#Aya Otomo

[crazyasianlove]

Utsukushii Kare: Eternal (Sub. Esp)

DESCARGAR O VER ONLINE AQUÍ

Título: Utsukushii Kare: Eternal País: Japón Duración: 103 min. Género: romance, juventud, drama Fecha de estreno: 7 de abril, 2023 Dirección: Sakai Mai Guion: Tsubota Fumi

SINOPSIS

El "solitario" tranquilo y sin amigos del final de la clase se enamora a primera vista del "Rey" Kiyoi, abrumadoramente bello, despiadado y popular. Después de graduarse en la escuela secundaria y pasar por varios altibajos, Hira y Kiyoi se han convertido en pareja y viven una feliz vida de convivencia en la casa de Hira. A medida que se acerca la graduación universitaria, Hira comienza a trabajar como asistente del popular fotógrafo Noguchi y es testigo del trabajo de un profesional. Comienza a distanciarse poco a poco de Kiyoi, sin querer interponerse en la creciente carrera de Kiyoi como actor. Hira, que piensa en Kiyoi como una existencia preciosa y divina, y Kiyoi, que quiere que sean una pareja de amantes "normal" en igualdad con Hira, a pesar de pensar el uno en el otro, gradualmente comienzan los desacuerdos entre ellos.

La primavera en la que se conocieron ya pasó, y después de un verano caluroso, el otoño se hizo más profundo. El frío invierno ha sido superado y de nuevo llega la primavera. Los dos comienzan a encaminarse hacia la temporada de graduación.

CAST

Hagiwara Riku como Hira Kazunari Yagi Yusei como Kiyoi sou Takano Akira como Koyama Kazuki Ochiai Motoki como Shitara Katsumi Nimura Sawa como Anna Maeda Kentaro como Kiriya Keisuke Wada Soko como Noguchi Hiromi Ikeda Dai como Kouda Ayano Aya como Naho Iwakawa Haru como Tomoya Iida Kisuke como Yamagata Kanai Yuta como Suga Oribe Yoshinari como mánager de Kiriya Ise Kayo como Pan-neesan Endo Kenshin como Sawazaki otomo Kazuki como Horii

#utsukushii kare #utsukushii kare eternal #hagiwara riku #yagi yusei #takano akira #ochiai motoki #nimura sawa #maeda kentaro #wada soko #ayano aya #película #proyectos terminados #sub. español

[hatsumishinogu]

Otome no Omocha Vol.2

#otomo no omocha #aya shouoto #manga

[sacred8]

Puppet Prince AU

Content warnings for graphic violence, depersonalisation (possession), death and mentions of death

————————————

So Klug is the prince of this big ol’ kingdom currently ruled by his father

Klug received the somewhat mocking nickname “The Prince of Puppets” due to him commanding his servants around like a puppeteer putting on a show

Despite this, he’s very kind to his friends and can back up his talk with a surprising level of skill in both tactics and magic

His best friend is Lemres, a slightly older boy who happens to be the son of the royal tactician and is a prodigious light mage in combat and healing alike (though he vastly prefers healing)

Klug is 16 and Lemres is 18 in this au

So life is good for him and the royal court - he’s guaranteed a future as the king, he has a good support circle of friends and loved ones, he’s doing great in his studies

But unbeknownst to all the royal family is being haunted by the spirit of a demon they sealed in a tomb for a crime they didn’t commit 500 years ago (That’s Aya)

Aya’s been haunting the family ever since they died in that tomb, waiting for things to fall into place so they can finally carry out its master plan and get justice

Aya had a child before they were imprisoned so they’ve been tracking their lineage but their descendants keep falling victim to misfortune (one was killed in a barfight, one died to a serial killer etc.) and demon children mysteriously appear before their deaths as if the bloodline is magically sustaining itself without the need for reproduction

And eventually a descendant is born and grows to teenhood and Aya just decides “screw it, I’m doing this now before this kid falls off a cliff or something stupid like that” and possesses Klug, turning him into the Puppet Prince and effectively holding him hostage

(He gets the moniker of the Puppet Prince because when the demon rests, it suspends Klug’s body from the ceiling like an inactive puppet with magic indestructible strings and when the Puppet Prince is moving around he moves incredibly uncannily because he’s actually being pulled around by said strings)

Everyone wonders what happened to Prince Klug to suddenly make him so cold and reclusive, but Lemres can see Aya and the magic strings they use to puppeteer Klug’s body and mind

Aya knows this, so the Puppet Prince basically says “Find my descendant and pardon him or I’m gonna kill this kid and the entire royal court with him”

Aya deliberately makes sure to say this in the middle of the banqueting hall so that the entire royal court, including Klug and Lemres’ fathers, hear it (Also in this au Lemres’s dad is kinda better, he’s very distant on account of trauma and his work but he accepts his son’s decisions)

So Lemres sets out on a grand quest to find the descendant to save his best friend, the royal court and his father, and assembles a little rpg party of misfits consisting of Arle, Serilly, Schezo, Sig, Ringo, the ghost twins and Legamünt

Sig is the adopted son of an apothecary family and is somewhat of an outcast due to the “burn” that coats his arm and being totally apathetic to anything that doesn’t involve his family, cooking, gardening or bugs (as we all know he’s actually the demons descendant but shh Lemres and Aya don’t)

Also Local Chosen One Salde and his party help them out on occasion but he’s just passing through, honest, he totally isn’t invested because his adoptive brother Otomo is a member of the Prince’s guard detail and as much as he thinks he’s annoyingly coddling he doesn’t actually want him to die

And every now and again the Puppet Prince meets Lemres alone and they have a duel, the Puppet Prince says something ominous and then goes back to Klug’s chambers, where the king imprisoned him after the whole dining hall incident and Lemres outing him as a victim of possession

#Puyo Puyo #klug puyo puyo #strange klug #(kinda) #sig (puyo puyo) #ayashii #puyo au #legamunt #Arle Nadja #yu and rei #prince salde canarl shellbrick iii #ocean prince #otomo (puyo puyo) #Ringo Andou #serilly #seriri #shelby’s au rambles

[mangacapsaicin]

i’ve had multiple people request that i make one of these, so here’s my first attempt at a manga year in review! 

all of the manga listed are one’s i started reading this year, so the list doesn’t include continuing serializations i started reading in previous years. that being said, these are the 15 most memorable manga i’ve read this year. hopefully you see something you might enjoy :)

in alphabetical order — listed top to bottom, left to right:

line 1: akira by katsuhiro otomo || bad candy you give me by kaiko fuyushimi || beastars by paru itagaki

line 2: the bitter orange, translucent it goes back to sleep by youichi abe || cocoon by machiko kyou || cosmic juice by aya takano

line 3: the day of salvation by nishioka kyoudai || fantasy world jun by shotaro ishinomori || G by keiichi koike

line 4: i don’t exist in this firefly city by miho tanaka || listening is remembering by takehito moriizumi || pink by kyouko okazaki 

line 5: sakura’s garden by fumiko fumi || shimeji simulation by tsukumizu || the yellow book - a friend named jacques thibault by fumiko takano

here’s hoping we make it through 2020 so i can make another one of these next year 🍻

#manga recs #year in review

[kw-warriors-innuendos-blog]

Samurai Warriors 5

is in the trial and error phases of production! We may not see it until 2020. Perhaps we’ll see more information about this game in the Fall/Winter, similar to the announcement run of SW4. 

So....who are you all looking forward to seeing in the game? Or what do you want to see? 

For me, personally, I’d like to see the battles of Kyoto between the Ashikaga, Miyoshi, Matsunaga, Hosokawa, etc, reading about this battles was always exciting, especially seeing it in Nobunaga’s Ambition. I’d also like to see more Mouri enemies like Sue Harukata (UNPC in SW4, but can give him a story), Amago/Shikanosuke Yamanaka. And I’d like to see more Kyushu battles/enemies. Kyushu is full of fascinating warriors like Otomo Sorin, Nabeshima Naoshige(and his badass wife!), Ryuzoji Takanobu, Joun Takahashi, Tachibana Dosetsu, even Sorin’s “anti-christ” wife Jezebel. I think another Shimazu can sit this one out. 

We’re probably going to get another Oda character, I’m thinking Niwa Nagahide, Oda Nobutada, Gamo Ujisato or Takigawa Kazumasu. 

More Touhoku adds like Mogami Yoshiaki or Satake Yoshishige might be a possibility. 

Maybe make the Imagawa a full-fledged clan with Yoshimoto, Hayakawa, Naotora, Ieyasu and Hanzo. 

More Western Army people like Kobayakawa Hideaki, Hosokawa Tadaoki, Naoie Hideie, or Kuroda Nagamasa for the Eastern Army

As far as women go, that’s really up in the air. No one expected us to get Koshosho or Hayakawa. Chacha was heavily requested and was finally added to Spirit Of Sanada, with much of her historical merits taken away (to the point of where I heard she was disliked in Japan). It seems the most obvious females to be added would be Maeda Matsu, Megohime and Akihime. Were it up to me, I’d put in Ikeda Sen and Naoshige’s wife (her name escapes me...Hikotsuru?) Yoshihime would be an interesting add. As of now, we have 3 mothers in the series (Aya, Naotora and Oichi), all presenting different kinds of motherly love, Yoshihime would be a different type because of her hatred for Masamune. Another mother I could see added (and I hope not because as of now, we have enough Sanada) would be Yamanote, who is Yukimura and Nobuyuki’s mother. I don’t see anything she’d add to the series. 

That all being said, we’ll wait and see! 

#samurai warriors

[burpenterprisejournal]

BURP RENDEZ-VOUS

2018/12/11 BURP Rendez-Vous ARNAUD RIVIÈRE HORACIO POLLARD DELMORE FX JD ZAZIE JEALOUSY PARTY SISTEMI AUDIOFOBICI BURP MENTAL CHEESE #2 Ziegrastrasse 11 Berlin - DE

BURP Enterprise is pleased to invite you to the first BURP Rendez-Vous in a long while. It will be an evening of noise and beats, abstractions and metaphors, syncops and metaplasms, centripetal images and paracultural picto-sequential literature. 40 centimeters under the street level of Art, as usual. http://burpenterprisejournal.tumblr.com/

BURP Rendez-Vous Tuesday December 11th Ziegrastrasse 11 12057 Berlin, Deutschland H 20:00

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LIVE: ARNAUD RIVIÈRE http://http.http.http.http.free.fr/ HORACIO POLLARD http://horaciopollard.blogspot.com/ DELMORE FX https://delmorefx.bandcamp.com/ JD ZAZIE http://jdzazie.tumblr.com/ JEALOUSY PARTY https://jealousyparty.bandcamp.com/

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DJ SET: SISTEMI AUDIOFOBICI BURP https://www.facebook.com/groups/618801111477066/

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PUBLICATIONS: MENTAL CHEESE #2 will be released for the occasion http://mentalcheese.tumblr.com/ but most importantly it will be displayed on the BILDERBERG GEHEIMER TISCH an esoteric stand with secret underground comix and other occult rags

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PROJECTIONS: PIACENTI QUADERNINI DISPLAYED a random selection of images, videos, animations and more from the Piacenti Quadernini archives will be projected http://piacentiquadernini.tumblr.com/

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time schedule 20:00 doors SISTEMI AUDIOFOBICI BURP 21:30 JEALOUSY PARTY 22:00 JD ZAZIE 22:30 DELMORE FX 23:00 ARNAUD RIVIÈRE 23:30 HORACIO POLLARD >> SISTEMI AUDIOFOBICI BURP

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ARNAUD RIVIÈRE

Born in 1974 lives and works in Paris, France. Arnaud Rivière is a selftaught musician practicing free improvisation in noisy fashion since the late nineties. He performs as a solo artist, in group and within the framework of selected meetings. He mainly uses a rudimentary electroacoustic device built around a many times repaired phonograph, a mixing desk and some microphones and sensors. A primitive electronic music where gesture is primordial. In between performance and concert his scenic deliveries have been remarked for their energy, intensity, a physical involvement- a rare quality in electronic music and taste for non-sense and the breach that conjugates drama and comedy. Without words. He plays and played with Roger Turner, Martin Tétreault, Erik M, DJ Sniff, John Boyle & Aya Onishi (Bayal and Nihilist Spasm Band), Mario de Vega, Alexandre Bellenger, Jean-Philippe Gross, Miho, Sophie Agnel, Martin Ng, Jean-Noël Cognard, Anla Courtis (Reynols), Adam Bohman, Otomo Yoshihide, Joke Lanz, Aaron Moore & Daniel Padden & Clarence Manuello (Volcano The  Bear), Mat Pogo, Olivier Diplacido, Yann Leguay, Pascal Battus, Gert-Jan Prins, Ignaz Schick, Xavier Charles, Mario Gabola, Eran Sachs, Alex Drool, Clayton Thomas and Erik D’Orion. These days he partecipates to very different contexts as Onceim (impro/compo orchestra propelled by Frédéric Blondy), L’A_R_C_C (L’Association de Recherche contre le Concert - a dancefloor oriented duo with C_C), E-drumming is not a crime (a video series of drum machine played in the streets produced with Jérôme Fino) and underground meetings with the out rock combo Api Uiz from Bordeaux. His music is mechanically reproduced on several supports like CD-R, CD and vynil records published by labels as Beta-Lactam Ring Records, Textile Records, Le Petit Mignon, Galerie Pache, Fragment, Intro-In SItu, Disques Bloc Thyristors, Bimbo Tower Records, Intransitive Recordings, Les Potagers Natures, Attila Tralala, ROMVOS, Burp Publications, Viande Records et Art Kill Art.   In parallel to musical activities in 2004 he conceived the installation LA TURBOTHEQUE® proposing a vertical reading of 205 records of every genre to provide an opportunity to front the record industry overproduction. LA   TURBOTHEQUE® was presented at the Discothèque de Montreuil, at Palais de Tokyo, at Point Ephémère and at Centre George-Pompidou in Paris , at RIAM in Marseille, at Esadhar in Rouen and at Imaginarium in Tourcoing.                 From 1998 to 2005, he curated many evenings at Instants Chavirés (Montreuil- Paris) and since 2003, he animates the festival Sonic Protest and the activities related to it. "Arnaud Rivière has mastered the art of the accident. Starting  from cheap turntables and a simple mixer, he charges at this simple contraption using metal plates, broken records, iron rods, and an abundance of springs which he plays by throwing, inserting, banging, scraping and scratching. His system manufactures electric short-circuits, electronic feedback, powerful sound textures and the quiet tense hisses of electric currents in a tantalizing ear circus which joggles the acidic ruins of DJ culture, Musique concrète, Rave, Free improv, Techno and Punk. Shards of vinyl fly about, the instrument breaks apart and disintegrates but somehow, out of this chaotic sonic vaudeville, Rivière succeeds in creating a captivating, highly physical musical performance, full of humor and most importantly really fun." Eran Sachs (Musrara Mix Festival / Jerusalem-IL) http://http.http.http.http.free.fr/ https://www.discogs.com/artist/707574-Arnaud-Rivière

