Chapter 95: Doomed To Get Yandere Trope’d?
Sakamoto Ken’s fingertip hovered over the mobile phone screen, remaining still for a long time.
【Judge: Hoshihara Ai】
He even zoomed in on the page, carefully confirming those three words. No mistake.
In the previous life, he had not even heard of this call for submissions event, let alone participated, so naturally he did not know who the judges were.
However, Hoshihara Ai did publish a science fiction novel with decent sales volume during university, won awards, and joined SFW, making her a formal science fiction writer.
From this perspective, she indeed could have been invited to serve as a judge, especially since she works at a university, and it would be suitable for her to handle the selection for the Campus Star track.
But after publishing her debut work back then, she completely devoted herself to academics and research, never stepping into the creative field of literature again.
So how could she now come to be a judge for a manga call for submissions?
Sakamoto Ken knew Hoshihara Ai; she was particularly devoted only to a few things she cared about, and regarded everything else as trivial matters that distracted her energy.
Logically, she would not participate in this kind of call for submissions selection event.
It seems that in this round, his meeting with Hoshihara Ai begins with《Look Back》?
Sakamoto Ken analyzed the present situation.
The development of things seemed to be heading in a direction familiar to him, with a sense of déjà vu everywhere, yet everything was different.
Reuniting with Natsume Mio was something he had long anticipated, after all, he had known her for a long time.
This time, she possessed part of the memories from the previous life and coming to find him was completely within Sakamoto Ken’s expectations.
The reunion with Mikazuki Haruna had more unexpected elements.
This guy copied his work from the previous life and happened to be serializing on JUMP+ at the same time as him.
Haruna must have seen the author of《Chainsaw Man》, the three words Sakamoto Ken, which led to their meeting in the live broadcast room later.
And now, Hoshihara Ai had appeared too.
Clearly, after his rebirth, he had already made so many changes.
But the world line seemed to have its own will, and no matter what, it still made them appear one after another in his life.
It had even happened much earlier than in the previous life.
However, Sakamoto Ken thought again that in this round, he had actually already met Hoshihara Ai once.
That afternoon, he had only planned to nap for a moment, but entered an incredibly realistic lucid dream.
The scene of the dream was Hoshihara Ai’s apartment.
That sensation was very similar to when he had dreamed of Mikazuki Haruna before, but also somewhat different.
The dream with Haruna was intense but brief; the second time had just begun when it felt like an online game suddenly disconnecting, his vision went black, and he woke up.
But the dream with Hoshihara Ai lasted an entire afternoon.
From the bedroom to the living room, then to the balcony, every detail was exceptionally real.
When he woke up, it was already dusk outside the window.
In that dream, although it was similarly passionate, he always felt that Hoshihara Ai was thinking about something.
Hoshihara Ai said some strange things, like “are we destined to be entangled with each other.”
The “entanglement” she mentioned probably was not the emotional entanglement between man and woman, right? She was not the type to chatter about romance.
Hoshihara Ai even brought up the topic that he was a scumbag in the previous life.
At the time, Sakamoto Ken thought, since it was just a dream, it did not matter if he said it, and he almost blurted out the names of Natsume Mio and Mikazuki Haruna.
But at the last moment, he changed his words.
Thinking about it now, Sakamoto Ken felt a bit scared.
He had a strong intuition that if he had really said those two names back then, it would probably trigger some unforeseeable consequences…
The current situation was that Hoshihara Ai had become a judge for the call for submissions event and given him a perfect score; her written comments were quite objective.
Whether coincidence or deliberate, it showed that the entire world line had undergone huge changes.
Based on Sakamoto Ken’s understanding of these three women.
In the previous life, Mikazuki Haruna was quite willful, Natsume Mio a bit emotional; these traits were tricky, but their emotions were outwardly expressed.
With the memories of the previous life and a thorough understanding of their personalities, it was not too difficult to handle them.
But Hoshihara Ai was too calm.
She did not have strong emotional desires for him like the other two.
What Mio and Haruna wanted was nothing more than companionship, favoritism, and satisfying their increasingly hard-to-fill needs.
Just a matter of effort.
Hoshihara Ai was different.
Although she also craved it, that kind of thing was clearly ranked much lower in her heart.
Her being with him was a very rational decision.
In the previous life, the sense of crisis Sakamoto Ken felt from her was the lowest.
But in this round, this woman with unknown purpose and actions gave Sakamoto Ken the strongest sense of crisis.
It could not really be some Steins;Gate choice, could it…
Sakamoto Ken had watched that work called《Steins;Gate》.
Recently, there was news that the game new work《Steins;Gate 0》 on the β world line was about to start production, and would have a simultaneous animation adaptation.
In《Steins;Gate》, there was a world line convergence theory.
Simply put, there exist countless parallel realities, and every minor change leads to a new world line.
Large numbers of world lines are categorized into several major convergence ranges; within the same convergence range, no matter how one struggles or changes the process, certain major「results」 are destined to occur.
Could this destined「result」 possibly be「destined to meet them」?
It could not be「destined to be yandere trope」, could it??
……
Hoshihara Ai finished drinking the liquid in her wine glass, and the ice cube made a crisp clinking sound at the bottom of the glass.
She stood up, intending to pour another glass.
At this moment, the mobile phone screen on the table lit up with a message notification.
It was from Suzuki Haruka, the graduate student she supervised.
Suzuki Haruka:「Sensei, we have debugged the equipment in the laboratory at Keio University Hiyoshi Campus, and it can be formally used next week.」
Hoshihara Ai immediately set down the wine glass in her hand and quickly replied on her mobile phone.
Hoshihara Ai:「Are you still in the laboratory?」
Suzuki Haruka:「Yeah, Senior Yui, me, and Anna, we’re all here.」
Hoshihara Ai:「Wait a moment, I’m coming right over!」
Suzuki Haruka:「Eh? Sensei, are we starting tonight?」
Hoshihara Ai:「Wait for me to come over, you can go back first; I can handle it alone in the laboratory.」
She quickly walked into the dressing room, pulled open a drawer, and casually took out a set of pure cotton white underwear to put on.
Then she put on a loose and comfortable set of casual clothes and pants.
Coming to the entrance, she casually picked up the car key from the cabinet by the door.
Her hand paused slightly, remembering that she had drunk alcohol earlier.
Hoshihara Ai put the key back, took out her mobile phone, and called a taxi.
Going downstairs, the taxi soon arrived at the apartment doorway.
Destination: Keio University Hiyoshi Campus. Depart.
