Chapter 315: Super Great, Right? Twelve People, Twelve Colors! (Patreon)

December 31, 2000, Tokyo time, 23:40

Inside NHK Hall in Shibuya Ward, the host, dressed to the nines, made the announcement with great enthusiasm. "The 51st NHK Kohaku Uta Gassen."

"And now, the final act for the White Team!"

"Please enjoy K-ON with 'LOVE2000'!"

The five girls, already in position on stage, exchanged glances.

Then a powerful burst of music rang out…

♪ Where does love come from? / Asking myself, just like this / I have no interest in fakes / I only want to seek out what's real ♪

In the audience, Tsushima Kagami watched with a faint smile as Yukinoshita Shizuku, Seika Ijichi, Hiroi Kikuri and PA-ko, brimming with youth, performed on stage…

After playing "17" at a live house, the band had unexpectedly become famous overnight. Major record labels had lined up to offer single and album deals, and every one of them had been turned down.

It was only later that people learned the song had been written by Tsushima Kagami.

NHK, for its part, had smelled the ratings.

The production team completely disregarded the three standard criteria they had always applied when extending invitations. They approached Tsushima Kagami directly and invited Seika Ijichi's five-member band, K-ON, to the stage of the 51st NHK Kohaku Uta Gassen.

Once the others had agreed, NHK announced the full lineup in mid-November, with K-ON's five members included.

They had even been placed in the climax of the evening, as the White Team's grand finale act (the ōtori), appearing at the very end of the program.

The Kohaku broadcast usually wraps up around 23:45, and it has no tradition of a midnight countdown.

So in the final segment before the show ends, the Red Team and the White Team each send out one closing act (a tori).

After both teams' closing acts, one more singer gives the final performance of the entire night. That is the ōtori, the grand finale act.

This ōtori slot is generally regarded as the most prestigious position of the whole show, and in most years it goes to the White Team.

For this occasion, Tsushima Kagami had brought out "LOVE2000" once again.

For the last moments of the year 2000, five girls singing this song together to ring out the old and ring in the new was simply perfect.

Tsushima Kagami watched the five girls on stage with satisfaction, listening closely to their voices.

♪ Dreams always keep swelling / Ignoring what others think / Will you ever know someday / The balloon I let go drifts up into the sky ♪

As if sensing someone's gaze from below the stage, the girls turned as one to look for it.

Tsushima Kagami saw them smile down at him.

In the control room, the director told the cameraman to swing the camera onto Tsushima Kagami, quick.

The girls acted as if nothing had happened and threw themselves right back into their song.

Tsushima Kagami just smiled at the camera and let it pass.

"I can't believe you had the nerve to invite all of their parents, too~"

Mrs. Yukinoshita, seated beside Tsushima Kagami, kept her eyes fixed on the stage, though the corners of her mouth curled up slightly. The words were clearly meant for the man next to her.

Tsushima Kagami smiled back. "Some things have to be dealt with sooner or later, don't they, Mother?"

Mrs. Yukinoshita turned to him with a smile, then leaned across him to look at the row of audience members behind him.

Beside her sat Nayotake and her mother, then Sayuri and her parents, Kosaka Akane and her parents, and Machida Sonoko and her parents.

In the row behind them, Mrs. Ijichi held Little Nijika, and next to her sat the parents of Hiratsuka Shizuka, Hiroi Kikuri and PA-ko.

After them came Tsukuyomi Komoe, Douraku Utage and Hayase Kinue.

Noticing Mrs. Yukinoshita's gaze, everyone looked over at once.

Some nodded politely with a smile, some looked a little awkward, and some were frightened…

Tsushima Kagami had leaned on his status this time. He had gone to each family's door in person to invite the girls' parents here to ring in the new year together.

Mrs. Yukinoshita returned each greeting with a smile and a nod before turning back to Tsushima Kagami.

"So? Is it settled?"

"Well… part of it's settled, I suppose. The rest we've sort of agreed to set aside…"

Mrs. Yukinoshita smiled and nodded, then shook her head, then looked back at the people on stage.

"It seems you still have a long road ahead, Kagami-kun."

"And if you two ever fight, don't you dare think you can run back to Chiba. As Shizuku's mother, I'll naturally be on Shizuku's side."

"You're joking, Mother. I promised you I wouldn't make her cry again."

"Is that so? Then I hope you'll live up to those words, as a man."

Mrs. Yukinoshita raised an eyebrow at the stage, then seemed to remember something.

"Oh, that's right. If you come with a child in tow, I might reluctantly take you in, for the child's sake."

"So does love transfer? Am I still the son you like best, Mother?"

Mrs. Yukinoshita pressed her lips into a smile at Tsushima Kagami's words.

"Hehe. There's an old saying from next door."

"'Of the three unfilial acts, having no heir is the gravest.'"

"I'm sure my favorite good boy wouldn't want to be an unfilial son to his mother."

"Honestly! How can a progressive lady like you pick up only the dregs of old sayings?!"

"What progressive lady? I'm just a traditional housewife."

Mrs. Yukinoshita's expression turned cold. It had been a long time since Tsushima Kagami had seen her like this, so he straightened up and answered seriously.

"This is the best time of their lives. They shouldn't waste it on raising children."

"And they're all still too young. Let's wait until… twenty-five or twenty-six, at least."

Tsushima Kagami thought it over as he spoke.

Mrs. Yukinoshita's brow furrowed. In the end, she sighed.

"Never mind. Now that you're Tenka Ippin, Kagami, I can't make you do anything."

