I really don't want to be reborn.

Kazuki Sakuraba and a woman were talking and laughing at the bookstore entrance, holding hands, their intimacy bordering on abnormal.

Kyosuke brushed past the genius female writer with a strange expression. Based on his years of experience, he could tell that they were actually... a couple?

what's the situation?

He suddenly recalled a rumor from deep within his memory.

Kazuki Sakuraba went to work on visual novels in 1996 because "being a freelance writer doesn't make money," which is a bit hard to believe.

Having started publishing light novels with Famitsu in 1999, she certainly wasn't short of money, so why did she go and make visual novels that had a mediocre market? And why did she write scripts for visual novels under the name Yamada Sakuramaru?

Later, some people noticed that the main staff of the visual novel "Mermaid Season," released in 01, were all women.

Lilies?

Kyosuke Kosaka looked complicated. He was thinking about what he should do to tell his parents if his younger sister really fell in love with another girl in the future.

And that Ayase Aragaki?

Or... and the black cat?

After thinking about it for a while, he felt a headache coming on. He walked into the bookstore with a headache, intending to buy "GOSICK" and read it again.

Then he discovered a very strange problem.

Volumes two through five have now been published and are neatly arranged in front of him.

So……

Where is the first volume of "Death Comes with Spring" that he is familiar with?

"Isn't the first volume right here? What's this Grim Reaper you're talking about? It's not from another book, is it?"

The staff looked at him like he was an idiot.

Kyosuke suddenly felt someone tapping him on the shoulder. He turned around and saw Kazuki Sakuraba, the mystery novelist, looking at him with a strange expression.

"The Grim Reaper who comes with spring? Hmm... that's a pretty good name."

"..."

"Thank you so much."

…………

"On the staircase landing of this greenhouse, there is a large doll with almost half of its body sticking out."

It was about the size of a real person, approximately 140 centimeters long. It wore a gorgeous outfit decorated with ribbons and lace, and had long, blonde hair that was casually spread on the floor like a headscarf.

His profile has the coldness characteristic of pottery.

……

The girl's green eyes scanned the books lined up on the floor.

The books, arranged radially from her head, covered a wide range of subjects, from ancient history to the latest technology, mechanics, spells, and alchemy… from English to French, Latin, and Chinese, the languages ​​of the books were diverse.

This is a clip from "GOSICK".

After saying goodbye to the genius female writer Kazuki Sakuraba, Kyosuke Kosaka took some time to process his feelings. From their conversation, he vaguely learned that she was currently writing a prequel to "GOSICK".

That is, the first volume of the novel as he remembered it.

Sakuraba Kazuki was struggling to come up with a title for that volume. Calling it a prequel wouldn't be a big problem, but unexpectedly, he happened to hear his voice in the bookstore today, and a flash of inspiration struck him.

"The Grim Reaper who comes with spring? Hmm... that's a perfect name, and it even coincides with the case in the book. Thank you very much, young man."

He sat on a chair provided for customers to read in the bookstore, staring blankly at a business card in his palm.

Is this... a kind of serendipitous encounter like in novels?

"So that's how it is."

He rubbed his forehead and suddenly realized that, according to his calculations, the second volume was published in 2003, the third volume, "The Crime Is Nameless," and the fourth volume, "Under the Blue Rose," were published in 2004, and the fifth volume, "Defending the Fool," was published in January of this year.

And the first volume hasn't even been released yet...

Putting the four volumes of the novel aside, Kousaka Kyosuke processed the information he had just received, carefully put away the business card of Sakuraba Kazuki, and then scanned the bookstore, frowning as he noticed that the most common type of book in the store was romance novels.

He didn't know anything about the romance novels themselves, but the promotional slogans made him frown. The atmosphere of romance felt strongly discordant under these slogans that were so vulgar they were practically filthy.

(To use a bathing analogy, they don't want to take a cold bath, nor do they want a warm bath. What they want is a pot of hot water, hot enough to scald even pig bristles.)

—Wang Xiaobo

"Oh my god... This is so offensive! I think I'll just stick to reading my light novel."

He lingered in the bookstore for a while, then asked the clerk to help him pack his things, and walked out of the bookstore under his umbrella into the rain.

A crooked streak of light flashed across the sky. He slightly raised the edge of his umbrella, gazed at the heavens, and seemed to hear the mournful cries of birds flying obliquely across the sky.

He seemed to see many faces floating in the low-hanging clouds, crowding together, shouting, and then disappearing completely. Rain poured into the umbrella, soaking the boy's black hair.

The rain fell silently on the leaves, soaking the ground, the house, the trees, and even his gaze.

In a daze.

He didn't know whether he was four years ago or four years later.

Today's chance encounter with Kazuki Sakuraba intensified his sense of temporal disorientation.

