— — — — — —
"Yahallo!"
Today's snack was dango.
Not just any dango, either. Three-color dango.
The moment Yui Yuigahama spotted them on the table, her eyes lit up. She trotted over like she'd found treasure.
"What's up with you two? Why does it feel so... tense in here?" She plopped down between Oikawa and Yukino, nibbling on a dango while sneaking glances at both of them.
Something felt off today. The Service Club had a weird atmosphere.
Usually, Yukino and Oikawa didn't exactly get along all that well, but it wasn't normally like this. Today it felt... colder.
"We were just discussing a few things," Yukino said.
She pulled her gaze away from Oikawa and picked up her teacup again, only to frown the moment it touched her lips.
The tea had gone cold.
She stood and walked over to the teapot.
Yui seized the chance, leaning toward Oikawa and whispering, "Oikawa-kun... what happened between you and Yukinon?"
"Yukino asked me how my grades improved so fast," Oikawa whispered back with a serious face. "I told her it was talent, and she got mad."
"What a sore loser." He pointed at Yukino like he was revealing some top-secret truth.
"Really?" Yui tilted her head, genuinely considering it.
"That doesn't sound like Yukino, though..." Her muttering was a little louder than she intended.
Clink.
A metal spoon slipped from Yukino's hand and hit the floor. The crisp sound echoed through the room.
Then, she slowly crouched down, picked it up, and glanced back at Oikawa.
Her dark eyes gleamed with a sharp chill, like knives aimed straight at him.
The message was obvious. Oikawa immediately got it. So he wisely mimed zipping his lips shut, then gave her an OK sign.
Seeing him behave, Yukino finally looked away. Somehow she'd already produced a bottle of mineral water and started rinsing the spoon.
Yui watched the whole exchange, barely able to hide her smile. "Hehe~ Oikawa-kun, you really shouldn't talk behind people's backs like that."
Oikawa shot her a deadpan look.
...
"Thanks."
A moment later, Yui accepted the tea Yukino handed her, blew on it a few times, and took a sip.
Then she turned to Oikawa again. "Oh right, how's the Christmas event with Kaihin High School going? Everything smooth?"
Before Oikawa could answer, Yukino said in a tone dripping with sarcasm, "Heh. As if something like that could possibly trouble a great author."
"A great author?" Yui blinked at Oikawa. "What does that mean? Did Oikawa-kun publish something?"
Yukino gave a cold snort and said nothing.
"No, no, nothing like that." Oikawa quickly changed the subject. "The Christmas event's moving along okay, but there's no way it'll match the school festival. For one, this is a joint event between two schools. A lot of ideas clash, and it's hard to bring everything together."
"And honestly, the people from Kaihin High... I swear something's wrong with them."
Calling them "not normal" was honestly being generous.
Outside of a few wannabe westernized girls, who the hell casually sprinkled English into every other sentence? It was unbearably cringe.
"And secondly?" Yui asked right on cue.
If she ever did manzai comedy, she'd make a perfect straight man.
"Secondly, we're running out of time. The event's on the 26th. We had less than three days to prepare from the start, and there are still a ton of things that haven't been finalized yet. When the event actually begins, I guarantee something's going to go wrong."
Oikawa had zero faith in this Christmas event.
He'd already done as much as he reasonably could, but time was too tight. And Oikawa had no intention of busting his ass only for someone else to take all the credit.
There was something he firmly believed. If you do good, you deserve to be rewarded for it.
Like those content creators who film themselves doing good deeds.
It doesn't matter what their motives are. Good is good.
They deserve praise for it. And if the video gets views, so be it. At least someone was genuinely helped because of it.
"Then what do we do?" Yui looked worried. "Isshiki-san is going to be really upset if this falls apart..."
Unlike Oikawa, Yui wasn't overthinking things. She was simply being kind, like always.
Oikawa looked at her, the corner of his mouth lifting ever so slightly.
He was a selfish person.
And selfishly, he wanted there to be more people in the world like Yui.
"Oikawa-kun, why are you looking at me like that? Think of something!" Yui leaned forward anxiously. "When Isshiki-san was running for student council president, we promised we'd help her whenever she got into trouble."
