June 6

Today, June 6, marked Itsuki Hashima’s twenty-first birthday.

Last month, his little circle of friends held a surprise party for Miyako Shirakawa’s birthday. However, given that Itsuki and his pals almost always had their get-togethers at his apartment, there wasn’t much chance to set up a surprise anything for him, so they all decided to just do what they always did. The kotatsu table was filled with Itsuki’s favorites—shrimp and chili sauce, some of Chihiro’s patented North-Meets-South Spring Rolls, seafood fried rice—and the entire room was filled with mouthwatering aromas.

But today, they were all celebrating more than just another year checked off Itsuki’s life.

“Happy birthday and anime series, Itsuki!”

“““Congrats!!”””

Nayuta was the first to toast his good fortune, followed by Haruto, Miyako, and Chihiro in unison.

“Bah-ha-ha! Thank you, everyone! Cheers to the first steps into a new era of my life!”

He gulped down his beer, spirits high. It was Gouden Carolus Cuvée van de Keizer Red, a special ale for a special occasion, and one he had last sampled when they were all here to watch Episode 1 of Haruto Fuwa’s Chevalier of the Absolute World. That night, sadly, resulted mostly in regret, but tonight was different. They were just toasting to the news itself; there was nothing to rate and berate yet.

“Pfaahhh… Damn, this Keizer Red’s good…”

Haruto smiled and gulped down his own glass, as if trying to dilute his bitter memories.

In addition to the five people surrounding the table, there were two others: tax accountant Ashley Ono and editor Kenjiro Toki. Having seven people in a fairly budget-conscious apartment made things crowded, forcing Ashley to seat herself quietly on the bed and Toki to lean against the door frame between the living room and kitchen.

Ashley flashed an eerie smile. “Tee-hee-hee! Now you’ll have more income than ever before, Itsuki. Time for your accountant to show you what she’s really made of.”

“Yeah, I can’t believe something my own brother made is gonna be on TV… That’s so cool.”

“It sure is,” chimed in Miyako. “I guess even a sister-obsessed deviant like him’s pretty amazing if he can pull that off.”

“Hee-hee!” snickered Nayuta to the side, glugging down her root beer and acting a little elated herself. “I can’t wait to get a taste of Itsuki’s new, improved twenty-one-year-old dick!”

Despite not imbibing any alcohol, Nayuta always had a habit of acting a bit unsteady, as if she’d had a few too many. Ever since Itsuki had wrapped up the manuscript for All About My Little Sister Volume 4, the trend had grown even stronger.

“Um,” Miyako ventured in an attempt to change the subject, “so how does it feel to get an anime?”

Itsuki’s face turned serious. “Hmm. Well, this just, you know, fell into my lap, so I can’t get too excited about it.” He curled the edges of his lips up for the admiring Miyako. “Heh… I mean… It’s all just a bunch of coincidences. Just one of those things… I was chosen by this era, if you will…”

“Huh?”

“Heh-heh-heh… A chosen one, designated to shoulder a vast destiny by pure happenstance… I must remain strong, and modest! I can’t let myself get carried away! I must fulfill the fate meted out to me, heh-heh-heh… eh-heh… Fah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-haaaaaaaaaa!!”

“Wow, shut up! Sorry I ever gave you a compliment.”

“Itsuki…”

Miyako and Chihiro gave each other exasperated stares as the not-at-all-modest Itsuki lost himself in his nefarious laughter.

“Yeah! That’s the spirit, Itsuki! You’re the torchbearer for a new generation! A savior for the world of entertainment! Literary history’s gonna be divided into ‘pre-Hashima’ and ‘post-Hashima’ eras from now on!”

“Hee-hee-hee. Quite true, Nayuta. He’s the Golden Boy of our generation. We’ve finally found someone who can put Shakespeare where he deserves—in the past!”

“Ha-ha-ha-ha! That’s right! Keep it going! But let’s not stick me with a nickname that’ll make me feel like I’m gonna get arrested, okay? I got a rep to maintain!”

Itsuki’s laughter grew even louder at Nayuta’s and Ashley’s goading.

“……”

But even as they and the rest of the room smiled and carried on, Toki looked oddly depressed over something. “You know,” he half growled at Itsuki, “this was supposed to be a secret between you, me, and the editors until the official announcement. How many goddamn people did you tell anyway?”

