“So, what exactly are you planning to enter with?”

As soon as he sits down, Yoichi starts with a question.

“That… I don’t know yet,” answers Natsume, lightly biting her lips. “I’m still stuck on so many ideas.”

“Does the competition limit what exactly you have to enter with? In terms of genres, I mean.”

“No, it’s anything goes,” a light shake of the head from Natsume. “The only limit I have is time, which is… around two months from now.”

“So, right as summer vacation ends,” nods Yoichi. “At least that gives us some time, but doesn’t it look like you’re pushing it?”

“... Yeah, I am a bit,” a defeated sigh signals that Yoichi is correct.

“Um, I wanna ask… ” I raise my hand. “What’s wrong with these ideas? I think many of them are very good.”

“... Can you give me some examples?” Asks Natsume in a skeptical voice. With her eyes intently gazing at me, as if trying to pry off any secrets I might hold, I can’t help but feel butterflies in my stomach, and not in a good way.

Nausea hits harder with every second, causing sweat to pour uncontrollably on my forehead despite the fact that the AC is still on and perfectly functional. Why did I say that? I’m not a writing expert! Heck, I don’t even have any experience! What if I say something stupid, or worse, something that’s useless to her?

But I can’t just up and take back everything I said. I already asked, so I have to answer.

I swallow the anxiety back where it came from with all my might. Taking a deep breath to calm myself, I answer, pointing to the detail in Natsume’s notebook to further get my point across:

“Like this one, for instance. A fantastical world of insect people, where their lifespans are short but they’ve learned how to enjoy themselves to the fullest. Isn’t that idea really unique?”

“Well… unique, yes, but it’s also an idea that I don’t have a clue of its direction,” Natsume regretfully shakes her head. “Sure, I have the concept down, but that’s it. There’s no protagonist, no villain, not even a general direction of the plotline. To be honest, it’s just random gibberish at this point.”

“I see…” I slightly lower my head in regret.

“This seems good,” Yoichi points to another idea. “A magical world of deceit and trickery, with an orphan girl surviving the war between wizards and humans and finding a place where she truly belongs.”

“Of course it’s good,” Natsume lets out a sigh. “That’s just the premise of Magical Revolution. I noted that down as a reference before.”

A reference… Wait, can this one be it?

“... What about this?” I muster up my confidence once more and make my suggestion. “A post-apocalyptic world where god resides over humans, and a young man raises the flag of revolution to reclaim their freedom. This is the reference you’re talking about, right?”

“... Yeah, that is my idea after taking some of Magical Revolution’s pointers,” nods Natsume, but the frown hasn’t escaped her face quite yet. “But it’s too long. To properly write this, I feel like I need a year or two at least.”

A brief pause ensues. To the surprise of both me and Yoichi, Natsume suddenly continues before either of us can give more of our thoughts:

“... But even if any of these ideas are doable, I don’t think that they have what it takes.”

Her words send us into confusion, which clearly shows on both of our tilted faces.

“What makes you say so?” I ask.

“I know that these ideas are fine. Good, even. But just ‘good’ isn’t enough. Not for me to beat her, that is.”

“Her?” While Yoichi looks even more like a wild animal being shone by a car’s headlight, a certain girl’s name and face run across my mind.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

Reflexively, I utter the name in my head.

“Hoshino Shiori, right?”

“Uh… yeah,” Natsume’s eyes widen ever so slightly for a moment, as if not believing that I share the same pain she’s feeling. “You know her?”

“Her name, uh… just… randomly came across me once… I think it was on the news or something…” I nervously answer.

“Really? Is that girl famous or something?” Yoichi asks. Before I can answer, however, Natsume has already explained everything in my stead:

“Hoshino Shiori. She’s one year younger than us, but no one in the writing world has not heard of her. The youngest ever to win the Golden Page award, her stories have an inexplicable hook that almost trances the reader, so much that they once described it as ‘with each turn of the page, I feel like I was sucked into another world’.”

“I see. In other words…”

“She possesses a generational talent,” Natsume finishes Yoichi’s conclusion. “Something I think you, Yoichi, of all people, should be familiar with.”

Generational talent. Even as I’ve made peace with that embarrassing past, those words still return to haunt me once again. Even though Yoichi and I have become friends. Even if I feel like I’ve taken a step forward in my relationship with Natsume…

Why can’t I escape its grasp? Why does everything have to remind me of the things I lack?