Then she turned to Yukino and grabbed her arm, shaking it lightly as she pleaded like a spoiled child, "Yukino, let's help, okay?"
"Alright, alright." Yukino sighed helplessly. "I'll help, so stop shaking me. I'm getting dizzy."
Oikawa clicked his tongue in disappointment and looked away.
What a waste. He hadn't gotten his fill of the view yet.
"Yay! I knew you'd help me, Yukinon." Yui happily pressed herself against Yukino, clinging to her affectionately.
For once, Yukino's cheeks flushed red.
But when her eyes drifted to certain... assets, a tiny spark of jealousy rose in her chest.
...
Before long, the atmosphere in the Service Club had warmed up again.
The three of them started going over the details of the Christmas event, patching holes and refining plans.
In less than two hours, they'd accomplished almost as much as the dozen people from Sobu High and Kaihin High had managed in two whole days.
By the time Oikawa stepped out of the club building, the sky had already turned orange-red.
If someone ever ranked the most beautiful sights in Chiba, Oikawa was sure the sunset would be near the top.
It really was beautiful.
He stretched hard, loosening his stiff shoulders and back. Then he started toward the school gates, planning to grab a taxi straight to the gym.
Working out was all about consistency.
For the sake of his future happy married life, he had to keep at it.
"Copycat-sensei." A freezing voice suddenly drifted into his ear. "It's an honor to finally meet you."
Oikawa's body stiffened as he slowly turned his head, "You've got the wrong guy, Yukino. There's no way I'm that hateful Copycat. And I'm nowhere near as talented as him."
He'd already made up his mind. Unless someone beat it out of him, he was never admitting it.
A man had to stay hard on both fronts.
"Heh." Yukino stared at him for a long moment, then gritted her teeth. "I hope you keep denying it forever."
"I'm not him, so what exactly am I supposed to admit?" Oikawa plastered on an innocent grin and sidled up beside her. "You're really hurting my feelings here, Yukino."
"Then, why don't you just die of heartbreak?" Yukino looked genuinely exasperated by his shamelessness.
After snapping at him, she turned and stormed toward the school gates.
She truly couldn't understand it.
How could a masterpiece like Your Lie in April have come from someone like Oikawa?
Online, tons of bloggers had analyzed "Copycat-sensei," claiming he must be a deeply pessimistic, emotionally wrecked person in real life, only pretending to be cheerful online.
Yukino wanted to grab every one of them and ask: This is your idea of depressed? This is "emotionally broken"?
The guy laughed and joked all day long, practically wearing the word happy on his face.
It really was just like he said online. He kept the happiness for himself and handed all the sadness to his readers.
Bastard. Absolute bastard.
The more Yukino walked, the angrier she got.
Thinking back on all the tears she'd shed reading Your Lie in April... she understood why so many readers online wanted to form assassination squads for "Bastard Copycat."
He really was asking for it.
Yukino had experienced the full cycle of every web novel reader: first they mocked the angry fans, then they understood them, and finally, they became them.
"..."
Yukino suddenly stopped and turned back to look at Oikawa. There was a dangerous glint in her eyes.
Oikawa felt a chill crawl down his spine. For a second, he genuinely feared she might pull out a hatchet.
"Ahem... Yukino, think carefully before you do anything. Don't throw your life away over someone like me. I'm not worth it."
"Hmph. Just wait." She glared at him for several more seconds, then spun around and marched out of the school.
Oikawa let out a long breath.
"Maybe admitting it would've been better... though I'd probably end up dead either way." He then shook his head. "Having too much talent really is a burden."
"What's a burden?" A voice came from behind him.
It was Yui Yuigahama. She'd stayed behind to lock up the Service Club, so she came out later than Oikawa and Yukino.
"Being too handsome," Oikawa said it without missing a beat. "Lately, I've been getting love letters from all kinds of underclassmen. It's rough."
Yui was ridiculously easy to tease.
"Airheaded sweetheart" might as well have been invented for her.
No, scratch that. Thicc airheaded sweetheart.
Oikawa's gaze flicked down for a second before he nodded to himself like he'd confirmed something important.
"Tch, Oikawa-kun, you're so full of yourself." Yui puffed her cheeks, but after a pause, her expression turned hesitant. "Um... Sable seems to miss you again lately. Do you maybe want to come..."
