You really cannot judge a person by their appearance, and you certainly cannot judge a light novel by its title.
Yukino's expression stiffened for only a fleeting moment before she pulled herself together and focused her full attention on the plot unfolding before her.
The protagonist of the story was a high school boy named Jinta Yadomi, often called Jintan. He was a social dropout who spent his days skipping school and wasting his life away on video games.
He was a complete failure by every social standard, yet his life took a sudden turn on a day like any other when he encountered the spirit of his childhood friend, Meiko Honma, who had died years ago.
The first chapter of the novel dedicated a significant amount of space to establishing the domestic environments of both Jinta and Meiko.
It portrayed Jinta's family as being completely at their wit's end with him, depicting his listless worldview and his refusal to take responsibility for anything in his life.
Reading it made Yukino's blood boil with frustration.
On the other hand, the depiction of Meiko, or Menma, was heart-wrenchingly adorable. She was portrayed as a petite, innocent girl in a white dress who understood very little about the world, yet she possessed a knack for saying exactly what was needed to warm a reader's heart.
Although she had been dead for several years, she discovered upon returning home that her family was still deeply mired in the grief of her passing. While her father remained stoic and her younger brother's sorrow had begun to fade into a dull ache, it was clear that her mother had never truly moved on. At every single meal, the mother would still prepare a bowl of rice and set aside portions of food for her deceased daughter.
"Can you please stop doing that? You set a place for her at every meal, and I can't stand looking at it. Dead people don't eat," her younger brother muttered, never looking up from his phone.
"Don't speak like that. Your sister was always so airheaded that she might not even realize she's dead yet. We have to feed her," the mother replied, her eyes welling with tears as she stared at the photograph of the girl.
"I actually do know," Menma said as she stood right in the middle of her family. Her face wore a smile, but her voice was thick with suppressed sobs. "I know that I'm already dead."
The father continued reading his newspaper, the brother kept eating, and the mother gazed at the memorial photo to find some connection to the past. Their family member was right there in the room with them, yet they could not see her. No one could hear the words she spoke. She stood directly in front of them, but she was completely unable to communicate with those she loved most.
In the entire world, the only person who could see her and hear her voice was the protagonist, Jinta.
As Yukino reached this point, she felt a sudden, sharp tightness in her chest.
People often claimed that the early chapters of AnoHana were a slow burn, but that did not mean the initial plot lacked impact. While much of the early narrative was dedicated to laying the groundwork and building an atmosphere to slowly stir the reader's emotions, the story had a way of catching people off guard. A single line of dialogue or a brief scene could utterly shatter a reader's defenses in less than ten seconds.
Naturally, most of these emotional highlights centered on the heroine. The characterization of the female lead in this work was nothing short of flawless.
However, she realized why many people found the beginning of the story somewhat lacking in magnetism.
The issue was not the plot itself, but rather the protagonist. The original character design for the male lead was almost too mundane.
He lacked any special powers, he possessed no extraordinary charisma, and he showed no signs of brilliant intellect. He was simply an ordinary person. He had been a cheerful boy in his youth, but the trauma of his friend's death had turned him into a shut-in who had wasted his life from elementary school through high school.
The only thing that made him special in the context of this story was the fact that the heroine loved him and that he was the only one who could perceive her ghost. Beyond that, there was nothing.
When people read the story, they would find the heroine charming and the childhood friends relatable, but the protagonist lacked any real opportunity to shine early on. He was often in a subordinate position, even being looked down upon by his old friends. For readers trying to immerse themselves in the protagonist's perspective, the experience could feel quite tedious.
Yukino was currently navigating this exact feeling. She liked the heroine more with every page she turned. As she read, she couldn't help but marvel at how Haruto could depict a female character with such depth. Menma was sweet, sensible, and deeply tragic.
But as for the protagonist, To be honest, Yukino couldn't find any specific faults with him, but she couldn't help but feel that he didn't deserve the heroine's devotion. It felt like such a waste.
Once she finished the first three chapters, Yukino looked up at the ceiling of her apartment and took a moment to reflect. She couldn't find any flaws in the writing.
Jinta's lack of brilliance was offset by the fact that his actions after meeting Menma weren't actually annoying. Menma herself was incredibly captivating, and the conflict between Jinta and his childhood friends felt grounded in reality.
"It just lacks a bit of a hook, Haruto," Yukino said after a pause, turning her gaze toward him. "The pacing is too slow. I've finished three chapters and I still don't even know what the main goal of this novel is."