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| HORACIO POLLARD

Half English, half Argentine "noise-eccentric" HORACIO POLLARD has been active in the field of experimental music since 2002 and has released a bunch of vinyl, tapes and cd's on various labels including Le Petit Mignon (evil moisture & government alpha) & recent full length album on Noxagt's Kjetil Brandsdal's label Drid machine. A member of CLIFFORD TORUS and FULLY BLOWN DENTAL REFORM, he also runs his own label Neigh%Music. Armed with a Korg DDD1 sampler / drum machine, he delivers here an exhilarating avalanche of distorted jams filled with heavy analogue riffs, hypnotic jazzy grooves and fierce noise-drenched rhymes. "Pollard is one of the few creative people on the globe (Romain Perrot is another) who understands that “good taste” is the very death of art, and as such he needs to be cherished like a Siberian Tiger, albeit one whose pelt is made from artificial dayglo blue fur." Ed Pinsent, The Sound Projector "About as slap happy as you're likely to find in the international grunt underground". The Wire "The Residents blend with cold and slightly dissonant, demonic funky grooves. This is breakdancing music for George A. Romero zombies. Truly, hellishly beautiful stuff." Staalplaat

http://horaciopollard.blogspot.com/

https://www.discogs.com/de/artist/262376-Horacio-Pollard

https://vimeo.com/horaciopollard

http://neighopercentmusic.blogspot.com/

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| DELMORE FX

Delmore Fx is the solo Project of Elia Buletti, the man behind the Berlin based label Das Andere Selbst. The sound of Delmore fx is based on digital and analog studio recordings that are continuously and ephemerally restructured through improvisational instant rearrangements operated on mixer, loopers and effects. Midi studies, recreational low-fi, unreal humming and high tones breakouts gather in these meticulously unsteady architectures. There is a narrative element, something like a perpetual digression. Elia started to make music around 2000 and have been involved in various solo projects and collaborations before starting to perform as Delmore Fx in 2010. Since 2011 he's based in Berlin where he has been playing gigs around, as well as obstinately researching on an open and ductile way to improvisational composition in the post-electronica field. His music is based on digital and analog recordings that are continuously and ephemerally restructured through improvisation on mixer, loopers and effects. "Deconstructed rhythms, imaginary melodies, smoky basslines and lo-fi klangs are layered and suddenly scattered through pitched digressions and adventurous live-resampling." Staalplaat "The Swiss born, Berlin based Elia Buletti works with both analogue and digital equipment to make music that draws lines between free improvisation, bedroom solipsism and outdoor vorticism. Ghostly samples, lo-fi twangs and drum improvisations crystallize and dissipate in openended rearrangements and well honed miniatures." The Wire "Altogether, let`s call it just bedroom tribalism" DAS

Toke Picabia by Delmore fx

https://delmorefx.bandcamp.com/

http://dasandereselbst.org/

https://dasandereselbst.bandcamp.com/

https://soundcloud.com/delmorefx

https://www.discogs.com/de/artist/3906050-Delmore-fx

http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Delmore_fx

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JD ZAZIE

JD ZAZIE is an experimental DJ, avant-turntablist and sound artist living between Berlin and Bolzano. Coming from a DJ and a radiophonic background JD Zazie  has explored over the years different approaches of real-time manipulation on fixed recorded sound. In her work she redefines DJ and electroacoustic activities. As a solo performer, in small groups or large ensembles she moves in an area which is constantly stretching the borders of what is supposed to be DJ mixing, free improvisation and composed music. Intended as music instruments CDjs, turntables and mixer are her tools to mix the specific sound-sources she plays (mostly electronic music, electroacoustic music, musique concrète, field recordings and improvised music). The typology of the sound-sources varies from already existing audio publications and sound effects, to self recorded audio files – as live-set and field-recordings -, to selected pre-mixed material. Juxtaposition, decontextualization, fragmentation, repetition, sonic texture, scratch and error are elements of the grammar adopted to relate, organize and rearrange the sound material. In her sound installations she explores everyday life, refers to urbanism and relates to sound atmosphere. She is the art director of the international festival "MuseRuole - women in experimental music", is a member of the Burp Enterprise collective and co-runs Staalplaat Radio. She has participated in numerous exhibitions and events including Simultan festival (RU), Berlin Atonal (DE), All Ears (NO), Sonic Protest (FR), Heroines of Sound (DE), Reheat festival (AT), High Zero festival (US), Music Unlimited #27 (AT), Tuned City Bruxelles (BE), Open Provocation festival (UK), Festival Rue du Nord (CH), Audiograft 2012 (UK), Echtzeitmusiktage 2010 (DE), STEIM’s Turntable Night #7 (NL), Avantgarde Festival Schiphorst (DE). She’s a proud member of DJ collective Sistemi Audiofobici Burp.

http://jdzazie.tumblr.com/ https://soundcloud.com/jd-zazie http://www.burpenterprise.com/burp/units/jd-zazie/

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Jealousy Party is a Berlin based abstract R&B outfit blending noise and improvisation with funk, avant rock, dub and idiosyncratic electronic collage – a fusion they term Punca. Founded in Florence, Italy in 1995 by producers Roberta WJM Andreucci and Mat Pogo, JP keep their line-up open to variations and explorations, with multi- instrumentalist Edoardo Ricci as their main collaborator. Right now they are active as a duo with founder members WJM and Mat Pogo on players, electronics and vocals playing metamorphic samples from the burning library of sessions that the duo recorded with an open collective of musicians involved in the Jealousy Party since years. Those recordings are endlessly reshuffled, dubbed and remixed live with a spontaneous use of playback devices that has become one of Jealousy Party’s most crucial trademarks, in a musical frame that is never 100% improvised and never 100% fixed. Roberta WJM Andreucci is a percussionist, an experimental producer and DJ, and on air personality. She practices plagiarism and the cutting and mixing of musical and ambiental aural sources. Through the years her percussion set morphed into a hybrid encompassing a dj booth, a radio dj one, a microphone station for electroacustic experiments, and a mnemonic butcher’s slab. She is a founding member of performing music units such as Jealousy Party, Semerssuaq, The Secretaries and Sistemi Audiofobici Burp. She is the director of the music label Burp Publications. Among many others she pertormed with Carla Bozulich, Eugenio Sanna and Nels Cline. Mat Pogo Is a vocalist and graphic artist. In the 90's he was one of the founder members of the Burp Enterprise collective. In the years he developed his own language as a singer/voice-artist using his experience as a rock singer, an improviser and radio-artist where music, sounds, anecdotic and narrative elements fuse constantly. Beside Jealousy Party other projects he’s been involved in the last years are Pokemachine with Anders Hana (MoHa! Noxagt, Brutal Blues), Penates with JD Zazie, and B Unit with JD Zazie and Peter Schlewinski. Duo collaborations with Ignaz Schick, Michael Renkel, Nicolas Wiese. Among others he recently performed with Burkhard Beins, Lasse Marhaug, Arnaud Rivière, Sec_, Axel Dörner, Tristan Honsinger and Jérôme Noetinger. He’s a proud member of DJ collective Sistemi Audiofobici Burp.

https://jealousyparty.bandcamp.com/ http://www.burpenterprise.com/burp/units/jealousy-party/ https://soundcloud.com/jealousy-party https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Lxrf63Me4Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NKBsKgbJ88 https://www.ursss.com/2017/06/jealousy-party-zuma/

#live #concert #release party #special event #burp rendez-vous #burp comix #jealousy party #jd zazie #wjm #mat pogo #mental cheese #top

[tetraremade]

playable Aya, Otomo, and Lagnus please sega my dick is in flames 

#hamchats #just bring sklug back for aya if you gotta i just love her

[ljaesch]

Anime Film Review: Dragon Ball Super: Broly

Anime Film Review: Dragon Ball Super: Broly

Dragon Ball Super: Broly was released as the first film with the Dragon Ball Super branding, and it is the 20th Dragon Ball feature film overall. Dragon Ball Super: Broly Directed by: Tatsuya Nagamine Written by: Akira Toriyama Starring: Masako Nozawa, Aya Hisakawa, Ryo Horikawa, Toshio Furukawa, Takeshi Kusao, Ryusei Nakao, Koichi Yamadera, Masakazu Morita, Ryuzaburo Otomo, Katsuhisa Hoki,…

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#anime #Dragon Ball #Dragon Ball Super

[puyostimmies]

PINNED!

My name is Klug! I'm 14, transmasc + pansexual, neurodivergent and a system host. Puyo is my main hyperfixation, and I'm also a big fan of stimboards, so I decided to make a blog for Puyo stimboards! Currently, requests are OPEN!

REQUESTING RULES

Please be specific in what you want if you request. If you don't say what you specifically want, I'll probably just do what fits the character. (Example: Can I please have a stimboard of Arle without knives and hands please?)

Madou and Quest characters are also allowed. I'm currently on the fence about if I should include Puyo skins, ripoffs and crossover events be included, but once I make a decision I'll change this.

Only Puyo OCs are allowed to be requested when it comes for OCs. Please also have an image of them and info on them so I know what to make.

Don't send in Choppun or Liresil please.

These ships are not allowed to be requested: Aya x the primp kids, Aya x the Suzuran ARS, Aya x any of the Compile characters confirmed to be minors, Arle x Satan, Tetra Crew shipping, Ex x the Tetra Crew members, Squares x Marle, Ally x Rafisol, Schezo x the primp kids, Schezo x Arle, Schezo x Witch, Ocean Prince/Salde x Otomo. This will be updated with time. Send in any adult x minor shop and I'll break your shins.

DNI

General criteria (racist, lgbtphobic, transphobic, etc.), proship/anti-anti, anti-mogai, against self diagnosis, traumacore/dereality blog, 18+/kink/nsfw, named Diane, ship any of the ships that aren't allowed to be requested

[gabriel-gabdiel]

Keit-AI! Tomoyuki x Seiko Chapter 21: Reversal of Fortune

The Akira Fubuki arc finally ends. Also, Tomoyuki joins the Literature Club.

The rest of the chapters of my original story based on a plot from 4chan are available here. Enjoy.

First | Previous | Next

After staking out (or perhaps outright stalking) Class 1A for a little while after dismissal time, Tomoyuki Yamamoto found who he was looking for: Akira Fubuki.

Looking at him up close, the Cherry Boy was surprised he wasn't able to piece together earlier that the Younger Fubuki had actually catfished him by pretending to be his own sister.

Aside from the hoodie, the earphones, the emo hair, and the smartphone that doubled as his music player, he really did look like the fraternal twin of Aya Fubuki.

A short-haired, flat-chested, male, and gloomy version of Aya, to be exact.

"Hey," Tomoyuki greeted Akira.

"...."

Emerging from the classroom, the male Fubuki picked up his pace and walked away from his sister's stalker, but as expected of the creep, Yamamoto ended up matching his pace as he followed him all the way to Maehara High's exit gate.

Akira gave Tomoyuki a sidelong glance and mumbled, "We have nothing to talk about," before giving the Cherry Boy a glare that would've made Aya proud.

The Cherry Boy stopped cold in his tracks, but then said, "Yes, we do, Fubuki-kun."

"Leave me alone or I'll publish that picture of you and the Amazon Queen all over the Internet," Akira threatened, the volume of his voice rising slightly, his eyes darting left and right at his classmates who were walking around him.

"Go ahead," Tomoyuki called his bluff. "That's fine. The only one whose opinion I care about will understand the meaning behind that picture."

"I-I ain't kidding, Ch-Cherry Boy," stuttered the kid. Akira really was completely different from his outgoing crossdressing persona. "Your delinquent classmate will totally beat you up over it!"

Surprising even himself, Yamamoto grabbed hold of Fubuki's thin wrist and said, "If you want, I'll send the photo to the net myself."

The girly boy pulled his hand away from the Cherry Boy. Rubbing his wrist, he relented, asking, "W-Well? What do you want?"

***

Keit-AI! Tomoyuki x Seiko

An Anime-Inspired Original Story from 4chan's /a/ Board by Abdiel

Original Idea by Hataki.

For once, Tomoyuki explores his own passion and dreams in order to keep up with the brilliance of both Seikos.

Disclaimer: This work may reference copyrighted material, the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. It is believed that this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. All copyrighted material referred to in this work belongs to their respective owners. All rights reserved.

***

Chapter 21: Reversal of Fortune

***

Alternate Universe (AU) Seiko Okamoto just texted Tomoyuki Yamamoto a message prior to his confrontation with Akira Fubuki.

"Cherry Boy loved the trailer of Kagemusha you sent me, AU Cherry Boy! The one that starred Zatoichi! Thanks! You're the best! You know yourself like the back of your hand, ya movie nerd!"

Ugh. What bad timing, AU Amazon Queen!

Tomoyuki wasn't in the mood for this. If it were any other time, he'd be ecstatic about the news. He had a lot in his mind right now. Like how he was supposed to approach the aloof Akira, the brother of Aya who catfished him.

The AU Amazon Queen then sent Tomoyuki a flood of messages, oblivious of the fact that he had no intention of replying to her for now.

"He thought at first it was an edited fake trailer using Zatoichi clips you see all the time on YouTube! But he then saw every last Zatoichi film and he couldn't put his finger on where the clips came from. Hehehe."

"Won't we get into trouble if he learns the truth that the trailer was from an alternate universe? Won't that blow his mind? It's still kinda awkward being around Miku-chin, though. I never thought she'd get this upset about my gift."

"If only they were just best friends like you and AU Miku-chin are back in your world. What should I do? Help me, AU Cherry Boy!"

Tomoyuki wanted to pay no heed to the messages, but he couldn't take ignoring the love of his life for too long, especially when she was asking for his help. So he messaged to her the following half-joke:

"Maybe you should broach the subject of alternate universes somehow within Machida's earshot. If your Machida is anything like our Machida, she'll definitely geek out."

Then, as Yamamoto holstered his keitai denwa (mobile phone) into his pocket, something else occurred to him.

Something about how the Akira Kurosawa movie "Kagemusha" had parallels with his current predicament with Akira (not Kurosawa) Fubuki.

***

At a park near Maehara High...

The two former students of the same middle school sat on a bench in silence. Once he was done texting with his transdimensional not-girlfriend, Yamamoto decided to talk.

"Your name's Akira, huh? Your name reminds me of my favorite movie director, Kurosawa Akira. Japan's own world-famous director. You two have the same name," was Tomoyuki's lame attempt at an ice breaker.

Had it been Machida, she would've compared Akira's name to the famous anime and manga "AKIRA" by Katsuhiro Otomo. Or Akira Toriyama, the author of Dragon Ball.

"...A-Akira's a common name, dude. It's no big deal."

The Cherry Boy cleared his throat. "Speaking of which, have you ever heard of Kagemusha? That's one of my fave films from Kurosawa."

Akira just stared at Tomoyuki. "I-Is that an old black-and-white film? W-What does that have to do with anything?"

Yamamoto caught himself from falling face-first into the asphalt in dismay. Jeez, young people had no appreciation for classic Japanese cinema!

"I'll have you know that it's a Kurosawa jidaigeki (historical) film about a thief turned political decoy of Takeda Shingen. The imposter took over Takeda's empire right after Takeda's death."

"I-I never watched it," said Fubuki before muttering, "W-Who cares about some old-ass movie anyway..."

Yamamoto then looked the crossdresser straight in the eyes and said, "The Kagemusha reminds me of you."

"I-I don't follow," mumbled Akira, looking away from Tomoyuki.

"You totally do. Like a mix between him and Shingen's brother Nobukado, who also served as his double. Even when it was for the sake of a prank, you still looked exactly like your sister whenever you crossdressed."

"O-Oh. I see." Akira stared at Tomoyuki with half-lidded eyes and an impish smile. "W-What's the matter, Cherry Boy? Are you frustrated I-I made you date the Kagemusha of my sister instead of my actual sister?"

And there it was.

Akira finally addressed the elephant in the "room" (or in this case, park), much to Tomoyuki's chagrin.

Fubuki smirked and guffawed. "You're so hard up to get a girlfriend, you couldn't tell when you're dating a boy!"

Ouch. That mostly hurt because it was true.

Aya Fubuki's younger brother probably saw Yamamoto as some sort of perv who stalked his sister and had bad intentions for her altogether.

Rumors of the legendary Cherry Boy and his "Nice Guy" exploits had spread beyond his first year class and into the whole Maehara High campus, particularly with how Yukari Goto messaged him a love confession by accident and he immediately believed she'd actually fall for a guy like him.

Embarrassing.

Still, Tomoyuki had a sneaking suspicion that this wasn't enough to warrant an outright catfishing expedition, or at least catfishing to the extent that Akira went through.

Pretending to be the opposite gender over the phone or through an online chatroom was one thing. But Akira apparently hated him enough to go a step further than that. The extra mile, even.

"Any reason why you catfished me?" Tomoyuki probed, finally getting straight to the point.

"I-Isn't it obvious? I-It's because you're a creep and you've been stalking my sister all this time. I-I wanted to teach you a lesson!"

To Akira's surprise, Yamamoto then bowed and asked for his forgiveness.

"I'm really sorry for troubling your sister like that. She doesn't like me anyway, but I pushed the issue."

Akira rolled his eyes at Yamamoto. "A-Apologize to her, not me."

"I already have," said Tomoyuki. "I wanted to apologize to you personally."

"Y-You're the one apologizing to me? Ha!" scoffed the introvert. "T-That's rich, coming from you!"

