"Um, good morning, Eriri."
Seeing Eriri come out of the room, Shirai Mio wore a smile that was awkward yet still polite.
She'd originally meant to go wake Eriri up, but who could have guessed that Eriri would not only already be awake, but in the middle of changing her panties.
For Shirai Mio, this sort of thing was hardly a rare experience—it was just that she'd seldom been walked in on. If it had been her getting caught instead, she'd probably have felt embarrassed too.
"G-good morning."
Much as Eriri wanted to keep her cool just then, the flush on her face had already given away exactly how she was feeling.
If she hadn't gone through it herself, she'd never have imagined such a coincidence could happen to her.
But there was no helping it—she was the one who'd had an indescribable dream the night before, and one of the leads in that dream had been none other than Shirai Mio.
It was only a dream, yet she still had this guilty feeling.
Otherwise, how could she possibly manage to act like nothing at all had happened?
Putting her scattered thoughts away, Eriri said as she headed downstairs, "I thought you'd already gone home."
"Your mom said she had something to take care of and had to go out, and probably won't be back until the afternoon, so I figured I'd stay here until then—and make you lunch while I'm at it."
"That's pretty thoughtful of you."
"Naturally." When it came to looking after people, Shirai Mio had plenty of experience.
It was all thanks to the training Shiina Mashiro had put her through.
Just as Eriri was about to eat breakfast, the doorbell suddenly rang.
Shirai Mio walked over to the door and glanced at the monitor, only to find that the person ringing the bell was Aki Tomoya.
What was he doing coming to see Eriri at a time like this?
Though she didn't particularly want to see him, this was Eriri's home after all, so Shirai Mio turned her head and called out to Eriri, "The person outside is Aki-kun. Should I open the door?"
"Go ahead." At Shirai Mio's words, a flicker of confusion crossed Eriri's eyes as well.
From what she knew of Aki Tomoya, whenever he came to see her, it was invariably because he had some favor to ask, or because there was something he wanted to recommend to her.
Apart from that, Aki Tomoya basically never sought her out on his own; it was usually her going to find him.
Now, though, because of Shirai Mio, she felt as if it had been quite a while since she'd last gone to see Aki Tomoya.
Of course, being at the same school, they still ran into each other fairly often, and when no classmates were around they'd chat a bit—but that was as far as it went.
Only after hearing Eriri did Shirai Mio open the door.
The excited Aki Tomoya was about to say something the moment the door opened, only to find that the person who'd opened it was Shirai Mio.
The instant he saw Shirai Mio, his smile froze on his face.
Why was Shirai Mio inside Eriri's home?
Shirai Mio was certainly very pretty, but Aki Tomoya wasn't interested in her. First, Shirai Mio wasn't a 2D character; second, in his eyes Shirai Mio was a super riajuu, not the same kind of person as him at all.
And for some reason, he could always sense a faint trace of malice coming off of Shirai Mio.
Sometimes, in front of her, he could even feel a kind of pressure.
"Aki-kun's here to see Eriri, right? She just got up and she's eating breakfast, so I'll take you over."
"Ah, mm, sorry for the trouble."
Aki Tomoya blinked. Why did it feel like Shirai Mio was giving off the air of the lady of the house?
Dispelling that strange sense of déjà vu, Aki Tomoya followed along behind Shirai Mio and stepped into Eriri's home.
Seeing Aki Tomoya, Eriri gave a mild greeting. "Morning, Tomoya."
"G-good morning."
He was talking to his own childhood friend, but perhaps because Shirai Mio was there beside her, he kept feeling a bit of pressure—so much that his words didn't even come out smoothly.
"So, is there something you came to see me about?" Eriri asked, a little curious.
"You could say so. This time I found a really good novel—this one right here!"
Looking at the novel Aki Tomoya set down on the table, Eriri instinctively glanced at Shirai Mio, because that novel was none other than Honkai—the one Shirai Mio had written.
"I've already read this one. It really is pretty good."
Even though Eriri didn't much like praising Shirai Mio to her face—because the moment you praised this white-haired little bitch, she'd push her luck, something Eriri had experienced more than enough of—she still didn't want to deliberately badmouth Shirai Mio in front of Aki Tomoya. That sort of thing was fine to say when it was just the two of them alone.
"You've already read it?" Aki Tomoya looked a little surprised.
"Mm. I picked it up the day it went on sale. Your recommendation's come way too late."
"Can't be helped. Only after I've finished reading something can I decide whether it's worth recommending. I've read this book back to front several times—I wonder when Volume 2 will come out."
"Ah, that one. That's entirely up to the author."
Once again Shirai Mio felt Eriri's gaze on her, and then, while Aki Tomoya wasn't paying attention, she made a cute little face right at Eriri.
"Oh, and did you read the latest chapter of White Album?"
"I did. If you want my thoughts on it, though, you might have to wait a while—I've been busy with other things lately."
Come to think of it, she really did seem to pay a lot of attention to anything connected to Shirai Mio—just like how she made sure to buy and read every new installment of White Album the moment it dropped.
"That's fine, as long as you've read it. I just think it'd be a real shame not to let more people see such an excellent work."
Aki Tomoya had originally meant to discuss Eriri's new work with her too, but taking into account that Shirai Mio was there, he thought better of it.
He'd save it for another time.
"I've got a part-time shift, so I'll get going first."
"Mm."
Leaving Eriri's home, Aki Tomoya hopped on his bike and rode off toward his part-time job.
Just then, something suddenly occurred to him: the pen name Shirai Mio had used when she sold a doujinshi at Comiket a while back seemed to have been Shiro-ke.
And the author of Honkai was also Shiro-ke—could there be some connection between the two?
Come to think of it, when he'd just now been recommending that novel to Eriri, Eriri's first reaction had seemed to be to look over at Shirai Mio.
If they really were one and the same person, then Shirai Mio was just too incredible—able to draw and to write novels, and a super riajuu on top of it.
Even Aki Tomoya, who had zero interest in the 3D world, felt a small twinge of defeat right then.
Shirai Mio was a girl—so why on earth was he feeling defeated?
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