“Urgh…”

  The screen shines bright on my overexposed eyes. It’s been a few minutes since my st blink.

  “Must not… break… immersion.”

  Only for that to be disrupted by an abrupt intrusion of my personal space by my lovely sibling. Great.

  “Onii-chan! Dinner is read- GWAH?! Onii-chan?!”

  I look at her with tired eyes.

  “Oh, ah hello, Nakatani.”

  “Wh-What happened to your face?!”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You look like a shut-in!”

  “Ah, just let me be. I’m doing something important.”

  I return to what I’m watching and resume the py button.

  Slice-of-life. I must dissect it.

  “No good, onii-chan! You have to eat to live!”

  She forcefully pulls me out.

  “Hey… I need to watch… it’s important,” I tell her.

  “Health is more important.”

  My hands attempt to reach for the monitor even if pathetic. Having been exhausted of my life force, I could not, for the life of me, fight back.

  …

  ..

  .

  I find myself seated in the dinner table with my two parents, whom I haven’t seen in a good while and my little sister. All around a rectangur table, we take each take one side.

  Munch. Munch. Munch.

  Thankfully, dinner was ordered pizza. Peperoni, my favorite. Perhaps to celebrate the joyous occasion?

  “Oh Kibe, you and your obsession with anime.”

  Note: Shunichi Takayuki, Kibe’s father.

  “At least he has passion! Maybe he wants to be a mangaka someday?”

  Note: Natsuko Takayuki, Kibe’s mother.

  Urgh, I’m sorry for being a mob character… their names got messed during creation because of me. I swear, I don’t know how the hell an author could reverse a st name and a first name.

  Peacefully eating my meal, I ignore what they say about me.

  “Mmm, delicious,” I comment instead.

  “No matter what profession onii-chan chooses, I’ll support him!” Nakatani says as she munches on her meal.

  Hm?

  On slight inspection, I notice that Mom and Dad seem somewhat darker. Like they’ve gotten a tan, so I thought to inquire about that.

  “Dad, where were you and Mom, these past few days?”

  “Oh, we were overseas! We stayed on a beach in Pawan! Let me tell you two, the tropical feeling is simply refreshing!”

  Love hotel, then overseas? On a tropical isnd nonetheless.

  “Tropical?” I wonder, “Pawan… so Philippines or Indonesia?”

  “Philippines. If we’re going to Indonesia, it’d be Bali!”

  Dad looks at Mom.

  “Wouldn’t that be a nice pce for a honeymoon, isn’t that love?”

  “Oh, Shunichi~” she seductively replies.

  “Mom and Dad really love each other, don’t they?” Nakatani comments.

  “Yeah, a little bit too much, though,” I announce, “No flirting on the table.”

  Dad lets go of Mom’s hands, yet the two of them still retain their grinning faces.

  I swear… these two…

  I focus on my food.

  “Delicious.”

  Slice-of-Life Boys truly have been a decline. Right now, girls are taking over and for a very important reason that I have stated countless times before. Moe.

  Finishing off my pizza, I grab another slice.

  Men simply don’t have the characteristics to fight back against such odds. What they ck for in moe, they make up for in comedy and hirious expressions, but even then, girls have been starting to adapt that style in modern iterations.

  “Mmm, this is really delicious.”

  Right now… is there really a partition between the two genres? The state of it, is that it both can do the same now, except girls really have more to offer.

  “This is much more difficult than I thought.”

  I quickly finish off my pizza and head upstairs.

  “Sorry, I just remembered I had an assignment!”

  “Onii-chan!” Nakatani shouts.

  Entering my room, and continuing where I left off, I subject myself to even more anime in order to get a closer look.

  “More! More! I need more!”

  …

  ..

  .

  A few hours ter…

  “Urgh…”

  My mouth was agape and I was drooling, and I finally decide to sum up all the ideas I gathered for the day. Going to my desk, pen in two, its tip presses against the paper.

  “Ah-”

  But I suddenly go bnk, there’s absolutely nothing in my mind.

  “Man! I’m still stuck with the same conclusion!”

  There has to be something! There has to be a way that we excel at!

  Tap. Tap. Tap.