"Oh, come on. I don't want to be nagged about children this young either. Just think of it as me wanting you to dote on me a little longer, Mother."

"After all, once there's a baby, I'll be nothing but a weed."

Tsushima Kagami acted like a spoiled child, patting the back of Mrs. Yukinoshita's hand.

Mrs. Yukinoshita resignedly swatted his hand away.

"Honestly. With this many cameras around, it won't look good if they catch you acting spoiled."

"What's wrong with acting spoiled in front of my own mother?"

"How old are you now?!"

"No matter how old, I'm still your child!"

Mrs. Yukinoshita finally let a smile tug at the corner of her mouth and stopped indulging Tsushima Kagami's shameless act. She turned back to the stage.

Tsushima Kagami smiled and looked up at everyone on stage as well.

♪ Where does love come from? / Asking myself, just like this / It's something you can't understand without trying it yourself / How strong is the pull of a meeting? / Where does love come from? / Asking myself, just like this / I have no interest in fakes / I only want to seek out what's real / I'm always searching for you ♪

As the last lyric ended, the five on stage pointed their index fingers at Tsushima Kagami in the audience, all at once.

The cameramen on the floor followed the girls' fingertips in unison and swung their lenses toward Tsushima Kagami…

The last day of March, 2001.

"Did you bring the marriage registration form?"

"What about the copy of your family register?"

"A driver's license works too."

"Honestly, snap out of it!"

Yukinoshita Shizuku crossed her arms and glared at Tsushima Kagami, who stood beside her holding the registration form, his mind drifting somewhere far away.

"Don't tell me you regret it?"

"If you do, there's still time, you know."

Whatever Yukinoshita Shizuku said aloud, the face she wore, the one that said "I'm warning you, you'd better not say anything that upsets me today," gave her away completely.

Tsushima Kagami snapped out of it and looked at her.

"Ah, I was just thinking that I'm finally registering with Shizuku, and how happy it makes me. It feels like a dream."

"Hmph, that's more like it!"

Yukinoshita Shizuku smiled, satisfied, and immediately dragged Tsushima Kagami off toward the ward office.

…

Himonya Church, Himonya, Meguro Ward, Tokyo.

The morning light of the last day of March streamed through the tall stained-glass windows of Himonya Church and gathered into a warm halo of jewel-toned color inside.

The patches of light fell across the aisle like scattered petals of rose and sapphire, drifting slowly with the shadows of the clouds.

On the walls along both sides of the aisle, Western angels and Japanese motifs wove together into a strange and wonderful picture.

The outline of a chrysanthemum crest could faintly be seen on the Virgin's robes, and the edges of the mosaic icons were inlaid with tiny cherry blossoms of mother-of-pearl.

As the light passed over these murals and mosaics, the scattered fragments from the stained glass seemed to glaze them in a flowing enamel.

The great pipe organ steadily sounded the prelude to Wagner's Bridal Chorus, its low notes washing over the vaulted ceiling like deep water.

Tsushima Kagami already stood before the altar. At his sides stood Nayotake, serving as Yukinoshita Shizuku's bridesmaid, and Yamada Kenta, his groomsman.

As the bright main theme rose, the doors at the far end of the aisle slowly swung open.

Yukinoshita Shizuku stood there.

She wore a noble white wedding gown, its train spread out behind her like a light cloud.

At that very moment, the sun struck the central image of the Virgin in the stained glass, and rose-colored rays poured down like holy light.

Her veil was tinted a pale cherry pink, and the lace edge glowed with a warm golden rim, as though she were wrapped in a thin haze of dawn.

She walked with her arm linked through her mother's, Mrs. Yukinoshita's.

Little Nijika, serving as flower girl, carried a delicate basket at the front and slowly scattered petals.

Shizuku and her mother advanced step by step along the path laid out in light, music and petals.

The guests, already seated, rose to their feet.

The patches of light kept changing beneath their feet, from blue to gold, from violet to scarlet.

In the interplay of light and shadow, the statues lining the aisle seemed to draw breath. The marble angels lowered their eyelids as if praying in silence for this moment.

At the altar, Mrs. Yukinoshita stopped. She gently raised her daughter's hand and solemnly placed it in the palm Tsushima Kagami had long held ready.

As the warmth of that hand reached him, the organ finished the final note of the march. The last echo circled under the high vault, then slowly sank into silence.

The priest at the altar gave a slight nod.

Behind him, the mosaic icon glittered with fine golden light in the sun.

The Virgin's robe was inlaid with gold leaf, and its fragments grew brighter as the sun shifted.

The priest opened his book, his voice calm and solemn. "Dearly beloved, today we are gathered here…"

"Tsushima Kagami, do you take Yukinoshita Shizuku to be your lawful wife, to live together with her according to God's will in the holy bond of marriage? Will you love her, honor her, and remain faithful to her, in wealth or poverty, in sickness and in health, until the end of your life?"

"I do."

"Yukinoshita Shizuku, do you take Tsushima Kagami to be your lawful husband, to live together with him according to God's will in the holy bond of marriage? Will you love him, honor him, and remain faithful to him, in wealth or poverty, in sickness and in health, until the end of your life?"

"I do."

"Then please take each other's hands and solemnly declare your vows."

Tsushima Kagami looked at Yukinoshita Shizuku beside him, slowly took both her hands in his, and met her eyes.

Under the priest's witness, they stood facing each other.

"I, Tsushima Kagami, take you, Yukinoshita Shizuku, to be my lawful wife. From this day forward, for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, I will have you and cherish you, until death parts us."

