After hearing Kasumigaoka Utaha's request, Shiina Mashiro's face showed no sign of refusal. Instead, she looked somewhat puzzled.
"If you need Hikage's help with something, why don't you just go to him directly?"
Hearing Shiina Mashiro's purely-toned inquiry, Kasumigaoka Utaha was momentarily speechless.
She had prepared a whole slew of arguments to get Shiina Mashiro to relent, explanations like how Miyauchi Hikage wasn't her type, that Mashiro didn't need to worry about her stealing him away, and that they should all help each other to amicably farm Reading Value points.
But now, before she could even say any of it, she was completely blocked by Shiina Mashiro.
And looking at Shiina Mashiro's earnest expression, it seemed her thoughts were truly that simple.
In fact, Miyauchi Hikage had indeed never interfered with Shiina Mashiro's choices.
Compared to how Hikari, Mahiru, and even Kasumigaoka viewed the relationship between him and Mashiro—subconsciously speculating from the perspective of opposite sexes, dependence, or even love at first sight—only Miyauchi Hikage himself knew best. Given Shiina Mashiro's lack of common sense and her slow but firm emotional nature, it was simply impossible for her to develop such feelings after knowing him for only half a month.
She kept Miyauchi Hikage's secret, and he helped her debut as a mangaka, providing her with sufficient creative ideas and acting as her life model. This was likely Shiina Mashiro's only thought process at the moment.
There was dependence, of course, but that was just her lifelong habit, not due to romantic feelings between a man and a woman.
Other than that, their relationship was currently very pure.
The word "friend" might sound a bit awkward; "partner" would probably be more appropriate.
As for how long this pure partnership could last, Miyauchi Hikage thought about it and felt it could probably continue for a long time.
Probably.
In any case, although Miyauchi Hikage himself couldn't say for sure what the future held, at least in the current situation, he didn't even need to say anything for Shiina Mashiro to be able to instantly defeat Kasumigaoka Utaha with her sincerity alone.
Shiina Mashiro looked up slightly at Kasumigaoka Utaha, who was a little taller than her, and continued.
"Hikage is very capable, and he's a very good person. Without him, it probably would have taken me a much longer time to draw out your story. If you need his help, you should just go and tell him directly."
The meaning behind Shiina Mashiro's words was as if to say, "I usually listen to Miyauchi Hikage, so it's useless for you to talk to me now."
Kasumigaoka Utaha hadn't yet recovered from Shiina Mashiro's overly generous attitude, which even vaguely exuded a strange "main heroine aura," when she heard Mashiro's next question.
"Do you want me to call Hikage over for you?"
Shiina Mashiro's response made Kasumigaoka Utaha a little flustered.
This was developing a bit too quickly.
It made her, who was usually the proactive one, feel a little embarrassed.
This is Mashiro's trust in me. Out of respect for that trust, I'll have to continue keeping a sufficient distance from Miyauchi Hikage after completing this request.
Seeing Shiina Mashiro wave at him from afar, Miyauchi Hikage knew that she had already won this "confrontation."
The "airhead beats the schemer" trope wasn't just for show.
Even Miyauchi Hikage himself had been caught off guard and fallen at Shiina Mashiro's hands. How could a little fox like Kasumigaoka Utaha possibly suppress Shiina Mashiro?
Miyauchi Hikari, on the other hand, quickly pulled her younger brother and walked towards Shiina Mashiro.
She was the most anxious one, thinking that Mashiro was in some kind of trouble.
Although her combat power was far inferior to Shiina Mashiro's, Miyauchi Hikari still subconsciously stood in front of her, ready to question Kasumigaoka Utaha about whether she had any ill intentions towards her Mashiro.
Seeing that the young woman before her was clearly influenced by those messy rumors, Kasumigaoka Utaha was at a loss for whether to laugh or cry, while also secretly muttering that this was all the Mysterious Person's fault.
Feeling Kasumigaoka Utaha unleashing her ultimate ability at close range, Miyauchi Hikage cleared his throat and told his sister there was no need to be so agitated.
"Calm down. Didn't you see she was calling me over? It must be that Kasumigaoka-senpai has something she needs to talk to me about."
