On this night, the girls' chat group was destined to be anything but calm.
Fortunately, it was a holiday, so everyone could stay up a little later.
First, the diary once again mentioned the Demon Slayer Corps and the Breathing Styles, allowing them to learn many secrets from a hundred or even a thousand years ago.
Then, Shiina Mashiro produced the photo that Miyauchi Hikage had sent him, making everyone wonder if the talent of this male supporting character was truly so extraordinary.
Then, starting from around nine in the evening until after midnight, the girls living in Tokyo, beginning with Shinomiya Kaguya, successively began to discover a small package in their rooms.
These packages generally contained two or three volumes of manga and novels.
One volume of Hoshino Ai's manga, one or two volumes of the Saekano or Oregairu novels, and sometimes some special bonus items.
On top of that, Umaru mentioned that she had also received a light novel with a certain black cat on the cover and was now teasing Gokou Ruri's heartstrings in the group.
Kasumigaoka Utaha, on the other hand, received a game called "White Album 2."
Yotsuya Miko said with a look of resignation that she had received a pile of discs of horror movies and horror games labeled "Mysterious Person's Selection."
Even Takanashi Rikka, who had come to Tokyo to persuade her uncle not to travel abroad this holiday, received a package.
Among them, the ones who received the most were Bocchi and Hoshino Ai. In addition to the standard items, both of them also received several anime discs of other idol and band works and were now studying these works to learn from the experience of those bands and idol groups.
Among them, perhaps only Miyano Shiho, who was in a research institute surrounded by surveillance, would not receive a "gift." However, she had not yet spoken in the group, so everyone was unable to confirm her situation.
Besides her, the only one who was puzzled by the contents of her package was Tsukimi Eiko.
Because in addition to receiving two standard works, she also received a hardcover Chinese version of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms."
"Why did they stuff a copy of Romance of the Three Kingdoms in my package?" Tsukimi Eiko asked in the chat group.
Then she quickly received a reply from Yukinoshita Yukino: "Perhaps it's because your name hides the two kanji for 'Yueying.' In the Records of the Three Kingdoms, that is the name of Zhuge Kongming's wife."
Yukinoshita Yukino seemed to have thought of something and continued to explain to Tsukimi Eiko: "Perhaps your story will only begin after you meet a certain descendant of that Zhuge Kongming. Maybe a whole bunch of characters related to the Three Kingdoms will appear around you, starting a modern version of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms story?"
"After all, when the mysterious person mentioned you before, he said that something quite extraordinary might happen on your side. Before this, the mysterious person had never shown such an attitude."
"So you should probably read this copy of Romance of the Three Kingdoms that the mysterious person sent you during this time. At least get to know more about the deeds of Shu Han and that Zhuge Kongming. It might be useful in your future."
With the mysterious person not having mentioned Tsukimi Eiko again, this was the most she could come up with.
After all, having never encountered Heroic Spirits, they could never have imagined that it would be the Chancellor Zhuge himself who would cross a thousand years to the present day and form a bond with Tsukimi Eiko.
Yukinoshita Yukino said this, while also silently calculating in her mind.
So far, many people in the group had said they had received that "Oregairu," which was "Yukinoshita Yukino's original work." By her count, the mysterious person had sent out more than ten volumes tonight, almost completing the collection of her original work.
This made her feel a little relieved.
At least her original work had fallen into the hands of these girls who also held diaries, so she didn't have to worry about it being seen by other irrelevant people, let alone worrying about her situation becoming as embarrassing as Kasumigaoka Utaha's.
As for these girls... the mysterious person had already posted parts of their works in the diary more than once while padding out the word count. As long as it wasn't a punishment live broadcast on the level of Shinomiya Kaguya's, Yukinoshita Yukino felt that this level would no longer make her feel too ashamed.
She could even now record the approximate time everyone received the manga according to the girls' reports in the group, confirming that this time there should be only one person delivering the packages, starting from the center of Tokyo and gradually moving outwards along a pre-planned route.
Since everyone's manga seemed to have been delivered, they probably wouldn't be coming to Chiba, right?
Yukinoshita Yukino was slightly disappointed by this, but she didn't mind too much.
At least compared to the diary holders living in Kyoto or even further away, Chiba had at least been visited by Jerry, who had helped them improve their strength a lot.
"So when the mysterious person went out to explore those ruins, he didn't take Jerry with him, but left him in Tokyo?" Yukinoshita Yukino thought.
Could it be that the mysterious person's current strength was such that he no longer needed to worry about the potential dangers of coming into contact with those alien ruins?
Or were the so-called "exploring ruins" and "attending art exhibitions" all just things the mysterious person made up to fool them?
