I discuss with Mieko last Friday about what I would like to replace my reward with, and unsurprisingly, she agreed to help. You’ll see how this comes into play later.

…

..

.

May 10, 20XX

8:00 PM

I was seated in class.

I know that I’ve already been considered a side character of the Slice-of-Life Boys, but time is precious, if I know I can make progress now…

“I’m gonna have to seize it.”

…

..

.

12:00 NN, Lunchtime

Ring. Ring.

The school bell rings.

Divide and conquer. By attacking each of the Slice-of-Life Protagonists individually, they should come crumbling immediately. Their strength lies in each other.

“By isolating them, it should be possible. However, there is one slight problem…”

What should I do? They’re literally like glue who stick to each other almost every time.

“Should I try it?”

I believe I should, it wouldn’t make sense not to after that info dump I did.

Getting up from my chair, I begin to take action.

Time to make use of the genres I involved myself in; I’ll go pay a certain someone a visit.

…

..

.

My body takes me to the ­Sci-fi ­Club once more.

“I haven’t visited the science lab for a while now…”

Golden Week scarred me…

“I’ll just borrow a few of their protagonist powers,” I say as I hesitantly slide the door.

Eventually gathering the courage, I face them.

“Oh! Kouhai-kuuun! I missed ya!”

The moment the door opens, Yuu greets me with his usual over-the-top demeanor.

Rapidly approaching me at a frightening speed, I blatantly dodge. As a result, he falls flat on the floor.

“Oof!” he yelps.

Arisu was eating her lunch, I take a few steps closer to her.

“Do you all eat here during lunch?” a genuine question on the top of my mind.

Munch. Munch. Munch.

She acts as if she hadn’t heard a thing, so I get straight to the point.

“Arisu-sama? Can I borrow you for a bit?” I politely ask, even going so far as to use her honorific of choice.

Met with silence, I keep provoking her.

“Uh, Arisu-sensei?”

“…”

Awkward…

“Uh…”

I go to Toshiaki to try and inquire about her.

“Is she in a bad mood? Did I come at the wrong time?” I ask him.

Toshiaki himself was eating lunch and at the same time, typing like a madman on the computer, yet thankfully he gave me the time of day.

Without so much as a glance, he speaks, “She’s angry at you.”

“M-Me?! What did I do?!”

“I think it’s about Golden Week, Kouhai-kun,” Yuu tells me.

Ah, so she WAS angry about that… ‘This is unreasonable!’… is what I’d like to say, but I know that I’m the cause that our meeting was adjourned.

Thinking about it, I can’t help, but be guilty.

I come to approach Arisu once more, and I actually notice a small pout, that is actually somewhat… cute.

“I’m sorry, Arisu-sama!” I say while kowtowing, “I’ll make it up to you double time, just please grant me this request.”

She let out a loud groan.

“Fine,” she says, “You better make up for Golden Week, those were a lot of precious days.”

I graciously accept her request.

“Yeah, yeah, I got it,” I say as I slowly lift my head.

Given permission to borrow her, I waste no time and grab her hand to dash out the door.

“Try to do anything funny and I’ll smack you,” she warns me.

“I won’t.”

The door closes behind her.

Toshiaki and Yuu were left hanging with their jaws dropped.

“Since when…” Toshiaki utters, flummoxed.

Yuu drops to the floor, dejected.

“K-Kouhai-kun beat me to it,” Toshiaki says.

“So casually like that… Never knew the two were dating…” Toshiaki replies.

…

..

.

I bring her to our classroom. From there, I scout my targets.

They’re here.

All four of the Slice-of-Life Protagonists were in their seats talking to each other.

I determine Takashi as the outlier, only listening in on the conversations while offering nothing in return. It makes him the perfect target.

Holding Arisu’s hand, we sneak behind Takashi.

“What are we doing?” she asks me.

“Shh! Be quiet! You don’t need to know, alright!” I tell her.

Now that preparations were complete, I begin my declaration.

Overruling Statement: Slice-of-Life to Sci-fi.

Note: Processing…

 

This shouldn’t take long.

Note: Statement False. Encounter Type: Reference.

N-Nothing happened. It… failed?

“Can I go now?” she questions.

“Be patient!” I retort.

We retreat for the time being.

…

..

.

I hang outside the classroom biting my nails and going back and forth.

“What’s going on? What’s going on? What’s going on? Was the Overruling Statement a sham after all? I know it was hypothetical, but I know I was going somewhere with it.” I mutter to myself.

Yeah… I know it was true, even the Author’s notes processed it.

“Then why? What am I missing?”

Arisu intervenes.

