She had also come from out of town and lived in an apartment nearby.
When they reached an intersection, Shimazaki Yuna waved reluctantly and watched Kira Yoshikage leave.
Only after Kira Yoshikage disappeared from sight did she press her lips together and turn back to her residence.
As soon as she closed the door, Shimazaki Yuna hurriedly changed into her indoor shoes and sat down in front of the computer. She wanted to finish the IS illustrations as soon as possible.
Before she knew it, the bright sky outside had darkened.
"I finally finished."
Shimazaki Yuna looked at Hokaze Kokoro in her white school uniform on the computer screen and let out a sigh of relief.
Under normal circumstances, it took her ten hours to complete a painting.
But perhaps because Kira Yoshikage's descriptions of the characters in the book were detailed enough, or perhaps because she had poured enough care into it, she had completed the first illustration in only five hours this time.
Of course, this was also because the illustration did not require a background. It was merely a character design, so it was much simpler.
The moment she finished the illustration, the girl eagerly wanted to send it to Kira Yoshikage.
"I finished the illustration so quickly. Kira-kun must be surprised, right?"
Shimazaki Yuna looked forward to Kira Yoshikage's praise, but when she took out her phone and opened LINE, she discovered several unread messages from him.
Shimazaki Yuna nervously opened LINE to check them, only to find several documents from Kira Yoshikage, each labeled with a title.
Confused, Shimazaki Yuna sent him a message:
"Kira-kun, what are these?"
"Light novels. You'll submit them."
Kira Yoshikage replied almost instantly, leaving Shimazaki Yuna somewhat astonished.
"All of them?"
But she soon understood what Kira Yoshikage was doing—
He wanted her to submit them and sweep up both the Grand Prize and the Gold Prize in the Dengeki Novel Award!
Shimazaki Yuna's small mouth fell slightly open. For a moment, she did not know what to say.
What was this supposed to mean?
If I take the top three places, can I safely secure fourth or fifth place?
Was this confidence? Or confidence? Or confidence?
Still shocked, Shimazaki Yuna received the documents. Each one was slightly over one hundred thousand words, just enough to meet the submission requirements for a light novel.
"Three works, three hundred thousand words, five hours..."
One work in a little over an hour. That was absolutely beyond what a normal person could accomplish.
But she had already witnessed Kira Yoshikage's speed the previous night. Having been shocked once already, she was not quite as astonished this time.
What concerned her more were the light novels themselves. Why was Kira-kun so confident that these three works could surpass IS?
With that thought in mind, the girl opened the documents expectantly.
Accel World
Pen Name: Vehicle Killer
Kino's Journey
Pen Name: The Last Gentleman of the Joestar Family
Re:Zero - Starting Life in Another World
Pen Name: Fifteen Years Old, Wants to Become a Yangge Star
"Hmm~"
Shimazaki Yuna roughly read the beginnings of the three light novels, her emotions somewhat complicated.
The quality of the novels was as high as ever. They might indeed be even better than IS.
The only problem was that the pen names were simply too strange.
After hesitating for a moment, Shimazaki Yuna sent Kira Yoshikage a message:
"Kira-kun, is there any special meaning behind these pen names?"
"No."
At 117 Morioh Street, Ota Ward, inside Apartment 502, Kira Yoshikage gave a brief reply.
But in truth, there was.
When choosing the light novels he would "write," he had spent two hours "selecting" them.
His only criterion was that they could not interfere with his peaceful life!
That was why he had first abandoned Sword Art Online and The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and instead chosen Accel World.
The first two works took place in the modern world. Perhaps the characters in them really existed in this world as well. If those people saw the two works, they might regard them as some kind of "prophecy."
And if that really happened, his peaceful life would inevitably be disrupted.
Thus, Accel World, which took place in the future and had genuinely won the Grand Prize, was undoubtedly the best choice.
The other two works had been chosen for the same reason.
For example, Kino's Journey was a story that took place entirely in a fictional other world, so it posed no risk of disrupting his peaceful life.
As for Re:Zero - Starting Life in Another World, its story involved a modern person traveling to another world. To avoid the risk of someone with the same name appearing, Kira Yoshikage had replaced the ignorant, incompetent, reckless, and impulsive original protagonist, Subaru Natsuki, with Giorno Giovanna, who dreamed of becoming a yangge star.
This would cause some differences in the details of the story, but the general plot would remain unchanged.
Of course, the strange pen names came from the same consideration. Kira Yoshikage had originally wanted to use the names of the Joestar family as his pen names.
But that also carried the risk of attracting the Joestar family to his door.