Itsuki just breezily smiled back. “Aw, don’t get so worked up! I didn’t say anything on a blog or Twitter or anything!”

“You could at last pretend to be sorry…”

Haruto grinned at Toki as furrows appeared between the editor’s eyebrows. “Yeah, I was so excited when my anime got confirmed that I kinda told Itsuki, too, so…”

“You too, Fuwa? Ughhh… Well, it’s not like that’s unusual, I guess. I understand it, but…” Towa sighed. “…I suppose most writers tell someone, at least, the moment they hear about the anime. I get why, but…”

It’s not an uncommon sight on Twitter for someone to announce the anime version of their own novel series and for other authors to retweet with abandon and send congratulatory replies, but—more often than not—those authors were already aware of the news quite a while ago. To put it another way, if they didn’t know about it until the official announcement, the resulting jealousy and envy would make it impossible to send any sort of well wishes at all. Receiving advance word grants them time to clear their minds, compose themselves, and offer blatantly false congratulations on social media. (This reflects the personal opinion of the author and does not represent the official position of his publisher. -Ed)

“Wa-ha-ha! Exactly! You know no novelist is ever gonna hide the secret! So don’t worry about it!” Itsuki cried with a smile.

“See? The way you bite back at me without a single trace of regret! That’s what pisses me off!” Toki wailed before consuming the remainder of his drink in one gulp.

“Heh-heh-heh…” Itsuki took the hint and picked up Toki’s glass to refill it. “Well, KenKen, I hope you’ll be my editor for volumes and volumes to come!”

“Pfft. You wish you could get rid of me.” Toki grabbed Itsuki’s glass to top him off in return. “Just remember, you’re gonna be busier than ever from here on in. You better be prepared.”

“You know,” Miyako observed as she watched all this, “they bicker constantly, but Itsuki and Mr. Toki have a pretty good relationship, don’t they? I wonder if every author-editor collab is like that.”

“Mmm,” Haruto replied first, “I’ve never really been that buddy-buddy with my editor. We’re still pretty formal with each other.”

“Yeah, same with mine,” added Nayuta. “I mean, we hardly even meet up much at all.”

“This place being right by the editorial office helps, but I’d say it’s pretty rare for an editor like Mr. Toki to show up at one of his authors’ birthday parties.”

“Wow, really?” Miyako asked, nodding.

“Were you interested in becoming an editor, Miyako?” Haruto asked.

“Mmm, maybe a little…”

“Oh, I hope you do!” said Nayuta, eyes shining. “If you could be my editor, Myaa, that would be so awesome!”

Miyako smiled. “Yeah, but the market for publishing jobs is, like, supercompetitive, isn’t it? I dunno if I’d even have a chance…”

“Ooh, yeah,” Haruto said, stealing a glance at Toki. “A few of my college classmates applied at publishers, but I think all of them got turned down. The way I heard it, they only hire the best of the best from the top universities…supposedly, anyway…”

The “best of the best” in the room was now loudly arguing with Itsuki, very quickly letting the alcohol take him.

“I told you! The ideas you’re throwing at me lately are just… I mean, you’ve got the little-sister cutesiness going for you, but your stuff is getting totally deviant!”

“Ah, so you mean it’s transcending all boundaries of the genre? Ha-ha-ha! Glad to see we’re in agreement!”

“That’s not a compliment! The sisters you’re depicting in your work lately are no longer ‘sisters’ as defined by conventional wisdom! They’re something…sinister! Repulsive!”

“What?! How dare you call my sisters repulsive! You’re the one who paid for time with that lady at the sex shop who looked like some deep-sea hag straight out of the Palace of the Dragon King!”

“Don’t, don’t, don’t remind me of that, you ass! I paid so much money for that deep-sea hag who looked nothing like the photo, and they told me I couldn’t swap out for another woman, so I just sat there on the mat staring into space and waiting for time to go by—do you have any idea how that feels?!”

“No, I don’t, dumbass! It’s your fault for going to places like that!”

“Don’t dismiss them out of hand just because you’ve never been to one, you hyper-virgin novelist! Here, lemme take you to one for your twenty-first birthday present!”

