◆◆◆ Shout It Out!

On a Saturday midway through October, the pair found themselves back in the Kobayashi living room. After seeing her favorite couple in the game finally declare their love for each other, Kobayashi Shihono’s hollering had transcended the realm of celebration. At this point, she was purely unintelligible.

“Yahooooo! Yip-yip! Heeesh vrrrooogaaa!”

Shihono hopped around the room like an excited bunny, grinning from ear to ear. The only thing Endo Aoto could glean was that she was happy. Any semblance of nuance was lost on him. He was at a loss for what to do, but tried saying something all the same.

“Yeah, that was great...but maybe it’s time to calm down a bit?”

Aoto’s attempt to bring Shihono back to reality was absolutely futile. Neither she nor her bizarre screaming showed any signs of slowing down.

“I guess she can’t hear me...” he said to himself.

Up until now, the two of them had exchanged high fives and cheered together when something good happened in-game. However, this time, Shihono had maxed out on excitement and began pumping her fists, jumping around, and twirling in a funky sort of dance. Seeing her go completely bonkers like this ironically shocked sense back into Aoto.

While Shihono was off in her own world, Aoto saved the game and turned off the console. After another ten minute wait, he began to feel uncomfortable. Seeing as this was Shihono’s home, there wasn’t any need to worry about others being weirded out by her peculiar song and dance, but Aoto was starting to feel a bit lonely. Just as he wondered if she’d ever regain sanity...

“Hee, hee, hoo—ah!” Shihono lost her balance and fell backward.

“Whoa!” As one might expect from a former baseball player, Aoto was quick to react. He managed to extend one arm behind her back and the other behind her thigh, supporting her fall.

Still, holding someone’s body weight while kneeling was too much for him. Failing to completely catch her, he slid and made a loud thud as they both smacked the ground.

“Sorry!” Shihono shouted, jumping out of his arms in a panic. She hurriedly looked him over. “I’m so sorry, Endo, I got carried away! Thanks for catching me—wait, you aren’t hurt, are you?! Are you okay?!”

Neither the arms Aoto had caught her with or his previously injured shoulder felt any worse for wear. However, his elbows and knees stung because they’d slammed into the floor. Even so, the soft sensation of holding Shihono—plus how she was all in his personal space to make sure he wasn’t hurt—left him unable to focus on the bruises.

Taking all this into account at once, Aoto decided to brush his pain and embarrassment under the rug. He raised both hands to imply that he was fine and that she didn’t need to touch him any more than necessary.

“No, I’m all right. Are you good, Kobayashi? More importantly, did you get it out of your system?”

“Yup!” she said with a cutesy smile. “I think I’ve calmed down a bit!”

Shihono’s grin was back to normal. Seeing her abandon the crazed smirk she’d been wearing for the past few minutes was cause for relief.

“You know what? Actually, I’m not totally done yet! I’m just too happy! I mean, come on, ugh! I wanna tell the world that Liese-tan and Sieg are finally a thing! Or at least lemme tell everyone at school! I wanna go on air during the festival and scream at the top of my lungs!”

“Yeah, no. Nobody knows who Siegwald or Lieselotte are. That’s a ‘literally who’ moment if I’ve ever heard one.”

Shihono struggled to calm down and Aoto flatly refused her request. Roughly a month in the future, the Broadcasting Club planned to host a segment called Shout It Out! during their school’s cultural festival.

On the first day of the festival, they would go around looking for students that wanted to get something off their chest on air. Then, they’d record an interview-style bit with members from the club, and eventually broadcast it to the school, as long as there weren’t any content issues. Most people used the time to advertise for their class or club, but every now and again they had guests declare their love for the whole school to hear.

“Talking about two video game characters getting together is kinda pushing it. Besides, there’s no way you could explain our situation.”

Despite Aoto’s measured response, he recalled that there was a boy who had gone on the show to talk about his waifu last year. Still, their own circumstances were too extraordinary to explain. He played around with the thought for a bit, but Shihono quickly moved on to a new suggestion.

“Mm, fine. Then let’s do a radio drama of the scene! I’ll write the script!”

The other event the Broadcasting Club was in charge of was a radio drama. They had yet to choose what script they were going with. November also had a competition for new commentators, so the already unenthused members of their club had put off the extra work of producing a script for quite some time.

Shihono wanted to slot in the heartfelt scene they’d just watched, since they needed to choose something anyway.

