
Both Kuroneko and I were terrified, but we still bowed and greeted him politely.
Then, as expected, Puurin-san spoke in a tone like it came from the deepest part of hell “Same here…” and nodded.
After Puurin-san sat down, Henkutsu-san stood up.
“I’m going back to my work now, do your best ~.”
Left that encouraging words behind, he quickly get out.
Eh?For real? Next --- Are we going to have a talk with this Puurin-san? Don’t do that! Don’t leave us behind? Why do I feel like I was left behind on a sacrificial altar?
“…Something wrong? *Stare*”
“Nothing!” *Shock*
Our eyes met for a second; then, I immediately looked away. Damn! This is definitely not good! How could I ask about ‘Maisora’ and ‘Kumagai Ryuunosuke’ from that clearly hard-approached person?
I simply had no way at all ~~! I should have asked Henkutsu-san instead! Damn, what should I do!
Feeling troubled, I looked aside and meet Kuroneko’s eyes. She probably looked away for the same reason as me. Even Kuroneko had no way to face this man.
“I have to do this…”
Kuroneko muttered, like she was talking to herself. Then she turned forward and timidly asked:
“…Sorry, did you see the doujinshi that I sent a few days ago?”
“I had seen them…all the references too.”
Puurin-san favored short and direct words, while Kuroneko always spoke in a low tone, so when they spoke it gave a depressed feeling. I could almost see a black air rising. In this case, two negative didn’t make a positive.
“This is a photocopy of the novel and the reference.”
Puurin-san threw a pack of A4 papers on the table. There were three packs in total; each was kept together by a small clip.
….There was my share too…but I never read any of them…
I looked down at my pack and felt a bit guilty. I should have read them before.
While at the same time, Puurin-san looked at the note on the table – the same one that Henkutsu-san just wrote.
“Brother and sister wrote it together…the little sister is the main writer, penname ‘Kuroneko’…right?”
“Yes.”
“Kuroneko-san, are you planning to become a novelist? I saw that you also made a manga within that doujinshi…”
Puurin-san didn’t pay me any attention, he only asked Kuroneko that.
Probably his trained eyes already saw that I’m only a ‘decoration’.
“…I….”
Kuroneko gripped the hem of her skirt tightly and looked down.
Then she tried to spoke her feeling:
“…I like both writing novel and drawing manga. If possible, I’d like to try both…but today I came here to contribute my novel.”
“I understand. Then, can I take it as you are planning to make your debut here?”
“Yes.”
“Good. Then…I will begin our discussion with that as our base foundation.”
They began their peaceful conversation, just like between a doctor and a patient.
“Please tell me about your experience in amateur novelist competition.”
“I send my application every year to your company.”
“How many years exactly? Have you tried sending it to other company?”
“Three years in total. Aside from your company, I also applied in MF and SD amateur novelist competition, but I have never made it till the final round.”
“I see…Although you are still young, that’s good.”
“I’m still inexperience….thank you for your compliment.”
………………..I can’t take it anymore.
What is with that heavy atmosphere? Henkutsu-san, can you please come back here?
Since I had nothing to do, I began to look around. This room was separated by a partition, with numerous cabinets and paper boxes acted as a wall prevent me from seeing anything.
We were inside a workshop, but it looked like we were at a small room.
And since we were speaking with a terrifying looking man, it gave the feeling that we were being held in an interrogation room.
“It’s rare to see someone so young yet participate every year. Is there any reason for you to do that?”
“...Just like I said, I really like writing novel…But to tell the truth, I also wanted to earn money. A novel’s royalty is much better than my current part time job’s salary, not to mention that it could improve my family’s income.”
That was the first time I heard the reason Kuroneko wanted to become a novelist. Although during Summer Comiket, I had overheard a bit…maybe her family’s wasn’t as rich as I thought.
She had to work part time in order to enjoy her hobby too…huh? Both Kirino and this girl are only in middle school, but they were amazing. As their senior, I should learn from them.
“…..Do you think that is an impure reason?”
Hearing Kuroneko asked that, Puurin-san stayed silence. Then…
“No.”
Just one word. Somehow I felt that Puurin-san was angry since the beginning.
Could it be that was because he heard Henkutsu-san described him ‘looked like Akuma’? Ugh, such bad luck.
The conversation continued in a heavy atmosphere…They kept talking about this topic.
“Uhm, about your manuscript, after I read it, my opinion is….”
*Thud*…I could almost hear Kuroneko’s heartbeat.
“This isn’t worth discussing.”
Puurin-san told us the result directly.
“I think this is understandable, since you never pass the amateur’s competition, of course you couldn’t make something that could be published. Also, we are having this conversation only because I own someone a debt. Although saying this might be too much, but if you thought that you would receive special treatment because of that connection, you are completely wrong. Otherwise, that would be too rude toward those who took part in our amateur completion.”
“…I understand. Today, I felt embarrassed too for asking this unreasonable request of you.”
Kuroneko whispered her apology. Hearing that, my stomach twisted.
Because she came here since she agreed to my request to help Kirino.
It wasn’t like I don’t understand Puurin-san hated Kuroneko since he thought she used her connection to get this meeting, but I should be the one to listen to that – yet I mustn’t explain everything now.
If I did, all of Kuroneko’s effort until now would be in vain.
“This is the only time I agreed for a meeting using connections. Next time, please send your manuscript normally like the others. Then…about the content….”
“…Yes…”
“…There is an interesting point during this character’s conversation. Especially about that character that doesn’t appear in the original Maschera called Kirino…After I read it, my head is full of her. She is so moe….”
That damn old man. Look how old you are, what are you saying moe for? With your tone and face….Of course I knew that this was his job, but this character is based on my little sister! Damn it, now I remembered what I forgot. Wasn’t it that the doujinshi had a sex slave scene? Kuroneko, please don’t send them that.
“But…I don’t really like that character….”
“Is that so…so unfortunate. But I feel that aside from Kirino, all the other character didn’t leave a good impression since there were too many of them. Of course adding many characters isn’t a bad thing, but it looks like you still haven’t mastered this technique. Aside from that over complicated setup, the over the top description – it might be a little hard to hear, but this turned into a self-satisfied novel…That kind of novel, I really doubt it could passed a second examination. Even if this is a doujinshi based on something else, this wasn’t good. It’s far from something that could be sold.”
Hearing Puurin say such heavy criticisms in such a nonchalantly way, Kuroneko paled even more than usual.
At first, she could counter by saying ‘If we change it like this…’ or ‘Here, it’s not…’ or ‘Power of Darkness is an important aspect that I created, so…’. However, all of them was rebuked with ‘This is only your opinions, the reader don’t care about them. It’s only making it more difficult to read’ and ‘Its fine if you expressed yourself in writing, but there is something more important, isn’t it?’. Faced with the cruel logic, she slowly lost the will to fight back.
“…That was all I need to say about it in general. Next I will talk about each part…I will begin from the first page, please look at the photocopy in your hand.”
This time, Puurin-san made many harsh criticisms with each and every word. The photocopy in his hand had each of its page covered in red.
Could it be…all of them were Kuroneko’s novel’s ‘weak point’? Is he going to list them all?
Time continued. I and Kuroneko had no choice but to grit our teeth and endured those harsh criticisms.
Ten minutes. Twenty minutes.
One hour. Three hours…Finally.
Kuroneko still looked down and listened, but
“….*Snob…snob…snob*!”
“How dare you make my little sister cry! Must you say it that way? It was too much! She is just a middle school girl!”
Hearing Kuroneko’s silent cry, my anger suddenly rose – I unconsciously roared.
Not to mention that I even stood up and slammed on the table.
“…..”
Facing my outburst, Puurin-san wasn’t affected at all. Without saying a single word, he took a cloth and wiped the tea that was spilled on the table because I slammed on it earlier.
Seeing him act like that, I came back to my senses. Because I just shouted, everyone must have heard it by now. They are probably on their way here to see what is going on.
I felt so bad. The thought that Kuroneko must be thinking the same made me wanted to disappear.
“…Kuh!”
Ahh damn it! What a disgrace! He talked to us in a professional way, but we treated him so rude. True, he was harsh, but what’s wrong with pointing out the weak point of a story? Telling on the good thing will never help the author to improve. He wasn’t our teacher at school or family member; he was talking with us in an equal position, telling us how to work right. We should have listened to him earnestly.
…But I couldn’t stop myself from shouting.
That was her story, something he put all of her effort into. Yet he firmly said it ‘isn’t worth discussing’. Even if it was true, it hurt to hear that.
Kuroneko was the same as Kirino. Such a big doujinshi, she must have put all of her effort into it.
But he ---
“Nii-san.”
Suddenly, Kuroneko’s gentle voice made my heart, which was burning with anger calmed down. That gentle voice was the same when she spoke with her little sister. She pulled my sleeves.
Probably wanting me to sit down.
Kuroneko used her sleeves to wipe her tears and looked at me with her moist eyes:
“I’m fine…Thank you for getting angry because of me.”
“…Is…is that so?”
Her beautiful face with a hint of tears made my heart skipped a beat. She…she is a beautiful girl after all, I just fail to notice it…almost forgot it. But seeing her crying face made my heart raced – am I a pervert? She is still a middle school girl!
