Tokyo: Oreimo

Her fingers were still resting on the folder cover, her fingertips applying slight pressure.

The activity room was quiet for a few seconds.

Tian Zhongxue lowered his head, looking at the draft in front of him covered with annotations. His lips moved, but no sound came out.

He understood.

It's not that my work isn't good enough.

If judged by the standards of normal fan fiction, his work is perfectly qualified.

It has a complete story structure, reasonable character development, foreshadowing, climax, and ending.

He meticulously refined every step, but the appearance of number D made the standard itself less important.

For example, imagine a room full of people competing to see whose pencil is the sharpest.

Everyone brought out their carefully crafted works, and then someone pushed open the door and put a fountain pen on the table. It's not that pencils are bad, it's just that the two are not even in the same league.

Misaki Asakura crumpled the tissue into a ball and stuffed it into her pocket. She looked up and scanned the activity room.

"Has everyone finished reading? Can we start voting now?" Her emotions seemed to have calmed down a lot, and her voice had returned to normal volume.

“It should be fine.” Shota Okubo straightened up from the back of his chair and reached for the blank ballot on the table. “I’ve made my decision.”

Yosuke Kobayashi didn't say anything, but simply picked up his pen.

His movements were light but quick. With almost no hesitation, he wrote two numbers on the ballot, then folded the paper and placed it on the corner of the table.

Tian Zhongxue looked at the folded ballot, remained silent for a few seconds, and then picked up a pen.

His movements were much slower than Kobayashi's; the pen tip hovered above the paper, hesitant to fall.

It wasn't that he didn't know who to submit his work to, but rather that putting pen to paper meant facing a fact he was reluctant to confront.

He closed his eyes, but finally continued writing.

The voting results were tallied on the spot by Ayumi.

She drew a simple table on the whiteboard, with the horizontal axis representing numbers A to E and the vertical axis representing the number of votes.

The ballots were anonymous, and the voter's name was not written on the ballot, so Ayumi simply unfolded each folded piece of paper and read out the number on it.

"First votes: D and A."

"Second vote, D and C."

"Third vote, B and D."

"The fourth vote, D and E."

Tian Zhongxue's eyelid twitched; four consecutive votes had been for the D, and all of them were ranked first.

"The fifth vote."

Ayumi opened the last ballot, paused for a second, then looked up, her gaze sweeping across everyone's faces before finally settling on Ryosuke.

"C and A".

She wrote the last two numbers on the whiteboard and then stepped back.

"Number D received the most votes with four votes, while number A received two votes as a backup. The outcome is decided."

.....

"I knew it."

Tian Zhongxue closed his eyes, a wry smile playing on his lips, a smile he had anticipated all along.

This defeat was quite thorough.

But losing to that kind of work is nothing.

He had already guessed who the original author of number D was. As the president, he was actually the person who knew the other members better than the members themselves.

He knew the level of the old member all too well. At first, he thought it was written by Misaki Asakura, since the novel was told from the perspective of 'Ryougi Shiki'.

But judging from the other person's reaction just now, it was obviously not her doing, so there's only one person left.

Tian Zhongxue turned his attention to Ryosuke and was just about to get up to congratulate him.

"As expected of the president, who else could produce a work of this quality besides you?"

Shota Okubo's voice came from the window seat, his tone confident and tinged with a sense of "I knew it."

Tian Zhongxue's movement to stand up froze in mid-air.

"Wait a minute, Okubo, what did you just say?"

"I'm saying, who else could be the author of this piece, number D, but you?"

Okubo spread his hands as if it were the most natural thing in the world, his gaze sweeping back and forth between Tanaka Middle School and Kobayashi Yosuke.

"Kobayashi and I are both veteran members, and we both know our own level. Asakura is a newcomer, and her performance just now was clearly not her work."

His logic was clear, and his analysis was very logical. He would count off a point on his finger for each reason he gave.

"As for the other new member..."

He casually waved in Ryosuke's direction, his tone devoid of any malice, simply stating what he considered a self-evident fact, "Although we don't know each other yet, he's a first-year student, right? A newcomer, to be able to write a work like this, well..."