"I, Yukinoshita Shizuku, take you, Tsushima Kagami, to be my lawful husband. From this day forward, for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, I will have you and cherish you, until death parts us."

The priest at the altar moved on to the exchange and blessing of the rings.

"Lord, may these rings be the bond of the vows they have made."

Tsushima Kagami and Yukinoshita Shizuku each took out the ring they had prepared.

They put it on each other's finger with care and solemnity.

"I give you this ring as a symbol of my love. In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, I give you all that I am."

At that moment, the March sunlight passed through the last shadow of cloud on the stained glass and fell squarely on their clasped hands.

The rings on their fourth fingers were lit until they were nearly transparent, as though the beam itself had finally found its home.

When the exchange was done, the priest continued with the final declaration and blessing.

"You have exchanged vows before the Lord and these witnesses, and you have received your wedding rings. In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, I now pronounce you husband and wife. What God has joined together, let no one separate."

"I have witnessed you vow your love to each other, and it is my great joy to declare you husband and wife before all who are gathered here. You may now kiss the bride."

Below the altar, Mrs. Yukinoshita, Hiratsuka Shizuka, Sayuri, Kosaka Akane, Machida Sonoko, Seika Ijichi, Hiroi Kikuri, PA-ko, Tsukuyomi Komoe, Douraku Utage, Hayase Kinue, Hazuki Hotaru, Mrs. Shimizu and Mrs. Ijichi all rose and applauded.

Wrapped in the applause, Tsushima Kagami lifted Yukinoshita Shizuku's veil, drew her into his arms, and slowly kissed her.

The somewhat subdued wedding finally came to an end.

Everyone gathered around Yukinoshita Shizuku and lined up for photos.

Mrs. Yukinoshita had been off to one side giving Tsushima Kagami some instructions. After a while, she walked over to Yukinoshita Shizuku.

"I still have things to take care of back in Chiba, so I'll be heading home now."

Hearing her mother say she was leaving so soon, Yukinoshita Shizuku's eyes reddened as she clasped Mrs. Yukinoshita's hand.

"Who rushes back right after her daughter's wedding ends?!"

Mrs. Yukinoshita smiled at Yukinoshita Shizuku and gently stroked her head.

"Don't fuss. And don't forget, you're coming back to Chiba this summer. That will be your real wedding."

"All our relatives and every notable in the area will be there."

"And your friends and Kagami's classmates, too."

"There will be plenty of time for me to spend with you then!"

Hearing her mother say this, Yukinoshita Shizuku got a headache at the thought of going through a traditional Shinto wedding after returning to Chiba for the summer.

She turned to Tsushima Kagami for help.

Tsushima Kagami could only spread his hands and shrug helplessly.

After Mrs. Yukinoshita left, Mrs. Shimizu and Mrs. Ijichi took Little Nijika out shopping.

Kenta and Hotaru, the married couple, immediately dashed off on a date.

Once Mrs. Yukinoshita and the others had gone, Sayuri, who had been standing beside Yukinoshita Shizuku gushing with compliments the whole time, rolled her eyes and sidled up to her, tugging at her arm.

"Now that your mother and the others are gone, um…"

Yukinoshita Shizuku looked at Sayuri, then swept her gaze over the others. Every pair of eyes was full of anticipation. In the end, she sighed.

"Fine, do what you like. But remember, it's only a wedding experience!"

"Yay!"

"I picked out my dress ages ago!"

"Okay, no more chatter, or our wedding reservation time will run out."

"Hurry up and change into your gowns!"

With that, everyone scampered off to the changing room, and each of them seemed to have had a dress ready for herself all along.

Only Yukinoshita Shizuku was left in her gown, looking at Tsushima Kagami, who pretended to be very busy and kept tilting his head up to study the murals on the church walls.

"Enough, stop pretending."

"I'm not even bothered anymore. What do you have to feel guilty about?"

At Yukinoshita Shizuku's words, Tsushima Kagami immediately turned with a smile and walked up to her.

"You're really not bothered anymore?"

"Of course I'm lying! How could I not be bothered?!"

Yukinoshita Shizuku flicked him lightly on the forehead.

Rubbing his forehead, Tsushima Kagami pulled her into his arms.

"I'm sorry…"

"I didn't marry you to hear you say 'sorry.'"

"I'll be twice as good to you."

"But then you'd be playing favorites. Wouldn't that mean they were wrong about you?"

"Shouldn't you really be fair about it?"

"Then I'll treat everyone evenly and try not to favor anyone."

"But you promised me you'd be even better to me alone!"

"…"

Tsushima Kagami wanted to cry and couldn't. How had she become so hard to handle the moment they'd registered?

But he had brought it on himself, and he'd have to coax her around even if he cried while doing it!

"Um… tonight I'll repay your kindness…"

"Oh? Then tell me, how exactly will you repay it tonight?"

Yukinoshita Shizuku rose on tiptoe and whispered the question with a smile into Tsushima Kagami's ear.

"Well, um…"

"Like this… and then like that…"

Tsushima Kagami put his lips to her ear and whispered his answer, until Yukinoshita Shizuku's face flushed red. She couldn't help listening to more, nodding now and shaking her head now.

While the two of them stood wrapped in each other's arms, steadily hammering out the detailed terms of Tsushima Kagami's repayment that night, Sayuri and the others came into the church in the wedding dresses they had picked out.

Hiroi Kikuri suddenly spoke up. "Am I here at a bad time?"

PA-ko, standing beside her, shot back. "Feels like you've said that before!"

"Oh, who cares whether it's a bad time? We're already here, and if we don't hurry, we'll run out of time!"

