Chapter 5: The Progress of Reading is Especially Fast Before the Deadline
Ayu met the second morning after coming to Hikari’s house.
The alarm woke her up at 6:30 AM. She washed her face, got changed, and immediately started preparing breakfast.
The dishes are white rice, miso soup, mirin fried cod, hijiki nimono, and the salad and egg rolls from yesterday. The cod was salted beforehand, while cheese fillings were added to the egg rolls at Hikari’s request.
At 7 AM, the speakers in the living room played bird calls. A short moment later, Hikari walked out of her bedroom with her pajamas.
“Good morning.”
Hikari greeted her sleepily.
“G-Good morning.”
“Hmm.”
Hikari slowly approached the dining table. She gasped in surprise after seeing the dishes on it.
“Today’s just as much as last time.”
“It’s nothing amazing. …The salad is from yesterday too.”
Ayu was telling the truth. She wasn’t being humble. She’s afraid of failure. Therefore, she always chooses what she usually makes in her home. The looks are very plain as well. She hopes that she can make something prettier to impress Hikari.
“It’s already more than enough. I’ve only eaten breakfast like this back home or when I went out.”
Hikari said that with a smile as she walked to the washstand happily.
*
“Thanks for the food.”
After breakfast, Yukari clapped her hands in satisfaction.
The taste and amount of today’s breakfast are perfect, especially the mirin fried cod. It’s very appetizing. It’s been a long time since she asked for a second bowl of rice.
Being able to enjoy this level of breakfast without doing anything is excellent. She just has to wait for the meal.
“Ah, it’s so tasty.”
Yukari praised from the bottom of her heart. Ayu’s face flared up after hearing that. She humbly said, “Glad to hear that.”
“Well, but if I’m so full in the morning, I’ll want to…”
“Hmm?”
“I’ll want to go back to bed again.”
“You’ll turn into a cow if you sleep right after you eat.”
“What cow? You sound like a grandma from the countryside.”
Yukari couldn’t help but tease Ayu after hearing such a cliché complaint. In the end, Ayu blushed in embarrassment. She mumbled “countryside” again.
…What hurts her is “countryside” instead of “grandma”.
It looks like Ayu is more embarrassed about her home than Yukari thought. Let’s be careful from now on.
Ayu stood up and took the empty plates to the sink.
Yukari also took her utensils to the sink.
“Right, do you want a dishwasher?”
Since Yukari is living alone, it doesn’t take much effort to wash her own utensils. However, it’s probably troublesome to wash two servings of dishes at once.
If only they bought a dishwasher at Yodobashi Camera.
“D-Dishwasher?”
Ayu looked very shocked for some reason. Yukari nodded.
“I don’t need that! I can just wash the dishes on my own!”
“That’s right, but isn’t it tough to wash all of them by yourself?”
“It’s nothing!”
“Really? Sure, …well, just tell me when you want it.”
Yukari walked back to her bedroom after saying that.
After entering the room, she yawned before falling onto the bed. Today’s breakfast is as nice as the ones in hotels. It turned her brain into full lazy mode. She has always emphasized following her sleepiness. Even though Miyako sent her a message to check her drafts, and she had to confirm them and answer Miyako before afternoon, she thought she could do it after waking up.
“Good night.”
In a moment, Yukari’s consciousness fell into a conformable deep sleep.
*
The dishes are done, the house is cleaned, and she finished doing laundry. Ayu sat on the living room’s sofa boringly.
What should I do? I’m already done with the work in the morning.
It’s not even 9 AM. This time is a bit too early to prepare lunch.
Although Hikari said it’s her free time after work, she doesn’t want to go too wild in an unfamiliar house. Freedom is surely hard.
She doesn’t know whether Hikari really fell asleep again. She has been staying in the bedroom after breakfast.
Come to think of it, she really knows nothing about Hikari’s work. Even though she’s a housework helper instead of a novelist assistant, it’s a bit problematic to not know anything about her employer’s job.
Ayu immediately grabbed her phone and searched “Hikari Kairou” online.
The first result is a Wikipedia page.