“Wait,” Aoto said in horror. “No, no, no, hold up. You want to do this scene? Seriously? I know everyone is just waiting around for somebody to do the scriptwriting, but...don’t you think this is a bit of a sugar overdose?”

“...I guess it’d be a teensy bit embarrassing?” Shihono tilted her head in contemplation as she slowly regained her composure.

“Don’t ‘teensy bit’ me. Reenacting that is a cruel and unusual punishment. Plus, if you suggest this story, then everyone will definitely force you into the main role as Lieselotte...”

Aoto did everything he could to try and convince her to stop. However, what he considered a bulletproof argument only caused the girl to think even harder.

“Hmm, then would you play Sieg with me?”

Suddenly, Aoto was made to weigh his sense of shame against the urge to stop anyone else from playing the role with Shihono. He knew it would be incredibly embarrassing. However, imagining her saying sweet nothings to someone else was even more unbearable.

“...Fine, but only if you play Lieselotte,” he mumbled.

“Ughhh!” Shihono said, scratching at her head. “Should I?!”

“You’re seriously considering it?! How badly do you want to show everyone your favorite ship?!”

“That’s not it,” Shihono said, shaking her head. “I really like your voice, Endo. It’s deep, gentle, and has this oomph to it. I’ve wanted to record you saying lovey-dovey stuff to throw on a loop even before I scouted you—and I still do. So with this deal, I get to show off Sieg x Liese-tan and hear you say all the things Sieg did... I have to do it, right? This isn’t the time for embarrassment!”

Shihono was in deep thought, and Aoto stared at her with mixed emotions. He had no qualms about saying embarrassing lines if she wanted him to, but broadcasting that to the whole school was a separate issue. Frankly, he wasn’t sure if he was physically capable of delivering lines as honeyed as Sieg’s. The more he mulled it over, the more he respected the real prince that managed to say all that with a straight face.

“I mean,” Shihono said out of the blue, “remember the sports tournament? A bunch of girls came up and told you how great your play-by-play was and how much they liked your voice. I’m not your only fan, so I think an audio drama with your voice would be in high demand.”

Aoto blushed from the continuous compliments and averted his gaze. He mumbled, “It wasn’t just me. People complimented your analysis and voice too.”

“Huh? Did they?”

“Well, I’m not sure if you’re aware, but you’re popular to begin with.”

“No way,” Shihono said with a giggle.

“Yes way. Kobayashi, you’re super cute and you’re kinder than an angel. You’re a million times more attractive than some guy with an okay voice. Besides, when people talk about that rumor, they always say it like, ‘Really? Kobayashi and that Endo guy?’”

Aoto sighed and stared at the floor with all the energy of a deflated balloon. He was so caught up in what he thought to be a hopeless one-sided love that he totally failed to notice that he was already flirting with her.

Naturally, he also didn’t realize that Shihono was overheating with a bright red blush—and he didn’t even begin to consider why she hadn’t denied any of the rumors floating around for the past two weeks.

────

Half a month prior to witnessing Siegwald and Lieselotte’s episode, the high schoolers had been enjoying their school’s intramural sports tournament. On this late September day, the two of them found themselves casting over the boys’ basketball tournament’s final match.

They hadn’t planned to, of course. The duo had been watching the tournament from the broadcasting booth overlooking the gymnasium and were doing their usual commentary to pass the time. By chance, their club’s advisor overheard them; the teacher thought they were so good that they ended up on the mic for the final game.

“I-It’s finally time for the boys’ basketball tournament finals! Our two teams are the first-year Class C and second-year Class E. No one could have foreseen that the third-years would miss out on this decisive match—just who will take the trophy home?! Ahem, I’ll be your play-by-play host for the day, Endo. And joining me...”

“I’m Kobayashi on color commentary.”

Aoto stuttered a small amount due to his nerves, but Shihono was perfectly collected. Their impeccable synergy caught the ears of all their listeners: while the play-by-play didn’t always land the mark, there was a calm tidbit of analysis to fill any awkward gaps. Their commentary had been good enough to be worshipped as a feat of heaven in another world, and their classmates found it just as remarkable.

The final match of the basketball tournament had already drawn in a crowd. The addition of these two sportscasters brought nearly the entire student body into the stands.

“Oh my gosh, you two were great!” Shihono’s friend had said. “The game was so much more exciting thanks to you guys. You were more in sync than a husband-and-wife comedy duo!”