Kasumigaoka Utaha looked at Miyauchi Hikage, who seemed completely unaffected by the rumors, and felt slightly relieved.
Thank goodness there was a normal person here, otherwise she wouldn't have known how to even begin.
And Shiina Mashiro also nodded lightly. "Hikage, Utaha said she needs your help with something."
As Shiina Mashiro's words fell, the first person to fall silent was still Miyauchi Hikari.
She looked at her younger brother with a complicated expression.
???
No, seriously, little brother.
What on earth is going on with you?
Just how many girls have you been dealing with behind my back?
Isn't this Kasumigaoka Utaha... that kind of person? How did you manage to get involved with even a girl like this without me knowing?
Facing his older sister's incredulous gaze, Miyauchi Hikage frowned slightly, feigning ignorance as he asked Kasumigaoka Utaha, "Is there a problem with the manga Mashiro is drawing?"
Kasumigaoka Utaha waved her hand.
Shiina Mashiro would occasionally post some of her manga drawings in the chat group, so she had naturally seen them.
She had to admit, with Mashiro's artistic skill, the script provided by the Mysterious Person, and the assistance of this Miyauchi Hikage, whom the Mysterious Person called a genius, Kasumigaoka Utaha couldn't help but sigh with envy in her heart.
After all, from a light novel author's perspective, if one's own work could receive such a manga adaptation, one could truly die without regrets.
But then, thinking about her own treatment in the work Saekano: How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend, Kasumigaoka Utaha couldn't help but grit her teeth again, only managing to adjust her expression after remembering that there was an Eriri who was even more miserable than her.
Fortunately, her future had been completely changed. When she became stronger, she should be able to look back on her original life experience with a much calmer heart.
With this thought, Kasumigaoka Utaha looked at Miyauchi Hikage with determination and said, "Miyauchi-kun, I've heard about you from Mashiro-san. You've provided her with a lot of useful advice during her manga creation process."
"And those recent ghost-hunting exploration videos that are so popular on YouTube, that seems to have been your idea as well, right?"
Miyauchi Hikage nodded, indicating that he just had a lot of ideas, but in the end, it was thanks to everyone's abilities that they were able to create those works together.
"So, Kasumigaoka-senpai, are you asking me to help you deal with the recent rumors about you at school?" he asked her.
Kasumigaoka Utaha raised an eyebrow.
Although she could ignore those rumors, if she could reduce the gossip, she would be more comfortable at school.
"You think those rumors are false?"
Miyauchi Hikage shrugged nonchalantly. "I watched step-by-step as Mashiro drew the manga based on you and the others. With Mashiro's personality, I find it hard to believe she could make up these... stories that don't seem made up at all."
"Especially after I learned a little about the real-life male protagonist, I felt this story must have some basis in reality."
Kasumigaoka Utaha couldn't help but look at Shiina Mashiro.
Don't tell me you showed him the actual Saekano light novel just so he could better understand the plot?
But Shiina Mashiro was completely oblivious to Kasumigaoka Utaha's stare. Instead, she was nodding earnestly in agreement with Miyauchi Hikage's words.
Alright, it seemed Miyauchi Hikage had really read the novel.
Kasumigaoka Utaha rubbed her head with a bit of a headache.
"Anyway, let me explain first," Since she had already explained it to Eriri before, Kasumigaoka Utaha was much more practiced this time.
A discussion group formed by people who met online, which naturally included Mashiro, and that was how they met.
Then there was a hacker in that discussion group with a nasty personality who liked to dox them and even enjoyed using the people around them to create some perverse works.
Listening to Kasumigaoka Utaha frankly bad-mouthing him in real life, Miyauchi Hikage's expression remained unchanged.
He even felt a little like laughing.
In contrast, after hearing Kasumigaoka Utaha's explanation, it was Miyauchi Hikari who became indignant.
That guy was just too despicable.
Even more despicable than when her little brother tricked her into performing a magical girl transformation in front of the whole village several times when they were kids.
"So all these rumors were spread by that hacker? Hiding in the shadows and doing these things without showing his face, that guy is just too cowardly!"
"Can't you guys find that bastard's whereabouts?"
