“Gin-san, you told me I wouldn’t be alone anymore, remember?”
Odaira-sensei had disappeared.
When Yuzu-san saw it happen, she was taken aback for a second, but as she realized we were leaving, her expression wavered. Tears began to well up in her eyes.
Yuzu-san, please don’t make that face!
“No! I don’t want you to go!” she exclaimed.
“Yuzu-san...” Miru disappeared next.
“You are going away, aren’t you?” Crying, she quickly walked over to the wall. “Gin-san, this is a message from me!” She pointed her finger at the wall and began to draw a symbol.
It was a word. She was writing a word on the wall! I looked carefully at what she was writing. I had to burn this into my brain!
好き
It was two characters. The second character was the hiragana “ki,” I was pretty sure. But I didn’t understand the first character. Was it a kanji? Trying to figure out the writing on the wall was hard enough.
“Yuzu-san, please just tell me in words!”
“Tell you? But... you’re going to disappear!”
Ah, this is all too much! I can’t handle it!
“Yuzu-san, please! Tell me what it is that you wrote!”
“It’s a secret.”
Just when I was about to open my mouth again to beg, I lost consciousness.
We had returned to the 23rd century.
When I came to, the four of us were in Odaira-sensei’s living room. It was 6:05 PM. I couldn’t remember precisely, but I was pretty sure it was about the time it had been when we had time traveled before. In other words, we had returned to the precise moment when we had left.
Nothing was different from when we had left. Odaira-sensei had returned to being an elderly gentleman, and when my sisters and I returned home, our parents welcomed us home as if nothing had happened.
We slipped easily back into the swing of the 23rd century. After two days, I had a dream the second night... I think it was a dream of Yuzu-san.
For me, my biggest memory of the 21st century was most definitely Yuzu-san. She was the first person in the 21st century I had spoken to, and she was very beautiful and kind. She made me a whole lot of home-cooked meals, and was my classmate at school.
I’ll never see Yuzu-san again...
But I could still remember her.
I sat down in my room, and looked at the cover of the current-day edition of Oniaka. Homyura Taitei was smiling at me, an almost exact copy of Yuzu-san. The illustration was a little stylized, but it was basically exactly like her. Of course her face and hairstyle were the same, but she also wore the exact katyusha that Yuzu-san had loved so much.
I wonder what the connection is between Yuzu-san and Homyura?
Yuzu-san had done so much for me, but I had barely repaid her at all before we returned to our time period. I felt so guilty...
Did she manage to fulfill her brother’s wish? I bet after that, she kept trying her best. And what was that final message, I wonder?
When I thought about Yuzu-san, my chest panged with the feeling of loss. I knew it was pitiful, but I could tell I was turning inward. As I became overcome with sentiment, I heard a knock at my door and lifted my head.
“Onii-chan, can I come in?”
Kuroha came in my room. She sat down on my bed, and looked down at me with a serious expression. I suspected she had something she wanted to talk about.
“What is it?” I asked.
“I’ve been curious about something since we got back, so I did some research.”
“Curious about something?”
“About that...” She pointed at the copy of Oniaka I was holding. “Homyura is Yuzu-san,” she said, suddenly, as if some kind of great detective announcing her brilliant deduction.
“Hey, wait... You just noticed they looked identical now? I realized that a long time ago.”
“Not that. What I mean is that Homyura the character was based on Yuzu-san,” she continued sounding very confident.
What makes her so confident?
“Onii-chan, look at this,” she said as she held out a sheet of paper. It was a printout from an encyclopedia page from the Internet. I could read the title “Kurona Gura.”
“The author of Oniaka, Kurona Gura, lived his entire life in the heart of TOKYO, but it seems that during a writing slump, he moved. It says he wanted to change his mood.”
“Moved? Where to?”
“Read.” She pointed to the top of the page.
I followed her finger to the line “He moved to a Western mansion that was put up for sale in OKUTAMA.”
