I really don't want to be reborn.

------

Last night, while browsing through my friends' posts, I was surprised to find that three people had actually read Zhang Jiajia's "Passing By Your World." Wow, I'm so glad to have so many literary types among my readers.

What made me even happier was that Little Wolf gave me three pairs of panties, a reader named "Skinny" donated a hundred razor blades, and the "Boxing Queen" auntie in the group also gave a lot...

Thank you everyone for the recommendations, the razor blades, and the tips—but I mean, the monthly tickets! There weren't many! (Actually, there weren't many recommendations yesterday either.)

Chapter Six: A Man Who Knows How to Be Flirt Has the Best Life

Last year's winner was "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya," whose art style and writing techniques were familiar to Kyosuke Kousaka, who had even borrowed from it, so he didn't need to.

He's been looking at the second and twentieth place rankings lately.

The second place goes to the "Monogatari Series," which many people may not have heard of, but I think everyone knows its author—Nishio Isin.

This man, who is one of the most powerful figures in Kodansha, is far from reaching his peak. Last year's "Monogatari Series" was just the work that made this genius famous.

His debut novel, *The Decapitation Cycle: The Blue Scholar and His Jesting Sidekick*, was the winner of the 23rd Mephistopheles Award.

This novel series combines mystery and cute elements. As a work that just debuted commercially, the writing style of the Monogatari series is not as free and unrestrained as the later Monogatari series.

However, similar to the Monogatari series, starting with the Zagoon series, Nisio Isin began to incorporate a large number of wordplays and dialogues into his works.

"This is a talkative person who loves to play clever tricks."

Kyosuke Kosaka praised Nishio with admiration and reverence, which can be seen from the name "Nishio Ishin." The Romanized spelling of the name NISIOISIN is not only a simple palindrome, but also rotationally symmetrical, which is quite impressive.

This action reminded Kousaka of mystery novelist Tsumabuka Awasaka.

The table was piled with books, including stories written by that chatterbox and the twentieth-ranked book in the "This Light Novel is Amazing" list: *Kara no Kyoukai*.

Before Kyosuke could even open the book, he succumbed to sleepiness and drifted off to sleep, only waking up around ten o'clock.

To be precise, I was woken up by the noise from next door, I couldn't tell if it was the radio or the TV.

"A JR rapid train derailed in Amagasaki City, Hyogo Prefecture, and crashed into a luxury apartment building, killing 107 people..."

"What bad luck."

Kyosuke yawned. He had heard such terrible news so early in the morning. The last time he heard it was in March, when an express train crashed into a station building and the driver died.

"I remember it was at the Tosa-Kuroshio Railway in Kochi Prefecture... Wait, what's going on?"

He rubbed his eyes, feeling sore all over and weak. He managed to get out of bed and take a few steps. He saw his face in the mirror, which was reflected in the pale light streaming through the window and looked rather frightening.

I've caught another cold.

Since the end of last month, seasonal colds have left him exhausted. He almost forgot about Kazaoka Mari's short story. After getting some medicine from the hospital, he had to spend two nights rushing to finish it, and now he's completely worn out.

Short stories don't require a slow and steady flow, but rather a strong sense of inspiration and imagination. To maintain that inspiration, he must constantly record his life and the works of others, and even turn some of his past experiences into words.

That's how novelists do it; they rely on the lies woven by their characters to tell different stories.

Illness was unexpected.

Unlike his sister, who follows her desires, Kyosuke Kousaka is a methodical person who plans everything meticulously, writing down every detail in his schedule. He lives according to his own plans.

The large blank spaces in the itinerary record represent the meaningless yet comfortable time spent with Kasumigaoka Utaha.

Of course, those blank spaces have decreased a lot recently.

He started to get busy in order to make a living.

Kyosuke sat on the bed for a while, hesitated for a few minutes, and then picked up his phone to dial the number of the head of the Literature Department.

"I am sick."

He said this with unusual calmness, and no one would have thought he was being coquettish.

When Kasumigaoka Utaha received this phone call in class, she couldn't calm down: "Is she sick again?"

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the phone.

"I can accept skipping breakfast, but what about lunch?"

The boy's self-righteous tone made her want to laugh. She glanced at the Chinese teacher glaring at her from the podium, then lowered her head and smiled, "What do you want to eat..."

The last syllable of the note was drawn out, carrying a sense of helplessness.

"Anything is fine, but I don't want a bento box made by someone else."

"Oh……"

She wanted to complain about how unreasonable it was to make her go home and make lunchboxes, but after thinking about it, she hung up the phone without saying anything.

I tidied my schoolbag with my head down, and then walked out the door amidst the blank stares of my teacher and classmates.

