After washing up, Kuzeha stepped out of his room and saw Kanae and Sakura standing outside Kasugano Sora's door.
"What's going on?"
He asked in surprise as he walked over.
Before the girls could explain, Sora's angry voice came shouting from inside.
"Yuki, open this door!"
"Open it!"
"You had the guts to sneak attack me last night, but not the guts to unlock the door?!"
Sakura looked at Kuzeha with a helpless expression.
"Sora's door has an extra lock on it now—she's stuck inside."
Kuzeha blinked in mild disbelief and instinctively looked toward the prime suspect.
"Relax, it's an electronic lock. It'll auto-unlock in thirty minutes," Suou Yuki said calmly.
Kuzeha gave her a look, and she huffed.
"I'm doing it for her own good, okay? She's way too old to be sneaking into your bed every night. You do realize your age is the definition of hormonally explosive, right?"
So locking Sora in is her solution to that… but waking me up with the Undying Grasp is totally fine, huh?
Kuzeha gave Yuki a good ol' forehead flick.
"Open the door. No more of this next time."
With that, he left the conflict alone.
These two were a textbook pair of feuding frenemies.
Every time they were together, it ended in chaos—and every time, Suou Yuki won.
This time was no different.
Who knows what Yuki whispered to Sora, but the girl sulked for a good while.
Only when breakfast started did she finally let out a bitter grumble.
"Hmph, don't get cocky—I'm not gonna lose to you!"
Then she channeled her frustration into food and absolutely devoured her breakfast.
Kuzeha and Sakura exchanged glances and silently agreed: If Suou Yuki moved in permanently, at the very least, Sora would never go hungry.
Halfway through breakfast, the doorbell rang.
It was Mrs. Izumi!
She was holding the bowl Kuzeha had used to bring her vegetables last time, now filled with handmade sweets.
"Ah, Yuu, you're all eating already. I came a bit late, didn't I?"
"Well, these are for your lunchboxes—take them to school!"
"Want to stay for breakfast, Auntie Izumi?"
Kuzeha offered.
"No thanks. I pulled an all-nighter working on a manuscript—haven't even slept yet…"
One arm hugged her side while the other held up her sleepy chin, her whole vibe radiating exhaustion.
Kuzeha had often seen lights still on at the Izumi house late at night—he was used to it.
Freelancers were basically all night owls anyway.
"You work so hard, Auntie…"
He felt a bit bad.
After all, this woman—under the pen name Eromanga-sensei—was his designated light novel illustrator.
Her all-nighters were for his work.
"This time, besides the illustrations, I even made a little lewd bonus doujin!
Once it's uploaded, you have to check it out, okay?"
"Oh right—make sure you look at it at night. If there's anything you don't get, you can come ask me~"
She tossed her usual flirt before heading back home.
Back at the Izumi residence, the moment she opened the door, she was met with an anxious, hopeful little face.
"Well? Did he eat the sweets?"
"He was in the middle of breakfast, so I told him to take them to school."
Izumi Sagiri's lips puffed out in disappointment.
"Ugh, Mom, you're useless!"
"If Yuu-oniichan didn't eat them in front of us, how would I know if he liked them or not?!"
Yes—those sweets had been made together by the Izumi mother-daughter duo.
Sure, the manuscript rush had been real… but just the last few pages.
They were submitted early.
The rest of the night?
Spent in the kitchen.
Neither of them were experienced cooks, so it took all night just to prepare those treats.
Mrs. Izumi laughed and ruffled her daughter's hair.
"It's not whether they're good or not—what matters is that your feelings were delivered to him through them."
Sagiri's cheeks turned a bit red. Her voice also grew a little shy.
"You're making it sound way too dramatic…"
Suddenly, she remembered something and looked up.
"Wait! Mom—did you tell him we made them together?"
Mrs. Izumi blinked.
"Oops. I forgot!"
"Great… now he's gonna think it was just you!"
She knocked herself on the head like she could undo it.
Sagiri stared at her, face blank, fist clenched.
"In that case, it'd be better if it tasted bad…"
.......
Sobu High.
Art Club.
In a small private room reserved only for the club's top artists, a blonde twin-tailed girl stared at the comments section of a certain doujin with sparkling eyes.
[Whoa, Eromanga-sensei's art is getting even lewder!]
[Yesss, pure love! Pure love best love!]
[Slurp. Those little feet… soft and sweet…]
[Those long legs of the heroine—if you can resist licking your screen for 3 seconds, you're a god.]
[I could soak that pantyhose in water and drink it for ten years!]
Sawamura Spencer Eriri scrolled through the comments and casually added one herself:
[I volunteer as tribute!]
"Eromanga-sensei is just amazing…"
Eriri sighed in admiration.
Once a top-tier lewd illustrator in the industry, Eromanga-sensei had started doing doujins again recently—and every new one was packed with creative spice.
She was one of Eriri's favorite artists.
So much so that Eriri had entered the illustration world herself—and eventually managed to befriend Eromanga-sensei.
Their chats were great, and Eromanga-sensei even hooked her up with a gig illustrating a light novel.
The pay?
Very generous.
The novel itself?
Extremely high quality!
So high that Eriri became completely hooked.
Only downside?
The damn author updated way too slowly!
"Right, that new male lead design…"
Eriri glanced at the doujin's protagonist and suddenly had a flash of inspiration.
Grabbing her pen, she began sketching.
In just ten minutes, a handsome boy's face appeared on her paper.
She nodded with satisfaction.
But then paused.
"I should probably ask Eromanga-sensei first…"
After all, the new character still bore strong resemblance to the doujin protagonist—just evolved.
She took a photo of her sketch and sent it, explaining her idea.
A reply came quickly.
"Don't worry, Kawaguchi-sensei—you can use it freely. I've got no issue with it. What matters most is what Feather-sensei thinks. But I'm sure Feather-sensei will love your design!"
Feather was the pen name of the light novel author.
Seeing that reply, Eriri tilted her head.
How was she so sure Feather-sensei would love it?
Meanwhile, back at the Izumi house—Upon receiving Eriri's sketch, Mrs. Izumi's eyes widened.
All her sleep-deprivation vanished.
"This Kawaguchi-sensei is something else… she actually redrew Yuu almost perfectly from just imagination."
Their recent doujins had all featured male leads based on Kuzeha.
They had tweaked and altered the design a bit—but somehow, this artist managed to restore it back to the original form.
Staring at the screen, where the boy's face was almost 90% identical to Kuzeha, Mrs. Izumi smirked.
"If this Kawaguchi-sensei ever meets Yuu in person, she's in for one hell of a shock."