Ch 04 – 24 April, Eriri 03

Kouta felt really good after he finished his editing. It felt like he was alive again. At the same time, it feels like he was controlled by someone to their liking, and he doesn't feel good about it. It still felt like those memories were starting to jumble with his personality.

It felt like his memories were combining with each other. And it could be a heavy price for him, he saw many things in those memories. He may have lost something, especially about the fondness for those memories. He could remember—but it felt far away— it felt like just watching another person's biography.

It was as if this body told him to live as Kouta and forget about his past.

It was such a weird situation.

But this was the only thing Kouta could explain about what happened to him.

Even though his body remains the same, his past remains the same, and his way of thinking may change or maybe not.

It feels like two people combined—but in the end, the strongest desire from two of them will be the winner.

Even Kouta was a young man who had possibly lost his will to live after losing his family.He still had many more experiences than another world of him, who experienced so little, because of his illness. So Kouta had a greater advantage. Nonetheless, the sentence had a significant impact on his life after he had those memories.

Enjoying your life—

Those words could be heard as regrets. And, of course, it was his wish that if he had a healthy body, he could live his life as he pleases.

"I'm curious what my family was thinking at the time."

Several years ago, Kouta's family was involved in an accident that caused his parents' early deaths and his little sister's too. Since then, he has been living alone. So what he experienced and what those memories experienced in their lives were reversed.

While Kouta had a healthy body, he lost family warmth and some of his will to live. He became introverted and didn't leave his own zone, just thinking about how he could leave behind everything and live without any plan.

Kouta had his uncle, who became his guardian, and he would do things that would require a guardian, such as a parent and a child meeting with a teacher. But he didn't do anything else.

Luckily, he wasn't such a greedy relative who tried to take all of his inheritance. He even set some requirements for Kouta to get the inheritance. It was like he needed to go to school, finish school, etc. But other than that, his uncle didn't really care as long as Kouta didn't get into trouble. So as long as he didn't get caught doing anything terrible, his uncle was cool about it.

As for living expenses, the lawyer who manages his parents' inheritance would transfer 60,000 yen to Kouta every month. He also looked at Kouta's grades and knew that he attended school.

That was why, even though Kouta felt those memories changed him and scared him, those feelings—those memories—gave him another reason to live.

He made an effort to enjoy his life, even if he was doing the wrong thing.

"Well, what is my plan next?" Kouta tried his best, thinking about what he was doing next. He could just do this foreplay for a week and blackmail her again and again. But he felt doing something like that was unproductive, and it could be fatal for him.

"I wonder if I can do it." Kouta could see those tropes and clichés in his memories, but is that really something that could be used to his advantage? For today, that could likely be true. Could Kouta, however, manipulate those in this world?

Making a girl fall for a bad guy was a piece of cake in doujin / ero-fiction. Most of them, particularly in the anime fictional world, only had the girl who quickly degenerate due to bad guy sex skills.That felt really cheap and unbelievable. Well, most of the Hentai stories are too broad to think about.

"Ah, I think there's a simple way to make her—she doesn't hate my gut."

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kouta attended Toyogasaki High School, which is just about a twenty-minute walk from the closest station, Kizukuri Station. which was also twenty minutes away from Kouta's home. Those areas surrounding Kizukuri Station and Toyogasaki High School were full of every urban convenience store around them. which was a perfect place for students to play around.

Toyogasaki High School in this world was also a different school than Kouta remembered from the original anime. It was established just a few years ago, following the merger of many high schools around as the number of students diminished. Two areas came together and made a new high school that accommodated children from both regions. which became the largest school in the suburban area.

"Fight, fight, fight! Toyogasaki! Fight!"

Kouta could hear the sound of a baseball club running around the school with such energy, which was different from Kouta, who looked a bit tired himself.

After working with his editing and thinking, what's the next plan? Kouta felt his body had been conditioned to fall asleep. Sometimes he was yawning with a sleepy "Fuaaah." If he didn't have any plan, Kouta would just be going home and sleeping, but he had a plan in his mind.

And Kouta intended to take advantage of the anime plot itself. Kouta realized Eriri was a golden egg. There was no way he would have forgotten that he could just be using Eriri and make a visual novel like what she did in the anime.

"I don't think she will refuse, and I can get money too—"

Kouta thought having money was a good thing. It would be nice to have several machine money in his hands. Even though it was difficult, with the help of the memory he got from another world… Maybe he could do it. And if it could help Kouta to make Eriri in the palm of his hand made it better.

Kouta might not have remembered every line from those visual novels.But if he could find someone to write the script while he provided the main plot, that would be ideal.

But first Kouta needs to know the condition of literature in this world. He may have easily found it via the internet. But, there was no fun doing that alone. It's much better to do it together with a beautiful girl, right?

"Oh, you've been waiting. Eriri?" Kouta called to the girl who was waiting in Kizukuri station.

"Well, you're calling me." Eriri's voice replied, as cold as could be. "I don't have any choice."

"That's true. Anyway, let's go. We're going." Kouta said as he ignored Eriri's remark.

"But, where are we going?" Eriri asked, and Kouta's mouth twisted into a grin.

"We're going to Akibahara—I guess." He said.

"Puh—What!! This is not what we agree upon!" Eriri was half-crying as she protested Kouta.

It wasn't the first time Kouta saw Eriri angry. She had a red face while glaring at him.