“Whoa, hell no! Absolutely not!”

“Oh, don’t be a wimp! They’re nice! …Um, assuming you go to a decent place! Like the one in Shibuya I’m a member of—”

“Shut up! I don’t wanna hear about it!”

“Well, if you’re too embarrassed to go right into a soapland-type place, you could visit a sentai first.”

“A what?”

“A sentai. You know, the two characters for ‘wash’ and ‘body.’ Basically, you go there, and this girl washes you up.”

“That’s still basically a sex shop, isn’t it?!”

“No! You’re not going there to get off; you’re there to get cleaned up and feel good while you—”

“Y-you know, I could probably sue you right now for sexual harassment, right, you deep-sea-diving editorial garbage?”

“I didn’t choose to go deep-sea diving! I just didn’t want the money to go to waste, so I tried to use up as much of the time as possible!”

Miyako, Nayuta, and Haruto watched with cold, composed eyes as this high-volume exercise in vulgarity unfolded.

“Gross… We’ve got a minor here, guys…”

“So that’s the ‘best of the best’? A top college grad who fended off all the competition? I hope KenKen’s dick falls off.”

“Hey, you know, being an editor’s a hard job…and Itsuki isn’t the only problem child Mr. Toki has to deal with, so…you know, I think we should allow him to let off a little steam when he’s drunk. Besides, there are lots of total assholes out there who still do a great job in their work. Your academic history doesn’t say anything about your personality, so…”

“You’re being kind of harsh, too, aren’t you, Fuwa?”

Then they fell silent, watching Toki passionately lecture Itsuki on all manner of unsavory things, as if the three of them were on a field trip to the local landfill.

After all the food and drink were thoroughly enjoyed, the attendees each gave Itsuki their birthday presents. Haruto’s was a body pillow cover with a little-sister anime character on it, the front depicting her smiling in a maid outfit and the back showing her in the same dress, except with about 80 percent of it ripped off her body. No nipples were drawn in, which may have been why the character looked slightly embarrassed, but vaguely happy if you looked at her the right way.

“…Say, did this maybe come as a preorder bonus for a porn game or something?”

Haruto flashed a slightly distressed smile. “Yeah, so? This isn’t a character I like, so I don’t need it, but I can’t bring myself to throw it out. This way I’m rid of it, and you’ve got another piece of collectible sister merchandise. It’s a win-win, right?”

“…I don’t know anything about this,” Itsuki said as he dubiously regarded the half-naked character, filing away the game’s title in his mind for potential purchase.

Miyako’s gift was a coffee mug with the Chinese character for “little sister” written on it. “I found it at the home-goods store,” she explained, “so I thought you’d like it. It was kind of embarrassing to bring it to the register, I hope you appreciate it.”

“Y-yeah,” Itsuki ventured as he looked at it. “I know I can love pretty much any character if they’re written up to be someone’s little sister…but I dunno if I can feel the same way about the word itself… I feel like I’m being tested to see if I can reach even newer, unexplored realms…”

Chihiro, meanwhile, gave him a T-shirt with a hip pop-art illustration of an owl.

“Whoa! This is neat!”

“I’m glad you like it,” Chihiro bashfully replied.

“…This is pretty good material. Did it cost a lot, as tees go?”

“Um…well, Dad wanted to buy you a present, so he gave me some money to work with…”

The confession made Itsuki wince for just a moment. “…Oh,” he mumbled, his lips turning into an upside-down V. “…By the way, why a T-shirt? Did I mention wanting one?”

Chihiro looked up at him, feeling a bit awkward at how obviously keen Itsuki was to change the subject.

“…Um, don’t be mad, okay?”

“…? What do you mean by that?”

Chihiro faltered.

“……I wanted something you could wear in public and wouldn’t make me embarrassed to be with you…”

“…So when we went to the aquarium, did you spend the whole time thinking ‘God, I can’t believe I have to hang with this guy and his gross-ass T-shirt’?”

“J-just a little! But it was fine!” If Chihiro was attempting to alleviate the shock of the news, he failed. “It wasn’t like I couldn’t deal with it! I mean, once you get used to it, it’s no problem at all!”

“……Couldn’t deal with? …Get used to?”

