Aki Tomoya stared at the tightly shut iron gates before him. He clenched his fists with absolute force before finally letting them go, his fingers relaxing one by one.
A heavy, frustrated sigh escaped his lips.
He picked up the crumpled proposal sheet from the ground, smoothing it out with measured caution to review the contents. The script across the page was admittedly difficult to decipher due to the severe creases obstructing the legibility—though, to be completely frank, those few lines of text possessed absolute zero structural significance anyway.
Tomoya gripped the proposal tight within his palm, squeezing the paper with renewed conviction.
"I won't give up! I am absolutely determined to create the greatest galge in the entire world!" Tomoya roared at the sky, unleashing his boiling otaku ambition into the afternoon air.
"Hey, idiot! What are you shouting for?!" A blue-haired girl sports a high ponytail sharply barked at him from a short distance away.
"Ah! My deepest apologies!" Tomoya immediately executed a rapid bow, throwing out an instant apology.
After venting his frustration for a brief moment, Tomoya’s enthusiasm violently snapped back to its usual operational limits. The fire of his otaku obsession rekindled instantly.
'Besides, if Kasumigaoka-senpai is out of reach for now, I just need to cross paths with Eriri first. She's guaranteed to lock in her compliance right off the bat!'
After all, Eriri Spencer Sawamura and him were childhood friends—even if, admittedly, they hadn't exchanged a single word in ages. However, their thread of communication had steadily patched itself up ever since they entered the same high school. Tomoya reasoned that if he swallowed his pride and genuinely begged her, Eriri wouldn't have the heart to reject him.
Without a second thought, Tomoya blitzed through the campus layout, hunting down her location.
His stubborn persistence ultimately yielded results. He managed to secure his target at a quiet, secluded corner of the school library.
At that exact moment, Eriri was standing before a towering bookshelf. Her petite frame was balanced on the tips of her shoes as she scanned the top rows, seemingly searching for a specific reference volume.
"Eri—!" Tomoya was right on the verge of stepping forward to voice a greeting when his movements instantly locked up.
Emerging from the adjacent corridor, Kitahara Akira strode directly toward Eriri's position, casually carrying a black duffel bag in his right hand.
His otaku danger-radar violently flared. Tomoya’s sixth sense fiercely whispered that the dynamic unfolding between those two was highly abnormal. Without wasting a single heartbeat, Tomoya executed a tactical retreat, using the massive bookshelves as cover to observe their interaction in absolute secrecy.
Kitahara Akira halted right beside Eriri, tossing out a brief greeting. He then hoisted the black duffel bag up to chest level, murmuring a few quiet sentences toward the blonde-haired girl.
Instantly, a deep crimson flush aggressively coated Eriri's features. She frantically scanned her surroundings, verifying that absolute zero eyes were anchored to their position before snapping the bag out of Kitahara Akira's grip with lightning reflexes.
Tomoya strained his ears, desperate to harvest any fragments of data from the exchange. Thanks to the sterile, dead silence of the library layout, even though the distance between them was considerable and their volume was dangerously low, he still managed to capture broken pieces of their dialogue.
Eriri: "This is... a secret... don't you dare..."
Kitahara Akira: "Right... then... go ahead... do your absolute best... if I require anything... I'll shoot you a text over Line."
Eriri: "Fine... you... just this once... remember... absolutely do not..."
Kitahara Akira: "Understood."
The sequence of highly ambiguous sentences triggered an instant short-circuit inside Tomoya's brain pathways. After standing completely paralyzed for a few seconds like a game console undergoing a forced system reboot, a highly explicit, two-hour adult anime plotline violently materialized across his mental canvas.
By the time his vision snapped back to reality, Kitahara Akira had already vanished from the room. Only Eriri remained, standing with a visibly dazed expression before walking past the aisle with her head hanging low.
Tomoya let out a massive breath, desperately attempting to stabilize his erratic pulse. He stepped out from the blind spot behind the bookshelves, completely cutting off her path. "Eriri!"
