Liar, Liar - Volume 5 - Chapter 5

Extra Stage

“…Well, Shinohara, you’re here.”

Just before the appointed time, Himeji and I met up with Saionji in her school uniform at Union Park, the site of our pretend date earlier. The Unique Star competition was over, but she and I were here together in public without any disguises on…although I didn’t think it was a problem. Union Park, after all, was closed for the afternoon for equipment maintenance. No passers-by would be around to see us together.

“But I wonder what the point of all this is…? Why did you ask me and Himeji to join you anyway?”

She ran a hand through her luxuriant red hair and gave me a puzzled look. She was right to be confused. Thanks to Shiina, I’d managed to figure out where the gamemaster wanted to meet me…but a scant few minutes later, the DearScript app had given me yet another order.

Additional Order: Bring Shirayuki Himeji and Sarasa Saionji with you to the site.

It was a total mystery.

“Good question, Rina,” Himeji said, her own silver hair swaying. “I can think of three possibilities. First, the gamemaster’s decided to give you and me a bonus reward. Second, she’s going to launch part two of DearScript with all of us here.”

“Mm… Yeah, both scenarios seem plausible… So what’s the third one, Yuki? I’m sure that’s the one you’re most confident about.”

“You’re very sharp, Rina. The third and most likely possibility in my mind is that this is all for show, in a way. Assuming my master really will be reunited with his childhood friend—well, they haven’t seen each other in years, have they? There’s every chance that this woman absolutely hates us, the two girls closest to him. Perhaps she would even want to kill us if she could.”

“Y-you think she hates us? Enough to kill us?!”

“…Himeji, I really doubt that she’d—”

“No, Master, you don’t understand. As I’ve learned rather recently, feelings of love can often throw women off-kilter a little bit. Perhaps ‘hate’ would be too strong of a word, but it wouldn’t be strange at all if she’s plotting a little revenge against us. For example…well, maybe she’d hug my master in front of you, Rina, or forcibly steal a kiss.”

“…! She’d…kiss Shinohara…?” Saionji brought a hand up to her face as she blushed, her ruby eyes glancing toward me. Then she squeezed them tight. “That… That’s crazy! What are you talking about, Yuki?! And why would Shinohara being hugged in front of me be ‘revenge’?!”

“…? Don’t you know, Rina? Having one’s lover stolen out from under them is all too common a—”

“S-stolen…? I have no idea what you mean! I’m not even like that with Shinohara!”

Himeji was cool as a cucumber, but (for some reason) Saionji pointed her finger at me, red-faced, before turning away. As they kept carrying on, I secretly thought to myself.

Well…looking at the quality behind the DearScript app, there’s little to no chance I’ll see my childhood friend here. If it really is her, though, I’m not sure how I’d react, either.

The person I was searching for—my childhood friend, my first love, and the reason why I came to this island… I did want to meet her, of course, but it had been years since we’d seen each other face-to-face. I didn’t remember her name, and I had almost no recollection of what she looked like. Maybe being reunited with her would jog my memory, but I couldn’t even imagine what sort of emotion that might lead to.

Then…it was time.

“Ah…”

Our meeting place was in front of the Ferris wheel, and there, across the square, I saw a lone figure. She had flowing, shoulder-length brown hair, and although I couldn’t clearly see what she looked like, since her back was turned to me, I took in the mature, chic-looking outfit she had on. How could I put it…? She was the sort of girl you could tell was a beauty even looking at her from behind. No other parkgoers were here, so it had to be her.

“All right. Let’s get going—”

With a nervous gulp, I took my first step toward her…

“…?! Whoa… W-wait, Shinohara!”

“…Wha?!”

My arm was being pulled back by Saionji, which forced me to a stop. I stared at her, partly confused and partly in protest, but she kept her grip on my arm, her face looking a little panicked.

“Wh, wh-wh, why are you just gonna talk to her out of nowhere, Shinohara?! W-we need a strategy meeting! You haven’t even decided what you’ll do yet!”

