Chapter 48: The Service Club Can't Go Back to How It Was!
At some point, people had started treating the heroine as though she had to be inseparably bound to the male lead.
The two were expected to become lovers, stay together, and spend the rest of their lives side by side.
If those conditions weren't met, some people would even claim there was no heroine at all.
And if several female characters could potentially end up with the male lead, then the story was immediately labeled a harem, perhaps with the additional tag of multiple heroines.
But in reality, those concepts weren't nearly so simple.
Most people might never think about the distinction, but Mai had entered the entertainment industry as a child actress.
She understood it very clearly.
"The original meaning of 'heroine' is simply the principal female character."
Mai explained calmly.
"Fundamentally, she isn't tied to the male lead, nor is she his accessory."
"What matters is whether the author is willing to devote enough scenes, chapters, and development to shaping that character and allowing her to participate meaningfully throughout the story."
"If she meets that standard, then she's a main character."
Mai folded her arms.
"Strictly speaking, whether someone qualifies as a heroine depends on narrative importance and screen time. It doesn't depend on who the male lead is or whether she ends up dating him."
"And having multiple heroines doesn't automatically mean the story is a harem. Those are fundamentally different concepts."
"It's just that in modern popular fiction, the 'multiple heroines' label overlaps with harem stories so often that people have started treating the two as synonyms."
She looked toward Futaba.
"So even if the role you played wasn't romantically tied to the male lead, that doesn't mean you were merely a supporting character."
As Mai spoke, she quietly noted something important.
Using phrases like "the role you played" was apparently enough to bypass the restriction.
As long as she avoided directly saying, "You are a heroine," or, "I am the heroine," the mysterious rule didn't seem to interfere.
Futaba noticed the workaround too.
She could only admit that an actress really did have an advantage when it came to choosing words carefully.
"So what you're saying is..."
Futaba adjusted her glasses.
"The role I played might also have been a heroine. There just wasn't any romance between her and the male lead?"
Mai nodded confidently.
But there was an even easier way to prove the theory.
They could simply listen to what Saku thought about Futaba.
The main reason Saku rarely mentioned her wasn't because she lacked importance.
It was because their lives had never intersected.
As far as Saku was concerned, Futaba was a stranger.
Unless something specifically reminded him of her, she probably wouldn't even cross his mind.
If Mai wanted to hear his commentary about Futaba, the simplest solution was obvious.
Put Futaba directly in front of him.
"Futaba-san."
Mai smiled slightly.
"Do you want to meet him?"
Whether she wanted to or not was surprisingly difficult to answer.
Claiming she had no interest would obviously be lying to herself.
Forget the embarrassing things she'd once done while believing that mysterious voice was part of her own mind.
Even setting that aside, Futaba was intensely curious about Jinnai Saku himself.
She was practically obsessed with science.
How could someone like her not want to investigate an inexplicable phenomenon like this?
And one thing she was already certain of was that Saku's inner voice had absolutely nothing to do with Adolescence Syndrome.
This was something different.
An entirely new mystery had appeared right in front of her.
Refusing to investigate went against every instinct she had.
Unfortunately, the moment Futaba remembered that Saku was a completely unfamiliar boy, hesitation immediately returned.
Her social skills were practically nonexistent.
"You don't need to worry."
Mai noticed her discomfort immediately and offered her an easy way forward.
"I'll be there with you. Arranging one meeting isn't difficult."
"Then..."
Futaba hesitated for only another second.
"...All right."
She couldn't refuse.
Or rather, Futaba realized she didn't actually want to refuse.
...
Saku knew absolutely nothing about the unexpected surprise being prepared for him.
At that moment, he was inside the HoYoMix clubroom, fully occupied with development.
He was using his computer to simulate a mobile environment and testing the preliminary version of the engine he'd modified.
Run it.
Observe the errors.
Modify the code.
Run it again.
It was painstaking work that demanded complete concentration.
Not everyone in the clubroom was under that much pressure, though.
Especially because two unexpected visitors had appeared today.
They weren't strangers.
They were Yuigahama Yui and Hikigaya Hachiman from Yukino's Service Club.
"Why are you two here again?"
Utaha was the one who finally asked.
Her workload was heavy too, but compared with Saku and Michiru, she didn't need to remain constantly tense.
So after noticing two "outsiders" sitting comfortably with Megumi and drinking tea, she eventually couldn't resist questioning them.
"Well..."
