It was December 24, and Itsuki was attending a wedding reception at a hotel in Tokyo. The groom was Akira Yasaka—aka writer Makina Kaizu.
Itsuki was seated at the same table as Haruto Fuwa, Chihiro Hashima, and Tadashi Kamo, all of whom knew the bride and groom well. Satoshi Godo and Kaizu’s editor were visible at another table nearby.
“Good to see you, Mr. Kamo. You were invited, too?”
“I-I’ll tell you what the deal is,” Kamo mumbled, face tensed up. “I asked one of my writer acquaintances to help hook me up with this girl I liked, but she totally turned me down, and now that writer’s got her… I—I know you don’t know what I’m talking about, but I don’t know what they did to me, either… I feel like I’m going crazy… I swear I’m not here to spoil this or steal her away. No, I got a glimpse of something much scarier than any of that…”
The details weren’t exactly clear, but apparently there was some kind of romantic issue among the three of them. Kaizu and Ashley sure had a some nerve inviting him to the event—but then, Kamo had to be applauded for having the mental wherewithal to actually show up.
It wasn’t that big a venue, after all, and there weren’t that many attendees who weren’t family members—but every spare inch of wall, ceiling, windows, tables, and chairs was done up in glittering, almost Christmas-like decor, making things look very festive indeed.
“I’d like to thank all of you for taking time out from the busy end-of-year period—Christmas Eve, no less—to attend this event. I know how inconvenient the date was for a lot of you, but we chose this day for our ceremony because we truly wanted to hold it today…”
Kaizu began the bridegroom’s speech with that apology. December 24, after all, was the anniversary of the death of Kasuka Sekigahara, the dear friend of both him and Ashley. The hall space in front of the venue featured several large photos of the bride and groom, but right in the center was a picture of the two of them laughing together with Kasuka.
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“So I’d like to take this moment to tell our departed friend one thing. We’re going to be happy, Kasuka. Just watch us.”
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Ashley, in her wedding dress, was in tears as she said that to the audience. Itsuki doubted he’d ever forget the sight of her at that moment—not to mention the sound of Godo crying even louder than her own family.
Itsuki decided to take a taxi alone after the ceremony ended. His destination: the place he’d agreed to meet Nayuta for their Christmas date.
He was still feeling the afterglow from the ceremony as he watched the city through the window, all decked out for the holiday season—but then he received an unexpected message on his phone. It came from the account Miyako Shirakawa used on her company PC, and it stated that I Want to Be the Protagonist was going to get another printing. The first reprint had been announced about a week after release, so this was going to be the third printing—and it was a pretty big print run this time.
The feedback they had for the book so far was virtually universal acclaim. Sisterly Combat Volume 10 (released back in July), All About My Little Sister Volume 9 (September), even LR Days Volume 1 (October) all got good reviews, but I Want to Be the Protagonist was on a whole other level. People online were saying things like, “my favorite out of any book I’ve ever read” and “best of all time” and “a masterpiece” and “this book changed my life” and “now I want to be a protagonist, too” and “I totally want to marry Kei Kuroyama” and “this is the first time I’ve read this author, but it was so good, I just bought a complete set of Itsuki Hashima’s work on Amazon” and so on. Real passion, as if they were talking about a Nayuta Kani novel, and he was receiving a lot of intense fan letters as well. He felt a little sorry for the guy who’d bought his complete library based off that one book, but oh well.
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This short story is adapted from the drama CD included with the special edition of A Sister’s All You Need. Volume 13 in Japan. It is wholly unrelated to the main plot of the series, so please enjoy it without sweating the details too much. This story may also completely destroy any good vibes left after reading this volume’s main section, so it’s recommended to save this until some time after the rest of the book.
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One day, Itsuki and Nayuta were out on a movie date. They picked a Hollywood blockbuster to watch, and just like the reviews said, the story and visuals were nothing short of spectacular. The big screen and extravagant sound system used by their chosen theater only added to the excitement.
“Wow, that was great, wasn’t it?” Nayuta said, beaming as she stretched a bit outside the theater.
“Yeah,” Itsuki replied. “I didn’t think that bit at the beginning foreshadowed that other thing later… And that twist in the second half was crazy.”
“The action was nice, too, wasn’t it? Just all those huge, massive explosions everywhere. That was so much fun.”
“Right? And when he said that thing in the middle and everything went totally nuts, that was so awesome!” Itsuki was visibly excited. “It sure is nice to watch a movie for a change of pace. Kinda makes me want to make one myself!”
“Doesn’t it? I mean, my books are being made into movies, but now I wanna try something flashier, with a way bigger body count and everything. Maybe a shark film!”
“If you made a shark film, I think that’d confuse a lot of your hard-core fans.” Itsuki smiled a bit.
“Oh, by the way, Itsuki, I actually received a nice gift from someone in the movie industry earlier.”
“A nice gift?”
“Yeah, a video camera. It’s a little old, but he said it was this professional-grade one that people in the business use.”
“Wow,” Itsuki replied with interest. “Like, something you could make an indie film with?”
“Yeah. I bet they could lend us whatever else we need, too. And I think I could convince them to help with editing.”
“Whoa…! Maybe we could make one, huh…?”
“We sure could.”
“Huh…” He thought for a moment. “Then let’s do it!”
Nayuta smiled and nodded at his reply that was full of enthusiasm and not a lot of thought. “Let’s do it, Itsuki! Our very own original movie!”
“Right!” Itsuki nodded, then suddenly turned serious. “But at the time, we could never have imagined such a horrific incident would ever take place…”
Nayuta laughed at the trite narrative. “Quit dooming us with your voice-over, please. What kind of ‘incident’ would even take place?”
“Ha-ha-ha! True!”
“Exactly.”
They exchanged a nice chuckle over this…but at the time, they could never have imagined something like that would ever happen.