Hiratsuka Shizuka hiked up the hem of her dress and urged them on.

"Shizu's right. Sayuri, hurry up and set up the camera."

"Yes, ma'am!"

Leaving Yukinoshita Shizuku and Tsushima Kagami alone, the group set up the camera and the DV recorder and discussed how to pose.

When they finally had a plan, they pulled the other two over.

"Kagami, you stand here!"

"Shizuku… all right, since you're the one who registered today."

"Let him stand there. And you promised that next time you'd let us have Kagami!"

"Oh, Akane-senpai, Sonoko-senpai, don't just say it out loud!"

"Or Kagami will get insufferably smug!"

"He's already insufferably smug inside whether we say it or not!"

As they spoke, everyone looked at Tsushima Kagami.

Tsushima Kagami merely straightened his collar and cuffs, and smiled lightly at them with perfect gentlemanly composure.

"I have no idea what you're talking about~"

"But I really am happy today~"

In the end, they settled on a formation centered on Tsushima Kagami, using the height of the steps, with six girls on the left and six on the right.

Together they would form a heart, like two wings folded in.

So the left side, from top to bottom, was Yukinoshita Shizuku, Seika Ijichi, Hiratsuka Shizuka, Hiroi Kikuri, PA-ko and Douraku Utage.

The right side, from top to bottom, was Shimizu Nayotake, Sayuri, Kosaka Akane, Machida Sonoko, Tsukuyomi Komoe and Hayase Kinue.

Twelve girls in gorgeous wedding gowns of their own choosing, bouquets in hand, surrounded Tsushima Kagami in the middle like a pair of pure white angel wings, forming the shape of a heart.

The instant the camera's timer ran out and the shutter clicked, everyone tossed their bouquets into the sky.

In that same moment, a thought crossed Tsushima Kagami's mind: Twelve-Winged Archangel Mode?

Then, amid the girls' laughter, a BGM began to play in his head, unbidden.

♪ Super awesome, right? / Twelve people, twelve colors! / Pretty impressive, right? / This is exactly what a pure-love harem is! / Enjoy it until the Earth itself goes flying! ♪

When Tsushima Kagami led the group out of the church, the afternoon sun was perfect.

"Where should we go play later?"

"After all, the holiday only has a few days left."

"Today isn't only the day Shizuku registered her marriage."

"It's also the day Kikuri and PA-ko graduate."

Kosaka Akane spoke as she walked.

"That's right, Kikuri and PA-ko both got into Tokyo Metropolitan University, just as they wanted."

"Now Seika won't be lonely."

Machida Sonoko smiled at Seika Ijichi.

"Yeah. Now we can be together again."

Just then, Hiroi Kikuri grabbed Kosaka Akane and started complaining.

"Senpai, PA-ko and I have had such a hard time lately."

"First there was studying for the entrance exams, then practicing for the Kohaku."

"Shouldn't we have a big feast today and a few drinks?"

Kosaka Akane shook her head with a smile and looked at PA-ko, laughing.

"Isn't that what we're asking everyone, where to go next to keep celebrating?"

"And it's still broad daylight. Can't you wait until night to start drinking?"

"It's all the same!"

While the group argued over where to eat, drink and play that evening—

"Huh? Shizuku, aren't you feeling well?"

Hayase Kinue, standing nearby, suddenly noticed Yukinoshita Shizuku swaying to one side as though she were drunk.

She caught her at once. Tsushima Kagami, who had been chatting with Tsukuyomi Komoe and Douraku Utage, hurried over and steadied Yukinoshita Shizuku, and then everyone crowded around.

Yukinoshita Shizuku leaned against Tsushima Kagami for a good while before she smiled and shook her head.

"I'm fine now. Just a little dizzy."

"Maybe I've been getting up too early lately, and today I'm a bit overexcited."

Nayotake frowned, came up to Yukinoshita Shizuku and looked her over.

"Shizuku, have you been eating less lately?"

Yukinoshita Shizuku thought about it, then nodded.

"I haven't had much of an appetite recently."

"So…"

Before she could finish, another wave of dizziness hit, followed by intense nausea. She clapped a hand over her mouth.

"Let's get Shizuku to the hospital first. I'll get the car."

Kosaka Akane headed straight for the parking lot.

…

University of Tokyo Hospital, Faculty of Medicine.

In a private VIP room.

Tsushima Kagami, his face grim, paced back and forth across the room without pause, as if it were the only way to drive off his agitation.

The others sat on the sofa to one side, watching Tsushima Kagami with odd looks.

Then Nayotake walked in with a professor, who was carrying a report.

Tsushima Kagami rushed over and seized the professor, who often taught his classes and thought highly of Nayotake.

"Professor, how is my wife?"

The professor only smiled and patted Tsushima Kagami's hand where it gripped his arm, not at all annoyed.

"Congratulations, Kagami-kun. Judging from the blood test results and what Nayotake told me about your wife's recent symptoms, she is pregnant. There's no doubt."

"What?!"

"Then Kagami's going to be a dad!"

Sayuri suddenly cried out.

At the professor's words, everyone gathered around Nayotake and took the report to study it.

But Tsushima Kagami didn't weep with joy like people on TV, or run around shouting that he was going to be a father.

Instead, he wore a thoughtful look. In the end he scratched his head in disbelief and slowly backed toward Yukinoshita Shizuku, who lay on the hospital bed smiling at him.

"Um… I'm pretty sure I used protection every time except the first time."

Tsushima Kagami leaned in close to her ear and asked, a little doubtful of himself.