Wait... A Western mansion in OKUTAMA? It couldn’t be...Yuzu-san’s house!
My eyes went wide, and I looked up at Kuroha. “Is the Western mansion in OKUTAMA they are talking about...?”
“Yes. It’s Yuzu-san’s house, I think. I bet that Gura saw a picture of Yuzu-san.”
In the back of my mind, the picture of Homyura and Yuzu-san overlapped perfectly. Homyura was based on Yuzu-san! My beloved heroine was based on another girl that was very special to me! Was there any greater happiness?
“Kuroha, thank you for telling me this. It makes me really happy!”
“That’s not all. I found out something else very important.” Kuroha was calm and composed, in comparison to how excited I was. It seemed like Great Detective Kuroha’s deductions weren’t over yet. “Oniaka might have had a book that it was based on.”
“That it was based on?” I had never heard a theory like that. Oniaka had been a completely original story by Gura. He had said publicly that no other work had influenced him.
“Yuzu-san said she would treasure it, remember?” said Kuroha. I didn’t follow what she was getting at. “You know, we all helped make it...”
After I couldn’t answer, Kuroha got an exasperated look on her face.
“Ani MAJI Mania! The story is a lot like Oniaka, you know?”
“I wasn’t able to read it, so I don’t really know...”
“You at least got the gist of the story, right?” she asked.
Ah, that’s true.
The parts about the adopted older brother and younger non-blood-related sister were the same as Oniaka.
“Gura must have found the box with Ani MAJI Mania and the picture of Yuzu-san in it,” continued Kuroha. “After we came back, I reread Oniaka. The story is very similar. I’m almost sure that he used Ani MAJI Mania as a basis for it.”
The more Kuroha talked, the more it made sense to me. If Gura had found Yuzu-san’s picture, it wasn’t a stretch to think that he had also found Ani MAJI Mania’s manuscript. However...
“Wait, then he plagiarized? Gura would never have done something like that. I mean, if that’s true, then a plagiarized book became one of the most famous books in all literature!”
“It wasn’t an exact copy, and who could have known it would have gained such popularity, right?”
Well, she has a point. But I still am not sure whether I want to believe it. I had mixed feelings, but with the next thing Kuroha said, any doubts were blown away.
“If it’s true, then the wishes of Yuzu-san’s brother really did become true, even if it was in another form.”
I was stunned into silence. Oniaka was the work that had given birth to the root of the Orthodox style. It had had an incredible impact on all of Japanese culture. It had been primarily responsible for the spread of moe.
Yuzu-san’s brother’s wish transcended time and came true!
“Now that’s a wonderful tale!”
“I know, right?” Kuroha smiled. “There’s no definitive proof, but thinking about it this way, it’s pretty wonderful, you know?”
“Sometimes you say some pretty great things,” I said.
Kuroha responded with, “What do you mean, ‘sometimes’?” and chuckled.
I suddenly wanted to read Oniaka with a burning passion. I opened the book and turned the pages.
I thought Kuroha was going to leave, bu
t she asked me looking over my bed “Onii-chan, Homyura was your first love, wasn’t she?”
I panicked a little. “How did you know...?”
“You are a lot easier to understand than you think you are.”
I-I am...? I was a little shocked.
There was nothing strange about falling in love with a 2D girl. In the current day, it was quite commonplace. But it was still embarrassing to have your little sister see through your first love.
While I had my defenses down, Kuroha asked me a strange question. “What part of Homyura did you fall for more? A: Her personality. B: Her looks.”
Her looks or her personality? They were both awesome, but if I had to choose...
“The thing I fell for the most was her pure feelings for her older brother, so I guess that means A, her personality.”
“I see.” Kuroha nodded, seeming to be pleased with that answer.
“Homyura didn’t show it on the outside usually, but in her heart she was always thinking about her big brother. That was why she stuck so close to him, and why it seemed like she made everything he did her own purpose in life. She would fiercely deny that she was romantically in love, but in the last scene, she is finally honest with herself. That’s what I liked about her.”
