Utaha quietly watched him reel from the blow and continued,
"So do you understand now, Aki? It's not that I don't want to explain.
But if I had to correct everything, explain it in a way you'd understand, and guide you through the revisions, it would take several times more effort than just doing it myself.
And it still wouldn't be publishable."
"I-I understand…" Tomoya forced himself to rally and cautiously asked,
"Then, Utaha-senpai, could you give me a few examples? So I can see exactly what you mean?"
Utaha didn't hesitate or show any emotion. She just professionally reopened the document, shifted her chair aside, and left most of the screen open.
Tomoya quickly moved in, following the cursor to a highlighted paragraph. Utaha's cool voice rang out:
"For example, here—I don't know what you were trying to achieve with this dialogue.
It's neither sweet nor venomous, utterly boring, and doesn't reveal any principles or personality. It's meaningless.
Only slightly better than rambling on for half a page and still saying nothing."
"Remember: every line you write must serve a purpose—whether it's to portray a character, advance the plot, or set the mood.
Even nonsense must be like Monogatari Series nonsense—entertaining, thought-provoking, and unexpectedly impactful. Not actual, literal, useless nonsense."
As Utaha explained the intent behind the lines, Tomoya began to truly feel how hollow his script was.
"I see now… I get it, Utaha-senpai…"
"Anything else?" Utaha asked again.
"Ah? Oh—no."
Without offering a "That's good" or "Don't be discouraged," Utaha closed the document and prepared to shut down her laptop.
But before she could, Tomoya noticed something on her desktop and pointed curiously.
"Utaha-senpai, what's that document?"
Without even looking, Utaha's eyes locked onto the only untitled document on her desktop.
Her wine-red eyes shrank with pain.
Her nails dug tightly into her palm.
Even though it hurt every time she saw it, hiding that file elsewhere—removing it from the desktop—felt even worse.
It created a gnawing emptiness, a deep despair, and a cowardly illusion of escape.
So she left it there.
Looking at it again and again, getting used to it, adapting to it—until one day, it would stop hurting, and she could say she had accepted reality.
But she hadn't expected that when someone else noticed and pointed it out, the pain would return with such intensity.
Maybe—she never accepted it at all. Maybe she just numbed herself through repetition and adaptation.
"It's nothing."
She answered in a trembling voice, removed her nails from her palm, and shakily slid her fingers across the touchpad.
But her unsteady, hurried motions failed to hit the shutdown button.
The twisted emotions buried deep in her heart exploded the moment suspicion arose. Tomoya's expression changed drastically.
"Wait—! Utaha-senpai!"
He suddenly shoved Utaha aside, opened the file, and upon seeing the title One Hundred Percent Pure Love and the stylistically unique text that followed, his eyes went frighteningly blank.
"Utaha-senpai, this is your new book, right?" Tomoya scrolled through the file, his voice overflowing with joy.
"You wrote so much… so much… that's amazing, it's wonderful… But why…"
Tomoya suddenly stopped, both in words and action.
Then he turned to Utaha with a near-manic smile and asked, in a rising voice:
"Utaha-senpai… why… are you still writing new novels…?"
Utaha stared motionlessly at Tomoya. Her voice, which had always remained calm, now carried a sharp chill.
"What does that have to do with you?"
"Tomoya! What are you doing again?!"
Eriri yanked Tomoya hard, but he barely moved. She froze for a second—when did he get so strong?
Tomoya didn't seem to even notice being pulled. Still facing Utaha, he tilted his head slightly in confusion and said:
"Ah... of course it has something to do with me? Didn't I say so a long time ago? I won't let you stray down the wrong path, Utaha-senpai!?"
"Heh... hehehe…"
Utaha laughed self-deprecatingly.
Her laughter was cold.
She glanced at herself now, then at the document she hadn't dared to open for a long time, and said while smiling:
"I didn't."
"You didn't agree to that person's deal?" Tomoya froze, then suddenly screamed in hysteria,
"Then why are you still writing, Utaha-senpai?! Isn't that because you're still thinking about agreeing to it!!! Isn't it?! Utaha-senpai, you're still thinking about—"
Bang!!!
A heavy thud interrupted Tomoya's near-insane shouting, and he collapsed to the floor.
Megumi stood with a thick dictionary in hand, panting lightly.
After shaking out her now-numb hand, she calmly said to the stunned pair with a voice as casual as if chatting:
"Ah, I was worried something like this might happen again, so I brought a thicker book instead of ruining another one. I'm really glad I kept it in my bag all these months."
She shoved the dictionary back into her bag and said to the two still frozen in place:
"Senpai, Eriri, let's go. Aki-kun seems really dangerous right now."
Eriri reacted first, snapping Utaha's laptop shut and clutching it tightly to her chest, then grabbed Utaha's hand.
"Come on!"
Utaha snapped out of it too. Before being pulled away, she grabbed her backpack and ran with Eriri out of the classroom.
Megumi was the last to leave.
She turned and glanced at Tomoya, still sprawled on the ground, then firmly shut the clubroom door.
"Megumi! Hurry! This way!" Eriri called loudly from the stairwell.
Megumi waved a hand.
"You two go find a place to hide first. I'll inform the teacher."
Eriri nodded and pulled Utaha down the stairs. Megumi turned the other way and jogged off to find a teacher.
Even for a girl, hitting a boy in the head with a heavy dictionary could be dangerous.
But given how threatening Tomoya had become, she couldn't check on him herself. Only a teacher could.
If he was seriously hurt, it was better to act fast. Otherwise, it could be a crime.
Knocking on the staffroom door, Megumi politely said:
"Sensei, I just hit Aki-kun on the head with a dictionary in the clubroom upstairs. I'm not sure how he is now. Could you please check on him?"
Her words stunned several teachers inside. They all asked what happened.
Megumi didn't explain. Holding her bag, she quietly said three words:
"He deserved it."
The teachers, worried something serious had happened, hurried out of the room. Megumi took out her phone and called Eriri.
"Eriri, I've asked the teachers to check on him. Where are you two now?"
After getting the location, she went up another floor and found the two girls waiting in an empty classroom.
Now that the anger had cooled, Utaha realized just how dangerous Tomoya had been. When Megumi walked in, she forced a smile and said:
"Thanks for earlier, Kato-san."
"It's what anyone should do. Aki-kun has gone too far for a long time."
Megumi put down her heavy bag and pulled over a chair to sit across from them.
"So, Senpai—why are you still writing the script for him?"
Eriri had been dying to ask that too. She jumped in immediately:
"Yeah, Utaha! You should've washed your hands of all this back when you stayed at my place!"
Faced with their concern, Utaha hesitated.
Last time she tried opening up, it didn't go well—but that was mainly because Tomoya forced things forward, like a "protagonist" always does.
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