Fall from Grace

One evening, the absolutely adorable Nadeshiko Kiso paid a visit to Itsuki’s apartment.

“Good evening, big bro Itsuki!”

She made a polite little bow at the front door, and Itsuki beamed like a grandfather as he greeted her.

“Dee-hee! Great to see you, Nadeshiko. Here, come on in.”

“Okay!”

Whenever Yoshihiro Kiso, Nadeshiko’s real grandfather, came to the editorial office for a meeting, he would regularly drop off Nadeshiko at Itsuki’s apartment.

“I have some ohagi. Did you want one?”

The question came from Aoba Kasamatsu, a younger writer who had come to discuss her work with Itsuki.

“Ohagi?! I love ohagi!”

Nadeshiko’s eyes shone as Aoba smiled at her, took one from the fridge, and put it on a dish. Aoba had made these sweet rice balls back at home.

“Oh-hagiiii, oh-hagiiiii…” Sitting in between Itsuki’s legs, the little girl beamed at the world as she scarfed down the snack. “It’s really good! Did you make it, big sis?”

“I sure did.”

“Wow, you’re super great!”

“Aw, it’s not that special…”

“No, I think it’s really great,” Itsuki said, praising the humble Aoba. She would occasionally bring along other desserts, such as macarons and flan, and they were all pretty tasty. Apparently, she had developed the skill after cooking snacks for her siblings.

“I need to keep up my sugar levels for intellectual work, you know, so… Yeah. This really helps.”

“Hee-hee-hee! It’s an honor, big bro.” Aoba looked down bashfully, cheeks a bit red.

After finishing the sweet treat, the three of them took up some board games. The lineup for today included Viva Topo!, Incan Gold, and Deep Sea Adventure—all party-oriented games with a fairly strong luck element. Itsuki picked these not because they could give a child a chance to win with a little luck, but because Nadeshiko was so good at the skill-centric games he and Aoba just couldn’t beat her. They were probably the right picks to make, because all their games were competitive and all three had a blast.

“Phew! That was fun… Hmm?”

Coming down from their last match, Nadeshiko noticed a stack of paper next to the kotatsu.

“What’s that?”

“Oh,” Aoba replied, “that’s the manuscript for my novel.”

The Unfortunate Siblings’ Student Council War was the name of the new series Aoba Kasamatsu had devised with Itsuki’s advice. The first volume came out back in September, to pretty good reviews.

This was quite different from the strongly arty, “literary” tone she had taken with her debut novel, an approach she clearly took from Nayuta Kani. It was much more comical in nature, featuring strong, unique characters getting up to all kinds of antics. The story was led by a set of brother-and-sister twins who were striving to become the next student council president after the previous one suddenly disappeared from the academy. The text covered them and their supporters preparing for the upcoming election (or war, really), along with how they overcame their troubles and gradually built up support for themselves.

The setting may have been vastly different from her debut work, but the realistic psychology behind the characterization and the clever story structure—both hallmarks of her last book—were still there, making it a remarkably solid package for only her second work. Thanks to Aoba’s acknowledgment in the afterword (“Itsuki Hashima gave me a great deal of support for the writing of this book. Thanks, big bro! ”), some people online assumed All About had been delayed because Itsuki fell for a real-life teen and lent a hand with her novel instead, but that was only a very small contingent of fans…for now, anyway.

Itsuki was continuing to offer her advice for Volume 2, and the stack of paper by the table was her rough draft.

“That’s your novel, big sis Aoba?” Nadeshiko’s eyes shone. “Is it more of The Unfortunate Siblings’ Student Council War?!”

Aoba gasped a bit. “Uh… Did you read it, Nadeshiko?”

“Yeah! It was really neat!”

Aoba smiled shyly at Nadeshiko’s cheerful reply. “Hee-hee-hee… Thanks, Nadeshiko,” she said as she tousled her hair. Nadeshiko giggled at the ticklish feeling. “Oh, do you want some more ohagi?! Or maybe some Calpico to drink?!”

“Calpico! I want some of that!”

“All right. I’ll mix it up really thick for you, okay? ”

“…You’re starting to act like a grandma,” Itsuki pointed out with a grin.

Aoba blushed. “Oh, come on, big bro! You act like such a grandpa around Nadeshiko all the time.”

“Well, what do you want?” he fired back. “It’s Nadeshiko’s fault for being such a perfect angel.”

“You’re exactly right,” Aoba replied, nodding briskly.

Nadeshiko looked longingly at the manuscript as she enjoyed her drink. “When I’m in the sixth grade, I wanna be head of the children’s council!”

“The children’s council? That’s what they call the student council in elementary school, right?” The term gave Itsuki a shot of nostalgia. “Well, that’s really good of you, Nadeshiko, wanting to lead something like that.”

As a grade schooler, Itsuki was too introverted to even think about taking a leadership role.

“You’re in the fourth grade now, right?” Aoba asked.

“Uh-huh!” came the proud reply. “I’m on the library committee!”

“Wow. What kind of things do you do?”

“Oh, I help the librarian, I organize the shelves and stuff… I write about new books in our newsletter, too.”

“Ooooh. Sounds like you’re working really hard, Nadeshiko.”

“Hee-hee-hee! You know, I wrote about one of your books earlier, big bro Itsuki!”

“Guh?”