Yukinoshita Shizuku just smiled without a word and nodded.

Tsushima Kagami went on. "Then how come…"

"Even with protection, there's still a small chance of pregnancy."

Nayotake, nearby, seemed to have overheard Tsushima Kagami's whispered question, and explained it in front of everyone with a perfectly straight face.

The old professor laughed heartily too.

"Ha ha, so there are plenty of things Kagami-kun doesn't know~"

"Why not consider transferring to our Faculty of Medicine?"

"A genius like you would surely have no trouble studying medicine."

"I heard from Nayotake that your science scores back then were good enough for the medical faculty, too."

The old professor swept his eyes over everyone in the room and finally smiled at Nayotake.

"I won't disturb you any longer."

"Remember to bring your wife in for regular prenatal checkups."

"And please give some thought to transferring faculties~"

"Ha ha ha!"

With a burst of hearty laughter, the professor left the room.

Tsushima Kagami could only smile awkwardly at the old man's retreating back.

Then he looked at Sayuri, Kosaka Akane, Machida Sonoko, Hiratsuka Shizuka and Seika Ijichi, standing beside Nayotake.

Their faces turned red. They hurriedly lowered their heads and glanced at one another.

"Idiot!"

Yukinoshita Shizuku rapped Tsushima Kagami on the head with a smile, then leaned in close to his ear.

"I poked a few holes in your little umbrellas."

"I never expected it would actually work."

"I thought I was just overtired lately."

Tsushima Kagami stared at her wide-eyed.

"Who taught you to do that?!"

"Mother, of course."

"She tells you and you just do it?!"

"Oh, come on… I wanted a child soon, too."

"When Kenta and Hotaru came to visit, I noticed her rubbing her stomach now and then while we were talking."

"That look in her eyes… I felt a little envious."

"Then why not just tell me? Why go about it this way?"

"I saw you always insisting on protection, so I thought you didn't want kids…"

Yukinoshita Shizuku abruptly switched to a soft, helpless expression and looked at Tsushima Kagami pitifully.

"So, are you angry, Kagami?"

"Of course not."

"Then why do you look so unhappy?"

"Ah, right! I should be happy!"

Tsushima Kagami suddenly turned to the others.

"I'm going to be a father?"

Everyone nodded.

"Isn't it a little early?"

Everyone shook their heads.

"Why does it feel like something's missing?"

Tsushima Kagami said suddenly.

"Oh! The name!"

"Right, the name!"

Tsushima Kagami immediately turned back to Yukinoshita Shizuku.

Yukinoshita Shizuku looked at him with a smile, full of expectation.

After agonizing over it for a long while, Tsushima Kagami finally said, "Can I go home and check the classics first?"

"Oh, I knew it. Kagami definitely hasn't thought about a name."

"How about Eriri? I've been thinking about it for ages, for my own child."

"Since Shizuku got there first, I'll let her have it!"

Sayuri stood up and strutted proudly over to Yukinoshita Shizuku.

"That's a cute name!"

Tsukuyomi Komoe praised it from nearby.

But Yukinoshita Shizuku, lying on the bed, frowned.

"I think it's better saved for Sayuri's own child."

"Oh my, I'd love to, if only I knew when a certain someone would finally agree?"

Yukinoshita Shizuku simply shot her a glance and paid her no more mind.

"Hmph, fine, if you don't want it! I've decided! My child will be named Eriri!"

"Pfft…"

Beside her, Tsushima Kagami suddenly burst out laughing. Sayuri looked at him.

"Kagami, what are you laughing at?"

"Sorry. Could you pick a different name?"

"No, I won't! I want that one!"

Sayuri felt like she was being singled out today.

Even Komoe-sensei had said it was a cute name. So why were Shizuku and Kagami turning up their noses at it?

"Let's call her Utaha."

"Now that's a beautiful name!"

Kosaka Akane suddenly spoke up from nearby.

"Huh? When did you come up with that?" Machida Sonoko asked.

"Heh heh. I made it up during class when I had nothing to do, for a new character in my manga."

"What do you think?"

"I think it's great, senpai!"

Hiroi Kikuri cheered Kosaka Akane on like mad.

PA-ko nodded as well.

Hayase Kinue and Douraku Utage murmured the name and nodded, too.

"Better than Eriri, I think."

Everyone looked at Yukinoshita Shizuku again.

Yukinoshita Shizuku frowned again.

But since it was senpai Kosaka Akane, she managed a little more of a smile, a different treatment from the one Sayuri had gotten.

"Sorry, senpai. It doesn't quite feel right to me either."

"It's okay."

Kosaka Akane smiled, unbothered.

"Kaguya…"

"How about Kaguya…"

Nayotake, who seldom spoke up on her own, suddenly said it out of nowhere.

Everyone turned to look at her at once.

Stared at by everyone, Nayotake had one of her rare relapses of social anxiety and shrank her neck down.

"Like Princess Kaguya from The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter?"

Hiratsuka Shizuka asked with interest.

Nayotake nodded.

Seika Ijichi laughed. "You could tell it's Nayotake's child at a glance."

"Right?"

Hearing Seika Ijichi say that, Nayotake smiled happily.

Yukinoshita Shizuku, meanwhile, was wondering how to politely decline when her best friend offered a name for her future child.

But Nayotake spoke first. "I'm saving it for my own child."

Yukinoshita Shizuku breathed a sigh of relief.

Then everyone turned to Tsushima Kagami, who was still scratching his head.

"Stop scratching. You'll go bald before the baby's even born."

