— — — — — —
Oikawa didn't insist that Utaha stay the night.
The main reason was simple. Today was Yukinoshita's birthday, and Yui had been bombarding him with messages since the afternoon.
Unlike Kawasaki... If Utaha ended up sleeping beside him, there wasn't a zero percent chance she'd resist looking through his phone.
So, at three in the afternoon, Oikawa kissed Utaha goodbye. Then he headed straight for Shueisha's office building, home of Weekly Shonen Jump, at 2-5 Hitotsubashi, Chiyoda, Tokyo.
Come to think of it, most publishing companies seemed to love setting up shop in Chiyoda.
Kadokawa was there. Plenty of other major publishers were too.
Only Full-Drive Bunko had gone its own way, right into Ginza.
Every time Oikawa thought about it, he couldn't help clicking his tongue. 'Money really does let you do whatever you want.'
After entering the building, he quickly met the editor in charge of Your Lie in April's manga adaptation for Jump.
She was a woman.
...That sounded a little strange.
Not because women couldn't do the job, but because nearly every executive or department head Oikawa had dealt with before had been a man.
The meeting soon got underway.
They went over every detail of the manga adaptation.
The woman in charge was incredibly meticulous. She even asked him to provide the exact title of every piece of music performed throughout the story.
Fortunately, the animation staff had asked him the same questions before, so answering them was easy.
After more than an hour of discussion, they finally settled on almost everything and signed the contract. The whole process went surprisingly smoothly.
Contract in hand, Oikawa stepped out of the Jump offices and let out a long breath.
Now both the anime and manga adaptations of Your Lie in April were officially in motion. He could finally stop worrying about it.
"The first episode airs on January 8... It should be a huge hit. At the end of the day, it's still a music anime. And when that happens... the internet's probably going to start yelling 'Bastard Copycat!' all over again."
Shaking his head with a helpless smile, Oikawa walked toward the train station.
Looking up at the evening sky... Tokyo's sunset still wasn't as beautiful as Chiba's.
After thinking for a moment, he texted Yui.
[Oikawa]: Heading back now. I'll be in Chiba in about an hour.
She replied almost immediately.
[Yui]: Yep! Yukinon and I are at karaoke right now. Come meet us for dinner when you get back.
[Oikawa]: Sounds good.
_ _ _
After a full day of circulation, reviews for Clannad had spread across every major book review account on social media.
The response was overwhelmingly positive.
"Copycat-sensei's prose is as strong as ever. The plot feels familiar at first glance, but it's incredibly warm and comforting to read. Sigh~ Nobody writes slice-of-life stories that feel this cozy except Copycat."
"...I have a feeling he's setting something up. The happier Volume 1 is, the sadder Volume 2 will be. I'm honestly scared to buy it."
The discussions online were just as lively.
"Another classic Copycat-sensei healing novel... though I'd like to put quotation marks around healing. Nagisa Furukawa is definitely going to suffer."
"The romance is progressing way faster than I expected. Feels like they'll get together right after graduation. Did Copycat actually turn over a new leaf?"
"Did nobody notice the protagonist has been collecting those little 'Light Orbs'? Yeah... those things are absolutely going to hurt."
"Can this bastard write one genuinely wholesome novel for once?!"
Only a handful of people were still naïve enough to argue whether Clannad was really a healing story.
Instead... everyone else was busy trying to guess how Copycat would shatter their hearts next.
Most readers had noticed the mysterious Light Orbs.
Almost no one understood what they actually meant.
...
..
Kousaka Kyousuke was a second-tier light novel author under Kadokawa Bunko.
His best-selling series, Can My Sister Really Be an Angel?, had peaked at around 120,000 copies for a single volume.
Not a bad number. But compared to Your Lie in April, it wasn't even in the same league.
Even among second-tier authors, he wasn't considered one of the best. His greatest weapon wasn't genius. It was speed. Kyousuke wrote absurdly fast.
While most authors managed one volume a year, he published at least three.
Altogether, his annual sales came close to half a million copies. And that was more than enough for a high school student like him to live comfortably.
Still... he wanted to climb higher.
Because he published so quickly, many fellow Kadokawa authors looked down on him.
Some mocked him outright, 'Your books only sell like that because you rush them instead of polishing them.'
For a long time, those words made Kyousuke doubt himself.
Until one person appeared. Like a beam of light cutting through the darkness.
"Copycat Transmigrator."
That ridiculous pen name had taught Kyousuke something.
Writing fast wasn't a sin.
He slowly finished the final page of Clannad... The last paragraph. The last sentence. The last word.
Then he quietly closed the book.
After sitting in silence for a long time, he opened Twitter and wrote his thoughts.
We always believe that once every hardship has been overcome... the prince and the princess will walk hand in hand toward the happy ending that was always waiting for them.
That's the perfect ending. The ending every fairy tale tells us is only natural.
At first glance, Volume 1 of Clannad looks like another cliché harem story. There are plenty of heroines, and it gives exactly that impression. But Copycat-sensei would never cheapen love that way.
The story opens with the camera slowly moving down a dim forest path. A delinquent boy stands there, head tilted slightly upward, his profile so striking that it's almost beautiful. His eyes are empty, as though he's already lost all interest in the world. Then, without warning... a brown-haired girl with two little cowlicks barges into his life.
I have absolutely no doubt that Clannad is going to be a heartbreaking novel. I'm just starting to ache for Tomoya Okazaki. For Nagisa Furukawa. For the hardships I know they're going to face.
Copycat-sensei... please. Just this once, be a decent human being. I'm begging you.
.
.
.