I wonder how it feels to have your own page on Wikipedia. She thought about that as she clicked the webpage.
Hikari Kairou is a novelist from Japan. She mainly writes light novels.
She received a 16th GF Bunko Light Novel Newcomer Award (hosted by GIFT Publishing House) with her <Searching for the Heart>. This marked her debut in GF Bunko (GIFT Publishing House). After publishing <Humans are Plagued by the Immortal Virus>, she wrote <Sun Tzu’s Art of Love>, <The Uncertain Chronicles of A Detective Who Can Sense the Intent to Kill>, and <I Reincarnated into a Handsome OP Protagonist Who Smurfs> on Branch Hill Bunko (Branch Hill Publishing House). She’s currently writing the <Everyone is Different, I Love Everyone> on Branch Hill Online.
“Hmm…”
Miyako said that Hikari is a famous novelist, but she didn’t know any of the works above. Ayu doesn’t read novels at all. All of the books she knows are from Japanese textbooks or the super famous ones.
She continued reading the article.
Nearly all of Hikari’s works have manga adaptations. <Searching for the Heart> has a movie. <Sun Tzu’s Art of Love> has a TV series. <I Reincarnated into a Handsome OP Protagonist Who Smurfs>’s anime was released from January to March.
Ayu has close to zero experience with anime, but she does watch TV a lot. However, she has never heard of these works.
She clicked into each novel’s page and read the details. It wasn’t until that moment she realized the cinema in her home didn’t have <Searching for the Heart>. The TV and anime adaptations are only available in the capital area too.
The difference between cities and countrysides are so big that their amount of entertainment is different. It’s upsetting.
Forget about that.
…Let’s read sensei’s work.
Ayu doesn’t like reading novels. So, she wanted to start with movies and TV series first. There are a lot of Blu-rays in the storage room. Perhaps Hikari’s works are among them too.
Ayu immediately paid a visit to the storage. The shelves are filled with Blu-rays and DVDs.
TV series, movies, anime, comedies, documentaries are all chaotically scrambled on the shelves. Naturally, erotic works are mixed in between too.
The placement doesn’t have any order. Even the DVDs in the same series are thrown in different locations. The works include new releases, old stuff, Japanese dramas, overseas fantasy movies, Korean films, historical movies, Japanese films, Hollywood big hits, Bollywood movies, Chinese films, B-grade horror films, comedies, kid cartoons, AVs, yuri, yaoi, cosplays, etc. There are too many types of videos. At this point, instead of saying Hikari has broad interests, it’s more like she just buys whenever she sees.
She found Episode 2 of <I Reincarnated into a Handsome OP Protagonist Who Smurfs>’s anime on this chaotic shelf. She reached her hand out to it. …For some reason, she ended up grabbing the anime next to it. The DVD box has two naked girls making love with each other.
She wondered how Hikari would feel after watching this.
“…The sunset is showering the after-school nurse room. Even though Yui knew she shouldn’t do it, she still reached her hand into Saki’s secret garden when she was asleep-“
She couldn’t help but stare at the plot summary at the back of the box. A while later, she snapped out of it and put the box back onto the shelf.
After her face cooled down, she took the <I reincarnated…> and looked for other episodes and Hikari’s work.
The least thing to do is to put Hikari’s work in one place before watching the video.
*
11 AM. Yukari woke up from her dream. She can hear a couple of voices from the living room.
Ayu is probably watching TV, right?
“Stop that, Heart!”
“You little! I can’t believe you could do that to Pancreas!”
“Shut up! This is all because you love Kidney!”
“I also…I also loved Pancreas too!”
What’s with this retarded conversation? …She thought about that dizzily.
It sounds like an argument about love between a guy and a girl, but why is it about organs? Is it a story about personifying organs?
At this moment, Yukari suddenly realized it.
Wait, isn’t this the movie adaptation of my novel?
Yukari heard the conversation of a live-action remake of her debut novel, <Searching for the Heart>. This scene doesn’t exist in the original story. She only saw it once during the premiere 2 years ago. That’s why she couldn’t remember it at first.
She walked into the living room and confirmed the TV screen. Yep, Ayu is indeed watching the <Searching for the Heart> movie.