It wasn’t just their friends either—everyone who’d heard them shared the same opinion. As a result, Aoto and Shihono became school-wide celebrities as a commentator power couple. In fact, rumors of their relationship were so pervasive that even the teachers thought they were dating.

Shihono neither denied nor affirmed the rumors; she also did not comment on whether or not they pleased her. Aoto was so lost as to what he ought to do that he had ended up asking a friend for advice.

“Kobayashi and I are pretty close, and I’m mostly confident that she doesn’t not like me. In fact, I’d go as far as to say she likes me, you know, as a person, but...she doesn’t see me like that, right? And I’m kinda hoping that maybe all the rumors will get her to think about it at least a little—but what if it makes our current friendship more awkward? Which do you think is more likely?”

“Can you shut up and go confess already?” Unfortunately for Aoto, his friend’s advice was curt.

“Yeah, but I don’t wanna lose what we have now, and I don’t have a good ‘This is it!’ kinda moment either...”

Aoto trailed off into a mumble and his friend sighed. Alas, the cowardly boy couldn’t bring himself to cross that final line.

────

By the end of October, the cultural festival was fast approaching. Shihono hadn’t gone back on her word, and brought her own originally produced radio drama for the club to see. Her suggestion was gently rejected by the other members who said, “It’s great, but I think we’d need something with more characters so we can all participate together.” Still, Shihono seemed satisfied that she at least got the chance to show her OTP to her friends at the Broadcasting Club.

That being said, the gentle treatment stopped with Shihono. She was due to be the next club captain, and the retiring third-years all pampered her like their little sister.

“Don’t use the cultural festival as your playground to flirt in public!”

“Are you trying to give us diabetes?”

“I can taste sugar crystals forming in the air every time I open the door to the clubroom...”

“You’re ‘not dating’? That’s some kind of twisted joke, isn’t it?”

“Stupid couples like you should burn—except Shihonon. She’s my bride!”

The day after Shihono’s script unveiling, the upperclassmen of the club called Aoto out and began berating him. Tired of their badgering, he tried defending himself.

“So you want me to burn all on my own, captain? Also, I don’t think I’m the one who needs to hear this.”

“Shihonon’s a cutie. I can’t scold cuties. That’s why you’re the only one I can yell at, Endo!”

The former club captain unabashedly slapped Aoto in the face with her logical fallacy. Out of all the third-years, she was particularly fond of Shihono, and she wasn’t on the best of terms with Aoto as a result.

“I’d be willing to take this sort of abuse if I really had a girlfriend as cute as her, but we aren’t dating. Tell me honestly: do you genuinely think Kobayashi has a thing for me? Personally, I feel so friendzoned it hurts.”

The upperclassmen all averted their gazes in unison.

“Uh, well,” the old captain said clumsily, “she doesn’t hate you, I think. But I mean...I don’t think I’ve ever seen Shihonon hate anyone, so...”

Aoto took a step forward and stared into her eyes with grave importance.

“I know that much. It’s clear she doesn’t explicitly dislike me. The question is what comes next. Am I just one among the crowd, or do I have a chance?”

“Uh...” The girl took a long pause. “I dunno! Go get rejected already, moron!”

Irked, she threw a loosely bound booklet of papers at Aoto and fled the room. Aoto caught it and curiously flipped through while the boy that had served as the club’s previous vice-captain explained.

“That’s the radio drama we used when we were first-years. It’s a murder mystery on an abandoned island where the characters slowly start to dwindle. Back when we ran this, we played the first half, let our guests talk about who they thought the culprit was, and then played the second half. I doubt anyone outside the club remembers a minor story from two years ago, so you can reuse it. We’d like to see you change the culprit or something if you can find the time, though.”

“Whoa, thanks a ton!” Aoto was moved. “...Sorry for not realizing that you called me out to help us.”

“Don’t get it twisted. We’re all still mad about your PDA, so you’re playing the first victim. I’ll be looking forward to hearing you croak in the first act.”

The rest of his upperclassmen nodded along, but Aoto smiled back at them.

────

At long last, the cultural festival had begun. The Broadcasting Club’s members divvied up the roles between setting up a classroom for the radio drama, finding guests for Shout It Out!, and delivering standard PSAs.

That being said, the final ratio was quite lopsided. Not wanting to be in the public eye (especially with guests from outside of the school), the unmotivated members of the club all refused to manage the radio drama.