“…I’m very sorry, as long as it’s something about his little sister, Nii-san easily lose his calm.”
“…I’m sorry too, suddenly shouting like that.”
Hey hey, I’m not losing my calm…Although I thought that, but I still bowed together with Kuroneko
“It’s fine…I don’t mind it at all.”
Thankfully Puurin-san forgave me, he didn’t looked like he cared.
“How about a little break?”
…With an emotionless voice, Puurin-san said that and stood up. Since he left with a wet cloth in his hand, he was probably on his way to wash it.
“…That was… embarrassing.”
Kuroneko spoke in a hesitating tone. This was the first time I saw she acted so honest.
“…Because of me, now it’s even harder to ask about Kumagai Ryuunosuke….”
“No, I was at fault too…if it wasn’t because of me, you won’t….Sorry.”
Both of us apologized. We could only spoke our true feeling now.
There was a strange feeling in my guts. There shouldn’t be many things to say between us, but somehow we could understand what each other was thinking. What is going on?
An unknown uncomfortable time passed…
Then Puurin-san returned. Somehow, he brought a tray with him.
“Please enjoy…”
With such a short line, he left the tray with tea and snack on the table.
“Please enjoy yourself….”
“I see…”
He…what is he going to do? What is he thinking? He didn’t get angry, did he…?
Right in front of our surprised eyes, Puurin-san sat down like it’s nothing. With the same Devil-like face, he calmly took a spoon of pudding and put it into his mouth. After devouring it, he slowly nodded:
“Pudding tasted good. It could improve your mood.”
…..Eh? Both me and Kuroneko looked at each other's. Could it be that this guy….
“…Is he trying to encourage us?”
“…I’m no good when it’s come to talking…sorry.”
A corner of his mouth raised – a terrifying smile appeared. Although his smile could make a kid faint…but I felt like he was encouraging us.
That’s right. Although he was harsh when giving his opinions, his appearance looked like a devil, but he wasn’t a bad man. He wasn’t a bad man at all ---
“Ahaha…could it be…Puurin-san, you had that nickname because you like pudding?”
“Yes…because pudding look like breast.”
---- He is just a perverted old man!
Puurin-san kept tapping the tray and looked at the pudding with a satisfied expression.
“…Don’t you think that it will calm you down? Our manager told us to eat five puddings in under ten seconds.”
If that’s how you hope to calm us down, then you failed miserably.
“…..Nii-san…He is…nuts.
“Quite. What if he heard us….”
Seeing the pervert ceremony of a cult happened in front of our eyes, I and Kuroneko whispered to each other.
To tell the truth, we were so scared that we wanted to run away…But the end result was that the heavy atmosphere was blown away. So…thanks to that action, Puurin-san made himself to be more approachable.
After finished his meal, Puurin-san clapped his hand together and said ‘I’m done’.
“Then, let’s continue our talk from earlier. I want to talk about the development later.”
“…Later?”
I could see that Kuroneko choose a completely defensive style. Probably because she felt uneasy since she didn’t know what would he said.
“Yes…I meant…the next part of this doujinshi.”
“Eh? The next?”
Kuroneko’s eyes widened. She asked again:
“That…didn’t you just say that my doujinshi wasn’t worth discussing? And you said this meeting would be the last?”
“That’s right. After reading your manuscript, I have to apologize. I couldn’t take the responsible of becoming your editor. Like I said before, no matter how much you wanted to publish your work, please took part in as any amateur writers. Use your own strength instead of rely on connections. Otherwise, that’s no good in the long run.”
“Yes…I know.”
When I thought he would end our meeting here – suddenly Puurin-san continued: “However…”
“I still welcome you if you brought another manuscript. But this is only my personal suggestion, I will not give you any special treatment, nor can I promise that your manuscript will be published here. If you can accept that..No, if you aren’t afraid to repeat what happened today again….”
Then you have to prepare yourself to face another harsh criticism.
This must be what he meant.
Kuroneko – she took a deep breath, nodded and said “I understand…”
“…Please take care of me later.”
“…Me too. However, in your current state, even if I said it in a polite way, your work’s standard is still low, thus don’t get your hope up and neglected your homework and study. The number of writers who succeed in writing is actually not that high. For example, I once took care of a writer – he need ten years to make his debut; yet he could disappear at any moment if his book failed to attract the reader…I hope you could treasure your life.”
Puurin-san repeated his harsh words, then he looked down.
…That meant…
“..Do you mean that my chance to debut at your company is rather low?”
“That’s right.”
He said ‘that’s right’! He just made her cry a moment before! Looked like the word ‘politely speaking’ wasn’t included in his dictionary!
“However…That’s not all I wanted to say, and while I don’t know if I could express myself clearly enough…but I think that ‘wannabe’ writers like Kuroneko-san consider make a debut their top priority. Allow me to say one thing based from my job experience: debuting is just the beginning, it’s not an end.”
Then he paused for a second.
“After making a debut, how you live everyday will be completely changed. First, you will have to deal with the deadline, new knowledge and new material. You will be so busy what you don’t have time to processing them, but at the same time you can’t stop writing. This is something that only you could experience yourself to understand. Even if you couldn’t become a writer…to be able to find something that you want to do and do it is not totally meaningless. This might a bit too much and might anger other writers – but should you wait until you retire in your work and make your debut with your life experience, I think it’s still not too late.”
This is a harsh experience, something only an old man could say.
She clearly said she wanted to become a writer now, but he suggested waiting near forty years later.
Just from this, I concluded that he is like a granny, always make thing more complicated.
But still, he only said that because he hoped the best for us, not because of his work. Although I’m still angry with him, still praying that he get a heart attack and die right now…I still agree that he is trustworthy.
Puurin-san looked at Kuroneko:
“After our talk just now, do you think that I said all of this to make you give up on your dream of becoming a writer?”
“Yes. I got the feeling that you were patronizing me and said ‘I will not harm you, find something else to do, because you got no talent at all’. It made me quite unhappy.”
This girl answered ‘Yes’! She even said that he patronizing her and made her unhappy. Although I got the same feeling, that wasn’t something you could just speak out! How could you be aggressive toward anyone? Where is the girl who quietly sat here and listened just now? Did she die?
“Hahaha, I made you unhappy because I patronizing you?”
Puurin-san heard Kuroneko’s answered and broke into laughter.
Scary! I think he is really angry now….
“Ah – sorry. I really liked to be lectured. With my age, it’s rare to meet someone who will lecture me, so even I don’t know myself…”
“I think so too.”
Kuroneko’s nasty words didn’t stop, she totally reverted back to her normal personality.
“Then I will ended this lecture with patronize way. Kuroneko-san – please treasure your ‘wannabe’ self. No matter if you became a writer or not, if there is something that makes you want to become a writerto earn money or not,I think that there are other things that you want to do, right? You’re still young, that’s why you should have various experiences, see various things, and enjoy your life. I think that’s a good shortcut to becoming a writer. It’s a matter of your own future, so please think about it slowly and carefully.
“…Thank you for your advice, I will try my best.”
She totally said something she doesn’t want to say. Although it sounded like the normal Kuroneko, I got a bad feeling about this.
“I will try my best to live up to an old man’s suggestion.”
Puurin-san rebuked:
“Then please take this. This is my email address and phone number, please use that to contact me.”
He gave us his card. Kuroneko took that, her eyes widened, her body froze.
“Onii…Nii-san…this ---“
“What…is wrong?”
Seeing Kuroneko’s strange reaction, I took a look at the card.
Media ASC II Work, second department, Dengeki Bunko Editorial Department.
“Eh? Wait a second…this name ---“
I was totally in chaos and did a double take at this card.
“…Is something unclear?”
Puurin-san seemed to misunderstand the reason we acted this way.
“Allow me to reintroduce myself. My nickname is Puurin, my name is Kumagai Ryuunosuke, please to meet you…”
He told us why his ‘nickname’ and his ‘name on the card’ were different.
A few days later, we returned to Media Asc II Work’s meeting room. This was a room at the fifth floor, right above the second department. There were sofas that surrounded a long table, a small tree in the corner, thus this place gave off a feeling like a meeting room. Based on what Puurin-san said, this was a room used when they gathered for a meeting or had an interview.
Among the fifth floors, there were some rooms that looked like karaoke room.
And we were inside one of them. At the moment, I and Kuroneko was the only one here, we were sitting on the sofa and waited.
Maybe that the soundproof wall was very good, everything was quite. I could probably hear a pin dropped here.
“Say, there is no need for you to come with me.”
“Nii-san…this is the third time you said that.”
Kuroneko looked forward and answered without turning her head. There was no one here, but she kept calling me ‘Nii-san’. Even Kirino never called me this way, so when Kuroneko called me that, I felt a bit uncomfortable.
“I had mistakenly board a pirate ship. Now it had become like this, are you going to leave me out?”
“That is not what I meant…”
“Also, I hate the person who gave me that unhappy memory. I want to see the moment they fired her. It’s fine if I kick her once or twice right?”
“It’s not fine. Don’t do that.”
Her words were filled with tiredness and resentment.
She clearly held a grunge for more than four hours of merciless criticism.
That meeting…even now I could still remembered it, not to mention last night I even had a dream…could it be that every editor was that way too?