Yukinoshita Shizuku said with a smile.

Tsushima Kagami looked up at them.

"Um… why are all the names you picked girls' names?"

"What if it's a boy?"

Everyone froze.

Right. None of them had considered what to do if it was a boy.

"All right, you don't need to trouble yourselves."

"I settled on the name for our child a long time ago."

Yukinoshita Shizuku said with a smile.

"Huh? Since when?"

Tsushima Kagami asked quickly.

"That's none of your concern."

Yukinoshita Shizuku glanced at him.

"If we left it to Daddy, he probably wouldn't come up with a good name."

Though her belly hadn't started to show at all, Yukinoshita Shizuku had already begun stroking it without thinking, murmuring to herself with a smile.

The others crowded in immediately.

"So what is the name?"

"Tell us quick!"

Yukinoshita Shizuku looked at Tsushima Kagami beside her, then at the others.

Then she smiled. "If it's a boy, Youta."

"If it's a girl, Haruno."

"Why do both have the 'sun' character?"

Tsushima Kagami suddenly asked.

The others nodded, wondering the same.

"Because…"

Yukinoshita Shizuku looked at Tsushima Kagami, then out the window at the afternoon sun.

Finally, she rubbed her belly and said with a smile.

"Because we're young, newly married, and the sunshine is free…"

(End)_____________________________________And with that, we’ve reached the end of this fanfic. I noticed the author currently has a new fanfic out, so I’ll leave the title and synopsis below — if you guys like it, drop a comment letting me know and I’ll bring it over down the line.

Title: Anime Crossover: A Trollish Life, Starting From the Conqueror’s Will

Synopsis:

Reborn into an anime crossover world, Lin Qiushu awakens the Conqueror’s Will — and from then on lives a life of running his mouth dry and wearing out his fists.

“No wonder you’re Yukinoshita Haruno’s little sister.”

[Ding! Verbally bullied Yukinoshita Yukino!]

[Conqueror’s Haki +1]

“I summon my fist, in the form of an attack!”

[Ding! Physically bullied Ishida Shoya, Shimada Kazuki, Hirose Keisuke, and Ueno Naoka!]

[Armament Haki +1, +1, +1, +1]

“The rising sun of dawn in the east, the lingering mood of dusk upon that very sun — you disgusting piece of trash!”

[You have been cyberbullied]

[Observation Haki +1]

So what kind of mischief has Lin Qiushu gotten up to?

He needled Yukinoshita Yukino with passive-aggressive jabs, watching her secretly shed little pearl-like tears in the corner.

He peddled health supplements to Hiratsuka Shizuka until her head turned comically pointy.

He dragged Chihaya Anon and Takamatsu Tomo into the astronomy club to cook up absurdist internet humor.

As a convenience store shift lead, he ruthlessly workplace-bullied Toyokawa Shoko.

He also lured Wakaba Mutsumi away to an internet café — grinding Valorant by day and by night.

He insisted Nagasaki Soyo call him “Daddy,” claiming it was psychological therapy to fix her family-role confusion._______________________________Below are the author’s final thoughts on the story, for anyone interested._Well, it’s finally finished. I think I’ve basically covered everything I set out to write, and while there were plenty of issues along the way, I’d say it landed reasonably smoothly.

First, thank you all for your support over the past six months, especially the friends who kept their subscriptions running the whole time, trusting me unconditionally, and those who followed every single day.

As an author, I’m also a reader myself, so I know just how painful it can be to follow a story daily. But because of the serialization format and my own day-to-day state, updates were sometimes bound to come out short and weak, and sometimes the plot just didn’t land the way it should have.

Of course, that’s all on me as the author — readers only need to worry about whether it’s good or not. And yet, even with all that, right up until the end there were still three to four hundred people subscribed.

To other big-name authors, that number might not seem like much, but to me it was exactly what kept me going all the way to a proper ending.

Truly, thank you to everyone who clicked into this book back at the start, supported the launch subscription, stuck with it until the end, and left me gifts, blades, monthly votes, and recommendation votes!

Now, there’s something I wanted to say back at the launch, but I was worried it would come across as fishing for sympathy to boost the launch subscriptions, so I decided to save it for the ending instead.

As I mentioned at launch, this book actually started out as an original plot outline — originally, I wanted to write a “wife-and-white-moonlight” style story...

To avoid flopping too hard, I figured that genre might actually earn a bit of money... because I was buried in debt and staring down the fact that my modest salary wasn’t going to cover it.

It all started the year before last, when I suddenly had a small intestine perforation combined with peritonitis and was rushed to the ER — they wanted to operate and cut out part of my intestine right away. I was terrified.

Thankfully, after a contrast CT scan, it turned out to be a walled-off perforation — by that point they could barely even locate where the hole was (it was small, and by the time I got there it had almost healed on its own), so conservative treatment was an option. My intestine was saved in the end.

I spent half a month in the hospital after that (quick complaint: the centrally-procured antibiotics didn’t do much — a full week of treatment for the peritonitis and the inflammation still wouldn’t go down. It was only after we ran out of those and switched to original brand-name antibiotics — which insurance wouldn’t cover — that I actually started feeling better, and that took just one day). When I was discharged and settled the bill, thankfully I had both public health insurance and private insurance. The hospital stay cost almost 30,000 yuan; public insurance covered nearly 70% of it (thanks to national healthcare), and the private insurance covered the rest. In the end I barely paid anything out of pocket.

But here’s where the real money started going. Right before discharge, I was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease — turns out that’s what caused the intestinal perforation in the first place (I’d had recurring stomach pain since childhood, but no one had ever figured out why).

