It was a few days later. We were in a Media Ascii Works conference room. On the fifth-floor of the building… in other words, right above where the Second Editorial Department was.
We were sitting on a sofa that surrounded the long table in the room. There were decorative plants placed in the corners of the room that gave the room just a bit of color. It was a simple, plain reception area. According to Ibiki-san, it was a room intended for large meetings or magazine interviews. Along the fifth floor hallway, conference rooms like this were lined up one after the other like karaoke rooms.
We were in just one of those conference rooms. Only Blake and I were here, sitting side by side on the sofa and waiting for the appointed time. Perhaps it was the fault of the soundproof walls, but the interior of the room was dead silent. It almost made my ears hurt.
"You know, you really didn't have to come."
"… Nii-san. That's the third time you've said that."
Blake faced front, and spoke without even sending a glance in my direction… also, even though nobody else was here, she continued to faithfully call me "Nii-san." Each time she said that I felt a bit embarrassed..
"The ship has already set sail. Or do you intend to leave me out at the end after having me accompany you up until now?"
"That's not what I'm trying to do…"
"Also, I detest people who can cause me to go through such unpleasant things. So I want to be here and relish in the moment when they fire this person… you won't mind if I kick them a bit too, right?"
"I do mind. Stop it."
Her words were filled with pronounced weariness and hateful resentment. As I suspected, having been subjected to such harsh criticism for over four hours was still grating on her nerves.
That previous meeting was just a bit… even I, who was just listening as an innocent bystander, couldn't get his voice out of my head, and even had a dream about it that night. Did all editors treat everyone so harshly during business meetings?
This segment here just won't do; you should fix this part here; also, this part is not good either… it was just so annoying! Idiot! Was there anything you didn't think was bad!? Dammit! If you're going to be like that, why don't you just write the damn thing!? I really wanted to just throw the manuscript at his face. But I didn't.
Well, it's not like it's possible to make something that would please everyone. That was true no matter what you were, whether you were a policeman, a Japanese sweets maker, or a novelist.
… Well, so let me explain what's going on right now. Rino-chan was precisely the person we had been searching for, Morino Ibiki. Call it fortunate if you want, but once Blake had finished badmouthing him, I decided to just explain the situation to him directly. About the other reason we had come to the editorial department.
When I showed him the business card we had brought with us, that of Morino Ibiki, Rino-chan aka the real Morino Ibiki confirmed that it was indeed his card. It seemed that he had a different set of business cards for the Dengeki Books Editorial Department and the Mobile Division. It also seemed that the Mobile Division was created for the sake of public image, and that the staff belonging to it was essentially the same as the staff at the Dengeki Books Editorial Department. They operated out of the same place, and the same editors worked there.
Ibiki-san had told us…" This is quite a complex matter I suppose, but if I had to explain it, I would say that it's a strategy to maintain our public image. The target audience for webnovels is young women, so we have to try to hide the moe moe sides of the business. So, the mobile division might have the same staff as Dengeki Books, but we say to the public that it's a separate department. The public homepages of the two departments also don't mention each other. That's why we use different business cards for each side of the business… I apologize if that confused you."
That's how he explained it. I had been agonizing over how to find a way to Morino Ibiki in the Mobile Division from the meeting with the Dengeki Books editor we had snagged with the help of Rias' connections, but… it turned out that the person we met was Morino Ibiki himself. What's more, the Morino Ibiki we met was a scary-looking old man, and bore not the slightest resemblance to the elite-looking young man Morino Ibiki that Naruko had met. So the person Naruko had met really might have been an imposter. That realization really raised goosebumps on our flesh.
"By the way, where did you get that card?"
"Umm, before that, there's something I wanted to ask you…"
I quickly turned the conversation to the topic of My Wing, what we had originally come to talk about. But I didn't immediately broach the topic of plagiarism, instead just asking a few questions about "Ruko", the alleged author of My Wing.
"Ahh, Ruko-sensei? To be honest, the one I was talking about before, the one that worked hard for ten years to finally debut with us, that's Ruko-sensei. After she switched recently to writing webnovels, her writing got much more interesting… It's like she was a completely different person. I honestly was quite moved that someone like that had the talent to write something like this. You could say I was shocked. Maybe it was my own incompetence for not realizing she had this much talent even though I was in charge of her for so long… seriously… I was surprised… and regretful… dear me, this is just an editor's intuition, but I have a feeling that the novel is going to become quite popular."