This part is not good. This should be left out. Here doesn’t feel logical ---
So noisy ~ damn it! Now it became totally different from the original writing! Damn it! Why don’t you write it instead – then I threw the manuscript at their face.
Of course I couldn’t do it in real life.
Well, it’s not possible to make something that would please everyone.
That was true no matter that you were a police officer, a Japanese sweets maker, or a writer.
--- Since there was a bit of time left, let me explain our current situation.
So Puurin-san is the same ‘Kumagai Ryuunosuke’ that we are looking for.
Thankfully, because of Kuroneko’s nasty tongue, we easily explained everything about him. About another reason for us to came here.
When we showed him ‘Kumagai Ryuunosuke’s card’, he himself acknowledge that this is his card. Seemed that he had a different set of business cards for the Dengeki Books Editorial Department and the Mobile Phone Division.Also, based on his explanation, the Mobile Phone Division was created for the sake of public image, and that the staff belonging to it was essentially the same as the staff at the Dengeki Books Editorial Department. They operated out of the same place, and the same editors worked there
My explanation might not be very clear, so allowed me to quote him directly :
“This is quite a secret, but if I had to put it bluntly, I would say that it’s a strategy to maintain our public image. The target audience for cell phone novels is young women, so we have to try to hide the moe moe sides of the business. So, the mobile division might have the same staff as Dengeki Books, but we say to the public that it’s a separate department. The public homepages of the two departments also don’t mention each other. That’s why we use different business cards for each side of the business… I apologize if that confused you.”
That was basically it. We originally decided to use Saori’s connection with Dengeki Bunko to see if we could meet that ‘Kumagai Ryuunosuke’ of Mobile Division. But it turned out we didn’t have to, because he was sitting right in front of us. Not to mention that the ‘Kumagai Ryuunosuke’ that we meet at the department was a scary-looking old man, completely different from the suit-wearing, young-looking male that I saw.
In other words, the Kumagai Ryuunosuke that Kirino meet was a fake. That result was enough to gave us a shock.
“Still, where did you get that card?”
“Yes, actually we came here to ask you about this….”
I told him the reason regard ‘Maisora’. But of course, you guy must understand that someone as cowardly as me couldn’t possibly tell him immediately ‘someone stole it from another’. Instead I asked him about the author of this.
“Ah, ah, you want to ask about the author? This is someone I just told you about, Rino-sensei who only made her debut after ten years. Recently, the phone novel that she wrote, well, it simply felt like it was written by a completely different person, very interesting – to tell the truth, I was very surprised when I found out that she could write something like that. Of course, I was also surprised because after so many years, I never found out about her skill. To think that she took that long, maybe it’s because of my incompetence. Actually…I was both surprised and regretful…Ah…her novel this time is definitely going to be famous!”
Kumagai-san said full of excitement. He must be very happy because after so long, the writer he took care of had gained successful.
On the other hand, I am totally convinced that ‘Rino’ is the thief.
“What is Rino-sensei like?”
“Ah, um – actually …”
--- Anyway, that’s all about it. We were going to get to the next part right now.
The door opened, then Kumagai-san entered, followed by someone else.
Right after that person saw us on the sofa, that person blinked a few times.
“ –Eh?”
It was hard to guess that person’s gender based on voice alone, but that voice was very clear. That person turned out to be a short-hair woman in blue pant and suit. She looked quite intelligent, and there was a mole under her left eyes. If I had to guess, she was about twenty, with a very tall body and a nearly flat chest. If it wasn’t because of the makeup and her earring, she could be easily mistaken for a good looking male, but now she looked like a female manager.
“…Kumagai-san, aren’t we going to have a talk about the second volume of ‘Maisora’ today? Is this the wrong room?”
“No, we are at the right place. Let me introduce you, this is Kousaka-san and Kuroneko-san, they had something very important to talk with you Fate-chan.”
Fate…Fate-Chan?
“Kumagai-san, I beg of you, please don’t call me Fate-chan anymore. My penname is ‘Rino’ now, please call me that!”
…So this is ‘Rino’. She called herself that without any change in her tone, her expression right in front of us….The image if my sick little sister popped up in my head and made my blood boiled.
But now wasn’t the time to let my anger show.
I suppressed my rage and stood up to greet her.
“Please to meet you.”
“….Please to meet you.”
Next to me, Kuroneko did the same. The woman called Fate (I don’t want to call her ‘Rino’ ) greeted us with a confused expression.
“Ah, please to meet you too…I’m Rino…About…Kumagai-san?”
“Ah, just sit down and listen to them.”
“…I don’t mind. Ah, I know, you must be here to get more reference right? But I just got an interview…Could it be that you like the web version that much?”
She happily sat down in front of us. By the way, Kumagai-san was still stood at the door, emitted a faint killing intent .
“Then just ask anything you like ~ are you two brother and sister? Your little sister looked so cute.”
“….Yeah yeah, right right…..”
Could we manage to expose her mask during the time we had? Of course we had prepared a plan…But this wasn’t enough to totally prove that she stole someone else’s work. Whether we successes in taking back Kirino’s novel or not is depended on our action.
Kuroneko made the first move:
“Can I ask you something?”
“Of course!Anything!”
She happily replied, totally into her ‘serving fan’ mode.
Kuroneko opened her mouth, when I was wondering where she would start her attack ---
“Why are you called Fate-chan?”
She started from there? Although I was a bit curious myself.
That woman’s face twisted, and then slowly turned into an unpleasant scold. Although she quickly changed back, but anyone can see that was a forced smile. Looked like this was a touchy subject for her, but she deserved it.
“…My full name is Fate Iori Setsuna.”
“..You meant that was your previous pen name?”
Kuroneko suddenly threw a curved ball, now let’s see how that woman reached…
“That was…my real name.”
--- What did…you say?
“…What did you just say?”
“I said Fate Iori Setsuna is my real name! Unbelievable, right? People always said it was like a name from anime or light novel! But this can’t be helped, that was what my parents named me! I’m three quarter Japanese! I knew that name is ridiculous…Is there any problem with that?”
“….But I think that name is cool….”
Are you for real? Your face is full of admiration!
Kuroneko’s eyes shone, her cheeks reddened, her breathing ragged. Looked like that name Fate Iori Setsuna really fired her up.
“…Can I call you Fate-chan too?”
“You can't! You…you…were you even listening to me?”
Kuroneko was making that woman angry. Although I didn’t feel that she did it on purpose, but that gave me a bit of satisfaction.
Good. Keep going.
“Really – didn’t I just tell you Kumagai-san? Please call me ‘Rino’. This is my pen name from now on.”
“Can’t do that. I will not call you ‘Rino’.”
It would be a waste of time to keep up with this farce, I decided now was the time. I told this straight to Fate’s face.
“Because you aren’t the author of ‘Maisora’.”
“..What? What are you talking about?”
Fate titled her head in confusion. Facing my question, she didn’t even waver, completely acting oblivious! Damn, seemed like I wasn’t good with talking….
Kuroneko snorted “hmm”, like she was saying ‘this guy is so useless’ then her expression changed into ‘leave everything to me, step aside’ before turned to face Fate and began her nasty verbal attack:
“…Stop pretending, you damn insect. You are to look down on me, low-life? Are you still trying to anger me now?”
Kuroneko-san, was that a bit too much?
Calling her an insect in a cursed-filled voice? If that was me, I would be crying already!
“Hey hey, be quite for a second.”
For Kuroneko, this was her very normal way of talking, while I was used to it, thus all I thought was ‘again huh’…But you had to notice the other's expression too! Since your words were too much, they didn’t know how to reach!
“What…what did you say?”
“Nothing.Nothing at all. I just said that you stole ‘Maisora’. Am I wrong?”
I agreed that my method of interrogation was too soft, it didn’t feel like I could be a detective.
“Kuma – Kumagai-san! What is going on with those two? They are calling me a thief --!”
Fate pointed her finger at us and stood up. When she spoke to Kumagai-san in such anger-filled voice, he calmly replied:
“…According to them, ‘Maisora’ was something written by his little sister, before you stole its manuscript. Not only that, you even pretend to be me.”
Kumagai-san took the card with Fate’s phone number and email address and put it on the table. Seeing that, she said:
“And you believe that?”
“….That wasn’t the issue right now, but that is my card for sure. And the contact information on that was Fate-chan’s. Of course, that didn’t mean anything, but this case was different from the others, so I called Fate-chan here.”
“How could that be? Kumagai-san, even you don’t trust me too?”
Fate yelled. If Kumagai-san truly believed his writer is innocent, he should have told her that beforehand. She must be thinking this way.
The editor that she had worked for a long time didn’t trust her.
That desperate yell might not be a fake. Even if she was my enemy, I couldn’t help but feel a bit of remorse.
“No, we begged Kumagai-san for ten minutes meeting with Fate-chan, and we also asked him to not mention this to you.”
“I told you don’t call me Fate!”
Seemed like she really hated that name. Although her voice and expression were full of anger, I wasn’t afraid of it one bit. Kumagai-san said without changing his expression:
“…I only want to make this clear. I myself of course hope that act of stealing is nothing but a lie. Fate-chan, if you could prove your innocent, this would be much simplier. I will strongly give them a warning and forbid them from entering here again. I told you before, I did this because of my responsible as your editor.”