“So annoying…”

Thanks to that, only now do I get conscious that someone is right beside me.

“Arisu-sama, you’re a scientist, right?”

“What’s your point?” she asks clearly annoyed.

“What do you do when you hit a roadblock in your research?”

“Does this have something to do with your problem?”

“Yeah.”

“Scientists follow standard process called ‘The Scientific Method’, even that was taught to us in previous grades.”

“I know, but can you make it more personal, more simple, for a monkey like me?”

All I want are answers.

“Why don’t you review your steps then? Check the variables, check the equipment, double-check everything. Is that sufficient, or do I need to dumb it down for you?”

“No, no that’s fine.”

Variables. What are the variables involved in this process called ‘The Overruling Statement’?

I see… I should restart the encounter and change a bit of the variables involved in overruling. Now what could those variables be?

I brainstorm for a hot second.

My attire! I’m wearing my school uniform. But…

I take a glance at her.

If I wear a lab coat like Arisu, then the effect would be greater!

I snicker..

I’m a geniu-

Arisu suddenly pokes both of my eyes.

An unintelligible screech releases from the deepest depths of my lungs.

“KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH! AGHHHH!!!”

The pain was great, so I roll to my sides to alleviate the pain.

“WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOU?! CAN’T THIS WORLD STOP FROM HURTING MY EYES?!”

“You were staring at me with lewd eyes, I told you, you shouldn’t try anything funny with me, ugly peasant,” she explains.

She tries to warn the rest of our classmates.

“Everyone! Don’t look at him, the more you look at him the more detestab- ugly he becomes.”

I heard that.

The pain recedes and I stand up on my two legs.

“For the record, I have a pretty fine face, and all the girls look at me all the time,” I answer in my defense.

“Those are looks of disgust, how pitiful,” she thought.

“Looks like it backfired, they looked at you so much, you became ugly,” she insults.

THIS SASSY CUNT!

Note: Double burn.

“DON’T TEST MY PATIENCE AUTHOR! I CAN READ THAT!”

Note: Psh.

…

..

.

We return to the science lab. Once we did, Toshiaki and Yuu stare at us, although, we ignored them.

“My lunch is getting col-”

I cut her off.

“Leave it, I’ll buy you something better later.”

I spot lab coats hung up on the walls. I grab one and wear it. Just like that, we return upstairs and sneak up to Takashi who is as clueless as his other friends.

Overruling Statement: Slice-of-Life to Sci-fi.

Note: Processing…

Let’s see.

Note: Statement True. Genre Overruled. Current Genre: Sci-fi. Encounter Type: Reference.

In an instant, the contracting atmospheres around us come as one and aligns with the wavelength of ours. That’s how I could tell it could work, aside from the note above.

PERFECT!

“Takashi, we need to borrow you for a while.”

He stares at me and then stands up obediently.

“Sure then,” he answers.

The three of us head outside.

Due to the change in genre, nothing can bother us anymore.

I inhale deeply.

“PLEASE LET ME JOIN YOUR GROUP!”

“Okay, it’s fine by me, but I dunno about the others, try asking them,” he tells me.

That easy? Wow, I didn’t expect to get approval from one so easily… That air hockey must have really struck a chord with him.

“Thanks. I’ll go ask the others.”

“Please, do it faster, or I’ll dropkick you,” Arisu threatens me.

“Sure, sure,” I responed with no fear.

“Your girlfriend?” Takashi asks.

“N-”

In a split second, my vision goes blurry. Then the pain comes all at once, focused on my abdomen.

“Urgh…”

I slowly look at Arisu, and I can see her fist raging with red aura. It was her who punched me.

Then I slowly gaze toward Takashi.

Why… why would you ask that now…

…

..

.

All three of us head back inside.

I’m pretty sure a few wouldn’t understand why no one can bother us, but it’s because I’m tricking the audience into thinking that what I’m doing is something plot-relevant in the Sci-fi genre, given the presence of Arisu, meaning, the author cannot act against me, nor can any other character interrupt our interrogation. That’s what I think, at least.

Takashi returns to his seat like nothing happened. My next target was Masaru.

You next, tough guy.

He was talking with the others. I grab him by the shoulders and he faces me.

“I have something VERY important to talk about, can you come with me?” I declare.

“Sure, but be quick, please,” he tells me.

“This will be very quick.”

Madoka and Katsuro carry on with their conversation.

…

..

.

All three of us outside.

“Um, before you ask your question, would you mind if I asked another question?” Masaru asks permission.

“You just did,” I answer.

“Don’t start that conversation with me. Why are you holding Arisu-san’s hand? Are you two dating?”

