That was yet another odd aspect of this. I tried to think of the cause.
“Perhaps while we were in the past, someone came and replaced all those books you had on your bookshelves? Like some modern literature publisher with a chip on their shoulder?”
I was pretty confident in my deduction, but Kuroha dismissed it easily. “That can’t be it.”
“Then, why?”
“Well...” Even Kuroha wasn’t able to come up with an answer. However it took only a moment until she started to put the pieces together.
“Sensei, can I double-check something? When we returned from the past, the contents of the books had all suddenly changed, right? You’re sure of that?”
Odaira-sensei nodded yes.
Kuroha was silent for a few seconds, but then spoke up again. “I have an idea, but... could it really be true...?”
“So you have come to the same conclusion, Kuroha-kun?” Odaira-sensei met eyes with Kuroha.
“But, I can’t believe it...”
“This state of affairs has been written about in novels old and new, far and wide...” he said.
Hmm? Sensei and Kuroha are the only ones who know what they’re talking about. What did he mean, “state of affairs”?
“I’m scared to go look outside,” said Odaira-sensei.
Kuroha stood up unsteadily, her face pale.
“I’m going to look!” she said, and dashed out from the living room, her skirt whipping around. She seemed to be headed to the front door.
She looks pretty upset about something. I wonder what it is? As I wondered, Kuroha’s voice rang out from the entrance.
“Onii-chan, come here!” cried Kuroha in a voice that cut through the air. It was a tone that I almost never heard from her.
I began to panic.
I sprang up and rushed toward the entrance. Kuroha was standing there with the door open, pointing to the outside.
“What’s wrong?”
“Look at this!” Kuroha led me out of Odaira-sensei’s house.
That was when I saw it...
薬 (drug).
本 (book).
美容室 (beauty parlor).
Those are kanji, right?
The signs in the city had kanji on them. And not one or two of them... They were on, like, almost all of them!
Wh-What the hell is this?! I couldn’t believe my eyes. The city had completely changed. All the places you could see illustrations of pretty girls were gone.
I looked at the giant government billboard that was by the rotary, and the illustration of 2D Prime Minister Nyamo-chan had been replaced by a picture of some old guy wearing glasses. Even the message shown on the electronic scroll underneath had changed to “Live Together, Live Stronger: The Reason Party.”
Dumbfounded, I watched as a small truck passed by with “Large-Sized Garbage Collection” written on its side. There was a head poking out of the back that I recognized.
It was Magical Girl Sadie. It was the life sized figure we had seen back in the past AKIHABARA. I could read the “Garbage” part written on that truck... Could it be that they considered it garbage? A cultural artifact worth 50 billion yen?!
I just stood there, motionless. Here was a world I didn’t recognize. What possibly could have happened? Finally, my confused brain began to work, and I realized something about what I was seeing.
The buildings hadn’t changed. Neither had the streets. The only change was the writing on the billboards and the signs.
Also, I couldn’t see anything moe. It was almost like the city in the Heisei era.
“Nii, what’s all this?” Miru asked. Everyone had followed us outside.
“Could we have travelled to the wrong time period?” I asked.
“No, it’s not the wrong time. This is the year 2202,” answered Kuroha. Odaira-sensei stood next to me and checked the date on his cellphone.
I couldn’t believe it. “If it’s 2202, then why are there kanji everywhere in the city?”
Odaira-sensei looked like he was thinking as hard as he could to come up with an answer. “Gin-kun, you’ve asked the right question. If we consider what happened with my bookshelves and the state of the city...”
“...there’s a high chance that culture has changed,” said Kuroha, finishing Odaira-sensei’s thought.
That culture has changed?!
“Aha, I see.” I went ahead and agreed with a nod. We already had experience with traveling through time. At this point, no matter what happened, we shouldn’t think it too strange. Although it definitely came as a bit of a shock. That was for sure!
