Eriri immediately began to agonize over it.
"It couldn't have been my parents. Could it really have been that guy Aki Tomoya? But why would he do something like this?" she muttered under her breath. "Could it still be because of what happened before... No, it couldn't be him. He's not that kind of person."
Seeing Eriri fall into confusion and inner turmoil, Kasumigaoka Utaha raised one finger. "There's something I can tell you. I've never met that person. We only communicated online."
"And I'm not the only one who knows your identity. I just happen to attend the same school as you, so I came to confirm it."
"Don't worry. I won't reveal your identity, and perhaps we'll have a chance to work together in the future."
Kasumigaoka Utaha pressed a hand to her chest and revealed her "secret" as a soon-to-debut light novel author to Eriri.
Having received Kasumigaoka Utaha's assurance and learned her "secret," Eriri still did not feel much better.
She gave a dissatisfied snort and turned her head away.
"Don't you know Eromanga Sensei too? And don't you like her work even more? Why not ask her to draw your illustrations?"
This time, Kasumigaoka Utaha genuinely shook her head in regret. "Unfortunately, my friend never told me Eromanga Sensei's identity. He only told me, 'I think Eriri's lewd illustrations are even lewder than Eromanga Sensei's.'"
"Oh, right. Do you know Eromanga Sensei? Since you aren't willing to work with me, you wouldn't mind giving me Eromanga Sensei's contact information, would you?"
At those words, Eriri, who had still been secretly pleased with herself, instantly exploded again.
"I don't know Eromanga Sensei! Go find her yourself!"
And that had been the last thing Eriri said to Kasumigaoka Utaha yesterday.
Then, even by the end of school today, Eriri still had not figured out who had exposed her identity online.
She had asked her parents. She had even, for once, taken the initiative to seek out Aki Tomoya and tell him about it.
In the end, Aki Tomoya was not the one who leaked it either.
So did that mean she had to go ask that awful woman again?
Eriri instinctively resisted the idea.
That woman seemed to have her beat in every possible sense.
She had originally planned to visit the art club, but now she did not even have the mood to fill out her membership application. She should hurry home and work on her manuscript instead.
As for that woman... she would wait until the other girl came looking for her.
With that in mind, Eriri walked over to her shoe locker.
When she opened it, she froze.
What was inside was not a love letter, but a manga?
Who stuffed a manga into my shoe locker? It's not going to be something weird, is it?
Thinking of the things she drew herself, Eriri instinctively glanced around.
No one was paying attention to her.
Only then did she turn her gaze toward the manga.
But she had barely made out its title and the figures on its cover, who looked strangely familiar, when she felt an aura of "killing intent" behind her.
She even seemed to hear the faint crackle of electricity.
Before she could react, a flawless pale hand suddenly appeared in front of her and firmly pressed down on the manga in her shoe locker.
Startled by the movement, she instinctively leaned back—only to fall into a broad embrace.
At that moment, Eriri raised her head and met Kasumigaoka Utaha's eyes behind her in an extremely strange position.
That Day, Eriri Had a New Idea
Time seemed to stop at that moment.
Feeling the warmth against the back of her head, Eriri felt her mind go blank as well.
It was not until a chorus of whistles rose around them that she regained her senses.
She hurriedly pulled herself out of the other girl's embrace, then turned to face her directly.
But the other girl's hand was still pressed against the manga in her shoe locker. From an outsider's perspective, it looked more like Kasumigaoka Utaha had pinned her against the lockers.
"What are you trying to do?" Enduring the gawking looks from the onlookers, Eriri felt like she was going insane.
Kasumigaoka Utaha noticed the surrounding stares as well, but her prestige at Toyonosaki Academy was no joke.
After she calmly swept her gaze across the crowd, everyone who had been hoping for a show scattered at once.
Then she quickly pulled out the manga and gave its cover a rapid once-over.
It was an IF-route manga with her as the protagonist. It would have been stranger if the cover did not feature her.
After quickly stuffing the manga into her bag, Kasumigaoka Utaha looked at Eriri again.
"Let's have a proper talk, Eriri-sensei."
After struggling for about ten seconds, Eriri finally responded. "...Whether you want to call me Sawamura or Eriri is fine, but please don't call me Eriri-sensei at school."
A few minutes later, they were in a café not far from the school.
While waiting for their drinks and pastries, Eriri anxiously watched Kasumigaoka Utaha, who sat across from her with a slightly ferocious expression on her face.
Kasumigaoka Utaha was replying to those people in the group chat who were tagging her and egging things on.
Quite a few people were even planning to come to Toyonosaki Academy right away to search for traces of You Know Who.
Kasumigaoka Utaha took a deep breath before putting down her phone and speaking to Eriri across the table. "I know you have a lot of questions right now, but I can explain everything."
She organized her thoughts and decided to explain what that bastard You Know Who had done in a way that Eriri could more easily accept.
With the Diary's warning function, she did not have to worry about him posing any danger to her.
"Didn't I tell you yesterday? I learned about you from a 'friend' I met online. He was also the one who put this manga in your shoe locker."