“Huh? A strategy…? For what?”

“For what? I mean…you know…”

“Yes, I understand, Rina. If the girl standing there is the kind of predator out to take my master’s chastity, we’ll need to discuss how to dispatch her, certainly.”

“Exactly! …Wait, no, not exactly! I—I mean, she might really be your childhood friend, right? So how should me and Yuki act around—”

“…Hiroto?”

There it was.

I guess the lack of guests had made it pretty easy for her to hear our bickering all the way from across the square, because the girl was now turned around. Her hair, dyed a dark shade of brown, fluttered in the breeze, and her orange eyes were opened slightly, looking at me.

“Hiroto…!”

The next moment she ran over to us with a smile that seemed to well up from deep inside her heart. Then, not stopping for a moment, she flew right into my chest.

“Huh?!”

“Wha—”

“…”

“…I’ve missed you!”

She hugged me hard, not minding how perplexed we were, rubbing her cheek against my shirt as she spoke. The fragrance that reached my nose was clean, but not sweet, and the soft sensation pressed against my body made me feel like I was going to lose my mind. She was literally at point-blank range, her hands going around my head and back, her pretty face totally close enough for a kiss if I wasn’t careful… Wait…

Huh?

“…Hey, um… Wait a second.”

I had just barely managed to hold on to my senses long enough to say that. She relented a little, and now I had three women all looking at me—Himeji, the color in her cheeks unchanged but her eyes slightly averted; Saionji, bright red and staring at me from between her fingers; and the third girl, still bright and cheerful as she hugged me.

“What is it, Hiroto? Something wrong?”

“Not wrong, no…um, what are you doing?”

“What? Can’t you tell? We’re finally reunited, so I’m hugging you. I’ve been waiting for this for who knows how many years… Or don’t you like this kind of thing?”

“It’s not that I don’t like it…”

“So you’re happy?”

“No, I mean… Hey!”

She flashed a light, chiding smile, then squeezed me even harder, almost as if she was physically trying to block any attempt at protest. Her right hand behind me was now stroking my hair, a habit that I definitely did have a memory of, and I instinctively looked up at the sky. Ahhh… So this is how it is. Yes, she is that important to me, no doubt. Maybe it really wasn’t any exaggeration to say that she was someone I loved, who I’d finally been reunited with after so long.

After all, she was—

“Look, enough! I’m just asking you to explain all this for me…Sis!”

I closed my eyes tight as I forced out those words. After all, if I hadn’t, my older sister would’ve rubbed her cheek against my chest all day.

We decided to move into a car in the Ferris wheel to gather ourselves. The DearScript gamemaster was seated on my right, with Himeji and Saionji facing us in the seat opposite. The other two, particularly Saionji, had been beside themselves for a little while, wondering if they should introduce themselves to my sister or not, but they’d calmed down a bit by now. My big sister had chosen this location for us, by the way. She knew I was afraid of heights, too—and even worse, apparently they were going to give us a spin around the wheel (despite it being closed for the day), which was so mean of her.

“Well, now that we’re all settled…”

Anyway, as soon as the car began moving, my sister decided to break the ice.

“My name is Yuzuha Shinohara. I’m the owner of the Meetia account, the gamemaster of DearScript, the person behind the scenes for all of this, and most of all, Hiroto’s sister. Age-wise, I think I’m around ten years older than all of you.”

“Master’s sister…? So what was that message at the very beginning of DearScript?”

“Oh, sorry, that was a fib. I wanted Hiroto to seriously search for me, and I kind of got carried away.”

“Kind of…?”

She wasn’t the least bit timid about saying that, which made me let out a quiet sigh.

Yuzuha Shinohara, as she said herself, was my actual sister. She had moved to the Academy for her high school education and wound up pursuing a career here after school. I’d never suspected for a moment that she was behind this because she had always been the type to hardly ever contact her family. I had sent her a message just before coming to this island, but she’d never even read it, as usual. I knew she must have a good reason for that, though, so I didn’t pursue it any further.

