Having finished in the 109 building, we entered Shibuya's center street.
As we came near to the Sakuraya, Naruko spoke, "I'm a regular at that shop over there. The things they sell are cheap and relatively fashionable, so it's a good shop to use when a high school boy wants to give his girlfriend a gift."
"You… you're hell bent on getting me to buy you something, aren't you… ?"
"Isn't that obvious? This time, the poor boyfriend doesn't have much money, but for all that he's incredibly perceptive and has good sense. So he says 'sorry I can't buy you something expensive' and brings the protagonist to his regular shop. Hee hee, don't you think that's pretty cool?" Naruko proudly talked about the boyfriend that she herself had made up.
"Well, sorry I can't buy you something expensive."
"Shut up!"
In the end, even though she complained all the way, she still made me buy her a 10,000 yen pair of earrings! When we exited the shop, it had already gotten dark. As expected from the middle of winter, the nights were incredibly cold.
The breath of the people we passed by solidified into white mist even above their face masks. We walked straight through the center street. Turning left at the appropriate corner, we exited onto the main street. Facing directly right, we walked for a while, until we could finally see the Don Quixote and the Tokyu.
Naruko pointed straight ahead. "The next scene happens there. This scene happens well into the second half of the book… but we're already here, so let's just doing it now."
"Alright. So, what do we do next?" And I'm in a lazy mood to further investigate.
"First, I'm going to face the Tokyu and start running, alright?"
"Alright."
"Next, because it's a red light, naturally there's going to be a car headed for me while I cross the street, right?"
"Alright… "
"So then, you run over and protect me and get hit in my place."
"Your boyfriends really have a tendency to get hit by cars!"
"You don't really have to get hit by a car. After you push me out of the way, it's also fine if you make a magnificent leap and dodge the car."
"Like hell I'm going to do those acrobatics!"
"By the way, after that he gets amnesia."
"Geez, these cliches are just piling up to the sky in this webnovel, aren't they!?"
Actually, if she piles on the cliches that thoroughly, her novel might actually seem original! As I recovered from my shortness of breath, brought on by retorting to her in rapid succession, Naruko shrugged her shoulders and sighed.
"Hah… you've been acting so selfishly for a while… do you actually want to help me or not?"
"I want to help you but I don't want to die! But hey, what kind of story is this in the first place? Is this type of scene really necessary? Let me see that notebook for a second."
"… Fine, I don't mind."
As if showing me the story she wrote as a bit embarrassing, Naruko faintly blushed. I took the notebook and gazed at the plot that was written across several pages.
"Hmm… what's this?"
Characters Protagonist. Name is Ruko. High school student, first year. Reasonably cute. Around half as cute as I am.
Around half as cute as I am!? What a self-aggrandizing memo… she used her own cuteness as a standard with which she made the characters…? And what's more…
"Ruko… don't tell me you use your own name to make the name of the main character."
"Is that wrong? To some extent, if I can empathize with the main character it's easier to write, so that's what I did?"
"It's not wrong, but few months ago you read Blake's doujinshi and said it was gross that she projected herself onto the main character, didn't you? So now look who's talking?"
"Well, I'm doing it this time, so it's fine."
No hesitation at all with that answer! Just look, this is what my sister is like!
The setup for this protagonist Ruko or whatever continued as follows: Very pure personality. Love is very important to her, and she is easily hurt. She has a super cute little sister.
Hm? She wasn't a bitch? And she had a very pure personality? Geez, I seriously don't get how she thinks at all… and she had a super cute little sister? That's just the author blatantly inserting her own hobbies into the work, wasn't it? The little sister's name is "Chino-chan." And what's more, the little sister's inspiration came from an eroge.
Boyfriend 1. His name is Fred. He suddenly dies after being hit by a dump truck. He's a rough type, but occasionally has a nice side. *This is his first time dating a girl, so he isn't sure what to do.—Isn't that cute?
Boyfriend 2. Name is Qrow. The young president of a start-up company. Actually already has a wife and daughter. His adultery is exposed to his wife and his company, and he throws the protagonist away. His social life falls into ruin. Maybe he kills himself ? He's very good at ecchi things. Suit moe type. He treats dating the protagonist like a game, but occasionally can get serious. Has the air of an adult male. Isn't it cool that the protagonist can manipulate a man like that? Occasionally can get serious.—I can't see that as anything short of an asshole.
I can't take this… what the hell is up with these males. And also, was it just me or were all the people she went out with dropping like flies? This went way beyond just being an unlucky sequence of events.
Boyfriend 3. Name is Haru. Last person Ruko gets involved with. Good-looking. Blonde hair. High school, first year. He always spends all his time on his band. He's the bassist in the band. He can also sing. Grades are average in his class. Incredibly kind and prone to worrying. He loves the protagonist, but does not want to admit it. He tries his very best at everything, and doesn't give up even in the face of great adversity.