  Everything that’s entering my mind is all things that I’ve announced before.

  “Maybe listing out characteristics would help.”

  Starting with the boys, I finally get the pen moving.

  “Chaotic, repulsive, back stabbing, dirty jokes, cup size talk, incel, dark humor, games…”

  Random descriptions, but the point is there.

  I think that gives me a good idea of our nature. As for the other one…

  “Cute, funny, beautiful, adorable, dark humor…”

  My face spts to the notebook.

  Yeah, I still don’t see how we can win.

  Picking myself up, I stand and stretch.

  “It might be more effective to use real-life examples, in other words…”

  I’ll stop being absent now.

  “About time too. Better tell them so they won’t be surprised.”

  …

  ..

  .

  May 26, 20XX

  8:03 AM

  Arriving in the cssroom, I see my buddies huddling over by Masaru’s pce. They turn around to see me, and there I was.

  “Yo, how has it been guys?”

  “Sure took you a while!” Madoka yelps.

  Masaru was surprised. He looks left and right to confirm no one was listening in and then he whispers to me.

  “Why are you here? Didn’t you say you were making a pn? If you were going to go to school, why didn’t you tell us beforehand?”

  “Look, I’m not here because I wanted to think of the pn. This is necessary. Also, for the second question, I got sleepy, so there’s that.”

  “Do you need help?” Takashi offers.

  “Nope, this is something only I can do. Once I formute a pn, all you guys need to do is follow me.”

  “What if it’s something outrageous?” Katsuro wonders.

  “It probably should be within possibility.”

  He stares at me with great disbelief.

  “Trust me. If it ends up being something embarrassing, I’ll join you guys. If we go down, we go down together.”

  Katsuro sighs.

  “Hah… please just nothing too crazy.”

  Yano-sensei enters the css and we go to our respective seats.

  Pn this, pn that. Can I actually make something up by the end of the day?

  Hopes remain in the sky and all I have to do is keenly observe my targets.

  “Well, technically, I have to wait for break. Listing their features wouldn’t really do anything at this point, I think.”

  Maybe there’s something I can exploit in the interactions.

  …

  ..

  .

  12:00 NN, Lunch Break

  Mari approaches me.

  “Looks like someone’s back in their two feet. You heard the news?” she asks me.

  “I always stay updated. We’ll win. We swear on it.”

  “Hmmm~ Let’s see you try.”

  Then she leaves me hanging. My encounter is followed up by Ran.

  “Feeling better?”

  “Never felt more alive,” I reply with a tone that contradicts that very statement.

  “Gd to have you back, Kibe~☆”

  Going after the footsteps of Mari, she leaves. Must be hanging out somewhere.

  “Time for me to eat lunch too.”

  Earlier, I told the boys to go on ahead of me. That way, I could observe without any distractions. As the cue was set off (that is them leaving the room), I stand up to trail their steps. But not before one surprise encounter. If you were wondering who it is, it was Yuka.

  “Mm? You need something from me?” I ask her.

  “A-Are you still sick, K-Kibe?”

  God, she’s so cute. If there were no people right now, I’d pat her head.

  Keeping those thoughts at bay, I give her a proper answer.

  “N-Not particurly. Were you worried for me?”

  That’s kind of a bold response and I expect nothing but disgust from her face as I say that.

  She gently nods her head.

  Oh. Hmm, I guess that would’ve been out of character for her.

  “I see. Thanks for worrying about me.”

  But she doesn’t leave right away. In fact, her arms were behind her, moving up and down. Since I didn’t want to mention it directly, I proceed with a roundabout way that nudges her to tell it.

  “I-Is that all you wanted to say?”

  “Uh, erm…”

  Growing red out of anxiety, it takes a bit of courage for her to finally say what’s on her mind. She reaches me an object and I take a good look at it.

  “Is this… cough drops?” I ponder.

  Looking away and remaining red as a tomato, she nods sheepishly.

  KYAHHH!!! DANDERES ARE THE BEST!

  I couldn’t help blushing for her consideration; however, I manage to retain my composure.