Although Kira Yoshikage had already confirmed that the SPW Foundation did not exist in this world—
For ordinary people, the organization they were most likely to encounter in their daily lives was not the Joestar family, vampires, or Stand users, but the colossal SPW Foundation that influenced every aspect of their lives!
Since the SPW Foundation did not exist, the possibility that the Joestar family existed was also very low.
But if the Joestar family truly did exist, they would most likely come knocking after seeing a pen name identical to one of their own names.
Kira Yoshikage had also anticipated that possibility.
Thus, he abandoned his original idea and became more "subtle" in choosing his pen names.
The only name that could create a direct connection was Giorno Giovanna, the protagonist used to replace Subaru Natsuki in Re:Zero—
But that had been intentional on Kira Yoshikage's part.
First, someone would come knocking only if Giorno Giovanna truly existed.
Second, if Giorno Giovanna were a real person and really did come looking for him,
Kira Yoshikage could use the opportunity to confirm several things—
For example, whether DIO was alive or dead, and how far the timeline had progressed.
After all, the name Giorno Giovanna was one he had taken only after his mother remarried, and DIO had already been dead for several years by then.
The timeline connected to Giorno Giovanna was that of Golden Wind, the fifth part.
That meant Kira Yoshikage would not need to worry about DIO's threat. He would only have to find a way to kill The Priest—
He could ignore the others, but DIO and The Priest had to die!
Their goals would almost certainly disrupt Kira Yoshikage's peaceful life!
Of course, all of this depended on Giorno Giovanna being a real person.
And taking one step back, even if Giorno really did exist, being far away in Italy, he was unlikely to read light novels from Japan. Even if he did, he would merely mistake it for a coincidence.
Compared with the potential benefits, this small risk was worth taking.
Naturally, there was no need to tell Shimazaki Yuna about these private considerations.
Ding~!
The ringtone of Kira Yoshikage's phone sounded, pulling his thoughts back to reality.
He lowered his head and glanced at the screen. It was a message from Shimazaki Yuna on LINE:
"Kira-kun, this is the illustration I just finished. Is there anything that needs changing?"
Kira Yoshikage looked at the haughty girl on the screen, dressed in the white uniform of IS Academy, her black hair tied into a ponytail. His eyes were filled with amazement. As expected, Shimazaki Yuna, with her slender, artfully beautiful hands, had not disappointed him.
As a painter, Shimazaki Yuna was beyond reproach in both speed and quality.
"It's very well drawn."
Kira Yoshikage thought for two seconds before replying:
"But you can add a few more details. Hokaze Kokoro's ponytail is loose, so you can change it to a style parted in the middle..."
Shimazaki Yuna carefully mulled over Kira Yoshikage's suggestions one by one until she saw his final message:
"Of course, none of that is important."
"What matters most is that you focused too much on the slime and legs, so Hokaze Kokoro's hands aren't drawn perfectly!"
"Huh?"
Shimazaki Yuna blinked.
Why the hands?
Didn't boys usually focus on the slime and legs?
She had worked so hard to perfect the slime and legs. Had she actually been putting her effort in the wrong direction?
"Hmm~"
Shimazaki Yuna hesitated, then lowered her head and looked at her own palm.
Her hands should count as pretty, right?
Yes, they probably did.
Otherwise, yesterday wouldn't have...
Shimazaki Yuna sniffed her hand, and her pretty face flushed crimson once again.
Chapter 13: I Won't Go Unless You Give Me...
Shimazaki Yuna had actually already possessed an account on the Dengeki Bunko website.
That was because, besides the Dengeki Novel Award, Dengeki Bunko also held the Dengeki Illustration Awards.
However, the rules for the Illustration Awards differed somewhat from those for the Novel Award. Light novels submitted to the Novel Award had to be original works, while illustrations submitted to the Illustration Awards could be original or based on light novels already published by Dengeki Bunko.
Even before this, Shimazaki Yuna had already submitted an entry to Dengeki Bunko.
Shimazaki Yuna sent Kira Yoshikage screenshots showing that she had submitted all three works, along with a message:
"Kira-kun, is this okay?"
"Okay."
Kira Yoshikage replied without looking closely.
He had originally intended to remind her to hurry and revise Hokaze Kokoro's hands.
But at that moment, LINE received a message from someone else.
"Kitagawa Marin?"
Kira Yoshikage glanced at the name and opened the chat window with some confusion. He saw the message the other party had sent:
"Kira-kun, are you really not coming to the gathering? It hasn't ended yet."
Before you continue