After all, no one knew if the mysterious person really went to investigate any ruins. As for that art exhibition, the opening date had been announced long ago. Even if the mysterious person didn't attend, no one would know.
Until now, Yukinoshita Yukino still believed in her judgment: given that the birth years of all these "female protagonists" were close, the mysterious person, this transmigrator, was most likely a high school student of a similar age to them, and at most could not be over 18.
"Maybe the diary entry tonight was about the mysterious person delivering them with Jerry. The mysterious person took Jerry to various places in Tokyo, and then Jerry, with some kind of storage ability, secretly slipped into everyone's rooms, placed the packages on their desks when they weren't looking, and then left."
"However, the mysterious person must have a way of knowing the locations of us girls who hold the diaries. Otherwise, Rikka just arrived in Tokyo yesterday afternoon, it's impossible for the mysterious person to know her current location so quickly."
Kasumigaoka Utaha had similar thoughts to Yukinoshita Yukino.
As one of the people most severely persecuted by the mysterious person in the group, she had naturally been tracking his movements, wanting to take this opportunity to find his whereabouts.
As for the Saekano novels being scattered?
She really didn't care much about that.
After all, the story of Saekano had been almost completely padded out by that guy, the mysterious person.
He had even sent the entire animated series directly to Shiina Mashiro tonight, with a note that said "Wishing for the early publication of your manga," which may or may not have been handwritten by the mysterious person himself.
This made Kasumigaoka Utaha not even bother to count how many volumes of the Saekano novel had been sent out.
Even if the Saekano novel were to fall into the hands of that true "saenai heroine" Kato Megumi now, she wouldn't have any particular feelings.
Even if the mysterious person really did that, what could she do? At worst, she could just pull Kato Megumi into the group as well. Anyway, isn't her relationship with Shiina Mashiro and that Miyauchi Hikari quite good now?
But Eriri would probably throw a fit.
After all, ever since she learned that Kato Megumi was the female protagonist of the novel version of Saekano, she had been dismissive the first few times she met Kato Megumi. But as they interacted more, she slowly discovered that Kato Megumi was not as inconspicuous as she had imagined, but rather the type of girl who warms up slowly and becomes more captivating the more you get to know her. She had already become wary of Kato Megumi.
From time to time, she would pass by her classroom to check on Kato Megumi's situation.
Kasumigaoka Utaha thought, then shook her head.
Better not to think about Eriri. Even without the appearance of Kato Megumi, she was still destined to be a loser in love in this life. Who could she blame when she was already several laps behind at the starting line?
Compared to her own side, which was already used to the mysterious person's persecution, it was better to pay attention to Shinomiya Kaguya for now.
After all, after a tally, a few more volumes of the Kaguya-sama manga were found on Hoshino Ai's and Yotsuya Miko's side, but overall, there were still five volumes missing.
"If the mysterious person has already sent out all the packages, does that mean that five more volumes of the manga have been sent to other people?" With the help of the girls in the group, Shinomiya Kaguya, who had also completed the "mysterious person's delivery route map," looked at the map and began to ponder.
"Chika just called me and said that she had received a few more manga volumes that seemed to feature her, me, and Hayasaka as the main characters. So the mysterious person chose to split the content of the manga and distribute it to the people around me this time?"
Listening to Fujiwara Chika's description, the content of the manga she received was very fragmented, as if the parts of the manga where Fujiwara Chika had a lot of screen time were gathered together and then edited down into a slice-of-life manga where the plot was indecipherable.
Shinomiya Kaguya had already sent Hayasaka Ai to the Fujiwara household to pick up both the manga Fujiwara Chika received and Chika herself. When Chika arrived, she would know the specifics of the manga in her hands.
And now, Shinomiya Kaguya recorded the time Chika received the manga on her timeline.
After doing all this, she discovered that the route on the delivery map, which had originally seemed a bit roundabout and had taken a lot of extra time, suddenly became much more reasonable.
Perhaps she could use this method to find the other few unreasonable routes, and from the area between these routes, find the residences of people related to her, and thus roughly analyze who the mysterious person might have sent the remaining manga to.
Shinomiya Kaguya thought, and then immediately began to analyze with her sharp mind.
With this analysis, she quickly found one or two other routes that might be problematic.
One of them passed through the wealthy district of Beika Town. If the mysterious person didn't deliberately bypass Beika Town, this inner world's garbage dump, then the most likely person to receive the manga on this route would be a member of the not-so-quiet branch of the Shinomiya family, the Shijo family.
"Is it that little girl, Shijo Maki?"
Shinomiya Kaguya, who was two generations senior to her, and Shijo Maki, although they both attended Shuchiin since they were little and were in the same grade, almost never interacted with each other due to family reasons. At most, they would secretly compete in terms of grades.