That was what he really thought. After hearing what we said and our evidences, Kumagai-san gave us that chance…but he wasn’t on our side. Between a writer that he had been taken care of for a long time and two brats that he just meet, it’s clear who he trusted more.
“…I understand, Kumagai-san…Then it can’t be help. I will play along with them.”
Hearing her editor said that, Fate turned calm again.
“Then let’s hear what you have to say. So – how? You said I stole someone else’s manuscript? I want to end this conversation as fast as possible, so let’s get to the point. Do you have any proof?”
Tch…I knew that she would resorted to this.
That woman took Kirino’s website and gained control of all the manuscript inside, then she posted all of them in the Internet.
Because of that, she erased all the evidences that proof Kirino was Maisora’s author.
What a cunning scheme.
“I will make it clear, I steal nothing. Maisora is mine. If you said that I stole it but can’t prove any evidences, you must have prepared yourself, right?”
“Kuh…”
No, I can’t give up now. Yes, all the evidence on the Internet had been erased, but…When I was searching in my bag for evidences, Fate narrowed her eyes and turned to Kuroneko:
“And you, little girl, what is with you? Is your mouth always that nasty? Do you think I will forgive that?”
“Fool. Why should I show respect to a thief? A useless, crappy wannabe writer that unable to make a debut for ten years, do you think that you are good now? You just stole some crappy manuscript someone else wrote and think that you are a good author now? What a joke. Say, do you think that there is any reason for you to continue living in this world?”
“Don’t screw with me! Do you have proof or not? Yes or no? What exactly is your answer?”
“Hm – now that was your true color, right? Idiot. I was wondering what would you say, but ‘Do you have proofs or not?’. Hm hm…whoever said that almost always turned out to be guilty. Hmhm…your death is coming close…Come…Die in my arms….”
Are you a Demon King? Go back to Alefgard, damn it!
If that was a nasty-speaking contest, then Kuroneko would won for sure.
Hopefully that she remembered that the real reason we were here was about Kirino.
Seeing that Kuroneko unrelenting pride, Fate seemed to be taken back and unsure what to do. However – a moment later, her whole body’s feature changed.
“Your name is…Kuroneko, right? This is my advice for you from the bottom of my heart, hurry and give up on that ridiculous way of speaking. Because someday, you will want to kill that past self.”
She said softly, her expression looked like she saw a bad omen.
The way she countered our accusations of thief made her looked like a completely different person. I got the feeling she was like an adult talking to a child, like someone talk to their past self.
“ --- Thank you for your unnecessary concern.”
Kuroneko’s expression changed into an unpleasant one, like she was forced to see something she didn’t want to, like she was seeing her ugly self on a mirror.
But a second later, that expression changed into a mocking one.
She glanced at me then smiled with Fate:
“…Tell her, doctor Watson. Let that criminal who thought that she had cleared all evidences saw our prepared effort.”
“Who are you calling Watson?!”
Ha …finally it’s the main topic. I was a bit nervous, but due to Jakigan detective-sama, I quietly took the evidences out. Actually, it was just Kirino’s phone and her notebook.
“…Are you saying that there is a note inside? But that ---“
“See for yourself. This is the evidence that proof my little sister is the author of ‘Maisora’.”
I gave the notebook and the phone to Fate. Inside, there were references, outline that she made. That Christmas Eve, we visited Shibuya – we went to 109, we bought things at the accessory shop, we visited a concert, then she suddenly dumped a bucket of cold water on herself, we went to a love hotel for reference – everything.
That was the evidence that proof Kirino is the author of ‘Maisora’.
By the way, Kumagai-san had seen them all. If Fate torn it up or broke the cell phone, the only things she did was admitted that she was guilty. But she must also understand something so simple. Then she suddenly narrowed her eyes.
I thought that notebook would make her nervous, but she pointed at a page and asked:
“What is with that strange illustration? Is that a terrifying looking Yaranaio?”
“That wasn’t what I want you to see! Look at what was written in the middle! And that illustration…probably me.”
Ah, among of Kirino’s references were the illustration of me in anger, confusion, almost crying..she even wrote her opinions next to it.
Well, to tell the truth it’s understandable that she thought it was strange. Because it indeed was.
Not to mention about her opinions…
–>That idiot when he apologized to the shopkeeper after not having enough money to pay for an accessory (^0^).
^ “Sorry I don’t have enough money,” he said! Haha! So gross! (lol)
<– I made him buy me earrings. I let the idiot choose one himself, but he has no sense at all and spent such a long time! (^^;)
^ The idiot got really angry when I got all wet (>_<) How much of a siscon is he?! ωωωωωω
<– The idiot bad thought seeing his little sister in a bathrobe. Nuuuuu, is Kiririn’s chastity in danger?!
Wow ----! I want to kill her! Just remembering that made me want to kill her ~~!!!!
And what is with that curly handwriting? It pissed me off! Each of them hit me when it hurt the most!
And what the heck? I’m the one who was showing the evidence, why am I so pissed off?
I only wanted to show the outline and references, not Kirino’s picture about me!
“…That was what she took for reference when she wrote ‘Maisora’. There were pictures she took that Christmas Eve on the phone too.”
“……….”
Fate remained silence and checked the references that Kirino took.
“Hm…You think that this could be evidence?”
“Of..of course.”
“I have checked them all – true, not bad, but all of them were just a middle school girl reference ~ ah, I know I know. Now I understand why do you believe that your little sister is the author of Maisora just with that. Because you are a siscon.”
Fate smiled then returned Kirino’s notebook and phone to me:
“—So what? What can it prove?”
“That….”
“That is just your little sister’s imagination after reading ‘Maisora’.”
Hearing that woman’s shameless boast, I felt hot stream came out of my head ---
“Cough cough….”
Someone elbowed me in the stomach. Seeing my reaction, Kuroneko quickly stopped me. Looked like after my outburst at Kumagai-san’s office, she could somehow predicted my action/
With a perfectly calm voice, she said:
“ --- What about the date of those pictures? Each of them was taken at Shibuya that night.”
“Who knows? I don’t know much about cell phone, but isn’t it easy to fake it? Or it could be just a coincidence…”
“You said it’s a coincidence?”
“Yes, maybe it’s the truth? Yes, your little sister must have taken some pictures at Shibuya that night, then after she found out that the background of ‘Maisora’ and her pictures was the same, she said ‘I’m Maisora’s author!’. Then, because you are an idiot to like his little sister, you two trust her and totally ignored other people’s discomfort and came here. Ahaha, how stupid.How foolish!”
Fate gave Kuroneko a mocking laughter:
“Ahaha, that’s how troublesome middle age schoolgirl is, always bring troubles for adult. If you want to satisfy your delusion, just do it inside your room.”
“----------“
The light in Kuroneko’s eyes disappeared, her black iris somehow had turned red again.
”Nomobuyowoshihashitawadokeda…”
“Stop your chanting! I don’t know what you are trying to do, but stop immediately!”
From behind, I stood up and stop Kuroneko from chanting an unknown spell.
Could she stay calm for a second! She was so easy to get taunted.
And she was so damn strong! Was that what they called placebo effect?
“Release me, Nii-san, I won’t kill that woman.”
“Stop this at once!”
I tried my best to restrain Kuroneko while yelled at Fate:
“Don’t fucking speak nonsense! My little sister isn’t that naïve ---! If she indeed make that up, I myself will teach her a lesson!”
Of course I couldn’t do it in reality, but at least I could say something to Kirino – in my heart anyway.
“…You are the one who should stop speaking nonsense…I have had enough, I don’t want to see you anymore.”
Fate threw us a pained glance then announced in a mocking tone:
“Anyway…unless you have something else to say, we are done here. It had been 30 minutes, I don’t have that much free time to playing around with you. Can I go, Kumagai-san?”
“…You are right.”
Without changing his expression, Kumagai-san nodded once. As I already said, he had seen them all. He also said – “that wasn’t enough’. He was indeed on Fate’s side, so we had nothing to say about that.
However --
“I still have a critical evidence right here!”
I tried to boast and pulled out my final trump card.
That was a stack of A4-size paper.
“Kousaka-san, this is…?”
“Maisora – the sequel, Kumagai-san. My little sister wrote that.”
Ha ~ to tell the truth, I was surprised too when I saw this.
Although we need a plan to retake what was hers, we didn’t tell Kirino this.
So getting this evidence was quite a challenge. Just like a certain someone sneaked into her brother’s room, when Kirino went downstairs to eat, I sneaked into her room. Because most of the time, she either slept in her room or had it locked. Uhm…if she found out, my life will probably be forfeit. Although I was doing this to help my little sister, the feeling of guilt should be enough to crush me.
What am I doing…really…
But that paid off quite well. When I stole that notebook from her, I found out about the sequel of Maisora. Because of that, I kept looking until I found another notebook.
Inside, I found the password for ‘Work use’ and ‘Personal use’. Both were used to access that ‘Cell phone club’. But the one for ‘Work use’ was unable, always gave me a ‘wrong password’ respond.
In short, ‘Work use’ website is the where Maisora was kept, the one that Fate stole.
About the ‘Personal use’ website, there was the rape novel (that Kuroneko called) and ‘Maisora another side: Little sister’s point of view’. After I gave it a quick check, I found out that was something written from the main character’s little sister’s point of view. So, it could be called a sequel. Back then, Kirino said little sister was a very important character, she was telling the truth.