"Yeah, I guess it is," said the Cherry Boy, who gazed towards the orange and red sky with a wistful sigh.

"I-Is this reverse psychology or something?" Akira asked. "I'm t-the one who catfished you, after all."

"Yep. You got me real good." Yamamoto chuckled, which made Fubuki frown.

"S-So what are you apologizing about?" asked the younger brother of Aya. "Y-You're going to play it off as a joke to save face or something?"

Tomoyuki's mouth went from a smile to a thin line, his lips moving inwards into his mouth. "I'd complain about how badly you think of me if you weren't completely justified to think that way."

The Cherry Boy heard the kid audibly gulp and saw him grip the edges of the bench's seat hard until his knuckles turned white.

From there, Yamamoto finally dropped the bombshell.

"I'm also sorry for punching your face back in grade school. It was supposed to be payback for when you punched me first, but I deserved that punch anyway."

Through grit teeth, Akira asked, "So you remember me after all, Yamamoto-sempai?" With nary a stutter.

***

About a couple of years ago, Kanemoto, Fubuki, and Yamamoto went to the same junior high.

Once upon a time, Kanemoto got lightly teased by his classmates, pairing him up with a girly kohai (underclassman) of theirs after he ended up near him during the school assembly. That kohai was Akira.

The thing about that was they had no girls in their junior high. It was an all-boys school.

Their junior was a boy who looked and sounded like a girl. He was like the little sister instead of little brother of his big sister Aya, who was attending an all-girls school at the time.

In Tomoyuki's desperation to fit in, he joined in on the teasing but laid it a little too thick, which led the popular pretty boy to put him in his place.

To be more specific, the jock told the nerd that he was a loser with no real friends and his greatest claim to fame was attempting to bully someone better than him.

Soon after, it was the Cherry Boy who got picked on by his classmates. It was karma in action, pure and simple.

But even before the well-deserved bullying, Tomoyuki got punched in the face by the same girly male kohai whom he also made fun with his teasing of Kanemoto.

This made the Cherry Boy's nose bleed, necessitating a visit to the nurse station.

A few days later, a "fight" between them ensued, with Tomoyuki hitting a punch at the kid before wimping out and covering his own face up with his hands to prevent getting punched back in return.

It was the lamest ending to a fight since, well, the Mayweather versus Pacquiao fight.

Never in the Cherry Boy's wildest dreams did he imagine that the kid he fought would end up being Aya Fubuki's younger brother, Akira.

Yamamoto was such a doofus try-hard when he was younger. Or maybe he was still one after all this time. He hoped this wasn't the case.

***

Back at the park...

The two boys went silent again.

Yamamoto stared at his shoes, examining its plain design like they were a magic eye picture instead. He couldn't bring himself to stare back at Akira.

"I'm really, really sorry about what I did to you before. I did you wrong and I can't apologize enough for it. I was such a shithead to you, Akira-kun."

"Don't call me that."

It was Yamamoto's turn to stutter. "A-Alright then, Fubuki-kun!"

Akira sighed then smirked, his upper lip quivering. "S-So you really did forget who I was up until recently. W-What traumatized me for years was just another day for you."

"It wasn't."

"H-Huh?"

"I remember it like it was yesterday. It was also one of the worst days of my life, getting beaten up by a kohai. How can I possibly forget that?"

Akira had a chuckle out of that one.

Yamamoto then confessed, "I know my apologies sound empty to you. I've been apologizing for my past actions so much that people are starting to not take any of them seriously. I wasn't teasing you, I was teasing Kanemoto, but when he bullied me back, you and I somehow ended up fighting instead. I...!"

The Cherry Boy stopped short when he saw the crossdresser raise his hand up. "Enough. I've heard enough," said Fubuki.

Tomoyuki sighed and nodded. He did his best. He knew that he wasn't about to be forgiven easily.

"I-I know you were teasing Kanemoto-sempai, not me."

Oh. He was angry about that. "Oh, so that's why you punched me on the nose."

"Yup, and you deserved it too, like you said," rejoined Akira, his raven hair glistening gold from the rays of the setting sun.

Yamamoto didn't know where to look, his cheeks getting warmer from the sight of the girly boy. "Sooo, you really had feelings for Kanemoto, huh?"

The crossdresser stared at the Cherry Boy's twiddling hands. "He didn't return my feelings," he mumbled softly.

"I am so sorry..."

"I-It's water under the bridge," said Akira. "S-So stop apologizing, it's getting annoying."

"So you forgive me?" asked Yamamoto hopefully.

The younger Fubuki chuckled. "M-More like I already got my revenge. We're even now, okay?" Akira then asked Tomoyuki, "So I'm Neechan's (Big Sis's) Kagemusha, huh?" while looking at the unseen horizon surrounded by golden buildings.

The afternoon sun acted like a Midas touch to everything its rays touched, turning them gold.

The Cherry Boy backpedaled from that thoughtless comparison. "Please don't take it the wrong way, Fubuki-kun. I didn't mean anything bad about it."

To Tomoyuki's surprise, Akira said, "I-I know. I-I've heard my fill of your stories when we were 'dating'."

Oh yeah. Right.

Tomoyuki told "Aya" everything about his dreams of becoming a movie director back during their "dates", as embarrassing as they were in retrospect. He made movie comparisons about everything as part of their small talk.

Smiling, Yamamoto shared, "Oh, did you know? Had Zatoichi's actor not taken the role of Kagemusha, it would've gone to Nakadai Tatsuya? It blew my mind when I first heard it! Imagine if Katsu Shintaro were fired from production. We would've gotten a totally different Kagemusha film altogether!"

"...And there you go again with your stories, Yamamoto-chan."

Akira then gave Tomoyuki a smiling, pensive look that made the Cherry Boy forget he was talking to a boy instead of a cute, short-haired girl.

Just like old times. This was the "Aya" that Tomoyuki fell for last year, lies and catfishing be damned.

Forgetting himself for a second, Yamamoto asked Fubuki a question he was meaning to ask AU Seiko.

"Let's say that in two parallel dimensions, one Kagemusha was portrayed by Katsu Shintaro and another was portrayed by Nakadai Tetsuya. Which one of them is the realer Kagemusha?"

The younger brother of Aya pursed his lips to a pout before it became an outright frown.

"W-Who cares? They're both fake," he said with a deep voice, shedding his female mask. Or perhaps he put on a male mask over his feminine self? "I- It's like me. E-Even in an alternate dimension, I could never be like Neechan. I could never be a real woman. No matter what version of me we're talking about."

The gazes of Tomoyuki and Akira finally met eye-to-eye as the Cherry Boy said, "Yes, you can never be Fubuki Aya, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Even if you're twins or the same people from parallel universes, you two are different in many ways, and that's okay."

"Y-Yamamoto-se..." Akira looked like was about to add a "sempai" suffix there but caught himself at the last minute.

Yamamoto stood up from the park bench and bowed at his kohai. Akira looked like he was about to bow in return, only for the cheeky brat to give him a kiss on the lips instead.

"AH!" yelped Yamamoto, who jumped back.

Akira chuckled, stuck his tongue out, and winked at the Cherry Boy. "Okay, even though I'm still a little mad, now I forgive you."

The kid then rose, put his hoodie on, and gave a sideward glance at the flabbergasted Tomoyuki while squeezing his earphones into his ears.

"Later."

The Cherry Boy touched his lips, chuckled to himself, and turned around to literally walk into the sunset, only to come face-to-face with the slack-jawed expressions of Aya Fubuki, Yukari Goto, Miku Machida, and Seiko Okamoto.

His Friend Zone Harem (most of them, anyway) had seen that last exchange.

'Goddammit, Fubuki-kun.'

***

A little later, Tomoyuki texted the Seiko from another universe about Akira, asking her about him, only to get this response.

"Fubuki Aya-chin's little brother? No, she has a little sister here. They're practically twins. Is Akira-chin a guy in your own universe, Cherry Boy?"

Whoa. Mind blown.

***

Usually, with Tomoyuki's luck, he'd have rumors flying around Class 2B or the whole Maehara campus about him being gay for Aya Fubuki's little brother, Akira.

And as expected, that was exactly what happened.

Oh well.

In light of the things Tomoyuki did to Akira and Aya, maybe he deserved being caught red-handed with that one last fake kiss to the lips in front of his not-girlfriends.

It was all a misunderstanding of course, but how was he supposed to explain what happened?

His so-called Friend Zone Harem (or rather, Sugata's Actual Harem) had been treating him weirdly ever since they saw that last exchange between him and Akira.

For example, he was greeted by a glaring Aya with, "I WILL NEVER ACCEPT YOU AS A BROTHER-IN-LAW, YAMAMOTO!" that fine Monday morning.

She seemingly forgot that same-sex marriage wasn't legal in Japan (although, in fairness, she might have also probably forgot that Akira was her little brother instead of little sister).

Also, she forgot one other important thing.

"...Shut up, Fubuki. I don't swing that way," he said to her under his breath. "Stop talking! I don't want people getting the wrong idea!"

"C-Congratulations, Ch-Cherry-kun," said a glassy-eyed Yukari, who walked towards her male best friend in a stilted, robotic fashion.

In turn, Tomoyuki cried out, "For the love of Kami-sama, your congratulations don't make me happy at all! Don't congratulate me over weird stuff, Goto!"

Meanwhile, the girls of Class 2C ended up milling out of the door, squealing (or "squeeing", as the Class 2B Rep would say) left and right over the new prospective coupling of Akira and Tomoyuki.

"EEEEE! The Cherry Boy is actually in love with Iincho's little bro?"

"I support your gay love for Fubuki-kun, Cherry Boy!"

"It finally happened. Cherry Boy has been rejected by so many girls he ended up dating a dude!"

"It's so romantic! A true sempai-kohai (upperclassman-underclassman) love affair!"

"Do you think Akira-kun will end up popping Cherry Boy's cherry?"

"KYAAAA!"

They were certainly more supportive over Yamamoto becoming a couple with the younger Fubuki versus him ending up with an actual girl, the idea of which seemed beyond creepy for these... fujoshi (rotten girl, otherwise known as a boy's love or BL fangirl).

'Oh no, not the fujoshi!'

The Cherry Boy turned towards his classmates at Section 2B for refuge from the madness that was Section 2C, only for him to end up face-to- face with a flush-faced and heavily breathing Miku.

Uh-oh.

Tomoyuki made an about-face as soon as he saw the look in Machida's face. He could practically see Valentine heart shapes on her irises.

"AH! Yamamoto-kun! Don't turn away! We need to talk about you and your new romance!"

"Get away from me, Machida! I'm not gay!" he said as he ran away from Machida and the rest of the rotten girls of Maehara.

"But it's not gay to fall in love with onnanoko (girly boys)!"

"SHADDAAAAAP!"

A teary-eyed Tomoyuki ended up bumping into Seiko.

They stared at each other for a little while before the Amazon Queen guffawed and joked, "If you're not gay, then why are you running away from all those girls, Cherry Boy?"

A despairing Yamamoto cried out, "Not you too, Amazon Queen!"

***

A weekend later, about five days removed from Tomoyuki's birthday...

Thankfully, Yamamoto's nightmare from last night where he was labeled as gay for Akira by the entire student body never actually transpired in real life.

If things had escalated that far, then the Cherry Boy might've been rumored to have a male gay version of his "Friend Zone" Harem composed of Sugata, Matsuda, Ishiguro, Kanemoto, and Fubuki.

His female heterosexual Friend Zone Harem still treated him rather weirdly though, but otherwise nothing too over-the-top happened to him. The girls kept that little exchange between him and Akira to themselves.

For example, he could still greet Yukari like before, but whenever he attempted to bring up Akira, she found a way to change the subject.

"Hi, Cherry-kun! Good morning!"

"Oh, hi Goto! About what happened last Friday...!"

"Oh, speaking of Friday, K-On's last episode happened on Friday! Such a beautifully made anime! Season 2 when, amirite? I can't wait to talk to Miku-chan about it, even though she only likes gay stuff... er, not that there's anything wrong with gay stuff! Oh look, there's Aya-chan! HI AYA-CHAN! Er, I gotta go, Cherry-kun!" she said in one breath.

"...."

As for Aya, she was the opposite of what she was in his nightmare. She was kind of worse.

"I hope you make Akira happy."

"N-No offense, Fubuki, but please shut up. I beg of you."

"Aw, you even stutter like him too!"

Ugh. He then cringed when from behind him, Aya whispered, "Break his heart and I'll break your fingers."

He then hissed, "I have no heart of his to break because he likes some other dude! His heart belongs to another!"

Fubuki blinked. "Who else would it be? He kissed you."

"SSSSSSHHH!" he shushed.

No need to start a new rumor about him. He'd rather be the Virgin King than have people think he swung for the other team or however the turn of phrase went. "He was just pranking me! Your li'l bro is about as in-love with me as you or Goto are with me!"

In the background, Yukari choked on her spit.

Aya then raised an eyebrow. "Or as in-love with you as Machida Miku is?"

He shrugged. "Sure, fine. Let's go with that."

In the background, Miku choked on her spit.

Speaking of Miku, the choking Class 2B iincho had her nose in her notebook for some reason when Yamamoto entered Class 2B and literally bumped into her, which blindsided her and made her drop the object of her attention.

Miku was actually hiding a drawing of what suspiciously looked like Tomoyuki and Akira kissing. And naked. And... for lack of a better term... "sword-fighting".

It was a pretty well-done drawing, if unnerving to the Cherry Boy. Like a detailed oil painting of hardcore porn (a description that covered a disturbing amount of medieval paintings).

"...." chorused Miku and Yamamoto.

Apparently, she took the kissing scene between the Cherry Boy and the Lady Boy as well as Yamamoto expected, knowing her. As expected of the Fujoshi of Class 2B.

The Class 2B Rep immediately scrambled for her lewd materials, her face as scarlet as the setting sun or the circle on the Japanese flag that also represented the setting sun.

"Et tu, Machida?" asked Yamamoto, who looked and felt like he was about to melt.

"I'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorry...!" Miku apologized, bowing at the Cherry Boy repeatedly.

He then ran away from his so-called best friend, feeling a sense of déjà vu as he did so.

The teary-eyed Tomoyuki ended up bumping into Seiko.

They stared at each other for a little while before the Amazon Queen guffawed and joked, "If you're not gay, then why are you running away from all those girls, Cherry Boy?"

A despairing Yamamoto cried out, "Not you too, Amazon Queen!" only for him to blink and realize that out of all the scenarios he had in his dream, only the one involving Seiko came true.

Huh. So she really was the girl he knew the most among all the girls he'd ever wooed. Or failed to woo.

Or maybe he knew her AU self like the back of his hand and at times, he ended up guessing what the Seiko in his world would say because of how similar the two versions of her were.

Seiko grinned and laughed in that tomboyish, brusque way she usually did, which made Tomoyuki's heart break a little more.

AU Seiko used to be the closest thing Tomoyuki had to getting the object of his affection in his dimension, only for him to fall in love with her instead.

Now the Seiko of his dimension was the closest thing he had to getting AU Seiko.

However, the gulf between him and this dimension's Amazon Queen was about as insurmountable as the gulf between him and her AU counterpart that didn't even exist in his reality.

That gulf between them even had a name: Kazuhito Sugata.

Speak of the devil, Sugata decided then and there to pop out of nowhere.

"You're calling Cherry Boy gay? That's rich coming from a closeted lesbian like you, Okamato!" chided the blond-haired delinquent, making a pun using Seiko's surname and the word okama (transvestite).

From there, Seiko did a German suplex on her so-called childhood friend.

"OW! You're just proving my point, you stupid man-girl!"

"What's that? You want another suplex, Furyou-kun? Okay then!"

"GAAAH! LEGGO, YOU CRAZY BITCH!" yelped the Yankee. "Why are you doing wrestling moves when you're the Karate Club Captain? OOF!"

So far, Tomoyuki's Sugata Harem Extermination Plan (or whatever it was called, its title was a work in progress) had been rather successful in spite of himself and his social awkwardness.

Yukari Goto no longer pined for Kazuhito and neither did Aya Fubuki. Sure, Akira Fubuki wasn't part of Sugata's Harem, but Yamamoto was glad all his issues with both Fubuki siblings had been ironed out.

