My Parallel-World Self and More Bad, More Hell

"Pardon the intrusion～. Kidding."

Tsukino came in fresh out of the bath, wearing pale-green pajamas, a different color from yesterday's. Her thoroughly dried black hair looked straighter and neater than it had during the day.

Then she set the chair she'd hauled over from her own room down right next to mine. The chairs knocked together from the force of it, so she spaced them apart a little before sitting down.

The fresh-from-the-bath scent drifting off Tsukino in her pajamas should have been our own household's, and yet I still couldn't get used to it.

As for me, I'd already finished my own bath while Tsukino was taking her time with all the post-bath business.

"All right, I'm counting on you."

The laptop already open on the desk displayed the piece I'd be submitting to tomorrow's novel battle.

"Mm. First let me give it a read. I'm looking forward to it."

"If we're the same existence, this might be a novel you've written too, Tsukino."

"From the look of the opening, this one's new to me."

As Tsukino leaned in, the light of the display kindled in her almond-shaped eyes.

"Even knowing it's my own self reading it, I honestly can't help getting nervous."

"When I imagine having you read my own writing, Asahi, I think I'd feel the same. I'd worry about whether the prose is any good, sure, but more than that, there's this embarrassment, like I'm baring all of myself."

"Even though we're the same existence."

"Even the same existence differs a little here and there, it seems."

I'd felt that keenly over the course of the day. Beyond just male versus female, maybe things like our parents and our blood types added up to slight discrepancies. There's also the matter of whether or not you awaken to a kink.

"Easy to read. That's me for you. Even if I'm not the one who wrote it."

"Groundbreaking self-praise. Anyway, I've steeled myself, so give it a look."

"Leave it to me," Tsukino said, and read on.

I glanced at her earnest profile and the text scrolling by at a good tempo, then stood up from my chair. I waited like that for a while, until she'd finished.

Before long, Tsukino let out a small breath and the scrolling stopped. She worked the mouse to go back to the opening.

"It really is almost finished. I see, an isekai fantasy. I might've gotten as far as the idea myself."

Thinking it over, she jotted something in the notes she'd prepared.

"It was interesting, and a fine bad end. Good-bad."

Her serious expression softened.

"The story's an orthodox adventurers-slay-monsters setup, but the whole party getting wiped out is such an Asahi kind of bad development. Level-wise they're up against something they could easily beat, but between using up their status-cure items before the boss fight and the infighting, you lay the groundwork for the wipe properly, and the despair of them being slowly cornered, plus the slightly too gleeful gore, those were good-bad too."

She'd pinpointed exactly the parts I'd been going for.

"But the fact that you don't call this finished means there's a part you're not satisfied with. Is that it?"

On top of that, a spot-on read.

"That's me for you. But I can't put my finger on exactly what's wrong."

"You just can't look at your own novel objectively, can you. You can sense that something's off, at least. You go easy on yourself and let mistakes slip by, or you write things the reader won't get because they're obvious to you, but—"

Tsukino wrote a few more things into her notes.

"Today, you've got me. I share your bad-end values, Asahi, so I can tell what you're trying to write. But since I'm not the author myself, I don't have any preconceptions or excessive attachment."

"My very own self, able to look at my work with a level head. The best possible sounding board."

No one but Tsukino and me could pull this off.

"The things that are obvious to me are obvious to you too, Asahi, so I might overlook those."

"That much can't be helped."

We both shrugged.

"Okay, come back over here."

Doing as told, I sat back down beside Tsukino.

With the two of us peering at the display like this, our shoulders were all but touching. But right now I had to focus on Tsukino's feedback.

Together, we followed the text and the mouse pointer.

"First off, isn't the gore turning into the main event? I think it runs long."

"That… yeah, I get it. I was getting pretty carried away, feeling good about it. No, looking at it soberly, there's no need to spend a whole page on organs spilling out."

"Reading it, I got this sense of the organs oozing out really slowly, thoroughly, meticulously. A large intestine's about as long as we are tall, but this one looks more like three meters."

"The part right after, where the head gets destroyed, runs long too, and the metaphors are overwrought. This passage cracks open way too much fruit and too many eggs."