Basically, it was like this:
Kirino spitted ‘Work use’ and ‘Personal use’ into different part of a site, and the part which held Maisora – the ‘Work use’ part was stolen by Fate.
But the ‘Personal Use’ part kept the sequel of Maisora, or another version of that.
The truth is, even I myself was wondering ‘why does something like this exist’. Because Kirino was ordered by Kumagai-san to write something with Rino as the main character. Why should she write the sequel for a book that hadn’t finished yet – that was my unanswered question.
Maybe it’s not that simple. But the truth remained that she wanted to write this.
Anyway --
“Just now, Fa – Satsuna-san said, today she came here for a discussion about the sequel of Maisora, right? In short, Kumagai-san, you have seen the sequel of Maisora that Setsuna-san wrote, right?”
“Yes, I did.”
Kumagai-san answered. Fate paled and began counterattack:
“So..so what of it?”
“So – we could know just by reading two version. Then which one is the real one and which one is the fake will be clear. Am I wrong?”
“Are you saying that the one is better is the real one? That’s just your personal opinion! How could you decide real or fake with that ---“
“Ha, in other words, you have no confidence haven’t you?”
I summoned my courage and mimicked the way Kirino and Kuroneko talked to taunt her.
“…….What are you saying?”
“You don’t hear me? How many times do you want me to repeat myself – after ten years of training, finally Rino-sensei had became a professional writer, but she doesn’t has confidence that she could beat a phone novel that a middle school girl wrote.”
That was actually a very big bet. Because she could refuse to take my taunt, or the ‘Maisora sequel’ she wrote could be better than Kirino. If that was the case, we are doomed.
However, although I’m an outsider, I knew nothing about novels, but I thought that …
No matter how unlikeable the character that Kirino created, or the premise and story filled with overly-convenient events, or the overly-idealistic, delusional love-filled conversation between Rino and Toshi ---
All of them born from Kirino’s heart, all of them belonged to her. She had put all she had into this, going as far as bringing the elder brother that she hated the most to get references. So her novel must had reflected her life experience until now.
She had to stop working on her modeling, had to stop her club activities to write and write and write – to finish this. That’s why it was so welcomed by the females, that’s why so many people liked it.
And so ---
“Because I believe that the story written by the real author will never lose to a fake.”
Now is the time to decide a winner.
Kirino’s manuscript and Fate’s manuscript. Kumagai-san had read them all. He put them back on the table and slowly took a deep breath.
“Phew ----“
He closed his eyes and seemed to be deep in thought. His scary-looking face was even more terrifying now.
There was something like stream coming out of his mouth. Then followed by a very very very very heavy silence…then he said:
“I will announce that result now.”
He took a manuscript and put it in the middle.
“This one is more interesting.”
That was the one I gave him…the one Kirino wrote.
“…In other words….”
“Yes. I think that this is the real author.”
“…Really?”
Wow! As expected of a professional editor! Amazing! He gave us an equal chance with his long time-in-training-author…then he could see whichis the real one! Really good, Kumagai-san! I’m sorry for thinking bad about you before!
I clenched my fist and made a victory pose. Wanting to share this happiness, I turned aside, but all I saw was Kuroneko looking at Kumagai-san in her usual emotionless expression.
“How could it be….”
Fate turned pale, looked like she couldn’t believe it. But she quickly turned to Kumagai-san:
“You – are you really my editor? Do you know what are you saying?”
“Of course I know how serious this is. After reporting this to my supervisor, I think it’s time for me to retire.”
“What…!”
Hearing Kumagai-san said that, Fate had nothing to add.
The author that he took care of made a mistake, so he had to take responsibility for it too.
Kumagai-san knew this, but he still acknowledged that Kirino is the real author of Maisora.
If I were him, could I say the same?
Although this old man made people angry, but he is an honest man.
“Maybe this would be my last work.”
Kumagai-san smiled, and calmly said in the same manner that he spoke to Kuroneko a few days earlier:
“…Fate-chan, the manuscript you wrote had the exactly same style and character’s conversation of ‘Rino’….But that is all. You just copy the outside, the most important aspect of this is completely different from the real ‘Maisora’. The innocent romantic feeling in the first volume, the strange plot twist, the things that excited me, weren’t exist in this manuscript, it wasn’t interesting at all. It wasn’t something ‘Rino’ would write. We couldn’t consider selling this as the sequel for Maisora. Even if that incident didn’t happen, you still have to rewrite them – or rather, rethink everything.”
“…Ugh…”
Still the merciless way of talking as usual.
Although I thought that he could have made it easier to hear.
Hearing that ‘this wasn’t something Rino would write’, ‘couldn’t consider selling this as the sequel for Maisora’ – Fate had the same reaction like Kuroneko a few days earlier; she hung her head in defeat.
Kumagai-san took the manuscript Kirino wrote and said:
“On the other hand, this is, without a doubt, written by Rino. To tell the truth, now it’s even more interesting. Although there was some part that was even more ridiculous than the first volume, but I like it. Especially the ending, with the climax that moved people as much as Kanon’s true route. It totally captured my heart. I’m sure that everyone who loved Maisora will love it too.”
Next, he made an U-turn and praised Kirino’s manuscript.
That was the first time I saw him praise a manuscript this way.
That was because Kirino’s manuscript is that good, I should feel happy – but at the same time, a strange unhappy feeling appeared in my chest.
I unconsciously bit my lower lip.
The plan was going on smoothly --- but why am I feeling this way?
Of course, compare to my regret, that woman must have felt a hundred times worse.
“…Is that so. My story…isn’t interesting…?”
Fate whispered. She looked a dozen year older, all willpower depleted.
But will she admit that she stole someone else’s novel? According to Fate, Kumagai-san’s decision is his personal opinions only.
As long as she kept pretending, it was entirely possible that this will drag out.
But I had no other cards on my hand ---
Time passed. Then finally, a smile appeared on Fate’s face, and then she whispered in a calm tone:
“Ah…I remember. ‘To tell the truth, the content is quite interesting’…that was the first praise that you gave me.”
“It was.”
Kumagai-san nodded in nostalgia.
“Middle school, third year wasn’t it? I took part in the amateur competition back then they called it the Dengeki Game Grand Prize though… my novel made it into the final round and you called me… and invited me to the editorial department in Ochanomizu…”
It was a common to publish the winning novel of the amateur competitions, but there were also cases if aneditor’swilling to take on authors who hadn’t won at their own discretion. Recruit them, so to speak.
“…So nostalgic. I was criticized for four hours straight. I felt so terrible.”
I could understand why Kuroneko stopped too. Because what was happing to Fate right now had happened to us before.
“Ahaha…thinking back, it was so embarrassing…although it wasn’t that bad back then – they were full of Chuunibyou Jakigan stuffs, which I even called them interesting…I was full of confidence…Back then, I was so…miserable.”
Fate gave Kuroneko a glance full of pity.
“Yes. That’s right. You were almost the same as me back then. From the way you talk to your clothes….look, even it was a coincidence; we even had a mole in the same place. So…that’s why I couldn’t suppress my anger when I saw you speak. Listen to me….you have no friends at all, don’t you? You are totally isolated at school, aren’t you? Then you convinced yourself that you are special, unlike the lower life forms. You looked down on the other, pushing your own incompetence and isolation on others, and then escape to the world of fiction. ‘Ahh, if terrorists came and attacked this class, I would awaken the dark powers hiding inside me, massacre the attackers, and save these ignorant dogs around me’… can you honestly tell me that you’ve never thought that in the middle of class, looking around the room aimlessly with your head in your hands?”
“…………………..”
Kuroneko didn’t answer. I noticed that her eyes widened, and then she immediately reverted back to the usual emotionless expression.
She never told Fate that she wanted to become a novelist – but that woman kept talking nonstop. No, that woman must be talking about herself.
“…It got nothing to do with the current situation.”
I answered in Kuroneko’s place, but Fate didn’t seem like she heard me, she kept talking:
“In short – this came from me, the one with a lot of real life experience – you should hurry up and wake up from that dream. Life is not that simple, sometime there was a dream that you couldn’t reach no matter what, not to mention a lot of things that you couldn’t do anything about. Look at how miserable I am now – isn’t that the best example?”
“I told you ----“
Hot-blooded filled my chest, I was about to interrupt her, but she cut me off:
“I know. You are talking about Rino’s cell phone novel right? Hahaha, it’s so ridiculous. Me, who spent ten years in writing, sometimes having to sacrifice my sleeping time, yet my novel was ‘not interesting’. A brat who had only began writing for a few months; a half-hearted novel written without an understanding of the rule is called ‘interesting’? A rising novelist?A promising big hit? Ha – what the hell is going on? How is that happening? This world is so messed up!”
“You, you…..”
Her annoying rants were really getting on my nerves, when I was about to shut her up ---
“ --- You are right --- I understand.”
The sudden interruption stopped me for good. I turned around.
The one who agreed with Fate’s rant was Kuroneko.
She spoke in a very low tone, like a curse coming from the deepest part of hell:
“The novel I wrote was rated lower than dirt, how could such crappy cell phone novel get such praised? Impossible! Even though the things I despise the most are well received while what I wrote was insulted and criticized. What do you mean I can’t just write what I want? Wasn’t she doing the same thing when she wrote that? Why am I the only one whose work is completely rejected?”