“Um… R-really, it’s totally fine! I—I wear this track jacket all the time, too, so it’s not like I’m one to judge!”

“Yeah…well…unlike you, I’m not enough of a stud that I can even make a tracksuit look fashionable. I guess I’ll make sure not to walk next to you from now on…”

“Itsuki…”

Sadness clouded Chihiro’s eyes as he took in Itsuki’s peeved reaction. But Itsuki just laughed it off.

“…I’m just kidding. How ’bout we go clothes shopping together sometime?”

“Uh… Oh, um… Yeah, sure! Definitely!”

Itsuki smiled as his brother’s face lit back up.

“Right! So, as promised, I got you a Stone…or I was gonna give you one, but I found this instead.”

Inside the bag Nayuta provided, tied up in a festive ribbon, there was a single SD card. It made Itsuki’s eyes open wide.

“Oh, no way, is this…?!”

Nayuta was fresh from writing an entire novel for Miyako’s birthday last month. So had she repeated that trick again—for Itsuki…?

“It contains an assortment of X-rated selfies. Not all of them are really in focus, but you’ll find some full nudes in there, too. ^///^”

Nayuta’s cheeks reddened as she fidgeted in her seat. Itsuki greeted this with a completely blank expression, then a sigh that sounded like it rose up from the depths of his very soul.

“Wh-what’s with that reaction?!”

“N-nothing…um, thank you very much Kanikou I’ll cherish this forever and ever.”

“Huh,” Nayuta said as Itsuki recited his thanks like a robot. “In that case, I’ll take this back and give you a Slen—tone later.” Then, in a single motion, she snatched the SD card right out of Itsuki’s hand.

“Oh…”

And Nayuta, of course, keenly noticed that ever-so-slight look of regret that crossed his face for an instant.

“What’s thiiis? Second thoughts, Itsuki?”

“N-no.”

She grinned ear to ear at the now-blushing Itsuki. “If you want to see porn of me, all you have to do is ask, you know. Here, don’t you want this? You should see the shameless stuff I’m doing in some of these pics!”

“I—no, I don’t need it! I’d want a Slender—, like, a hundred times more!”

“Are you suuuure? It’s not healthy to bottle up your desires, you know? Come on, it’s full of all the brazen eighteen-year-old smut you crave, y’know. Pretty useful stuff, don’t you think?” She dangled the memory card in front of his face, taunting him with it.

Then Itsuki suddenly grew stern.

“…Is that so? Well, if you’re going to go that far, then I’ll gladly accept it.”

“Huh?” Nayuta paused, eyes wide open.

“What’s wrong, Kanikou? I said I’ll take the SD card. Hand it over.”

“Uh-hmm… Are you serious?” Now she was wavering, the supreme confidence of a moment ago vanished.

Itsuki nodded. “Of course I’m serious.”

It only made Nayuta’s face redder. “This, this is seriously hard-core stuff, okay? I mean…I’m doing things in them that I, um, I’m not sure I can talk about in front of people…”

“Oh really? Well, after all that effort you must’ve put in, I sure as hell gotta use ’em, don’t I?”

“Use…um, use my porn…?”

Her eyes pleaded upward at him, sweat beading on her forehead, as Itsuki nodded, bright red but completely in earnest.

“So hand it over, Kanikou. Give me your perverted SD card full of pictures of you at your most shamelessly pornographic! Now!”

“Uh, umm, I…”

“What’s the problem? Weren’t you giving that to me?”

“B-but I, um, I’m starting to think that maybe this’ll create a lot of problems for me…”

“Problems?”

“I, I mean, you’ve heard all the stories about revenge porn lately! It…it’d really suck if you did that to me and stuff!”

“…And you really think I’m the kind of person who’d do that?”

“I’m not s-saying that, but…oooh…”

Nayuta stared into space for a minute, attempting with every fiber of her body to gingerly present the SD card to Itsuki—

“I—I can’t do this! Yet!”

—then, with a half scream, she snapped the card in two with both hands. In another moment, she was sitting back by the kotatsu table, using the comforter covering it to hide half her face in shame.

“Jeez… Why are you coming at me so vigorously today…?”