“Y-Yeah.”
“Was the heroine in Ani MAJI Mania the same type of person?”
“I don’t think she was that similar...”
“I see. And it’s not like Ani MAJI Mani had that line in it, right?”
“That line?” asked Kuroha.
“Homyura’s famous quote.”
“What’s that?”
If you are talking about Homyura’s famous quote, there can only be one:
“‘I want to have Onii-chan’s baby,’” I said.
The main character of Oniaka was worried about not being related by blood to his family. Homyura realized this and said this line to him at the end of the book. Making a baby together meant they would be tying the main character to his family by blood. The brother and the sister would be partners and create a true family together. When I’d read that scene, I had been overcome with love for Homyura and cried.
“So? Was there a line like that in Ani MAJI Mania?” If there was, that would confirm that Gura had used it as a basis for Oniaka.
“Of course there wasn’t!” exclaimed Kuroha, who had gone quite red.
She’s got good circulation.
“Anyway, Oniaka took it way too far. There’s no way she could say something like, ‘Have my baby, Onii-chan!’”
That’s not true, Homyura says it! Well, she’s 2D, but...
“In Ani MAJI Mania, the last line is ‘I want to be together with you forever, Onii-chan!’” Kuroha went on.
“Ahh... Yuzu-san did want to be together with her brother until his death, didn’t she?” I replied with a somber tone, but Kuroha seemed annoyed.
“You can’t think of anything but Yuzu-san, can you?”
“I can’t help it, okay?” I said.
Kuroha looked down at me disapprovingly.
“I’d like to concentrate on reading Oniaka right now, so please go back to your room,” I told her in a tone like throwing out someone bothering me.
Kuroha didn’t seem to like that. “Suit yourself. I was going to tell you the word that Yuzu-san wrote on the wall, but I guess I won’t. I’ll never tell you, ever.”
“What?!” I stood up, and approached Kuroha. She read the word that Yuzu-san wrote back then?! “Please, tell me! I’m begging you!”
“No way. Yuzu-san knew you couldn’t read it, and that’s why she wrote it that way.”
“Don’t tease me like this. I tried looking it up in a dictionary, but I couldn’t remember what the character was anymore.”
“...I’m not going to do it for you.”
“Please, don’t say that. Is it chikan? Chijo? Doutei? Kan’u? What was it?!”
“None of those!”
In the end, Kuroha wouldn’t tell me. She scolded me, insisting that if I was so concerned about things that had ended, I should be writing a novel instead.
Things that had ended... It saddened me to think of it like that, but Kuroha was right, after all.
One month had passed since we had returned to the 23rd century. During that time, the two literary prizes I was interested in had their results announced: The Newcomer’s Prize and the Homyura Prize.
My submission to the Newcomer’s Prize had not been selected, unfortunately. My novels still had a lot of maturing to do, it seemed. It was frustrating for me, but my determination was not dented. I immediately began work on my next book. I would keep submitting until I won the prize if it took me ten, or even twenty times!
As for the second result, the Homyura Prize...
We were going to see Odaira-sensei after quite a while. I took Kuroha and Miru along, and we headed to his house. I had kept up by email, but this would be the first face-to-face encounter since we had gone to the 21st century.
He guided us to the terrace instead of the living room because he said there was a nice breeze. The four of us sat around the table with an umbrella.
“Odaira-sensei, we have something we want to talk about,” I said. We explained to him about how we thought Oniaka had been based on Ani MAJI Mania.
When we did, he chuckled and laughed. “That’s the conclusion I reached, as well. Ani MAJI Mania became Oniaka, and was read by later generations. It’s a nice story, you know? Yuzu-san’s feelings for her brother changed form, and reached her target.”
I didn’t know who this “target” was that Odaira-san was referring to. Kuroha blushed slightly and averted her eyes, so perhaps she knew.
“Onii-chan, there’s something more important we came for, remember?” Kuroha reminded me.
