"See you next week!"
"See you next week," Miyu said with a smile, waving as she got into the car and drove off.
After school on Friday, Miyu and Rei left early by car to attend a manuscript review meeting at Miyu's house, leaving Yui Nakamura and Hana standing at the school gate, watching them go with strange expressions.
"They still claim to be just friends? What kind of 'just friends' take a taxi together after school on a Friday?" Yui scoffed.
"If they're dating, they're dating. We're not going to tell Sensei," Hana said.
"Maybe they're just shy," Hana suggested.
"Let's go. The latest issue of Sky Shadow Weekly is out today. We should hit the bookstore first."
"Right! Shirogane Sensei's new manga is in it too!" Yui's eyes lit up.
Japan had many manga artists, and there were plenty of talented ones in the romance genre. But sometimes, it just came down to personal taste.
There were certainly more famous manga artists than Shirogane, but were their works actually better?
At least for Yui, 5 Centimeters Per Second was a masterpiece, ranking among the very best romance manga she had ever read.
It was the top romance manga she had read in the past three years!
Yui Nakamura's anticipation for Shirogane Sensei's new work far surpassed her excitement for any other manga artist's creations.
With cheerful steps, the two friends arrived at the bookstore near their school—the very place where they had first seen Rei buying Sakura Weekly and struck up a conversation with him.
"Too bad those two are on a date," Yui chuckled. "They're missing out on Shirogane Sensei's new work right away. Their loss!"
They began searching through the bookstore.
Yui had never been particularly fond of Sky Shadow Weekly. Its serialized works were too diverse for her taste; she preferred romance and shōjo manga.
But for Shirogane Sensei, she didn't mind.
Yui and Hana each bought a copy of Sky Shadow Weekly for fourteen yuan. They found a bubble tea shop, ordered two low-sugar drinks, and settled down on the second floor.
The cover of this week's issue featured a girl waking up in her room, her dazed gaze falling on sticky notes scattered around her bedside table, desk, and window.
The contents of the notes made Hana's eyes widen.
The setup seems intriguing!
Has Shirogane Sensei's art style improved even more since 5 Centimeters Per Second?
She quickly flipped to the table of contents.
The opening pages were in full color, introducing the world's setting.
Hino Maori, a young girl, woke up one morning to find that her memories had been resetting every day for the past few years due to a car accident she suffered while saving someone.
Each morning, she had to accept this reality anew and reread the diary she had kept over the past few years.
Then, on this particular day, her condition seemed to be improving. She began to have vague memories of the previous days.
At the hospital, the doctor happily told Hino Maori and her parents that she might soon recover.
It was at this point that Izumi, Hino Maori's best friend, was introduced.
As Hino Maori's condition improved, some of the arrangements she had made in her room during her illness needed to be undone. While cleaning, she discovered a sketchbook.
Even at this point, Hana still couldn't grasp the main plot of the story.
"This must be a romance manga, right? Why start by introducing the female lead's illness? If they established this condition, why not focus on the events it triggers instead of immediately showing her recovering? What's the point of setting it up like this?" Hana frowned.
But soon, the plot would resolve Hana's doubts.
After meeting up with her friend Izumi, Hino Maori pulled out the sketchbook she had found at home.
The moment the sketches of a certain young man appeared, Hana realized:
Could this be a manga with a reverse chronological structure?
Since the female lead, Hino Maori, had lost her memories of the past three years and was only now beginning to recover, could the people and events she encountered during that time be the main plot of this manga?
Moreover, experienced manga artists never include meaningless details. This sketchbook had appeared twice, and the young man in the sketches was drawn so strikingly handsome.
Who is he?
In the manga, Izumi's uneasy expression upon seeing the sketchbook and her flustered explanation that he was a sketch model she had met at the library in the past, clearly showed she was trying to avoid the topic of this young man.
Then the perspective shifted to Izumi.
After returning home, she retrieved a handwritten diary from her room.
This diary, personally written by Hino Maori over the past few years, was completely different from the electronic files stored on the computer in her room.
On the first page of the diary, large characters stood out:
Don't forget Kamiya Toru.
The comic panel shifted again.
Hana understood now.
The main plot of the story was actually unfolding through Izumi reading Hino Maori's handwritten diary, revealing a forgotten fragment of Maori's past.
Tonight, even if this love vanishes from the world!
These words appeared on the next page of the manga draft, once again emphasizing the title.
The story then transitioned into a flashback from Maori's diary.
In a large classroom during a school-wide lecture, a handsome young man stood before Maori, his expression serious.
Will you go out with me?
Nearby, several onlookers—clearly troublemakers from their manga-style designs—secretly recorded the scene with their phones.
"Huh?" Hana's eyes widened.
She had just been thinking the story's pacing was too slow.
How could a confession suddenly happen now?
And judging by the heroine's reaction, she clearly didn't recognize the boy.
That's right. Even if they knew each other in the past, she wouldn't remember now.
Because her memories reset every morning.
She must know I'm not being sincere. The boy's inner monologue was written beside the manga panel.
Then, Hino Maori, with her sweet and lovely appearance, hesitated for a moment before lifting her head and softly asking the boy, "Sure! But what's your name?"
"Kamiya Toru."
"Kamiya Toru? I'll remember that. Which class are you in?"
"Class One."
"Then wait for me in the classroom after school tomorrow."
With a smile, the girl stood up and left the common classroom.
The group of students who had been filming and taking photos surrounded Kamiya Toru, their expressions hostile.
The manga's plot continued to unfold, revealing the reason behind this confession.
Kamiya Toru had decided to intervene because his friend was being bullied by these same students who were filming videos.
However, the bullies were furious and proposed a prank: they dared Kamiya Toru to confess to Hino Maori, the school's most beautiful girl who never showed any interest in others. They wanted to see him humiliated by a public rejection during the common class. If he did this, they promised to stop bullying his friend.
The manga then began to depict Kamiya Toru's family situation.
His mother had died from a congenital heart condition.
A father who always dreamed of being a writer and would periodically quit his job to write full-time.
And a sister who had left home to live independently.
And
The video of Kamiya Toru confessing to Hino Maori, which went viral at school the next day.
Hana straightened up slightly.
Not bad, this plot.
It doesn't seem like a tragedy manga anymore.
Isn't this the setup for a romantic comedy?
Then why did Hino Maori later forget Kamiya Toru?
Even if they didn't officially date, she would definitely have written about it in her diary, which her future self would have read.
Oh, right, her diary is being kept by her friend Izumi.
So the electronic documents on Hino Maori's computer...
Hana immediately realized.
They're fake? Manipulated.
A boy who once confessed to her and likely became her boyfriend—his entire existence has been erased from her diary by her friend.
In other words, for Hino Maori, who has lost the past three years of her memories and can only piece together her life through her diary...
Kamiya Toru doesn't exist in her world.
A chill crept up Hana's spine.
Tonight's setting wasn't difficult to guess. Most readers would have made the connection after seeing the electronic and handwritten diaries, along with Izumi's strange behavior.
But it wasn't until the plot began to unfold that they truly grasped the terrifying nature of Hino Maori's amnesia.
By altering the contents of her diary, one could completely reshape her perception of the world.
With her memory wiped clean each day, she would forget even the most horrific events of the previous day.
She wouldn't even notice if her friends had tampered with her diary.
Was Izumi the villain?
If not, why would she erase Kamiya Toru from Hino Maori's life?
At that moment, Hana recalled the title of the work.
The initial impression that this manga was a romantic comedy gradually faded.
Tonight, love vanished from the world.
An ominous feeling welled up in her heart.