Volume 5, Chapter 0: Summary
I don’t need any deep relationships. I have no desire for a girlfriend, and I only require one friend who holds any value to me. Absolutely no inefficiency allowed in my ‘youth’, all in order to come out on top of the harsh race of value in life—this is the way that I, Ooboshi Akiteru, have lived my life so far, but there is a certain someone who constantly invades my room.
Kohinata Iroha. Neither little sister nor friend, even less of a potential lover, she is merely the little sister of a friend. This Kouhai is constantly annoying me with her noisy attitude, using every chance to make fun of me. Since I never ever had any intentions of seeing and liking her as a woman, together with her showing no cuteness whatsoever, I could interact with her as much as I pleased.
That is what I thought.
However, during our summer break, when we got wrapped up in this ridiculous Ceremony of Marriage in the mountains near the Village Kageishi, the distance between me and Iroha shrunk drastically. And if that wasn’t enough, we of the [5th Floor Alliance] were invited to the private beach of Kiraboshi Kanaria, the famous editor of our group’s scenario writer Makigai Namako. With her being a great Senpai of mine in terms of working as a producer, she taught me how important it was to face my own desires, as well as how to properly draw out the most potential of my fellow group members, which led me to face my own feelings more directly.
And by doing so, I realized. In this time I spent with Iroha, subconsciously, with no initiative on my end, absolutely out of my own control, I started to feel a certain cuteness in the midst of her annoying attitude.
Of course, that doesn’t equal romantic affection. As for me, who has absolutely no experience in any sort of romantic relationships, I wouldn’t even be able to filter out this romantic feeling. All I can say is that, adding together her annoying side, the side of her being the friend’s little sister that is only annoying towards me, I’ve started to become conscious of her as a cute girl. Coming to this conclusion, in coexistence with my karma, I now ask myself.
—Is it really okay for me to be the only one that is granted the knowledge of this existing cuteness in annoying behaviour?
To me, who always values the importance of talent and genius being accepted by social standards no matter the circumstances, I decided to create friends for Iroha that should allow her to act normally, annoying, at any time. With Iroha being one year below us in terms of school grade, once me or anybody else from the [5th Floor Alliance] graduate, she would lose everybody she could show this annoying attitude towards. However, I believe that an honest life is a more enjoyable life, which is why I will act accordingly.
…Also, Mashiro’s been acting a bit weird as of late, but no clue what’s up with that.
Interlude: Mashiro’s gloomy feelings
Is Iroha-chan the voice actress of the [5th Floor Alliance]?
Night. Mashiro gazed at her smartphone, her finger ready to tap the ‘Send’ button for this lime message she had typed in. A few minutes pass while doing so. Yet, her finger didn’t move an inch. Several days passed since that day at the beach.
On the way home, inside Sumire-sensei’s car, Aki was clearly too tired to keep his eyes open, and fell asleep. From his hand fell his smartphone, and after seeing the screen, the waves inside Mashiro’s heart never once stopped raging.
Even though Aki said that he was busy with working for the goal of the [5th Floor Alliance], hence him not having any time for any love on the side, Mashiro still was courageous enough to confess, an absolute blunder, but she still felt like she had to move forward in some way. That’s also why she continued to walk with them under the pretense of being Makigai Namako, because that made her a special existence to him.
Mashiro continued to tell herself that, even though Aki was constantly surrounded by charming girls like Iroha-chan or club president Midori, she had some special connection, a bond, with Aki. But, that turned out to be false.
Iroha-chan is the voice actress of the [5th Floor Alliance]. She is the mysterious voice actor brigade X that lends their voices to [The Night the Black Goat Screamed]. She is the one untouchable variable in the midst of Makigai Namako, Murasaki Shikibu-sensei, and OZ even, who all have no idea about this fact. In other words, she might just be the most special existence to Aki after all. If that position had been in Iroha-chan’s hands all this time, then the bonds connecting Aki and the author Makigai Namako he just happens to like…cannot hope to win against that.
And if that wasn’t enough, Iroha-chan isn’t just any other girl, but actually Mashiro’s first friend. She got angry for Mashiro’s sake, who could never protect herself, never put trust in anybody, and even offered to become friends.