"Ah! W-Who?!" Eriri flinched violently, leaping back a step as the pink flush on her cheeks burned even hotter. Once she recognized the intruder, she scrambled to piece her dignified facade back together. "Haha... what a coincidence, Tomoya. What exactly are you doing in the library?"
"I have an absolute, life-or-death request to make!" Tomoya immediately slammed his palms together, adopting an extreme begging stance. He dug into his uniform pocket, pulling out the crumpled proposal and thrusting it straight in front of Eriri's face. "I have just established a circle dedicated to producing a visual novel, and I am formally inviting you to claim the position of our primary illustrator!"
"A club?" Eriri accepted the crumpled sheet with a heavy frown, skimming the text. She then aggressively waved the mangled paper through the air with a highly skeptical look. "Tomoya, are you entirely certain this mess constitutes a project proposal? Why does this look exactly like a scrap of a failed, low-tier light novel manuscript?"
"The physical condition is admittedly raw, but the sincerity inside my heart is absolute! Eriri, what do you say?" Tomoya locked his eyes onto her face, completely filled with anticipation.
Eriri let out a sharp sigh, shoving the paper straight back into Tomoya's chest. "No can do. I'm already locked into the art club's schedule, not to mention I have to completely focus on prepping my doujinshi drafts for the upcoming summer convention. I possess absolute zero free time. Tomoya, you're better off hunting for someone else."
Eriri adjusted her grip on the black handbag, preparing to brush past her childhood friend to execute a swift exit from the library layout. "I have urgent matters to attend to, so I'm leaving first."
She absolutely needed to secure the contents of that black bag this exact second.
The fact that Tomoya was aware of her secret identity as a doujinshi creator didn't pose a threat since he was part of the otaku subculture anyway. However, if any ordinary student on this campus caught a glimpse of what was inside, her flawless reputation as an elegant, high-class lady would be permanently obliterated. Her entire high school career would be reduced to absolute ash.
To the public, she was a model of grace and sophistication. But beneath the surface, she was a hardcore collector of adult games who manufactured erotica. This massive contrast held the explosive potential to trigger the single greatest social execution of her life!
"Is Kitahara-kun the one behind this...?"
Right when Eriri's shoes were inches away from clearing the library exit, Tomoya's voice sharply cut through the air, freezing her tracks.
Eriri spun around, her brows knitting fiercely. "Huh? What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
"I knew it! That bastard Kitahara is actively weaponizing the contents of that bag to blackmail you, aren't they, Eriri?!" Tomoya pointed a straight finger at the black bag clutched against her chest, his voice climbing an octave with boiling emotion.
Eriri's eyes widened to absolute circles, her face painting a picture of pure, unadulterated shock. "You... you were intentionally eavesdropping on our conversation?!"
"I didn't mean to eavesdrop!" Tomoya voiced a loud defensive protest. He took a heavy step forward, locking his gaze into hers with an expression saturated with absolute sympathy. "Eriri, if Kitahara is genuinely threatening you, you don't have to be afraid. I am absolutely going to rescue you from his chengkeraman!"
Within his internal otaku logical deduction, it was a closed case. Kitahara Akira had clearly harvested a forbidden secret inside that bag to lock down Eriri's freedom, intentionally sabotaging her guard so she wouldn't be able to divert her focus toward his game development circle. After all, Eriri was a true fan of the medium, there was absolute zero rational reason for her to reject an invitation this beautiful unless coercion was involved.
With that conclusion locked in, Tomoya's resolve to act as her savior soared past its limits.
'Kato-san has already fallen beneath Kitahara Akira's influence... I am absolutely not letting Eriri suffer the exact same tragic fate!'
"Blackmail your foot! Tomoya, your otaku brain has been thoroughly rotted by too many adult doujinshi plots!" Eriri squeezed the black bag even tighter against her ribs, the crimson flush on her face deepening from absolute mortification. "Kitahara and I are simply former junior high classmates, nothing more!"
Tomoya refused to back down, his finger remaining anchored to the bag. "Then explain the contents inside that bag right now!"
"Mind your own damn business, you perverted otaku!" Eriri snapped viciously, flashing her trademark small fang with a highly irritated glare.