She’s afraid of bothering Ayu, who’s fully focused on the movie. Therefore, she silently sat on the dining table chair and awaited the end.
The movie has already entered its climax. The credits were rolling around 10 minutes later. However, Ayu remained still on the sofa. After the credits finished and the main screen returned, Ayu finally stood up and stretched.
She ejected the disc from the drive and turned around. It was not until then she realized Yukari was already sitting there.
“S-Sensei!? How long have you been there!?”
Ayu was shocked. Yukari smiled and asked her.
“Was it good?”
“Oh, yes! It’s very good.”
Ayu answered immediately. She can hear that she’s not just trying to be polite. She sincerely thinks the movie is good.
“This is sensei’s work, right? …Amazing, …you’re super amazing.”
Ayu didn’t hide her respect at all. Yukari couldn’t help but smile bitterly.
“…You shouldn’t treat that movie as my work.”
“Eh?”
Ayu was puzzled after hearing what Yukari said.
“How should I put it? It’s because this is…quite different from the original.”
Here’s the content of the novel version of <Searching for the Heart>.
The MC had a car accident and suffered a fatal brain injury. His organs (eyes, lungs, liver, pancreas, kidneys, small intestines, heart) were transferred to 7 other patients. However, for some reason, the MC’s consciousness woke up among these 7 people. Occupying someone’s consciousness caused them to be tortured by guilt. But, they still tried to live out their normal lives. After that, the 6 people, aside from the heart one met each other. They slowly grew closer. Finally, all of them decided to search for the heart, the only one with unknown whereabouts. The searching process was obstructed by mysteries. It’s a youth suspense novel.
The introduction during release was, “The MC, FMC, relatives, and rivals are all yourselves. A unique (transplant) youth suspense.” The “unique” was a wordplay of “transplant”. It gives off an arrogant “isn’t this wordplay amazing?” feeling. She doesn’t like it. However, from the author Yukari’s perspective, she thinks this introduction is pretty accurate. [TL: The word for “unique” and “transplant” are both “ishoku”.]
In comparison, the <Searching for the Heart> movie has nearly no suspense elements. It’s centralized around romance. The “heart” mentioned in the title, a girl who received the heart transplant, is found almost immediately. Initially, the 7 protagonists share the same personality. Therefore, their tone and attitude are virtually the same. However, after the adaptation, the 7 people now have different features in their characters. Also, there are a lot of dramatic scenes like car chases and fighting that aren’t in the original.
Of course, fans of the original dislike the film. But, Yukari won’t say the movie is bad because it’s different from what she wrote. Instead, she thinks this is quite good as a romance.
It’s just that she still finds the movie adaptation being treated as her own work a bit repulsive.
Whether it’s good or not, an adaptation is an adaptation. It’s not just for <Searching for the Heart>. The Japanese show version of <Sun Tzu’s Art of Love>, the <I Reincarnated into a Handsome OP Protagonist Who Smurfs> anime, and the other manga adaptations are the same.
Only the novels are her work.
“Is it that different? I should read the novel too.”
After Ayu said that, Yukari chuckled and said,
“It’s fine. You don’t really have to see it.”
“Eh?”
Ayu is confused. Yukari smiled.
“It’s not that great, anyway. I have a bunch more books that are better. You should read those instead.”
Yukari wasn’t being humble or self-abasing. That’s what she truly thinks.
However, Ayu gently shook her head.
“I want to read sensei’s novel.”
“Eh?”
Yukari’s lips curled down. Ayu found this reaction quite unbelievable.
“Sensei doesn’t want other people to read your books?”
“Yes.”
“Aren’t you a novelist?”
“At least I don’t want someone I know to read it.”
“…?”
Ayu can’t understand. She grew even more confused.
“This is a subtle feeling inside an author’s heart.”
Yukari bitterly smiled and refused to explain more.
…Even though she doesn’t want the movie, anime, and manga to be treated as her own work, this is definitely not because she thinks the original is better.
To Yukari, her own novels and the adaptations are all the same. Countless books are better than hers. It’s just something with as many replacements as you want.