Once she pointed them out, I could clearly see the parts that weren't working.

"Also, I noticed this after I'd finished the whole thing. A big tragedy happens in the finale, but I couldn't really bring myself to feel sorry for them. I think it's probably because I don't know the protagonists well enough."

"True… I put too much energy into the groundwork for the wipe and the gory descriptions, so I haven't really fleshed out the protagonists. Which means this is a case of failing to pull off Grief ResonanceDirty Resonance."

"That's me for you. So you do use it after all, Grief ResonanceDirty Resonance."

"To make readers truly feel the tragedy that befalls a character, to make them feel the pain, you need them to either empathize with the character or come to love them. The tragedy of a character the reader doesn't care about or doesn't know is just a nothing event to them, and it doesn't land."

For instance, if some background old guy who'd only just shown up got attacked by a zombie and died, the reader would only register it as an event on the order of, "An old man died. This area's dangerous."

"But this novel's a short piece, right… You're spending your word count on careful groundwork, so you can't afford to devote too much of it to character description either."

Tsukino compiled both our opinions into her notes. But after a while her hand stopped, and she looked lost in thought.

"Asahi, is this the only PC you've got?"

"The one I used before should still run. It's a pretty slow machine, though."

I dug out the laptop I'd stowed in the corner of the room. I'd migrated the data I needed off it a while back and given it a light cleanup, and its OS was up to date, too.

When I set the PCs side by side on the desk, Tsukino opened a cloud-service app and created a new folder there.

"Put a copy of the novel in here. Now I can edit it directly too."

"I see. Saves us the trouble."

She also made a text file for compiling our revision ideas, so there was no more need for handwritten notes. Now whatever we worked out as we talked would show up directly in the files on both our PCs.

We typed into the memo file and saved, checking how the machine responded.

"Mm. Old as it is, it's no problem for just writing text."

On my end, I started compiling my own revision ideas for the manuscript into notes.

"How should we go about making Grief ResonanceDirty Resonance happen… Right now the drama feels split across four characters, so what if we narrow it to the relationships surrounding the protagonist? Like all the arrows of those relationships point at the protagonist."

"I see. That works. Let's aim all the affection and jealousy at the protagonist too. Then… I'd built the characters around their flaws to play up the human realism, but I think I'll make them good people first and foremost instead."

"I get it. If you're writing a bad end, a good person meeting a terrible fate makes you feel 'Stop, leave them alone! Somebody help them!' way more than an unpleasant person meeting one does."

""More bad! More he… so cramped!""

We went to fist-bump, but we were pressed too close together. We both ended up in poses like beckoning cats, and couldn't help bursting out laughing.

"I feel like if the two of us, me and me, think it through together, we can write an even more incredible bad end."

"A bad end worth two worlds. I'll make Jun pull a sourer face than ever."

"Right. Let's make it more bad. So the hearts of everyone who reads it get torn to shreds. And I want my own heart torn to shreds even worse as I work on it, too."

"I'll do just that. A wound that keeps you from recovering for a week, one that stays in your heart for life, right here. I'll pile the worst upon the worst."

"One, two…"

This time, the beckoning-cat pose from the start. We landed fist against fist just right.

""More bad! More hell!""

Close enough that Tsukino's black hair and shoulder brushed against me, we faced the display in front of us. The shared file updated ceaselessly.

The paths to the bad end, the tragic developments spilling out of us both, wouldn't stop.

Right now, we could write our best bad end ever, one without precedent and never to be matched. I was sure of it.

 

*

 

After school the next day, Jun had me pinned in a kabe-don. His feral eyes glinted at nearly zero distance, and he bared his teeth like a carnivore.

"Making a face like you want sleepsomething, huh."

"You're too close. And I'm pretty sure you slapped some weird furigana on that. Just say it normally."

"If you're feeling under the weather, don't push yourself."

"You're just a nice guy, plain and simple."

Having done his bit, he backed off. He scratched at the hair he'd spiked with styling product.

A familiar scene in the familiar literature-club room. With the novel battle coming up, there were slightly more members around today. But even with a kabe-don going on, they gave it a passing glance at most. Everyone was far too used to it.

"Well, take good care of yourself, at least."

