Eriri stared at the draft pages she had just finished flipping through.
She had been expecting an actual, unapologetic doujinshi.
'So what in the world… is this?'
A hot wave of shame rolled through her. Had she really been looking at Masao's work through such a filthy lens? Her mind felt grimy, her thoughts embarrassingly impure. For a moment, she felt like her entire soul had been scrubbed clean.
'No… No, the problem isn't me'
'The problem is him.'.
"What is this even supposed to be? How is this a doujinshi?!"
Before the echo of her shout had even faded, her bedroom door slammed open. Sayuri Sawamura burst in, eyes shining with excitement.
"Doujinshi? Where? Let me see!"
Masao watched Sayuri sweep into the room like someone in the throes of withdrawal. Something was definitely off—her charm was there, but wrapped in an odd, exhausted sultriness.
Her eyes locked onto the pages in Eriri's hands. In a flash, she snatched them away, beaming like she'd uncovered a hidden treasure.
"My my, Masao-kun, you really are fast." She said this while flipping eagerly through the pages, barely breathing.
—
A few minutes later, the hungry smile she had entered with was gone.
In its place was something soft. Pure. Serene.
Sayuri Sawamura looked as though she had just completed a spiritual cleanse.
"Oh no… I'm terrible. I can't believe I was thinking about those kinds of things." She pressed a hand theatrically to her chest.
"Time is cruel… it turned me from a pure young maiden into a filthy, depraved witch. But now—it feels like I've recovered a piece of that lost innocence."
She turned toward Masao, smiling with gentle, radiant gratitude. "Thank you, Masao-kun. You're like a little sunbeam in the darkest corner of my world…"
"You bastard. I—" Suddenly, like a documentary narrator cutting in without warning Eriri shouted. "I pick up doujinshi to unwind, and you—you—hand me something that makes me cry."
Even someone as emotionally stable as Sayuri Sawamura couldn't withstand that ambush.
Masao, of course, smiled knowingly.
His system had just chimed: another batch of "Corruption Points" was acquired.
'Sure, she says she hates it… but deep down she loves these pure, tearjerking love stories.'
"So, Sayuri-san," Masao asked, ignoring the screaming Eriri. "What do you think of my work?"
Sayuri took a slow breath, composing herself. "No complaints about the art or the story. The only problem is… there's not enough of it."
"That's easy. I've got a few more short pieces like this. We can bundle them together."
Sayuri stared at him, exasperated.
This boy had a brilliant mind—yet he insisted on using it for… this.
Eriri jumped in. "Ugh, this is boring. I'm going back to drawing actual doujinshi."
But Sayuri suddenly paused, thinking of something.
"Right—Masao-kun. Are you planning to publish these the same way as before?"
Masao shook his head. "No. This time, I'm submitting them to Weekly Shōnen JUMP.
I'll use the pen name Takeda, same as always."
A wicked grin tugged at his lips.
Sayuri's eyebrow arched. Then she smiled—slowly, knowingly.
The pen name Takeda was notorious in the doujinshi scene, a small but unmistakable legend. Publishing pure-love one-shots in Shōnen Jump under that infamous name?
Just imagining it was chaos. But as they schemed, a righteous cry cut through the room.
"I object!" Eriri slapped her hands onto the desk, practically vibrating with indignation.
This whole plan—luring "cattle" expecting smut, only to slaughter them emotionally with pure-love tragedy—was morally despicable.
"A doujinshi artist once is a doujinshi artist for life! I will NOT let you sneak off and go mainstream!"
Eriri simply couldn't accept Masao sneaking away to "ascend to purity." As for readers being tricked? Well… she'd been stabbed by that twist already.
Seeing how worked up she was, Masao unleashed his ultimate weapon. "I'll give you a short story to draw. We'll publish it together."
Eriri, who had been ready to rip him apart seconds earlier, froze—then brightened. "Masao, you're actually pretty decent sometimes. I acknowledge you as a friend! Hurry, tell me the plot!"
Pen and paper appeared in her hands instantly.
Sayuri, unwilling to be left out, leaned in with a soft, almost spoiled tone. "Masao-kun… I want one too."
"Okay, okay—everyone gets one." Masao raised his hands defensively, like a man being swarmed by starving cats.
The three of them huddled together, working into the late-night hours in Sayuri's room. Masao ended up staying over, catching the first train back to Chiba at dawn.
But their results? Stunning.
Eriri produced a family-themed story:
The protagonist invents X-ray glasses. ["Now I can finally see everything clearly… And maybe I can save my mother's cancer, right?"]
Sayuri delivered a hypnosis story:
The protagonist develops a hypnosis app and uses it on the heroine. ["Be good… forget about me. I don't have much time left anyway…"]
Then there was another story:
a blond delinquent lending money to a girl so her sick mother could get surgery.
His price was her obedience… And he took her stargazing. ["Mr. Blond… what does this mean?"]
["When I was broke, my mom fell gravely ill. Before she died, she said she'd become a star in the sky."]
In the final scene, the greasy, menacing blond transforms, becoming strikingly handsome. A dazzling light shines in his eyes—starlike, almost sacred.
Pure love with a hint of sleaze. Every twist a knife straight to the heart.
All their stories shared a pattern:
a sleazy male lead, a beautiful heroine, seductive setups… and devastatingly emotional endings.
Ecstatic, Sayuri immediately contacted a friend to arrange a meeting with Shonen Jump.
—
Meanwhile, back in Chiba—
Yukinoshita gazed out the window as the sky darkened, unable to suppress a stray thought:
"Will Masao-kun come up with another weak excuse to invite me for dinner? Something like 'It's the weekend,' or 'We've eaten together for a week, might as well finish properly.'"
A faint smile tugged at her lips as she checked her phone… then quietly glanced at the door.
Realizing what she was doing, Yukinoshita quickly shook her head.
'What's wrong with me? It's only dinner. I—I'm not expecting anything. I'm only worried that Kazumi-san might prepare food for me again. It'd be rude if I didn't show up. Yes. That's all it is.'
She waited a little longer, but no message arrived.
'If you won't invite me… then I'll just cook for myself. And if you DO invite me after I start cooking… I won't go. Hmph.'
Right then, her phone chimed.
"There it is."
A message from Masao: 'Yukinoshita-san, something came up. I might get to school late tomorrow, so no morning exercise.'
Yukinoshita stared at the message for a moment before replying: 'Okay.'
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