"I'm just kidding. I just want to go to the bookstore." He rattled off the answer in a way that showed he already knew what her reaction would be.

"What for?" Eriri questioned Kouta's intention. After all, she had no idea what this boy thought.

"Well, there is something that makes me curious and want to know."  Kouta replied with a smile toward Eriri. It felt like he had regained the devil's smile.

"What is that?" Eriri responded after hesitating a bit.

"Of course, the stuff you're like. I want to know more about anime and manga stuff."

"That's what I said before. This is not what we agree upon!" Once again, Eriri protested.

"Eh, But I don't think I broke our agreement."

"It may be true. Even so, isn't this too much of a stretch? It means you can do anything as long as you are not blabbering about my secret." She said this because she was skeptical of Kouta.

"Well, fine. "How about you use this?"Kouta responded as he gave her a cute hat and glasses.

"What is that?" Eriri spoke frankly and asked Kouta.

"A disguise."

Eriri's mouth opened as she found how ridiculous this was, but as she found it would be troublesome, in the end she followed what Kouta asked.

He took the items Kouta gave him in anger and returned with a different vibe than before

Eriri untied her hair, which was usually tied in twintails. She also didn't think to just let her hair down, but her hair was a bit messy with thick glasses and a hat. She also covered her uniform with a jacket that she usually used when drawing.

"Okay, now where do we go!" Eriri spoke as if she wanted everything to be over soon.

There was no conversation between them until they arrived at the bookstore.

Kouta felt that he could make a career and money from his memories. That's why he went to the bookstore to see what kind of literature was available in this world. If it was the same as his previous world or if there was a difference.

Kouta looked at the bookstore, especially the manga and light novel sections. He analyzed the book with the help of his memories. It wasn't long before he realized something.

Most of the manga and anime were quite the same. Even though there was a significant difference, like their name was kind of weird, In the end, the story and drawing were practically very similar.

This feels strange for Kouta who has memories from another world. It feels like watching an anime while trying to avoid copyright. Like Apple's brand becoming pineapple.

Manga and anime in this world were like that, different titles, different authors, but very similar to the original. Like a cheap imitation, but something original in this world.

"In other words, it is highly likely that other works will also be successful in this world." Kouta was talking to himself while picking up a manga, almost like a one piece manga from another world. "Is this manga any good?" He continued by asking Eriri who tried her best to remain invisible to anyone who might recognize her.

"Ah—manga is good, but too mainstream." Eriri replied with a smooth answer.

"Is that so?" Kouta responded shortly.

Kouta took the manga and took time to look at it. This was one of many questions Kouta posed to Eriri, all of which were thoroughly answered.

"What are you planning?" Eriri asked, since she started to be a bit curious about what he was thinking. Since he questioned her about a lot of things, sometimes it didn't make any sense to her.

"Planning? I just want to know about this kind of stuff." Just like before, Kouta answered very shortly.

"Really?"

"Well, If you said I have some purpose. Of course, I have. I have been analyzing manga and stuff."

"Analyzing?" Eriri asked, a puzzled expression on her face.

"Yeah, I want to take a look at anything on the market." Kouta replied with many thoughts in his mind. He found out that the similarity stopped until 2000. He didn't find any manga or novels published after that, as he had in his previous world.

Even such big-name manga, as Bleach, didn't exist in this world.

Popular novels like Suzumiya, Index, Toradora, and Sword Art Online have never been published in this world. Since Kouta was never interested in this kind, he didn't know if the popularity of manga and anime in this world would be the same as in other worlds. He couldn't know how successful and popular the original manga and novels were in this world.

Until one novel captures Ryo's interest,

Koisuru Metronome, an original novel published in this world. a novel made by one of the characters from a romcom anime called Saekano, which was the same with Eriri. She was a senpai / older type girl that was pretty common in the anime world. But different from Eriri who kept her otaku side a secret. Utaha didn't show it to the public, but she didn't keep it a secret either. She was a bit aloof, cold to others, but sweet to the protagonist.

"How about this?" Kouta directed Eriri to the Koisuru Metronome.

"Hm—Koisuru Metronome? I think that a new novel? I never heard of it before, and—Ah, it's a new author too. since I never heard any buzz about this novel. I never read it." Eriri answered.

"Really?" Kouta had no idea about this novel because it was made up from anime.As far as his memories were concerned, the novel by Kasumigaoka Utaha was actually quite good and interesting. If Kouta weren't mistaken, this novel would sell well, exceeding 500,000 copies. However, if he wasn't mistaken, sales in the early weeks weren't that good. Before the protagonist read this novel. He left a positive review on his website, which increased sales.Utaha felt indebted, and they got acquainted later on.

Everything seemed to be set up for the protagonist to meet Utaha..However, there was something wrong with that. Why does a good novel like this not sell very well? It doesn't have any problems in terms of cover. Also, the publisher isn't a small publisher and hasn't had any issues before. That's why it feels very strange that the sales of this novel could be slow before the protagonist helps.

Kouta suspected it was like plot armor or a cliche, and it would help the protagonist to meet the heroine. Because of that, Kouta felt a bit annoyed. At that moment, something rose in his mind. Kouta felt an annoying itch inside him.

So Kouta felt it wasn't amusing and he bought the novel before leaving the bookstore.

"Wait! Where are we going now!?" Eriri said this while still following Kouta.

"Hm—I need to know more about something." Kouta answered as he thought something, If those plot armor and cliches exist in this world. He may be able to use it to his advantage.