“I know what you were about to say, Aoba,” Ui countered tersely.
“I’ll have you know, I had every intention of dressing up for this award ceremony…but…I couldn’t fit in the dress I bought for it a while back!”
“Ahh, yeah, I think Ui’s been puttin’ on the pounds since— Urgh!”
Before Kamo could even finish his thoughtless, ill-advised comment, he was met with Aoba’s body blow and Ui’s low kick.
“Ohh… Subjected this horribly unfair violence from two beautiful women… Since when was I the hero of my own harem comedy…?”
The two of them gave Kamo stares full of ice as he still managed to say something stupid through his pain and anguish.
Haruto snickered at them. “Ha-ha… Y’know, it’s funny how nearly everyone from the 15th contest succeeded in their own ways.”
Only three people from the 15th New Writers Contest were in attendance at this party, but the other prizewinners were still working as writers. Yoshihiro Kiso (age 72) managed to score an anime adaptation for his series Conquest of the Silver Demon, making him one of the central pillars of the GF Bunko library. He used his advanced age as an excuse to get out of judging obligations, but his writing career wasn’t ending anytime soon. Soma Misaka (age 21), after changing his pen name to “Steak Tsukemono” three years ago and making his second debut with Branch Hill Bunko, had continued to energetically release new titles. Makoto Yanagase (age 35) was still attracting a small but dedicated fanbase for his spanking-oriented stories, which had taken on a new dimension now that he had switched to an “adult” publishing label. Several of his works had even been adapted into 18+ anime OVAs.
There were many people by now who had debuted after this crop only to disappear from the scene after publishing a few novels (or even one), so having all six prizewinners from a single year continue to find success like this was a rarity to see across the industry, not just for GF Bunko.
“By the way, is the professor not here tonight? I haven’t seen him.”
Now that the subject had turned to their peers, Aoba brought up the question with Haruto. By “professor,” she meant Itsuki Hashima; she used to call him her “big bro,” but was obliged to come up with something else after he got married.
“Itsuki? He said he’d show up, but I haven’t noticed him, either.”
Haruto looked around the meeting hall. There was no sign of him…but Kenjiro Toki, Itsuki’s editor at GF Bunko, was right nearby, so Haruto asked him what was up with Itsuki.
Toki replied with a slightly awkward grin. “Ah…unfortunately, Itsuki had some urgent business that kept him from coming tonight.”
“Urgent business?”
Haruto wondered what business would be urgent enough to make him miss this awards party. Just as he did, Toki’s phone vibrated.
“…It’s Itsuki,” Toki said. Then, for reasons known only to him, he handed his phone to Haruto.
“You want me to pick up?”
Toki nodded, so Haruto pressed the “Answer” button and brought the phone to his ear.
“…This is Snake… Colonel, can you hear me…?”
The low, restrained voice on the other end wasn’t Snake at all. It belonged to Itsuki Hashima, age twenty-six.
“Who’s the colonel?”
“Huh…?! Is that Haruto…? Why are you answering this…? Well, you’ll do. In fact, this works well for me…”
The anxiety clear in Itsuki’s voice made Haruto even more confused.
“What’s up, Itsuki?”
“I’m being confined against my will at a certain location…”
“Confined?! Seriously, what’s going on with you, Itsuki?!”
“Haruto,” Itsuki weakly continued instead of answering the question. “I need you to provide a distraction for ten…no, even five minutes… I’ll figure out a way to escape by then… I know you can do it… In fact, you’re the only one…”
“A distraction? Against what?!”
…Haruto had already surmised the situation to some extent, but he put up with the farce anyway, voice as serious as possible.
“Th-the name of this menace is—”
But before he could give the name…
“Ah! You! I told you, no phones allowed! How did you smuggle that in there anyway?! I checked, like, all your belongings!”
Another voice, not Itsuki’s, rang across the phone. It belonged to Miyako Shirakawa, age twenty-six, the editor at Branch Hill Bunko that Itsuki was assigned to.
“Please… Just a glance… Give me just a single look at my familyyyy…”
“You can see them in person as soon as you finish this draft!”
“Don’t you mean ‘you can see them in hell’?”
“Quit making it sound so apocalyptic! I’ll let you see them while you’re still alive, all right?!”
Haruto let out a laugh at this ridiculous exchange he was overhearing. “Hey, can I hang up yet?”
“W-wait! Don’t abandon me!”
“Who are you talking to? …Oh, Mr. Toki? Hello there!”
Miyako had taken the phone from Itsuki and spoken right into it. Haruto took a deep breath.
“Hey, Miyako.”
“Huh?! Haruto?!”
The surprise was clear in Miyako’s voice.
“Sounds like you’ve got your hands full, like always. You’re confining him in the usual torture chamber?”
“It’s not a torture chamber. It’s a special room we’ve provided so creators can concentrate on their assignments.”
Miyako was all business as she corrected Haruto.
Just like in Gift Publishing HQ, Branch Hill had a “containment room” that confined slow writers against their will—um, that is, allowed them to fully concentrate on their assignments. It was accessible from the back of the café that took up the first floor of Branch Hill’s building via a secret entrance, a former basement wine cellar that the publisher had repurposed for authors who were naughty with their deadlines. And after three years of signing on with Branch Hill Bunko, Itsuki Hashima had become a regular client down there.
“Whoa, Itsuki! Wait up!”
“Damn it! Let me go! I gotta get back to my family!”
“If you care that much about your family, just do what I say!”
Apparently Itsuki had just attempted an escape. The sounds of a scuffle were audible through the phone.
“Stop it! …Ugh. All right. I’ll do whatever you say… Just promise me you won’t lay a finger on my family…”
“Will you stop setting me up to be a movie villain already?!”
“Oh, like you have the moral high ground after literally kidnapping me! You demon! You monster! You editor!”
Haruto felt an aching in his chest.
Miyako had worked as Itsuki’s editor for three years now, and she spent much more time—and much more intense time—with him than Haruto did these days. Miyako and Haruto had gone out several times over the past three years, but they still weren’t in anything like a relationship. The only palpable advance was that Miyako was now comfortable referring to Haruto by his first name. With I Want to Be the Protagonist (edited by Miyako) becoming a major hit, she now had a lot more media-adaptation work to handle, along with a stable of other problem-child writers assigned to her. It kept her beavering away every day without rest.