It felt like a romance, but not entirely. It touched on friendship, but it hadn't delved deep enough into that theme yet. She had no idea why Menma appeared only to Jinta or what her goal actually was. As a reader, Yukino was completely in the dark.
"I know," Haruto replied. He had anticipated this reaction. He felt the same way himself, so it was only natural that a discerning editor like Yukino would notice it too. "But that is simply the rhythm of this story. It's a very slow burn."
When Haruto spoke, both Yukino and Reina turned to look at him.
"A very slow burn?" Yukino looked confused. "We are trying to compete for a serialization slot in Crimson Maple, which is the top magazine in the region. If you knew it was a slow burn, why would you write it this way?"
A serialized magazine was not a place where a creator could simply indulge themselves.
The light novel industry was cutthroat.
The reason an editorial department decided the fate of a series based on the very first chapter was because readers had very little patience.
It wasn't that a slow burn was impossible, but a novel first had to survive the editorial meeting. If the story was too slow and failed to perform well immediately after serialization, it might be canceled before the plot even had a chance to reach its climax. Yukino couldn't understand how Haruto could make such a fundamental mistake.
"Because it would be such a pity otherwise," Haruto said. He didn't know the full details of the story's later success in his previous world, but he knew that fans of the medium were picky everywhere.
If this work could maintain such high ratings despite a slow start, the quality of the later content had to be exceptional.
"What do you mean by that?" Yukino asked.
"I mean that I believe this work surpasses Blue Spring Ride in every conceivable way. If I gave up on it just because the beginning is slow, it would remain buried in my memory forever. That would be a tragedy," Haruto said with a smile.
Both Yukino and Reina perked up at those words. Reina, in particular, stared at the manuscript in Yukino's hands as if it were a formidable enemy.
Was he really that confident?
"It's not up to you to decide that," Yukino countered. "If creators could accurately judge their own work, we wouldn't have movies that lose millions of dollars at the box office. Whether this novel is better than Blue Spring Ride isn't for you or me to decide. Only the readers can make that judgment."
She pointed out that many famous authors had written total flops after they became successful. They must have been confident when they wrote them, otherwise they wouldn't have published them at all. It was always the market and the readers who eventually put them in their place.
"I understand your point. What I'm trying to say is that I believe this work will outperform Blue Spring Ride if it gets the chance to be serialized. Of course, that is just my personal opinion," Haruto said calmly.
He knew he had to project confidence. If the author didn't believe in the work, no one else would. He didn't want Yukino to think he was just wasting her time with a half-hearted effort.
"I think there's no point in agonizing over this right now," Reina suddenly interrupted. "I haven't read the manuscript, so I can't judge the story, but the editorial meeting for The Ascent of New Gods selection is coming up. You don't have enough time to ask Haruto for a completely different story."
She looked at Yukino and continued. "If you don't submit this, his chances of getting a slot are zero. If you do submit it, the chance is at least higher than zero."
Yukino immediately understood.
Unless she was prepared to let Haruto sit out this round of competition, she had only one choice. She had to submit the manuscript.
Late that night, Haruto and Reina walked out of the apartment complex together. The night breeze was a bit chilly. Haruto noticed Reina crossing her arms slightly against the cold and considered offering her his jacket, but he hesitated, knowing her prickly personality.
Instead, he stepped forward a few paces to block the wind for her.
"Why did you speak up for me back there? If my work wasn't at the meeting, you'd have one less person to compete with," Haruto asked.
As the wind blew, the hem of Reina's school skirt fluttered and her hair turned into a chaotic mess. Her pale, beautiful face remained unmoved by the cold as she looked him in the eye.
"My goal is to defeat you fairly with my new work, Star Sea, not to win by default. Once your novel is submitted, the competition begins. If my work is chosen and yours is rejected because it's too slow, then I win. Even if we both get serialized, if your popularity flags because of the slow start while mine stays strong, I still win."
She paused and then added, "Besides, Yukino would have figured that out eventually even if I hadn't said anything."
"You really are obsessed with winning and losing," Haruto remarked.
"I only care about competing with people and things that interest me. I'm not obsessed with everyone," she said, waving down an approaching taxi.
"But once I win this round, I'll be able to let go of this little rivalry."
Before she got into the car, she turned back to look at him. Her profile was sharp and elegant, and her eyes were filled with an intense seriousness.
"The people I've overtaken in the past have never managed to catch up to me again. Once you become my subordinate, you stay my subordinate for life."
With that confident declaration, she slipped into the taxi and drove away. Haruto watched the car disappear into the distance. For some reason, he felt a strange sense of amusement and joy.
"She really is an interesting person," he whispered to himself.
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