As for Student Council President Mana Otonashi, even the normally dense Tomoyuki could see that her interest with Kazuhito was only skin deep at best.

Besides which, he'd been hearing rumors of her possibly having a romance with the 2B heartthrob and Judo Club Captain Kanemoto instead. Maybe.

So at the very least, he didn't need to do much in order to bring Mana's crush with Kazuhito to an end. It was over before it began.

Although it did help out how Yamamoto had cut Sugata's (Actual) Harem down to size, seeing that the manipulative student council president had been using his harem against him.

Also, both Sugata and Machida were getting along splendidly. Soon enough, like in the case of his other childhood friend Megumi Minagata, the Yankee might end up dating Machida instead of Okamoto.

An ultimatum might finally be reached.

But even if Sugata broke Okamoto's heart the same way AU Sugata did AU Okamoto, would that be enough for the Amazon Queen to give the Cherry Boy a chance?

Tomoyuki gulped, unable to voice out the feelings bubbling inside him.

Even this far into his Anti-Harem Plan, any number of things could go wrong.

Machida and Sugata could end up incompatible since Kazuhito broke up with Minagata herself. Okamoto could somehow confess her feelings to the Yankee and then have them reciprocated. Or vice-versa.

The main problem with the Cherry Boy's harebrained plan was that, like everyone in his Friend Zone Harem... Goto, Fubuki, Machida, and Otonashi... the Amazon Queen only saw him as a friend and nothing more.

He had already pushed his luck by hinting to her that he still loved her (or at least another version of her) before "Aya" revealed himself to be "Akira" instead.

Besides which, didn't he already confess to her and got shot down?

Sure, his confession was done under the mistaken impression that Seiko confessed to him first, but that was a typical confession from him to be honest, as evidenced by his failed love confessions with Yukari, Aya, Mana, and Miku.

The two childhood friends from Hiroshima bickered, as usual. Like a married couple. While the Cherry Boy pined for the Amazon Queen in the background.

Has anything really changed in the end? After all this time? After all the progress Tomoyuki had in improving himself and his relationship with his failed not-romances?

Besides which, did he really deserve to woo someone like the Amazon Queen in the first place, whose specs were too high for the lowly likes of him? Much less her AU counterpart that was in love with him (kind of) but was a world away. A whole universe was between him and her.

She was such an athletic prodigy that she could join any sports club in Maehara and end up becoming the team captain there. She shone bright like the sun and Tomoyuki was the Icarus with waxen wings getting too close to her.

Maybe she deserved someone like the delinquent, who was at least a tough guy who knew her since childhood and could handle her strong personality.

"Hey, Earth to Cherry Boy!" greeted Seiko while gripping a blue-faced Kazuhito tight in a headlock, "What should I do with this stupid Yankee? Another German suplex? A crossface submission move? The Figure Four? A Scorpion Death Lock?"

Oh, he knew the answer to this one. "Emerald Flowsion?"

"All right! Emerald Flowsion it is... Wait, what?" The Amazon Queen's jaw dropped.

Regardless, she did the sit-out side slam regardless while never breaking eye contact with Yamamoto the whole while.

"Hey! SERIOUSLY!? H-Hey, Seiko-chan, don't... OOOF!" oofed Sugata.

Actually, it was the finishing move innovated by the late Mitsuharu Misawa, a pro-wrestling legend who recently passed away back in June 13 in both the universes of Tomoyuki and AU Seiko.

He died from what the police suspected was internal decapitation followed by a heart attack during a tag team match.

The other Seiko wouldn't stop crying about it. Misawa was her wrestling idol for the longest time. The Cherry Boy remembered because it was one of the few times when a celebrity death in the AU Amazon Queen's universe coincided with his universe.

"How do you know that move?" asked a bright-eyed Seiko who invaded Tomoyuki's personal space in her excitement. "Are you a pro-wrestling fan too?"

As though he were avoiding the blinding rays of the sun, Yamamoto's eyes darted away and gave a side glance at Okamoto and her huge, bouncing chest. "N-No, of course not. You must've mentioned it to me a while back."

Seiko scratched her chin and grinned. "Yeah, I guess so. Maybe it was during one of our practice sessions for the Sports Fest, right? Maybe."

Tomoyuki gulped and nodded. He winced at the careless smile the Okamoto of this world gave him, reminding him of the smile he always imagined the Okamoto from beyond this world would have shown him whenever she texted or called him.

"Then again, I don't recall ever mentioning Misawa-san's finishing move before. You've must've done your research on EBO again... Haven't you, Cherry Boy?"

Yamamoto cringed, looked even further away, and cleared his throat, remembering how his incomplete information about sports and whatnot made him look lame in front of Seiko.

"Like I told you before, you don't need to force yourself to like what I like, dude," said Okamoto.

Not quite looking her way, Tomoyuki muttered, "No, I'm not interested in pro-wrestling at all, but when you talk about it, MMA, boxing, or any other sport, you make it sound like the most interesting thing in the world."

Agh! What was he saying? He sounded so sappy! He wasn't going to earn brownie points from the Amazon Queen this way!

Afterwards, Yamamoto and the supine Sugata's eyes then met. To the Cherry Boy's surprise, the Yankee nodded to him as if agreeing with what he had said. 'The hell...?'

Huh. So even Okamoto's childhood friend who always acted like he was so unimpressed with her also saw her in the same light as the Cherry Boy did.

Tomoyuki didn't know what to think about that.

Maybe Kazuhito really was in love with Seiko after all. All it took was one more push and they'd be together at last, despite both of them playing hard to get.

And the realization shook Yamamoto to his core.

How could he compete against the Yankee if there was a possibility that he was still in love with the Amazon Queen? Even the AU Amazon Queen could end up with the AU Yankee had he not stayed in Hiroshima with AU Megumi.

He might as well give up. Right?

But Tomoyuki couldn't quit her.

Even if he didn't deserve the love of someone like (AU) Seiko Okamoto, he couldn't give her up.

Their science teacher, Miss Sakuragi, then entered the classroom, which made the students of Class 2B scramble back to their seats.

"...How do you do it, Cherry Boy?" Tomoyuki heard Seiko whisper behind him.

"Do what?" he asked, turning towards her and finally making eye contact.

"You went from not knowing what to say to me to knowing exactly the right thing to say to me every time. What's your secret?"

Before Yamamoto could answer, Okamoto already returned to her seat without waiting for his response.

"Uh... uh... S-STAND UP!" stuttered Miku as she hid her notebook full of boy's love drawings of Tomoyuki and Akira she had commissioned one of her artist friends to draw.

"Good morning, Miss Sakuragi!" everyone greeted.

"Good morning, class," the science teacher said. "Take your seats."

"Sit down!" ordered Machida, who had finally regained enough of her composure to sound more like a proper class representative.

***

During lunch break, Tomoyuki finally had his chance to talk to someone he hadn't had the opportunity to message in a while.

"So y'all finally gave up on that stupid harem plan thingy? It's 'bout time, City Slicker," texted Megumi Minagata, the ex-girlfriend of Kazuhito, to the Cherry Boy.

"Yeah," Yamamoto finally responded after editing his message over and over, with several of his unsent messages reaching the character limits of his phone.

He then explained, "Your ex's harem girls are dropping like flies. But even if he dumps Okamoto, I think I still won't win her heart. She just sees me as a friend."

"That's what y'all get for trying to do shady things to her instead of actually wooing her directly," she texted back. "She don't like that roundabout crap. Be straight with her."

He wanted to retort something back to Megumi, but he got nothing to reply with.

She was right. He had spent too much time falling in love with Seiko's AU version to woo the crush he could actually, physically interact with.

But maybe he was merely spoiled by AU Seiko. She was the Seiko that was already in love with him by default and by no "fault" of his. She wasn't even really in love with him either, but instead with his alternate universe counterpart.

"So? What's your master plan now?" asked Minagata.

He couldn't answer that either. Instead, he replied about something else entirely. Something that had been bothering him since the Sports Fest Volleyball Tournament.

"Okamoto is pretty amazing, isn't she? In our last Sports Fest, she was the MVP of Class 2B. She won the relay even after Machida tripped in the middle of it, and she almost won the volleyball tournament in spite of me being part of the team. Had she not spent her energy on the relay, she would've creamed 2A on her own. Was she always this amazing?"

"Hey, don't change the subject," came Megumi's first message, followed by, "Yep, that sounds exactly like Seiko-chan, all right. You just can't stop her when she gets going. She's stubborn to a fault but that's part of her charm."

"Right? As expected of the Amazon Queen," he wrote, adding, "I can't explain it properly, but anything she does becomes fun for me too, even things I'm normally not interested in. I don't even care about boxing, pro-wrestling, or MMA, but when she talks about those topics, I can't help but get hyped. Know what I mean?"

"Oh, absolutely," Minagata replied, adding, "She has always been an overachiever since I met her. We can barely keep up with her, Kazu-kun and I. It's almost like she's in another dimension, sometimes. A true alpha."

'Tell me about it. Both versions of Seiko-chan are like that,' Tomoyuki thought before texting back, "I want to keep up with her. I want to exist beside her. I want to live life the way she does. To the fullest."

"Hey," began the country bumpkin from Hiroshima, "You're starting to sound like someone I used to know. Watch yourself."

The Cherry Boy didn't heed Minagata's warning.

Instead, he took a picture of a poster he saw on the bulletin board regarding a certain club looking for new members. For future reference.

***

At dismissal time, near the exit gates of Maehara High...

"Cherry-kun! Nice timing! It's time for us to go to the Go Home Club!"

Tomoyuki heard Yukari Goto jokingly greet him, referring to the "club" that students who had no clubs belonged to, such that when it was dismissal time, they tended to "Go Home" instead of attend to club activities.

"You're going straight to work at that convenience store gig, right? Come on, let's go!"

Yamamoto stared at Goto blankly before stating, "Um, I'm actually part of the Literature Club now."

"Say whu...?" asked Yukari, doing a double-take. "Since when!?"

The Cherry Boy scratched the back of his head. "Would you believe since now?"

"You... You... YOU JERK! Every time with you! TAKE THIS! My love, hate, and all of my sorrow!"

"OW! What gives? What'd I do this time? And how'd you do that thing with your twin tails? OW! STOP IT! MY EYE!" screeched Tomoyuki as he cringed from the wrath of Yukari whipping her long twin-tailed ponytails back and forth at his face.

***

So two things happened.

Tomoyuki joined the Literature Club and scored pretty high on the initial test for it, much to the delight of the teacher heading the club, Miss Juri Kitamura. Yes, the same advisor and homeroom teacher of Class 2B.

All newbies had to take an English and Japanese language proficiency test to see how well they'd score and what level of reading they could handle.

He felt a little proud in crushing both tests.

There weren't many things he was actually good at, so being a little good at reading, writing, and language boosted his ego just a tiny bit.

Also, as a side note, Miku Machida was the class president of the Literature Club.

Well, okay then. Sure. This was yet another thing she was good at.

Yamamoto considered going to the Drama Club instead, but he didn't know how to act. At all.

There was also the Anime and Manga Club, but he had no idea how to draw either. Not to mention, it was a total sausage fest of lonely male nerds in that club, with it mostly being composed of sophomores from Class 2D.

Furthermore, there was no such thing as a Movie or Film Club in Maehara High. This was the original reason why the movie fanatic Tomoyuki never bothered joining any clubs. None of them matched up with his deep-down passion and interests.

The only club that usually filmed anything in the school was the Drama Club.

They recorded all of their theater productions on video, but from time to time they tried their hand at making actual films rather than just filming what happened on stage. They made use of the Audio-Visual department of the school every time they did so.

Therefore, it was indeed a shame that he couldn't end up in the Drama Club instead because he had for the longest time loved the art of filmmaking and appreciated the worldwide masterpieces of cinema.

He couldn't exactly write a script for the theater geeks to adapt either, since they usually just went with the classics of Shakespeare or Noh Drama.

Then again, he was kind of glad he had a familiar face with him in the club he ultimately decided to join.

To be honest, Tomoyuki expected Miku to be part of the Anime and Manga Club herself, what with her doing things like making doujinshi manga (self-published comics) that she sells at Comiket (Comic Market, a comic book convention that occurs twice a year).

She was friends with fellow fujoshi that drew the type of lewd doujinshi she wanted to make on the down low (since she couldn't draw herself), buuut that wasn't enough incentive for her to join the "creepy" Anime and Manga Club full of lonely nerds regardless.

Full of thirsty "Cherry Boys" like himself who wanted a girlfriend that was also interested in nerdy things.

Wait. Come to think of it, why were Tomoyuki and Miku best friends again?

Oh right. The moment that he swore never to attempt to woo her again, Machida was content to put him in the Friend Zone.

Like deep in the Friend Zone. Not the Ross and Rachel from "Friends" kind of Friend Zone. More like the Ross and Phoebe kind of Friend Zone.

Also, he wasn't that big of an anime maniac as the people from Class 2D. More like most of his knowledge of anime and manga was from the Class 2B Rep herself.

But at least with her rejection of his romantic advances, she kept her word that they could still be friends. Unlike that bitchy Student Council President Mana Otonashi, who screwed with him every chance she got.

Even though he barely read any worthwhile English, Russian, French, or local Japanese literature, he had a decent grasp of the language and he could use his movie knowledge in the Literature Club instead, particularly the films that were based on books.

Like "Lord of the Rings" by Peter Jackson. Or the "Harry Potter" film series. Or "Of Mice and Men". Or "Lord of The Flies". Or "Hakuchi (The Idiot)" by Akira Kurosawa. Or even "The Ring" horror film series.

These were all based on novels of some sort.

Actually, things went swimmingly well with the Literature Club. Surprisingly well. As if it were a club that fit like a glove in accordance to his needs and interests.

The only thing he was afraid of was him losing his part-time job over his decision to join a club. But he wasn't quite sure about how serious he was about either the Literature Club or his cashier work.

Every day, they were assigned books to read and reports to submit, just like in the case of their school work. And every day, he received praise for his work on every activity, which motivated him further and reminded him of why he joined the club in the first place.

For once, he felt like he was doing something for himself instead of trying desperately to seek approval from others.

Then, one day, after he played the trailer to Ran by Akira Kurosawa on his cellphone for the thousandth time to strengthen his resolve, he made his decision then and there.

It was a trailer to a movie that existed in a parallel world, starring Tatsuya Nakadai: The same actor who played the titular character in Kurosawa's Kagemusha instead of Shintaro Katsu, who was the Kagemusha in Tomoyuki's universe.

He still couldn't help but get misty eyed every time he watched this "lost work" by Kurosawa.

Once he had gathered enough confidence and courage from all his initial club activities, he soon wrote the first few words of his own short story.

It was all thanks to this birthday gift sent to him by the other Seiko.

***

Apparently, Tomoyuki was more motivated about his Literature Club membership than even he realized. Even though he ended up keeping his convenience store clerk job, he found himself scribbling on his notebook or saving notes on this cellphone in between breaks.

It'd been a long time since he felt passionate about something other than trying to get a girlfriend then failing in a spectacular and cringe-worthy fashion.

Like he was living the kind of life Okamoto had been living as this sports goddess oozing with pure talent, potential, and athleticism.

It was even enough for him to ignore whispers from his clubmates about him being a try-hard teacher's pet because he kept acing all of the tests and activities given to them by Miss Kitamura.

All the same, back at their clubroom, Tomoyuki wrote and wrote. He fulfilled more and more of the requirements of the club, such that he was even giving Miku a run for her money when it came to scoring high with their club activities.

"Very good, Yamamoto-kun! Aside from the purple prose and run-on sentences, you're getting the hang out of essay writing. Have you ever written anything else before? Like short stories or something?" asked Miss Kitamura to Tomoyuki after handing him his graded test paper.

Scratching his cheek while his eyes darted away at his buxom teacher, the Cherry Boy gulped and said, "N-No. I haven't... written anything serious or... anything. Just small stories and... terrible-looking doodles for manga."

His homeroom teacher for Class 2B chuckled and winked. "Well, you're a little diamond in the rough, methinks. Maybe you might even have talent for it. Keep at it."

He smiled back at her words of encouragement, bowed, and went back to his seat as Miss Kitamura called on the next club member.