Now my sister—or Yuzu, as I usually called her—was stretching out on her seat.

“I really love Hiroto, you know, which is why I just got the sudden urge to tease him… Or at least that’s how it went this time. I figured if I wrote something like that for him, then there was no way he’d throw in the towel before the end, right? He’d be constantly thinking about me instead, and, you know, I thought that’d be nice…”

“…So if I failed to complete an order at some point, what were you gonna do then?”

“Oh, come on, Hiroto! I knew you could clear those easy.”

Yuzu snickered. Maybe she’d meant it as a joke, but if she had meant it, then she really was one scary woman. Still, she kept on smiling, not realizing what was running through my mind.

“Anyway, that was one reason I launched the whole DearScript thing. We haven’t met in a long time, so I wanted our reunion to have a little drama.”

“…And that’s why you organized this grandiose Game? I feel like it’d be better if you just got in touch with your family a little more often…,” said Himeji.

“Umm, well, about that,” I said, answering the completely valid comment before Yuzu could. “Yuzu’s got a job where she has to deal with a lot of classified information. I guess she can only contact her family on limited occasions, so sometimes it takes her months to answer my messages. You’re in the Academy Administration, right…?”

“Administration?! Are you serious, Shinohara?”

“Huh? Well, yeah, but… What, is it that surprising?”

“O-of course it is! The Academy Administration is home to all the top elites on the island! They’re at the very center of the whole star system! It’s run by a tight core of incredibly talented people, and they’ve got the highest class of access to every database in the Academy! They don’t let just anyone in, you know!”

“Yeah… It’s said that being Six Star at the time of your high school graduation is a bare minimum requirement. That, and it’s the most strictly regulated department on the island, because of all the top-secret data they work with… Now I understand why you can’t get in contact with her too often, Master.”

“Right, yeah! It’s been three years since we last met. And I still had to file all these requests just so I could be here for today.”

Yuzu smiled, all but begging for me to thank her. And, yeah…hearing all that, I couldn’t really be that cold-hearted to her.

“So, getting back on topic… The second reason why I devised DearScript was because it worked out perfectly timing-wise.”

“Timing-wise?”

“Yeah. It’s almost summer, right? And as I think you know by now, summer’s when the Academy holds its biggest event of the year. It’s as big as the May Interschools—actually, way bigger in fact. And it’s starting up real soon.”

“…? So…what’s your point?”

“What’s my point? That is the point.”

She smiled a bit, and I began to suspect that her brain ran several levels above mine.

“Listen, Hiroto, I love playing these Games. I love battles between strong opponents. I love seeing two sides go all out against each other. But this year’s May Interschools kind of ended on me before I’d had enough…so I thought, wow, it’d be so nice if the summer event could be even more exciting.”

“…What’s that got to do with DearScript?”

“Oh, a lot! For example, Keiya Fujishiro, the Six Star from Ohga that Mano tried to recruit as her boyfriend in the first quest, he acts like a lone wolf all the time, but actually, he’s a lot stronger when he has someone to protect. Now that he’s got that in Mano, I think he’ll become a huge threat at the summer event.”

“Uh…”

“And look at Shinji Enomoto and Nanase Asamiya, the Six Star duo from Eimei who went on a date in the second round. People pegged them as incompatible with one another, but that conventional wisdom got thrown out the window during ASTRAL. Once they’re on the same page, they’ve clearly got this explosive synergy going on, you know? And to bring more of that out, I really need them to get along more.”

“…This extends to the final quest, too, doesn’t it?”

“Oh, of course! I mean, Minami’s the type of girl who’d never strut her stuff at all if she’s working beneath someone. I’d much rather see her compete against a real opponent, like you or the Empress, and hope that wakes up something in her. I’m not expecting that to happen overnight with her, admittedly, but hopefully this is a good incentive for her, right? It did work a little, I think… Not to mention that this has been a great source of frustration for both Toya Kirigaya and Seiran Kugasaki, too. I mean, it all went really great, don’t you think?”

