Oregairu: My First Masterpiece, Your Lie in April Chapter 103: Oikawa Swears on His Conscience — Clannad Is De

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About ten seconds later, Kawasaki finally realized she'd been laughing. She quickly wiped the smile from her face and walked into the café.

The mont she sat down across from Oikawa, her expression turned cold again.

Back straight. Chin raised.

Like she was silently saying: I'm mad. Hurry up and make it up to .

Well... the angry part was probably real.

The "co coax " part was completely made up by Oikawa.

Kawasaki had never been the tsundere type. Still, Oikawa apologized anyway.

"Okay, don't be mad. I really didn't do it on purpose. How was I supposed to know your little sister was playing on her phone? Don't worry, next ti I see Keika-chan, I'll bribe her onto your side."

As he spoke, Oikawa glanced around the café, then slipped a half-open bag of Umaibō out of his pocket and held one up to Kawasaki's mouth.

He raised an eyebrow at her.

Kawasaki looked tempted, but she still didn't move.

"Hurry up," Oikawa whispered. "If soone slls it, we might actually get kicked out."

After hesitating for a second, Kawasaki obediently opened her mouth and bit down on the Umaibō he'd squeezed out of the bag.

Then she quickly hid it in her mouth, her face lighting up with happiness.

Sotis joy really was that simple.

Oikawa secretly ate one too. The two of them looked at each other while chewing, quietly sharing the contraband snack.

A woman sitting not far away suddenly frowned and started sniffing the air.

Apparently she'd caught the scent of the Umaibō. But Oikawa looked completely calm, like nothing had happened.

Kawasaki, on the other hand, couldn't stay nearly as composed. Her face turned bright red as she lowered her head.

After that, the two of them settled into actual tutoring.

Until Kawasaki opened her notebook and pointed at a parabola problem she wanted help with.

Oikawa looked at the question and frowned slightly. "Isn't this middle school-level stuff? You're not bad enough that you can't solve sothing this easy, right?"

"I just forgot how to do it," Kawasaki muttered. "I wanted you to explain it again."

Her eyes kept drifting off to the side.

The lie couldn't have been more obvious.

Oikawa asked, "Taishi asked you about it, didn't he?"

"...No."

Kawasaki's voice had gotten quieter, and Oikawa imdiately caught her lie.

"Oh, so it was Taishi."

Laughing, he pulled out his phone and sent Taishi a ssage, 'Where are you? What're you doing?'

Taishi replied almost instantly, 'At ho. Oikawa-niisan, what's up? Do you need sothing?'

Oikawa typed again, 'Co to the café. The one I brought you to before. Bring your books.'

Kawasaki had been staring at his screen the whole ti. The second she saw the ssage, she hurriedly said, "Oikawa, Taishi only got stuck on this one question. I can explain it to him myself. You don't have to... don't have to trouble yourself."

"How is that a bother? I'm just building a good relationship with my future brother-in-law. I'm perfectly willing to tutor Taishi for free. Got a problem with that?"

The mont he said brother-in-law, Kawasaki's eyes suddenly softened.

They looked almost watery.

Oikawa blinked, then teased, "Kawasaki… don't tell you're about to cry? That touched, huh? Then how about becoming my girlfriend?"

"W-Why would I ever be your girlfriend?!"

That seed to be Kawasaki's last shred of stubborn pride.

Oikawa only smiled and let her have it.

Not long after, Taishi arrived at the café.

Oikawa's tutoring session went from one student to two.

Not that it made much difference to him.

When tutoring Kawasaki, less than an hour was usually spent actually teaching. Most of the ti he was just answering questions whenever she got stuck.

He had plenty of free ti. Adding Taishi barely increased the workload.

Taishi's foundation was noticeably weaker than Kawasaki's. At his current level, getting into Sobu High would be difficult.

After flipping through Taishi's textbooks, Oikawa quickly ca up with a study plan for him.

For the rest of the afternoon, he mostly focused on helping Taishi.

At four-thirty, Oikawa shot Taishi a aningful look.

Taishi imdiately got the hint and announced that he had sothing to do before leaving the café.

Once again, only Oikawa and Kawasaki remained.

Finally, the clock crept its way to five. The second the hand hit the mark, Oikawa stood up.

"Co on, Miss Kawasaki. Ti for you to fulfill your promise."

Kawasaki looked at him and bit her lip softly before putting her books into her bag.

Smiling, Oikawa took her hand and led her out of the café.

Kawasaki stared at his back, then at their tightly clasped hands.

A faint look of happiness appeared on her face.

'If only things could stay like this forever...'

The thought quietly surfaced in her heart.

…

..