…But, is this punishment by any chance? A penalty for trying to create a connection to Aki with unfair methods which Mashiro tried to do? If only she had brought up her courage right from the start, faced him with her own voice, her own face. But, because Mashiro was afraid of being rejected after revealing her identity, and scared that she would not be able to recover from that, she chose the easy way out. That is also why Mashiro couldn’t see Iroha-chan as a rival in love, but as a friend.
At the same time, if she had revealed everything from the very start, Iroha-chan might not have tried to become friends with Mashiro. Indecisive about everything, taking the easy way out all the time. And yet, Mashiro doesn’t gain anything in the end.
“It’s the same from before. Mashiro didn’t grow up at all…”
Mashiro looked over at the calendar. The end of August was approaching. In other words, the summer festival, which is a fairly big thing in this area, is coming up close. When Mashiro was still in grade school, every year she would go to the summer festival, together with Aki, and Onii-chan.
With this festival having taken place ever since the old days of the Edo Period, the fireworks are the highlight of this, always the main attraction in working towards gathering people. But, when Mashiro told Aki about that, he just complained about it being a shitty event that’s made for adults, since us children couldn’t see past their backs. Then again, not giving up on this was very much like Aki, so…
‘If we climb on this tree, we’ll be able to see it just fine.’
Aki showed me a special secret place that allowed even us small kids to enjoy the fireworks to the fullest. As Aki and Onii-chan talked in excitement up inside the tree, only Mashiro stood down at the root of the tree in a daze. For Mashiro, who’s bad at sports and unathletic, climbing a tree is impossible. No way she could. That’s why she didn’t want to watch the fireworks anymore. She started sulking, and didn’t even try to grab Aki’s hand that he had offered her. All she could do was crouch down on that spot.
A weakling. A coward. No willpower at all. She worked this hard to leave her house to play with Aki, fighting against her fear of people and big crowds. Because of a single step of courage missing, she could not enjoy what she wanted to the fullest. That moment, she realized just how inefficient she was living, and hated herself for not seeing things through until the end. But, at that time, Aki—climbed down the tree, and sat down next to Mashiro.
‘Why did you climb down? Mashiro is at fault for not coming up, so you don’t have to worry about her.’ Mashiro clearly spoke as if to shoo Aki away.
Yet, the words Aki told her after that still linger in the back of her head, up to this very day.
‘No, I chose a location without considering your athletic skills, so I’m the one at fault. Of course I’d watch the fireworks under the same condition as you.’
Back then, and even now, Aki is still Aki. He would step down to whatever level Mashiro was on, and stand next to her. Even though he could reach up so high if he were to just leave her behind. Mashiro always loved Aki, and there probably will never come a day where this turns into a thing of the past.
No matter what Iroha-chan’s honest feelings are, even if Iroha-chan’s identity is the most important talent inside of the [5th Floor Alliance] ,Mashiro’s feelings won’t change. She can’t change them.
“Even if Mashiro knows now, you think that would change anything? Idiot.”
She erased her message. No more looking into Iroha-chan. That’s not what’s important now. Even if this were to make Mashiro and Iroha-chan enemies, as they fight for the same person…even if Mashiro were to lose both the boy she loved the most in the entire world, and her only friend—No, that’s not true.
Even if she were to become a rival in love for Mashiro, Iroha-chan would never throw her away, never hate her for this. Mashiro has just been telling herself that, using it as an excuse to run away. Because she doesn’t have any confidence in herself. Because she doesn’t think she can truly stand on the same stage as Iroha-chan, as a friend of hers. And the same goes for Aki. She thought she wasn’t worthy of being together with him. That’s why she grew worried at such a ridiculously unimportant secret.
—Mashiro has to get stronger. So that she won’t get hurt, no matter what reality she has to deal with. So that she can face Iroha-chan head-on.
“Huh…?”
At that moment, as if the other person had guessed this timing perfectly, Mashiro’s smartphone vibrated. The sender of the message was—
“Dad…?”
How rare. Since Mashiro’s father is busy as the company president of a great business, he barely sends any messages to Mashiro, even though he can be a bit too attached to her at times. Thinking that something was off, Mashiro opened the message—and the second she read it, her blood froze up.
[Dad]: Mashiro. About your fake lovers relationship with Akiteru-kun…it seems like it’s not working out too well?
…This timing is a bit too accurate. What is wrong with him, he’s scaring Mashiro.
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