"How is it? Pretty amazing book, right?"
Even though Yamauchi Sakura looked completely drained from reading, she still didn't forget to watch Yukinoshita's expression closely.
"Well, considering I've only seen the title and haven't even read a page yet… plus judging by your tortured face while reading, it really doesn't look like you're enjoying some 'amazing book.'"
Yukinoshita spoke quietly, giving her a sideways glance full of disbelief.
Sakura, who had been sprawled across the desk, suddenly sat up straight at those words.
She let out two bursts of loud laughter, then shook her head smugly.
"Hah! So all this time, little Yukino, when you sit there pretending to read books every day, it was all just for show, huh?"
Her expression grew even more triumphant.
"This is a book by Kyousuke, you know. Of course it's amazing! Haven't you heard? You can judge how good a book is just by its author's name.
And besides, sure, you know I don't normally like reading—but what you don't get is that the better a book is, the more it tortures me! And Kyousuke's books?
They're the kind that take three days and three nights of recovery after reading just a single page!"
Hands on her hips, Sakura puffed herself up proudly, then launched into a dramatic retelling of her experience reading The Devotion of Suspect X.
The way she described the suffering made it sound like even all her math textbooks from grade school until now combined weren't half as bad!
"…"
Yukinoshita's lips parted slightly, her face frozen in shock.
It was an utterly ridiculous way of judging quality, but somehow it still cranked up her sense of anticipation.
Now she couldn't help but wonder: what kind of book could possibly rival the misery of a math textbook?
"S-So… what you're saying is, it's like how the worst students hate math or physics class, but the moment it's PE, they suddenly run the fastest?" she asked hesitantly.
"Everyone loves PE! Well, except for someone like you, Yukino-chan, who's hopeless when it comes to stamina. And for the record, I did score a perfect 100 on the last math quiz." Sakura shot back, eyes narrowing suspiciously.
"…Sorry. But the way you act really does scream 'hopeless student,'" Yukinoshita replied earnestly, before adding,
"And wrong. Your logic doesn't hold up. It's precisely because someone lacks stamina that they should value PE class—it helps you improve. I don't hate PE because of poor stamina."
"Then it must be because you never have a partner for warm-ups or doubles tennis!" Sakura countered.
"Warm-ups are done with whoever's standing next to you. No partner required. And as for tennis—well, no one at school has the skill level to be my match," Yukinoshita said, chin tilted proudly, her refined face exuding confidence.
Only Yukinoshita Yukino could make her loneliness in PE sound like a badge of honor.
"Figures… so it's not just that you're weak, but also because you can't find a partner for team sports. Poor Yukino-chan~~"
Her face darkened as Sakura lunged in for a hug, only to be blocked by Yukinoshita's outstretched hand.
After a bit more playful bickering, Yukinoshita made a depressing discovery: she was actually starting to get used to this idiot's constant noise.
When Sakura fell quiet, it somehow felt… unnatural.
She let out a breath, cheeks faintly flushed from the scuffle.
Even though Yukinoshita always claimed she carefully rationed her energy during PE with "scientific methods," it was clear she hadn't exactly built herself a strong physique that way.
Her gaze drifted back down to the manuscript in front of her. Without looking up, she asked:
"This book of Hojou's… it's meant for the Mystery Writers' Award, isn't it?"
Combining what she knew with her understanding of Hojou Kyousuke, Yukinoshita made the guess cautiously.
"Just read it! If it's you, Yukino, you'll know the moment you finish," Sakura said with a bright grin.
When it came to pushing books on others, Sakura was a model promoter—never spoiling the story, just shoving the book right in someone's face and begging them with all the enthusiasm of a puppy.
Her "marketing skills" were annoyingly effective.
Yukinoshita gave no further reply and quietly started reading.
Meanwhile, Sakura happily whipped out her phone and began scrolling.
Her drained look from earlier was already vanishing, as if the book's damage had never been more than temporary.
A relief, really.
Although the publisher hadn't officially started promotion yet, Kisaki Tetta's team of "associates" had already begun moving.
Subtle posts were spreading across major social platforms.
