Ch.224Epilogue. What I Wished For (2)

I liked that series back then.

I think I did read some shounen manga, but I never finished any. Being a hardcore otaku at the time, and suffering from a bit of chuunibyou as well, I found it hard to get interested in manga that everyone else was reading.

Besides, most of them have male protagonists, right? Even if there are important female characters, they’re not the main characters, so in the end, male characters appear the most in manga.

Well, actually, I think I preferred slice-of-life series with cute girls. If not that, then I’d read fantasy novels that suited my tastes at the time.

But neither really appealed to me as cosplay subjects.

They say people are drawn to what they can’t have.

Just a few months ago, I experienced something like a fantasy novel where blood, flesh, and bones flew simultaneously, and now I’m literally surrounded by cute girls in my daily life.

If I had to describe it, this situation could be considered like those cute girl slice-of-life series I used to watch back then.

Maybe that’s why I don’t really want to do either of those types of works…

Hmm.

Okay, let me just be honest.

I wanted to cosplay a character from the first light novel I ever read.

So the cosplay I chose was—

“Should I be honest?” Yuka asked with quite a serious face after seeing my outfit, and I nodded.

I felt a bit nervous. After all, I wasn’t sure if it suited me or not.

“Hmm…”

After tilting her head and looking at me for a while, Yuka said,

“If it weren’t for that yellow armband on your right arm, you’d actually look less like you’re cosplaying than when we were in school.”

Ah.

That’s… true. Our school uniform is a sailor uniform.

Maybe it’s because our sailor uniform has red accents, but it looked more like something from a manga.

To be more precise, by my standards, it was definitely like an outfit from a light novel.

Does that mean I’ve been cosplaying the entire time I’ve been going to school?

On the other hand, what I’m wearing now is, by all accounts, a school uniform.

A white blouse with a thin black ribbon. The character was more famous for her winter uniform, but since it was summer, I was wearing a short-sleeved blouse.

The skirt has a black and gray checkered pattern. The shoes are student loafers. The socks are black knee-high socks that come up just below the knee.

The yellow armband on my right arm had “Club President” written on it in large letters, and I wore a red headband with a ribbon in my hair.

“Was the original character taller?”

“…”

That was… unavoidable. If we’re talking about height, a short-haired character from the same series might suit me better, but I didn’t want to style my hair right now.

To be honest, I could adjust my height. I could probably create a decent figure without having to pad my chest.

But I didn’t want to do that. Like Koko says, I wanted to keep being myself.

I don’t think changing my body makes me not myself… but everyone has their standards or lines they draw. If I cross that line, I might unknowingly cross it again and again, until eventually I can’t come back.

I’d consider it if a friend or family member’s life was at stake, or if I might die otherwise, but I didn’t want to do it just to match a character’s chest size.

Anyway, the character I was cosplaying… In this industry, she’s considered one of the early “tsundere” characters. She’s actually recognized as one of the representative examples.

I liked her, but even back then she was quite a divisive character, and above all, tsundere characters from the early 2000s were often… quite rude. As time passed and trends changed, characters became less intense, and well, they became somewhat less polarizing.

“Still, it suits you. You look pretty.”

After saying that, Yuka’s gaze turned toward Koko.

Although we were twins, we didn’t cosplay the same character.

Koko had watched anime but didn’t particularly have a favorite character, so I chose this character for her.

In Koko’s case, I gave her an antenna hair.

It’s not actually a real antenna, just some hair styled to stand up. Usually this kind of hairstyle is almost impossible to maintain in real life, but Koko cleverly understood my intention exactly and styled her hair that way.

We didn’t pad her chest for this one.

The outfit is a sailor uniform, but not the drab-colored one we wear to school—it’s a white sailor uniform with pink collar. The skirt matched as well.

She wore slightly shorter socks than mine, and also student loafers.

This one is an “otaku character.”

Both the character I’m imitating and the one Koko is imitating were influential in their time… but interestingly, that time hasn’t come yet.

Both the manga and novel have been serialized for about 2 years and 1 year respectively by current standards, and while they have some recognition, they haven’t been made into anime yet. The anime featuring the character I’m imitating will come out next year from this year, 2005, and the anime for the character Koko is cosplaying will come out the year after that.

Click.

Yuka pointed her camera at us.

“Woah!”

Koko excitedly shouted and raised both arms.

It suits her well. I can’t quite say their personalities are similar, but that pose itself appears in the anime opening. Just that one gesture makes me think I chose that character well.