“You two are famous anyway. It won’t be that bad—all you have to do is play the audio,” they’d said, leaving Aoto and Shihono to handle the whole thing themselves. The only break they had scheduled was thirty minutes for lunch.

With thirty minutes to go until then, Aoto was already feeling exhausted. Truthfully, the other members had been right: the work wasn’t that bad. The part that wore him out was shooing off all manners of playboys and flirts that came in search of Shihono. Experiencing her popularity firsthand had drained him of all his energy.

Aoto opened the classroom door to see out one batch of visitors and then welcomed in another. The first few minutes were reserved to quickly explain how the show worked, but the boy noticed a stunning young woman slip in during this time. With a fluffy and brightly colored perm, her most striking feature were the slender legs that poked out of her short culottes. The beauty looked around the classroom as if to search for something.

“Shihono!” A smile bloomed on the woman’s face and she happily made her way over.

Shihono had been speaking with two middle school girls who planned on entering the school in the following spring. But when she heard her own name, she slowly turned to see who had called her.

“...Sis?!” Shihono said in utter shock.

“I’m here!” the woman said with a playful giggle.

“What do you mean you’re here?! Oh my gosh, why didn’t you tell me you were coming?!”

“I wanted to surprise my cute widdle sister!”

“But I have stuff to do here, so I can’t just—oh, oops.” Shihono paused her interrogation and turned back to the middle schoolers. “I’m sorry, you two!”

“I can take care of them.” Endo came over and offered a life raft. Even the two younger girls seemed relieved. “Kobayashi, go ahead and talk to your sister.”

“But...” Shihono’s eyes jumped from the middle schoolers to her sister, and then to Aoto. She didn’t get to think for very long before her sister’s attention turned to Aoto.

“Hey, you. Are you Shihono’s boyfriend?”

“Wha—no. I’m Endo Aoto, just a fellow member of the Broadcasting Club. The club captain—er, your sister—is always helping me out.”

Aoto bowed politely. In turn, the older Kobayashi started thinking. Her posture was the epitome of someone trying to drag something out of their memory.

“En...do? Oh, Endo! From summer brea—”

Shihono physically sealed her sister’s mouth with lightning speed.

“Oh, uh, yeah. I visited your home a handful of times... Well, honestly, I sort of lived there over the break. Sorry about that.”

While the woman hadn’t completed her sentence, the reference to summer vacation made Aoto feel a bit guilty. He hadn’t ever bumped into Shihono’s sister before, but that didn’t change the fact that he was a stranger that had practically been camping out in her living room.

After Aoto’s apology, it was clear that the older Kobayashi wanted to say something. Unfortunately, her little sister was clearly not in the mood. Shihono flashed Aoto a smile while still smothering the woman’s mouth.

“Don’t worry about it. Let’s just skip the formal introductions and stuff. I’m gonna go talk to my sister for a bit, so thanks for taking over!” Shihono was shoving her sister out the door before she was even done speaking.

“Uh...” Aoto was momentarily perplexed by the juxtaposition of Shihono’s graceful smile and terrifying forcefulness. Regardless, he moved the conversation along. “Sure, leave it to me!”

“Oh, and don’t you dare flirt with those girls just because they’re cute! I’ll be right back, okay?!”

“I wouldn’t anyway! And if any more weirdos come to hit on you, holler and I’ll be there!”

Listening to the two go back and forth, the older sister grinned. Her smirk was wide enough that it was visible even behind the hands holding her mouth shut.

────

At long last, their lunch break arrived. The two of them slipped away from the hustle and bustle to an empty classroom that their club was borrowing for the day. Shihono was the type to bring food from home, but Aoto had planned on buying something at the festival, and so he left the room. He casually walked around, making sure to choose a path without a crowd, when a voice suddenly called out to him.

“Heya, Endo!”

Aoto turned and bowed. He thought that Shihono had shooed away her sister a little while ago, but here she was.

“Ah, hello, uh...Miss Kobayashi. Um, Shihono is over there, back in that classroom.”

“No, that’s the thing. I’m not here for Shihono. In fact, if she sees me, she’ll get really mad. Actually, I think she’d get mad just because I’m still here at all! So, I’d rather you not go find her.”

Aoto tilted his head. He couldn’t imagine the kind Shihono being so stringent with her family, but then thought back to his relationship with his own sisters. At their age, it was harder not to fight with your siblings from time to time.