“Oh, right,” I said.
It’d be better for Miru to give it, I think. But when I called her name and prompted her, she didn’t respond. Miru was staring over at a hedge in the corner of the yard.
“Miru, what is it?” I asked.
“I feel someone watching.”
“Watching?” I looked over to the hedge. There didn’t seem to be anything amiss, but...
“Miru-chan must mean there is a brazen voyeur, I’m sure!” Odaira-sensei declared.
Mriu turned innocently to Kuroha. “Nee, what’s a voyeur?”
“Sheesh, stop teaching her those types of words, Sensei!” Kuroha yelled, exasperatedly.
“Miru, do you still feel like someone is watching?” I asked.
“No.”
“Okay, then do the thing.”
On my word, Miru pulled out a bouquet of flowers. “Congratulations, Geezer. Keep it up.”
“Ooh, flowers from Miru-chan! Can I have you as well, as part of a combo?” The victory crown for the Homyura Prize sparkled on top of Odaira-sensei’s head.
Usubi had been the favorite in the press, but when the prize was announced, it had been Odaira-sensei’s LILSIS☆STAR that had won. The orthodox had beaten out the blasphemous.
“It’s all thanks to you that literature was saved, Sensei. I’m so glad that Usubi didn’t win the prize,” I told him.
That strange Japanese, and the story with no moe at all... It wasn’t appropriate for the Homyura Prize.
“Hahaha. So I was the one who protected literature, you think?” Odaira-sensei laughed half-heartedly. “Gin-kun, ever since I went to the past, my thinking has changed. I would have been even more pleased if Usubi had won the Homyura Prize this time.
“Huh?”
“Think back to the 21st century.”
I wondered what Odaira-sensei was trying to say.
“Back then, moe was not yet accepted like it is in the current day.”
“That’s right.”
“But the roots had already begun to blossom. It was just before they took full bloom.”
I started to remember the city streets of the 21st century and the television programs. The amount of moe was very slight co
mpared to what there was in the current day.
“Gin-kun, do you remember that literature club president?” he asked.
I once again remembered her face. “I think she was an extremely inflexible person who was fixed in her ways and thinking.”
“I see. But it wasn’t so strange for that era, don’t you think?”
“It’s true that the difference in time periods was considerable, but she disregarded moe offhandedly, and was extremely narrow-minded.”
“Indeed. Then it’s important that we not become like her, yes?”
...! I felt like I had been slapped across the face.
“You told her yourself, didn’t you, Gin-san? ‘You’re just judging a book by its cover!’”
I see now! I’ve treated Usubi no differently from that club president! I was only looking at that work’s cover. I thought it was worthless just because it didn’t have value in my eyes.
“Isn’t it better to have a variety of things? People create things. There is no ‘high-brow’ or ‘low-brow’ when it comes to that passion. And the feelings that are contained in those works are extremely precious.”
“Sensei!” I cried.
He’s so right! I don’t want to be a person who is stubborn and can’t accept new things. I must be more flexible and open minded! Profound! Sensei, I’ll follow you for all my life!
I knelt upon the ground. Truly this was a person who should be gazed up at from below! To look him straight in the eye was rude beyond compare.
Odaira-sensei shone. I don’t mean he actually emitted light, of course. I meant it was as if he looked like... Wait. Sensei is actually actually starting to flash...
“To think I could be awakened to a whole new world at my age...”
The flashing light became faster and faster into a continuous glow. So bright! I covered my eyes with my arms.
When the light died down, Odaira-sensei had turned into a blonde, twin-tailed little girl. He had awakened indeed. He looked just like he had the entire time we’d been in the 21st century.
“S-Sensei...”
“So, like... I can transform at will now, see? I think I’ll stay this way for a while.”
This was beyond comprehension! I was so dumbfounded, I stood up without thinking.
“I have awakened my true Way of the Little Sister. In other words, I have become my own little sister.”
My Little Sister Can Read Kanji: Volume 1 Page 14