She welcomes unknown readers to enjoy what she wrote. However, she doesn’t want people she knows to waste time on novels like this.
Staff members like Miyako don’t have a choice. But, Yukari even went out of her way to tell her family and friends not to read it.
“…Can I really not read it?”
Ayu’s puppy eyes softened Yukari.
“It’s not like you can’t.”
Not wishing someone she knows to read it is just Yukari’s own issue. She has no right to stop Ayu if she still wants to read it.
“Well, I want to read it.”
Ayu stared at her directly. Yukari sighed.
“…Just a moment. I’ll go grab it.”
Yukari went into her studio after saying that. She took the <Searching for the Heart> novel from the bookshelf and handed it to Ayu.
“Thank you, sensei.”
Ayu’s tone was pretty excited. Yukari hastily added, “You don’t have to finish it if it’s boring.”
*
After lunch, Ayu immediately started reading <Searching for the Heart> in the living room.
The first pages are illustrations of the characters. However, none of them looks like the cast in the movie. Ayu is a bit confused. Strictly speaking, it should be because the actors and actresses don’t look like the ones in the book.
Anyway, the illustrations are very helpful.
She has heard this from Miyako before. Light novels (usually) are for people who are not used to reading real novels. To ease their experience, they (usually) include illustrations to help with the readers’ imagination. Either that or they are used to heat up the plot.
This way, she thought she probably wouldn’t have a hard time reading it.
She wanted to know more about Hikari with this light novel.
Carrying that expectation, Ayu started reading the main story.
A flash of light blinded my eyes. My entire body was struck. I flew out, and the back of my head hit the gravel road.
Pain and all sorts of feelings are quickly disappearing from my body. I don’t even have the time to feel pain.
I can’t even move my finger.
My sight is stained with bright red. I can see a few people and car lights.
Screams, yells, commotions, horns, and brakes can be heard from everywhere.
Ahh, I got hit by a car, right- I finally understood that.
I can feel that I’m probably going to die. It’s because it’s really cold right now.
The people and scenery I have seen in my 17 years of life- are quickly flashing in my mind. Near-death memories really exist.
Then, even these memories are slowly fading away. Before my consciousness departed, at the tail end, what I was thinking is-
“I hope someone finds the organ donation card in my wallet…”
This is a cold night.
My brain stopped working. My ordinary life ended without many achievements. …That should’ve been the case.
A month after the accident-
*
Yukari went back to the studio after having lunch. She found out that she had missed several calls from Miyako.
“Ah…”
Right, she totally forgot about the draft she has to reply to in the morning.
…Well, it counts as the morning before the lunch break ends.
She opened the file of the draft. Miyako and the editors asked her to make changes to some parts. This is the latest chapter of <Everyone is Different. I Love Everyone> publishing on Branch Hill Online every week. The release date is 12 AM tomorrow.
She stayed up all night to finish the draft. Therefore, a lot of parts needed to be checked. She spent more time than she expected. When Yukari finally finished and replied to Miyako, it was already past 4 PM.
…It counts as the morning before dinner, right!?
Yukari exiled the image of Miyako’s angry face away from her brain. She took a big stretch and stood up.
By the way, has Ayu finished reading it yet?
<Searching for the Heart> isn’t a thick book. A normal reader can probably finish it in 2 hours. I don’t know how she reads.
I wonder how she feels about the book.
There’s another reason why Yukari doesn’t want people she knows to read her book. She really wants to know how they feel.
Ayu was really thrilled with the movie. She’s worried. What if Ayu loves her novel?
Yukari left her seat and cautiously opened the door to the living room. She saw Ayu sitting on the sofa without moving an inch. Is she so drawn in by the book?
Yukari slowly walked to the sofa and went around Ayu to check up on her.
“…………”
Ayu’s hand is still holding the novel. She’s sleeping with her eyes closed.
“…Uwah.”
She. Fell. Asleep.
Yukari checked which page Ayu was on. It’s on page 40, …which is at the start of the prologue.
She slept at the very beginning.
Yukari fell speechless for a while.
“Pfft.”
