While Shizuka Hiratsuka and Haruno Yukinoshita exchanged barbed remarks, Kotomi Izumi stood quietly between them, surrounded on both sides by their bickering. Her expression remained calm—after all, she was long used to it.
The verbal sparring between Shizuka and Haruno was nothing compared to the heated clashes between Aimi Izumi and Megumi Kato. That was a whole other level.
Still, it made sense. From their conversation, it wasn't hard to tell that Shizuka and Haruno had known each other for a long time and were on good terms. Their teasing was light-hearted, the kind of sharp-tongued banter close friends shared—like greeting each other with a joking "Hey, idiot!" or constantly trying to one-up each other.
Aimi Izumi and Megumi Kato, however, were different. When it came to Kotomi Izumi, the two of them could argue endlessly, their hostility sharp as blades. If no one stopped them, they might actually grab whatever was at hand and start a real fight—one that could easily decide both victory and defeat.
Especially Aimi. She practically saw Megumi as her mortal enemy, and somehow, every time they met, it was Aimi who picked the fight first—reckless yet addicted to the thrill.
Anyway, Kotomi decided it was time to refocus on the matter at hand. From the way the conversation had gone, she could tell Shizuka and Haruno had known each other for years and were probably close friends—but there were still parts of their exchange that puzzled her.
Like the mention of fake names, or the fact that Haruno said she had only learned Shizuka's real name half a month ago.
Kotomi's face showed her confusion.
Wait… does that mean "Shizuka Hiratsuka" isn't her real name?
And come to think of it—when Kotomi had mentioned Shizuka to Haruno before, Haruno had seemed not to recognize the name at all.
That didn't make sense. For someone's close friend, she should have at least reacted to the name. And as Yukino's older sister, Haruno would definitely know that Shizuka was her little sister's homeroom teacher.
All of this left Kotomi deeply puzzled.
"Stop!"
Kotomi raised her voice, cutting through their bickering. Both women immediately fell silent. Though her face remained composed, Kotomi was inwardly quite pleased with herself. See? I really do have authority. Years from now, when I'm married, I'll definitely be the dignified head of the household! she thought proudly. If she had a tail, it would have been wagging high in the air.
"You two… have known each other for a long time, right?" Kotomi asked, clearing her throat.
"When I was still in preschool," Haruno began, "my parents took me to visit the Hiratsuka family for the first time. That's when I met little Shizuka.
Sigh… she was already in second grade then, and as everyone knows, that age is a child's first chuunibyou phase. Shizuka was no exception. While other little girls were dreaming about living in crystal castles as princesses, she was fantasizing about being a mysterious master from a shonen manga—appearing dramatically when the hero was in danger, cutting down armies with a single sword, and then vanishing into the horizon, leaving only an air of mystique behind."
"Yeah, that sounds about right," Kotomi nodded in agreement. "Whenever I finish a manga and can't decide what to read next, I always ask Shizuka for recommendations. They're all standard shonen titles with predictable tropes—but somehow, they're still really entertaining."
"Wait, she still reads shonen manga?" Haruno teased. "Wow, so she hasn't grown out of her chuunibyou phase after all. She's thirty already—"
"Watch it. Don't hit the stomach," Haruno blurted as Shizuka's fist swung toward her.
"Then should I hit your face?" Shizuka asked coolly.
"...Alright, stomach it is," Haruno conceded instantly. She knew full well that Shizuka wasn't bluffing.
After 'disciplining' Haruno, Shizuka reached out and lightly flicked Kotomi's forehead. It didn't hurt at all.
"Instead of enjoying the festival with your friends, why are you hanging around with this troublemaker? When she grabbed your hand, couldn't you have just smacked her back? Has she been clinging to you? If she has, I'll gladly beat some sense into her."
Kotomi had the urge to nod mischievously, but when she remembered that Haruno was still her editor, she restrained herself. Instead, she obediently shook her head. "No, we just ran into each other by chance."
"You two know each other?" Shizuka Hiratsuka asked curiously.
