“Now, You Tomorrow Is All I Need. is neither a little-sister story nor something in the style of I Want to Be the Protagonist. It was new territory for me, a total change in style, and despite a title that foreshadows romance, it’s a battle fantasy novel filled with sex and violence. When it first came out, of course it got slammed in the reviews. Honestly, that was hard.”
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“Itsuki…”
Kazuko Hashima smiled at Itsuki as he smiled at his own hardships on the screen. Sora, sitting on her lap, was reaching out to him, innocently shouting “Daddy! Daddy!”
“Yep. That’s Daddy there,” she said to her little boy as she watched Itsuki strike a bold figure. Itsuki Hashima—a novelist, and a person, she once idolized, now her loving husband and still her favorite writer. Nayuta Kani—the novelist’s destined partner, someone he was fated to love and compete with for all time.
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“But in the end, a lot of people came to accept it, and now it’s received this prize, so I’m glad I wrote it now.”
Itsuki’s expression took on a defiant streak.
“Umm, so I need to apologize to my long-time fans, people who started reading with I Want to Be the Protagonist, people who discovered me with You Tomorrow, or anyone else who might discover and enjoy my work later on. I think I’m gonna continue to change, and I think that may result in disappointing some of you over time. Readers might call me a traitor, like they did when I stopped writing in the little-sister wheelhouse. People might say to me ‘This isn’t what I wanted to see from you,’ and I’m sure it’ll hurt my feelings. But I’m no longer afraid of change. I regret nothing about the path I’ve traveled… Well, honestly, I have a lot of regrets, but I still want to maintain a mindset that I don’t.
“Change, I believe, is progress. And continuing to change means continuing to move forward. But it also means showing the world what you truly are, paradoxically enough—something that will never change as long as you hold on to it.”
Even if a million people sneered at him, as long as something resonated with at least one person, that was good enough. As long as it reached that “you” he hadn’t seen yet. And with that resolve in mind, Itsuki staked his claim.
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“So look out, world. I’m the protagonist.”
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He was giving his passionate speech to all the protagonists of the world. To Nayuta Kani. To Chihiro Hashima. To Miyako Shirakawa. To Haruto Fuwa. To Setsuna Ena. To Kaiko Mikuniyama. To Nadeshiko Kiso. To Makina Kaizu. To Ashley Yasaka. To Kenjiro Toki. To Satoshi Godo. To Kirara Yamagata. To Aoba Kasamatsu. To Ui Aioi. To Yoshihiro Kiso. To Tadashi Kamo. To Makoto Yanagase. To Sota Izumi. To Ayane Mitahora. To Nobunaga Shirogamine. To Keisuke Hashima. To Natsume Hashima. To Shiori Hashima. To Sora Hashima. To Yuu Yasaka. To Yuma Takashina. To Masahiko Hirugano. To Munenori Tarui. To Tsutomu Ohshima. To Takuro Norikura. To Masaki Asakura. To Kakeru Yamada. To Sushita Nakashima. To everyone involved with him before, and to all the potential protagonists of tomorrow whose names or faces he didn’t even know yet.
He prayed his words would reach them. He held a fierce hope that his words would light a match in someone’s heart and call forth the flames of a new tale.
“…I’m going on too long, so I’ll wrap it up with this.”
He took a deep breath, gazing out into the faraway landscape before him. Then he shouted:
“I’m right here, everyone! Pros, amateurs, artists, craftspeople, geniuses, average people, fans, haters, critics, Internet rabble, heroes, heroines, sub-characters, NPCs… Everyone who likes me and everyone who hates me! And even you, watching this with that bored expression on your face! I got one thing to say to all of you…”
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