"Sable misses me?" Oikawa stepped closer, looking at her with amusement. "Not someone else missing me?"
Yui froze on the spot like she'd been hit with a paralysis spell.
Her whole face turned bright red.
After a long pause, she stammered, "W-Who's 'someone else' supposed to be? It's just Sable, okay? He's been playing with that dog toy you bought him all the time lately."
Oikawa raised an eyebrow.
Then he stepped back beside her and let her off the hook, deciding not to tease her any further. "In that case... when winter break starts, want to bring Sable over to my place?"
At that moment, for some reason, Oikawa felt like that invitation had landed somewhere far more dangerous than he intended... Like the Big Bad Wolf trying to lure Little Red Riding Hood into the woods.
"Sure! When winter break comes, I'll bring Sable to hang out with you, Oikawa-kun." Yui answered cheerfully, without the slightest hesitation.
Oikawa's expression turned a little strange.
Yeah... with how readily she agreed, she really did feel even more like Little Red Riding Hood.
That thought reminded him of an anime that had come out recently, one that had twisted the Red Riding Hood story into something completely different.
He doubted the Brothers Grimm had ever imagined the Japanese would one day reinvent their fairy tale like that.
The concept had been fresh. But after watching it, Oikawa could only give it a 6.5 out of 10.
The production quality was rough. So rough that when the second episode, based on Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, came out, he didn't even bother.
When it came to studios that truly knew how to make hentai, there were only a handful worth naming.
"Sounds good. I'll be waiting." Oikawa did his best to keep his smile from looking too suspicious.
Yui hesitated for a moment, then lowered her head, her cheeks pink. "Oikawa-kun... you're not planning to do anything weird to me, are you? After all, you are kind of a huge pervert..."
Clearly, she'd thought of something. Something very specific.
"What? Of course not." Oikawa straightened up and spoke with absolute righteousness. "I'm a very honest and upright person. You can trust my character."
Most of the time, he really did think with his brain.
Most of the time.
"Mmh... I trust you." Yui said it shyly, her voice soft.
"Please do." Oikawa's eyes had never looked more sincere.
...
..
There were less than ten days left before the release of the first volume of Clannad.
And for some reason, Full-Drive Bunko had kicked off another round of promotion.
At eight o'clock that night, the publisher's official Twitter quietly posted a new announcement:
"Clannad" Volume One Release Countdown: 9 Day
To thank all our readers for their continued support, after extensive discussion with Copycat-sensei, Full-Drive Bunko has decided to hold a special lottery. One lucky reader will get to have dinner with Copycat-sensei on January 2nd.
The dinner will be worth 200,000 yen, fully covered by Full-Drive Bunko. During the meal, the winner may ask your favourite Author Copycat for writing advice, or even some not-too-private personal questions. And if the conversation goes well, there's even a chance to get Copycat-sensei's LINE ID!
To enter, simply like, comment, and repost this tweet. If the winner refuses dinner with Copycat-sensei, the 200,000 yen may be taken as cash instead.
The winner will be announced on January 1st.
Note: Final interpretation of this event belongs to Full-Drive Bunko.
...
The second the tweet went live, the comments exploded.
First came the shock.
["Holy crap, is this real?"]
["Dinner with Bastard Copycat in person? That's basically a VIP seat to roast him. I'm in!"]
["Full-Drive Bunko, what exactly did you say to convince him? I can't believe he agreed to something this insane. And two hundred thousand yen for dinner? What are we eating, gold?"]
Then came the haters.
["Copycat, you shameless bastard. How can you be this shameless?" Hmph! Don't fall for it, everyone. He saw his reputation tanking and his sales slipping, so now he's panicking."]
["Remember our slogan: Reject Clannad. Start with me, start with you, start today! Don't like it. Don't repost it. Hold the line!"]
And then...
someone noticed something.
["?? Wait a second. Are you people seriously playing double agent here? You keep shouting about boycotting Copycat, but every single one of you reposted the tweet! Damn... I rechecked, and every single person trashing Copycat actually reposted it too!"]
The internet instantly descended into chaos.
A huge number of users suddenly realized that the loudest anti-Clannad crowd... had apparently been infiltrating the movement from the inside all along.
.
.
.