The boy and girl ran hand in hand through the streets of Chiba.

The wind blew past them.

The girl's hair fluttered in the breeze, a shy but joyful smile spreading across her face.

Before long, they arrived at the bus stop.

"Wouldn't taking a taxi back be better?" Oikawa asked. "I'm worried you'll get too tired."

"No!"

The instant Oikawa looked at her, Kawasaki imdiately wiped the smile off her face and put on a guarded expression again.

After hesitating for a mont, she quietly added, "Just so we're clear... you're not allowed to do anything weird to ."

"Otherwise..."

Her voice trailed off.

Oikawa leaned closer with a shaless grin and whispered, "Otherwise what?"

"Otherwise, I'll let you experience the power of a karate black belt."

Oikawa imdiately shut up.

If anyone else claid they had a karate black belt, Oikawa would assu they were bluffing.

But Kawasaki? There was a very high chance she was telling the truth.

Oikawa discreetly pulled back his wandering gaze.

Well... not completely.

He'd still look. He'd just be more careful about it.

At that mont, Oikawa decided he seriously needed to increase the intensity of his workouts. Maybe even hire a kickboxing coach and learn so actual fighting skills.

Being a playboy was dangerous.

Being a tragic romance author was dangerous too.

A man had to protect himself at all tis. What if one day sobody actually stabbed him over this stuff? That would be a full-on tragedy.

...

The bus soon arrived.

From the mont they boarded until they reached Oikawa's front door, Kawasaki kept her head lowered, lost in thought.

"Where's the outfit?" she asked softly after entering the apartnt.

"Right here."

Oikawa quickly brought over the cosplay costu he'd prepared in advance, barely able to hide his excitent.

Kawasaki took the outfit, set down her backpack, and walked into Oikawa's bedroom.

A second later, the sound of the door locking echoed from inside.

About a minute later, she finally erged, looking awkward and embarrassed.

"Where's the blindfold?"

Kawasaki glared at Oikawa before shyly putting it on herself.

The silver-white wig paired with the black blindfold gave her an almost dangerous allure.

The black combat outfit hugged her figure tightly, especially around her chest. Her toned thighs, built from constant exercise, matched 2B's character design almost perfectly.

Black stockings disappeared into knee-high boots, making the whole look even more distracting.

Even the black gloves she wore carried a strangely forbidden charm.

With a sword strapped to her back and another held in her hand, Kawasaki looked less like a high school girl and more like YoRHa Unit 2B herself stepping straight out of the ga.

"Perfect!"

Oikawa instantly grabbed his phone.

Click.

A photo of Kawasaki in cosplay was added to his gallery.

"W-Why are you taking pictures?!"

The sound of the shutter made Kawasaki panic imdiately.

She yanked off the blindfold, face bright red as she protested.

"A photo exists to capture beautiful monts," Oikawa said seriously. "And right now, you're the most beautiful I have ever seen."

"T-That still doesn't an you can just..."

Kawasaki stopped halfway through.

She lowered her head, no longer knowing what to say.

His words felt like soone had stuffed a piece of candy into her mouth. Sweet enough that the rest of her complaints simply wouldn't co out.

"Then... you're not allowed to show them to anyone else."

"Of course not! There's no way I'd let anyone else see pictures of you looking this pretty. Not even girls." Oikawa answered without hesitation.

He didn't have so weird NTR fetish. Showing other people these pictures would make him an idiot.

"Mhm..."

Kawasaki shyly lowered her head again.

Then she set down the two swords she'd been carrying and walked into the kitchen on her own.

After opening the fridge, she turned back toward Oikawa with a gentle smile.

"What do you want for dinner? I'll cook... Your mouth... is it feeling better now? Can you eat regular food yet?"

Heaven.

Oikawa was convinced this had to be heaven.

"Yes!"

After thinking for a mont, he began listing dishes excitedly. "I want your fried fish, tonkatsu, miso soup, tamagoyaki… honestly, anything's fine. As long as you made it, I'll eat whatever it is."

"Then, you're going to stuff yourself to death."

"Who cares? I'd die happy."

Kawasaki turned away, smiling like peach blossoms in April.

Oikawa sat on the sofa, watching Kawasaki bustle around the kitchen in full cosplay.

It was incredibly easy on the eyes.

Seriously, way too easy on the eyes.

Honestly... this kind of life wasn't bad.

...

After cooking dinner for him, Kawasaki packed the cosplay outfit back into her bag, and she shyly headed ho. She was worried Oikawa might do sothing inappropriate to the costu if she left it behind.

Oikawa could only sigh helplessly.

She really knew him too well.

After Kawasaki left, Oikawa spent quite a while fooling around in his room with the twin swords.

