Inside Shiori's fan group, the atmosphere was electric.
[Bros, are we excited or what?]
[Hahaha, I have been a fan of Shiori for a year now, and I am finally going to see what she looks like.]
[When you follow an author, you really need to know their face. Otherwise, it does not feel real. It just feels like you are a fan of a pen name.]
[Aside from Airi and Shiori Takahashi, the identities of all the top ten Ascent of New Gods are public knowledge. Even with so many people trying to dig up their info, they found nothing. I have to say, Crimson Maple Literature did an incredible job with the security.]
[Is she a hundred-kilo powerhouse or a forty-five-kilo moe girl? Tonight is the final showdown between the 'Big Sister' faction and the 'Cute Girl' faction of our fan club. After tonight, one side is going to be wailing in despair.]
[Honestly, if she were a true beauty, she probably would not have been so secretive. She is likely just average-looking, so everyone should prepare themselves mentally.]
[Haha, I do not care what Shiori-sensei looks like. I will love her for life.]
[Get out of here! A girl with a beautiful heart and an interesting soul like Shiori-sensei is way out of your league. She belongs to me.]
The banter in the group chat grew increasingly ridiculous as fans began to spam memes and jokes.
Meanwhile, compared to the fans from other prefectures, the discussion on the Minamijo local light novel forums was even more intense. Even at Minamijo Third High School, the heated debate over the photo of Reina Fujimoto and Haruto traveling together had come to a temporary halt. Everyone was glued to their television sets, waiting for the identities of their school's two legendary authors to be revealed.
At the awards ceremony venue in Tokyo, fans of the Ascent of New Gods magazine who had traveled from all over Japan filled every seat. Backstage, Haruto and Reina had both changed into formal attire.
Haruto wore a sharp black suit. The stylist had spent a considerable amount of time perfecting his hair before finishing the look with a pair of rimless glasses. He radiated the aura of a refined, intellectual handsome youth.
As for Reina, she was dressed in a pale blue evening gown with her hair swept up into an elegant bun. Her collarbone and slender arms were exposed to the air. She looked at her reflection, feeling a bit out of place in such fancy clothing, but she managed to maintain her composure.
The staff members working around Reina could not stop stealing glances at her, even after her makeup was finished. While beautiful girls were not rare in the industry, finding one with such a distinct and refined presence was a miracle.
At exactly 7:00 PM, the viewership for Tokyo TV4 surged to a significant high.
The live broadcast of the Ascent of New Gods awards ceremony officially began. The seven major publishing houses had spared no expense for this joint event.
The stage was awash in neon lights, and the ceremony opened with a spectacular indoor firework display. The massive bursts of light bloomed across the ceiling, leaving a fleeting but permanent impression on the thousands in attendance and the millions watching at home.
Yukino sat in the staff section watching the spectacle while Haruto and Reina looked up at the ceiling from the wings of the stage. All three of them felt a sense of surreal detachment.
Only those directly involved could truly feel the weight of the moment. Just a year ago, they were nobodies in the industry, yet here they were, invited to the center of the world.
A pair of hosts, a man and a woman, stepped onto the stage. They went through a long series of pleasantries before introducing the tenth-place winner: a talented author from the Osaka region. A large screen behind them displayed the data the novel had achieved alongside the author's personal information. Soon, the author hurried onto the stage from the staff tunnel.
"Hello everyone, I am..."
After the host finished the introduction, each of the top ten authors was given ten minutes of floor time to speak. Since this was a live nationwide broadcast, the opportunity to build a brand and let fans see the face behind the pen name was invaluable.
Once the earlier winners finished their speeches, the hosts returned to the center of the stage. This time, their expressions shifted. Information about the previous winners was easily found online, but the next author was a complete enigma.
"Her debut work, Yesterday's Starlight, was serialized through Crimson Maple Literature in Minamijo. As a total newcomer, she managed to climb all the way to the number two spot in popularity for that magazine," the host announced.
