It had to be said that Eriri, who had already accumulated several years of experience creating R18 doujinshi despite only just entering high school, was genuinely skilled.
After reading several of her works, Kasumigaoka Utaha truly began considering asking her to illustrate her own work.
Of course, Love Metronome had already been released, so that was not possible for the time being.
But all those people she had met through the diary and chat group these past few days were simply perfect material for a light novel writer like her.
Shinomiya Kaguya was a wealthy conglomerate heiress, Chitanda Eru was a country heiress, Hoshino Ai was an idol, and Takanashi Rikka and Black Cat had chuunibyou syndrome.
Then there was Katsura Kotonoha, whose darkened yandere state had yet to be confirmed.
By spending some time chatting with them in the group every day, Kasumigaoka Utaha could gain quite a bit of inspiration.
For a creator, the most painful thing was having a pile of creative inspiration but being unable to casually start a new book.
However, she had already made up her mind.
Once she finished the second volume of Love Metronome that she was currently working on, she planned to write a new book. Then, she could ask Eriri to be its illustrator.
Of course, that was something for later.
Right now, Eriri was not in the mood to discuss such matters, and Kasumigaoka Utaha still had unfinished business herself.
A whole bunch of people in the group were now @-ing her, telling her to hurry up and ask the school gatekeeper whether he had seen You Know Who's face.
Of course, a few people were also egging her on, telling her to upload the manga to the group so everyone could take a look.
Kasumigaoka Utaha directly ignored those latter remarks.
No matter what, this was the first time the diary holders had come so close to You Know Who.
During the noon break, she and You Know Who had perhaps been only a few dozen meters apart at their closest.
But honestly, Kasumigaoka Utaha was not holding out much hope right now.
She had possessed the Diary for over ten days. Although You Know Who had constantly leaked his "information" through it, it was all stuff whose authenticity could not be verified. One piece of information, however, was highly credible: You Know Who could obtain rewards from the Diary every day by writing in it.
And those rewards were clearly far better than the Reading Points they received each day from reading the diary and posting comments.
So far, You Know Who had revealed very few of the rewards he had received.
Ripple Breathing, the first volume of Saekano: How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend, and the personal IF-route manga about her that she held in her hands.
As for the rewards from the other seven or eight days, You Know Who had not mentioned a single word about them.
Who knew whether he currently possessed some strange item that could conceal his identity?
Perhaps he had suddenly appeared within their sight only after gaining some sort of reward that ensured no one could discover him?
Just like Kaitou Kid, whom You Know Who had once mentioned in his diary, possessed the ability to easily disguise himself as other people.
But even for that less-than-ten-percent possibility, Kasumigaoka Utaha still had to investigate and give everyone in the group an explanation.
After telling Eriri about her plan, Eriri naturally agreed.
Eriri was also so furious at the "mysterious hacker" Kasumigaoka Utaha had mentioned that her chest hurt.
She did not remember ever provoking any powerful hacker, yet someone had exposed all her online aliases and even produced a manga filled with malice toward her.
Thus, under Kasumigaoka Utaha's recruitment, the Avengers against You Know Who successfully gained an unofficial new member.
Next, they returned to the school and asked the gatekeeper whether a worker carrying a step ladder had entered the school that day.
Listening to Kasumigaoka Utaha's talk about a "life cheat device," not only was the school gatekeeper stunned, even Eriri was dumbfounded.
Of course, Eriri was wondering whether this was some new fad people had come up with online recently. It actually sounded somewhat plausible.
Should she perhaps develop her next doujinshi around this kind of premise?
Meanwhile, the gatekeeper's expression turned somewhat nervous.
Could that "repairman" he had let in at noon have done something bad inside the school?
Fortunately, the girl in front of him only wanted to know what the repairman looked like and what he had said. She did not seem to intend to report him to the school.
"I didn't say much to him. I just saw that he was working hard in the middle of the day, so I offered him a cigarette. But he refused, saying, 'Smoking these traditional cigarettes makes you cough easily. Next time, I'll bring you some that won't make you cough.'"
"As for his appearance?" The gatekeeper recalled with a pained expression the man who had refused his cigarette at noon.
