“Heh... Makina is the weakest of us Outers.”
“To lose to a mere human. It’s a disgrace to our very name.”
Ende groaned internally as she listened to the theatrical voices. Was it really necessary to keep the room so dark? She couldn’t read the next page in her book.
It would be easy to turn on a light, or to drive out the ones playing their silly game. But Ende realized that that wouldn’t be fair. Outers generally had so little to do. If they had found a way to alleviate the boredom a little bit, she didn’t want to interrupt them.
“Oh? Would you like to try me?” a new voice asked.
At the sound of the new voice, the lights flicked on. The darkness cleared instantly, revealing a room haphazardly strewn with bookshelves and books.
Makina Shikitani was standing at the entrance to the room. At the middle of the room sat three people, facing each other.
Ende looked across the room from the corner where she was sitting atop a fallen bookshelf, a finger marking her place in a book she was in the middle of reading.
“Erk! Makina!” the “Ideal Future in Which All Are Saved” girl stammered at the sight of her.
“Er, ah, we were enjoying a bit of ‘four fiends’ roleplay. We don’t really think of you that way...” the “Fluffy Daily Life World” man said, apologetically.
“But it’s true that you’ve disgraced yourself! How could you lose to a human and come back with your tail between your legs?!” the third Outer demanded. Only he, the “Ultimate Cosmic Battle Saga” boy, continued to lay into Makina.
“Want to complain, do you?” Makina said. “Try me. Show me your strike that can punch galaxies away.”
Makina did not flinch; in fact, she seemed quite up to the challenge.
“I-I never said I could do that!” the boy dissembled. His fear of the woman almost seemed instinctive.
They must have known that they couldn’t beat Makina here.
Ende turned her attention back to the book in her hand. She’d just gotten to the part where Yuichi Sakaki picked Kanako Orihara up in his arms and jumped out of the castle. She reckoned that she was nearly at the end of the story.
“Is your injury healed?” Ende asked as Makina approached her, without looking up from her book.
“As long as it’s not instant death, I can always work something out,” Makina replied. “I believe you’re aware of that.”
“Yes, I am. But that is the way people show concern, isn’t it?” Ende asked. She hadn’t actually been worried at all, but she’d thought it important to at least make a superficial show of concern.
“Why didn’t my abilities work on him? Who is he... who is Yuichi Sakaki?” Makina asked.
Just as Ende had anticipated, Makina had come back to ask that question.
“Hmm,” Ende said. “I thought I told you not to interfere with Yuichi Sakaki. I wonder how you interpreted that...”
“Well...” Makina trailed off.
Finding her hesitance unusual, Ende looked up from her book.
Makina’s sour expression gave Ende a clear hint as to her reason.
“I see,” Ende said. “You thought I just liked him? And despite thinking that, you still did what you did. You’re a nasty person.”
“I’m not as nasty as you are.”
“Fair enough,” said Ende. “I’ll give you that, at least in regards to this most recent incident. I should have said this: You can’t beat Yuichi Sakaki. If you don’t want to die, lie low for a while. The minute Kanako Orihara became involved with the Sakaki siblings, your plan’s chance of success was nil. The turning point was an incident that took place on a roof one summer vacation. What I’m saying is, the fact that the first line of this book is about Kanako’s first meeting with Mutsuko made it clear that your plan was doomed to failure.” Ende lightly waved the book in her hand. “But I suppose even saying that wouldn’t have stopped you.”
Makina let out a sigh of defeat. Outers tended to be overly self-confident, and Makina probably had thought that she alone would be immune.
“Now, as for why your abilities didn’t work?” Ende asked. “It’s simple. You ended up thinking, ‘This might not work,’ didn’t you? The moment Yuichi Sakaki revived himself, your worldview was shaken. It was then consumed by his own. That’s how worldviews work. Strength comes from certainty. When certainty wavers, your worldview becomes open to distortion.”
“Ah... I see,” Makina said. “Even though I’m an Outer, I become just another character in a story...”
Ende had assumed she would argue, but Makina was surprisingly receptive to the idea.
“Now, as for your other question: what Yuichi Sakaki is... Let’s say he’s the vessel for Mutsuko Sakaki’s hopes and dreams,” Ende said. “He fights as she wishes, and breaks through everything. Some might see this as beautiful sibling love, whereas others might see it as vile brainwashing. I believe much of his strength comes from humanity’s shared ideas about hard work being a virtue... at least, that’s the feeling I have. To be honest, there’s still a lot I don’t know. Now, I’d like to ask this. How does it feel to lose?” Ende swiftly changed the subject, looking at Makina with curious eyes.
“Is that what you were after?” Makina demanded. “You must have realized I wouldn’t be killed, then.”