Kuroneko stoke in her usual emotionless tone, but there was a invisible pressure. Her words had the same hatred as Fate’s word.
“Hey hey hey hey hey! Hey hey! What are you talking nonsense now?”
Facing this sudden development, I couldn’t help but lecturing Kuroneko.
It was so hard to get there, you know? Now she had confessed her motive, all we need to do is push her into a corner and forced her to admit her crime!
We were almost there!
Why are you saying that now?
But – looked like I was not the only who was confused. Fate’s eyes widened.
It was understandable too. Because the same one who had cursed her earlier is now protecting her.
“…What…are you saying?”
“Hm, I said I could understand your feelings. Although I hasn’t spent as much time as you, for three years, I has also read guide book for writing, learning how to write novels from the Internet, learning from the others….I never stopped writing what I think is the best, so now I’m very frustrated…Ah, I can’t stand it! It’s so frustrating! You can say that I’m so jealous of her that it became a grudge. The one who was having fun when writing and show it off with such an arrogant expression after writing something like this…and the editor who praised it should go die already – you must think this way too, right?”
“…No, I’m not….”
“Liar! Admit your true feelings! You must think that ‘You deserved it! Die! That author, Kumagai, die already!’, don’t you? Now it had come to this, what are you afraid of?”
Why are you taking her side? And you are telling your true feeling, aren’t you?
“Ha – that girl, from the first time we meet, I already didn’t like her. She had the total opposite opinions in everything we talked about. Every time she opened her mouth, it was to boast about herself then look down on me – then a few months ago she began writing this crappy cell phone novel, which is going to be published. Are you kidding me, how could this world be so unreasonable?”
“You…which side you are on? Didn’t you come here to help reclaim Kirino’s cell phone novel?”
Hearing I yelled, Kuroneko snorted:
“Are you asking which side I belong to? Are you an idiot? From the beginning, I had told you that I was interested in this, why should I help you to fix your own mistake?”
So she didn’t say that to hide her embarrassment….!
“Hm, and you have no right to tell me that either. Don’t you feel frustrated because everything is about your little sister?”
“That…that…that got nothing to do with this!”
“Nothing to do with this? Ha, who cares! I always speak whatever I want to, whenever I want to.”
“Even if that was a joke, there are things that you aren’t allowed to say!”
Are you Kirino now? Why does your way of talking sounded exactly the same as my little sister?
What are you trying to do, ignoring the real criminal and taking over this dungeon as the last boss?!
See, Fate, the one whose role you stole was totally confused, unsure what to do!
Really! Leaving that sudden outburst aside – but…can Kuroneko truly understand Fate’s feeling?
The depressed feeling when the result that you get by slowly accumulating your efforts was over taken by someone who wasn’t even trying to.
The pain when none of your effort was paid off, when the world only accepted what you hated.
Someone had their effort paid off; someone could having fun while working.
But you were always had a hopeless situation, when reality wasn’t what you expected.
True, I had no right to tell anyone that, because my situation was similar to them.
But I can’t say that I understand their feeling, because I have no right.
But I could understand my little sister, who was totally different from me.
The misery when I realized that no matter how hard I tried, I could never win against her.
I could understand the frustration when someone like that was next to me every day.
And the helpless feeling when I know there is nothing I could do to change that.
Why was everything good happened to my little sister?
--- Ah, this is why.
Now I realized.
So that was it! That was it!
The strange, mixed feeling on my chest was nothing but rotten jealousy.
Because of Kirino’s novel was stolen, her effort was for naught.
To tell the truth, I felt relieved.
But when I saw my little sister’s painful expression --
“ --- Serves her right! That was payback for always looking down on me and Kuroneko.”
Until now, a part of me truly thought that ‘Why is she so talent? Why does everything she do turn out to be so smooth?’ – that ugly jealous that made me hate Kirino – and it only got worse recently – because after we became closer, I finally found out how amazing she is.
Really, as her elder brother, I’m so pathetic.
When I saw Kirino holding back on the verge of tears, I felt ashamed of myself.
So I was got so worked up…I wanted to do something for her, not letting her effort to go waste.
And maybe, just now, about Kuroneko who said negative things about Kirino was also ---
“…I don’t care for this girl no matter what, much less helping her. That kind of girl should face more painful experiences.”
Although everything she said was her true feeling, but at the same time it was a lie. An excuse. A bluff. She said ‘I don’t care’, ‘It’s none of my business’, but all you have to do is ask her ‘If that is none of your business, then what are you doing’, she would be speechless, unable to do anything but making up more excuse.
“Ah, I’m so pissed off! I’m sooooooooo pissed off! Sleep or awake, this world pissed me off so much. If only a bomb came down and destroyed this world!”
I understood the irritation she was feeling very well. I understood this helplessness feeling she was feeling right now better than anyone else.
That’s right. Two of us didn’t come here for Kirino. We came here for us.
We were just here helplessly trying to do something about these feelings of helplessness.
Even if everything went well, I absolutely don’t want my little sister to thank me.
I’m sure that Kuroneko thought so too.
If someone ask what do we think about Kirino – I think that both me and Kuroneko will have the same answer.
That girl, I really really really really hate her! But ----
“But that was two different things.”
To tell the truth, I don’t know what Kuroneko felt when she said those words.
But that was exactly that. I really hate my little sister, really really hate her!
My beautiful, full of talent little sister, who I was always compared to, who always made me feel like a defeated dog, always looking down on me, always treating me like an idiot ---
But even that, I could only shout like this! Because I’m her elder brother!
“Hey, Setsuna-san – listen to me!”
“…..!”
Hearing me suddenly speak to her, Fate’s body trembled.
I ignored her and yelled:
“What you stole is my little sister novel, which she put all of her effort in! She tried her best to finish it! She got the reference she needed with the elder brother that she hated the most. She was having a fever, but she still kept working on her cell phone even when she couldn’t even get up. Compare to me, she tried much, much harder, that’s why her result is that good. You don’t see that – but don’t speak like it was something she did without effort!”
I was yelling at myself. That was my anger toward me, who due to his jealous with his totally different little sister, who considered her a special case and ignored Kirino’s effort.
“Of course I don’t know how much effort you had spent – but don’t you dare saying that Kirino didn’t spend any effort! Don’t look down on my little sister!”
Seeing my sudden anger, everyone’s attention focused on me.
“…Idiot, we are talking, don’t interrupting us.”
“…What do you understand?”
Both Kuroneko and Fate looked at me, signaled me to step aside.
But! I expressed my anger!
“I said I don’t know! Listen to me! Do you know? Do you? The most useless person here is me! The most pathetic person here is also me! I don’t know your feeling, but this face is unchangeable. Unlike you, I never tried anything! I have such amazing little sister next to me, but I never tried to get close to her or learn anything from her! Compare to me, you two already tried much more!”
I really wanted to tell them that, and I did say it out unconsciously.
"You two are so admirable! You two are amazing! I like you two! Amazing!"
"What ---…"
"…………!"
I could see Fate's eyes widened. Next to me, Kuroneko also took a breath.
But I had no time to care about that.
I clenched my fist, gritted my teeth and shouted:
"That's why -- the fact your effort don’t get any result is unchangeable, maybe it is the truth. But don’t say that! Don’t look down on yourself! Then, compare to you, me - who never tried anything - what should I do? Should I die? Even I think so too, damn it!...."
"Nii-san…do you know how incoherent you are saying right now? And why are you crying?"
"Shut up! Because you two are mocking me! Anyway, return it to me! This is something very important for my little sister! I beg you, return it to me! I will do anything, as long as you don’t steal her effort! Don’t erase your own effort like that! Damn it, I don’t know how to say it…maybe you don’t understand what am I saying -- in short, I beg of you!"
I nearly slammed my head on the table and begged Fate.
"…You, you…"
Seeing how desperate I was, Fate widened her eyes. She must think that I'm a big siscon, but I'm not.
"How unsightly…Nii-san…I really couldn’t stand you."
Kuroneko told me in a mocking tone, then turned to Fate:
"…I will ask you the same too. To publish the novel you wrote on your own, to let many people read it -- this is a happy and wonderful thing isn't it? You yourself should know that better than anyone."
I can't believe that pleading tone was coming from the same one who was shouting jealousy and hated a few seconds before. Now, Kuroneko sounded gentle, calm….and full of sincerity.
"Please return this for her. No matter how much our effort was in vain, no matter how deep our regret, our jealous was, the ends didn’t justify the means. I don’t care if you don’t approve of me, but don’t look down on yourself; look down on what you have done. Otherwise…I will curse you to death."
This was her decision, wasn't it…Even if I didn’t interrupt, she would still say so. Really….yet she said 'who care about that girl'…seemed like I'm not the one who spoke nonsense…Haha!
I had already crying at this point. No good, after calming down I would felt embarrassed to death.
A short distance away, Fate listened to my rambling and Kuroneko's sincere request -- she took a deep breath and let it out, gave up.
"…You two…just saying whatever you think…and in combination, it felt like a mess…That's why I said I don’t like brats. Now I know why Rino's novel is so fragmented. If you two are the model of two main characters, of course it would turn out like this ---"
She dropped her shoulders and spoke softly:
"….Now, I think that I could write something like 'Maisora' like the real Rino…"
This was her declaration of defeat.