Very good, sis.
The more you curse me out now, the less these people will suspect me.
As for you calling me a bastard, I'll deal with you slowly when we get back to Asahigaoka in a few days.
Miyauchi Hikage thought this, while putting on a pensive expression.
Kasumigaoka Utaha also shook her head, saying through gritted teeth, "That guy's hacking skills are indeed very impressive. Even though there are many capable people in our discussion group, we still can't find his whereabouts. On the contrary, the more we try to find him, the more easily we get toyed with by him."
No, no, no, I actually never thought that way. It was just the diary giving me these rewards, and I just happened to post them. It has little to do with your actions.
Look at Hoshino Ai. I've complained about her so much, but doesn't she still treat me as her number one die-hard fan?
"So, how much of that story is actually true?" Miyauchi Hikage continued to question Kasumigaoka Utaha. "I'm not referring to the plot, but the character settings."
"From my current understanding, the Kato Megumi in that story is indeed very close in personality to the Kato-san I know. If one wasn't very familiar with her, it would be impossible to write it so clearly."
Faced with Miyauchi Hikage's inquiry, although Kasumigaoka Utaha was very reluctant to admit it, she could only nod her head.
"Ignoring the parts of the story that were deliberately fabricated to mess with my mentality, in terms of character personalities and some settings, that hacker was mostly quite diligent."
"Otherwise, Mashiro wouldn't have gone out of her way to get authorization from that hacker to publish this work as a manga."
Kasumigaoka Utaha emphasized that while Eriri's situation was more or less accurate, the deviation in her own case was very large.
As a pure light novel author, she would not develop any special feelings for her readers, let alone a situation where she was dumped by a reader she actively pursued. This was purely a rumor fabricated by that guy because he felt she couldn't even capture the heart of a single otaku.
Seeing that Kasumigaoka Utaha was on the verge of getting more and more agitated, Miyauchi Hikage cleared his throat, indicating that he understood these matters.
"In short, it was that so-called hacker who stuffed those fabricated stories into Sawamura-san's shoe locker, which is why you, in a moment of desperation, performed a kabedon on Sawamura-san, leading to the misunderstanding among the students at school?"
At this point, Kasumigaoka Utaha finally stated her request.
"Since you've read that novel, you should know about the past between Eriri and her childhood friend."
"Basically, that guy's depiction of that part of the plot is over... ninety percent true. Eriri's side already hadn't fully recovered from their past misunderstanding, and now with my involvement, even her childhood friend has misunderstood her."
"Since this was caused by me, I wanted to ask you, Miyauchi-kun, if there's any way to quickly resolve their issues, or perhaps, help them get together?"
As soon as Kasumigaoka Utaha finished speaking, Miyauchi Hikage directly waved his hand.
"No hope."
Kasumigaoka Utaha's face immediately fell.
Weren't you supposed to be the Asahigaoka Idea King?
How is there no hope just like that?
Putting aside whether it's useful or not, you should at least offer an opinion, right? Otherwise, I won't be able to complete this request.
Miyauchi Hikage shook his head and continued.
"If Sawamura-san's personality is really as it's portrayed in the novel, then I can only say there is indeed no hope."
"Even Kugimiya Rie doesn't voice many tsundere characters anymore. It proves that the tsundere archetype has long since fallen out of the meta. The tsundere characters that appear now only have a symbolic 'tsun' moment, with the rest being all 'dere.' Who is 'tsun' from beginning to end anymore?"
"And being all 'tsun' and no 'dere' is one thing, but from what I read in the novel, it seems it was Sawamura-san who first distanced herself from him back then?"
"Originally, the childhood friend already can't win against the one who descends from heaven. Then you add the debuff of actively distancing herself during childhood, plus the outdated attribute of being all 'tsun' and no 'dere.' No matter how you look at it, she's the most thorough type of loser character."
"In a manga, it would be the type who, after entering high school, suddenly realizes she's in love with the childhood friend she used to ignore. But after getting close, she discovers that her childhood friend has already been thoroughly developed from head to toe by other women during the years she was distant."
"So my advice is to forfeit directly before the race even starts and switch tracks. At least you can maintain a bit of a graceful exit."