Ibiki-san spoke passionately and confidently. He was probably excited that someone he was managing for so long was finally beginning a brilliant debut. Well, it was pretty clear by now I think. This "Ruko" was undoubtedly the mastermind behind this plagiarism scheme.
The conference room door opened, and Ibiki-san appeared. A beautiful woman entered the room after him. Once that other person realized we were sitting on the couch, she blinked.
"Hm? Hey, Ibiki-san, I thought today we were having a business meeting to discuss the second volume of My Wing? Ah, maybe we have the wrong room?"
She was wearing a pair of red pants suits, has bright amber eyes, and ashen-black hair that covers her left eye.
"No, this is the right room. Let me introduce Haruto-kun and Blake-kun. They have something important to tell you, Cinderella."
… C-Cinderella!?
"Ibiki-san! I told you to stop calling me Cinderella! I'm writing under the pen name 'Ruko' now, so like I told you before, call me that from now on."
… It seemed that this was "Ruko". And she seemed to have no problems asking other people to call her that… and right in front of me, no less… the image of my sister sick in bed popped up in my head and I felt my insides coming to a boil. Although, it probably wasn't a good idea to openly get angry at this stage of the game. Pushing down my anger, I stood up and greeted her. "Nice to meet you."
"… Nice to meet you." Next to me, Blake followed my lead. This girl called Cinderella (I really didn't want to call her Ruko) looked baffled as she returned our greetings.
"Ahh, hello… nice to meet you. I'm Ruko… hmm? Ibiki-san?"
"Well well, let's just sit down for a bit, and you should listen to what these two have to say."
"… I don't mind, I guess. Ah, I see, they want to find out more about me, right? I just got out of an interview though… so, what? Are these fans that have read the web version of the book?"
That's how she seemed to be interpreting the situation. Suddenly cheering up, she sat across from us. By the way, through all this, Ibiki-san remained standing by the entrance, emitting dark waves of menace.
"Well, nice to meet you two, then. Are you two siblings? Your little sister is quite cute."
"… Ahh, well, yes, we are."
Would I be able to break her composure in the allotted time I had agreed upon with Ibiki-san? For now, we had come with a plan, but it wasn't a plan that I was absolutely certain would succeed. Whether or not we would be able to get Naruko's novel back depended on how we fought this battle.
"… Can I just ask you one thing?" Blake suddenly ask
"Of course! What is it?" She responded in a cheerful voice. She seemed to have entered into her fan-pandering mode. Blake opened her mouth. I wondered what angle she would attack from, but…
"What kind of name is Cinderella?"
Really? From that angle? Although, it was something I was curious about too.
Schhhlp! The girl's face tightened up incredibly quickly. Panicked, she quickly tried to recover, but the smile she showed us was incredibly stiff. It seemed like a question that was hard for her to answer. Well, serve you right.
"I-it's an old penname that I made up during my junior high school days. My real name is 'Cinder Fall' so please call me that."
"… I think it's a really cool name…" Blake's eyes sparkled, her cheeks flushed, and her breathing became ragged. That name seemed to really tug at her heartstrings. "… Can I call you Cinderella?"
"No! D-didn't you listen to a word I said!?"
Enough with the chit-chat it was time to get down to business. I spoke to Cinder Fall. "Hey, you're not the real author of My Wing, isn't?"
"Huh? What are you saying so suddenly?" Bewildered, Cinder cocked her head to the side. That should have taken her completely by surprise, but she didn't seem very shaken. She was playing dumb quite perfectly.
"Don't play dumb, you bitch!"
"W-what did you say!?"
"Well, I was talking about how you stole My Wing, you know!?"
"I-Ibiki-san! What is the meaning of this rude punk! He's accusing me of theft!"
Cinder stood up violently as she pointed to me. Her shout was harsh and serious, but Ibiki-san stood stock still like a member of the Secret Service and responded in his usual calm tone.
"… According to those two, the true author of My Wing was their sister, and you conned the manuscript from her and passed it off as your own work. They also claimed that you used my business card to pose as an editor."