"Of course we do! You already know I'm working as a light novel editor for Dengeki Bunko, right? She's my—ah!"
Before Haruno could finish her sentence, Kotomi secretly kicked her from behind. Haruno wasn't stupid—she immediately got the hint and quickly changed her words.
"She's a fan of one of the authors I'm in charge of. During a Dengeki Bunko signing event, she was actually the first one to line up outside the building—just so she could meet her favorite author sooner. I remembered her clearly because of that. After the event ended, I took the initiative to talk to her, and we exchanged contact info. When we started chatting, I found out she happened to be my little sister's classmate. And well, after that, we just kept in touch~"
Shizuka nodded. "I see. So, what's the name of the author you're in charge of?"
"Izumi Ki! She's… um… a really pretty girl!"
The moment Haruno said the name Izumi Ki, Kotomi kicked her again—but Haruno powered through and finished her line anyway.
"A beautiful girl novelist, huh? No wonder Kotomi liked her enough to line up early for the signing event," Shizuka said with a faint, knowing smile. "But that pen name does sound fated, doesn't it? One's called Kotomi Izumi, and the other's Izumi Ki."
"Ahaha…"
Kotomi laughed awkwardly, but her mind was racing.
No, Shizuka, you've got it wrong. Izumi Ki is my pen name. I might be a little self-absorbed, but I'm not so far gone as to fall in love with myself!
She thought this, but of course she didn't say it aloud. She really didn't want Shizuka to know she was secretly writing novels—at least not yet.
Being the top student in the entire grade while secretly moonlighting as a Dengeki Bunko light novel author…
If it were a serious literary novel, that would've been impressive—maybe even something the school would be proud of. The chairman might have even organized a school-wide purchase to boost her sales, turning her into a local literary celebrity and a famous alumnus of Sobu High.
But this was light novels we were talking about.
Even though more people were starting to enjoy anime nowadays, the prejudice against light novels still lingered—and in some cases, it had only gotten worse. To many, the phrase "light novel" still conjured up the image of disposable "toilet paper" entertainment for shut-ins.
Kotomi didn't want to deal with that kind of judgment or attention, so she kept her authorship a secret.
To quickly steer the conversation away, Kotomi asked, "Um… Haruno—cough, I mean, Haruno-senpai, what did you mean earlier about using a fake name? When I mentioned Ms. Hiratsuka before, you looked so confused that I thought you didn't even know her."
When Kotomi asked that question, Shizuka Hiratsuka was too flustered to stop Haruno Yukinoshita before she began answering on her own, taking it upon herself to clear up Kotomi's confusion.
As she spoke, Haruno subtly took a few steps back—she knew that if she revealed too much about Shizuka's chuunibyou-filled childhood, Shizuka might actually lose her temper and hit her.
Even though Haruno had already earned her black belt in aikido, she still didn't dare get too cocky around Shizuka Hiratsuka. After all, Shizuka didn't exactly fight with honor. She believed in the philosophy of "wild punches beat experience." Even with her black belt, Haruno couldn't confidently say she'd win against Shizuka.
"Anyway," Haruno began, "when Mom and I first visited the Hiratsuka household, I was playing by myself. Mrs. Hiratsuka saw me sitting alone, fiddling with Lego blocks, probably afraid I'd get bored, so she brought me a bunch of snacks. She told me that her daughter would be home soon and could play with me once she got back from school. About ten minutes later, little Shizuka came home. It was our first meeting, but the moment she saw me, her face clearly showed… she wasn't happy."
"Why?" Kotomi asked curiously.
"At first, I thought she didn't like me," Haruno continued. "But after a while, I asked her directly and found out the truth. Among all the snacks her mom gave me was a honeydew pudding that Shizuka had put in the fridge that morning—something she'd been looking forward to eating all day after school. And guess what? The first thing I ate was that pudding."
Kotomi instantly understood, because she'd had a similar experience once. She vaguely remembered when she was little—one day, her father's friend came over with his wife and daughter.