"Her latest work, Fate of the Rainbow, has been praised by fans for its brilliant and intricate foreshadowing, earning her the ninth spot in the rankings. Please join us in welcoming the high school girl from Minamijo, a third-year student from Class 7 at Third High School… Reina! Fujimoto!"
As the host shouted her name, a row of fountain fireworks erupted along the edge of the stage. The crowd went wild, with fans cheering at the top of their lungs. The Minamijo fans were ecstatic, but back home, the students of Third High School and the five classmates who had traveled to Tokyo felt their brains go completely numb.
Reina Fujimoto? Had they heard that right? Was it really Reina? It had to be someone with the same name, right? But as the stage elevator rose, a girl in a pale blue gown appeared. Her skin was fair, her expression was calm and slightly cold, and her features were exquisitely beautiful.
At that exact moment, the broadcast viewership saw a noticeable spike in its ratings graph.
The class group chats, club organizations, and fan circles of Minamijo Third High School instantly descended into chaos.
"It really is Reina... Reina Fujimoto?"
Even with her stage makeup, there was no way her schoolmates could fail to recognize her.
"My god, so she went to Tokyo for this?"
"Wait, so Airi is actually Reina Fujimoto?"
Even after the initial shock, many people found the reality hard to swallow.
"How could she write three novels in a single year and still maintain the top rank in our entire grade level?"
"Airi... Reina Fujimoto... I get it now! It was so obvious! She was hiding right under our noses!"
"But this is Reina Fujimoto we are talking about. Since when does she write light novels, let alone ranking in the top ten of a national competition?"
"Is this really happening?"
At Third High, it wasn't just the students who were watching. The teachers were equally curious about who the two local legends were. When the Class 7 homeroom teacher saw his prize student appear on the television screen at the Ascent of New Gods event, he froze in total disbelief.
It was safe to say that for anyone at Third High following the ceremony, their cognitive functions had ground to a halt. However, the most stunned people were undoubtedly Reina's parents.
People in their neighborhood group chats were frantically telling them to tune in to the broadcast. When they finally switched the channel and saw their daughter standing on that stage in a designer gown, their mouths hung open.
She had told them she was staying over at a female classmate's house for the weekend. How on earth had she ended up in Tokyo?
The fans from other prefectures didn't have these internal conflicts. The online comment sections were filled with nothing but praise for her beauty. They treated her like a literal goddess. The rumors were true. The two best friends, Shiori Takahashi and Airi, were indeed top-tier beauties.
Reina's appearance far exceeded their expectations for a cute girl author.
Reina accepted the silver trophy, which was engraved with the number nine. 'Ninth place,' she repeated the rank in her head. Then, it was time for her speech.
"Please, Airi-sensei, would you like to say a few words to your fans?" the host prompted.
Reina looked at the microphone in her hand, then at the thousands of people in the audience, and finally at the neon lights of the massive stage. A small, graceful smile appeared on her lips.
"Hello everyone, I am Reina Fujimoto. Thank you to all my readers for your incredible support."
It was a standard, rehearsed response that she had prepared in advance. But back on the Third High forums, after a brief silence, the entire site was flooded with a new wave of realization.
Someone posted a question that stopped everyone in their tracks.
"Hey, does everyone remember the post from last night? The one with Reina Fujimoto and Haruto together at the airport? The post only showed the photo but did not say where they were. Since Reina is in Tokyo for the awards ceremony today, and Haruto was with her, what is he doing there? Why did he go to Tokyo?"
Was he just accompanying his girlfriend to the ceremony? That was the immediate reaction for most people. But a few others began to consider a different possibility. It was a theory that had been floated before but dismissed as impossible.
At the anime expo last year, someone had photographed the backs of a girl and a boy walking with the editor Yukino. People had speculated then that the two were Shiori Takahashi and Airi, and that one of them had to be male.
Now, it was proven that Airi was Reina Fujimoto, a girl.
So what about Shiori Takahashi?
The author who had written Blue Spring Ride, Anohana, and To the Moon. Who was it?
Could it really be Haruto?
The moment that thought surfaced, a sense of absurdity washed over them. But cold logic told them that this theory was no longer a wild guess. It was looking like the only explanation left.
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