This time, I had begged her with nothing but my motivation, without any reasoning.
But even that, I believed a part of what I wanted to say had reached her.
"Hm, say, don’t you two hate your little sister?"
Seemed like she didn’t understand our complicated feeling, but that was understandable.
Because I'm her elder brother, so that can't be help --- this is just an excuse, a way to force myself to accept those complicated feeling that I'm feeling right now. Although I did hate her very much, there was nothing else I could say in this situation. These unstoppable urges could only be understood by someone in my place.
And then ---
"Hmmm…."
Before I raised my head, Kuroneko answered:
"I'm not boasting, but I had few friends too."
Missing her expression at this point was my lifetime regret.
After that --- well, I need to conclude this too.
Fate Iori Setsuna admitted that she stole someone else's novel - uhm, I still unsure what should I call her -- anyway, let's go with Fate like we did before.
She stole Kirino's novel because after she looked at her submission in the 'Cell phone i-Club' and was moved.
"…Maybe you will think that is strange considered how much I criticized that before, but it was very interesting. Of course the writing style was bad, the grammar was terrible…If I read it a few years earlier, I will think 'I want to kill that author'. But this novel made me realize 'The author really had fun when writing this', like she is standing in front of her reader and shout 'look, this is me'. Ten years ago, I was like this too. The first time I wrote a novel, I had the same feeling with her. I must have laughed while writing, always think of how to continue this event, then I felt so excited…Thinking back, somehow I felt a deep regret, like I was a fool…."
Then she gave in.
"…I’m really, really sorry. I don’t know why I did it. I'm not the real Rino, of course I couldn’t write something like this -- I already know that."
"Then told it to her directly."
"Uhm…you are right."
Kumagai-san also bowed to me:
"I want to apologize to. I'm very sorry. I will personally apologize to Rino-sensei later."
Then he continued:
"The exciting part of a cell phone novel is what Fate-chan had felt. In my opinion, everyone had 'something that only that person could do', and this is something that could move people. Actually, not only cell phone novel, no matter if this was a doujinshi, doujinshi game or web novel, even submissions on Nico nico or Pixiv are the same. Among them, there are many that held the author's intention 'I wanted to show my real self now'. After it was polished into a commercial product, that interesting aspect is gone. Cell phone novel existed in order to maximize this advantage -- and should it become successful, it means that amateur works could sometime win against professional work. Of course I couldn’t deny the fact that many of them were very lacking a lot --- but to reject all of those work which had both good and bad side simple because of that is too foolish."
"On the other hand, Fate-chan and Kuroneko-san. Your novel wasn’t interested enough for us, we had no choice but to reject them. I think that will happen again too. But I believe what you two want to write could still move a lot of people. In short…."
He grinned:
" ---- Please try your best!"
Hearing that, even thought Kuroneko replied in her nasty tone as usual -- but I could see fire on her eyes, a fire that promises that someday, she will make that old man look at her differently.
And then ---
Fate-san contacted Kirino and waited until she recovered from her illness, then together with Kumagai-san, they told her what happened (of course minus the part about me and Kuroneko) before apologizing.
Kirino only said "Ah, that is fine, I don’t mind" then forgave them. Although I thought "Brat, you were crying" but, well, aside from me, Saori or Kuroneko, my little sister is very gentle to everyone. Uhm, that's why although her real self is pretty violent, the neighborhood gave her such good ratings. It's so unreasonable!
By the way, everything above was told to me by Kirino or Fate.
"You seem to have an interest in this, so I will tell you now."
"I don’t care! Hm, in other words, the book was published under your name, right?"
"Yes. But it's so troublesome, my pen name is now Rino. Kumagai-san also said that would make it sell easier. Hm ~ but ~"
"But what?"
"Nothing…ah ~ I felt that….something is off. Because while I was sick, everything was solved by itself ~ of course I don’t plan to do anything …."
"Ha ~ what are you saying? Shouldn’t you be happy?"
I listened to my little sister with a complicated feeling.
…Also, although I don’t want to say it, but my relationship with Kirino didn’t change at all.
This incident allowed me to see many things, but none of it had any use.
Even if I knew the reason, the fact that I hate my little sister will not change --
"…Sorry for everything until now, Kirino."
"? Did you say something?"
Nothing. Nothing at all!
Time passed. Now is February. After that, like she wanted to make up for the time she lost, Kirino threw herself in club activities and work. Since I didn’t see her work on her cell phone anymore, I couldn’t help but ask. She answered:
"Ah ~ that huh. I don’t write anymore."
Although the sequel was approved, she decided to not write. Since the manuscript was done, now she had nothing to do.
Because of that incident last time, I knew how hard it was to get your book published - thus her answered caught me off guard. Don’t you know…that there was someone who spent ten years without being able to publish a single book? You really…gave it up so easily?
And did Kuroneko know about this?
Although I still had some questions, but Kirino had made up her mind, 'Rino' had apologized to Kumagai-san and her reader. At least she had a professional attitude or rather a strong sense of duty.
"Because now I have many things else to do, so based on priority, I have to give up on cell phone novels. When I caught an illness because of overworked, I became aware of that."
"Something else to do? You mean play new eroges?"
"That…of course that too!"
I knew it! You! You! Because I want to play eroge, I couldn’t write anymore -- if your reader heard you said that, they would curse you to death! Really, that's why I hated natural talent born people. They had very good result, but they kept looking for more. For people who had to try hard at everything, this is unacceptable.
"You must be thinking of something rude don’t you!Of course not only because of eroge!"
"Then what?"
"Ha? Why should I tell you?"
Ah? Is that so? Fine, I won't ask anymore!
Leaving that aside, today Kirino gathered her otaku group at my home.
Also, this was the first time Saori came to our home.
I said that like it was a long time ago because it had been a few months since Kirino, Kuroneko and Saori (and me too) gathered.
Of course that was because we didn’t go to the same school. Not to mention a lot of things happened.
Today, we gathered in a 'reunion for a group of friend who hadn’t seen each others for a long time party'. That name alone could make people smiled, but ---
"Say, aren’t we suppose to continue our previous anime appreciation? Then we should continue watching the other half of Meruru! But you said you wanted to play Siscalypse! Why should I call you to my house and play something you good at? Hey, are you listening to me, you damn cat!"
"Ha? Isn't it normal for the host to please the guests? Today I had to waste a day break to visit your house, yet the host tried to force me to do what she wanted? What is the meaning of this? I even brought a present for you ---"
--- They were like that from the beginning. Shouldn’t they have something else to say to each other? Or rather, that kind of quarreling is the way their friendship manifested?
By the way, we were at my house's living room. As usual, when I brought snack and drink back from the kitchen, those two had already quarreling.
Because I was afraid that they will spill the drink, I didn’t dare come close to the table.
"…Is this the present you were talking about?"
Kirino's temple popped, she took an A4 paper out.
Kuroneko gracefully fold her arms, nodded and said in a super mocking tone:
"Yes, it is. You should thank me, I searched the Internet for comments regard 'Maisora'. As its author, Rino-sensei, you must really care about how they view your novel right?"
"Yeah! So you picked a bunch of criticize against 'Maisora' then printed them out and gave me? How nasty you could be?"
"…Oh my, I was wronged. This is the proof of our friendship. I was worried that you will be spoiled by reviews from those foolish generous readers, so I gave you a very gentle advice."
"I don’t need your worry! What advice? Haha ~ it looked like you’re jealous to me, you damn wannabe!"
Kirino repeated 'Wannabe, wannabe, wannabe' while taunting Kuroneko.
"Wow ahahaha ~ ahahaha ~ Eheheheh ~"
She kept kicking and clapping and said while looking directly at Kuroneko:
"Say, what do you feel right now? Tell me? What do you feel when someone like me, who just began writing made a debut before you? If you don’t like it, how about publish one on your own? To harass me like a child to ease your frustration, as an author don’t you feel any embarrassment?"
"….Ohh grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr………"
Kuroneko's expression changed into something that shouldn’t be seen, I wondered what it is that she was thinking….
To protect Kirino's cell phone novel, Kuroneko had helped her so much.
Not only was she criticized hastily, she even had a big quarrel against Fate, she also showed us her true, ugly jealousy. But even so, she still said 'that is that' and begged to get Kirino's novel back.
Now all she got in returned was being taunted 'Wannabe, wannabe' by the same one she helped. That was too much to bear.
--- No, I can't say that.
Both me and Kuroneko did that to solve the jealous in our heart, not because we wanted to help Kirino, so we never expected to hear her thanks us.
Because I'm her elder brother, this can't be help. Because she is her friend, this can't be help.
Maybe that was just an excuse, but those words had more meaning than that. Even if we don’t say it out, both me and Kuroneko understood this point.
That's right. This should be enough of that incident.
Ha, first, I meant, if Kirino knew the truth, we would kill ourselves out of embarrassment. That's why I and Kuroneko will carry the secret about this incident with us to our grave.
And about what I gained…well, I made a strange camaraderie with Kuroneko.
Both me and Kuroneko had the same feeling when it came to Kirino.
This was a gathering of Kousaka Kirino's victim, a meeting of some jealous, envy small-role people.