“That’s right,” said Ende. “It’s not rare for an Outer to disappear after they lose, especially when Outers fight each other. Very few of us lose and then live to tell the tale. You’re the only one I’ve ever heard of, so I’m curious. Now, tell me, please. I’ve been quite cooperative with you, haven’t I?”
“‘How does it feel,’ eh?” Makina mused. “It’s refreshing, in a way. I don’t feel any particular anger or desire for revenge. I do feel some fear towards Yuichi Sakaki... but we reached a compromise about that.”
It was not what Ende had predicted, but it did sound like it was how Makina really felt. Though it was contrary to her expectations, Ende found that interesting.
“So you won’t be needing this, then?” Ende plucked something round out of her pocket. It was a sphere with a white porcelain shine, just large enough to be held between two of her fingers.
“An eye? I thought Monika Sakurazaki had both.” Makina gazed curiously at the sphere in Ende’s palm.
Monika had had the right one from the start. The left had been held by Makina’s servant, but Yuichi Sakaki had taken it, and it was now in Monika’s hands, too.
“This is the Evil God’s upper eye. Why should a divine being look exactly like a human?” Ende said, smugly. “If you want it, I’ll give it to you. You could take part in the Evil God’s story again.”
“I don’t need it anymore,” Makina said simply.
Perhaps she really had had a change of heart, Ende observed. The old Makina would have wanted it.
“I see,” Ende mused as she rolled the Evil God’s eye around in her palm. “What to do, then? Maybe someone else will want it...”
She had been hoping to liven up the story a little bit by baiting Makina, and so she couldn’t immediately think of a better way to use it.
“...I know,” Ende said, with a smile that was brimming with curiosity. “Maybe I’ll join in myself? I’d love to see what the completed Evil God looks like, after all...”
Afterword
I’m terribly sorry for the long wait.
Here’s volume 4, at last.
I’m very grateful that I can keep telling this story. I owe it to the encouragement of you, the readers. Thank you all so much.
But as I reach volume four, I’m running out of things to say in the afterwords. It would be one thing if something interesting had happened, but things have been pretty uneventful here.
I went around sampling ramen from different restaurants, but all I can say is that Tenka Ippin’s was the best, so the story doesn’t really go anywhere. Hey, you think Tenka Ippin might send me some free merchandise for saying that? I heard that happened for some old shonen man
ga. They would get large shipments of things they featured prominently in their manga. Of course, I’d rather not get sent the entire Captains of Crush gripper series... though actually, maybe I would take them!
I never write about what happened in the current volume, so maybe I’ll talk about what happened last volume. I don’t think that will spoil anything. No one’s going to be starting with volume 4... right?
Remember the liu he da qiang? The spear that appeared in volume 3? I tried swinging one around as research. Of course, it was made out of wood, not some special alloy.
What’s that? You’re surprised that I do research for this silly story of mine? Actually, I do quite a lot of investigating of various concepts and materials. The research doesn’t always make it into the story, of course...
The liu he da qiang is also known as the “Six Harmonies Spear.” You might be wondering what the six harmonies are. It refers to the four cardinal directions, plus heaven and earth. In other words, it represents the entire world around us. It basically means it’s a really cool spear that can take on the whole world. That might sound like a pretty pompous name, but that sort of thing was pretty common in Medieval China.
I’ve also heard the theory that it refers to the three internal harmonies and three external harmonies from Chinese philosophy. What are those, you might ask? Well, if I get into that, we’ll be here forever, so if you’re curious, you can look it up.
Anyway, I tried swinging the spear around, but it’s not something a novice can master overnight. Just holding it right took me all I had. Once I started swinging it around, I began to want one for myself, but they are three meters long. It would be hard to find a place to keep it.
If I make a lot of money, maybe I’ll get a house with a lawn where I can do spear practice.
Now, the usual routine.
To my editor, I was a real handful here in volume four. I’m really sorry about that.
And to my illustrator, An2A. Thanks for wonderful illustrations once again.
Next up is volume 5.
I think I’ll be able to get this one out without you having to wait very long... but I’m not sure...
Tsuyoshi Fujitaka
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Copyright
My Big Sister Lives in a Fantasy World: The Melancholy of the High School Girl Light Novel Author?!
by Tsuyoshi Fujitaka
Translated by Elizabeth Ellis
Edited by Emily Sorensen
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright © 2014 Tsuyoshi Fujitaka
Illustrations Copyright © 2014 An2A
Cover illustration by An2A
All rights reserved.
Original Japanese edition published in 2014 by Hobby Japan
This English edition is published by arrangement with Hobby Japan, Tokyo
English translation © 2017 J-Novel Club LLC
All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property.
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The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher.
Ebook edition 1.0: June 2017
The Melancholy of the High School Girl Light Novel Author?! Page 19