“Uh, sure,” he said, still a little confused. “So, do you need something from me?”

“Yup,” the woman said with a devilish grin. “Do you know what Shihono told me during summer break? ‘If you’re going out anyway, stay out until dinnertime.’ Can you blame me for wanting to see what kind of man my baby sister brought home while I was away?”

“That’s a provocative way of putting it...” In truth, all they’d done when he’d gone over was cheer on other people’s romantic pursuits. However, he didn’t know how to explain himself; after all, Shihono had probably chased out her sister to hide the strange circumstances of the game.

“Oh? Are you saying what happened wasn’t provocative? I’ll admit Shihono’s a bit childish sometimes, but I guess this means you’re just not that interested in her.”

Aoto had trailed off because he couldn’t tell the truth, and Kobayashi Senior filled the gap in conversation with another teasing smile. She’d seen right through him, and her playful attitude drew out a sigh.

“I’d say Shihono’s the one that isn’t interested,” he said.

“Aha, I knew it!” she said, laughing. “Which means you’re not uninterested—am I right, Endo?”

“...Am I that easy to figure out?”

“Kinda, yeah. But I wanna hear it straight from the source. You know, I’m in the mood for a passionate declaration of love. If someone makes one right now, I might just end up cheering them on forever!”

Seeing the older Kobayashi toy with him so merrily, Aoto heaved a long, long sigh. He hung his head for but a moment before mustering up his courage.

“Well, it looks like you already know this, but I’m in love. Sometimes I catch myself thinking, ‘How can you be so cute? Are you a literal angel?’ Both inside and out, I can’t imagine anyone that fits my tastes so perfectly. Basically, what I’m trying to say is... I’m unbelievably and hopelessly in love.”

“Oho ho! I see, I see. But Shiho—”

“Sis?!” Shihono shouted angrily from across the hall and began sprinting toward the two. With silent fury, she asked, “I said not to do this. Didn’t I?”

“Yes, ma’am,” the elder sister said. She hung her head low and was faintly quivering. “I’m sorry.”

Aoto couldn’t help but wonder how much of the conversation Shihono had heard. He was intensely curious about whether or not she’d heard him call her an angel that he was madly in love with, but decided that asking would only cause the current situation to worsen. Despite the cold sweat running down his back, she flashed her usual cherubic smile his way.

“Sorry about that, Endo. Did my sister say anything weird?”

“No, we just met up, actually. We haven’t even really talked about anything yet...right?”

Aoto glanced at the woman, who eagerly nodded along.

“Yup, that’s right! I was about to go home anyway, and I was just telling him about...how I graduated from this school!”

That was news to Aoto. Still, he nodded.

“Oh, that makes sense...” Shihono puffed up her chest a bit and added, “Our school might not be the best, but my sister managed to get into the same university as Kuon Kirise!”

“That’s incredible! Your sister’s amazing!”

Aoto felt like this was a broad departure from the rest of the conversation, but shamelessly latched onto his opportunity to escape. For her part, the older Kobayashi did the same.

“Yup, I’m amazing! ...Not that I’ve actually seen Kuon Kirise. Our campus is huge.”

“That has nothing to do with how incredible you are! I’m pretty sure your university is at least in the top three private schools in the Kanto region. Our high school doesn’t even have that many college prep courses, so that’s awesome!”

As Aoto showered the woman with exaggerated praise, she puffed up her chest with a fittingly smug grin.

Kuon Kirise. The well-known actor was also a student at a famous private school in his hometown. Both his background and appearance were an exact match with “Kuon,” the final god hidden in Magikoi’s secret route.

Aoto and Shihono had met him once before. He’d rambled on about strange things and mistaken Shihono for his lover, Eve.

Ever since, Aoto had had a bad feeling about the young star. He feared that the man might interfere with their plans to create a Happy End to End All Happy Ends. Even if he didn’t, the fact that he’d mistaken Shihono for his lover made Aoto worry that he’d involve himself with her.

In the game, the divine Kuon appeared in every route except the Reverse Harem Route. After the Witch of Yore hijacked Lieselotte’s body and murdered Baldur during the Festival of Gratitude, the god answered Fiene’s heartfelt plea with a blessing.

Yet now they were no longer on a known timeline. What had happened to the original god? Despite all of Aoto’s worries, something told him that just speaking the divinity’s name would bring ill omen. In the end, he chose not to say anything.