“Hell no,” the both of us reply.

I feel the intense stare given to me by Arisu. Apparently, she really dislikes being associated with me in the romantic context.

“I will not answer the first question for it is classified information, now back to the original topic…”

Starting with pleasantries, I bow my head.

“PLEASE LET ME JOIN YOUR GROUP OF-”

“FOR THE LAST TIME… NO WAY!” he refuses.

“Figured, you’d say that, but that wasn’t a question…”

“It wasn’t.”

“It was an order.”

“You literally said please.”

“It was simply for formality. Now as you can see…”

Ruffling through one of the lab’s pockets, I grab an object.

Huh? Where did this glass tube come from?

“Oops, wrong pocket.”

I put it back and take something from my pants’ left pocket.

“As you can see here…”

“I can’t see it, I don’t exactly have 20/20 vision.”

Cut it with the jokes!

“I have a friend, and because of her, I have here a copy of your contacts, and it shows that you messaged multiple women sometime in the past…”

Masaru gulps nervously.

Gotcha.

He furiously sweats. Seems I hit the jackpot.

“Wh-What are you talking about? I don’t message women, women are b-b-boring.”

He’s stuttering.

“I’m here, you know?” Arisu butts in.

“YOU’RE LYING!” he accuses me.

“Are you sure? This picture clearly shows your profile picture in LINE.”

I present him irrefutable evidence of various chat logs, with his face clearly as his profile

He gasps.

“H-HOW?! PLEASE DON’T SHOW IT!!!”

Checkmate.

“JUST HOW?! Y-YOU HACKER! BLACKMAILER!” he panics.

“You know what I want, it’s one simple thing, do that and I’ll rip this to shreds right here, right now.”

Arisu warns, “You can’t litter in the hallway-”

I cut her off.

“So what will it be?” I query.

Masaru seemed to have given up, but the moment I got close to him, he instantaneously reached for the picture in my hands and ripped it to shreds.

“AHAHAHHAHA! Now your proof is gone!” he boasts.

“I expected you to do that, so I made a backup.”

I reach for my right pocket and it shows the exact same picture.

“GIMME THAT!”

He manages to reach it and shreds it again to pieces.

“HA! WHAT NOW?” he mocks me.

“Are you an idiot? What’s the point of shredding it to pieces… When you have a soft copy of the evidence?”

I show my phone with the picture alongside a menacing smirk.

“DAMMIT! DAMMITTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT! NOT THIS TYPE OF JOKE AGAIN!” he yells.

“Don’t forget to clean your mess in the hallway, or you’ll be reported.”

“KIBBBBBEEEEEEEEE!!!”

You dug your own grave.

He slouches and then crouched to pick up the pieces of paper he littered. While he did that, we head back inside the room.

This time, we approach Madoka.

“Hello Madoka,” I greet him.

He was chomping on his food.

“Hello, I’m eating, what do you want? Where’s Masaru? Was he the one who screamed just now?”

“Come with me, I have something important to discuss.”

“Um, ok?”

He drops his chopsticks and the usual process occurs. Masaru there was still cleaning the hallway when he took notice of us.

“IDIOTS, I’M JUST HERE! MADOKA! MADOKA! NOOOOO!”

The plot line is progressing. This is a canon event. It must not be disturbed.

“Okay, I’ll get to the point. PLEASE LET ME JOIN YOU!” I yelled to Madoka.

“No,” he replies.

“Perhaps, you’d reconsider.”

I open up my phone to show a recording of Madoka laughing crazily (refer to Chapter 14).

Madoka falls to the ground kneeling.

“My human rights are no more, please don’t tarnish it anymore.”

He didn’t even put up a fight.

“You know what I want.”

“Fine, just please delete that video.”

“I promise.”

3 out of 4 conquered. I’ve already won.

We leave them in the dust and head back inside the classroom.

“NOOOO!!!” Masaru screams in defeat.

Madoka turns around to see him.

“Since when were you there?”

“I’ve been here the whole time, dimwit.”

I and Arisu went out with Katsuro. Masaru and Madoka were alarmed.

“NOOO!!! KATSURO DON’T LISTEN TO HIM!” both of them yell.

“PLEASE LET ME JOIN YOUR CLUB!” I ask of Katsuro.

“Hmmm, in one condition… help me go out with the Idol Harumi-san,” he requested of me.

“Unwavering, eh? Fine, I’ll do what I can.”

“Nice dealing with you.”

We shake our hands in agreement.

All according to plan.

Note: Promotion from Side Character of Slice-of-Life to Main Character of Slice-of-Life!

END OF EPISODE 16