She couldn’t hold it and burst into laughter.
“Pfft, …ahaha.”
The situation was too unexpected. She was surprised and found this interesting.
The most important thing is- she never expected this to happen. It’s hilarious. Her teeth are going to fall from laughing too hard.
She never expected Ayu to fall asleep at the beginning. Yukari thought Ayu would be interested in it. She even contemplated what would happen if she fell in love with it.
“Hiya, I’m really…overestimating myself. Hahaha…”
Yukari laughed embarrassedly. Her face is as red as a tomato. During this time, Ayu opened her eyes. “Hmm…”
“Hoho, good morning, Ayu-chan.”
“Uwah!? S-Sensei!?”
Ayu bulged her eyes and looked around. Her eyes eventually focused on the novel in her hands.
“So, how’s my novel?”
Yukari asked with a mischievous smile. Ayu freaked out and answered.
“Eh!? Ah, uh, well, i-it’s very interesting?”
Yukari giggled and suddenly took the book away from Ayu.
“Hoho, …you dare to sleep in front of the novelist herself? This is the biggest insult of my life.”
“Ah…”
Ayu looked at Yukari with a puppy’s begging eyes.
“I-I’m sorry! I’ve always wanted to sleep when I read long texts! I usually fall asleep on Japanese lessons, so it’s definitely not because sensei’s novel is boring-“
Ayu gave a hundred excuses. She’s at the edge of bursting into tears. Yukari gently smiled and patted her head.
“I’m just joking. I’m not mad at all. Instead, I appreciated it.”
“A-Appreciated…?”
“I mean, you can just be yourself. Whether it’s people who haven’t read my books or people who fall asleep after reading them. I’m truly thankful that they exist.”
“…?”
Ayu seemed to acknowledge that this is what Yukari sincerely thinks. So, even though she still couldn’t understand, her expression was relieved.
Yukari glanced at her and took the book back to the studio. Her hand remained in mid-air when she was about to put it back onto the shelf.
She flipped the book open and started reading it.
When was the last time I read <Searching for the Heart>? It was around 3 years ago, right? She read it once after getting the movie invitation. That was probably the last time.
This is the debut of her novelist career. It’s also the first-ever novel Yukari has ever written. Right now, the writing seems a bit rusty. Some parts are clearly being forced. She was embarrassed.
However, the content is still interesting.
Yukari sincerely thought that when she was a third through.
It’s still interesting.
The content is still interesting. The setting is slightly refreshing. Aside from that, everything is pretty plain.
That’s the most sincere feeling Yukari has for <Searching for the Heart>.
“The settings are creative, the characters are lively, and the plot is very unexpected. Its completion level is extremely high.”
“It tackled the extremely common ‘who am I’ question with an unprecedentedly unique perspective. This is a brilliant masterpiece.”
Those are the comments she got from the Newcomer Award in GF Bunko. However, they must be exaggerating, right? She feels like the awarded novels in the past are much better.
“You’re very talented! Please continue presenting era-changing masterpieces with me to everyone!”
“--!”
A passionate and sticky tone and a pair of eyes blinded by expectation came into Yukari’s mind. She frowned and closed the book.
Yeah, I shouldn’t read my debut novel.
Yukari wiped the sweat off her body and put <Searching for the Heart> back onto the shelf.
She sat in front of the computer and prepared to work.
The draft of <Everyone is Different. I Love Everyone> can take a break for now. Let’s write <I Reincarnated into a Handsome OP Protagonist Who Smurfs> before dinner.
One is a harem game where the MC is hesitating between several of his fiancées. Another one is about the MC showing off after getting reincarnated into another world.
The novels she’s writing are, no matter who’s reading it can feel that “Hikari Kairou isn’t the only one who can write it”. Although it’s still interesting, there are as many replacements as they want. Nothing is particularly outstanding.
…By the way-
She has heard from somewhere that a novelist’s debut work represented everything about them.
Even though she’s not planning to treat a rumor seriously, if it’s true…
A novelist who writes stuff like “the MC, friends, lovers, enemies, and partners are all yourselves”-
-must be incredibly lonely, right?
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