Ibiki-san took out the business card that had Cinder's cell phone number and mailing address on it, and placed it on the desk. Cinder gave a single glance at the business card, and once again returned her gaze to Ibiki-san.
"Don't tell me you actually believe what they're saying? We get claims like this all the time."
"… Leaving aside what I think about the matter, this is a genuine business card belonging to me. And the contact information printed on it is the same as yours. Of course, these things could mean anything. They could mean anything, but… there are elements in this case that put it on a different level than the usual claims we deal with. So, I called you over here so we can deal with this."
"I can't believe this! Ibiki-san, are you saying you doubt me!?" Cinder yelled desperately. If Ibiki-san really completely believed in her innocence, he probably would have told her beforehand that we were here waiting for her. She probably realized that. The editor she had worked so hard with for years and years had possibly come to doubt her. Her bitter yell was probably not an act. Even though she was my enemy, I couldn't help but sympathize with her a bit.
"No, we were the ones who made Ibiki-san set up this meeting. We asked him to let us talk to you in private for the first thirty minutes at least. And we asked him to keep the purpose of this meeting a secret from Cinderella-san and to just call you over."
"Don't call me Cinderella!"
She really hate that name, didn't she? She honestly looked and sounded pretty scary, but I wasn't frightened off by it.
"… I just want to clear things up. Speaking personally, I am hoping that their claims of theft are just wild delusions. If that's the case, there's no issue. Your innocence would be proven, and not only would these two be strictly reprimanded, but they would be banned from this editorial department. Don't I say this often? That I am always your ally, since I'm your editor and mentor."
Those were probably his true feelings. He listened to our story, let us show him the proof we had, and setup the meeting we were in now… but he was definitely not on our side. Considering he had just met us a few days ago, when compared to the novelist he had been working with for a long time, we were much less trustworthy to him. That much went without saying.
"… I understand, if Ibiki-san puts it that way… I guess I have no choice. I'll play along with this punk."
Upon hearing her editor's words, Cinder seemed to have regained her composure.
"I'll listen to what you have to say. Umm… what was it? That I had stolen this novel? I want to get this over with quickly, so let's start from the heart of the issue. You have proof, right?"
I knew this was coming eventually, but I guess we're starting from there. This person hijacked Naruko's account on the submission website, and upon securing the manuscript data that was on there, she posted the entirety of My Wing online. Because of that, the evidence that Naruko was the real author of My Wing had been wiped clear. It was quite a cunning method.
"Let me just say that I definitely did no such thing, and that My Wing was written by me, and is my work. You appear to say differently, in which case you should take responsibility for making a false accusation. By the way, who exactly are you? You've been mouthing off to me, but do you really think you can get away with having that attitude?"
"What a bitch. Why do I need to be respectful to a thief? You're pretty cocky for a crap wannabe who wasn't able to take off for ten years. Stealing work that other people write and pretending to be a decent writer with that? How tragic. Honestly, is your life worth anything at all?"
"Don't screw with me and answer me punk! Do you have proof!? Or don't you!? Which one is it!?"
"You're showing your true colors, aren't you, you bitch? I was wondering what kind of garbage you were going to spit out with that filthy mouth of yours, but of all things, it was just 'Do you have proof?' It's almost as if you've half-admitted your own guilt. Take a look for yourself, here. This is the proof that my sister was the author of My Wing."
I passed the cell phone and notebook over to Cinder. In that notebook was written the plot and the data notes that my sister had gathered for writing My Wing.
On Christmas Eve, I had gone with her to Shibuya… we had walked around the 109 building, went shopping at an accessory shop, watched a live musical performance, she suddenly poured water over herself and sat shivering, and for her to be able to take a shower I reluctantly went with her to a love hotel, and she even took the opportunity to take notes in there… those experiences were bound together in that notebook. That was the proof that Naruko was the author of My Wing.
By the way, we had already shown these two pieces of evidence to Ibiki-san. So if Cinder tried to break the cell phone or rip up the notebook, it would be counted as a self-admission of guilt. Even she probably understood that much. Eventually, she flipped through the notebook and frowned. I thought she was becoming desperate upon having evidence shoved in her face… but she pointed to a corner of the notebook.
"What's up with this weird drawing here? Some mean-looking version of the Yaranaio?"