“If you couldn’t take your own medicine, Nayuta, you shouldn’t have tried in the first place…”

Itsuki rolled his eyes, then breathed a slight sigh of relief. For him, actually obtaining a cache of Nayuta porn would have left him at a loss for how to handle it. …Do I want sexy photos of the girl I like? Of course I do. I do, but if I had them within arm’s reach all day, I’d agonize over it so much that I’m sure it’d affect my work.

“…This is so ridiculous,” muttered Haruto, eyes scornful as he watched it all unfold.

“It sure is,” Miyako added, a plethora of emotions on her face.

That just left Toki’s and Ashley’s presents, but Toki was already hammered—arms around his knees and snoring, fully clothed, in the empty bathtub—so they all let him be. As for Ashley:

“Sadly, I’ve forgotten to bring a present, but…hmm…”

She thought for a moment. Then, without warning, she took off the socks she had on, pointed her bare feet at Itsuki from his bed, and started twirling a sock with her hand.

“Which do you like more—socks, or bare feet? Hmm, Big Brother?”

Itsuki swallowed. “Wh-which do I like…?”

“I can either give you these freshly removed socks, or I can let you lick my feet.”

“Wha…!”

“Tee-hee-hee… What’ll it be, Big Bro?”

“A little sister’s socks, or her feet… Talk about a diabolical choice…!”

“Keep it together, Itsuki! That’s not your little sister! She’s just some thirty-two-year-old gra—um, never mind.”

Haruto fell silent at Ashley’s cold, resentful eyes. Itsuki opted for the socks.

After the presents, the group ate birthday cake to round out the event. Nayuta, Miyako, Chihiro, and Ashley all went home, leaving Itsuki and Haruto alone in the apartment (save for the sleeping Toki in the bathroom). They quickly settled down to drinking beer and nibbling on the leftovers.

“…Hope the All About anime turns out okay,” Haruto blurted out.

“…Yeah.”

Itsuki nodded, softly replying through gritted teeth, a far cry from the pepped-up guffawing of the party. To him, scoring an anime adaptation was something worthy of sincere celebration. It was—but also, it was a cause for anxiety. It always would be.

“…Congratulations, Itsuki. It’s been decided that All About My Little Sister will be getting an anime adaptation.”

He couldn’t help but recall when he’d first heard the news from Toki.

“Huh?” he dully replied at first, unable to grasp his editor’s meaning.

“We’re making an anime. An All About anime.”

“…………Really?”

“Really.”

An anime. He rolled the word around in his mind.

“Heh-heh…” A smile naturally rose to his lips. “Heh-heh-heh-heh… Bah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! I see… Now I’m finally part of the ‘author behind the anime’ family, ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!”

“Umm, let me just say…” Toki’s voice was tense, raining on Itsuki’s personal parade. “There’s something else I was wavering about telling you…but judging by your reaction, I guess I might as well…”

“Oh? What is it?”

“This anime project was originally gonna be based on another novel series.”

“……”

Itsuki’s face turned grim.

“…This romantic comedy that’s also released on our label. But just when they were about to draw up the contract, a new volume in the series came out, and sales just fell off a cliff.”

Toki paused. Itsuki had an idea of what series he was talking about, but that wasn’t important. He silently waited for him to continue.

“…So, you know, even if we did animate it, there’s practically no hope of it being a success. But the thing is, we’re already so far along with arrangements between all the companies involved that if we scrapped the project at this point, it’d be an obstacle for all our other anime projects going forward.”

“…So All About was selected as a substitute because it’s still kinda popular, just not as much as that one?”

Toki nodded.

“…If anything was gonna get the anime treatment,” Itsuki slowly, ponderingly observed, “I figured it would’ve been Sisterly Combat first, so that’s kind of a surprise, but…huh. Neat.”

“So as I said,” Toki continued in his businesslike manner, “this anime project kicked off with another novel as its subject, so we pretty much have all the partners set in stone.”

“The partners?”

“The sponsors, the network, the production company, that kind of thing. The ‘production committee,’ as they call it. Who’s in that committee affects the staff, the cast, the artist singing the opening theme, the budget, what we’re allowed to depict and not depict… A million different things.”