It wasn't exactly overwhelming hype, but thanks to algorithmic recommendations, Sakura's feed had suddenly become flooded with Hojou Kyousuke's name.
She couldn't have been happier.
Kisaki clearly knew his way around media strategy.
Instead of going all-out from the start, he'd enlisted a few mid-tier influencers to "leak" the news—sparking curiosity, stirring debate, and slowly building buzz.
Then, bit by bit, they'd drop more.
Right now, on the video site Sakura was browsing, a creator with over 100,000 followers had just posted about it.
The account usually covered insider gossip from both the supernatural scene and the anime industry, and its audience was pretty active.
The video claimed that, according to "industry insiders," Hojou Kyousuke's new novel would be released soon.
The wording was deliberately vague—so vague it wasn't just hiding behind the curtain, it was impossible to even tell if the news was male or female.
The comment section, however, was exploding.
Some doubted the authenticity of the leak, some were already popping champagne in celebration, while others angrily cursed Hojou as a "lazy bastard"—if he had time to write a new book, why were his two ongoing manga updates crawling like snails?
Someone even pasted the video link onto Hojou Kyousuke's personal website, pulling even more people into the discussion.
From that point on, the comments were nothing but Hojou talk, with any outsider voices quickly drowned out and assimilated.
The video's uploader was very active, replying to almost every comment with lines like, "We're digging for more! We'll bring you updates the moment we confirm them!"—all the usual smoke and mirrors.
Yamauchi Sakura, however, was laughing so hard her stomach hurt.
After all, she knew perfectly well that the channel was secretly run by Kyousuke's own people, and that more than a few "leaks" were things she had personally made up on the spot.
Right now, she was gleefully replying to comments herself, mixing absurd truths in with the fake rumors.
"Is it real? Of course it's real. Honestly, Kyousuke's house is overflowing with half-finished novels and manga drafts—it's just that he never has time to complete them."
As one of the people closest to Hojou Kyousuke, Sakura had access to a kind of joy that others could never imagine.
She had heard endless tales: the adventures of Pirate King Luffy; battles between a magma man, a flame man, and a sun god; a notebook that could kill with just a name; a shinigami who could leave his body yet still obeyed the laws of physics—it never ended.
When other kids were watching shallow Saturday-morning cartoons, Sakura's nights were filled with Kyousuke's stories.
One day, a monster called Godzilla blasted Tokyo with radioactive beams, crushing a fool who had been trying to use a death notebook to kill him—seriously, who writes Godzilla's name in a notebook?
The next day, as Tokyo struggled to rebuild, a zombie outbreak swept through the city, only for the world's last hope to be a high school boy whose right hand could devour zombies.
That day's homework question from Kyousuke: 'Could a ghoul eat a zombie, or could a zombie eat a ghoul? Wouldn't that technically be a perpetual-motion machine?'
Countless nights had been spent with Sakura's mind wandering across endless worlds, carried by the clarity of the boy's voice—free and unrestrained, soaring through dazzling fantasies.
Later, when Kyousuke officially became a professional creator, he began recording those remembered stories in between his serialized work.
Sakura never cared much for polished, published books—but she loved the rough drafts, the half-formed ideas.
She'd add in her own ridiculous twists to the plot, laughing to herself endlessly.
"Slow updates? Honestly, if it weren't for the magazine's demands, he'd probably have stopped the series already."
"He's not that busy. Just the other day he threw a 150 km/h fastball, no big deal. Look forward to seeing Kyousuke at Koshien this year~"
"What's the new novel about? I really want to tell you, but I…"
"..."
Clutching her phone, Sakura spammed the comment threads, boosting Hojou Kyousuke's name wherever she could.
Mindless work—but to her, that made it pure joy.
Of course, Kyousuke's writing wasn't random at all.
\He followed certain principles well-known in the industry—one of them being that a novel should be of moderate length.
His new work was 230 pages, carefully designed so that even the slowest reader could finish it in one go without fatigue.
And so, without realizing it, Yukinoshita had reached the final page.
When she saw the author's name—Hojou Kyousuke—her expression turned complicated.
Just as Sakura had said, finishing the book made everything clear.