  “I-I was worried, since you were sick and you weren’t coming to school for a few days, so I considered going to your house, but… I don’t know where it is,” she mutters with a waning tone, “Wh-What am I saying?! G-Going to a person’s house, th-that’s just… hauu…”

  KILL ME NOW. THIS ANGEL IS KILLING ME.

  I gracefully accept her offer to free her of her worries.

  “Thank you. I appreciate the thought.”

  She bows to me three times in quick succession then dashes off, picking her lunch from on top of one of the desks.

  I stare at the cough drops.

  Someone was worried for me… that just makes me guilty… I guess I can rete to what Masaru was saying in a sense.

  But there is no other choice.

  “It’s nice to know that people are worried for me… but I have to do this. For my friends.”

  And for my sake of maintaining the status quo of Slice-of-Life Protagonist.

  Putting the pn in motion, I follow after Yuka and see her running in the halls. Worried I might lose sight of her, I hasten my speed to keep track.

  …

  ..

  .

  Eventually this leads me to an open space in the school beside the church. Oh yeah, I may have forgotten to mention this, but the school I go to is a missionary school.

  I might see a nun character sooner or ter.

  Note: Foreshadowing?

  Like out of a py, a couple of nuns pass through while I was snooping.

  Speak of the devil.

  That out of the way, I see them merrily conversing with each other, pying out their usual dynamics.

  Ran’s the genkidere exuding most of the energy out of the group, starts conversations, and the enemy of my kind… extroverts. Mari, is alike Masaru’s role, being the one to snap everyone’s senses back to reality with a bonus quality of tsundere. Rin is… I can’t comprehend her, she’s mysterious like Takashi, but doesn’t really seem all that shy to talk. Finally, Yuka, the dandere, being the center of attention for teasing because all of her reactions are legitimately cute.

  I continue watching their antics.

  I say that… but what does tell me?

  “Hm… their chemistry is strong, to say the least. Does that factor anything though?”

  Man, is there really no solution to this problem? I keep restating established facts.

  “GYAHHH!!!”

  Frustatingly, I scratch my head.

  “What should I do?! I’m seriously at my wit’s end!”

  I continuously knock my head against the wall. The people passing by end up watching me, but that’s not my concern right now.

  Author! You won’t win!

  I clench my fist and at st, an idea pops up. But it wasn’t at all appealing.

  “What if we turned into girls?”

  We can totally do that! If I ask Arisu again, she’d be able to turn us into girls!

  “We can fight on equal standings!”

  However, putting more thought into the pn, there were serious issues concerned with it.

  “Slice-of-Life is a genre, regardless of plot or ck thereof, revolves around the protagonists and what they end up using as a solution. This solution I’m proposing… is essentially giving up our manliness and accepting that Slice-of-Life Boys cannot win against Slice-of-Life Girls, as boys and girls.”

  My expression turns serious and dire. In the hopelessness I experience, I bite my lip.

  “Damn it. If that is what we have to resort to, is that actually winning at all?”

  As ridiculous as it may sound, this may paint our image worse in our standing. To summarize, we would be winning the battle, but losing the war.

  “There has to be something… I’m supposed to be crafty at times like these.”

  Maybe there’s no way to win after all… not when I know how rigged all of this is. I might actually have to resort to it.

  I heave a great sigh.

  “Urgh… I’m gonna have a greater debt for Arisu… will she even accept it, at this point?”

  I guess I could ask Kazuhiko to send the site he used that turned him into a girl.

  “Kazuhiko… that damned judge. Clearly biased, even though he was a guy too once.”

  Hahh… that guy… turning into a girl. Laughable that we’re ending up using it.

  I prepare accepting my fate and look at the clouds passing by. In the process, I happen to whisper sweet nothings.

  “Guy… turning… girl… a trap, basically? But not really? I better not think about it.”

  Trap. Huh, haven’t heard much of that recently.

  Remembering prime examples of traps, I chuckle.

  “Astolfo. Haha, that dude looks nothing like a man.”

  Trap.

  “Trap. Hm…”

  The wires in my brain connect and try to form an idea. To nurture it further, I stand up and focus on it while I walk in circles.

  “Trap. Trap. Trap.”

  Like a miracle, the answer… arrives in my head.

  “That’s it!”

  END OF EPISODE 41