Relationships are unnecessary. Friends are unnecessary; well, more than one, anyway. And girlfriends are definitely unnecessary. The way most people spend their youths is horribly inefficient, and I decided long ago to shed everything unnecessary in order to get ahead in life. Despite all that, there I was—Ooboshi Akiteru, epitome of efficiency—with this girl who kept sneaking into my apartment.
Kohinata Iroha. She wasn't my sister, she wasn't my friend, and she definitely wasn't my girlfriend. She was nothing more than my friend's little sister.
She was annoying and a bother, and had one secret she held close to her heart: she was a hidden member of the 05th Floor Alliance, a team of developers behind a popular mobile game who were shrouded in mystery.
I was the group's producer. OZ, real name Kohinata Ozuma, was its brilliant programmer. The illustrator was Murasaki Shikibu-sensei, real name Kageishi Sumire, and our scenario writer was Makigai Namako, a best-selling light novel author who decided to join us for whatever reason. We made up the group's core of four.
Our game, Koyagi: When They Cry, filled a niche in the market by being a horror game which also featured charming characters. It became widely popular, attracting a huge number of players.
Kohinata Iroha was the anonymous voice actress who lent her voice to the game. Man or woman, young or old, she voiced every last character with remarkable talent. I gave her this opportunity because there was no way she could express an open interest in voice acting. I wasn't looking for anything in return; I just hated how society encouraged people to throw away their talents. I was following my belief that inefficiency and anything unnecessary should be avoided at all costs.
Like I said, I wasn't looking for anything in return, but it looked like Iroha was intent on paying me back by being as annoying as humanly possible. Letting herself into my apartment, using her "assets" to embarrass me, teasing
me... The list goes on. Worse, it seemed she was targeting me specifically, which just made the whole thing even more annoying.
Still, life went on as normal. Until that transfer student showed up. Tsukinomori Mashiro.
She was the daughter of my uncle, Tsukinomori Makoto, who was the
president of the large entertainment enterprise Honeyplace Works. In other words, she was my cousin. She transferred to our school to try and turn her shut-in life around. The 05th Floor Alliance did our best to welcome her back into society, and though there was trouble along the way, eventually she accepted us and took her first step on a better path.
But then...
"I love you. More than anyone else in the world."
A confession from her, out of the blue. A confession that was about to
make waves throughout the whole 05th Floor Alliance.