The host-club-looking light-novel buff plopped down insolently on the edge of a chair.

"Thanks, I guess. No problems on the novel-battle front."

I sat down in an empty chair too. Maybe holding back because she wasn't a member, Tsukino had stayed standing, but when Jun jerked his chin toward a chair and said, "Sit. Your legs'll get tired," she sat after all.

"That's Jun for you. Always kind, and he really pays attention to people."

"If only his sense of personal space and his thuggish attitude weren't so messed up."

Even as we talked, both Tsukino and I were biting back yawns. No wonder Jun was concerned.

We'd gotten way too into it yesterday. We were only supposed to make minimal revisions, but once Tsukino and I got talking, not only did tons of ideas come out, they were all so appealing that the concept just kept ballooning.

No, wait, this is going to break the structure… It wasn't until past midnight that we started picking and choosing to pull it all together. Naturally, we finished late too. I have a vague memory of it starting to get light outside.

So both Tsukino and I sat through today's classes in a daze. Whenever one of us was about to doze off, the other would poke them awake, but in the end we both fell asleep.

And that brings us to now.

"Looks like everyone who signed up to take part is here now."

The members, who'd been chatting or reading manuscripts and novels, turned toward Nanaha-senpai's mellow voice. Strangely, it carried well. Her silver hair, neatly braided and evened out in front, and her never-fading gentle smile gave her a presence that was so very Nanaha-senpai.

"I distributed the data ahead of time, and I've prepared a few printed copies too, but is there anyone who doesn't have it on hand?"

There didn't seem to be any problem. It was Jun who'd set up the rule of distributing the data before the novel battle, or the critique session, rather. By systematizing it, he'd made the literature club's critiques run a lot more smoothly. Stuff like this was Mr. Theory for you.

The members held Jun's novel and mine in whatever form suited them: on their phones, on printed paper, and so on. Seeing that, Nanaha-senpai gave a bright nod and clapped her hands together with a pop.

"Okaaay. Then… novel battle! Ready, go!"

Nanaha-senpai thrust her fist up hard, so the members raised their fists too, in a scattered, out-of-sync sort of way. Good sports, all of them.

"Nanaha-senpai's got that hobby-anime brain after all."

"Glad to hear she's the same even in a different world."

Nanaha-senpai still had her fist up. Her eyebrows were raised too, and the eyes beneath her glasses looked more gallant than usual. Her lips were pressed into a firm little line as well.

"Oh, everyone. Please focus on what's fun about each piece. Competing over which is more fun, rather than over mistakes or the parts you found boring, makes it more fun for us too."

Still in her hobby-brain pose, she said something worthy of a club president.

"Spotting a work's individuality over its flaws is what feeds your growth down the line."

Jun made a sound point too. That's the side of these two you can trust.

"First move! Jun-kun's turn: 'The Long-Suffering Veteran Hero and the Rookie Cheat Hero-chan'!"

"I'll take the first move. Asahi."

Nanaha-senpai held her hand out toward Jun. The hobby-brain judge's stance.

Answering the call, Jun leaned back in his chair more haughtily than ever.

"The hobby anime's rubbing off on him, huh."

I dropped my eyes to the printout of Jun's novel. Along with the other members, I read through the manuscript. Amid the sound of turning pages, a member snorted with laughter. I laughed a few times myself.

Being a short piece, it didn't take long to finish. At just the right moment, Nanaha-senpai checked whether everyone was done reading.

And so the stage was set.

"I'll just watch over things. I'm not a member, after all."

"Our opinions are probably the same, too."

In our literature club, when it comes to a novel battle, the rule is that the opponent gives their opinion first.

"The Long-Suffering Veteran Hero and the Rookie Cheat Hero-chan" is an isekai-transfer story set in a medieval-Europe-style fantasy world. A stock setup, but the piece's individuality lies in the protagonist being a hero of that world, a veteran adventurer, a young man who once slew the demon dragon and saved the nation, and it's into his life that the heroine transfers from another world.

Shifting just a hair off the classic formula. Jun's signature pattern.

"It's interesting even though it's not a bad end. Not bad at all."

"Aren't you putting way too much stock in whether something's a bad end?"