He originally wanted to say "That's outrageous," but then felt it would be impolite to say it, so he changed his mind.

"In short, it's highly unlikely."

Then he turned back to Tian Zhongxue and asked in an inquiring tone, "An outline of this level, the setting alone could easily fill several pages, right?"

Tian Zhongxue stood there, motionless.

He felt his face turning red at a visible speed.

"Um, Okubo, listen to me, this number D is actually..."

"The psychological descriptions of the characters are also chilling."

Yosuke Kobayashi, who hadn't said much until now, suddenly interjected, adjusting his glasses.

A sound like a sob escaped Tian Zhongxue's throat. He turned to look at Ayumi, his eyes filled with pleading for help.

Ayumi leaned against the whiteboard, arms crossed, a faint smile that had been playing on her lips since earlier.

She looked at Tian Zhongxue, who seemed about to explode on the spot, and showed no intention of helping him.

Okubo continued.

"And have you noticed, Kobayashi, that the way this work handles the narrative rhythm is somewhat similar to the president's previous doujinshi?"

Kobayashi nodded: "Indeed, the first chapter uses a flashback to get to the point, the second chapter unfolds the world view, and the third chapter uses the story of a supporting character to provide a profile. The chairman has used this structure once before."

"The result that time was mediocre, or rather, it was a complete mess," Okubo bluntly stated.

"But this time the completion rate is much higher. It seems that the president has really worked hard these past two months."

He looked at Tian Zhongxue with genuine admiration in his eyes, "You've elevated the entire work to a whole new level. To be honest, it makes even veteran members like Xiaolin and me feel a little ashamed."

Misaki Asakura said softly, the strawberry milk carton slightly deformed in her hand, "When I was reading it just now, I was thinking that someone who could write such a touching story must be a very gentle person."

Tian Zhongxue felt as if he had been shot in the knee again.

He is indeed the kind of person who would cry buckets over the ending of a character, but he didn't write those stories.

Asakura was praising the author of the paper numbered D, but sitting in that position, every word of praise felt like a slap in the face.

"So how exactly did you do it?"

Okubo took a step forward, his tone now carrying a more earnest thirst for knowledge.

“I’ve looked through your previous fanfiction. The premise was solid, but the writing was a bit stiff, especially in terms of emotional expression. This time it’s completely different, like a completely different person.”

Tian Zhongxue's face had turned a liverish color. He opened his mouth, but couldn't utter a single word.

"And that female lead, Ryougi Shiki."

Yosuke Kobayashi opened the manuscript numbered D in front of him and pointed to a page. "This kind of aloof yet dangerous female character is completely different from the lively and cute heroines you wrote before. How did you break out of your comfort zone?"

"I...."

"And the ending of Asagami Fujino in Chapter 3."

Misaki Asakura's eyes reddened slightly again. She sniffed and said, "To be able to retain hope amidst such a painful experience, the brilliance of this ending can only be depicted by an author with extremely strong empathy. President, you are truly remarkable."

"I'm not..."

"And the second chapter, the dialogue between Orange and Shiki in the car, the tense atmosphere between the lines, it's written so precisely."

"Yes, that line, 'As long as it's alive, I'll kill even a god,' the power of that line is something that no ordinary person could write."

Tianzhong Middle School finally couldn't take it anymore.

He turned to Ayumi and called out in an almost pleading tone.

"Ayumi! You need to explain this to me!!"

Seeing the president's reaction, Ryosuke, who had been holding back his laughter, finally couldn't help but burst out laughing.

Chapter 243 No need to thank her on her behalf

The tram crossed Tokyo Bay in the twilight, and the sky outside the window was dyed in varying shades of orange-red.

Ryosuke leaned against the handrail by the car door, his phone screen lit up with a message from Ryouno.

"How were the voting results today?"

He smiled and typed a few words on the screen.

"I'll tell you when I get back."

The reply arrived in less than ten seconds after the message was sent.

"Who wants to listen?"

"Then what are you asking?"

"Can't I just ask?"

Looking at the message, Ryosuke could almost picture the expression on Ling Nai's face when she said those words.