“……”

“So, um, I just want to be sure you realize that these partners originally came together for another series, not for All About. As a result, you may not agree with all of the people involved—I mean, really, it might be safe to say that almost nothing’s gonna turn out how you’re thinking. Just wanted to temper your expectations with that.”

“……”

“And I said that we’ve decided to produce an anime version, but actually…I mean, technically speaking, it isn’t a hundred percent green-lit yet.”

“What…?”

“That’s because we need your consent as the original author. Without that, we can’t officially kick this thing off.”

“……”

“To put it another way…” Toki looked straight into Itsuki’s eyes. “What I’m trying to say is, you still have the right to turn this down.”

The emotion in his eyes was the pinnacle of sincerity. This was absolutely not the sort of advice an editor would normally give their author. If the publisher had already decided to move along with an anime series, it was the job of rank-and-file editor Toki to coax the original creator into being part of the team.

“…You saw what happened with Fuwa and Chevalier. You know that an anime isn’t always a good thing for you. In fact, there are a lot of creators who, directly or indirectly, got steamrolled by their anime adaptation. With this project in particular, there’s a high risk compared to your typical anime that things’ll turn out different from what you’re hoping for. But if you’re still—”

“Let’s do it.”

Before Toki could finish, Itsuki had given his reply—the will clear in his voice, his eyes locked with his editor’s.

“…Out of curiosity,” he then asked Toki, “if I said no to the anime, what then?”

“…Probably we would’ve just gone with another rom-com. Like Kirakoi or Kaze-Kimi,” came the blunt reply. Both of these had about as much name-brand value as All About.

“So…I guess I was always replaceable?” Itsuki half whispered, his voice strained. Then he flashed a defiant, irascible smile. “Well…bring it.”

“Huh?”

“Let’s get the All About anime moving as fast as we can. No matter how it turns out, it’s gonna be an experience I’d never have otherwise, I think. I wanna see what Haruto saw. What a certain someone else saw. I gotta see it.”

Maybe I’m expendable right now, maybe they could replace me easily enough—but if I’m gonna get ahead, I need this.

“…All right.” Toki let out a soft, distressed sigh, then gave Itsuki a lighthearted smile. “So be it. As your editor, I’ll follow you all the way down to hell.”

“Heh. I’ll be counting on you.”

With that, Itsuki gave him a brazen laugh of his own.

That marked the official launch of the All About My Little Sister anime—and, really, the moment he heard the news, Itsuki was in no way capable of rational thought. But after Toki left his apartment, night turned into day, and even more days passed after that, and then the excitement in his mind became dwarfed by his anxiety.

Over the past few days, he had been deliberately trying to act as fired-up and enthusiastic as he could, in part to hide this. But no matter how much he carried on in front of Chihiro and Miyako and Ashley and Toki and Nayuta, he couldn’t mask the tension in his mind. Only with Haruto, whose own anime adaptation was a currently unfolding disaster, could he honestly reveal his concerns.

“…I want it to be good. Like, seriously. Every part of me does,” Haruto emphasized again.

“…Do you really?”

“Mm? What d’you mean by that?”

“…Like, even if All About turns into this incredible series, your Chevalier anime’s all…you know…like that.”

“Oh, so you think I’ll be too frustrated or jealous to really celebrate it if your anime succeeds, because mine was a piece of shit?”

Itsuki lightly nodded. “…Yeah.”

Haruto gave this a light chuckle.

“…Well, of course I will.”

There was something almost refreshing to his voice.

“…I guess so, huh?”

“Yeah. Well, I can’t really say until that happens, but I’m pretty sure I’m gonna be so frustrated and jealous, I won’t know what to do with myself. Like, why did mine have to be like that but yours got to be like this, you know…? But I do want it to be good. Not just All About, either. I want all the creators and fans of the novels and manga and games that get put through the media-mix wringer to be happy. I want Chevalier of the Absolute World to be the last sad example of an anime version that didn’t work out… Not that it’s gonna happen, obviously. There’s gonna be lots more shitty media-mix projects ahead for us, I’m sure, and they’re gonna break the creators’ hearts and disappoint all their fans…”

But in Haruto’s opinion, he ought to be allowed to at least hope for the alternative. He should be allowed to at least dream of an incredible future ahead, one where every series, every creator and staff member and fan, could find happiness. For Haruto, subjected to all manner of thoughtless slander on a weekly basis after every anime episode, that was what he truly yearned for.