"No, if anything I judge bad-end works more harshly. It's more like, don't you dare talk bad ends with a cheap bad end! What the hell do you know about bad ends! You got lucky, Jun."

"You're the worst, you hardcore bad-end junkie."

Anyway, "The Long-Suffering Veteran Hero and the Rookie Cheat Hero-chan" is a buddy story about these two, and a romcom to boot. It's the adventure tale of a hero who's lost his drive over something in his past, and a heroine who's cheerful, energetic, slapdash, and prone to going off the rails, wielding power strong enough to qualify as a cheat ability.

"Every time the protagonist tries to get all jaded or dwell on the past, the heroine says something outrageous and wrecks the mood, and that's really good. She should come off as annoying, yet she looks cute instead, which is so very Jun, a guy who cuts his food budget to buy romcoms."

"I buy plenty of isekai-reincarnation romcoms too, but for my health, I'm of the school that eats lunch."

The protagonist normally gets swept up in the gags, but when the heroine's in danger he shows the mettle of a hero. It's not just comedy; the coolness in the make-or-break scenes gets your heart racing. It's exactly what you'd expect from someone who reads battle stories second only to romcoms.

"The scene where he realizes that, for all his constant griping, the heroine's presence had been saving him, that's good too. And the reveal that the protagonist was actually a transferee himself was a nice surprise."

Tsukino had her arms crossed, nodding away. Our impressions really were the same. That aside, she was carrying herself exactly like a hobby anime's hidden powerhouse watching from the gallery.

Jun's novels are interesting. His modern romcoms, his isekai stories, they're cheerful and brimming with hope, the characters appealing and full of individuality. And he always works in a proper twist somewhere along the way.

"But there are a few problems too. The relationship between the two is good, but none of the problems they're carrying get resolved, and the story just depicts their meeting and daily life… or rather, it's an introduction. The title says 'Hero-chan,' but she never once gets called a Hero the whole way through, right? That's part of why it lacks a climax, too."

"Interesting take. You're absolutely, completely right!"

Still leaning back, he clutched his face and groaned.

"Halfway through writing it I did notice, like, huh… there's no substance here. It doesn't even hold together as a proper story arc. It's just interesting and nothing else! If I'd meant it to be introduction-only from the start, fine, but as is, it's unfinished! And on top of that, trying to slap on some semblance of a punchline made the finale a mad dash! Aaargh, for a guy who lectures other people about structure, my own structure is hopelessly terrible!"

A classic creator's woe. The writer themselves notices the mistake, and that's usually the very spot that gets called out. I know the urge to writhe in agony. Tsukino, too, was sort of hugging herself. Truly the same existence.

"Thank you, Asahi-kun. Now then, I'll have everyone share their impressions in turn."

It went over well with the other members too. They liked both the story and the characters; it's just that the tale left something wanting. Since it was a straight-down-the-middle happy-end piece, someone also said the developments were easy to see coming.

"Haha. That was an interesting round of takes. Genuinely helpful. Thanks."

Having heard everyone out, Jun looked a little haggard, but with plenty of praise mixed in, he also seemed happy. For all his leaning back, he was diligently taking notes on his laptop.

Nanaha-senpai looked on with a smile, but she didn't give her opinion yet. Being the one running the session, she always summed up after both critiques were done.

"Thank you, everyone. You too, Jun-kun. All right, this time, second move! Asahi-kun's turn: 'The End of a Certain Adventurer'!"

I got my own printed-out novel ready as well. I've done these critiques that go by the name of novel battle plenty of times, but the nerves never change. Tsukino, seated beside me, kept a cool gaze fixed on Jun, but I could see her white throat move as she swallowed.

She was just as nervous as I was. Just knowing that put me somewhat at ease.

I turned my eyes back to Jun. Manuscript printout in hand, grinning languidly, he looked unmotivated, but as always that was just the surface. Him saying, "Heh. You're baiting me," meant he'd caught the foreshadowing, I figured.

Whether she'd read it earlier or finished it instantly, Nanaha-senpai was already reading the printout again from the top. She turned the pages quickly, and her eyes raced over the text. This was her second pass, no doubt about it.

Jun finished reading, and the other members set down their paper manuscripts and phones after him.