"That's not what I wanted you to look at! Look at what's written, what's written in the middle! Those sketches… they're probably drawings of me."
I mean, during Naruko's data gathering, I got angry, confused, upset, close to tears… and those were probably drawings of me during those times. And there were even little captions to accompany them. Honestly, I couldn't deny that they were strange, terrible drawings. And then, written next to the drawings…
—A drawing of Haruto when he apologized to the shopkeeper after not having enough money to pay for an accessory (ˆ0ˆ).
"Sorry I don't have enough money," he said! Haha! So funny! (lol) I made him buy me earrings. I let him choose one himself, but he has no sense at all and spent such a long time! (ˆˆ;)
Haruto got really pissed when I got all wet (lol) How much of a siscon is he!?(lol) He got all excited seeing his little sister in a bathrobe. Nuuuuu, Naruko's chastity is in danger?!
Dammit! Kill me now! I don't want to remember any of that, just kill me now! Also, that curly handwriting just pissed me off! Every single little word got on my nerves. Also, what the hell!? Why does the guy presenting the evidence here have to be subject to such torture!? I wanted her to just look at the plot and the data written there, not to stare at the little drawings Naruko made of me!
"Both the things I just handed to you are the things my sister collected for the sake of writing My Wing. That cell phone also has the photos she took on Christmas Eve.
Cinder fell into silence, and looked over the things Naruko had prepared in order to write My Wing.
"Hmph. Did you think that this was sufficient proof?"
"Pretty much."
"I looked over all of this, but… yes, it certainly is quite well done. It does certainly feel like the childish notes a high school girl would make. Ahh, yes, yes, I see. I can see that you believed that your sister wrote My Wing after she showed you these. Ahaha, you really are quite big siscon, aren't you?" Cinder chuckled, and tossed Naruko's cell phone and notebook back this way.
"So, who cares?"
"Yes. That's just some delusional data your sister made up after reading My Wing." Cinder spoke shamelessly. I could feel blood suddenly rushing to my head…
"You fu—" I felt a sharp elbow in my side and stopped moving. Blake had inferred what I was about to do and had nipped it in the bud. She probably had learned to read my actions ever since I had yelled at Ibiki-san back then. I was out of commission, and in my place, Blake began to speak in a calm voice. "How do you explain the timestamp on the photos? They were all taken at Shibuya on Christmas Eve."
"So? I'm not too familiar with cell phones, but it's not difficult to forge digital data, right? Or rather, maybe it was just a coincidence."
"Coincidence…?"
"Yes. Ah, this is probably close to what happened, right? That is, your sister happened to take a lot of photos at Shibuya on Christmas Eve and stored them on her phone. And then she realized that the setting of My Wing was the same as the photos she herself took, and then she started to say that she was the author of My Wing! And then, of course, it was your cute sister telling you these things, so in your stupidity you completely were taken in, and without even considering what a bother you would be, you took the issue all the way to the Shinjuku publishing company. Ahaha, what an idiot simpleton, ahh, how embarrassing."
Right then, Cinder mocked Blake with as much condescension as she could muster.
"Geez, this is why brats like you two are so much trouble. You're causing trouble for us adults, so keep your childish delusions to the confines of your own room, please."
All the light vanished from Blake's eyes.
"Nomobuyowoshihashitawadokeda…"
"Stop your chanting! I have no idea what's going on, but be quiet! Return to your senses!"
Blake had suddenly stood up and began chanting some nonsensical spell or something, and I held her back from behind and stopped her. You aren't calm at all, are you!? I was so surprised I even forgot about my anger! Also, you're really damn strong, aren't you!? Was this the so—called placebo effect?!
"Let me go, Nii-san, you won't be able to kill her."
"Don't say such disturbing things!" As I restrained Blake with all my might, I yelled at Cinder. "Also, you cut it out! My sister really isn't that cute! If she really ran her mouth with delusional claims like that, I would have smacked her and shut her up myself already!"
"The ones who are being unreasonable are you two…! Enough is enough! You two are just pathetic." For some reason, Cinder watched Blake with a pained expression, and sent us a scornful look. "In any case… if you've said all you wanted to say, we're going to end here. The thirty minute mark is coming up soon, so I won't be playing along past this. Is that alright, Ibiki-san?"
