While Miss Shiina in England was preparing to become a "prodigy," the Miss Shiina here at Advanced Nurturing High School was feeling something completely different.
She was confused.
Wait.
Who?
Just moments ago, during class, a notification chimed in her ear.
"Your message has received a reply. Please check it promptly."
She glanced at the teacher lecturing at the front of the classroom, then at the diary that had appeared in front of her.
Shiina Hiyori hesitated only briefly.
She looked.
After all, the class material could be reviewed anytime—but every second she delayed reading the diary's reply was a second wasted.
She desperately wanted to know what answer her question from last night would receive.
Hiyori had originally assumed she would have to wait until today's diary entry. Maybe, like the previous messages, it would even take several days.
But she never expected that the day after leaving her message, she would already receive a reply.
…So replies were possible?
Or was that red-highlighted text before actually a reply?
Hiyori didn't quite understand.
But compared to that, what she wanted more was the an—an—an… answer?
"...?"
The diary flipped directly to the message page.
And then she saw it.
Right beneath the message she had written, four bright characters stood clearly.
[Shiina Hiyori]
Huh?
Not quite believing what she was seeing, Hiyori rubbed her eyes and looked again.
[Shiina Hiyori]
The four characters remained exactly the same.
Looking back up, the message she had written was unchanged as well.
The Diary Author hadn't misunderstood the question.
Nor had he written the wrong answer.
He had genuinely written her name!
Uwa—
Hiyori's head buzzed.
Normally calm and composed, she suddenly found it hard to keep herself steady.
—WHY IS MY NAME THERE?!
If she weren't currently in class, she felt like she might have shouted out loud.
Calm down, calm down, calm down.
The situation was sudden, but she had to calm herself first.
She lightly patted her cheeks and pressed a hand against her chest, trying to soothe her racing emotions.
After organizing her thoughts, Hiyori began to think.
The reply was extremely short.
No matter how she flipped through the diary, she couldn't find anything more.
All she could see was a very impressive illustration of a faceless figure—and beneath that illustration, a four-character reply exactly like the one she received.
[Censor the ghost image]
She didn't understand what that phrase meant, but judging from how that illustration was answered, the four characters "Shiina Hiyori" were probably the entire reply.
Uu…
For now, she could think of two possibilities.
The first possibility:
The name itself was the answer to her question.
The character the Diary Author liked most in this school was Shiina Hiyori.
The second possibility:
She, who had always been silently watching from behind as a mere reader, had unknowingly revealed her identity through some habit in the message she wrote—and the Diary Author had instantly pointed out her real name.
The first possibility wasn't impossible.
But what Hiyori couldn't understand was…
Why her?
The reply didn't include any reason.
And that was exactly why she couldn't confirm whether the name was meant as the answer to her question.
After all, she had written: "Please tell me the reason."
Well…
The Diary Author could also simply choose not to explain.
What kind of reply he wrote was entirely his freedom.
But if he didn't want to respond properly, then why write her name at all?
…Confusing.
If it wasn't the first possibility, but the second—
Then she must have made a fatal mistake somewhere.
Even though she had only written a single sentence, she had somehow exposed her real identity.
The pen in her hand kept spinning.
And yet Shiina Hiyori felt cold sweat starting to form.
As a fan of detective novels, the moment she received the diary—when she saw the hide-and-seek challenge written in its first entry—she had already decided something.
She would hide.
Completely.
She wouldn't use any information from the diary.
She wouldn't respond unnecessarily.
She would simply stay quietly within her own small world and watch the stories he wrote unfold.
She had done exactly that until now.
She hadn't gone to Class D to reveal the full details about the exam information she knew.
She hadn't investigated the rumors about "Lord Yamauchi."
She hadn't joined the discussions when the rumors about Sae Chabashira spread through the school.
Even yesterday's diary entry—those descriptions of kissing.
Though she was curious, she hadn't tried it herself.
She had only watched.
Endured her curiosity.
And finally, unable to bear it any longer, she wrote a single message.
All she wanted to know was this:
Who was the Diary Author's favorite character?
And why?
"…."
She decided she should carefully re-examine the sentence she wrote.
There must be something wrong with it.
[From the perspective of the past, present, and future, Mr. Diary Author, who is your favorite person in this school? Please tell me the reason.]
Was it the form of address?
Because he had never revealed his identity, she chose to call him "Mr. Diary Author."
Was that wrong?
Or was the question itself too biased?
Or perhaps…
Was the phrase "from the perspective of past, present, and future" incorrect?
…She couldn't figure it out.
But one thing she could imagine clearly.
She might become the next "subject" to appear in the diary.
The fate of Arisu Sakayanagi was still fresh in her memory.
Although she believed she didn't have any embarrassing history to expose, Shiina Hiyori still felt a little scared.
Dokidoki.
Her heart beat faster.
Going from a reader to someone who had fallen directly into the story itself…
That was quite a novel experience.
Also, since messages were public, the replies beneath them were probably public as well.
Just like how she could easily read other people's messages, her own message—and the reply she received—would probably be visible to everyone.
Would her peaceful library life be broken now?
However…
Since earlier, she had noticed something that confused her.
The little princess's message had received 7 likes.
The handprint girl's message had received 5 likes.
And the incredibly impressive drawing on the previous page had received 10 likes.
But the question she wrote…
Had a lonely number behind it.
0
Did everyone…
Not like her question?
Shiina Hiyori didn't understand.
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