There were only two members of this group : me and Kuroneko. This uncute little sister of mine really gone overboard ---
But no matter how pissed off I was, there was nothing I could do. Thus, I copy President Kuroneko and teased Kirino.
"Hey hey Kirino, you are an amazing author, aren’t you? Should you really speak so arrogantly towards your readers, who spent their time to read your book? They had to give up their precious time for that, you know? Thus, you should be a good girl and listen to their opinions, shouldn’t you?"
"Are.You.An. Idiot!?"
I had never heard such honest word from my little sister before.
She must be the only one with such fierce personality. I believed that not every author was like her.
After shouting 'Are you an idiot' to me, looks like Kirino realized something. She took that stack of papers and carefully read one of them.
"…Say, this URL of that review, I think I have seen it in your SNS profile…"
"Yes, that is my review."
"…What?"
Due to the sudden anger and surprise, Kirino's face froze and turned into (ﾟДﾟ). Then, with stiffed movement, she whispered:
"Kuh…kuh….kuh!!!"
"If you are trying to crow, you are doing a good job."
"I'm gonna kill you! I will split you into eight pieces! You, you, you….!"
"Ki -- Kiririn-shi! Calm down! What are you going to do with that ashtray?"
When I was about to step up and stopped her, Saori had positioned herself in front of Kirino.
However, seeing this, Kuroneko poured oil into the fire:
"Ha - as expected of a cell phone novel author, looks like your vocabulary is quite lacking."
"Ohyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! You -- you! I will remember this! Listen well! I will definitely fill your blog with nothing but flames!"
"Hm, go ahead. I'm waiting for you. As someone who had experience the golden age of text-based web, I will let you experience my true power…"
"Ah ~ ah ~ still full of jakigan as usual! Because of that, your blog post was buried deep under gross comments! And, why are you wearing the same gothic loli clothing today? Are you a character from Digital Cute Eroge?"
"You…what did you just say? You just step on my forbidden landmine…You round face model! Since this is a good chance, I will make it clear: you are still a middle age school girl, but your make up is thicker than a wall! Don’t come too close to me, otherwise that bitch-smelling-perfume will stuck on me too!"
"Shut up! I think that sometimes you should consider changing your clothes too!"
For the next ten minutes, they continued their quarrel nonstop.
I took that chance to ask Saori and found out that the reason they quarrel was because a conflict opinions when asked 'What should we do first'.
Wasn't that a reason for elementary kid to quarrel? A 15 and 16 years old girl will quarrel because of that?
I was feeling tired just from listening, but somehow Saori looked very happy. I think that was because she was happy for this reunion.
Then, her happiness grew to me. Although I knew the answer already, I still asked:
"Hey…what are you smiling for?"
"Just thinking about our first meeting…I can't believe that it had been half a year…ah, time surely flies."
"You are right."
It sure it. Not only that, in half of a year, I had changed so much. For better or worse.
If I didn’t pick that DVD box that my little sister dropped -- now I wouldn’t be here with them…That was what I thought. Now, to me, Kuroneko and Saori weren’t 'my little sister's friends' anymore, they are also my friends…important people to me. Although we rarely get a chance to meet, but friendship wasn’t something that could be count by the number of meeting, was it? Haha, that wasn't like me to say that at all.
--- When I was thinking about the past, suddenly Kirino broke off her quarrel with Kuroneko and interrupted:
"What? What are you two talking about?"
"Hahaha, nothing at all, Kiririn-shi. About what should we do first -- we were saying that since this is a good chance, do you want to do 'the same thing as our first meeting'.?"
"What do you mean?"
Hearing that, Kuroneko asked. I immediately knew what was she asking.
"You meant that -- if I remember correctly …. Take turn and speak in order right?"
"As expected of Kyousuke-shi, you immediately knew that am I talking about -- 'Self-introduce in order' - yes, that's this game."
That count as a game too?
Kirino remembered and nodded:
"Ah, that huh?"
"So nostalgic..hm hm…on our first meeting, you huddled up like a thrown away kitten…."
"That…."
Hearing Kuroneko pointed the situation that time out, Kirino blushed.
"You…back then, you were the same as me too!"
"Stop quarreling..hahaha…so nostalgic! Then you two get along because of anime topic…"
" -- Don’t say stupid thing! Who would get along with this girl…."
"Who would get along with her?"
Both of them denied. Yes yes, it was like this. Back then, they had a quarrel because of the difference between Meruru and Maschera. Since then, they were always like that. From the look of it, both of them didn’t change at all. Just thinking about it made me smile.
…But what is going on? Am I reminiscing? Ack ack, this wasn't good. I can't believe I was reminiscing about me and my little sister.
Hm, of course it's not like I'm happy or anything.
Once again, Saori separated Kuroneko and Kirino from their glaring duel, then in order to change the course of their argument, she threw another topic :
"In short, this time, whoever had the most interesting answer to our topic can decide 'what should we do next'. Then I will start, the topic is 'What is the most unexpected thing happened recently'. Follow our previous order - first, Kuroneko-shi, please began!"
"…Don’t decide that on yourself."
Kuroneko's answer was the same at that time. In my opinion, although she said that, but the truth is she didn’t hate it one bit. Then she answered in the same tone back then:
"Let's see…hm…'The most unexpected thing happened recently'…in that case…."
Without changing her expression, Kuroneko turned to Kirino and calmly whispered:
"Your brother confessed to me, he said he 'like me the most'."
"Cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough……"
I was chocked! Kuroneko ---! You! You you..! What are you trying to do…!?
I did say that, but the exact word wasn't like that! This…!
Damn! Because I was choked so bad, I couldn’t be able to make an excuse!
During that time, Saori leaned forward and raised her voice:
"What -- is that mean? Please tell us everything!"
"…Sorry, I can't do that. This is our secret, right -- Nii-san?"
"She called you Nii-san! Even if your brain was corrupted by eroge, that was too much Kyousuke-shi!"
"No, it's not like that --! Saori, you knew that better than anyone, why did you said that!?"
"What are you talking about, Kyousuke-shi?"
Those two ~! Just you wait! I clenched my first, my whole body trembled.
Next to them, the one who didn’t join in and teased me just now - Kirino threw me a contempt look and a single word:
"…Gross…."
She looked very uncomfortable, probably because she doesn’t like me get close to Kuroneko.
Look, you guys! She must feel that 'her friend was taken away'. After I figured that out, I couldn’t help but smile. But because of Kirino's opinion, Kuroneko's answer won’t get a good chance of winning.
Although Saori said "Next is Kiririn-shi ---" but the displeased Kirino answered "I'm still thinking…" before turned away. Having nothing else to do, Saori had no choice but to try to move this heavy atmosphere by saying:
"Then next is me. Hm, let's see…. 'The most unexpected thing happened recently'…Um…yes, I have one."
You were the one who decided that topic, but you yourself don’t know what to say….However, she seemed to be very good at talking.
Then Saori slammed on the table and announced:
"I wore clothes like this to a marriage meeting, and that person I met fainted immediately."
How could you do something so sad! I had so many things to lecture her that I don’t even know where to start. But for her, this wasn't 'The most unexpected thing happened recently'. To go to a marriage meeting should be called ' The most unexpected trauma to whoever I meet."
"You are disqualified….!"
Three of us spoke at the same time. Aside from Saori, it seemed like everyone reached the same conclusion.
“Ah~ I was so confident with that answer - gozaru… well, that’s fine. Then, once again, it’s Kiririn-shi’s turn! Have you thought of anything yet?”
"Um! You are right. Although it's nothing special, but 'The most unexpected thing happened recently' right? Then…."
Kirino spoke in a very normal calm tone:
"I bought a game called “The perverted Aniki”. I thought it was a little sister-based game, but it turned out to be a BL game."
Good. Good. Very good. Very very good!
How messed up this could be..I will never…play any of her 'topic' again.
In short, the otaku reunion ended. A few months without meeting didn’t change their relationship, that alone made me happy.
After Kirino and I saw them off, I returned to my room and read some books. And…well…I mean…I have to try hard too.
After a while…
"Thirsty…"
Doing something that you aren’t used to is an easy way to get tired. Maybe I should go wash my face and get a cup of water then come back and try later. Thinking that, I left my room and went to the stairs.
Suddenly ---
"Ugh!"
As soon as I get to the entrance, I collided with my little sister in her plain clothing. Since this is a blind spot, collision is usual.
*Thud*My left shoulder slightly hit Kirino's breast. Although we didn’t collide too hard, but her bag dropped on the floor, everything inside fell out.
"Ah…"
"Sorry."
I apologized and was about to reach out and helped her to pick things up…then suddenly my whole body froze in place…this situation had happened once before…
“I don’t need your help. Don’t touch anything.”
She repeated her words from long ago. Because I stopped before I touched them so unlike before, she didn’t brush my hand away --
Tch…look, that's our relationship.
I felt like my heart was stuck by needles. I stood up and watched my little sister picked up her cosmetics.
Kirino finished picking up and glared at me before putting on her shoes.
"…Hey!"
"Next time is the last life counseling"
She said as if that was something normal before slammed the door shut.
…What did she just say?
I stood there dumb stuck, looking at the door that my little sister just closed.
Translator's Notes[edit]
- ↑ From Street Fighter.
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