Kana turned to the second page of the manga.
A flashback unfolded there.
The original version of Tonight, Even If This Love Disappears From the World always bothered Rei, the sudden plot twist involving the male lead felt abrupt in the middle of the story.
Even though the work hinted at tragedy from the very beginning, even from the title, Rei still felt the turning point came too suddenly.
So he emphasized again and again from the start: Tōru Kamiya's mother died of congenital heart disease. And this illness is hereditary.
This was fully clarified across the next three flashback pages.
If it were an anime reader from Rei's previous life in Japan, the moment the author mentioned congenital heart disease within three generations, they would immediately suspect the protagonist.
But here in this world, such depressing themes in romance manga were rare, and the audience lacked this sort of "genre instinct," so Kana found herself completely stunned by the revelation.
Rei felt that one wonderful thing about Tonight was that, although the original author intended this fate from the start, there were no melodramatic "30 pages of flashbacks before death,"no drawn-out farewell between the couple.
People were tired of that.
And the story's perspective always centered on Maori Hino, a girl who woke up every morning with no memories.
The first three pages showed Tōru's memories, establishing that he inherited his mother's disease.
And on the fourth page, Maori's best friend, Izumi, received a call from Tōru's sister, the novelist.
"My brother, he had congenital heart disease. Last night, he collapsed in the bathroom.
They couldn't revive him. He passed away."
A blow with zero panels.
Kana's mind went blank.
What kind of plot was this?
"Tōru...died?"
"No, no, no, that's impossible! He's the male lead!"
"Shirogane-sensei, what are you doing?! People online already mock you as a new author who can't maintain structure past twenty chapters, I've been defending you every day, and you do this in chapter eight?!"
Kana's heart pounded.
She sucked in a breath and flipped the page.
In truth, this manga had always been about Maori Hino.
Every plotline revolved around her growth, a girl who lost her memories every day.
But now Tōru Kamiya was gone.
She had finally found someone to lean on, and now he had vanished.
Kana suddenly understood, why Izumi hid Maori's diary in chapter one. Why she erased Tōru from Maori's life.
Because as Maori's best friend,she couldn't bear the thought of Maori waking up every morning,reading her diary, and learning over and over that she once deeply loved someone...someone who no longer existed.
And the cruelest part: Maori wouldn't even remember what he looked like.
The sham confession that started it all.
Falling asleep beside him on the grass during their first date.
The fireworks they watched in chapter seven, and that trembling kiss beneath the exploding lights.
If Maori forgot, at least one person in the world still remembered those memories.
But now, that person was gone too.
Thinking of this, a wave of sorrow quietly welled up from the deepest part of Kana's heart.
Her fingers trembled slightly as she turned to the next page.
It was Tōru Kamiya's funeral.
Hino, unaware of the truth, had come with Izumi.
A smiling portrait of Tōru hung high at the front of the hall.
And because Maori's memories reset every day, she didn't recognize him at all today.
She had come only because her diary mentioned this "funeral she should attend."
But the moment she stepped through the doorway, Maori's expression changed.
Her eyes widened.
Tears began to spill uncontrollably. Her feet staggered backward on their own.
Then, as though her whole body understood something her mind could not, she broke into sobs.
"Wh–why…? I don't remember him at all, but… something is wrong… this feeling..."
Maori collapsed to her knees, hugging her own shoulders.
And Kana, already on the verge of emotional collapse, could no longer hold back her own tears.
The answer surfaced clearly in her mind: Her body remembered Tōru before her memory ever could.
Even if the brain forgets how to ride a bicycle, the body remembers.
Even if she forgets every memory of Tōru Kamiya, her body remembers that she loved him.
Maori's breakdown was overwhelming.
Izumi helped her out of the funeral hall, but even back home, she couldn't stop crying.
Every morning afterward, she woke up, opened her diary, and discovered again that she had once loved someone she could no longer recall.
And every morning, her heart shattered all over again.
Under such unbearable circumstances, Izumi u sought help from Tōru's sister, the novelist Tamaki.
A flashback appeared.
Before his death, Tōru had already foreseen this possibility.
He knew he carried the same ticking time bomb that had taken his mother.
All the way back in chapters five and six, readers saw how his father collapsed after losing his wife, quitting jobs, shutting himself off, writing manuscripts he never dared to mail, until the family finally resolved years of emotional knots.
With that precedent, of course Tōru worried about what would happen to Maori if he died.
And so, while still alive, Tōru left behind his last request:
"As long as I don't appear in her diary, then, to her, I never existed. If that time truly comes, please erase me from Maori's life."
Chapter Eight- End
Seeing those three cold words, Kana felt her whole heart go numb.
'Tōru… you thought of everything. You protected everyone. So why… why couldn't you beat your own heart?'
Kana slowly withdrew from the story's grip.
There was no doubt anymore, this wasn't some twist Shirogane created out of nowhere.
It had been foreshadowed from chapter one that Tōru was already gone. But who would ever guess the male lead of a romance manga would die?
Who would even consider such a possibility?
And she couldn't help but think, Shirogane was the god of this world.
Whether Tōru lived or died, was entirely in Shirogane's hands.
Kana admitted the story was beautiful and heartbreaking.
But still, she couldn't stop feeling that Shirogane was the culprit behind all this suffering.
Fueled by a mix of grief and anger, Kana grabbed her phone.
She opened the Ametsukage Weekly official forum.
And froze.
The entire front page was flooded with condemnation.
Post after post attacking Shirogane, far harsher than Kana had even imagined.