Yukinoshita now fully understood why he chose this exact timing to release it.
Her earlier doubts were answered as well.
What would Hojou Kyousuke do in such a situation?
Fight back.
And not just fight back—fight back hard.
Instead of calmly confronting the issue, publishing this book was the equivalent of stepping into the arena barehanded and drenched in blood, utterly unyielding.
Even without speaking directly to him, Yukinoshita could see his intentions clearly from the words she had just read.
Unlike his usual polished, composed style, this time there was no compromise.
It was as if every ounce of his patience had burned away—what remained was a blade flashing with murderous resolve.
Shocked as she was, Yukinoshita found a smile spreading across her face.
What a counterattack.
Precise as a surgeon's scalpel, striking straight at the heart.
Fierce as a raging storm, wielding a masterpiece novel as his weapon without the slightest hesitation.
"How is it, how is it? Amazing, right?" Sakura was already leaning in, impatient for her reaction.
"…Yes. It's excellent. The pacing, the characters—everything is spot on. As a mystery novel, the tricks are flawlessly tight and inventive. Completely different from his previous work."
Yukinoshita's smile softened into a nod of approval.
"Hahaha! See, see? I told you!" Sakura crowed, looking absurdly proud—despite the fact she hadn't even finished a third of the book herself.
"So… he's planning to release it before the final round of judging?" Yukinoshita asked.
To most, it might look like Kyousuke was trying to pressure the judges—but she knew better. That wasn't his style.
If he was putting a work of this quality out there, it was because he intended to publish it openly and proudly.
That was the path of justice—the true road to victory.
"Yup. That's exactly what he's been busy with these last two days," Sakura said.
"Two days? But wasn't he hanging out with you yesterday?" Yukinoshita frowned.
Sakura had spammed her with photos yesterday, and in nearly every one, Hojou Kyousuke was there—lounging around at home, looking completely carefree.
"That's not how it works, Yukino. You can't just think about fun all the time. A good wife supports her husband's career—that's the duty of a wife!" Sakura said sternly, her little face trying to look serious.
"…"
Yukinoshita's eyebrow twitched.
She didn't even bother to mock the ridiculous "duty of a wife" comment.
Coming from Yamauchi Sakura, who spent her days lazing around, those words had absolutely zero credibility.
Honestly, even that idiot Eriri in the dorm wouldn't buy it.
"So you're saying… he only went to work after he finished entertaining you?" Yukinoshita sighed helplessly.
"Yep! As soon as I took my afternoon nap, off he went!" Sakura said proudly, beaming with satisfaction.
"…And that's your so-called 'wifely duty'?"
Yukinoshita chose silence.
She had confirmed the novel would indeed be published before the final selection, and with that, all her guesses were proven right.
This time, Hojou Kyousuke hadn't relied on tricks—he had gone straight in for a direct, frontal strike.
"…Is there anything I can do to help? I mean, if he keeps skipping club activities, as president I'll be in serious trouble. The club won't function properly without him."
Her mood strangely buoyant, Yukinoshita offered her support.
If this were a video game, a system message would've popped up right then:
[Because you chose an action aligned with 'Justice']
[The Goddess of Justice's favorability +1, Alignment Shift +1.]
[Warning: another 9999 points and you'll become 'Lawful Good.']
"Of course there is! I'm already helping, you know.
Don't let my casual chatting fool you—I'm super busy right now!" Sakura declared shamelessly.
"…Huh?"
Yukinoshita blinked, just as stunned as when she'd caught Sakura reading earlier.
From what she knew of Yamauchi Sakura, this girl was destined to become a proud NEET—a parasite who would call freeloading "family bonding."
Just like Hojou Kyousuke, the two of them treated "living lazily" as a personal creed.
So… this was her idea of "wifely duty"? She actually meant it?
"Look, I'm helping with the new book's promotion!"
Sakura shoved her phone into Yukinoshita's hands.
The comment threads glared back at her.
'Are you sure this is promotion and not just bragging?'
Seeing Hojou Kyousuke's fans froth with envy at Sakura's replies, even Yukinoshita's eye twitched.
'…I really shouldn't have expected anything from you.'