“““…”””

We all sat there silently, dumbfounded by these revelations coming from Yuzu. But she was right; from start to finish, this Game had been set up as a “love advice quest,” but over the course of it, several Six Star–class players had all come out of their shells…and they probably hadn’t even realized it, either.

“And you planned all this yourself…? You moved me and Saionji around with your orders and requests, all so you could get the results you wanted?”

“I sure did. I mean, I’ve been doing similar things ever since I was in high school. You know, getting other people fired up so they go all out and really liven things up, and then still being number one ahead of them. I like that kind of setup. Like, didn’t Natsume tell you?”

“Natsume? …Oh, you mean Provost Ichinose?”

“Right, that Natsume. We were actually in all the same classes. I tell you, Eimei was a school to be feared back then! That said, there is one thing I regret. Eimei got so dominant that every single event would wrap up pretty much instantly. There wasn’t even any point to holding them! …But not this year, right? Eimei’s getting stronger, but so’s Ohga, and Otowa, and Shinra… Even St. Rosalia!”

“…”

“Ooh, I can’t wait for summer! Don’t you agree, Hiroto?”

Yuzu smiled, waiting for my response. There was something bold, bewitching, almost supernatural to that smile, like everything in the world was fascinating to her. The smile of the truly powerful—someone who pushes everyone else down a rung simply by going up against her.

And then it struck me… Maybe, if she went to school with the provost, they were both there right in the middle of that “golden era” when Eimei was ranked number one for three years straight. Hearing what Yuzu had said just now, they must have been key players back then, and if she got a job as an Administrator, she must’ve been a Six Star…or better.

Actually, I remember when Yuzu was back in high school and she used to tell me all these stories of her battles that sounded like they were straight out of manga. I just treated them as fun little tales at the time…but was that all her…?

“By the way, Master…”

Just as I reached that huge revelation, Himeji carefully interjected from across the car. Her clear blue eyes looked at me as she slowly chose her words.

“I guess…this might be a disappointing ending for you, right? I’m delighted to see you reunited with your sister, but this had nothing to do with your childhood friend, in the end.”

“Ah, yeah… I guess you’re right.”

I nodded subtly, mentally changing gears. I guess finding her would take a lot more grunt work than this. The only real way was to become a real Seven Star. Still, I finally had my fourth after this Game, so I was more than halfway there.

“Hey, Hiroto…”

I turned toward Yuzu, who was beckoning me with a finger. I put my face a little closer to hers, and she smiled and whispered softly in my ear.

“Since you worked so hard to find me, let me tell you something real good… Your reward, I mean. I’m in the Administration—I know a lot of things. I can’t tell you all of them, and even if I could, I like being mean to the people I love, so I wouldn’t give you the whole story anyway… Ready?

“Hiroto, that first love from childhood you’ve been looking for? You’ve been reunited with her for a while now, you know.”

“…Yo. You wanted to see me? I’m sure you sniffed me out from that whole business with Mikado Kurahashi, but I’m busy, all right? If this is just some regular crap, I’m not interested. I ain’t the type to join up with someone else anyway.”

“Well, if you wanna talk, sure. I’ll hear you out, at least.”

“Huh? Look, let’s just cut to the chase. You want me to team up with you so we can crush Shinohara? What the hell’re you talking about, XXXXXXXXXX?”

Shizuku Minami was in a bind.

Ever since she’d lost that Game with the Academy’s top student and the Empress, a deep fog had enshrouded her mind. She was no longer as annoyingly popular as she had been, but that didn’t improve her mood at all.

Of course, that hadn’t been her first taste of defeat. She’d lost lots of times before, just to ensure her rank stayed where she wanted it. But—as trivial and pointless as that Game had been—she’d been in it to win. She’d wanted to win but had ended up losing—probably the first time in her life that had happened to her before.

Perhaps that was why her desire not to stand out had finally been outclassed by her hatred of losing, and there, in her room, she flopped onto her bed.

“I hate this so much… It’s so frustrating… I want to win.”