"All right, I'll start."

Jun twisted his lips into a brazen smirk.

"First off… it was good. The story's a simple one, just adventurers taking on a nasty monster, a basilisk, that dishes out all kinds of status ailments. But here's the thing. This one's interesting right from the start."

Jun smacked the manuscript roughly. To organize his impressions, he'd apparently stuck on a bunch of tabs and scribbled a good deal of notes on top of that, so the paper had gone bright red. Way too enthusiastic, and scary as always.

"The opening drops you straight into the middle of the basilisk fight, in a desperate spot where they've been poisoned with no way to cure it. Instant tension. From there it goes back and depicts the journey, and the flashbacks bring the relationships to light. Talk about melodrama!"

"That's a part we worked over quite a bit."

"Yeah. I rebuilt the relationships with the protagonist at the center. Everyone's got seriously heavy feelings toward the protagonist."

"We got carried away and made it so melodramatic it got a little out of hand."

"Stabbing someone in the opening scene was a no-go. Though I piled onto that by killing off an unrelated tavern girl, too."

After that, we came to our senses and revised it properly.

"The mage and the protagonist, the warrior, are in love with each other, but neither of them can be honest about it. So frustrating! The priest girl likes the protagonist too, and she's the type who openly makes her play, but her confession got turned down. Even so she still likes him, so I want to root for her! And then the thief. She likes the protagonist, but more than anything she's fixated on shipping him with the priest. She's pretty furious about the confession failing, and she's dead set on getting the two of them together somehow… she's a total shipper! Pulling all this off in such a short piece, that's impressive."

"We really struggled to keep it from getting long."

"I wanted to write more. I never knew it'd be this fun to let the characters get along, all on the premise that something terrible happens next and the relationships fall apart."

I could see some members recoiling, but that too was par for the course.

"Because of these relationships, each of them makes a small mistake. The protagonist, thanks to a petty quarrel with the mage he's in love with, fails to notice the changes in his comrades despite being the leader. The shipper thief deliberately breaks the status-recovery items to set up an opening for the lovelorn priest and the protagonist to get together. The mage, shaken that the priest and the protagonist have grown closer, botches something in battle… melodrama. Just let them be happy!"

"Say that all you want. You happy-end junkie."

"Anyway, the fight with the basilisk was supposed to go off with perfect countermeasures. And it fell apart over small mistakes in the relationships. Just like the opening, the party sinks into a hopeless spot. Comrades falling one by one. Even so, the protagonist and the priest don't give up, and they entrust the final move to the mage. But when the priest breathes her last, the thief, so fixated on those two, goes to pieces and snaps the mage's staff in two. Hope is lost!"

Tears glinted in Jun's eyes. He always empathizes with everything he's got.

"The depiction of bodily destruction at the very end is, frankly, a total turn-off, but I can see it expresses the protagonist's regret. Interesting. Writing out the end of the adventurers, just as the title says, in such a short space, it's an interesting novel."

There Jun took a breath. Still seated, he looked up at the ceiling and covered his face with his hand.

"That aside, the aftertaste is the worst, right? Nothing good happens at all! You started from a crisis and went through all those twists and turns, so you could've at least had a comeback at the end! I like the priest and the mage both, and I'm emotionally invested in the thief in a best-friend slot too! I'm overlaying it onto your relationship with me!"

"His heart's been torn to shreds, hasn't it."

"That's it, Jun. That's the face I wanted to see. But quit overlaying reality onto it."

"You bad-end junkie! Well, setting aside how good the content is."

Wiping his tears with a handkerchief, Jun went on in a nasal voice.

"It never breaks down as a story, and I got so emotionally invested I cried, sure. But that mid-section where they each make their mistakes, it's painful to read. Knowing it all leads to failure makes it that much more painful."

Many of the members agreed.

"I thought the opening and the ending were good, but the middle Jun-senpai mentioned, that's a bit…" "For me, the bad end and the gory part at the end are both just too much."

With Jun's turn over, the other members went on to give their impressions, and most of the complaints ran along similar lines.

Once they were all out, Nanaha-senpai nodded.

"Thank you, everyone. I enjoyed both of them. Choosing really is something I'm bad at, you know."