The man had only worn a hard hat, with no mask or anything else covering his face. Yet when he thought carefully, he realized that he could not remember what the man looked like at all.
He had an utterly ordinary face, completely lacking in distinguishing features. The gatekeeper could not recall it even after thinking for quite some time.
In the end, he could only barely describe the man's height, build, and skin tone from memory.
"How about I show you the surveillance footage? But don't tell anyone about this," the gatekeeper finally agreed to show the two girls the noon footage because they had something on him.
A few minutes later, Kasumigaoka Utaha and Eriri saw a somewhat blurry side profile on the surveillance monitor.
Sure enough, it was exactly as the gatekeeper had said: utterly unremarkable, without any distinctive features.
"So this guy is that mysterious hacker? He's way too different from what I imagined..." Eriri was somewhat disappointed. With a face like that, even if he walked right past her on the street, she probably would not be able to pick him out.
Kasumigaoka Utaha did not comment. Instead, she took a photo of the side profile on the surveillance screen, intending to send it to Shinomiya Kaguya later.
Although Shinomiya Kaguya had only @-ed her once in the group so far, asking whether she needed help, and seemed not to care about the image You Know Who had posted in the diary.
Kasumigaoka Utaha felt that Shinomiya Kaguya's emotions were probably not as calm as she appeared in the group.
She wondered whether the Shinomiya Family's influence could uncover anything useful.
After saying goodbye to Eriri, Kasumigaoka Utaha once again viciously mocked You Know Who in the diary's comment section to vent her frustration.
Although today's situation had been a little thrilling, at least she had obtained this manga related to her, allowing her to understand a little more about her future.
If her sarcastic comments could bring over the first volume of the main Saekano: How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend story as well, she felt she would be willing to take a little more risk.
Tom and Jerry
As the instigator behind everything, Miyauchi Hiyage was naturally in an extremely good mood.
After all, when Kasumigaoka Utaha had pinned Eriri against the wall, he had been one of the onlookers watching the spectacle from up close. After Kasumigaoka Utaha and Eriri left the teaching building, he and the other spectators had even engaged in an in-depth discussion.
They unanimously concluded that the second-year Kasumigaoka, Senpai and first-year student Eriri definitely had some unspeakable secret between them.
If Kasumigaoka Utaha's cold glare had not been so frightening, those spectators would definitely have secretly followed them to see where the two girls had gone.
But Miyauchi Hiyage could basically guess what Kasumigaoka Utaha would do afterward.
She would do nothing more than make up a lie to fool Eriri, then investigate the identity he had disguised himself as at noon.
Miyauchi Hiyage had sufficient confidence in Yellow Temperance's disguise ability, so he did not care about such an investigation.
After enjoying the melon he had planted himself, he briskly headed home. A "new roommate" was still waiting there to greet him.
That was the reward Miyauchi Hiyage had received today.
It was neither some ridiculously powerful move or skill, nor some futuristic product or magical artifact.
It was the first living reward Miyauchi Hiyage had received so far.
An ordinary-looking brown house mouse.
Except it had a name: Jerry.
Yes, Miyauchi Hiyage's reward today was Jerry from the world of Tom and Jerry.
Honestly, when he learned what his reward was today, Miyauchi Hiyage could not help rubbing his eyes to make sure the Diary had not given him the wrong reward.
After all, that was Jerry.
If Tom was the perfect cat who could do almost anything aside from catching Jerry, then Jerry was the super mouse who could match Tom in every regard and held the upper hand most of the time.
Miyauchi Hiyage remembered how he had called himself Teacher Tom in the diary that afternoon, only for a real Jerry to show up later that day.
Could Diary be forcibly putting together a Tom and Jerry bond for him?
Or did the god behind Diary think his life was too peaceful and want to give him a little challenge?
Miyauchi Hiyage thought over the diary rewards he had received these past few days, but he still could not figure out whether Diary's reward system was truly random.
If it was not random, could it be handing out better rewards according to how outrageous his antics were?
But that did not seem right either. He had written Ripple Chi Kung in the diary before and changed the fates of countless girls. He should have received a better reward that day.
Yet all he got that day was a Saekano: How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend novel.