His heart raced from acing yet another activity. It made him feel... things in ways reminiscent to when AU Seiko first confessed her love for him over the phone. Like he felt appreciated and loved for being him.

He never felt more alive in all his life. Was this the kind of rose-tinted life he would've been leading had him and AU Seiko lived in the same universe?

"How's your new story coming along?" whispered Machida after taking a peek at the notebook of barely legible handwriting from Tomoyuki. "Have you finally gotten off of your butt and started writing that romance of yours about lovers from different dimensions?"

"No, that's different! Also, if you want me to show mine, you better show yours too!" teased Yamamoto back.

A blushing Miku covered her face with her own notebook full of scribbles and notes right after impudently sticking her tongue out at her fellow... writer, was it?

Yeah, Tomoyuki was kind of a writer now, wasn't he? Even if he was an amateur at it. 'Ain't that a kick in the head?'

Speaking of which, he shouldn't get ahead of himself. All he was doing was making a rough or even sandpapery draft of a story.

But he did have fun exchanging story ideas and getting feedback from the Class Rep. Even though despite her cheery demeanor, she was stricter than even Miss Kitamura in pointing out the grammatical and continuity errors of his work.

He gave her feedback in kind though for her stories too. Although he didn't really care for any of her boy's love or young adult romance ones.

He also outright turned down reading any stories featuring him and Akira Fubuki. Or Kazuhito Sugata. Or Kanemoto. Or especially Ishiguro or Matsuda. Seriously.

He also thanked his lucky stars that Machida was embarrassed and self-aware enough to not share with him any of her, uh, more mature BL stories and outlines for her erotic doujinshi manga for feedback purposes.

She finally got the hint that he had no interest in discussing which guy should be seme (on top) or uke (at the bottom) in a pairing she made up for original stories or her fan fiction.

To Miku's chagrin, Yamamoto quite frankly skewered all of her literary work and outlines for the club, taking note that they all followed the same tired clichés of misunderstandings, arguments, and forgiveness. Rinse and repeat.

"But that's how all shojo manga (girl comics) stories ended! Don't knock 'em all down for following the same formula!" she'd complain.

"Yeah, sure, but... surely you can come up with some new and interesting twist on the formula, right?" he'd point out. "So that it doesn't come off as derivative."

To her credit, although she hated him for his devilish frankness, she didn't want him to pull his punches on his critiques either, especially since whenever he did offer praise she appreciated it doubly so.

That was also the way he liked his constructive criticism from her. She even quickly corrected many of his run-on sentences, repeated phrases, mixed metaphors, and purple prose as though she were an advanced version of a cellphone autocorrect.

She'd make a great editor for a book or manga publishing house someday.

What frustrated Yamamoto about Machida's otherwise excellent, detailed, and mostly grammatical feedback was when she said his stories were "okay" or "fine" plot-wise but said nothing more about them.

He didn't know how to improve upon "okay" or "fine".

"There's nothing wrong with the story, Yamamoto-kun!" Miku would insist.

"Buuut...?" Tomoyuki would then prod.

"'But' what? 'But' nothing! I just said the plot is fine! Jeez, Cherry Boy," she'd then say with enough exasperation for her to forget how embarrassed she'd normally be when calling Yamamoto the slang term for "male virgin".

Regardless, he was so inspired by the progress of his writing and the high scores he'd been getting from his club activities that he even began writing the first page of a long-form story with a premise that didn't conclude after 4,000 words.

In a few hours, one page became 10 and 10 pages became a chapter. That chapter then turned into 3 chapters. Then 9 chapters.

In just a few days, he was churning out chapters and word counts that would've taken him the better part of three months to produce. Like he'd suddenly been possessed by hypergraphia or the intense desire to write or draw.

As though he were a man possessed. He was on a roll. The scattered puzzle pieces in his life had started to finally falling into place.

***

"Wow. You joined the Literature Club? Good for you," said AU Seiko after updating Tomoyuki about how it went with her love triangle with AU Tomoyuki and AU Miku.

As a by the way, AU Machida did geek out about the prospect of alternate universes after AU Okamoto broached the subject jokingly while discussing the possible origins of the Kagemusha Trailer (from Yamamoto's universe) sent to AU Yamamoto for his birthday.

This distracted the previously upset AU Miku—who in their dimension had a closer relationship to AU Tomoyuki—over not giving the object of their affection a better gift than AU Seiko had.

As a downside, she wouldn't shut up about the Multiverse Theory the whole time they were together.

"The Literature Club is actually the perfect fit for you. You were always the creative type. I mean, judging by the Cherry Boy in my world."

"Thanks a lot, Amazon Queen," said Yamamoto, who couldn't stop smiling after revealing his decision to join a club for once. As though he felt somehow closer to the AU version of his crush by doing so.

Or at least worthier of her love.

It was as though he could see her back as he raced with her in his imagination, like he was about to catch up with her as she shone brightly as always did like the shooting star that she was.

"Come to think of it, our Cherry Boy... my Cherry Boy... the other you... is part of the Film Club."

He chuckled and rolled his eyes. "Of course you'd have a Film Club in your universe. That's how it always works, doesn't it? What we have, you don't have, and vice-versa."

The Amazon Queen giggled in return. "I'm just glad you're seeking your own passions outside of all this love business. But don't get too distracted by your club and forget about wooing the other me or anything."

Thoughtlessly, the Cherry Boy reassured, "The reason I joined the Literature Club is to impress the other you. Kind of."

"...Wait, what? How does that work?" AU Seiko asked in a... questioning(?) tone that took Yamamoto aback.

Did he say something wrong?

***

Back at the cafeteria, while Miku and Tomoyuki ate their bento and discussed their activities at the Literature Club, two familiar figures approached them.

"So the rumors were true. Yamamoto has left the Go Home Club and joined Miku-chan's Literature Club instead," said a smirking Aya from Class 2C.

"I-It's not my club! Jeez!" replied Miku with a sigh before munching on an egg roll. "A-And Yammamoto-kun is doing excellent work at our club, for your information!"

'Gee, I wonder how the news spread so fast,' thought Yamamoto before sparing a glance at Yukari, the girl beside Fubuki who couldn't meet his gaze "for some reason".

Making an apologetic chopping motion with her hand once she mustered the courage to look him in the eye, Goto asked, "Can we join you?" before sitting down anyway and not waiting for a response.

Huh. Even the aloof Aya followed Yukari's lead this time around and sat down with them on the same table. They didn't normally eat around Miku when he was around.

Him joining some club wasn't that newsworthy.

Miku and Tomoyuki sat opposite to each other, so the Class 2C girls ended up sitting together with each of them, with Aya sitting beside Machida and Yukari sitting beside Yamamoto.

"Congratulations, Miku-chan," said Yukari with a wide grin while covering her guffawing mouth, which prompted the Class 2B Rep to shush her with a blush.

"Don't congratulate me! Jeez!" the bespectacled girl pouted at the twin-tailed girl. "Congratulate Yamamoto-kun!"

"Stop bullying her," reprimanded both Aya and Tomoyuki in unison at Yukari in that familiar parental way they'd tell off a misbehaving child, much to their surprise.

Fubuki stared at Yamamoto for a hot minute with a blank expression on her face before turning her attention back to Miku and Yukari.

'Whew. I thought she was going to be mad,' he thought.

"Bullying her? Stop bullying me!" said Goto with a sniffle and wide deer-in-front-of-headlights eyes.

"Now, now! Let's not fight over something trivial!" said Machida, who took on a motherly role as she patted her friend's head.

Once everyone settled down, Yukari asked, "What have you two lovebirds been up to in your little club anyway?" before munching on some convenience store steamed meat buns herself.

With a "playful" kick to Goto's shin from under the table, Miku said, "We're in the middle developing our individual writing style, so I was concerned that Yamamoto-kun couldn't keep up. But it turns out he's a natural at writing. I'm so proud of him."

Tomoyuki nodded. "And I've been recommended several books I haven't read to help me find 'my voice' or something. The club members there are really friendly and nonjudgmental about book choice. Some of them even cover light novels, like Slayers or Suzumiya Haruhi. It's pretty... comfy going there, to be honest."

He then saw the Class 2B Rep giggle, which made him inquire, "What?"

"Oh, nothing. It's just that all our classmates in the club call you the Film Snob," said Machida. "All your book recommendations were made into films one way or another."

The Cherry Boy palmed his face in embarrassment. "Aw man. Fine, I don't read many books that aren't films! Jeez, they're the ones being snobs!"

"Your new nickname is at least less embarrassing than your current one, Cherry-kun," quipped the bouncy Yukari.

Aya took a sip of her bottle of iced tea then asked, "So what does Seiko-chan think about you joining the Literature Club, Yamamoto-kun?"

"Huh? Er... Pardon?" asked Tomoyuki, feigning ignorance. Internally, he groaned.

Ugh, this again. Both AU Seiko and Not-AU Aya should mind their own business it came to how he went about wooing Not-AU Seiko.

What was up with those two anyway? 'It's not like I abandoned wooing Okamoto just because I became a member of a club. It's actually quite the opposite.'

Fubuki smacked her lips, thought for a minute, and said, "Just curious what Seiko-chan thought about you getting a club after all this time. My little brother told me you two have become quite close, so I'm wondering if you had asked her what she feels about it."

Tomoyuki cringed, recognizing what Aya implied even as both Miku and Yukari tilted their heads inquisitively at the both of them. "She's... fine with it. She thought it was cute and the perfect fit for me."

Oh man. And here he thought now that the whole stalking jig was up with Akira crossdressing as Aya, the Elder Fubuki would let up on him a little bit. Be nice to him for once.

But old habits die hard and one of the girls that made him infamous among the girls of Maehara was now putting his feet on the fire once again.

So that tattletale Akira told his big sister about the shenanigans they were up to at the hotel. Man, that sentence sounded so wrong and naughty in his head.

Then again, did the Fubuki brother also confess to the sister about how he was disguising himself as her in order to pull a prank on the Cherry Boy? Maybe he merely came clean to her and all, confessing everything.

Wait. Aya already knew about his crush on Seiko, didn't she?

Well, yes, of course she knew that he had a crush on (Non-AU) Seiko! The Maehara High grapevine was thick and accommodating of various grape pickers.

However, what must've sealed the deal for her was seeing Okamoto act all weird after she played his fake confession to Miku on her phone.

He knew better than to be presumptuous of the Amazon Queen's intentions, but for all intents and purposes, he interpreted the way she acted as... jealousy. Or maybe he hoped it was jealousy on her part.

Miku then asked Aya, "Oh really? What happened between Yamamoto-kun and Seiko-chan?"

A cold sweat dripped from the nape of Yamamoto's head as Fubuki's stare traveled back and forth from him to Machida. She then said with a cattish grin, "That's a secret."

The clueless Machida then told Tomoyuki, "But still, you and Aya-chan are closer together now than before, right? I'm so happy for you two," without a hint of jealousy, irony, or sarcasm from her sweet voice.

He hoped this clued Yukari in on how the bespectacled Class Rep really felt about him romantically.

***

To Be Continued...

It just occurred to me that Tomoyuki Yamamoto is kind of like the infamous Christian Weston Chandler or Chris-chan, complete with his "Sweethearts" or his version of the "Friend Zone Harem".

Also, his dream of making his Sonichu webcomic a serious thing even though it was just him plagiarizing existing content and lazily fusing them together is also reminiscent of Tomoyuki's obsession with Kurosawa's Kagemusha.

How about that?

Farewell, Abdiel

#tomoyuki x seiko #friend zone harem #fictionpress.com #keit-ai #keit愛 #finds a way #a boy falls in love with a girl #deus ex machina #ddlc #doki doki literature club

[dappyhelps]

bwahh thank you so much! this might get long, so apologies if this ends up in a couple asks. so i'm looking for a girl of unspecified asian descent (futuristic sci-fi world where all of asia has formed into one country called "the eastern commonwealth", her adopted family is vietnamese, she lives in "new beijing", she's described as 'tanned with mousy brown hair', the author based her off of mew azuma, idk what she's going for here). she's 16/17 in canon, but i'm gonna play her a little (cont)

older than that. the hardest part i’m having is that i would prefer to have an actress over a musician/model, since their icons look more natural to me, and i need someone who’s not super feminine. the character i’m playing starts out as a mechanic. (she ends up as a queen, but i’m not daring to hope i’d be able to find both of those in the same fc.) so i need someone who wears more dirty clothes, or at least not pink and soft and dainty. if you can think of anything, i’d appreciate any help ♥♥♥

Oki doki! Honestly, I took the majority of the description from her being based off of Mew Azuma, her age, and generally short hair with tomboy-ish roles. So here are some Japanese FC’s that might fit, I couldn’t find many at the exact age of that you’ve given, so some are a bit older. 

Yoshioka Riho (25) Japanese

Koike Rina (25) Japanese

Tateishi Haruka (23) Japanese

Nikaido Fumi (23) Japanese

Yoshizaki Aya (22) Japanese

Yamaya Kasumi (21) Japanese

Ohara Sakurako (22) Japanese

Hashimoto Ai (22) Japanese

Koshiba Fuka (20) Japanese

Wakana Aoi (20) Japanese

Okubo Sakurako (19) Japanese

Hirose Suzu (19) Japanese

Otomo Karen (18) Japanese

Kamishiraishi Moka (18) Japanese

Kawashima Ririka (16) Japanese

I found the majority of these off of @japanesefcs female list! 

#hope this helps! #k speaks #fc help #lingerxng

[gabriel-gabdiel]

【Draft】 Keit-AI! Tomoyuki x Seiko Chapter 21: Reversal of Fortune

Tomoyuki discovers the true Aya versus the fake one.

After staking out (or perhaps outright stalking) Class 1A for a little while after dismissal time, Tomoyuki Yamamoto found who he was looking for: Akira Fubuki.

Looking at him up close, the Cherry Boy was surprised he wasn't able to piece together earlier that the Younger Fubuki had actually catfished him by pretending to be his own sister.

Aside from the hoodie, the earphones, the emo hair, and the smartphone that doubled as his music player, he really did look like the fraternal twin of Aya Fubuki.

A short-haired, flat-chested, male, and gloomy version of Aya, to be exact.

"Hey," Tomoyuki greeted Akira.

"...."

Emerging from the classroom, the male Fubuki picked up his pace and walked away from his sister's stalker, but as expected of the creep, Yamamoto ended up matching his pace as he followed him all the way to Maehara High's exit gate.

Akira gave Tomoyuki a sidelong glance and mumbled, "We have nothing to talk about," before giving the Cherry Boy a glare that would've made Aya proud.

The Cherry Boy stopped cold in his tracks, but then said, "Yes, we do, Fubuki-kun."

"Leave me alone or I'll publish that picture of you and the Amazon Queen all over the Internet," Akira threatened, the volume of his voice rising slightly, his eyes darting left and right at his classmates who were walking around him.

"Go ahead," Tomoyuki called his bluff. "That's fine. The only one whose opinion I care about will understand the meaning behind that picture."

"I-I ain't kidding, Ch-Cherry Boy," stuttered the kid. Akira really was completely different from his outgoing crossdressing persona. "Your delinquent classmate will totally beat you up over it!"

Surprising even himself, Yamamoto grabbed hold of Fubuki's thin wrist and said, "If you want, I'll send the photo to the net myself."

The girly boy pulled his hand away from the Cherry Boy. Rubbing his wrist, he relented, asking, "W-Well? What do you want?"

***

Keit-AI! Tomoyuki x Seiko

An Anime-Inspired Original Story from 4chan's /a/ Board by Abdiel

Original Idea by Hataki.

For once, Tomoyuki explores his own passion and dreams in order to keep up with the brilliance of both Seikos.

Disclaimer: This work may reference copyrighted material, the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. It is believed that this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. All copyrighted material referred to in this work belongs to their respective owners. All rights reserved.

***

Chapter 21: Reversal of Fortune

***

Alternate Universe (AU) Seiko Okamoto just texted Tomoyuki Yamamoto a message prior to his confrontation with Akira Fubuki.

"Cherry Boy loved the trailer of Kagemusha you sent me, AU Cherry Boy! The one that starred Zatoichi! Thanks! You're the best! You know yourself like the back of your hand, ya movie nerd!"

Ugh. What bad timing, AU Amazon Queen!