After being discharged, I had to fast for half a year — during that time I could only get nutrition through a feeding tube, while also taking imported medication. The catch was that none of the hospitals stocked these; I had to source them myself from outside pharmacies or online, so none of that — the nutritional formula or the medication — was covered by insurance. All out of pocket.

Over that half a year, the formula and medication alone cost me over 40,000 yuan (and on top of that, every two months I had to go back to the hospital for a biologic injection — over 7,000 yuan a shot. That part required inpatient admission, so private insurance did cover it, which brought my annual out-of-pocket cost down to about 10,000).

Ending up in this state while just trying to live my life... I didn’t want my family to worry, so I never told them. I just carried it on my own.

But carrying it alone, I realized this wasn’t sustainable — my salary alone wasn’t going to hold up much longer. So I thought, why not start a new book to ease the financial pressure a bit?

Except every idea I tried hit a wall. I rewrote the opening five or six times and still couldn’t get it approved. I didn’t want to just self-publish it either. I considered scrapping it and starting fresh with something else, but worried about getting zero traction with an unverified account. In the end, after a lot of back and forth, I decided to come back to Hedgehog Cat and write some fanfic.

So this book, compared to the original outline, changed quite a bit — from originally wanting to write that “wife-and-white-moonlight” style, the tone kept shifting and became more restrained and conservative as I went.

As for how this book performed — I won’t compare it to the big names, but at minimum, my monthly earnings from it were more than double my regular salary. I was already very satisfied with that.

By the time it wrapped up, I did the math and realized I’d earned back all the money I’d had to pay out of pocket before. I paid off what I’d borrowed from loan apps and from friends. No more debt weighing on me.

Now that the debt pressure is gone and the book is finished, I feel genuinely happy.

So really, truly, thank you to everyone who supported this book (you’re basically my lifeline!). This book means a huge amount to me — it’s the first million-character book I’ve ever stuck with all the way to the end.

Okay, that’s the thank-yous and the sob story out of the way.

Now for the confession section...

Ha, I’m a little embarrassed to admit this, but I’m sure plenty of readers already tracked down my last book — the one I dropped and ran from...

Honestly, right from when this book started, I noticed a lot of familiar faces from my last book showing up every day to feed me data and even leave gifts (guilty conscience intensifying...).

I wasn’t exactly hiding behind the new pen name on purpose — I switched accounts mainly because I was worried the one dropped book on my old account might drag this one down. But I’d occasionally reply to readers in the comments using my old handle (definitely not because that old account is tied to a phone number the new one can’t use, so I couldn’t post otherwise!).

For dropping that last book and running off, I want to apologize here to those readers.

I’m truly, truly sorry.

That book was something I started writing the moment the idea hit me, with no detailed outline — just some scattered thoughts. By the time it launched, I increasingly had no idea what to do with it, it got more and more boring to write, and on top of that I had a fever and cold I couldn’t shake, so I just... dropped it.

Learning from that, I realized just how important having an outline is for a book. So before starting this one, I wrote a complete story outline first, along with volume outlines and chapter outlines — and that’s what let me hold on all the way to the finish.

Now let’s talk about this book’s problems.

I’d say the pacing and rhythm held up well for the first 700,000 characters or so. A lot of people said there was too much “career line” content, but I can say for certain that for those first 700K characters, it stayed a healthy 50/50 balance between slice-of-life and career content — the career line was never more than the daily-life content.

Past the 700K mark, though, honestly it got really painful for me. There were several times I seriously considered dropping it again (I know, I know — my bad!).

Originally, this book was supposed to have at least two more volumes, and the “getting the girl” storylines were all planned for those final two volumes.

But because I kept seeing people asking why the romantic payoff hadn’t happened yet, I started second-guessing myself — wondering if I was pacing things too slowly.

On top of that, the content planned for those last two volumes didn’t really tie much into the “literary genius” theme anymore, so I made a genuinely dumb decision: I cut those last two volumes entirely! I figured I’d just move the harem-progression content up earlier instead.

And that’s when I realized — after cutting two volumes’ worth of outline, I no longer had an outline. And without an outline, I don’t know how to write!

There was also something I only realized too late: the readers who’d stuck around to the 700K mark were clearly the ones who’d moved past shallow thrills — they weren’t just here for cheap gimmicks anymore.

The readers who only cared about pacing being fast had probably already left by that point. And the ones who remained definitely weren’t sticking around just for a bit of fan-service that barely even counted as such (I noticed every time I wrote career-line content, subscriptions actually went up more than during slice-of-life scenes or even romantic payoff moments).

Unfortunately I figured this out too late. With the outline gone, I had no idea what to do with the daily plot, and I ended up scratching my head bald over it — sitting frozen at my computer every night after work until sunrise, on the verge of tears with nothing to show for it.

Eventually I just decided: screw it, push forward, push forward, push forward, finish it and be done.

Surely I could at least write the romantic payoff scenes, right? Right...?

Turns out — no, not really.

My perfectionism kicked in again — I kept feeling like every character deserved some decent solo development before their moment, otherwise it wouldn’t feel natural.

Otherwise, what’s the difference between rushing to the end and just having a badly botched ending?

But unfortunately, my ambitions outpaced my ability. Each character’s solo arc in those last two volumes was tightly woven into that volume’s specific plot, and there was no clean way to move it earlier.

I couldn’t come up with a satisfying fix on short notice, so in the end I just had to handle it in a rushed, simplified way.