“Onii-chan, you seem to be taking it well,” Kuroha said. “Do you understand what this means?”
I didn’t get what she meant.
“It’s your dream to become an author, remember?”
“Yup, that’s right!”
“If the words and culture have changed, then...” Kuroha wasn’t able to say anything further. She closed her lips and turned her face away from me.
I began to think about what Kuroha was trying to say. If the words and culture have changed, then...
Ackk! Could it be that the Orthodox style doesn’t exist?! In other words, my chance to debut as an author are now zero?!
“Kuroha, does this mean...”
When I looked toward her, she replied, “Onii-chan, wait. We need to investigate further before jumping to conclusions. Sensei, can we use your internet?”
“Ah, yes. I’ll help with research, as well.”
Kuroha and Odaira-sensei went back in the house. Miru followed them.
“Um, Gin-san... I don’t really understand, but has something really bad happened?” Yuzu-san, who didn’t understand what was going on, had stayed outside with me.
Kuroha had told me to wait, but the answer was right in front of my face. I collapsed down on the ground, despondent. Before me was a 23rd century changed beyond all recognition.
I had decided to come back to the 23rd century and become an author while I was back in the 21st century. But if the world in the 23rd century itself has changed, what should I do?
I wanted to write Orthodox style literature like Oniaka. That was my goal. Is my dream impossible now? Even if I write amazingly creative panty shots, is this a world that won’t accept them?
This isn’t what I wanted!
“Gin-san, are you okay? Gin-san!” Yuzu-san looked worriedly down at me, huddled in grief.
“Yuzu-san... Something very important to me, as well as my dream, may have disappeared.”
“Something important to you, and your dream?”
“Yes...” I couldn’t say any more.
I’m sorry... I can’t really talk right now...
Yuzu-san looked at me for a bit without saying anything, but then she smiled her usual smile and excused herself before sitting down next to me.
“Gin-san, I’m not very good at talking,” said Yuzu-san, holding my hand gently. I could feel the heat from her hands. It was warm.
We were shoulder-to-shoulder, and in a normal situation, my heart would have been beating a mile a minute, but this time was different. Surrounded by the kind and gentle sensation of Yuzu-san next to me, my feelings began to mellow.
Yuzu-san, thank you. Thank you for consoling me.
We clasped hands, sitting next to each other, staring off at the city.
After quite a bit of time had passed, I thought it was time to go back into Odaira-sensei’s house.
“Um... You two know this is an emergency situation, right?” rang out a voice that sure made it sound like an emergency situation.
I could see two legs standing in front of me. They were clad in black stockings, and were beautifully shaped. Looking up, I saw Kuroha staring down at me with a none-too-pleased look on her face.
“The mystery has been solved. Come with me to the living room.”
We all gathered in the living room, and the five of us sat around the table. It seemed like Kuroha had figured something
out from her research on the internet. She said she was going to explain the situation we were in.
The Return of Great Detective Kuroha, is it now?
“Sensei and I have found the reason for why the culture has changed.”
“You already know? That seems fast.”
“Yeah. I’ve had a sneaking suspicion something like this might happen,” said Kuroha with conviction. “I’ll start with the conclusion: The reason that Japan’s culture has changed is that Oniaka was never written.”
I was speechless as Odaira-sensei nodded. Miru and Yuzu-san both looked confused.
“Nee, I don’t get it at all,” said Miru.
“Neither do I,” I said in agreement.
“Think back to the sequence of events. Onii-chan, when was Oniaka revealed, and what kind of work was it?”
“Huh? It was revealed in 2060. And if you had to classify it, it was... a gimai book.”
“Think about what made it special. It used hiragana and katakana far more than previous novels, and it was what really broke moe into the mainstream.”
Kuroha was correct, but that was just stating the obvious.
“Think about it!” she insisted. “Writing words using katakana and hiragana, and moe illustrations of girls... Those are the two things that have changed about the current-day culture, right?”