He felt that his life was like the first volume of "GOSICK" that hadn't been released yet, and for a moment he couldn't distinguish what the past was or what the future would be.

"Kosaka?"

A hand he mistook for a frosted cake touched his forehead, and Kasumigaoka Utaha, whom he had unexpectedly encountered, looked at him with concern: "Do you have a fever again?"

The warmth and body odor diluted the merciless smell of the rain.

"No, I just feel a little tired."

"Then let's rest for a while."

He forced a smile and leaned gently against her, their umbrellas overlapping: "I run into you every time it rains... I always feel like you're stalking me."

------

This chapter is 2,500 words long. Isn't that enough for today's update?

Finished at dawn, I want razor blades!

Initial order performance was mediocre...

Chapter 40 Why do we like the Great God of Cuteness so much?

The weather in June was already quite hot. The new fan in the office shook its head, trying to dispel the heat that had accumulated throughout the day.

The whistling wind blew the curtains up, making the walls look like five dragons idly embracing a pillar, dressed in a light veil.

Something seems off.

I realized something was wrong sometime in the middle of summer after the Obon festival ended.

……

I knew that skin would accumulate melanin quickly under the scorching sun, and as I started searching around, wondering if Nagato would come to sunbathe, I saw that petite, short-haired, silent girl sitting motionless in the shade where I had just put my luggage, her sharp eyes fixed on the sky.

The same posture as always!

No matter where he goes, Nagato's figure remains unchanged, motionless like a puppet.

"Um?"

A hint of doubt crept into my mind, but then vanished without a trace.

That strange feeling is back.

For a moment, I felt that Nagato seemed rather bored, and there was a sense of déjà vu, and it felt like I had already experienced everything that was going to happen next...

Inside the literature department office at Benzhan High School, besides the sound of the fan blowing, there was also the rustling sound of pages turning.

Kyosuke Kosaka is reading the novel "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya," this volume—no, this volume should be categorized as "Haruhi Suzumiya's Rampage," the one we're familiar with.

"Endless August"

He slowly turned the pages, his eyes showing little emotion. The protagonist, Kyon, experienced many Augusts, but each time the cycle would reset, causing him to lose his memory. Therefore, the character that Kousaka Kyosuke was impersonating was not this male protagonist.

He was projecting himself onto Nagato Yuki.

She is that emotionless literary girl affectionately known as the "Great Goddess of Cuteness" by many anime fans, because she is the only one who has been recording every single second of these countless August cycles.

The first time I read this novel... no, Kousaka Kyosuke thought for a moment and recalled that the first time he came into contact with this series was not by reading the original novel, but by watching the TV anime in 2006.

When I first watched it, his life was still quite normal, so I didn't feel much. I just felt sorry for the girl named Nagato Yuki.

Only after he realized he was caught in the mystery of reincarnation did he gradually develop a strong sense of immersion, which led him to read the original work.

"call……"

The girl sitting next to him suddenly raised her head, slowly closed her eyes, as if she was digesting the textual information she had just received. Her eyelashes trembled a few times before she opened her eyes again.

The aroma of fruit wafting in from the window on a summer day brought a slight smile to her lips: "Now I understand why this novel won the grand prize; it's truly amazing."

Kyosuke Kosaka paused, then looked up: "I remember you were skeptical before, thinking this was even less interesting than Nisio Isin's joke. How come you've changed your mind now?"

"Yes, they're different. This series is completely different from the 'Jeogan' series, and they shouldn't be compared in the first place. Compared to the somewhat obscure 'Jeogan' series, this series is indeed more interesting on the surface."

He put down his book curiously: "Explain in more detail."

Kasumigaoka Utaha frowned, feeling that the difference was not easy to explain. She stared at the rising and falling curtains for a long time before slowly speaking.

"The Haruhi Suzumiya series is a world-building thing that ignores individuals and social systems, and absurdly states from the very beginning that the fate of this world depends on the single thought of one person."

Kosaka wrote this statement down on a piece of paper, adding, "Humans cannot survive without organization and society."

"I know, so there's a trap here. As long as it's explained well, you can add any element to it: fantasy, science fiction, surrealism, school life, youth, satire, cuteness..."

She hesitated for a moment, then circled the name "Koizumi Itsuki" on the page with her pen: "...and the bromance that fujoshi (female fans of male-male romance) love to see."

"Kasumigaoka, you're just talking nonsense."

He rested his chin on his hands, his eyes smiling: "I have to confirm again, you really aren't a fujoshi, right?"

Kasumigaoka Utaha bit her lip and turned her head slightly to the side: "Whether I'm a fujoshi or not doesn't matter, what matters is whether you're gay, and whether you and Akagi Kohei are gay..."

"..."