With legions of library patrons currently shifting their heads to watch the drama unfold, how could she possibly expose the contents? Explaining it was synonymous with executing an instant social suicide.
"Eriri, Kitahara clearly harbors malicious intentions! Do not place a single shred of trust in a dangerous guy like him!" Tomoya was rapidly losing his composure.
Kato Megumi had already been approached by Kitahara Akira. The connection between Kasumigaoka Utaha and Kitahara Akira clearly masked an abnormal depth of mystery. And now, even Eriri was woven into his web. Inside Tomoya's mind, the name Kitahara Akira was officially stamped as the ultimate rival he needed to crush.
"Hmph! I'm not that stupid! I am perfectly capable of discerning who is genuine and who harbors ill intent!" Eriri tossed her head to the side, causing her twin golden tails to slice gracefully through the air.
"I'm sorry, Eriri... but I'm forced to do this for your own good!" Simultaneous with the final syllable, Tomoya violently lunged forward, extending both palms to rip the bag straight out of her embrace.
"Eh?! Tomoya! What do you think you're doing?!" Eriri was thoroughly shocked by the sudden physical escalation. Moving purely on survival instinct, she channeled her entire strength to anchor her grip onto the bag.
*TEAR!*
The two teenagers engaged in a violent tug-of-war, pulling with everything they had. Subjected to a kinetic stress that far exceeded its material tolerance, the black paper bag violently ripped in half dead down the center.
*CLATTER!*
The entire contents of the bag instantly broke loose, scattering across the library floor.
Tomoya’s gaze instantly locked onto a game cartridge resting against the carpet. The highly explicit cover illustration along with the blatant 18+ age rating label laid entirely exposed to the world. "This item... isn't this an adult game—"
"Shut up, you idiot!" Eriri shrieked hysterically, slicing his sentence short as her face turned an absolute, maximum shade of burning crimson.
The sacred silence of the library shattered into absolute pieces. The collective focus of every single patron and staff member was instantly vacuumed straight toward the spot where Tomoya and Eriri stood.
Feeling hundreds of eyes boring into her skin, the intensity of the heat on Eriri's face went completely haywire, as if steam was about to violently explode from her head.
"Eriri, I... I honestly didn't mean to..." Tomoya, realizing exactly how fragile Eriri's reputation on this campus was, instantly panicked, dropping his posture to clear the mess.
"You idiot! You bastard! You are the absolute lowest, most disgusting piece of perverted trash!"
Unleashing a rapid barrage of curses with a trembling voice, Eriri scrambled to scoop up the adult game cartridge from the floor, shoved it deep into the folds of her school uniform, and bolted out of the library layout at maximum velocity, leaving the disaster behind.
"Eriri!"
Aki Tomoya extended his palm into the empty air, desperately scrambling to halt his childhood friend's retreat. Yet, Eriri kept sprinting out of the library layout, offering absolute zero backward glances.
Tomoya slowly dropped his arm to his side. He stood completely frozen amidst the rows of towering bookshelves, staring blankly toward the swinging doors. "What exactly... are they doing behind my back?"
His steps dragged heavily as he exited the library floor, carrying a completely withered expression beneath the critical gazes of the surrounding patrons.
***
Later That Night — Aki Tomoya's Bedroom.
Tomoya sat perched before his desk, locking a fierce glare against the wall panels as his breathing turned frantic.
"Dammit! This is entirely because of Kitahara Akira! My entire circle's roadmap was completely pulverized just because of him!" Tomoya slammed his clenched fist against the wooden surface, letting his boiling frustration rip through his chest.
He ripped out a fresh sheet of blank paper, gripping his stylus pen with renewed aggression. "You all evaluate my project proposals as absolute garbage, right? Fine! If that's the play, I will write a flawless proposal to prove every single one of you wrong!"
The sudden flare of his otaku obsession completely consumed his focus. His fingers began to dance violently across the canvas, racing to sketch out fresh conceptual designs with boiling passion.
Ten Minutes Later.
*HOO-HOO~* (Soft snoring)
His head had already collapsed limply against the pile of draft papers, instantly succumbing to a massive wave of synthetic exhaustion.