And on the day he obtained Kasumigaoka Utaha's IF-route manga, the diary entry he posted had been the prologue to the first volume of Saekano: How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend.
Kasumigaoka Utaha had probably been completely broken by his antics that day, which was why she later mocked him so viciously in the comments.
"If rewards really are based on antics, then the rewards from the past two days should have been better. Don't tell me Diary dislikes me directly copying books, so it docked my rewards?" Miyauchi Hiyage muttered casually, yet somehow felt that it actually made a little sense.
"This is easy to test. I'll spend a few days uploading some later chapters of Saekano: How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend and see what happens," Miyauchi Hiyage decided after some thought.
After all, Kasumigaoka Utaha would definitely post plenty of sarcastic remarks about him in the comments today. Even if he did not see them, that would not stop him from returning a token of his affection to her.
After deciding on the direction of his experiment for the next few days, Miyauchi Hiyage went to a cake shop by the roadside and bought some cheesecake that Jerry would probably enjoy.
According to Diary's explanation, Jerry had already regarded the mansion Diary had given him as a reward as his new home in this world, and was looking forward to a friendly meeting with its owner.
The mansion owner's attitude toward him would affect Jerry's attitude toward the mansion owner and this world.
When he learned that, Miyauchi Hiyage could not help muttering inwardly that it was fortunate he had not sold the house. Otherwise, even meeting Jerry would probably have been difficult.
When he returned to his mansion carrying the cheesecake, he saw a brown mouse cautiously poking its head out from the end of the hallway the moment he entered.
The real-life Jerry resembled his animated appearance, but also possessed some traits of an actual mouse.
It struck a perfect balance between reality and animation, making the mouse's appearance here feel neither jarring nor unsettling from being too humanlike.
Jerry was currently twitching his nose, seemingly having caught the scent of the cheese in Miyauchi Hiyage's hands. An expectant expression appeared on his face unconsciously.
He wondered how many abilities this Jerry had brought with him.
Having already prepared himself mentally, Miyauchi Hiyage greeted Jerry.
"Hey, Jerry. To celebrate your moving into a new home, want some cheesecake?"
After confirming the giant's attitude toward him, joy immediately appeared on Jerry's face.
He trotted over to Miyauchi Hiyage, then pointed at himself in disbelief, seemingly asking whether Miyauchi Hiyage had just called his name.
Miyauchi Hiyage carefully observed Jerry from up close.
He was roughly ten to fifteen centimeters tall and stood upright just as he did in the cartoon.
His head and body were round, and his fur looked relatively smooth.
Thankfully, he was not covered in thick fluff like that Pikachu from a certain live-action Pikachu movie.
It was not that fluffy Pikachu or Jerry was bad.
It was simply that after being used to their animated appearances for so many years, suddenly seeing them covered in fur would indeed be rather hard to adapt to.
He bent down and held out his palm to Jerry.
Seeing this, Jerry hesitated briefly. But driven by his craving for cheesecake, he obediently stepped onto Miyauchi Hiyage's palm.
"Can you talk?" Miyauchi Hiyage asked Jerry as he walked toward his room.
Although Tom and Jerry usually only laughed or made sounds of surprise, there were a few occasions when Tom and Jerry had spoken.
Jerry shook his head, then raised his nimble forepaws and gestured, seemingly indicating that he could write.
Being able to write was enough. It would save them a lot of trouble communicating.
Miyauchi Hiyage had many things he wanted to ask Jerry, and many things he wanted to tell him as well.
After all these years since crossing over, he had finally found someone with whom he could share this secret.
Though that someone was only a mouse, he was also a mouse smarter than most humans.
After returning to his room, Miyauchi Hiyage placed Jerry on the desk, then took out the cake and handed it to him.
"Eat. Once you're full, we can slowly talk about your situation."
Jerry looked at the cheesecake before him and licked his lips in a humanlike manner. Then he looked around, pulled a tissue from the box beside him to wipe his paws, and folded it before tying it around his neck as a napkin.
Only after doing all that did he take out the complimentary plastic fork from the cake bag and, like a soldier holding a spear, solemnly launched an attack on the cheesecake before him.
Come On, Jerry, Put On a Show for Everyone
Before you continue