This mainly applies to the female characters other than Shizuku and Nayotake.

The original outline actually had a dual-heroine structure — those two were the prototypes for it, and the original outline gave them plenty of material, which is why their arcs had enough room to be moved earlier.

But the other characters were added in later, and it took me a while to come up with individual arcs for them in those final two volumes. Once those volumes got cut, I genuinely couldn’t think of anything better. (Side note: for Kikuri and PA-ko, their screen time was too thin to properly write out a full romantic payoff scene — it would’ve felt too forced otherwise. And while the trio of little ones are technically of age in-story, the subject matter is still too sensitive, so I didn’t write those scenes directly either.)

That’s really the root of why writing became so painful every day — just coming up with the plot left me completely drained, and I no longer had the spare energy to sneak in the odd meme or inside joke like I used to.

And I’m the kind of writer who, if even I think what I’m writing is boring, literally cannot force out a single filler word. So every morning I woke up, and every evening after work, all I could think was: maybe I should just drop it today...

(Funny enough, sometimes the plot I agonized over and carefully designed got criticized, while stuff I thought was so boring I was afraid to even look at the comments ended up being weirdly well-received...)

Especially around the 900K character mark — that’s actually when I ended up back in the hospital again.

Still because of the Crohn’s diagnosis — I have to be careful about my diet. Through trial and error, I found that I could eat pretty much anything except cold things. Spicy food, no problem. But anything cold, and I’d feel it immediately.

So I gave up popsicles, ice cream, and iced cola. But one day the craving got the better of me, and I caved and ate a popsicle. I figured worst case I’d just feel a bit off and take some antibiotics to knock it down (I’d slipped up a few times before, and antibiotics always fixed it right away).

This time, it didn’t work. The pain got so bad I ended up in the ER in the middle of the night for a CT scan, terrified it had perforated again. Thankfully it hadn’t — but there was intestinal swelling and peritonitis, and I was admitted straight to the inpatient ward again...

During that hospital stay, I kept going back and forth internally.

Part of me thought: I’m already in this state, might as well just quietly drop the book and disappear.

Another part of me thought: I’m literally in the hospital right now — shouldn’t I at least milk this for some sympathy and make it worth the hospital bill?

Then I’d think, this is so painful, waking up every day to write 4,000 characters feels worse than owing tens of thousands of yuan, I really can’t keep going — maybe I should post a photo from the hospital, say my body can’t take it anymore, announce a hiatus, and slowly fade away...

But even thinking all that, I still found myself, out of habit, pulling out my laptop after finishing my meds each day and continuing to update.

Mostly just to see how many subscriptions I had left.

And it turned out, at that point, the numbers were about the same as they’d been back at the 700K mark — barely any drop, just the normal kind of attrition.

Back when I made the decision to force through the story, I’d honestly expected subscriptions to crash down to maybe just over a hundred, or even below that.

Because even I found it hard to say I was as satisfied with the story as before.

But seeing that even at 900K characters, I still had close to 400 subscriptions — and some key chapters even climbed back up to 500 — and that it barely dropped at all even through the ending...

What else can I say? It’s not like there’s some other explanation for why so many readers stuck around. I can’t exactly turn around and say something falsely modest like “I wrote this like garbage, why didn’t you all leave?”

So I guess all I can do is give myself some credit — I must have written it pretty well after all, and you readers clearly have great taste!

Or maybe I’m just holding myself to an unreasonably high standard, and it wasn’t actually that bad — I was just spiraling in my own head the whole time!

Yeah. That’s exactly it.

Anyway, no matter what, every day I kept expecting the subscriber count to drop, and it just... never really did.

Like I said earlier, those subscriptions were the thing that kept me going to a proper finish.

When I first came to Hedgehog Cat, a lot of senior authors told me the readers there are some of the kindest people on the whole platform.

Arguably the readers with the highest willingness to pay on the entire internet right now. Don’t drop a book if you can help it, finish it if you can — please don’t let them down again.

Write while you can, and treasure it while it lasts.

Whether it was my last book or this one, I’ve felt that truth firsthand, very directly.

So again, to the readers of my previous book — I’m sorry for dropping it and running.

From now on, every book I write will have a complete outline before I even start — that way I won’t be putting myself through this, and I won’t be doing a disservice to readers either. (Coming up with plot on the fly in real time is genuinely agonizing — I clearly don’t have the natural talent some outline-free writers seem to have.)

As for the bonus chapters — I already have two planned, both about Yukino. They might be short, might be normal length — I’ve never written anything like this before, so it might be tricky. Give me a few days; I’ll have them up by Monday at the latest.

Lastly, let’s talk about the next book.

I’ve got two new ones planned. One is an original story set in a Tokyo workplace — the inspiration actually came from those two cut volumes; I realized that plotline could easily stand on its own as a separate story, and Tokyo workplace fiction has been pretty popular lately over on the other platform, so I want to give it a try.

I’m still gathering research material right now — even bought a few relevant professional books to study. Once the outline’s done and the book launches, it’ll probably be early July.

The other one is, like this book, an absurdist fanfic for fun. I recently read a few interesting fanfics in my spare time and suddenly got some new ideas. That kind of story never runs very long, so I’m thinking of writing something in the 300–500K character range as a treat for myself — and if the original workplace story flops over on the other platform, I’ll fall back on writing this one instead.

Anyway, writing this book all the way to a million characters really taught me a lot about pacing and handling a long-form story, and it showed me a lot of my own weak points too. I hope the next book — whether in plot, characters, or prose — shows some real improvement.

See you all again in the next book, everyone!