I read the descriptions to the end, scowling the entire way. Following the character descriptions, the story was outlined in bullet point form. In the prologue the first boyfriend gets hit by the truck, and then she gets caught up with and thrown away by the asshole company president, and then she self-destructs and gets involved with compensated dating… well, it matched well with the data we had been collecting. And if you ask what happens after that, after she hit rock bottom, she meets with a new person. This Haru or whatever. That person is very kind, he scolds Ruko about her compensated dating habits and gets her to stop, and goes out of his way in various ways to help her out.
Of course, at that point Ruko had lost her faith in men, so at first she didn't trust Haru. Rather, initially she just shouts terrible things at him and tries to distance herself from him. But Haru persevered and continued to stick with her. Because her previous boyfriends had all died or fallen into ruin, rumors were circulating that Ruko was jinxed, but he didn't mind those rumors at all. He treats her with care and gives her advice, and marches into the places where the rumors have been circulating and gets seriously angry about it in her place.
… This is ridiculous. I'll be damned if such a convenient guy exists for a girl like that! Also, as I read this Haru character description for some reason I began to get incredibly annoyed. I wonder why…
Having her heart finally opened, Ruko begins to date Haru and stops her involvement with compensated dating, beginning on an honest path. Even so, one day, Haru gets hit by a truck and loses his memories. He gets that way by protecting Ruko, and even then, he falls in love with Ruko once again. Having lost his precious memories, Haru continues on with Ruko.
And then, one day, Ruko gets raped. Even so, Haru still loves Ruko, comforts her, and supports her. And then, one day, Haru gets leukemia. Because he is hospitalized, Ruko becomes very lonely and has an affair. Haru's close friend, Sousuke, seduces her. He has always liked Ruko, and because Haru has been reduced to this state, he thinks that she can make him happy instead.—This love triangle creates drama.
… What a cruel story. It was seriously a cruel story. This is getting difficult to read. What kind of cruel fate has been put on Haru's shoulders?
Hearing about his good friend's betrayal, Haru tries to back out of the relationship himself. But in the end Ruko loves Haru, and doesn't care that he's sick, and tells him she wants to be by his side.
"Hey, Naruko, have you decided on a title yet?"
"I haven't yet… but the words 'Little Sister' will definitely be in it."
"The little sister is only in the character descriptions and hasn't shown up even a bit in the story!"
"After this, she'll appear as a super important character!"
Geez, wouldn't a more appropriate title be "The Girl Who Invites Disaster" or something? She clearly invited death and misfortune, this Ruko-san. And every single damn character just acted so purely in the moment without any planning whatsoever.
Hah… at this rate, I really wonder what kind of bad ending awaits…
Ruko and Haru wept together. They decided to spend what little time they had left together. And in the end the boyfriend dies? No matter how I looked at it, this was pretty gloomy…
At the last second, the power of love cures Haru of all illness. Happy ending.
"You've got to be kidding me!" I almost did a spit take.
"Huh? You got a problem with the plot I worked out?"
"Agh… it's this last line! Even if I give you the benefit of the doubt and ignore the story so far, no matter what that last line is just impossible! You just thought it was too hard to write a proper ending so you gave up, didn't you!? At least think the plot through to the end!"
"I did think about it! You have no idea what you're talking about. Lately, readers really want happy endings!"
"Even so… ! I'm used to write few stories for my school and I know this is bad!"
"It'll definitely be alright! You just think like that because you're reading the outline! Once everything's written out it'll be fine! I mean, this type of ending happens in a lot of famous eroge! Having the poor heroine on the brink of death, but then reviving her in a flash of light is a staple pattern of emotional eroge! I was just applying that technique to webnovels! Do you understand?!"
"This not eroge!"
Dammit, where the hell is this confidence coming from!? Whatever, just do what you want! Now I understand perfectly what Blake meant when she told me she wanted to kill you!
While our argument was unfolding, we continued to walk, passing by the side of the Tokyu and headed in the direction of Maruyama-cho. We turned off the main street into an alley-way, and our surroundings gradually became more and more shady.
Basically, around there the walls began to become specked with obscene graffiti, and suspicious looking hotels also began to pop up… where exactly were we headed? At that moment, I heard a voice in front of me. "Would those with reference numbers up to B100 please proceed inside in order!" Now that I looked at it, there were quite a few long lines set up here.
Nice quiet residential district next to Shibuya. Lots of good small restaurants. I was reminded of Comiket for a moment, but there's no way something like that would be happening in Shibuya. Hmmm… it seemed that the line in front of me was for a live music concert of a band called "Melancholy Ninja". Wait, Melancholy Ninja? Isn't that Kakashi-san's band that Yang told me? Man, I didn't expect that pervert shop owner had a live performance here.
"… Alright, for the time being, I'll agree that… you thought out the plot to the very end." But… could I just ask one question? There's just one thing that's been really bothering me. "… Naruko… this guy… Haru? About him… "
"What?"
"Why does he go so far for this damn girl?" I couldn't think of any other reason than plain masochism.
"Well, that's… " Naruko seemed to want to respond instantly, but stopped right on the edge of making her answer for some reason. For a while, she sunk deep into thought and searched for the right words… and finally said… "… Because he loves her, right?"
Huh? What the hell is she saying!?