Tomoyuki wasn't in the mood for this. If it were any other time, he'd be ecstatic about the news. He had a lot in his mind right now. Like how he was supposed to approach the aloof Akira, the brother of Aya who catfished him.

The AU Amazon Queen then sent Tomoyuki a flood of messages, oblivious of the fact that he had no intention of replying to her for now.

"He thought at first it was an edited fake trailer using Zatoichi clips you see all the time on YouTube! But he then saw every last Zatoichi film and he couldn't put his finger on where the clips came from. Hehehe."

"Won't we get into trouble if he learns the truth that the trailer was from an alternate universe? Won't that blow his mind? It's still kinda awkward being around Miku-chin, though. I never thought she'd get this upset about my gift."

"If only they were just best friends like you and AU Miku-chin are back in your world. What should I do? Help me, AU Cherry Boy!"

Tomoyuki wanted to pay no heed to the messages, but he couldn't take ignoring the love of his life for too long, especially when she was asking for his help. So he messaged to her the following half-joke:

"Maybe you should broach the subject of alternate universes somehow within Machida's earshot. If your Machida is anything like our Machida, she'll definitely geek out."

Then, as Yamamoto holstered his keitai denwa (mobile phone) into his pocket, something else occurred to him.

Something about how the Akira Kurosawa movie "Kagemusha" had parallels with his current predicament with Akira (not Kurosawa) Fubuki.

***

At a park near Maehara High...

The two former students of the same middle school sat on a bench in silence. Once he was done texting with his transdimensional not-girlfriend, Yamamoto decided to talk.

"Your name's Akira, huh? Your name reminds me of my favorite movie director, Kurosawa Akira. Japan's own world-famous director. You two have the same name," was Tomoyuki's lame attempt at an ice breaker.

Had it been Machida, she would've compared Akira's name to the famous anime and manga "AKIRA" by Katsuhiro Otomo. Or Akira Toriyama, the author of Dragon Ball.

"...A-Akira's a common name, dude. It's no big deal."

The Cherry Boy cleared his throat. "Speaking of which, have you ever heard of Kagemusha? That's one of my fave films from Kurosawa."

Akira just stared at Tomoyuki. "I-Is that an old black-and-white film? W-What does that have to do with anything?"

Yamamoto caught himself from falling face-first into the asphalt in dismay. Jeez, young people had no appreciation for classic Japanese cinema!

"I'll have you know that it's a Kurosawa jidaigeki (historical) film about a thief turned political decoy of Takeda Shingen. The imposter took over Takeda's empire right after Takeda's death."

"I-I never watched it," said Fubuki before muttering, "W-Who cares about some old-ass movie anyway..."

Yamamoto then looked the crossdresser straight in the eyes and said, "The Kagemusha reminds me of you."

"I-I don't follow," mumbled Akira, looking away from Tomoyuki.

"You totally do. Like a mix between him and Shingen's brother Nobukado, who also served as his double. Even when it was for the sake of a prank, you still looked exactly like your sister whenever you crossdressed."

"O-Oh. I see." Akira stared at Tomoyuki with half-lidded eyes and an impish smile. "W-What's the matter, Cherry Boy? Are you frustrated I-I made you date the Kagemusha of my sister instead of my actual sister?"

And there it was.

Akira finally addressed the elephant in the "room" (or in this case, park), much to Tomoyuki's chagrin.

Fubuki smirked and guffawed. "You're so hard up to get a girlfriend, you couldn't tell when you're dating a boy!"

Ouch. That mostly hurt because it was true.

Aya Fubuki's younger brother probably saw Yamamoto as some sort of perv who stalked his sister and had bad intentions for her altogether.

Rumors of the legendary Cherry Boy and his "Nice Guy" exploits had spread beyond his first year class and into the whole Maehara High campus, particularly with how Yukari Goto messaged him a love confession by accident and he immediately believed she'd actually fall for a guy like him.

Embarrassing.

Still, Tomoyuki had a sneaking suspicion that this wasn't enough to warrant an outright catfishing expedition, or at least catfishing to the extent that Akira went through.

Pretending to be the opposite gender over the phone or through an online chatroom was one thing. But Akira apparently hated him enough to go a step further than that. The extra mile, even.

"Any reason why you catfished me?" Tomoyuki probed, finally getting straight to the point.

"I-Isn't it obvious? I-It's because you're a creep and you've been stalking my sister all this time. I-I wanted to teach you a lesson!"

To Akira's surprise, Yamamoto then bowed and asked for his forgiveness.

"I'm really sorry for troubling your sister like that. She doesn't like me anyway, but I pushed the issue."

Akira rolled his eyes at Yamamoto. "A-Apologize to her, not me."

"I already have," said Tomoyuki. "I wanted to apologize to you personally."

"Y-You're the one apologizing to me? Ha!" scoffed the introvert. "T-That's rich, coming from you!"

"Yeah, I guess it is," said the Cherry Boy, who gazed towards the orange and red sky with a wistful sigh.

"I-Is this reverse psychology or something?" Akira asked. "I'm t-the one who catfished you, after all."

"Yep. You got me real good." Yamamoto chuckled, which made Fubuki frown.

"S-So what are you apologizing about?" asked the younger brother of Aya. "Y-You're going to play it off as a joke to save face or something?"

Tomoyuki's mouth went from a smile to a thin line, his lips moving inwards into his mouth. "I'd complain about how badly you think of me if you weren't completely justified to think that way."

The Cherry Boy heard the kid audibly gulp and saw him grip the edges of the bench's seat hard until his knuckles turned white.

From there, Yamamoto finally dropped the bombshell.

"I'm also sorry for punching your face back in grade school. It was supposed to be payback for when you punched me first, but I deserved that punch anyway."

Through grit teeth, Akira asked, "So you remember me after all, Yamamoto-sempai?" With nary a stutter.

***

About a couple of years ago, Kanemoto, Fubuki, and Yamamoto went to the same junior high.

Once upon a time, Kanemoto got lightly teased by his classmates, pairing him up with a girly kohai (underclassman) of theirs after he ended up near him during the school assembly. That kohai was Akira.

The thing about that was they had no girls in their junior high. It was an all-boys school.

Their junior was a boy who looked and sounded like a girl. He was like the little sister instead of little brother of his big sister Aya, who was attending an all-girls school at the time.

In Tomoyuki's desperation to fit in, he joined in on the teasing but laid it a little too thick, which led the popular pretty boy to put him in his place.

To be more specific, the jock told the nerd that he was a loser with no real friends and his greatest claim to fame was attempting to bully someone better than him.

Soon after, it was the Cherry Boy who got picked on by his classmates. It was karma in action, pure and simple.

But even before the well-deserved bullying, Tomoyuki got punched in the face by the same girly male kohai whom he also made fun with his teasing of Kanemoto.

This made the Cherry Boy's nose bleed, necessitating a visit to the nurse station.

A few days later, a "fight" between them ensued, with Tomoyuki hitting a punch at the kid before wimping out and covering his own face up with his hands to prevent getting punched back in return.

It was the lamest ending to a fight since, well, the Mayweather versus Pacquiao fight.

Never in the Cherry Boy's wildest dreams did he imagine that the kid he fought would end up being Aya Fubuki's younger brother, Akira.

Yamamoto was such a doofus try-hard when he was younger. Or maybe he was still one after all this time. He hoped this wasn't the case.

***

Back at the park...

The two boys went silent again.

Yamamoto stared at his shoes, examining its plain design like they were a magic eye picture instead. He couldn't bring himself to stare back at Akira.

"I'm really, really sorry about what I did to you before. I did you wrong and I can't apologize enough for it. I was such a shithead to you, Akira-kun."

"Don't call me that."

It was Yamamoto's turn to stutter. "A-Alright then, Fubuki-kun!"

Akira sighed then smirked, his upper lip quivering. "S-So you really did forget who I was up until recently. W-What traumatized me for years was just another day for you."

"It wasn't."

"H-Huh?"

"I remember it like it was yesterday. It was also one of the worst days of my life, getting beaten up by a kohai. How can I possibly forget that?"

Akira had a chuckle out of that one.

Yamamoto then confessed, "I know my apologies sound empty to you. I've been apologizing for my past actions so much that people are starting to not take any of them seriously. I wasn't teasing you, I was teasing Kanemoto, but when he bullied me back, you and I somehow ended up fighting instead. I...!"

The Cherry Boy stopped short when he saw the crossdresser raise his hand up. "Enough. I've heard enough," said Fubuki.

Tomoyuki sighed and nodded. He did his best. He knew that he wasn't about to be forgiven easily.

"I-I know you were teasing Kanemoto-sempai, not me."

Oh. He was angry about that. "Oh, so that's why you punched me on the nose."

"Yup, and you deserved it too, like you said," rejoined Akira, his raven hair glistening gold from the rays of the setting sun.

Yamamoto didn't know where to look, his cheeks getting warmer from the sight of the girly boy. "Sooo, you really had feelings for Kanemoto, huh?"

The crossdresser stared at the Cherry Boy's twiddling hands. "He didn't return my feelings," he mumbled softly.

"I am so sorry..."

"I-It's water under the bridge," said Akira. "S-So stop apologizing, it's getting annoying."

"So you forgive me?" asked Yamamoto hopefully.

The younger Fubuki chuckled. "M-More like I already got my revenge. We're even now, okay?" Akira then asked Tomoyuki, "So I'm Neechan's (Big Sis's) Kagemusha, huh?" while looking at the unseen horizon surrounded by golden buildings.

The afternoon sun acted like a Midas touch to everything its rays touched, turning them gold.

The Cherry Boy backpedaled from that thoughtless comparison. "Please don't take it the wrong way, Fubuki-kun. I didn't mean anything bad about it."

To Tomoyuki's surprise, Akira said, "I-I know. I-I've heard my fill of your stories when we were 'dating'."

Oh yeah. Right.

Tomoyuki told "Aya" everything about his dreams of becoming a movie director back during their "dates", as embarrassing as they were in retrospect. He made movie comparisons about everything as part of their small talk.

Smiling, Yamamoto shared, "Oh, did you know? Had Zatoichi's actor not taken the role of Kagemusha, it would've gone to Nakadai Tatsuya? It blew my mind when I first heard it! Imagine if Katsu Shintaro were fired from production. We would've gotten a totally different Kagemusha film altogether!"

"...And there you go again with your stories, Yamamoto-chan."

Akira then gave Tomoyuki a smiling, pensive look that made the Cherry Boy forget he was talking to a boy instead of a cute, short-haired girl.

Just like old times. This was the "Aya" that Tomoyuki fell for last year, lies and catfishing be damned.

Forgetting himself for a second, Yamamoto asked Fubuki a question he was meaning to ask AU Seiko.

"Let's say that in two parallel dimensions, one Kagemusha was portrayed by Katsu Shintaro and another was portrayed by Nakadai Tetsuya. Which one of them is the realer Kagemusha?"

The younger brother of Aya pursed his lips to a pout before it became an outright frown.

"W-Who cares? They're both fake," he said with a deep voice, shedding his female mask. Or perhaps he put on a male mask over his feminine self? "I- It's like me. E-Even in an alternate dimension, I could never be like Neechan. I could never be a real woman. No matter what version of me we're talking about."

The gazes of Tomoyuki and Akira finally met eye-to-eye as the Cherry Boy said, "Yes, you can never be Fubuki Aya, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Even if you're twins or the same people from parallel universes, you two are different in many ways, and that's okay."

"Y-Yamamoto-se..." Akira looked like was about to add a "sempai" suffix there but caught himself at the last minute.

Yamamoto stood up from the park bench and bowed at his kohai. Akira looked like he was about to bow in return, only for the cheeky brat to give him a kiss on the lips instead.

"AH!" yelped Yamamoto, who jumped back.

Akira chuckled, stuck his tongue out, and winked at the Cherry Boy. "Okay, even though I'm still a little mad, now I forgive you."

The kid then rose, put his hoodie on, and gave a sideward glance at the flabbergasted Tomoyuki while squeezing his earphones into his ears.

"Later."

The Cherry Boy touched his lips, chuckled to himself, and turned around to literally walk into the sunset, only to come face-to-face with the slack-jawed expressions of Aya Fubuki, Yukari Goto, Miku Machida, and Seiko Okamoto.

His Friend Zone Harem (most of them, anyway) had seen that last exchange.

'Goddammit, Fubuki-kun.'

***

A little later, Tomoyuki texted the Seiko from another universe about Akira, asking her about him, only to get this response.

"Fubuki Aya-chin's little brother? No, she has a little sister here. They're practically twins. Is Akira-chin a guy in your own universe, Cherry Boy?"

Whoa. Mind blown.

***

Usually, with Tomoyuki's luck, he'd have rumors flying around Class 2B or the whole Maehara campus about him being gay for Aya Fubuki's little brother, Akira.

And as expected, that was exactly what happened.

Oh well.

In light of the things Tomoyuki did to Akira and Aya, maybe he deserved being caught red-handed with that one last fake kiss to the lips in front of his not-girlfriends.

It was all a misunderstanding of course, but how was he supposed to explain what happened?

His so-called Friend Zone Harem (or rather, Sugata's Actual Harem) had been treating him weirdly ever since they saw that last exchange between him and Akira.

For example, he was greeted by a glaring Aya with, "I WILL NEVER ACCEPT YOU AS A BROTHER-IN-LAW, YAMAMOTO!" that fine Monday morning.

She seemingly forgot that same-sex marriage wasn't legal in Japan (although, in fairness, she might have also probably forgot that Akira was her little brother instead of little sister).

Also, she forgot one other important thing.

"...Shut up, Fubuki. I don't swing that way," he said to her under his breath. "Stop talking! I don't want people getting the wrong idea!"

"C-Congratulations, Ch-Cherry-kun," said a glassy-eyed Yukari, who walked towards her male best friend in a stilted, robotic fashion.

In turn, Tomoyuki cried out, "For the love of Kami-sama, your congratulations don't make me happy at all! Don't congratulate me over weird stuff, Goto!"

Meanwhile, the girls of Class 2C ended up milling out of the door, squealing (or "squeeing", as the Class 2B Rep would say) left and right over the new prospective coupling of Akira and Tomoyuki.

"EEEEE! The Cherry Boy is actually in love with Iincho's little bro?"

"I support your gay love for Fubuki-kun, Cherry Boy!"

"It finally happened. Cherry Boy has been rejected by so many girls he ended up dating a dude!"

"It's so romantic! A true sempai-kohai (upperclassman-underclassman) love affair!"

"Do you think Akira-kun will end up popping Cherry Boy's cherry?"

"KYAAAA!"

They were certainly more supportive over Yamamoto becoming a couple with the younger Fubuki versus him ending up with an actual girl, the idea of which seemed beyond creepy for these... fujoshi (rotten girl, otherwise known as a boy's love or BL fangirl).

'Oh no, not the fujoshi!'

The Cherry Boy turned towards his classmates at Section 2B for refuge from the madness that was Section 2C, only for him to end up face-to- face with a flush-faced and heavily breathing Miku.

Uh-oh.

Tomoyuki made an about-face as soon as he saw the look in Machida's face. He could practically see Valentine heart shapes on her irises.

"AH! Yamamoto-kun! Don't turn away! We need to talk about you and your new romance!"

"Get away from me, Machida! I'm not gay!" he said as he ran away from Machida and the rest of the rotten girls of Maehara.

"But it's not gay to fall in love with onnanoko (girly boys)!"

"SHADDAAAAAP!"

A teary-eyed Tomoyuki ended up bumping into Seiko.

They stared at each other for a little while before the Amazon Queen guffawed and joked, "If you're not gay, then why are you running away from all those girls, Cherry Boy?"

A despairing Yamamoto cried out, "Not you too, Amazon Queen!"

***

A weekend later, about five days removed from Tomoyuki's birthday...

Thankfully, Yamamoto's nightmare from last night where he was labeled as gay for Akira by the entire student body never actually transpired in real life.

If things had escalated that far, then the Cherry Boy might've been rumored to have a male gay version of his "Friend Zone" Harem composed of Sugata, Matsuda, Ishiguro, Kanemoto, and Fubuki.

His female heterosexual Friend Zone Harem still treated him rather weirdly though, but otherwise nothing too over-the-top happened to him. The girls kept that little exchange between him and Akira to themselves.

