155. Suggestions for Kasutiko's New Work

After having dinner with Umaru Doma, Jiang Yu arrived at Katano Akiko's café, ready for his evening shift. However, there was something lingering on his mind: it seemed he hadn't seen Ayane Mizuno for a full week.

While this senior coworker occasionally teased him, she generally looked after him quite well. Wondering if she had run into some trouble, Jiang Yu knocked on Katano Akiko's office door to ask about Ayane Mizuno.

Upon receiving permission to enter, Jiang Yu walked straight up to the desk and asked directly, "Excuse me, does Katano-san know why Mizuno-san hasn't been coming in lately?"

Katano Akiko had been wondering why Jiang Yu wore such a serious expression, and hearing this, she couldn't help but chuckle. "I thought you had some important business. So it's about this～"

"Uh... Well, I, um, I just wanted to check if Mizuno-san got into any trouble?" Teased like this, Jiang Yu scratched the back of his head and said somewhat awkwardly.

After laughing, Katano Akiko turned serious. "I heard from her that her father fell ill, so she took a week off from work to go back and take care of him. So you really don't need to imagine the worst, you know?"

"So that's how it was... No wonder her complexion looked so bad at the time..." Hearing this, Jiang Yu let out a sigh of relief and muttered to himself.

After taking his leave from the office, Jiang Yu changed into his uniform and prepared to start his evening shift.

***

At 9:30 PM, at Jiang Yu's home.

As Jiang Yu stood in his bedroom holding today's laundry, he heard the phone on the desk suddenly chime—the notification sound for a new LINE message.

It's getting pretty late, who could possibly be messaging me? Thinking this, Jiang Yu picked up his phone, and then froze.

Kasumigaoka Utaha: "Junior-kun... do you have an answer?"

Sighing, he stood frozen in place for a moment before starting to type a reply.

"Shall we discuss it in person during tomorrow's lunch break?"

"The rooftop it is then. I'm very much looking forward to your answer."

"...Okay."

Putting down his phone, Jiang Yu took his clothes and walked into the bathroom. After washing his body with the showerhead, he slid into the bathtub, feeling the appropriately warm water gently wash over him from head to toe.

Suggestions for Senior Kasumigaoka's new work... huh?

By Wednesday of this week, he had already finished reading the new manuscript Kasumigaoka Utaha had sent him. As for his thoughts... well, it was perhaps what one would expect from a work by Kasashishi?

It was still a bittersweet campus romance story, and the settings of the male and female protagonists remained quite endearing. The first volume primarily depicted the process of the two meeting and their subsequent minor developments. It unfolded like any ordinary adolescent romantic comedy—grounded in reality yet tinged with romantic fantasy—satisfying every reader who picked up the book, while ensuring that none of Kasashishi's loyal fans would be disappointed.

As for the issue of originality that Kasumigaoka Utaha's editor was worried about... Frankly speaking, this kind of orthodox campus romance and the boy-meets-girl plot development with its perfectly timed pacing didn't actually need much novelty to become a well-received work.

To call it formulaic was somewhat true; the primary heroine of the new work shared certain personality traits with the heroine of her previous work, *Route to Romance*. But in Jiang Yu's view, that was hardly a major issue.

Haven't any number of successful galgames featured homogeneous characters such as tsundere blondes, considerate younger girls, or older women? Yet, scenario writers still manage to use these overused tropes to tell entirely new stories.

This was why Jiang Yu had delayed giving her an answer. In his opinion, this work was already at the standard of Kasashishi's current level, whether in terms of writing style, character development, or plot conception. If he were to forcibly inject some novel elements into it, it would only disrupt the natural, distinct literary charm that uniquely belonged to "Kasashishi."

If the senior had no clue at all for her new work, he might have been able to quickly offer up some masterpieces with unique settings of their own—such as campus romance works like *One Week Friends* or *Book Girl* (though the latter far surpassed ordinary light novels in depth)—or perhaps works like *What do you do at the end of the world? Are you busy? Will you save us?* or *Heaven's Memo Pad*, which possessed distinctive settings and plots, incorporating the original author's reflections on certain contemporary issues.

Failing that, given her versatility as demonstrated in the script for *Steins;Gate*, spilling the beans on the Type-Moon worldview and starting to build a "Type-Moon universe" in advance wouldn't be entirely out of the question.

However, if she wanted him to propose new ideas that could be integrated into a world whose settings she had already established... Jiang Yu felt utterly powerless in that regard.

Staring somewhat troubled at the surface of the water, letting the rising steam gradually blur his vision, Jiang Yu carefully pondered what aspects of the senior's new work could be expanded to create novelty.

Does the protagonist play the piano... Wait, if innovation in the setting wasn't possible, then a plot twist wouldn't be a bad angle to approach it from, right?

Jiang Yu's eyes suddenly lit up as he recalled Keigo Higashino's *Malice*, a mystery novel full of twist after twist that toys with every reader.

Thinking of this, Jiang Yu quickly stood up, stepped out of the bathtub, dried his body, and changed his clothes. He couldn't wait to put the thoughts in his head down on paper.

***

Monday, during the lunch break, on the rooftop of Private Toyogasaki Academy.

A black-haired girl wearing a white headband sat on a rooftop bench, quietly reading a book in her hands. Yet, the way she periodically glanced toward the rooftop door betrayed the fact that her inner state was far from relaxed or leisurely.

"Hah... huff... Oh no, oh no... Why is the cafeteria so crowded today?"

Disregarding the school rule forbidding "running in the hallways," Jiang Yu used the stair handrail to rapidly climb to the upper floors.

"Huff, huff... ugh, cough... Finally here?"

Feeling his somewhat frail body surge with weakness from the continuous rapid running, Jiang Yu gritted his teeth, tormented by the aching sensation in his gums and the dryness in his throat. Standing before the rooftop door, he tried hard to steady his breathing for a good while before finally pushing the door open.

Hearing the commotion, Kasumigaoka Utaha, who hadn't been fully engrossed in her reading anyway, naturally shifted her gaze over. Seeing Jiang Yu covered in sweat, she frowned, and then her slightly cool voice echoed across the rooftop.

"You're late, Junior-kun."