Itsuki’s face tensed up. All of his published work was about guys falling deeply, passionately in love with their flesh-and-blood younger sisters, and while the amount of erotic content varied from series to series (usually revolving around fully naked girls), it tended to be a running theme. Itsuki believed a child’s choices in reading material should be respected, and unless you were their parents or teachers, it’s not really something you should comment upon…but even so, he didn’t want this cute little girl he knew to be reading some of his pornier work. It was a complex issue for any creative type to tussle with…especially right now, when Itsuki was struggling to respect his own work.

“N-Nadeshiko… Are you reading my books?”

“Uh-huh! I think your books are really neat, big bro!”

“Oh…you do…?”

Even now, when he had lost his love for his series, Itsuki still got a rush from someone praising his stuff.

“And I really want to read what you write next!”

“…!”

Now Itsuki’s face was wholly frozen. Aoba, who knew about Itsuki’s slump as well, seemed just as conflicted. But Nadeshiko kept blithely talking, eyes agleam.

“I’m so excited to find out what happens next! Is the Service Club going to be all right?! Is Hachiman ever going to find his ‘something real’?!”

“Huh?”

Itsuki’s eyebrows arched down. This wasn’t terminology from his novels. Aoba had a question mark above her head, too.

“Um, Nadeshiko? Which were you talking about? Something real?”

“…? I’m talking about your books, big bro.”

“…Which books of mine?”

“Huh? Aw, quit picking on me, big bro! I’m talking about My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong, As I Expected, of course!”

“Aaahhhhh!!”

“?”

Itsuki yelped as he finally pieced the puzzle together, while Aoba was still lost.

It was about half a year ago when Nadeshiko first came to Itsuki’s place. She’d asked him what kind of books he wrote, and he was reluctant to show her a bunch of books with hard-R illustrations in them. Out of desperation, he pulled a copy of Ayakashi Gatari off the shelf and said, “I wrote this.” He even lied and said his pen name was “Wataru Watari,” the actual author.

They hadn’t talked at all about novels since then, so he’d completely forgotten about it…but since it had never come up, he never had a chance to correct her, either. Now she was absolutely convinced Itsuki Hashima was Wataru Watari.

Am… Am I ever gonna get this fixed…?!

If Itsuki’s life was actually just a novel, it was written by a complete bastard, no doubt. He began to visibly shake, sweat running down his face, as Nadeshiko stared blankly at him with her pure, innocent eyes. He couldn’t stand the thought of deceiving such a tender young girl any longer.

“Ah…ahh… Nadeshiko… Listen, I need to tell you something really important, okay…?”

“Yeah?”

Itsuki fell silent, still wincing, before he gingerly began his reply.

“To… To tell the truth… I’m not Wataru Watari…”

“Hmm?”

Nadeshiko raised an eyebrow.

“What do you mean by that, big bro?” Aoba asked, similarly puzzled.

“…My pen name is actually Itsuki Hashima—it’s the same as my real one. I write titles like All About My Little Sister and Sisterly Combat for a publisher called GF Bunko.”

“…? ……? ………?”

The blank stare remained on her face. She still didn’t seem to understand.

“Ah!” Her eyes widened. “You’re joking with me, aren’t you?!”

“I’m not. I’m telling you the truth…”

“…? Huhhh…? What? But you said your pen name was Wataru Watari, big bro.”

“I’m sorry. I lied.”

“No way…”

“…Yes way. I didn’t write Qualidea, I didn’t write Girlish Number… I didn’t write anything cool like that. I’m not Wataru Watari.”

“Huhhh…?”

Nadeshiko seemed lost, in a state of total disbelief. She turned away from Itsuki to Aoba.

“Oh, um, he’s right,” she told her, still not much attuned to what was going on. “Our big bro definitely writes under the name Itsuki Hashima.”

Nadeshiko, finally realizing Aoba was telling her the truth, slowly turned her face back toward Itsuki, like an old door creaking open.

“…You—you lied? You weren’t Wataru Watari?”

“…No.”

With this final confirmation, Nadeshiko slumped down on her seat. “Ahhhh…”

“H-Hey… Nadeshiko? Nadeshikooo?”

Itsuki called for her, concerned, but she kept her head down, muttering.

“…I can’t believe anything anymore… All you grown-ups keep lying to me… Youth is all a lie. It’s evil…”

“N-Nadeshiko!” Aoba half-shrieked, attempting to cheer her up. “I—I don’t have any idea why you thought our big bro was Wataru Watari, but let me tell you, Itsuki’s works are just as wonderful as Wataru’s! He’s ‘something real,’ too!”

The girl turned her clouded eyes to Aoba.

“…I told my friends and the rest of the library committee that these books were written by a man I know.”

“Oof…” Aoba’s eyes darted away. She felt too awkward to keep them straight.

“And now I lied to them…”

“It—it’s all right! It’s not your fault! You were just tricked, is all! It’s all my fault! And I’ll do anything to set the record straight with your friends! Oh, I know… Why don’t I arrange a meeting between you and Wataru Watari?! Then you won’t be lying when you say you know him! I’ve never met him either, but I think I can tap some connections!”

“…”

Itsuki desperately tried to cheer her up, but ultimately, he failed to win Nadeshiko’s smile back. Her grandfather, Yoshihiro Kiso, finally managed to restore her good spirits when he returned from his editorial meeting—but now that she had a taste of the darkness, something about Nadeshiko would never be the same again…