Nanaha-senpai's eyebrows drooped.

"The weakness raised in the impressions, that Jun-kun's piece is unfinished as a story. The weakness that Asahi-kun's piece has no pull in the middle. I think both are exactly right. But… I found both of them fun, and I love them. What about all of you?"

It's true that Senpai is bad at ranking one over the other. So after stating her opinion, she leaves the final call to the members' impressions.

"Now then, I'll announce the winner of the novel battle. Raise your hands like always, okay. I'll wait thirty seconds."

Senpai glanced at the clock on the wall.

As the authors, Jun and I don't take part. Tsukino shook her head, too. I could tell she was holding back, since she wasn't a member and would lean my way no matter what. I think that's for the best.

"And now… Judgment!"

Nanaha-senpai took the vote on each of the pieces.

I was nervous, sure. …But I'd already sensed the result. Tsukino gently closed her eyes.

Every one of the members had chosen Jun's "The Long-Suffering Veteran Hero and the Rookie Cheat Hero-chan."

"Asahi-senpai's novel was interesting too, but I guess I wanted a happy ending." "Sorry. The gore's just not for me."

Back when the members were reading, I'd more or less seen the outcome in their faces. Plain like or dislike, separate from having their hearts gouged by the bad end, inevitably shows through.

Nanaha-senpai announced it gently but clearly.

"The literature club novel battle. The winner is… Hikawa Jun-kun! Congratulations."

Applause rang out in the cramped clubroom. Tsukino and I clapped along too.

"Thanks. But I've still got a long way to go. Plenty of bad spots. I'll do better."

"That's Jun-kun for you. And Asahi-kun's novel was really fun too. Everyone seems to feel the same, apart from the parts that weren't to their taste."

When Nanaha-senpai sent them a look, the other members nodded too. I know what they're like, so I could tell they weren't just going along with Senpai. That was a saving grace.

"Ahh, but… it was fun. To think I got to read two such fun pieces."

Senpai shivered, still wearing a look of rapture.

"My heart's all aflutter. I'll finish the novel I'm writing too, and have a novel battle with Jun-kun and Asahi-kun. And then I'll crush you both together. Please, fight me with your novels, I'm begging you!"

"A creation berserker on this side too, of course."

Tsukino murmured with feeling.

"If I lose to Nanaha-senpai next time, that'll be eight straight losses for me, y'know. She's a seriously interesting woman."

"I'll take her on, but I don't feel like I can win either."

"Waaah. What amazing motivation. My heart's doing something incredible right now."

Nanaha-senpai pushed up her glasses, which had started to slide down.

Reading as naturally as drawing breath, creating with the same ease as letting it out, that's Hananokorizuki Nanaha-senpai. Since she keeps creating as part of her daily life, she's the type of genius who doesn't even feel the effort. She's the most skilled in the literature club, and has won any number of small open contests.

In this literature club, that Senpai pounces on us at every opportunity. Both Jun and I meet her head-on and die every single time.

"Hey, Asahi."

Jun spoke up again.

"On pure quality as a novel, mine loses to yours hands down, no question. So, uh… maybe you really should try stories other than bad ends too, y'know?"

For Jun, they were unusually reserved words. His spiky hair even seemed to wilt a little, and he kept his distance. For once, he didn't come at me with a kabe-don.

"Even in a novel battle, that alone puts you at a disadvantage. You're a guy who can make it work with a happy end too! No, actually, I want to read your happy end!"

The other members nodded hesitantly too.

Tsukino lowered her eyes. She'd backed me up in writing a bad end for this novel battle. She must have felt responsible for that.

"You're right, Jun. Thanks."

I nodded, and

"But I'm going to write bad ends."

I said it clearly.

Tsukino looked up and blinked. Jun raised the corner of his mouth as if he'd somehow predicted my words. Nanaha-senpai was nodding away.

I let my gaze travel over those three and the other members.

"I… love bad ends. And I remember how I came to love them, too."

Or rather, I should say these past few days made me remember it more clearly.

One corner of the clubroom's bookshelf holds the anthologies made by literature-club members past and present. Among them is that one anthology, the one that's in my room too, and on the other side of the world— in Tsukino's room as well.

