Just as Tsushima Kagami had finished his breakfast and was about to gather up the things he needed for today's classes—
The phone sitting beside him suddenly rang.
Tsushima Kagami saw that the call was from Kobayashi Tomoaki, and so picked up right away.
"Hello, Editor-in-Chief Kobayashi, what's up so early in the morning?"
"It's blowing up, it's blowing up!"
Tsushima Kagami, utterly bewildered, listened as Kobayashi Tomoaki's excited voice came down the line saying something that made no sense to him at all.
"What's blowing up?"
Tsushima Kagami asked again.
"I'll tell you later — I'm super busy right now!"
Before Tsushima Kagami could even press for more, the other side simply hung up.
Tsushima Kagami stared at his phone, utterly baffled.
Yukinoshita Shizuku, beside him, also asked curiously—
"What was that about?"
Tsushima Kagami shrugged helplessly.
"No idea."
"Editor-in-Chief Kobayashi just yelled out 'It's blowing up, it's blowing up,' and then went and hung up just like that."
Yukinoshita Shizuku was just about to say something when, at that very moment, the front door of the apartment was once again knocked on with a bang-bang.
"Kagami-kun, it's me~"
"Open up, would you!"
Feeling that this morning was awfully lively, Tsushima Kagami walked over to the entryway and pulled the door open.
A small fist was still flailing away with all its might, and at last came down squarely on Tsushima Kagami's stomach.
"Ah — huh, the door's already open. Sorry about that."
Tsushima Kagami looked at Hayase Kinue standing at his door and held the door wide.
"Come on in and tell me, Big Sis Kinue."
"What on earth is going on?"
Hayase Kinue didn't stand on ceremony at all — she kicked off her shoes and went straight running into the living room.
Then she clambered up onto a chair at the dining table and spread the newspaper she had in her hand out across it.
"Look — Kagami-kun's book made the news!"
Tsushima Kagami and Yukinoshita Shizuku, both curious, walked over and looked at the newspaper laid out on the table.
The two of them gazed at the headline story on the page.
Once they had finished reading, the two of them exchanged a glance.
"Beautifully done!"
Tsushima Kagami, snapping back to himself, slapped the table as he spoke.
Yukinoshita Shizuku, beside him, thought for a moment and then asked—
"Won't something like this end up having some kind of negative impact on your book?"
Hearing this, Tsushima Kagami suddenly remembered something.
Right — what I was telling you all was, when you've been driven to the end of the road, give yourself just a little more courage to keep on living.
I didn't tell you to go all alpha-bro and step from one dead-end road straight onto a whole different dead-end road!
Still, when it came to this sort of thing, even if it had genuinely ended in someone dying, it would have been understandable.
After all, in Little Japan here, a man who could actually deliver a sound thrashing to an adulterous wife and her sneaking lover already put himself in the top one percent of the average Nihon-bros.
The vast majority of people simply chose to stay silent, putting on the act of a loving couple and going on living their days.
And besides — it wasn't as if anyone had actually been killed, was it? It was just a thorough beating. At worst, a civil dispute.
And by the looks of it, the cheating pair were already so utterly ruined in name and face that they almost certainly wouldn't dare to make too big a fuss about it.
Thinking this through, Tsushima Kagami said with a smile—
"At worst a civil dispute. There shouldn't be any real impact."
Hayase Kinue, beside them, patted her chest with a worried air and said—
"That's a relief, then."
"I really was scared that, if Kagami-kun's novel had something like this happen because of it, and it ended in a death, it might just end up getting banned. That'd be awful."
Yukinoshita Shizuku, too, nodded in agreement.
"So that phone call Editor-in-Chief Kobayashi made just now — could it be that he wanted to tell you that today's sales have picked up again?"
Yukinoshita Shizuku, suddenly recalling Kobayashi Tomoaki's call from a moment ago, continued.
Once Tsushima Kagami had heard her out, he, too, figured that this was, in all likelihood, exactly the case.
"That's probably what it is."
"What are you all talking about?"
Tsukuyomi Komoe and Douraku Utage had also been roused awake just now by the sound of Hayase Kinue's knocking.
Looking utterly bleary-eyed, the two of them came to the door of Tsushima Kagami's apartment and peered at the three people inside.
"It's nothing really."
"But if you two teachers don't hurry up and wash up, you're not going to make it in time to clock in at school, you know."
Tsushima Kagami said this with a smile, watching the two of them still rubbing their eyes.