At that time, little Kotomi had been napping upstairs. When she woke up, feeling a bit hungry, she instinctively went downstairs toward the kitchen. Even though she was still at the age where she could barely talk, her memory for where food was kept was remarkably sharp.
As she passed through the living room, her mother scooped her up and said, "Say hello to our guests first."
Even though little Kotomi couldn't speak properly yet, she had her own unique greeting: she'd look at someone and go, "Rua!"
That was how she said hello back then.
After greeting the adults, she turned to greet their daughter—but the moment she looked at the little silver-haired girl sitting on the sofa, she froze mid-"Rua."
The girl's silver hair shimmered like liquid light. Even though Kotomi had been a bit of an airhead as a child, she did know one thing—she was beautiful.
Back then, Kotomi had been at the peak of her self-adoration phase. Whenever she saw a pretty girl, she couldn't help but compare herself.
But when she saw the silver-haired girl, she stopped completely. If she had known how to talk at the time, she would've tugged on her father's sleeve and said, "Dad, I want to marry her!"
However, her admiration quickly vanished the moment she noticed what the silver-haired girl was holding—a bag of tomato-flavored potato chips. Her chips. The last bag of tomato chips she'd saved in the kitchen to enjoy later that night while watching the Kamen Rider movie!
The silver-haired girl noticed Kotomi staring, shook the bag a little as if to ask, "Do you want some?"
Kotomi blankly took the bag. Her dazed expression shifted into shock—and then despair. There were only two chips left.
"Waaah!"
She shoved the last two chips into her mouth with trembling hands, clutching the empty bag to her chest before bursting into tears—loud, uncontrollable sobs that lasted an entire day. She cried so hard she nearly passed out several times.
Even now, whenever Kotomi recalled that memory, something about it still puzzled her. She remembered every detail vividly—except one. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't remember what the silver-haired girl looked like… or what her name was.
It was as if an invisible eraser had wiped all traces of that girl from her mind. But the eraser hadn't done a perfect job—at least Kotomi still remembered that the girl's hair had been silver.
Back to the topic at hand—after hearing Haruno Yukinoshita's story, Kotomi looked at her with open disdain. "Your behavior was downright demonic. How could you be so awful, so shameless? How did Ms. Hiratsuka not pin you to the ground after you ate her honeydew pudding?"
Haruno twitched the corner of her mouth. "Why do you sound like I committed some kind of unforgivable sin…? Anyway, yeah, the first time little Shizuka and I met, we didn't exactly get along—because of that stupid honeydew pudding."
"At that time, my mom gave you a whole bunch of snacks," Shizuka interrupted dryly. "There were plenty of pudding flavors to choose from. Why did you have to pick the honeydew one?"
"How was I supposed to know you wanted the honeydew pudding?" Haruno protested. "I just grabbed one at random! Who could've guessed that by chance, I'd pick your favorite flavor? And honestly, it didn't even taste that great. Mango pudding's way better—ah! Don't hit me! Can you act a little more like a mature woman? We can talk this out!"
Haruno's plea was met with another glare from Shizuka, but she quickly continued explaining to Kotomi.
"Anyway, you know how kids are—they get mad quickly, but they also get over it quickly. Even though our first meeting started off rocky, half an hour later we were happily building Lego together. Don't let Shizuka's smart looks fool you; she was actually terrible at putting Lego sets together. Still, she was really into it. While I had already finished building my set, she was sitting there frowning, overthinking every little piece.
"To cover up her embarrassment, she took me upstairs to the second floor, pulled out her game console, and we started playing Kirby. We took turns—whenever one of us lost, the other would play. As the game went on, we both became ridiculously careful, trying not to die so we could keep playing longer. And of course, every time one of us made a mistake and lost, we'd both get super competitive about it.
"It's been so many years now that I can't even remember what console it was—or which Kirby game we played.
"But thanks to that game, Shizuka and I started to get along better. I eventually asked her what her name was.
"She looked around, making sure our parents were still downstairs chatting, then puffed up her chest, put on the most serious expression she could manage, and said in her coolest possible tone:
"My name is… Shizuka the Cool!"
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