For example, he could still greet Yukari like before, but whenever he attempted to bring up Akira, she found a way to change the subject.

"Hi, Cherry-kun! Good morning!"

"Oh, hi Goto! About what happened last Friday...!"

"Oh, speaking of Friday, K-On's last episode happened on Friday! Such a beautifully made anime! Season 2 when, amirite? I can't wait to talk to Miku-chan about it, even though she only likes gay stuff... er, not that there's anything wrong with gay stuff! Oh look, there's Aya-chan! HI AYA-CHAN! Er, I gotta go, Cherry-kun!" she said in one breath.

"...."

As for Aya, she was the opposite of what she was in his nightmare. She was kind of worse.

"I hope you make Akira happy."

"N-No offense, Fubuki, but please shut up. I beg of you."

"Aw, you even stutter like him too!"

Ugh. He then cringed when from behind him, Aya whispered, "Break his heart and I'll break your fingers."

He then hissed, "I have no heart of his to break because he likes some other dude! His heart belongs to another!"

Fubuki blinked. "Who else would it be? He kissed you."

"SSSSSSHHH!" he shushed.

No need to start a new rumor about him. He'd rather be the Virgin King than have people think he swung for the other team or however the turn of phrase went. "He was just pranking me! Your li'l bro is about as in-love with me as you or Goto are with me!"

In the background, Yukari choked on her spit.

Aya then raised an eyebrow. "Or as in-love with you as Machida Miku is?"

He shrugged. "Sure, fine. Let's go with that."

In the background, Miku choked on her spit.

Speaking of Miku, the choking Class 2B iincho had her nose in her notebook for some reason when Yamamoto entered Class 2B and literally bumped into her, which blindsided her and made her drop the object of her attention.

Miku was actually hiding a drawing of what suspiciously looked like Tomoyuki and Akira kissing. And naked. And... for lack of a better term... "sword-fighting".

It was a pretty well-done drawing, if unnerving to the Cherry Boy. Like a detailed oil painting of hardcore porn (a description that covered a disturbing amount of medieval paintings).

"...." chorused Miku and Yamamoto.

Apparently, she took the kissing scene between the Cherry Boy and the Lady Boy as well as Yamamoto expected, knowing her. As expected of the Fujoshi of Class 2B.

The Class 2B Rep immediately scrambled for her lewd materials, her face as scarlet as the setting sun or the circle on the Japanese flag that also represented the setting sun.

"Et tu, Machida?" asked Yamamoto, who looked and felt like he was about to melt.

"I'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorry...!" Miku apologized, bowing at the Cherry Boy repeatedly.

He then ran away from his so-called best friend, feeling a sense of déjà vu as he did so.

The teary-eyed Tomoyuki ended up bumping into Seiko.

They stared at each other for a little while before the Amazon Queen guffawed and joked, "If you're not gay, then why are you running away from all those girls, Cherry Boy?"

A despairing Yamamoto cried out, "Not you too, Amazon Queen!" only for him to blink and realize that out of all the scenarios he had in his dream, only the one involving Seiko came true.

Huh. So she really was the girl he knew the most among all the girls he'd ever wooed. Or failed to woo.

Or maybe he knew her AU self like the back of his hand and at times, he ended up guessing what the Seiko in his world would say because of how similar the two versions of her were.

Seiko grinned and laughed in that tomboyish, brusque way she usually did, which made Tomoyuki's heart break a little more.

AU Seiko used to be the closest thing Tomoyuki had to getting the object of his affection in his dimension, only for him to fall in love with her instead.

Now the Seiko of his dimension was the closest thing he had to getting AU Seiko.

However, the gulf between him and this dimension's Amazon Queen was about as insurmountable as the gulf between him and her AU counterpart that didn't even exist in his reality.

That gulf between them even had a name: Kazuhito Sugata.

Speak of the devil, Sugata decided then and there to pop out of nowhere.

"You're calling Cherry Boy gay? That's rich coming from a closeted lesbian like you, Okamato!" chided the blond-haired delinquent, making a pun using Seiko's surname and the word okama (transvestite).

From there, Seiko did a German suplex on her so-called childhood friend.

"OW! You're just proving my point, you stupid man-girl!"

"What's that? You want another suplex, Furyou-kun? Okay then!"

"GAAAH! LEGGO, YOU CRAZY BITCH!" yelped the Yankee. "Why are you doing wrestling moves when you're the Karate Club Captain? OOF!"

So far, Tomoyuki's Sugata Harem Extermination Plan (or whatever it was called, its title was a work in progress) had been rather successful in spite of himself and his social awkwardness.

Yukari Goto no longer pined for Kazuhito and neither did Aya Fubuki. Sure, Akira Fubuki wasn't part of Sugata's Harem, but Yamamoto was glad all his issues with both Fubuki siblings had been ironed out.

As for Student Council President Mana Otonashi, even the normally dense Tomoyuki could see that her interest with Kazuhito was only skin deep at best.

Besides which, he'd been hearing rumors of her possibly having a romance with the 2B heartthrob and Judo Club Captain Kanemoto instead. Maybe.

So at the very least, he didn't need to do much in order to bring Mana's crush with Kazuhito to an end. It was over before it began.

Although it did help out how Yamamoto had cut Sugata's (Actual) Harem down to size, seeing that the manipulative student council president had been using his harem against him.

Also, both Sugata and Machida were getting along splendidly. Soon enough, like in the case of his other childhood friend Megumi Minagata, the Yankee might end up dating Machida instead of Okamoto.

An ultimatum might finally be reached.

But even if Sugata broke Okamoto's heart the same way AU Sugata did AU Okamoto, would that be enough for the Amazon Queen to give the Cherry Boy a chance?

Tomoyuki gulped, unable to voice out the feelings bubbling inside him.

Even this far into his Anti-Harem Plan, any number of things could go wrong.

Machida and Sugata could end up incompatible since Kazuhito broke up with Minagata herself. Okamoto could somehow confess her feelings to the Yankee and then have them reciprocated. Or vice-versa.

The main problem with the Cherry Boy's harebrained plan was that, like everyone in his Friend Zone Harem... Goto, Fubuki, Machida, and Otonashi... the Amazon Queen only saw him as a friend and nothing more.

He had already pushed his luck by hinting to her that he still loved her (or at least another version of her) before "Aya" revealed himself to be "Akira" instead.

Besides which, didn't he already confess to her and got shot down?

Sure, his confession was done under the mistaken impression that Seiko confessed to him first, but that was a typical confession from him to be honest, as evidenced by his failed love confessions with Yukari, Aya, Mana, and Miku.

The two childhood friends from Hiroshima bickered, as usual. Like a married couple. While the Cherry Boy pined for the Amazon Queen in the background.

Has anything really changed in the end? After all this time? After all the progress Tomoyuki had in improving himself and his relationship with his failed not-romances?

Besides which, did he really deserve to woo someone like the Amazon Queen in the first place, whose specs were too high for the lowly likes of him? Much less her AU counterpart that was in love with him (kind of) but was a world away. A whole universe was between him and her.

She was such an athletic prodigy that she could join any sports club in Maehara and end up becoming the team captain there. She shone bright like the sun and Tomoyuki was the Icarus with waxen wings getting too close to her.

Maybe she deserved someone like the delinquent, who was at least a tough guy who knew her since childhood and could handle her strong personality.

"Hey, Earth to Cherry Boy!" greeted Seiko while gripping a blue-faced Kazuhito tight in a headlock, "What should I do with this stupid Yankee? Another German suplex? A crossface submission move? The Figure Four? A Scorpion Death Lock?"

Oh, he knew the answer to this one. "Emerald Flowsion?"

"All right! Emerald Flowsion it is... Wait, what?" The Amazon Queen's jaw dropped.

Regardless, she did the sit-out side slam regardless while never breaking eye contact with Yamamoto the whole while.

"Hey! SERIOUSLY!? H-Hey, Seiko-chan, don't... OOOF!" oofed Sugata.

Actually, it was the finishing move innovated by the late Mitsuharu Misawa, a pro-wrestling legend who recently passed away back in June 13 in both the universes of Tomoyuki and AU Seiko.

He died from what the police suspected was internal decapitation followed by a heart attack during a tag team match.

The other Seiko wouldn't stop crying about it. Misawa was her wrestling idol for the longest time. The Cherry Boy remembered because it was one of the few times when a celebrity death in the AU Amazon Queen's universe coincided with his universe.

"How do you know that move?" asked a bright-eyed Seiko who invaded Tomoyuki's personal space in her excitement. "Are you a pro-wrestling fan too?"

As though he were avoiding the blinding rays of the sun, Yamamoto's eyes darted away and gave a side glance at Okamoto and her huge, bouncing chest. "N-No, of course not. You must've mentioned it to me a while back."

Seiko scratched her chin and grinned. "Yeah, I guess so. Maybe it was during one of our practice sessions for the Sports Fest, right? Maybe."

Tomoyuki gulped and nodded. He winced at the careless smile the Okamoto of this world gave him, reminding him of the smile he always imagined the Okamoto from beyond this world would have shown him whenever she texted or called him.

"Then again, I don't recall ever mentioning Misawa-san's finishing move before. You've must've done your research on EBO again... Haven't you, Cherry Boy?"

Yamamoto cringed, looked even further away, and cleared his throat, remembering how his incomplete information about sports and whatnot made him look lame in front of Seiko.

"Like I told you before, you don't need to force yourself to like what I like, dude," said Okamoto.

Not quite looking her way, Tomoyuki muttered, "No, I'm not interested in pro-wrestling at all, but when you talk about it, MMA, boxing, or any other sport, you make it sound like the most interesting thing in the world."

Agh! What was he saying? He sounded so sappy! He wasn't going to earn brownie points from the Amazon Queen this way!

Afterwards, Yamamoto and the supine Sugata's eyes then met. To the Cherry Boy's surprise, the Yankee nodded to him as if agreeing with what he had said. 'The hell...?'

Huh. So even Okamoto's childhood friend who always acted like he was so unimpressed with her also saw her in the same light as the Cherry Boy did.

Tomoyuki didn't know what to think about that.

Maybe Kazuhito really was in love with Seiko after all. All it took was one more push and they'd be together at last, despite both of them playing hard to get.

And the realization shook Yamamoto to his core.

How could he compete against the Yankee if there was a possibility that he was still in love with the Amazon Queen? Even the AU Amazon Queen could end up with the AU Yankee had he not stayed in Hiroshima with AU Megumi.

He might as well give up. Right?

But Tomoyuki couldn't quit her.

Even if he didn't deserve the love of someone like (AU) Seiko Okamoto, he couldn't give her up.

Their science teacher, Miss Sakuragi, then entered the classroom, which made the students of Class 2B scramble back to their seats.

"...How do you do it, Cherry Boy?" Tomoyuki heard Seiko whisper behind him.

"Do what?" he asked, turning towards her and finally making eye contact.

"You went from not knowing what to say to me to knowing exactly the right thing to say to me every time. What's your secret?"

Before Yamamoto could answer, Okamoto already returned to her seat without waiting for his response.

"Uh... uh... S-STAND UP!" stuttered Miku as she hid her notebook full of boy's love drawings of Tomoyuki and Akira she had commissioned one of her artist friends to draw.

"Good morning, Miss Sakuragi!" everyone greeted.

"Good morning, class," the science teacher said. "Take your seats."

"Sit down!" ordered Machida, who had finally regained enough of her composure to sound more like a proper class representative.

***

During lunch break, Tomoyuki finally had his chance to talk to someone he hadn't had the opportunity to message in a while.

"So y'all finally gave up on that stupid harem plan thingy? It's 'bout time, City Slicker," texted Megumi Minagata, the ex-girlfriend of Kazuhito, to the Cherry Boy.

"Yeah," Yamamoto finally responded after editing his message over and over, with several of his unsent messages reaching the character limits of his phone.

He then explained, "Your ex's harem girls are dropping like flies. But even if he dumps Okamoto, I think I still won't win her heart. She just sees me as a friend."

"That's what y'all get for trying to do shady things to her instead of actually wooing her directly," she texted back. "She don't like that roundabout crap. Be straight with her."

He wanted to retort something back to Megumi, but he got nothing to reply with.

She was right. He had spent too much time falling in love with Seiko's AU version to woo the crush he could actually, physically interact with.

But maybe he was merely spoiled by AU Seiko. She was the Seiko that was already in love with him by default and by no "fault" of his. She wasn't even really in love with him either, but instead with his alternate universe counterpart.

"So? What's your master plan now?" asked Minagata.

He couldn't answer that either. Instead, he replied about something else entirely. Something that had been bothering him since the Sports Fest Volleyball Tournament.

"Okamoto is pretty amazing, isn't she? In our last Sports Fest, she was the MVP of Class 2B. She won the relay even after Machida tripped in the middle of it, and she almost won the volleyball tournament in spite of me being part of the team. Had she not spent her energy on the relay, she would've creamed 2A on her own. Was she always this amazing?"

"Hey, don't change the subject," came Megumi's first message, followed by, "Yep, that sounds exactly like Seiko-chan, all right. You just can't stop her when she gets going. She's stubborn to a fault but that's part of her charm."

"Right? As expected of the Amazon Queen," he wrote, adding, "I can't explain it properly, but anything she does becomes fun for me too, even things I'm normally not interested in. I don't even care about boxing, pro-wrestling, or MMA, but when she talks about those topics, I can't help but get hyped. Know what I mean?"

"Oh, absolutely," Minagata replied, adding, "She has always been an overachiever since I met her. We can barely keep up with her, Kazu-kun and I. It's almost like she's in another dimension, sometimes. A true alpha."

'Tell me about it. Both versions of Seiko-chan are like that,' Tomoyuki thought before texting back, "I want to keep up with her. I want to exist beside her. I want to live life the way she does. To the fullest."

"Hey," began the country bumpkin from Hiroshima, "You're starting to sound like someone I used to know. Watch yourself."

The Cherry Boy didn't heed Minagata's warning.

Instead, he took a picture of a poster he saw on the bulletin board regarding a certain club looking for new members. For future reference.

***

At dismissal time, near the exit gates of Maehara High...

"Cherry-kun! Nice timing! It's time for us to go to the Go Home Club!"

Tomoyuki heard Yukari Goto jokingly greet him, referring to the "club" that students who had no clubs belonged to, such that when it was dismissal time, they tended to "Go Home" instead of attend to club activities.

"You're going straight to work at that convenience store gig, right? Come on, let's go!"

Yamamoto stared at Goto blankly before stating, "Um, I'm actually part of the Literature Club now."

"Say whu...?" asked Yukari, doing a double-take. "Since when!?"

The Cherry Boy scratched the back of his head. "Would you believe since now?"

"You... You... YOU JERK! Every time with you! TAKE THIS! My love, hate, and all of my sorrow!"

"OW! What gives? What'd I do this time? And how'd you do that thing with your twin tails? OW! STOP IT! MY EYE!" screeched Tomoyuki as he cringed from the wrath of Yukari whipping her long twin-tailed ponytails back and forth at his face.

***

So two things happened.

Tomoyuki joined the Literature Club and scored pretty high on the initial test for it, much to the delight of the teacher heading the club, Miss Juri Kitamura. Yes, the same advisor and homeroom teacher of Class 2B.

All newbies had to take an English and Japanese language proficiency test to see how well they'd score and what level of reading they could handle.

He felt a little proud in crushing both tests.

There weren't many things he was actually good at, so being a little good at reading, writing, and language boosted his ego just a tiny bit.

Also, as a side note, Miku Machida was the class president of the Literature Club.

Well, okay then. Sure. This was yet another thing she was good at.

Yamamoto considered going to the Drama Club instead, but he didn't know how to act. At all.

There was also the Anime and Manga Club, but he had no idea how to draw either. Not to mention, it was a total sausage fest of lonely male nerds in that club, with it mostly being composed of sophomores from Class 2D.

Furthermore, there was no such thing as a Movie or Film Club in Maehara High. This was the original reason why the movie fanatic Tomoyuki never bothered joining any clubs. None of them matched up with his deep-down passion and interests.

The only club that usually filmed anything in the school was the Drama Club.

They recorded all of their theater productions on video, but from time to time they tried their hand at making actual films rather than just filming what happened on stage. They made use of the Audio-Visual department of the school every time they did so.