“Now that you mention it, yeah.”
“You could even go so far as to say that the form of current-day culture was basically created by Oniaka, right?”
The form of current-day culture was created by it... Let me think about that.
“Um, so let me guess. It’s because of Oniaka that kanji have disappeared from current-day writing, and that the prime minister is a cute little 2D girl?” I asked.
“To put it simply, yes.”
“So then, if Oniaka never existed...”
“...culture would completely change.”
Hmm. I understand what she’s saying, but...
“Could history really have changed that much just because there was no Oniaka? I mean, Homyura is super-duper cute, but I don’t think it’s good if it had that kind of massive effect.”
“If it had only been Oniaka, you’d be right. Oniaka was just one drop rippling through history. But its DNA expanded throughout the world. One became two, two became four, four became eight... It came to affect all of Japan.”
I envisioned what Kuroha was describing in my mind, with a map of Japan painted black, being washed over into a lovely pink with just one droplet.
“Of course, it didn’t just take one or two years. But after more than 100 years, what do you think?”
“One became two... became a billion, perhaps.” This conversation suddenly became really high stakes.
Odaira-sensei went and took out a book.
“Gura wrote this book, Seishin, instead of Oniaka. It became a famous historical work. This world was changed so much thanks to the influence of Seishin.”
“What kind of book is it?”
“There isn’t a single panty shot or bathing scene. And it uses quite a lot of kanji compared to other contemporary works.”
It became clear to me that it was a completely different book from Oniaka.
Odaira-sensei continued, “If you were to put it in orthodox literary style terminology, you could say that our original world is the Oniaka route, and this new changed world is the Seishin route. I wonder if the main heroine has changed, too? Like it going from Kuroha-kun to Yuzu-kun, for example.”
Kuroha responded to that with a “Hah?” and a raised eyebrow, while Yuzu-san let out an, “Oh, my...” sounding strangely happy.
“In that case, shouldn’t we call them the ‘Kuroha route’ and ‘Yuzu-san route’?” I asked, but Miru seemed displeased.
“What about the Miru route?” she demanded.
“Miru-chan is on the Odaira-oniichan route! See, I’m the heroine!” chirped Odaira-sensei.
“There you go again,” replied Kuroha, looking displeased and shaking her head side to side.
“In any case, calling them routes does make it easier to understand. The route split at some point like the letter Y in the year 2060. The future would change depending on whether Oniaka or Seishin was created. Onii-chan, are you following this so far?”
“Yeah, I got it.”
“Okay, next. Why wasn’t Oniaka written, do you think?”
“His editor didn’t let him write it?”
“Gin-kun, I think you were trying to say something realistic, but you’re wrong. Gura was already a famous author by the year 2060. His editor would have done whatever he told them to. He had free creative reign.”
Kuroha shot a cold glance over at Odaira-sensei. “I bet the great author Gai Odaira can do whatever he wants, too, huh?”
“Kuroha-kun, I am nothing but a gentleman to my publisher. All I ask is for them to provide me with some special water for my health. Pool water that elementary school girls have been swimming in, that is.”
“Sensei, why don’t you rest your old bones permanently at an elementary school grounds? And I don’t mean move there, I mean be buried there. Soon.” Kuroha turned back to me. “So, Onii-chan, why do you think that Oniaka wasn’t created?”
I have no idea.
Kuroha could tell I was stumped, so she said “There’s a hint right here on the cover,” and pointed at Seishin.
The title and author were printed on the book, Seishin by Kurona Gura, and there was an illustration of a blonde woman. I had already noticed this earlier, but she looked a lot like Yuzu-san.
“Um, that person on the cover looks a lot like me,” said Yuzu-san.
“Yeah. Gura must have found your picture even when he wrote Seishin. The cover illustration is proof.”
“Yuzu-san’s picture just makes such an impression. I understand that feeling.”
