[Three weeks before the Summit]
"Shit. Shit. Shit!"
Nagi paced around his room, hands tangled in his hair, every thought crashing into the next. His mind was on fire, his pulse beating faster.
This has to be some kind of joke. There's no way... There's no way my—
He stopped, suddenly still. Something flickered through his thoughts.
Right.
His fingers hovered over his phone, a sudden realization sending a cold shiver down his spine.
Every novel has a protagonist.
But his novel has more than one.
In Nagi Kashiwagi's novel, The World Beyond the Rift, there isn't just one main character.
The story follows several people, each with their own personality and living in different parts of the world.
The one closest to him storywise, is right in his school.
The main characters. Those ones the story revolves around. If he could find at least one person that matched the protagonists in his novel… then maybe, just maybe, this wasn't some weird coincidence. Maybe it was real
If I find them... this is reality.
A feeling settled in his chest, deep and heavy. There was no going back now.
The night passed in a blur of restless thoughts, too many questions without answers.
By morning, Nagi barely noticed his mother calling out to him, his stomach a knot of anxiety. He grabbed his bag, barely touched the breakfast she'd made for him, and rushed out the door.
[Sakuragaka High School.]
He ran through the streets, his mind a whirlwind. He barely even remembered when he arrived at school. The building loomed above him as he climbed the stairs, the same staircase from his novel. The familiar, sterile scent of chalk and paper hit him as he approached the halls, but everything felt… off.
If I remember correctly... it should be Shirugaka High School in my novel.
But... there's no time to dwell on that. I need to find her.
The protagonist, had to be somewhere.
Class 2-D.
His fingers clenched around the strap of his bag as he moved through the corridors, ignoring his own class, 2-A, and making a beeline for the door with the label "Class 2-D."
His heart hammered in his chest as he opened the door.
"Hina Ichinoya!" he called, louder than he meant to. The room fell silent.
There was no response.
Some students looked at him like he was crazy. A few giggled, while others scolded him for his outburst.
Right...
There's no way this could—
Suddenly, a voice cut through his thoughts, sharp and direct.
"What the fuck do you need?"
Nagi froze. The voice was unmistakable. Someone responded to him. He turned slowly, his eyes narrowing as he scanned the room.
There she was.
Hina Ichinoya.
Short black hair. A slender figure, not too tall, not too short. Her eyes—those eyes—sharp, calculating, and definitely the same as in his novel. It was her.
One of the main characters.
Her gaze locked onto his, eyebrow raised, waiting for an explanation.
This is impossible. This is impossible.
He could hardly breathe. The pieces of his story were coming to life. And yet, part of him wanted to bolt out of there and never look back.
"Why are you staring at me?" she snapped, irritation flickering in her tone. "Are you a creep or something?"
Nagi's heart skipped a beat. His mouth went dry.
The world felt as if it had stopped moving, the line between fiction and reality blurring beyond recognition.
Nagi stood frozen for a moment, still processing the fact that Hina Ichinoya—the character he had written into existence—was standing right in front of him. She wasn't a figment of his imagination. She wasn't a character in a story. She was real.
Real.
His mouth moved, but no words came out. His throat was dry, his mind spinning. This wasn't just some coincidence anymore. This was… everything.
"Well?" Hina raised an eyebrow, her stance aggressive. "You gonna say something or are you just gonna stand there like a freak?"
Nagi blinked, snapping back to reality. He rubbed his face with both hands, trying to calm his racing thoughts. This wasn't how things were supposed to go. He had planned to ask her—gently, cautiously—but everything felt wrong, too fast, and too real.
"Uh..." His voice came out hoarse. "You... You're Hina Ichinoya, right? From… from my novel?"
There was a brief silence before she smirked, a look of disbelief is in her eyes. "Novel?" she repeated, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "What, are you a fan or something?"
Nagi swallowed. This is exactly how her personality is. In the novel, Hina was cold and calculated. She was dismissive.
"I—uh, no, it's not like that," Satou stammered, trying to keep himself together. "I'm not… It's just that, um… You're in my story. Or, I mean, you were in my story. This is… crazy."
Hina narrowed her eyes, clearly getting more annoyed by the second. "I'm not some character out of your little fantasy novel," she said, taking a step closer. "I'm a real person, idiot. You don't get to just walk in here and claim you know me from some story. Got it?"
Nagi's heart pounded. She was right—this wasn't how it was supposed to happen. He had imagined a thousand scenarios where he met Hina for the first time, but none of them had prepared him for this. Her harsh tone. Her fiery eyes. The way she seemed... too real.
"Sorry," Nagi muttered, looking down at his feet. He suddenly felt small, out of place. "I—I wasn't thinking. I just…" He trailed off, the weight of everything sinking in. His head was spinning, his thoughts a tangled mess of disbelief and fear.
Hina seemed to study him for a moment, the intensity in her gaze softening just a little. "Whatever. Just don't make a scene. People are already staring."
The tension in the room didn't disappear, but it lessened slightly. Satou stepped back, muttering an apology under his breath as he quickly turned to leave.
But before he could walk away, Hina's voice stopped him.
"Hey," she called. "What did you mean by 'this is crazy'? You really think I'm some character from your head, don't you?" She paused, her expression unreadable for a moment before she added, "I don't know what kind of weird joke you're pulling, but don't come near me again."
Nagi felt a chill run down his spine. This wasn't just a case of him being paranoid. Hina was onto something. She was starting to suspect that something was off, something beyond the ordinary.
He hesitated, then turned back to face her, trying to muster the courage to tell her the truth. But before he could speak, the bell rang, signaling the start of class.
Hina gave him one last look, her gaze lingering for a second longer than it should have.
"Next time, keep your weird stories to yourself," she muttered, before walking past him and taking her seat.
Nagi stood there, still frozen in place, trying to piece everything together. The reality of it all was beginning to settle in—he had written this world.
The characters, the events, the world-shattering appearance of the continent… It was all his doing.
But now, there was no turning back.
No way to fix what had started.