Therefore, it was indeed a shame that he couldn't end up in the Drama Club instead because he had for the longest time loved the art of filmmaking and appreciated the worldwide masterpieces of cinema.

He couldn't exactly write a script for the theater geeks to adapt either, since they usually just went with the classics of Shakespeare or Noh Drama.

Then again, he was kind of glad he had a familiar face with him in the club he ultimately decided to join.

To be honest, Tomoyuki expected Miku to be part of the Anime and Manga Club herself, what with her doing things like making doujinshi manga (self-published comics) that she sells at Comiket (Comic Market, a comic book convention that occurs twice a year).

She was friends with fellow fujoshi that drew the type of lewd doujinshi she wanted to make on the down low (since she couldn't draw herself), buuut that wasn't enough incentive for her to join the "creepy" Anime and Manga Club full of lonely nerds regardless.

Full of thirsty "Cherry Boys" like himself who wanted a girlfriend that was also interested in nerdy things.

Wait. Come to think of it, why were Tomoyuki and Miku best friends again?

Oh right. The moment that he swore never to attempt to woo her again, Machida was content to put him in the Friend Zone.

Like deep in the Friend Zone. Not the Ross and Rachel from "Friends" kind of Friend Zone. More like the Ross and Phoebe kind of Friend Zone.

Also, he wasn't that big of an anime maniac as the people from Class 2D. More like most of his knowledge of anime and manga was from the Class 2B Rep herself.

But at least with her rejection of his romantic advances, she kept her word that they could still be friends. Unlike that bitchy Student Council President Mana Otonashi, who screwed with him every chance she got.

Even though he barely read any worthwhile English, Russian, French, or local Japanese literature, he had a decent grasp of the language and he could use his movie knowledge in the Literature Club instead, particularly the films that were based on books.

Like "Lord of the Rings" by Peter Jackson. Or the "Harry Potter" film series. Or "Of Mice and Men". Or "Lord of The Flies". Or "Hakuchi (The Idiot)" by Akira Kurosawa. Or even "The Ring" horror film series.

These were all based on novels of some sort.

Actually, things went swimmingly well with the Literature Club. Surprisingly well. As if it were a club that fit like a glove in accordance to his needs and interests.

The only thing he was afraid of was him losing his part-time job over his decision to join a club. But he wasn't quite sure about how serious he was about either the Literature Club or his cashier work.

Every day, they were assigned books to read and reports to submit, just like in the case of their school work. And every day, he received praise for his work on every activity, which motivated him further and reminded him of why he joined the club in the first place.

For once, he felt like he was doing something for himself instead of trying desperately to seek approval from others.

Then, one day, after he played the trailer to Ran by Akira Kurosawa on his cellphone for the thousandth time to strengthen his resolve, he made his decision then and there.

It was a trailer to a movie that existed in a parallel world, starring Tatsuya Nakadai: The same actor who played the titular character in Kurosawa's Kagemusha instead of Shintaro Katsu, who was the Kagemusha in Tomoyuki's universe.

He still couldn't help but get misty eyed every time he watched this "lost work" by Kurosawa.

Once he had gathered enough confidence and courage from all his initial club activities, he soon wrote the first few words of his own short story.

It was all thanks to this birthday gift sent to him by the other Seiko.

***

Apparently, Tomoyuki was more motivated about his Literature Club membership than even he realized. Even though he ended up keeping his convenience store clerk job, he found himself scribbling on his notebook or saving notes on this cellphone in between breaks.

It'd been a long time since he felt passionate about something other than trying to get a girlfriend then failing in a spectacular and cringe-worthy fashion.

Like he was living the kind of life Okamoto had been living as this sports goddess oozing with pure talent, potential, and athleticism.

It was even enough for him to ignore whispers from his clubmates about him being a try-hard teacher's pet because he kept acing all of the tests and activities given to them by Miss Kitamura.

All the same, back at their clubroom, Tomoyuki wrote and wrote. He fulfilled more and more of the requirements of the club, such that he was even giving Miku a run for her money when it came to scoring high with their club activities.

"Very good, Yamamoto-kun! Aside from the purple prose and run-on sentences, you're getting the hang out of essay writing. Have you ever written anything else before? Like short stories or something?" asked Miss Kitamura to Tomoyuki after handing him his graded test paper.

Scratching his cheek while his eyes darted away at his buxom teacher, the Cherry Boy gulped and said, "N-No. I haven't... written anything serious or... anything. Just small stories and... terrible-looking doodles for manga."

His homeroom teacher for Class 2B chuckled and winked. "Well, you're a little diamond in the rough, methinks. Maybe you might even have talent for it. Keep at it."

He smiled back at her words of encouragement, bowed, and went back to his seat as Miss Kitamura called on the next club member.

His heart raced from acing yet another activity. It made him feel... things in ways reminiscent to when AU Seiko first confessed her love for him over the phone. Like he felt appreciated and loved for being him.

He never felt more alive in all his life. Was this the kind of rose-tinted life he would've been leading had him and AU Seiko lived in the same universe?

"How's your new story coming along?" whispered Machida after taking a peek at the notebook of barely legible handwriting from Tomoyuki. "Have you finally gotten off of your butt and started writing that romance of yours about lovers from different dimensions?"

"No, that's different! Also, if you want me to show mine, you better show yours too!" teased Yamamoto back.

A blushing Miku covered her face with her own notebook full of scribbles and notes right after impudently sticking her tongue out at her fellow... writer, was it?

Yeah, Tomoyuki was kind of a writer now, wasn't he? Even if he was an amateur at it. 'Ain't that a kick in the head?'

Speaking of which, he shouldn't get ahead of himself. All he was doing was making a rough or even sandpapery draft of a story.

But he did have fun exchanging story ideas and getting feedback from the Class Rep. Even though despite her cheery demeanor, she was stricter than even Miss Kitamura in pointing out the grammatical and continuity errors of his work.

He gave her feedback in kind though for her stories too. Although he didn't really care for any of her boy's love or young adult romance ones.

He also outright turned down reading any stories featuring him and Akira Fubuki. Or Kazuhito Sugata. Or Kanemoto. Or especially Ishiguro or Matsuda. Seriously.

He also thanked his lucky stars that Machida was embarrassed and self-aware enough to not share with him any of her, uh, more mature BL stories and outlines for her erotic doujinshi manga for feedback purposes.

She finally got the hint that he had no interest in discussing which guy should be seme (on top) or uke (at the bottom) in a pairing she made up for original stories or her fan fiction.

To Miku's chagrin, Yamamoto quite frankly skewered all of her literary work and outlines for the club, taking note that they all followed the same tired clichés of misunderstandings, arguments, and forgiveness. Rinse and repeat.

"But that's how all shojo manga (girl comics) stories ended! Don't knock 'em all down for following the same formula!" she'd complain.

"Yeah, sure, but... surely you can come up with some new and interesting twist on the formula, right?" he'd point out. "So that it doesn't come off as derivative."

To her credit, although she hated him for his devilish frankness, she didn't want him to pull his punches on his critiques either, especially since whenever he did offer praise she appreciated it doubly so.

That was also the way he liked his constructive criticism from her. She even quickly corrected many of his run-on sentences, repeated phrases, mixed metaphors, and purple prose as though she were an advanced version of a cellphone autocorrect.

She'd make a great editor for a book or manga publishing house someday.

What frustrated Yamamoto about Machida's otherwise excellent, detailed, and mostly grammatical feedback was when she said his stories were "okay" or "fine" plot-wise but said nothing more about them.

He didn't know how to improve upon "okay" or "fine".

"There's nothing wrong with the story, Yamamoto-kun!" Miku would insist.

"Buuut...?" Tomoyuki would then prod.

"'But' what? 'But' nothing! I just said the plot is fine! Jeez, Cherry Boy," she'd then say with enough exasperation for her to forget how embarrassed she'd normally be when calling Yamamoto the slang term for "male virgin".

Regardless, he was so inspired by the progress of his writing and the high scores he'd been getting from his club activities that he even began writing the first page of a long-form story with a premise that didn't conclude after 4,000 words.

In a few hours, one page became 10 and 10 pages became a chapter. That chapter then turned into 3 chapters. Then 9 chapters.

In just a few days, he was churning out chapters and word counts that would've taken him the better part of three months to produce. Like he'd suddenly been possessed by hypergraphia or the intense desire to write or draw.

As though he were a man possessed. He was on a roll. The scattered puzzle pieces in his life had started to finally falling into place.

***

"Wow. You joined the Literature Club? Good for you," said AU Seiko after updating Tomoyuki about how it went with her love triangle with AU Tomoyuki and AU Miku.

As a by the way, AU Machida did geek out about the prospect of alternate universes after AU Okamoto broached the subject jokingly while discussing the possible origins of the Kagemusha Trailer (from Yamamoto's universe) sent to AU Yamamoto for his birthday.

This distracted the previously upset AU Miku—who in their dimension had a closer relationship to AU Tomoyuki—over not giving the object of their affection a better gift than AU Seiko had.

As a downside, she wouldn't shut up about the Multiverse Theory the whole time they were together.

"The Literature Club is actually the perfect fit for you. You were always the creative type. I mean, judging by the Cherry Boy in my world."

"Thanks a lot, Amazon Queen," said Yamamoto, who couldn't stop smiling after revealing his decision to join a club for once. As though he felt somehow closer to the AU version of his crush by doing so.

Or at least worthier of her love.

It was as though he could see her back as he raced with her in his imagination, like he was about to catch up with her as she shone brightly as always did like the shooting star that she was.

"Come to think of it, our Cherry Boy... my Cherry Boy... the other you... is part of the Film Club."

He chuckled and rolled his eyes. "Of course you'd have a Film Club in your universe. That's how it always works, doesn't it? What we have, you don't have, and vice-versa."

The Amazon Queen giggled in return. "I'm just glad you're seeking your own passions outside of all this love business. But don't get too distracted by your club and forget about wooing the other me or anything."

Thoughtlessly, the Cherry Boy reassured, "The reason I joined the Literature Club is to impress the other you. Kind of."

"...Wait, what? How does that work?" AU Seiko asked in a... questioning(?) tone that took Yamamoto aback.

Did he say something wrong?

***

Back at the cafeteria, while Miku and Tomoyuki ate their bento and discussed their activities at the Literature Club, two familiar figures approached them.

"So the rumors were true. Yamamoto has left the Go Home Club and joined Miku-chan's Literature Club instead," said a smirking Aya from Class 2C.

"I-It's not my club! Jeez!" replied Miku with a sigh before munching on an egg roll. "A-And Yammamoto-kun is doing excellent work at our club, for your information!"

'Gee, I wonder how the news spread so fast,' thought Yamamoto before sparing a glance at Yukari, the girl beside Fubuki who couldn't meet his gaze "for some reason".

Making an apologetic chopping motion with her hand once she mustered the courage to look him in the eye, Goto asked, "Can we join you?" before sitting down anyway and not waiting for a response.

Huh. Even the aloof Aya followed Yukari's lead this time around and sat down with them on the same table. They didn't normally eat around Miku when he was around.

Him joining some club wasn't that newsworthy.

Miku and Tomoyuki sat opposite to each other, so the Class 2C girls ended up sitting together with each of them, with Aya sitting beside Machida and Yukari sitting beside Yamamoto.

"Congratulations, Miku-chan," said Yukari with a wide grin while covering her guffawing mouth, which prompted the Class 2B Rep to shush her with a blush.

"Don't congratulate me! Jeez!" the bespectacled girl pouted at the twin-tailed girl. "Congratulate Yamamoto-kun!"

"Stop bullying her," reprimanded both Aya and Tomoyuki in unison at Yukari in that familiar parental way they'd tell off a misbehaving child, much to their surprise.

Fubuki stared at Yamamoto for a hot minute with a blank expression on her face before turning her attention back to Miku and Yukari.

'Whew. I thought she was going to be mad,' he thought.

"Bullying her? Stop bullying me!" said Goto with a sniffle and wide deer-in-front-of-headlights eyes.

"Now, now! Let's not fight over something trivial!" said Machida, who took on a motherly role as she patted her friend's head.

Once everyone settled down, Yukari asked, "What have you two lovebirds been up to in your little club anyway?" before munching on some convenience store steamed meat buns herself.

With a "playful" kick to Goto's shin from under the table, Miku said, "We're in the middle developing our individual writing style, so I was concerned that Yamamoto-kun couldn't keep up. But it turns out he's a natural at writing. I'm so proud of him."

Tomoyuki nodded. "And I've been recommended several books I haven't read to help me find 'my voice' or something. The club members there are really friendly and nonjudgmental about book choice. Some of them even cover light novels, like Slayers or Suzumiya Haruhi. It's pretty... comfy going there, to be honest."

He then saw the Class 2B Rep giggle, which made him inquire, "What?"

"Oh, nothing. It's just that all our classmates in the club call you the Film Snob," said Machida. "All your book recommendations were made into films one way or another."

The Cherry Boy palmed his face in embarrassment. "Aw man. Fine, I don't read many books that aren't films! Jeez, they're the ones being snobs!"

"Your new nickname is at least less embarrassing than your current one, Cherry-kun," quipped the bouncy Yukari.

Aya took a sip of her bottle of iced tea then asked, "So what does Seiko-chan think about you joining the Literature Club, Yamamoto-kun?"

"Huh? Er... Pardon?" asked Tomoyuki, feigning ignorance. Internally, he groaned.

Ugh, this again. Both AU Seiko and Not-AU Aya should mind their own business it came to how he went about wooing Not-AU Seiko.

What was up with those two anyway? 'It's not like I abandoned wooing Okamoto just because I became a member of a club. It's actually quite the opposite.'

Fubuki smacked her lips, thought for a minute, and said, "Just curious what Seiko-chan thought about you getting a club after all this time. My little brother told me you two have become quite close, so I'm wondering if you had asked her what she feels about it."

Tomoyuki cringed, recognizing what Aya implied even as both Miku and Yukari tilted their heads inquisitively at the both of them. "She's... fine with it. She thought it was cute and the perfect fit for me."

Oh man. And here he thought now that the whole stalking jig was up with Akira crossdressing as Aya, the Elder Fubuki would let up on him a little bit. Be nice to him for once.

But old habits die hard and one of the girls that made him infamous among the girls of Maehara was now putting his feet on the fire once again.

So that tattletale Akira told his big sister about the shenanigans they were up to at the hotel. Man, that sentence sounded so wrong and naughty in his head.

Then again, did the Fubuki brother also confess to the sister about how he was disguising himself as her in order to pull a prank on the Cherry Boy? Maybe he merely came clean to her and all, confessing everything.

Wait. Aya already knew about his crush on Seiko, didn't she?

Well, yes, of course she knew that he had a crush on (Non-AU) Seiko! The Maehara High grapevine was thick and accommodating of various grape pickers.

However, what must've sealed the deal for her was seeing Okamoto act all weird after she played his fake confession to Miku on her phone.

He knew better than to be presumptuous of the Amazon Queen's intentions, but for all intents and purposes, he interpreted the way she acted as... jealousy. Or maybe he hoped it was jealousy on her part.

Miku then asked Aya, "Oh really? What happened between Yamamoto-kun and Seiko-chan?"

A cold sweat dripped from the nape of Yamamoto's head as Fubuki's stare traveled back and forth from him to Machida. She then said with a cattish grin, "That's a secret."

The clueless Machida then told Tomoyuki, "But still, you and Aya-chan are closer together now than before, right? I'm so happy for you two," without a hint of jealousy, irony, or sarcasm from her sweet voice.

He hoped this clued Yukari in on how the bespectacled Class Rep really felt about him romantically.

***

To Be Continued...

It just occurred to me that Tomoyuki Yamamoto is kind of like the infamous Christian Weston Chandler or Chris-chan, complete with his "Sweethearts" or his version of the "Friend Zone Harem".

Also, his dream of making his Sonichu webcomic a serious thing even though it was just him plagiarizing existing content and lazily fusing them together is also reminiscent of Tomoyuki's obsession with Kurosawa's Kagemusha.

How about that?

Farewell, Abdiel

#keit-ai #tomoyuki x seiko #nature of love #aya fubuki #akira fubuki #trap #friend zone harem #friend zone #keit愛