“Oh Gin-san, stop it, you...” said Yuzu-san, bashfully.
“Anyway! Think about how Gura could have found Yuzu-san’s picture but not written Oniaka?”
“He wasn’t in the mood?”
“That’s not going to get us anywhere. Please try and think about it more logically. I think it’s because he found the picture, but he didn’t find the most important part.”
The most important part?
“So in other words, it’s not that he didn’t write it. It’s that he wasn’t able to write it. He wasn’t even able to conceive of it.”
Ah, I see! I finally understood what she was trying to say. “Because the manuscript for Ani MAJI Mania wasn’t there?”
“Yes.”
“Why wasn’t it there?”
“If the box itself had been gone, he wouldn’t have found the picture. Since he did, that means it was only the manuscript that went missing, I think.”
“So the box was there, but the manuscript wasn’t inside of it,” I concluded.
“If we think about that, it leads me to believe that it was stolen,” she said.
We all looked at Kuroha.
Stolen? That’s crazy!
“Well the manuscript didn’t grow legs and walk out of the box on its own, now did it?” she said.
“I’m sorry, everyone. This is all because I used an old nori container as the box,” Yuzu-san said.
Oh? It wasn’t some high-tech security box?
“This wasn’t your fault at all, Yuzu-san. If it was stolen, who could have been the culprit? Did you have a stalker?” I asked.
“In that case, it would have been the picture that was stolen,” Kuroha said.
She had a point.
We had ran out of things to say. If the manuscript had been stolen, their motives were just a complete mystery. Even if Ani MAJI Mania had actually been the basis for Oniaka, it didn’t have any monetary value on its own, since it wasn’t known to exist. We had no idea why anyone would have stolen it.
“Um, I don’t really know about this stuff, but could you go back and fix the world to the way it was?” asked Yuzu-san.
“...Yes, we can,” replied Kuroha.
Hearing those words I instinctively perked up. Stop playing Great Detective and cut to the chase next time!
“Sensei, if you please.”
Odaira-sensei nodded to Kuroha, and pulled out a picture from his pocket and set it on the table. It was the picture of Miru wearing the randoseru that they had taken in the past. Kuroha pointed to the white margin with her slim finger.
201X/6/17 3:33 PM
“We’re going to go check that the manuscript was still in there at that time. We’ll go back right before then and think of a plan.”
“What kind of a plan?” I asked. Kuroha was smart, so she must have already been thinking of something.
“I dunno, but we’ve gotta think of something!” replied Kuroha, proving me wrong. “Onii-chan, you want the world to go back to the way it was, right?”
“Well, sure.” This new world didn’t have Oniaka or the orthodox literary style in it. The Japanese that was used was also very different. To me, it was as if both my past and my future had been stolen from me.
“A world where you can’t smile... is a world that I will always hate, Onii-chan. We’re going back to the past, and changing the world back!” said Kuroha, with conviction.
I can feel it welling up... I didn’t know how many brothers out there in the world had little sisters, but I was definitely a happy one. Thank you, Kuroha!
“Kuroha-kun doesn’t just want to change the world back for that reason alone, does she?” Odaira-sensei interrupted. “She researched the marriage laws, after all.”
“I was... just checking all the laws in general!”
“Gin-kun, can I have a moment?” Odaira-sensei walked over to me and leaned over into my ear. “A part of the laws are different, you see. Non-blood-releated brothers and sisters can’t get married anymore.”
“You there! No whispering!” yelled Kuroha.
“When you saw that, you seemed to react calmly, but I could tell how much you were fretting from the look on your face,” Odaira-sensei said.
“S-Shut up!”
“What are we talking about? I can’t get married to Nii anymore?” asked Miru.
“That’s right! You would never be able to marry Gin-kun... Hm?” Odaira-sensei paused, as if realizing something. Kuroha was also looking surprised.
My Little Sister Can Read Kanji: Volume 1 Page 16