Only after fully satisfying himself did he finally return to his computer and continue writing the remaining chapters of Volu One of Clannad.

In so ways, Clannad was actually very similar to Your Lie in April.

The first half was full of warm, everyday monts, making it feel like a wholeso healing story.

Only later did the emotional knives start coming out in full force.

First ca the sugar.

Then ca the knife.

And the sweeter the sugar, the deeper the stab.

When the ti ca, he'd definitely harvest another ocean of tears.

After all, Your Lie in April was a music story. Sotis emotions were harder to fully convey through words alone.

But the heartbreaking parts of Clannad? Those were built entirely through narration and emotional buildup.

Its depression-inducing power was easily a whole level above Your Lie in April.

"No... the early chapters need to be even sweeter."

Oikawa made up his mind.

Lure the readers in first, then kill them emotionally.

And when it ca to promotion, they absolutely had to advertise it as a healing story.

He'd already decided. When the ti ca, he would tell Chris Yamada to market it specifically as a heartwarming healing-type novel.

Worst case scenario, all the bla could just be dumped onto "Copycat-sensei" anyway.

At this point, the title "That Damn Fraud Copycat" was already famous across the internet. A little more infamy wouldn't hurt.

But even if the whole world stood against him, Oikawa would keep moving forward.

For the sake of art, he was fully prepared to let "Copycat-sensei" descend completely into darkness and squeeze every last tear out of his readers.

After writing for around four hours straight, editing as he went, Oikawa managed to finish nearly forty thousand words.

Volu One of Clannad would probably end up around 170,000 to 180,000 characters total. At this pace, he could finish it in another two or three days.

Normally, Clannad should have been split into three volus.

But Oikawa felt dragging it out that long would be annoying, so he condensed it into two.

That way, the first half could be a healing story. And the second half could beco pure emotional devastation.

Surely people would finally call him a healing-story author after this, right? After all, he was healing the readers... he was healing the world itself.

Oikawa thought proudly to himself.

...

After four straight hours of typing, Oikawa collapsed onto the sofa in exhaustion, once again transforming into a salted fish who had lost all dreams in life.

While lazily scrolling through Twitter, he suddenly spotted a huge announcent: {Your Lie in April was getting an ani adaptation.}

He imdiately opened the post.

Damn. Full-Drive Bunko really moved fast.

Clicking into the announcent, he read: "Your Lie in April is a bestselling work by author 'Copycat Transmigrator.' After internal discussion, Full-Drive Bunko has decided to invest 200 million yen into producing an ani adaptation of Volu One of Your Lie in April. Planned broadcast date is early April."

The announcent was incredibly short. It only ntioned the budget and release date.

If the post hadn't co directly from Full-Drive Bunko's official account, people probably would've assud it was a fan joke.

Of course, now that Full-Drive Bunko had officially posted this, it also confird another rumor: "Copycat-sensei" had really joined Full-Drive Bunko.

The comnts section instantly exploded.

["HOLY CRAP, so the rumors online were actually true? That shut-in writing monster really joined Full-Drive Bunko?"]

["So does that an Clannad releasing during winter break is real too?! Copycat-sensei, please be human this ti. Just write a healing story, ok? If you do, I swear I'll buy every light novel you ever publish!!"]

["@FullDriveBunko Could you please convince Copycat-sensei to stop writing depression bombs? His writing is so good. If he wrote a healing-type light novel, it would definitely be insanely popular. Your company would make money too!"]

["Miss Official Account Manager, please ask the editors to talk to Copycat-sensei for us! I'm begging you! My heart can't take another hit!"]

Looking at how pitifully these readers were pleading with the poor social dia girl, even Oikawa started feeling a little guilty.

Sigh. Seeing his readers like this honestly made him feel both touched and a bit heartbroken.

Wasn't it just a healing story they wanted?

Oikawa imdiately replied to the post with utmost seriousness, "Don't worry. My upcoming novel Clannad is absolutely a healing story. I swear it on my conscience!"

Then he added, "From this day onward, I, Copycat-sensei, am an author who only writes healing stories. For the sake of my fans, I'm willing to change!"

After posting the reply, Oikawa nodded in satisfaction.

Even he was starting to get emotional himself, okay?

Besides, he technically wasn't lying.

Clannad really was a healing story. It just only healed people halfway through.

The exhaustion in his body vanished the mont he finished reading the readers' comnts.

"No, I need to keep writing. I should finish Volu One of Clannad as soon as possible. I can't let my readers down!"

Oikawa shook his head emotionally.

Honestly, considerate authors like him were way too rare these days.

Seriously, who could possibly understand his suffering?!

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