***
Meanwhile — District Alleyway, Dark Corridor.
*TAP! TAP! TAP!*
The rhythmic, frantic echo of heavy boots sliced through the midnight silence from the dim corridor of the public facility.
A middle-aged man possessing an absolute void in his gaze stumbled forward, membelah the shadows. The entirety of his garments hung heavily against his frame, completely saturated and turned a deep crimson by fresh blood seeping out from multiple open gunshot wounds. Yet, his features remained locked in a rigid, emotionless mask—as though the neural pain-circuits inside his body had been forcefully severed.
The man cast a level glance down at the bubbling trauma across his chest. "This vessel has bled past its operational threshold... the core organs are right on the edge of total collapse."
His dim gaze swept across the surrounding residential perimeter. A short distance ahead, a room on the second floor of a detached house displayed a glowing light beneath an wide-open window pane.
"There are no other options..."
His frame violently tilted to the side. Dragging the absolute last of his stamina, he pivoted into a narrow alleyway wedged between two massive waste bins. In the next breath, his entire body caved forward, collapsing heavily into a heap of domestic garbage.
*SQUELCH~*
A bizarre, foreign insect-like entity slowly crawled out from within the man's ear canal. Leaving the freezing human vessel behind without a single backward glance, the creature moved with terrifying agility, blitzing through the shadows toward the glowing bedroom window.
Two minutes later, five men clad in full tactical protection gear armed with military-grade weapons materialized at the waste deposit site.
One of the field operatives stepped forward, rolling the middle-aged man's torso over to check the pulse and retinal dilation. Confirming the target's data parameters, he straightened his stance. "Captain, the target vessel is confirmed deceased."
"Good. Let's execute the cleanup sequence immediately. The higher-ups have been keeping massive pressure on our department for the past few days," the captain's voice emerged muffled beneath his heavy respirator filter.
"Man... finally, this mess is boxed up. Dragging this tactical weight around for days straight has completely drained my stamina," one of the squad members resting his weapon muzzle down, letting out a heavy sigh of relief.
"The weight is admittedly a nuisance, but at least this weave is dense enough to hold against a laceration from those monsters' claws," the operative beside him remarked, adjusting his ballistic plate harness.
"By the way, what the hell are these anomalies anyway? Why are we strictly ordered to capture them breathing if possible?"
"Who knows? Probably just another failed, low-tier experimental byproduct that managed to slip past a subterranean facility." The shortest operative flagged a casual shrug, clearly over-consuming sci-fi cinema references.
"Cut the abstract chatter. Our operational parameters are bounded by absolute compliance to the center, not speculation." The captain cut their exchange short with a freezing tone.
The five armed men hoisted the corpse, smoothly melting into the darkness of the narrow corridor as fast as they had materialized.
***
A strangely structured insect perched quietly against the window sill, anchoring its gaze onto Aki Tomoya, who was currently snoring away across his drafts.
The creature leapt down, landing flush against the desk surface with absolute zero noise—a flawless movement that completely defied its hideous physical geometry.
Without wasting a single heartbeat, the entity scrambled forward, blitzing straight into Aki Tomoya's open ear canal.
"Aaaaaakh?!"
Tomoya violently jolted awake, his eyes widening to absolute circles as a sudden, piercing spike of pain stabbed deep into his skull pathways. The sheer volume of panic shattered his focus, causing his torso to cave backward past his center of gravity.
*CRASH!*
His body alongside the desk chair violently slammed against the hardwood floor layout, producing a massive, booming echo that shattered the quiet of the Aki residence.
Silence reclaimed the space for a brief moment before the sharp creak of a door hinge cut through the quiet.
"What is going on, Tomoya? What was that loud noise just now?" Tomoya’s mother poked her head through the gap in the doorway, her features painted with a look of concern.
Tomoya was already standing perfectly upright dead center in the room. The chair that had just collapsed was already restored to its proper position. "I-It's nothing... absolute zero issues to worry about, Mom."
He slowly rotated his neck axis, facing her straight on. His eyes appeared entirely hollow, devoid of any light reflection, while the corners of his mouth slowly pulled into a rigid, highly unnatural grin.