Chapter 385: Sis-con? No, That’s Not Me

Work was done. Finished.

“Whew, finished…”

Luckily, there hadn’t been any mistakes during the broadcast.

Himekoji sighed with relief like a weight off his shoulders, then subconsciously glanced at his partner.

“Huh?”

But he saw Kasumigaoka still typing away at her keyboard, chatting away with viewers in a completely dark livestream room…

Hey, hey, hey! Aren’t you a bit too obsessed here, Kasumi Utako, streamer extraordinaire?!

Lines of sweat practically formed on Himekoji’s forehead.

Though speechless, curiosity got the better of him, and he eventually craned his neck over to see what nonsense the Evil God-sama was clicking and clacking away at this time.

Hmm… sending Danmaku…

Still sending Danmaku…

Miss Kasumi Utako’s fingers flew across the keys, her long, slender fingertips like butterflies darting through flowers, hitting the keyboard with a tip-tap, tip-tap rhythm. Truly befitting a light novel author who works with words; her typing skills were undeniable in this moment.

Streaks of Danmaku rapidly appeared one after another in the dark livestream room.

Himekoji strained his eyes for a closer look and discovered the alias ID Kasumigaoka was using was actually… “President of the Poem-Princess CP Support Association”…

You snatched that ID way too fast!

“President of the Poem-Princess CP Support Association: Success!”

“President of the Poem-Princess CP Support Association: This President announces that the Poem-Princess CP Support Association is officially established today!”

“President of the Poem-Princess CP Support Association: Membership includes Poem-Princess stock! Join early, get more! Hurry, hurry!”

…

Himekoji thought that with Kasumigaoka messing around like this alone in the livestream room, once she noticed no one was responding, she’d surely get bored and stop eventually, right?

However, the outcome turned out to be completely different from what Himekoji expected.

He never imagined that such absurd Danmaku from Kasumigaoka could actually resonate with people who genuinely had nothing better to do…

“A: President, take me in!”

“B: Count me in, count me in! Poem-Prince duo reigns supreme!”

“C: ??? Hold on! What are you people talking about? Did a donkey kick the Danmaku users’ brains? Supreme what? Brother is mine!”

“System Notice: User C has been restricted in this livestream room.”

“System Notice: User D has been restricted in this livestream room.”

“System Notice: User E has been restricted in this livestream room.”

…

Any dissenters spotted by the Evil God-sama in the livestream room were ruthlessly eliminated.

Was this a case of determination paying off?

Anyway, in no time, only one voice remained in the livestream room—

“Long live the Poem-Princess CP Support Association!”

Himekoji, witnessing the entire birth of this society, couldn’t stop his mouth from twitching. Helplessness filled his heart.

Having privileges… was insane now…

“Akito-kun.”

Just as Himekoji was lost in these random thoughts, the voice of the editor lady calling out to him suddenly came from the side.

“Sonoko-nee?”

Seeing that she seemed to want something, Himekoji acknowledged her and got up to walk over.

Short hair, full-bodied, plus the attribute of a nearly thirty-year-old single warrior like Hiratsuka-sensei. Ever since Himekoji joined the Fujisawa publishing house, all his affairs had been handled by Machida Sonoko.

Of course, “all affairs” also included that time when Himekoji stole her underwear, got caught red-handed, and was subsequently hauled off to the police station by her.

Although Machida-san softened halfway through the dragging and released Himekoji…

Anyway, with such a history between them, Himekoji had always trusted his editor deeply.

“Today’s program was very well done.”

“Huh?”

This was the first thing Machida Sonoko said after calling Himekoji over.

Praise?!

Himekoji froze, not knowing how to respond, only awkwardly scratching the back of his head and giving a dry chuckle.

He seriously couldn’t take Machida-san’s polite words at face value. Today’s livestream narrowly avoided accidents several times; just getting through it without messing up was something he had secretly celebrated about. At best, it deserved a passing grade.

“Um, Akito-kun, you’re a sis-con, right?”

“Huh?!”

If Machida-san’s previous remark had merely stunned him, this one simply left him utterly dumbfounded.

Sis-con?

What the heck?

Weren’t we just talking about the program?

This topic shift is way too abrupt!

Himekoji couldn’t understand why such a random sentence would suddenly come from Machida Sonoko’s mouth.

Hmm…

Until he saw the hardcover Bunko edition his editor held in her hands—

“If You Love Me, Then Say So Even If I Am Your Brother.”

“Sonoko-nee, could you perhaps have misunderstood something because of this light novel?”

But that didn’t make sense!

Even if it were a misunderstanding, it was the opposite way around!

Based on this thing, shouldn’t the conclusion be “Akiko has a Brother Complex”?

“No, no, no, I don’t think I’m mistaken at all. Especially when combined with your ‘Ore no Imōto.'”

“Huh?”

Ore no Imōto?

Woah!

Himekoji almost forgot about his own best-selling sis-con novel…

It was only now, prompted by the great editor, that he remembered.

“You two siblings really are…”

Machida-san shook her head, her expression strange. She paused mid-sentence, seemingly unable to find the right adjective. Struggling for a few moments, she continued,

“How should I say this? Maybe… geniuses? Like the leaders of the Brother/Sis-Complex world…”

“Cough, cough.”

For some reason, being called a sis-con to his face felt incredibly shameful and awkward to Himekoji. His face burning, he forced himself to explain,

“Machida-san, I really never expected to hear something like this from you, a professional editor… Fiction is fiction, reality is reality. Confusing fiction with reality is a major taboo for professionals. Isn’t that what you taught me? Whether I’m a sis-con has nothing to do with whether I write sis-con novels, right? The same goes for Akiko too.”

He found this explanation flawless; he himself was nearly convinced. Unfortunately, his editor remained unmoved.

“Have you seen the book your Imouto wrote? The male and female leads in it…”

“Ah, ah, I know, I know. Are you talking about giving the protagonists names similar to ours?”

Guessing what Machida Sonoko was getting at, perhaps out of guilt, Himekoji cut her off urgently, grabbing the conversation himself.

“Th-this was, of course, just to make it easier to immerse feelings into the writing! But a work is just a work; it’s fictional! Doesn’t the beginning of the novel also state ‘This work contains fictional elements and has no relation to any actual persons or groups?'”

“But Akito-kun, even putting aside the work itself… you also do things like this, right? For example, writing an ‘Imouto Diary’ or something? Recording what your Imouto ate that day, what she said, how many times she got angry, how many times she laughed, and so on. No matter how trivial or ordinary the matter, you record every last detail meticulously.”

Rarely had Machida-san prodded so deeply into a matter concerning Himekoji.

“Hmm… What’s wrong with that? Sure, that’s true, but… isn’t it normal? Caring about an Imouto’s well-being is only natural for an Onii-chan, right?”

Himekoji genuinely saw nothing wrong with this.

If he couldn’t even manage these small things, he wouldn’t be considered a competent Onii-chan.

“Even so, you don’t need to record stats like her three sizes and cup measurements in the diary every single day, do you? These are data points that don’t change much over short periods!”

“Huh? Ah… no, because… um… three sizes and cup measurements, th-these… I need them sometimes when buying clothes for her… Hey, w-wait a minute!”

Mid-explanation, Himekoji suddenly realized something was off,

“Machida-san, how did you know about the three sizes and cup measurements being recorded?!”

He had never shown his ‘Imouto Diary’ to anyone!

…