Shan's Inner World
"You made those two people, right?"
"Mm-hmm, look, aren't I super amazing?"
Angela's hand, which was in the middle of writing, stopped indifferently upon seeing this sentence.
"Mm-hmm, yes. But why, even though they were both guided by you, did such vastly different situations arise?"
"Well, perhaps it has to do with their inner willpower."
"Just like hope amidst despair, and vice versa."
"Despair constantly growing within hope."
Angela wrote only three words.
"Don't understand."
"Oh my, actually, it's nothing much. I just had a chat with them, that's all."
Angela looked at the two books belonging to Shan and Walter while writing in her diary.
Just as she finished a paragraph and was about to open Shan's book to take a look, she found that she couldn't open it.
Angela looked at this unusual book and the chaotic power within it, then said to Carmen,
"What did you do now?"
"Ah, nothing. I'm quite idle right now."
"His book won't open."
"Let me see."
Carmen floated to Angela's side and leaned against her, though it seemed she didn't fully lean on her. She looked at that book.
The book emitted a grayish light, different from the normal Seed of Light.
Carmen reached out to touch it, and she heard Shan's inner monologue.
...
A short while later, Carmen notified Angela.
"Angela, dear, well, you might need to operate something."
"What's wrong?"
"I may have gone a bit too far."
Hearing these words from her, Angela slowly typed out three question marks.
???
"What do you mean? I don't understand."
"He is currently in a state of inner self-closure."
"Just tell me what to do. I think they would be very happy to help."
"It's simple, suppress him..."
Roland was chatting with Ayou on the side.
"Thinking about Distortions just makes my blood boil."
"What's wrong with you? Your expression is so ugly, like you're constipated."
"I've told you before that I had a virtuous wife, remember? And similarly, I should have mentioned the Pianist incident during the receptions, right? I also told you back then that my wife died because of the Pianist. At that time..."
"At that time, you watched your beloved wife turn into blood-red musical notes right in front of you, yet you were powerless, right?"
"Yes, that feeling of powerlessness is deeply engraved in my heart and won't go away, which is why I keep searching for the source of Distortions, for revenge."
"I can't really say much about that. Why don't you go grab a couple of drinks with Net?"
"Let's go."
"You cheered up suddenly."
"There's nothing that makes one feel as pleasant as having a drink."
Just as the two of them were about to leave the main hall to head to the Art Floor,
They were called back by Angela again.
"Come back, you need to fight Shan again."
"Fine, we'll go in a bit."
"Go do what?"
Roland recalled the scene from last time.
"Uh, nothing, nothing. By the way, what do you mean by 'fight Shan again'? What does that mean?"
"I'll explain the details when there's time. For now, just treat him as an Abnormality and suppress him again."
"He isn't..."
"It's different now. It is currently in a state of emotional closure. Take Mars and Lulu with you."
"That might be helpful for you, along with Julia and Isadora."
"Fine, then we might as well bring Walter along, since we're fighting him again anyway."
Ayou picked up Walter's book and snapped his fingers.
The moment Walter's body materialized, he started laughing out loud.
"Haha, I'm resurrected. Wait, no, where is this?"
"I'll explain in a bit, it's time to fight."
"WTF?"
Before he could even finish the curse, Walter was pulled into the Book World by Ayou.
Upon entering the Book World, Roland fell from the ceiling. What a novel way to appear. He crashed to the ground, and after he recovered,
"Hmm? It doesn't hurt at all?"
When he saw who was underneath him, he understood.
Ayou was still lying on the ground, propping up his head, looking helplessly at Roland.
"Ah, sorry, I'll get off immediately."
Just as Roland was getting off Ayou's body,
Several more people fell from the sky, one after another.
Mars, Lulu, Julia, Isadora, Walter, and so on.
Ayou was now so crushed he couldn't breathe. He could only abruptly stick out one finger.
"Don't stop!"
(Wrong show.)
"This way of appearing is certainly different from a normal Abnormality."
Ayou slowly crawled out and remarked.
After the few of them got organized, they looked at the scene in front of them.
Mars and Lulu looked at the familiar scene.
"Where is this? Is it the Office?"
"Aren't we supposed to suppress something? Where is Senior Shan?"
"We need to find him and defeat him again."
Lulu looked at the familiar scene, and then, for some reason, really wanted to open the refrigerator to take a look.
When she walked up to the refrigerator and opened the door, what caught her eyes was that cake. Exactly the same.
"No. This isn't quite right. How can there be so many cakes?"
The refrigerator was packed full of cakes.
Mars walked up behind Lulu and said to her,
"Want to eat one?"
"Yes, wait, no. Hold on, let's find Senior Shan first."
Ayou watched the two of them looking at the many cakes in front of the refrigerator and explained to them,
This is his inner world; things here change according to his thoughts.
At this moment, Walter no longer had his greatsword or his dark blue coat; he was now wearing the ordinary clothes of a Section Chief.
"Why call me?"
Roland snuck up behind Walter and patted him on the shoulder.
"Because you are a book now, and this is your job."
"I am still alive, aren't I?"
"No, you are dead. Some people are alive, but they are already dead."
"Son of a bitch."
Isadora looked out the window and said to Lulu and Mars,
"Look out the window. What is that?"
"It's abnormally pitch black outside; only here is there light."
Everyone looked out the window.
Then, Ayou pushed open the door of the Office. After pushing the door open, there was endless darkness.
In the midst of the darkness, there was a glimmer of light. The source of the light was just a dim streetlamp.
Roland looked at the streetlamp outside, lost in thought.
Instead, Ayou thought to himself,
"Ah, a streetlamp. Let me try slashing it."
Ayou walked into the darkness, came before the streetlamp, and swung his quill to slash at it.
It made a *bang* sound.
His arm went numb from the shock.
"Ahem, this streetlamp looks like a streetlamp, hits like a streetlamp, and really feels like a streetlamp."
"So it's just a streetlamp."
The others looked at his strange behavior, baffled.
Roland watched his behavior and explained to the others,
"...No need to be surprised, it's normal. His chuunibyou is acting up again."