From all of the characters from his world, I would have never thought he'd date the freakiest one.
No offence to Ebina, but she's just too weird at least when she's in her Yaoi mode, or else she wouldn't have been part of the most popular group circle in their school.
She has to be charismatic enough, and oddly enough she managed to be both likable and weird simultaneously.
At least on the surface, most people know that she's cheerful and weird, but she has a hidden side that her friends don't know about, and that is being negative inside.
Unlike Hikigaya, who wasn't hiding his negativity, Ebina, however, was the opposite, hiding it all for herself.
This trait made the two of them oddly compatible, but whether their relationship works or not, who knows?
It was never explored in the series, but it does remain as a possibility, and that one possibility came true in my Hikigaya's worldline.
MadHorseScientist: Hold on, this is the first time I've heard about this, you're dating that girl who loves Yaoi so much that she imagines you with another man?
8man: Please don't remind me of that…
It seemed that he was aware of Ebina's shipping fantasy, not that she was trying to hide it anyway.
(👑)Raiden Makoto: How rich! His girlfriend likes to imagine him being drilled by another man! Hahahaha!
Of course, as Hikigaya's frienemy, she just can't stop herself but uses this as an excuse to insult him.
Even though I can't see Hikigaya, I'm pretty sure his eyes are twitching violently right now.
8man: Someone like you had no right to insult me when there's a literal fanfiction of you being drilled by another!
Even I, who was reading this, couldn't stop myself from being shocked.
'Holy shit, he did not just say that!'
SpecialistWinter:....?!
MadHorseScientist: Oh, he really did it this time.
Bell Cranel: T-that was so mean Hikigaya-san!
MartialARTish: That was a low-blow dude.
8man: Wait, you guys are painting me like I'm the villain here! She's literally the one who started it!
(👑)Raiden Makoto: You! You! Just you wait until we have another joint quest! I'll make sure to cripple you for life!
As if that wasn't scary at all, welp it doesn't have to do with me. The only prayer I could do was to pray to a god for his safety.
Oh, wait, the person he offended was quite literally divinity herself, so he pretty much pissed off god.
Praying for a higher power won't help him at all, I let out a chuckle. "He's screwed."
—
A few days have passed, and now I have finally managed to finish the last sentence of the YLIA 4th vol.
Then I checked the group chat and saw that Mikoto still held a grudge toward Hikigaya.
It was obvious considering her comments toward Hikigaya contain a bit of genuine anger and not just a mere annoyance.
Once again, he screwed up big time. From all the insults he could have come up with, why would he pick the one that Mikoto was more uncomfortable with?
According to her, she usually doesn't mind mild insults like her relationship status, as she knew that it wasn't really serious but to insult her purity as a woman, she can't stand it.
That's why she was giving Hikigaya a cold shoulder and insulting him with a real bite this time.
But frankly, from my perspective, this was like a girl being angry with one of her boyfriend's jokes and starting to give him the cold shoulder until he apologized.
Which Hikigaya didn't as pride stopped him from directly apologizing to her, although his subtle comments against her were softer for the past few days, I don't think he noticed it himself.
From an individual with the 3rd point of view, it was obvious to see that the dynamic between these two has changed.
This was really…
If this were before, I would have believed that their relationship was nothing but friends, but right now I can't confidently say that anymore.
It was clear that they had bonds beyond friendship, as ordinary friends wouldn't have acted like this.
"Maybe this is really a Yukino situation." Considering Hikigaya's hidden rizz toward a specific type of girl, which is the ice queen type.
But it's not my problem; they're going to deal with it by themselves, as I'm not their therapist.
Or if I'm even qualified to become one.
Then an email arrived from Kisara. It's been a few days since I've heard from her.
The email doesn't say much and only says.
"It's done."
And showed 5 pages worth of illustration and looking at it, I couldn't help but smile. "Well, I suppose this checks for the vibes I've been looking for, she managed to change the illustration atmosphere."
The illustration for the first volume of YLIA is done, and I replied to Kisara that this is acceptable.
After that, I sent it to my editor alongside the 4th volume.
Currently, it's October, and I want to finish everything by April.
Just imagining my reader's reaction puts a smile on my face, sadistic tendency aside, I'm going to wait for feedback from Kobayashi.
—
I was informed that the release date of the 1st volume of YLIA is next month, which is just next week.
In my opinion, it feels rushed, but it's their decision, so in the end, it was set to be released in November of all months; it wasn't even a horror genre.
I mean, technically speaking it is a horror.
Horr-ible for your feelings.
I shook my head at that terrible pun, even Yang Xiao Long could create better puns than that.
Then all of a sudden, Kaede came into my room and informed me that we're going to visit our relatives who are living in Shibuya.
Since when do we have a relative? That's the first time I've heard about this.
In Hiroki's memories, I couldn't recall any relatives who are living in Tokyo like us, so how come there's one now?
Either way, it seemed that I had no choice but to comply as Kaede had a 'no refusal is allowed kind of look'.
It didn't take long for me to dress myself up. In front of me was the youth I had possessed for a month now.
Wearing a black jacket, blue jeans, and black and white sports shoes.
I could have done better but lately I've grown a bit, making the rest of the outfit available in Hiroki's wardrobe limited.
I've outgrown the majority of them, this jacket is one of the few that could fit my physique.
Standing at 5'5 I grew 2 more inches since the last mission, this was an exponential growth spurt.
At this rate, I might reach 6 feet tall by 15 and I hope I won't grow beyond 6 feet.
Height is good and all, but it's also inconvenient in a country where your height is out of the norm.
I went out of my room and met my sister, who had been watching me intensely for almost a month now. She stared at me with that mesmerized look on her face.
I stepped a little closer and realized that I was now taller than her.
As if snapping out of her daydreaming, she said. "H-hiroki, I was about to call you out but it seems that you're done."
Kanoko licked her lips as she continued to look at my body, then, without warning, grabbed my left arm and pressed her chest against it.
"W-woah, it's more muscular than I thought," Kanoko muttered unconsciously.
"Kanoko, are we going or not?" That snapped her out of her musing and said.
"L-let's go!"
Then we went outside and saw Kaede waiting for us.
Compared to her usual dress code, she seemed to be going all out with this one. She was beautiful; there's no doubt about it.
"Say, why do we visit these relatives of ours that I never heard about? And why now?" I finally couldn't stop myself from asking.
Kaede looked at him and answered. "One of my cousin's daughters is having a birthday party and she insisted on inviting us this year so I accepted and you have heard of them alright, you even met them multiple times, however you're way too young back then to remember, you and her daughters used to have playdates every week."
As if remembering some fond memories, Kaede smiles at the thought.
No wonder Hiroki had no memory of them, he was way too young to remember.
I didn't insist on asking for more, as her answer already satisfied my curiosity to an extent.
Then we went inside the family's car and a weird thought appeared in my mind. 'Shibuya, huh… it makes me remember a certain arc in Jujutsu Kaisen. I wonder if this world is also connected to it?'
Then I let out a scoff before saying out loud. "Nah, that would be ridiculous."
This world couldn't be that bad, right?
—
A/N: There's one fanfic I really like, in my opinion, it could have been considered perfect, but there's a singular flaw, which is that there are too many women for the main character. In plot, narrative, world-building, and character interaction, it was of the highest quality.
It's the type of story that I could only write in my wet dream.
It's called Genshi Impact: I, Heavenly Principle Will Make Teyvat Supreme.
Though there's also the fact that the characters of that story glaze over the MC so much that it's becoming irritating to read, female characters fall in love left and right, but it's so good that if you ignore those flaws then it's perfect.