Kasumigaoka Utaha practically gritted her teeth on the word "friend."
Remembering yesterday's events, Eriri's expression stiffened as well. Then she went straight to the point. "What's inside that manga? If I didn't see wrong, that was you on the cover, wasn't it?"
"Your friend stuffed a manga about you into my shoe locker. What is he trying to do?"
Kasumigaoka Utaha clasped her hands together and rested her elbows on the table. "I only found out about this this afternoon. I don't know what's drawn in the manga either."
Seeming to notice the concern on Eriri's face, Kasumigaoka Utaha decided to drop a bombshell.
"I happened to meet a group of people online before, and one of them was a... very mysterious hacker with an extraordinarily terrible personality."
"He casually mentioned your information during a chat. I came to find you yesterday because I wanted to verify whether what he said was true."
To ordinary people, hackers were practically legendary figures—figures who had only grown more exaggerated and mythologized with the advancement of modern technology.
Sure enough, upon hearing the word hacker, Eriri immediately imagined a super hacker who could do whatever he wanted in the online world.
Kasumigaoka Utaha continued, "Ahem. I may have been just a tiny little bit sarcastic toward him before, so that awful guy pulled this stunt on me."
"He probably found out that we attend the same school, so he might have wanted you to use this manga to... come cause trouble for me."
At this point, Eriri found it a little hard to understand.
Were super hackers... all this bored?
Someone made a few sarcastic remarks online, and he came up with this many ridiculous tricks?
And a single manga was enough to make her go cause trouble for someone else?
Really? She did not believe it.
Eriri did not think she was that kind of person.
But Kasumigaoka Utaha's answer was yes.
"I'll confirm what's in the manga first. If there's no problem, I can let you read some of it too. But when the time comes, don't take what's in it seriously."
Eriri haughtily flicked her ponytail, indicating that she had been reading manga since childhood and now even drew doujinshi herself.
After all these years, what kind of spectacle had she not seen?
Then, upon seeing only the contents of the manga's second page, Eriri completely lost it and slammed her right hand heavily onto the table.
What did "This was how I met my goddess" even mean?
No, why was that guy Aki Tomoya in this manga?
Just how much did that hacker know about the people around her, and how badly did he want her to go cause trouble for Kasumigaoka Utaha, to make up such an outrageously absurd manga?
What came next? Was it going to be the two of them living out a sweet, lovey-dovey romance?
Then what about her?
Where was she?
Eriri wanted to keep reading, trying to find traces of herself in the manga.
But Kasumigaoka Utaha immediately took the manga back.
"You reacted like this after only two pages. I'm worried that if you keep reading, you'll suffer a cerebral hemorrhage and collapse in this café. Another time," Kasumigaoka Utaha said calmly as she put the manga away.
This thing had dealt no small blow to her own state of mind, let alone a losing heroine like Eriri.
If she let Eriri keep reading, it might really trigger the warning.
Fortunately, she had emphasized earlier that all of this was You Know Who's "scheme," but judging from Eriri's expression, the girl was still clearly getting worked up.
In the end, there was only one thing left to say.
You really deserve to die, You Know Who!
After putting away the manga, Kasumigaoka Utaha patiently waited for Eriri to calm down.
"I was careless," Eriri admitted quietly a few minutes later, her face still bright red.
She admitted it. That mysterious hacker really was an extraordinarily awful person, to actually think of using such a method to drive a wedge between them.
Thankfully, Kasumigaoka Utaha had reacted quickly enough to avoid the worst outcome...
Though, on second thought, the current situation seemed pretty awful too.
Just over ten minutes ago, plenty of people had seen Kasumigaoka Utaha pin her against the lockers. By tomorrow, rumors would probably be flying all over the school.
How was she supposed to explain that to her parents?
Oh. Her mother was a fujoshi, and her father was a yuri-loving otaku. Neither of them would probably care about something like this.
As for that guy Aki Tomoya...
Thinking of Aki Tomoya's reaction when he saw Kasumigaoka Utaha in the manga, Eriri puffed out her cheeks and carefully examined Kasumigaoka Utaha's appearance.
She really was beautiful—more voluptuous than Eriri, more mature than Eriri.
If Aki Tomoya saw Kasumigaoka Utaha, something like what happened in the manga might actually occur.
Eriri thought about it for a moment and suddenly felt that things were not so bad as they were.
If rumors like this spread around school, that guy probably would not develop any strange ideas about a woman like Kasumigaoka Utaha, right?
An Unremarkable You Know Who
Kasumigaoka Utaha truly could not comprehend Eriri's bizarre train of thought.
Kasumigaoka Utaha's current plan was very simple.
Didn't You Know Who love stirring up trouble? Then she would recruit Eriri as an outer member of the Diary Enthusiasts Club and have her serve as an assistant.
Surely Eriri now hated You Know Who just as much as she did.
And after drawing Eriri's identity out of her yesterday, Kasumigaoka Utaha had spent the entire night investigating Kashiwagi Eri's works.
Before you continue