As for me…

I folded my arms and turned my head away sharply to look elsewhere.

Yes. This is how a tsundere character should be.

“Uuu?”

But Koko immediately reacted to my gesture.

“Kotone? Are you angry?”

“Huh? Huh? No, no.”

I quickly relaxed my expression and reassured Koko.

“Pfft.”

And Yuka burst out laughing.

Judging by the atmosphere, she might not know which character I am, but she seems to understand the concept of “tsundere.”

My face turned red for no reason.

As I was pouting, click. The camera shutter sounded again.

“Ah, this is good. Your mother might get a nosebleed if she sees this.”

“No, a nosebleed is a bit much.”

I answered with a slight grimace, and Yuka laughed again.

While she’s wearing a maid outfit herself.

I grumbled inwardly.

*

Kagami gave us plenty of spending money, but honestly, there wasn’t much I particularly wanted to buy.

Famous booths… well, I don’t even know the names of those famous booths. And I can’t exactly buy actual adult doujinshi here.

As I’d heard before, most of the doujinshi, games, or goods being sold were for all ages. Of course, the best-selling or most provocative famous ones would be for adults, but the ones that are less burdensome to create and more enjoyable tend to be all-ages.

Still, I bought a few based on works I knew.

“Do you usually read manga and such?”

“…Not manga. Novels.”

Almost everything I read during this period was light novels.

Well.

I thought maybe I should have researched which booths were where before coming.

I looked up at the ceiling for no reason, but there were no “otaku clouds” at least.

It was a bit hot though.

The three of us somehow squeezed between people and walked around the venue for quite a while.

Since there were really only places selling things, I was worried Yuka and Koko might get bored, but the two of them were surprisingly enjoying themselves.

“Wow, they have this.”

The doujinshi Yuka held up was for a game that could be played on the console we had at home.

The game console Yuka gave us had quite a few games that even casual gamers would recognize by name, and among them were several RPG series where heroes go on adventures.

The illustrations drawn by a famous Japanese manga artist included several heroines whose designs would still hold up even today.

And some of them are still active in doujinshi. In various ways.

Fortunately, what Yuka picked up was an all-ages doujinshi.

The line wasn’t that long. Maybe this person was selling for the first time. Although it was an all-ages doujinshi, the art itself was quite clean and well-drawn. If I had fond memories of that game, I might have bought one.

Yuka seemed to think of it as a memento and decided to buy it.

“Thank you very much!”

The man in a checkered shirt who looked like a college student behind the desk said, seemingly moved.

“Oh, are you the one who drew this?”

Yuka asked.

“Ah, yes, but…”

The man’s voice dropped dramatically when the maid spoke to him. Plus, behind her was a harem anime heroine, and another girl who had the same face but was somehow dressed as a different character.

Even a normal person might feel intimidated in this situation, and if they were an otaku like I was back then, even more so.

“Then, could you sign it for me?”

Yuka smiled and held out the doujinshi.

“Oh, yes!”

At Yuka’s words, the man took back the doujinshi in a daze.

Then he opened the first page, thought for a moment, and drew a rather elaborate signature there.

He didn’t ask for Yuka’s name or anything. He probably forgot.

Still, Yuka happily took the doujinshi, thanked him, and turned around.

“Do you know him?”

“No. Not at all.”

I thought so.

“I’m just buying one as a souvenir since we’re here. In the back… there it is, as expected. See the printing date?”

Ah, I see. The printing date was last month. It’s definitely worth calling a memento. It would have been sold only during that specific period.

“Besides, you never know. That person might become super famous someday.”

Yuka said with a smile.

The art was really clean and well-drawn. Maybe not today but tomorrow it might sell out after word spreads.

The content was generally a slightly risqué comedy. It depicted things that might happen between a married couple as comedy, but in reality, the service scenes were the main focus rather than the comedy.

Kagami might have been horrified if she saw it.

“Maybe I’ll be mentioned in an interview someday? Like, ‘I was at a booth that wasn’t selling well, when suddenly a maid appeared, bought a book, and asked for a signature.'”

“…You’re more of an otaku than I thought.”

“Eh!?”

Yuka was very surprised by my assessment.

Well.

Setting aside simply buying a doujinshi as a memento, and even setting aside the maid cosplay.

The very thought of buying a doujinshi that isn’t selling well and thinking such things is otaku behavior.

Well, it’s those kinds of fantasies that make people continue living as otaku, I suppose.