At Tsushima Kagami's reminder, the two of them finally remembered that today was Monday — another workday!
"Oh no!"
"I'll go wash up and be right back."
"You guys wait for me!"
Tsukuyomi Komoe hurriedly rushed back to her own room.
Beside her, Douraku Utage was likewise scrambling back to her own room, all the while grumbling at Tsukuyomi Komoe behind her—
"It's all your fault for dragging me out drinking with you so late last night — now we've overslept!"
Tsushima Kagami and the other two looked at one another and shook their heads with a smile.
Scenes like this, ever since they had all moved in together, played out in front of Tsushima Kagami and Yukinoshita Shizuku constantly.
Hayase Kinue, for her part, had long since grown accustomed to it as a matter of course.
Once Tsukuyomi Komoe and Douraku Utage had finally finished washing up, they grabbed the breakfast and bento boxes that Hayase Kinue had long ago prepared for the two of them, and headed off to school together with Tsushima Kagami and Yukinoshita Shizuku.
The Manga Research Club, that afternoon.
Today's Manga Research Club lacked the bustling liveliness of days past.
Kosaka Akane and Machida Sonoko had both, the moment classes ended, headed straight off to cram school for tutoring.
Sayuri, meanwhile, was sprawled face-down across the table, dead silent and not moving an inch.
Tsushima Kagami, on the other hand, was leisurely sitting back in his chair, flipping through the latest issue of "Jump."
Sayuri sat beside Tsushima Kagami, every so often letting out a long, drawn-out sigh.
Tsushima Kagami remained utterly unmoved.
At last Sayuri could no longer stand it. She gave Tsushima Kagami, sitting beside her, a little nudge with her elbow.
"Kagami, why aren't you asking me why I'm so down in the dumps?"
Tsushima Kagami, holding his manga without lifting his eyes from it, said with a smile—
"Oh?"
"Sayuri, why are you so down in the dumps?"
Seeing that Tsushima Kagami was so clearly just humoring her, Sayuri nevertheless didn't mind, and continued on—
"It's all Kagami's fault, and that 'No Longer Human' of yours!"
"After I finished it yesterday, my whole self has just been out of sorts."
"And today, sitting here in the Manga Research Club, thinking about how Akane-senpai and Sonoko-senpai won't be coming back at all before graduation — it makes me feel even worse."
Sayuri propped her chin in both hands and looked up at Tsushima Kagami with a pout.
Tsushima Kagami shot her a sidelong glance and said with a smile—
"And here I thought idiots weren't supposed to have any worries at all~"
"Saying something like that at a time like this is just way too much!"
Sayuri glared up at Tsushima Kagami with both eyes.
"I am NOT an idiot!"
"Then might I ask how the brilliant Sayuri scored on this month's exam?"
Better-tier private high schools, much like the one next door, not only have only one day off a week — some of them, on top of midterm and final exams, also organize monthly exams.
Hearing this, Sayuri said dejectedly—
"Wel... well... sort of okay, I guess..."
"So did you actually pass English and math this time around?"
Sayuri looked over at Tsushima Kagami and put on a smile that was perfectly polite and yet thoroughly awkward.
"Ehe-he-he-he-he~"
Tsushima Kagami closed the manga and pulled out the set of math practice problems he had long since prepared.
Then he set them down on the table.
"Wh... what are you about to do?"
"This is the Manga Research Club, you know!"
Sayuri stared at the math workbook Tsushima Kagami had produced, her face full of horror as she said it.
"This is something Akane-senpai and Sonoko-senpai personally asked of me."
"'If Sayuri slacks off enough that her mind starts wandering, give her a little tutoring to make up for it~'"
"There — that's what they told me."
Tsushima Kagami said this with a smile, mimicking the voices of the two of them.
"Take it away, take it away!"
"Don't make me have to look at something like that!"
Tsushima Kagami glanced at his watch. There were still over two hours left until club activities ended.
"According to the orders of the former presidents — starting today, Mondays and Wednesdays are for math tutoring."
"Tuesdays and Thursdays are for English tutoring, and Fridays are for spoken-English practice."
"I... I didn't even sign up for cram school!"
Sayuri said in a panic, and then made to stand up and make a run for it out of the classroom.
Only to be grabbed in a single motion by Tsushima Kagami.
"Alright now, current Manga Research Club President Sayuri."
"Next up — it's time for Sayuri's Perfect Arithmetic Classroom!"
____
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