Itsuki listened silently, sternly, to all of this. Then, in a whisper:

“…You’re a good guy.”

“Yeah, ain’t I?” Haruto laughed, hiding his embarrassment as he took the last few swigs of beer from his glass.

Itsuki fell asleep soon after Haruto left.

Kenjiro Toki would report to the office the next morning in a wrinkled, beer-scented business suit, his joints aching from sleeping in his author’s bathtub overnight, but this sort of thing happens with editors all the time, so nobody yelled at him about it.

Meanwhile, back at her hotel, Nayuta Kani was busy stripping off all her clothes, collapsing into bed, and writhing around.

“Mmnnnyaaaaaahhhhhhh! I can’t be-liiiiieeeeevvvve this!”

She had tried to give Itsuki an SD card full of homegrown smut for his birthday, but she got so embarrassed over it that she destroyed it in front of his face. When it came to Itsuki, she didn’t much mind what kind of vulgar bits of herself she showed off. She sincerely thought that having him jerk off to her naked body would make her happy. But right when push came to shove, she chickened out. It just came out of nowhere.

Two weeks ago, when Itsuki and Nayuta were both fresh off deadlines, they had joined Haruto in a game of Once Upon a Time at Itsuki’s place. Soon after, she fell asleep in Itsuki’s bed, unable to stay awake any longer—but it wasn’t a very deep sleep, apparently, and Itsuki’s and Haruto’s voices had awoken her. She was still groggy at first, most of the conversation going straight over her head, but:

………All right, all right, I’ll admit it. I like Kanikou.

Those two simple sentences were enough to banish all fatigue from her mind.

Itsuki, as he had described it, had a huge thing for Nayuta after all. He loved her, but he didn’t want to act on it yet, because he still wasn’t on the same level as her. Someday, when the two of them were on equal footing as authors, he would finally admit the truth to her.

Hearing that made Nayuta feel like her body was going to catch fire. She had long known that Itsuki wasn’t some cartoonishly narcissistic, incest-loving, little-sister-obsessed fk, that he had something burning deep within him, but she didn’t think his feelings about her—as an author, and as a woman—were that strong. She had loved him ever since his first published book and come to love him more now that she knew him personally. The more she learned about him, the more it amplified her romantic feelings.

And now she knew those feelings were mutual. Nothing could have made her happier. The fact they couldn’t be an official couple right now irritated her, but the futile sincerity behind his feelings was darling to her.

…I’m not really anything yet, but when I become a protagonist on an even level with Kanikou…then I’m gonna tell her that I love her. And I know it’s not fair to her, but I need her to wait until then.

Nayuta didn’t have an accurate gauge of Itsuki’s feelings.

To her, Itsuki had been an irreplaceable talent, a giant among wannabe authors, from the very beginning. She went professional because of how much she looked up to him; she loved everything he wrote; she never thought of herself as better than him; and she had never even compared her skill as a novelist to his. She could be sure, however, that whatever feelings he had for her, they definitely factored in Nayuta Kani as a novelist.

If Nayuta deliberately phoned it in for a new series, let it fail, and then told Itsuki “All right, we’re equal now,” it’d do nothing but disappoint him. He’d probably get genuinely angry with her. In order to be the one Itsuki loved, Nayuta Kani had to advance, and improve, as an author. She could do nothing less than her absolute best.

But simply standing there and waiting for Itsuki to confess his love to her was too painful to endure, so she kept actively searching for ways to melt the ice surrounding his heart. If their feelings were truly mutual, she ought to be safe with taking more extreme measures in her gambits. Thus went the thought behind that sexy SD card—but she wimped out at the last moment.

So the naked Nayuta let out a lonesome sigh as a finger reached down toward her abdomen.

“Aaaahhhh…nnh…hhh… I love you, Itsukiii…looovve youuuu…”

“…I want you, Itsukiii… I want you to ruin meeee… ♥”

So she went on, releasing her passion while consumed by the fantasy of being ravaged by the throbbing, fifty-foot-long, eight-headed carpet python of a penis lurking between Itsuki’s legs.