Clack clack clack
Porcelain-white fingers danced across the keyboard at a speed far beyond that of ordinary humans.
"Nothing's wrong, this is perfect. How could I not…"
As her fingers flew over the keys, the pink lips of the girl whispered in a tone laced with obsession, as if possessed by her own fictional world.
This was a light novelist deep in the throes of inspiration, her mind entirely merged with one of the characters she'd created.
And in the midst of this fevered writing trance, she suddenly finished a major scene. With a deep exhale of satisfaction, she flopped back onto the soft bed behind her, arms spread wide.
Out of the corner of her eye, the glow of the monitor lit up with a familiar title: Love Metronome.
She picked up her phone. It showed a missed call one that had rung for quite a while. The caller ID read: Loser.
She didn't return the call immediately, but opened the accompanying text message instead. Her drowsy eyes, which were half-lidded with sleep, snapped wide open the instant she saw it. Her lips curved into a devilish smile.
[Wanna know who the H-Artist Demon Lord really is? Beg me.] that was the message.
[Say it or don't, I don't care.] she fired back instantly.
Then she shut her eyes again, ignoring the subsequent flood of messages that buzzed her phone like a swarm of wasps.
Eventually, as she was drifting off, the ringtone shattered the silence again.
"Kasashiko, don't you really want to "
Click. She hung up.
The phone rang again.
"You seriously don't "
Click. Hung up again.
"His name is Yoru Moonshadow, that bastard."
That gave her pause. Now this was interesting.
"Erika, you really are more impatient than I expected," the voice teased from the other end of the line.
"Huh?"
"I figured it would take you half an hour to break. But look at that it's only been twenty minutes. I overestimated you."
"You little Kasa shi ko!!"
Erika's voice rose in fury, but the line went dead again. This time the other party turned off their phone completely.
"Yoru Moonshadow, huh? That name actually sounds pretty nice. Hehe… I've finally got you."
She hadn't even met him in person, but she knew the name because of that infamous incident one that had made the rounds even at her school.
Back during a club recruitment drive, he accidentally played the wrong file in the school AV room some uncensored 'research material.' It became school legend overnight
That filthy pervert. She hated him, but she also couldn't stop thinking about him.
Back when Love Metronome was first released, its first volume showed no signs of gaining traction. Her editor had already warned her it would be axed within three volumes. She was devastated… until that bastard showed up out of nowhere.
He talked to her, gave advice, discussed ideas it felt like they'd known each other forever. But before long, they clashed. Harshly. Their partnership turned into rivalry. He retaliated in the pettiest way possible by creating doujinshi that violated her beloved characters in every way imaginable.
Ironically, that stirred up huge controversy and drew tons of attention to Love Metronome. It shot up the charts.
And then just like that he disappeared. The blog that he'd updated daily went silent. Vanished, as if into thin air.
But while browsing that very blog later, Erika found another frequent commenter a sharp, poison-tongued presence just as acidic as her own. She traced them back, and was stunned to learn they attended her school too.
"Wait… did Erika already know Yoru Moonshadow before all this?" Kasashiko murmured to herself.
What she didn't know was that Erika still had no idea Yoru Moonshadow was actually the infamous H-Artist behind those scandalous doujins.
Feeling her energy returning, Kasashiko sat up straight and leaned toward her monitor. Her sleepiness had completely vanished.
On the dark screen, a beautiful face stared back at her reflected in the black surface. Her messy sleepwear slipped off one shoulder, revealing a slender collarbone, and her porcelain-like skin glowed in the monitor's faint light.
The screen flickered to life.
She pulled up his blog.
She froze. Her lips curled into a smile.
He had just posted a new update.
Her elegant fingers danced once more across the keys.
[Scumbag-kun…]
Why did she call him Scumbag-kun?
Because he was a filthy harem-loving degenerate.
How did she and Erika even meet in the first place?
Back when Kasashiko and Yoru were still in their "honeymoon phase" of brief cooperation, she'd taken to defending him on his blog against a sharp-tongued commenter. At the time, she had no idea that commenter was Erika.
Then one day, after a falling out with Yoru, Kasashiko went up to the school rooftop to sulk only to realize Erika was already there, having overheard everything.
Naturally, Kasashiko tried to blackmail her. But in the process, she discovered Erika's secret: ...She was the one behind those scandalous doujins circulating online under an anonymous pen name.
Thus began their odd friendship, bonded by mutual exposure of each other's masks.
…
"Huh? That fast?" Yoru blinked at his screen. "I just posted that a second ago."
And there it was, a new comment that made his eyebrow twitch.
[Scumbag-kun's already out of prison? What a shame…]
Username: Kasashiko.
[Sorry to disappoint, sow!] he replied instantly, his fingers slamming the keys.
[Oh wow, still serializing Love Metronome, huh? Surprised you're not worried about your readers vomiting.]
Super black-hater mode: activated.
[New female character: Mai? Another tired love triangle? What is this garbage…]
He flipped open the second volume of Love Metronome just bought today and started nitpicking on purpose.
[Aww, I'm so touched… I didn't think a low-IQ pervert like you could actually read.]
The comment thread exploded from there. The two flung insults at each other like fireworks, their argument drowning out anyone else who tried to chime in.
But how did this all begin?
Despite the venom, Yoru and Kasashiko had never met in real life. For all he knew, she might not even be human. Maybe she was a pig.
Back when he was still a fan of Love Metronome, he'd reached out, offering to illustrate it for free.
She rejected him. That wasn't surprising, considering his reputation as an H-artist.
But she didn't ignore him. They ended up chatting, bouncing ideas around. He even drew some key scenes for her.
And then… something changed.
They fought. Things escalated. He couldn't even remember how it started. He retaliated the only way he knew by drawing a highly controversial doujin that turned her beloved heroine into the star of an extremely depraved alternate story
The rage in her words after that? Unmistakable.
And yet, she continued to argue with him on his own blog. She didn't even bother hiding her identity. When asked on Twitter, she simply denied it was her. Most readers now assumed "Kasashiko" was just a crazed fan.
Wait… now that he thought about it… wasn't it right after finishing that doujin that he got sucked into this other world?
Anyway, enough of that.
He grabbed his full set of art supplies, spun a pencil between his fingers, and rested his chin on his hand. He needed a new idea for a fresh, perverted masterpiece.
"…Ugh."
No good. His hand wasn't cooperating.
It still ached from grabbing that glass shard earlier. A stupid injury from a moment of carelessness.
Fine. Might as well read Love Metronome Volume 2 again, see where the story went.
He hated to admit it, but… even as Kasashiko's biggest hater, he genuinely liked her work.
His eyes drifted to the side.
There, glinting under the light, lay the Demon Lord's Ring.
Yoru fell into deep thought.