123. The Current Status of the Newcomer Awards for Oregairu

“Mm...” In her daze, Umaru Doma felt something soft and instinctively rubbed against it. Then she realized something was wrong and immediately sat up in bed.

She looked around. The familiar room brought her a sigh of relief. Seeing the blanket still half-draped over her, Umaru understood what had happened in an instant.

She had gotten up early, eaten breakfast, and started playing games as soon as her brother left the house. As noon approached, Jiang Yu still had not sent her a message. But with hunger gnawing at her, Umaru silently told herself, “It’s not like I’m breaking my promise or anything~ You’re the one who didn’t send me a message or come home, big brother~” Then she took out some snacks to stave off her hunger.

While eating snacks and watching the latest anime, the aftereffects of staying up far too late the night before and getting up so early that morning finally caught up with her. Waves of drowsiness swept over her mind. In the end, Umaru lost the battle and naturally fell asleep on the living-room floor.

Wait... I think I felt myself floating for a while at some point?

Umaru thought about it uncertainly. She had been far too sleepy at the time to wake up properly, however. The thought merely circled through her mind once before vanishing into some unknown corner.

So, obviously, the reason she had just woken up in bed was Jiang Yu.

At that realization, a flush crept onto Umaru’s cheeks. As a young woman who had grown into a graceful, elegant girl, she could not help but let her imagination run wild when it came to certain things.

She shook her head, banishing all those embarrassing thoughts, then shuffled to the door in her slippers and opened it. There, she saw Jiang Yu untying his apron.

When he saw Umaru standing in the doorway, Jiang Yu paused for a moment before smiling.

“You’re awake~ I was just about to go wake you. It’s time to eat.”

“Mm! Thanks, big brother!”

Umaru gave him a sweet smile while discreetly glancing over the living-room floor. It was spotless, as if it had never been touched.

Jiang Yu did not say anything, so Umaru began to wonder whether he had already forgotten. Just as she was preparing to bluff her way past it, Jiang Yu suddenly seemed to remember something.

“Oh, right! I’ve already cleaned up that pile of stuff you left before. To make sure you don’t do something like that again, you’ll be responsible for taking out the household trash and cleaning your own room for the next half a month, all right?”

Looking at Jiang Yu’s gentle smile and meaningful gaze, Umaru nodded guiltily to show that she understood.

Jiang Yu nodded in satisfaction.

“Then come and eat.”

...

After dinner, and after reminding Umaru of a few things, Jiang Yu took his work clothes and prepared to head out for his shift that evening. Perhaps because it was the weekend, there were far fewer pedestrians on the streets than there usually were after school. Walking along the unusually open streets, Jiang Yu made his way toward the café with light steps.

When he arrived at the café, he ran into Ayane Mizuno, who appeared to have just finished work. Touching the bridge of his nose, he took the initiative to greet her anyway.

“Yo! Mizuno? Heading home?”

Ayane Mizuno was clearly in low spirits. She forced a smile at Jiang Yu.

“Oh, it’s you, Jiang... I’m just about to head home~ See you tomorrow, then...”

With that, she pushed open the café door and hurried away.

Jiang Yu watched her departing figure in confusion. Judging from what he knew of her, Ayane Mizuno would normally have teased him at least a little, saying things like, “You actually took yesterday off? You’re so lazy, Jiang~” or, “Did you go out with your girlfriend yesterday, Jiang~?”

Yet today, she had looked completely listless and simply walked away.

Unable to figure out why, Jiang Yu soon abandoned the overambitious notion of trying to understand a woman’s thoughts. He went to Anzu Kato’s office to greet her, then headed to the changing room to put on his work clothes and prepare for the evening shift.

...

After his shift ended, Jiang Yu was walking home when the notification tone of a new message made him stop. He took out his phone and saw that the message was from the Black Cat editor, whom he had not contacted in quite some time.

Black Cat: “Teacher Toso! I have some good news to tell you~”

Without waiting to see whether Jiang Yu would reply, she immediately sent him three screenshots. The first was the homepage for the Newcomer Award on the Undying River Library’s official website. The other two appeared to be reader reviews.

Jiang Yu enlarged the first screenshot. The title ranked first was My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong, As I Expected, followed by the author’s name in small print: Toso Hyakuri.

Before he had time to marvel at the formidable competitive strength displayed by My Youth Romantic Comedy, As Expected, Jiang Yu’s first thought was: Why had I been so hotheaded when I chose this pen name?

Someone unfamiliar with the reference might not notice anything, but in his own eyes, the pen name paired with the title of this light novel looked painfully awkward no matter how he saw it.

What terrible irony! In his previous life, the cold-faced youth whose famous catchphrase was “...” had somehow transformed into the author of a youthful romantic comedy light novel—or something like that. Surely I must have opened this in the wrong way, right?

After making a few self-deprecating remarks, Jiang Yu was not at all surprised to see My Youth Romantic Comedy ranked first. The quality of the light novel itself spoke for that result, especially when set against the current state of the industry.

Next, Jiang Yu looked through the reader comments on the following two pages. Most of them were positive, though perhaps Black Cat, as his editor, had only taken screenshots of the favorable reviews for him.

“Wonderful! Keep up the great work, author!”

“Is this really a newcomer award entry?”

“Following~ Voting every day! Looking forward to the official release~”

What mainly caught Jiang Yu’s attention was one lengthy review, although it too was overflowing with praise.

Yukimune Izumi: “An incredibly innovative work! The best light novel I’ve read recently, without question! The portrayal of the heroine, Yukinoshita, is excellent. More importantly, that declaration about youth delivered through the protagonist at the beginning made me wonder what sort of high-school life Teacher Toso Hyakuri must have experienced~ (Laughs.) I’m very much looking forward to what happens next. I can’t wait to see what kind of interactions will take place between Hachiman and Yukinoshita, how their competition will unfold, and what developments await the Service Club!”

The popular comments that had been pushed to the top beneath the lengthy review were even more amusing.

No. 1, Little Sister Supreme: “Caught Teacher Yukimune Izumi alive~”

No. 5, Making MAD Videos Is Exhausting: “When will the next volume of Teacher Yukimune Izumi’s Reincarnated Silver Wolf be released? I hear it’s the final volume. I can’t wait~”

No. 34, Shana: “A spy from the Electric Strike Library! (Smiling face)”

No. 51, U2: “Teacher Yukimune Izumi, please hurry up and figure out how to end your own series!”

No. 77, Consumer Pig: “The people on floors 34 and 51 should just get married already!”

With a smile, Jiang Yu closed the images. Silently, he committed the names Yukimune Izumi and Reincarnated Silver Wolf to memory, then replied to Black Cat:

“I saw it~ Not bad at all.”