Of course, she was always the more outstanding one.
However, after getting the diary, Shinomiya Kaguya had stopped caring much about these things.
Even though she had just briefly skimmed the beginning and end of her manga and found that although the main reason for the Shinomiya family's decline was indeed her father's poor health, that Shijo family seemed to have made quite a few small moves in the process, Shinomiya Kaguya only felt a slight dissatisfaction towards the Shijo family in her heart.
But she still had no ill feelings towards Shijo Maki.
After all, who would dislike a girl who, in her first appearance in the manga, without even having her lines or name mentioned, had already become a loser in love?
She flipped through the manga, and when she came to the page where Shijo Maki looked listless with teary eyes, she couldn't help but let out a light laugh.
So that little girl has a crush on the young master of the Tanuma family. How interesting.
"However, if the manga really fell into the hands of the Shijo family, perhaps I can take this opportunity to give them a warning in advance, so they don't make any moves behind my back."
"Besides that... there might be a problem with this other route."
Shinomiya Kaguya looked at the map in her hand.
However, the area in the middle of the other route seemed to be all residential districts, and she hadn't heard of any diary-holding girls there.
So, was it another character who had appeared in the manga, or a girl who had received a second-batch diary?
Shinomiya Kaguya needed time to verify this point.
If it was a second-batch girl, then she would go find her and see if she could get a reward.
If it was another character who appeared in the manga... then she didn't need to care. Using the excuse that someone at Shuchiin wanted to smear her name, she could just use the power of the Shinomiya family to forcibly retrieve these manga.
Even if those people might be major characters in the manga, it was no exception.
Shinomiya Kaguya couldn't understand her own strange actions in the manga. Hayasaka Ai also said that she couldn't imagine what kind of man could turn her into the silly girl in the manga.
Probably because she hadn't yet been affected by the intelligence-lowering aura called "love."
Even after quickly flipping through these manga, it was difficult for her to reconstruct how the "Shinomiya Kaguya" in the manga, who looked just like her, had changed her mindset over the next year.
After all, the manga didn't mention much about this part of the plot, and it was completely discontinuous.
It was as if in the manga, one moment she was the self she was familiar with now, and the next moment, time jumped, and she had already fallen for the other's earnest and gentle attitude and become the love-struck girl later on, with no transition period in between.
However, after spending a long time in the chat group, Shinomiya Kaguya had learned a lot.
For example, Umaru had previously complained in the group about the tropes in many school romance manga, saying that "although many male protagonists in school manga don't do anything special and win the hearts of a bunch of beautiful girls just by being 'gentle and considerate,' who can blame them for being the male protagonist? With that protagonist status, they are just naturally likable."
For this, Umaru even brought up Katsura Kotonoha, who had started to practice Iaido again, as an example.
"Look at that Itou Makoto from Kotonoha's side. He's probably still secretly using Kotonoha's photo as his phone wallpaper. A scumbag like that who's good for nothing and has a weak will, and yet at Kotonoha's school, there are many girls who have a crush on him and have ganged up to isolate Kotonoha."
This was something the girls in the group had noticed after Shinomiya Kaguya hired a detective to monitor Itou Makoto's situation, plus Katsura Kotonoha occasionally mentioning some things about her school in the group.
It was only because of this that the girls in the group realized that there really were male protagonists in this world who seemed introverted and didn't do anything, yet could become the object of a group of girls' crushes.
Perhaps this was the so-called protagonist halo.
Now it seemed that in her manga, there was a similar plot.
As the female protagonist, she, under the arrangement of the script, fell in love with the male protagonist without any trouble.
It was just that the male protagonist was not a scumbag like Itou Makoto.
But in the final chapters of the manga, not only could she not empathize with the "herself" in the manga at all, but she couldn't even see any "talent" in this male protagonist that was worthy of her attention.
The manga artist with "world-shaking wisdom" who created her and Hoshino Ai, was only sharply criticized by the mysterious person once or twice. The mysterious person was really holding back.
Originally, Shinomiya Kaguya had already decided that her future would not be at Shuchiin and was prepared to completely overturn her original script.
And after reading these manga, she was even more certain of this.
In her future, she didn't need any male protagonist.
Not even the mysterious person was an exception.
Then, in the next moment, in the chat group that was still lively at midnight, that Miyano Shiho who had been silent all night finally spoke.
"It seems that the mysterious person has already rescued my sister. A recent photo of my sister just appeared on my bed, with a note on the back telling me to leave the organization as soon as possible before they find out."
Seeing this sentence, Shinomiya Kaguya immediately felt her fists clench.
This was the talent she had reserved for herself. How was she suddenly poached by that guy, the mysterious person!