"An old literature-club novel I read at this high school's cultural festival, back when I visited in middle school. My whole body shook at the bad end in it. My heart was thrown into turmoil and torn apart. And yet, I couldn't forget that shock, that scar."

That shock that kept me from sleeping for three days. A memory I share with Tsukinomy same existence.

"I want to carve that scar into someone else's chest too. I write bad ends not to be liked, but because I want to leave a wound that won't fade."

Feelings that had been vague until now took the shape of words. Because there was another me, I was able to understand my own self.

"I… think bad ends are fine, too."

A cool, clear voice spoke. Tsukino had risen to her feet.

"Um. Even though I'm an outsider."

Realizing she'd blurted it out on impulse, she let her midwinter gaze drift off to some random spot.

"Don't mind that, please go on. I want to hear it."

Nanaha-senpai clenched both hands, unusually excited. Jun and the members didn't stop her either.

"Thank you. In that case, let me start over."

Tsukino straightened her spine. Deep within her freezing gaze was an unmistakable heat. She fixed those eyes on Jun, on the members.

She spun around. Her long black hair danced a beat behind.

Reflected in those cold, hot eyes was me. Just a high-schooler with a mean look, but there were features that marked me as one and the same as Tsukino.

"The reason is simple. I'm the same as Asahi. I want to write bad ends. No matter what anyone says, I want to break people's hearts. So I want to root for the Asahi who writes bad ends."

I returned a nod of thanks and fellow feeling to my same existence, then turned to face Jun once more.

"Sorry, Jun. In short, I'm a hardcore bad-end junkie."

Jun gave an exaggerated shrug and a wry smile.

"You're a hopeless guy. That part of you… I like it."

"I love Asahi-kun's bad ends too. Love, love, love them, so much that I want to write something even more fun and crush them. The selfishness of an author like Asahi-kun is exactly what makes my own novels more fun."

Restlessly touching her glasses, Nanaha-senpai was breathing hard through her nose.

"No, we're the ones getting crushed every time to begin with."

Jun was nodding vigorously too.

"Every time I crush you, Asahi-kun and Jun-kun both get back up stronger and enjoying yourselves even more, don't you. Seeing that makes me feel I have to try even harder myself."

In fact, even when Jun or I make something better than before, she goes one step further, which is terrifying. An ambitious natural genius is a fearsome thing.

"Both of your works this time were really fun. You've gotten stronger again. Jun-kun's characters were livelier than before, and just reading it had me grinning. Asahi-kun, the structural side you'd been called out on before was solidly shored up. How much stronger are you two going to get?"

"That's… well, thanks."

The other members acknowledged it too. Being praised to my face is pretty squirm-inducing.

"The End of a Certain Adventurer," which had turned into a more interesting novel than before, wasn't a work I could have written on my own. Because of Jun's feedback. And—

My eyes met Tsukino's. Because she was there, I'd been able to take one more step forward even in this short time.

I'd been spared any wavering over what I myself wanted to write.

The light streaming in from the window set Tsukino's black eyes sparkling.

That's when I noticed. Even so, we'd spent too much time. It's the season when the days run long, but the sun was starting to sink now.

The most important thing right now is finding a way for Tsukino to get back to her original world.

"That's right. Nanaha-senpai. I figure you'd know a lot about the local folklore and such."

"It's not that I know a lot. I was interested and looked into it a little, is all."

The more someone truly knows, the more they say things like that. The moment you read her work, it comes through that Nanaha-senpai's novels couldn't be written without the backing of historical knowledge, regional folklore, and a wealth of trivia.

"Around here, for instance… a place with a story attached to it, or a legend about a connection to another world. Have you heard anything like that?"

That said, this question was a long shot. There's no way some conveniently parallel-world-ish hint was going to come up.

"There are tons of them."

""Huh?""

My voice had overlapped with Tsukino's.

"When it comes to Himurogioka, it's famous for people being spirited away, after all."

She said it with the casual air of someone noting that humans die if they don't breathe.

Jun and the members alike shook their heads, going, "News to me, though."

"Huh?"

Nanaha-senpai's eyes went round beneath her glasses.