Yui smiled awkwardly.
"We didn't exactly come here on purpose."
"I came to hang out with Megumi, and besides..."
She glanced toward Yukino.
"Our club president barely goes back to our club anymore, so what else are we supposed to do except come here?"
Ever since HoYoMix was founded...
Actually, that wasn't quite accurate.
Ever since Yukino became the person in charge of both finance and human resources for HoYoMix, the amount of time she spent at the Service Club had steadily decreased.
Without its president present, neither Yui nor Hikigaya felt comfortable making decisions.
They couldn't casually accept new requests on their own.
So eventually, they simply started coming here instead.
Yui had begun seriously suspecting that Yukino had forgotten she was still the president of the Service Club.
To some extent, that suspicion wasn't entirely wrong.
Yukino had been teaching herself a surprising number of things lately.
Programming.
Modeling.
Various other technical skills connected to game development.
And the reason was simple.
She hadn't managed to recruit the specialists they needed.
If money were the only issue, hiring professionals wouldn't be difficult.
But Saku currently had no intention of expanding HoYoMix into a full personal studio.
Without a proper company or outside workplace, Yukino couldn't simply start hiring employees.
After all, this was still a school campus.
Allowing random working adults to enter and leave whenever they pleased would obviously create problems.
Since there was no suitable substitute available, Yukino decided she might as well learn the work herself.
And honestly, she didn't dislike the idea.
If she truly ended up becoming one of HoYoMix's founding members in the future, having broader technical knowledge would only benefit her.
It would also give her a firmer place within the team and allow her to shoulder more of the burden while everything was still in its earliest stages.
Once all of those things began filling Yukino's thoughts, naturally she spent less and less time thinking about the Service Club.
Eventually, she even started forgetting about it without realizing.
"...Sorry."
Yukino lowered her gaze slightly.
"I haven't had much time lately."
Learning technical skills was only part of the reason.
Over the past week, she'd also effectively served as HoYoMix's diplomat.
Thanks to her efforts, the cross-school club had finally received recognition from all the relevant schools.
Students who came here to work...
No.
Students who came here to participate in club activities could now receive proper credits from their own schools.
With that basic issue settled, Utaha, Michiru, Megumi, and the others could finally come to Sobu High without worrying about wasting their extracurricular requirements.
Naturally, the person coordinating all of this had been Yukino.
That left very little time for the Service Club.
Still, reasons were only reasons.
She was the Service Club's president.
And the undeniable fact remained that she hadn't been showing up.
So in Yukino's eyes, the responsibility was hers.
"Actually, you don't need to feel guilty."
Hikigaya noticed the change in her expression and quickly tried to smooth things over.
"We haven't received any real requests this week anyway."
"I don't need you making excuses for me."
Yukino rejected his attempt without hesitation.
"If I failed to fulfill my responsibilities, then I failed. That's my fault."
She thought for a moment before looking directly at him.
"How about this?"
"From now on, Hikigaya, you'll serve as acting club president whenever I'm absent."
"You'll record any requests we receive."
"I'll review them afterward and decide which ones we should accept."
"...Me?"
Hikigaya stared at her.
He'd never imagined hearing something like that.
Based on the Yukino he knew, she normally insisted on handling everything herself.
Delegating authority to him would've been almost unthinkable.
Yet now she was willingly handing part of her responsibility over.
It was such a dramatic change that Hikigaya almost wondered whether he'd misheard her.
"Do you have a problem with that?"
"No, no!"
He shook his head immediately.
It wasn't that he had no objections.
He simply didn't dare voice any.
"Huh?"
Yui suddenly caught something far more important.
"Yukino, if you're saying it like that..."
She looked at her uncertainly.
"Does that mean you aren't planning to come back to the Service Club anymore?"
"..."
Yukino fell silent.
She considered the question for several seconds.
Then her gaze drifted toward Saku.
He remained completely absorbed in his work, seemingly oblivious to everything happening around him.
After a moment, Yukino slowly nodded.
"Yui."
"We're short-handed here."
Even if she didn't particularly want to admit it, Yukino had discovered something.
Working here gave her a sense of stability.
A sense that what she was doing had direction.
Every time she watched HoYoMix grow from absolutely nothing, gradually taking shape and moving step by step onto the right track, she felt something difficult to describe.
Something special.
It was a feeling she'd never experienced before.
Not even when the Service Club successfully solved someone else's problem.
…