"… Yes, it is." Ibiki-san nodded expressionlessly. As I said before, we had already shown Naruko's cell phone and notebook to Ibiki-san. He told us the exact same thing—that these things alone were insufficient. Ibiki-san was fundamentally on her side. And it's not like we could choose a more impartial judge. But…
"We still have proof. Something decisive." Dramatically, I took out my final trump card. It was a bundle of A4 sized paper.
"Haruto-kun, that is…?"
"It's the sequel to My Wing. My sister wrote it."
Geez… I was really surprised when I found out this thing existed. We were working hard to deal with this plagiarism issue, but we had kept that a secret from Naruko. So, we had a really hard time gathering every piece of evidence.
A little while ago, just like a certain someone had done, I snuck into my sister's room. I waited until she had gone downstairs to eat, and stealthily searched through her room. At any other time, she would have been stuck in bed, and the door would have been locked… I mean, if I had been found out, that would have been the end of me, so even though I could say it was for a just cause for the sake of my sister, I felt incredibly self-conscious and guilty during that.
While I was in there, I couldn't help myself from thinking "What the hell am I doing…?" But, you can't say I didn't get results. When I borrowed my sister's notebook and was checking through it, I found scribbles relating to a sequel for My Wing, and when I searched more deeply I found another notebook. And, in that notebook I found two passwords listed, one for "work use" and one for "personal use." They both seemed to be passwords for the MyNovel i-Club. But on the "work use page", entering the password returned an "Incorrect Password" error and I couldn't login with it.
In other words, the "work use" page was the site that Cinder had hijacked, and the site where the manuscript of My Wing had been kept. And then, on the "personal use" page, there was the thing that Blake had called a rape novel, and a webnovel titled My Wing Another Side: Little Sister's Perspective. When I read the latter, it seemed to be the story of My Wing told from the perspective of the protagonist's little sister, Chino. You could call it a sequel in a sense. When Naruko had said that the little sister was an incredibly important character, she wasn't lying.
To summarize, it was like this: Naruko had registered separate pages for "work use" and "personal use", and the "work use" site, where the My Wing manuscript had been stored, was stolen by Cinder. However, the "personal use" page remained, and therein lay what could be called a sequel to My Wing, or rather a different version of My Wing.
I mean, I was admittedly pretty confused as to why that thing was there. Naruko had only been directed by the fake Ibiki-san to write just the one webnovel with Ruko as the protagonist. So, what was the point in writing a continuation novel that wasn't even going to be published? That's what I thought… but… it was not that cut and dry. She probably just wrote this novel because she wanted to write it. In any case…
"Earlier, you said it, right? That she thought this was a meeting to discuss a sequel for My Wing… right? And, the sequel that you wrote for My Wing already exists, and Ibiki-san has already read it, has he not?"
"Yes, that is correct." Ibiki-san answered straightforwardly. Cinder turned pale and bared her teeth.
"S-so what?"
"So… I'm saying that we should read both of these and compare them. Comparing both with the original, it should be easy to make clear which one is the real thing and which one is the fake. Am I wrong?"
"Are you saying that whichever one is better is the real one!? That's just a subjective opinion! You can't possibly think that you can tell between real and fake with just that!"
This was definitely a gamble. For one, she might not take the bait, and even if she did, if her sequel novel turned out to be better than Naruko's, then this all would have been for naught. The book Naruko wrote… take the absolutely unlikeable characters, or the simple premise and story filled with overly-convenient events, or the overly-idealistic, delusional dialogue between Ruko and Haru…
Those were things that came from Naruko, and were hers and hers alone. She put her all into thinking about her novel, even took her despised brother out to collect data, and I'm sure her novel was profoundly influenced by her real life experiences up to this point. She had taken a break off from her modeling and club activities and just kept on writing and writing and writing… and like that this novel had come to fruition. And for that reason, her novel had been very well-received by this age's girls, and had become quite popular.
"I guess you're afraid to lose? You'll become a true defeatist like this, you know?"
I brazenly challenged her. I borrowed my words after what Ruby had said to me back then.
"W-what did you say!?"
"A born loser, who's been training to be a novelist for over ten years and finally, happily made her professional debut, has no confidence in winning against a delusional high school girl."
"Fine then! Let's do it, There's no way I will lose to a stupid high school girl!"