"Where are you going, Kasumigaoka-kun?"

"Look, my friend, there are over thirty enormous giants over there. I have to defeat them!"

"I'm asking you where you're going, don't give me Don Quixote!"

"Raise your heroic chests and march forward! Look, countless flags are flying in the sky! Who is turning right there? Left! Left! Left!"

The teacher raised his hand and shouted, "I've read 'Selected Poems of Mayakovsky' too!"

……

Kyosuke Kosaka tossed his phone back onto the desk, looked out the window at the sunlight, and his sickly face showed a noticeable improvement in spirits. There was no denying that the man's mood had improved.

What was he thinking about?

Of course, it's about topics related to women.

Especially topics related to the girl he likes.

What men find most alluring about girls is perhaps the sensual pleasure, their sweet voices, and their alluring bodies. But what men find most alluring about women is the certain charm of living with them.

Heine said that they develop a new personality every day.

Kasumigaoka Utaha seems to possess all the virtues of a girl and a woman, which is what fascinates him the most.

At noon, he opened the door in a good mood, happily accepted the meal that the girl had spent two hours preparing, and happily expressed his heartfelt gratitude to the minister.

Then he noticed that the other person looked quite unwell.

"I ran into Guoguo, whom you mentioned, when I was passing by just now."

"Ok?"

"She calls you Kyosuke-nii? Tsk, that sounds like something out of a K-drama."

Ugh, such a strong sour smell.

"Oh, that...you don't need to worry about it..."

"And then there's Doma, whom we just met..."

"You don't need to worry about that."

She looked up at him, puzzled, indicating that she didn't care at all.

"About that Doma-kun."

He pursed his lips, holding his chopsticks, trying to appear nonchalant: "I don't know her at all. Although she is indeed very cute, she's not my type."

Kasumigaoka blushed, feigning ignorance, and said, "Of course I know. That kid is obviously a hopeless brother-complex. Their relationship is definitely much better than yours and your sister's. How could he possibly be interested in you..."

Look at her disdainful look, and her slightly raised chin.

Kyosuke Kosaka couldn't remember how he managed to resist the urge to bite her neck. After finishing his meal, a strong sense of drowsiness washed over him, and he mumbled, "Is it okay if I don't go to class this afternoon?"

"..."

He no longer knew how Kasumigaoka had answered.

All I know is that in my dazed state, someone is wiping my sweat with a hot towel, from my forehead to my lower abdomen, my upper body exposed to the cool, moist air.

It felt itchy, as if a tiny bird's tender yellow beak was pecking at it.

------

Oh dear, I wanted to laugh when I came up with the title for this chapter.

I want to eat rabbit!

Waaaaah, it's suddenly so cold in Chengdu.

Did I ask for votes today? No?

Then I'm asking for votes!

Chapter Seven: The zither's mournful sound, yet no tears flowed.

Knowing that his son had fallen ill from overwork, or perhaps because his daughter had complained to him at home, Mr. Daisuke Kosaka had no choice but to go to Benzen High School with a grim face to ask Kyosuke for leave.

The request for leave was nothing more than not having to attend class in the morning and being allowed to leave early in the afternoon—such an impolite request could probably only be made by a burly man like Daisuke, who has the face of a yakuza boss.

The homeroom teacher nervously agreed, probably to distract herself from the fact that the parent, Kosaka, might retaliate, so she blurted it out—

It seems your son and his classmate, Kasumigaoka Utaha, are dating.

Daisuke nodded solemnly, and then, unusually, beamed with joy as he left the school.

Unlike Yoshino's mother, Daisuke never worried that his son's early romance would affect his studies. He knew Kyosuke's personality very well and was always worried that he wouldn't be able to find a wife in the future. Hearing such good news, he was just happy.

Of course, more importantly, it seems that his son Kyosuke doesn't have any bad feelings towards Kirino—he sighed as he thought about Kirino's abnormality.

A few days later at noon, the head and deputy head of the Literature Department appeared in the department office again.

We prepared to eat, and then analyzed and drew inspiration from Nisio Isin's work.

As Kyosuke walked down the corridor, he greeted each of his familiar classmates. His pale, sickly face forced a smile, and his voice was slightly weak, but his tone remained steady.

"What you did just now was called being tactful."

After closing the door, the minister began to offer her insights: "Of the group of people you just greeted, how many of them were you acquainted with for more than ten sentences? It's remarkable that you smiled so warmly."

"Would you call that being tactful?"

Kyosuke Kosaka shook his head, not expecting the girl to become like him.

She was a typical loner, not very good at cultivating interpersonal relationships. Perhaps she devoted most of her energy to writing, which caused other aspects of her life to wither away.