Meanwhile, Yoichi continues on with his deductions:

“I see. So, because you don’t think that you’ll ever beat Shiori with ‘ability’, you’ve decided to settle the score on ‘conceptuality’, am I correct?”

“Yeah, that was the original plan,” Natsume lets out a sigh once more. “I thought that if I could come up with a concept so out-of-this-world that it would knock the socks off any reader, I’d have a chance at winning. So I’ve been taking notes ever since the end of last year’s competition, but it’s been going nowhere… which is why I asked for both of your help today.”

“Hmmm…” Yoichi scratches his chin as if being deep in his own thoughts, before snapping a finger to gesture at Natsume. “Then wouldn’t you say this library does not have what it takes?”

“Does not have what it takes? For what?” Coincidentally, both Natsume and I sound at the same time.

“Think about it,” Yoichi waves his finger at us. “If you want a good ‘concept’, then you gotta have some experience with it first, right? What good would some pages and articles do then, when you can actually feel its presence with your entire body?”

It takes a while for Natsume to digest the information that was given to her, seeing that she doesn’t even blink for a good while. In the end, however, all we receive is another sigh:

“I get your point, but isn’t that a bit… impossible to do? I mean, if we’re talking about real experience, it has to be those crazy, out-of-this-world places, right? We’re just students; how do we even afford that kind of trip?”

“I don’t really think money is a problem for us… right, Hakuen?”

A sudden turn to me from Yoichi causes me to freeze for a moment. Has he been steadily steering the conversation to this moment, so he can pass the torch to me to impress with my supposed asset? Damn it, Yoichi, just how far into the future did you predict?

There’s one tiny little problem, though…

What makes you think I have money? I’ve been eating nothing but fast food for three weeks straight, man! Take the hint, will you?

“H-Hey, don’t look at me,” with no other choice, I let out an awkward laugh.

While Yoichi looks at me like a strange animal yet again, Natsume answers:

“Yeah, it’s kind of weird to put everything on Hakuen like that, no? He’s just a student like any of us.”

If my answer caused his eyes to widen once, then Natsume’s comment makes Yoichi’s eyes widen ten times over. In a state of pure and utter shock, even I can tell what his baffled gaze is trying to tell me.

Does… Does she not know who you are? Is that even possible?

Beats me, I let out an imaginary shrug as I exchange looks with him. From the looks of things, Natsume is probably not the type to care too much about modern society.

“What are you guys doing?” Natsume’s voice interrupts our imaginary conversation.

“What? Uh, nothing!” Yoichi lets out a laugh as he awkwardly scratches his head. “I made a mistake again; I thought that the thing I asked Hakuen about was done already, but it’s not…”

“What kind of thing is that?”

“A part-time job,” without even breaking a sweat, Yoichi makes up the craziest lie I can imagine. “To work backstage for one of my shows, in particular… Oh, not the one that I was mistaken just now though, another one. It’s in the theme park nearby, actually.”

“A part-time job?” Natsume exclaims. “That’s nice of you, Hakuen!”

“Haha… yeah…”

Nice save, Yoichi, but what the fuck was that? Since when did I accept a part-time job? Sure, I need the money, but I didn’t ask for it!

“In fact,” on the other hand, Yoichi lets out a wry smile. “I happen to have another spot on the backstage crew vacant. Whaddaya say, Natsume? Wanna see how a show is made?”

“M-me?” The sudden offer causes a rather shocked look to appear on her face. “But…”

“Don’t worry about it, you really don’t need to do anything,” Yoichi reassures with a pat on the shoulder. “Just follow the instructions and you’re fine. And besides, it’s another novel experience you can have for yourself.”

“... Well, if you put it that way…” the enticing thought seems to be taking its effect on Natsume. “Sure, I’ll go for it.”

“Great! Then see you tomorrow at Wonderland Park! Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to leave early. Later!”

“Wait, tomorrow? That’s too…”

Before we can even finish our complaint, with a flip of his jacket (which I only notice now, strangely enough, considering it’s summer), Yoichi disappears into thin air. Not too long after, a buzz comes from my phone, and as I open it to check, a message on CURVE hits my eyes:

[Yoichi: Second time’s the charm. Good luck, man.]