Chapter 57: Maya's Diary
Outside in the real world it was pitch black—still the middle of the night. Takumi had rested plenty, so sleep was the last thing on his mind. After shooting Nao a quick message, he quietly freshened up, then fired up the wireless router. As a hopeless otaku, it had been ages since he'd binge-read web novels. With some free time, why not catch up online?
He scrolled for a bit… then sighed heavily. 'Man, what's the point?'
He'd already landed the real-deal cheat code life. No web novel could give him that immersion anymore. 'Feels kinda empty now. What the hell, brain? You finally get isekai'd and now regular fiction is boring?'
Shrugging, he opened LINE to spam Nao with more lovey-dovey nonsense—only to notice Kitamoto Maya's avatar was lit up. 'Huh?'
If someone was asleep, the magic-powered LINE showed them offline. Curiosity piqued, Takumi tapped into her chat window and hit the camera icon to peek at her current state.
"Haah!"
A chorus of manly shouts echoed. It was a dojo. A bunch of guys in white gi were drilling punches, yelling with fiery spirit, sweat flying everywhere. Maya was right there among them in her own training uniform, standing in front of a heavy bag. Every punch she threw sent the twenty-pound sandbag swinging wildly. After finishing a set, she switched to kicks—front snap, straight, side, high roundhouse. The last one, a brutal mid-level spinning kick, was overdone. She lost balance and crashed to the mat.
"Kuso! Damn it!"
Maya slammed her fist into the floor. Whether sweat stung her eyes or the fall actually hurt, silent tears slipped down her cheeks.
"What's wrong, Maya?"
A burly middle-aged man strode over. Built like a tank—not bodybuilder flashy, just pure, raw power. Anyone looking at him thought one thing: 'strong'. Broad face, rough features, wild hedgehog hair standing straight up.
"Nandemo nai."
Maya quickly wiped her tears, stood up, head bowed. "Dad, I just tripped. It stings a little, that's all."
"Liar! You've been out of it all day, locking yourself in your room. What the hell happened to make you this weak?"
"Nothing. Really, nothing."
"I didn't raise you to be a liar!"
Anger flashed in the big man's eyes—until a woman's voice cut in.
"Anata! Don't yell at our daughter like that!"
A petite woman in an apron, short hair, looking more like a high-school girl than a mom, stormed over with a glare. The tough guy immediately deflated.
"Fine, fine… I was just worried."
"Leave girl stuff to me. I'll handle the secrets. Maya-chan, breakfast is ready~"
"Okay, Mom."
Maya bolted from the dojo, dashed to her room, shut the door, and slid down against it. Hands covering her face, she finally let the quiet sobs out.
A few minutes later she pulled herself together, stood up, and started changing. Off came the white gi, revealing a small, cute frame wrapped in a pink bra and striped panties. Petite, yes—but radiating that fresh, youthful heat.
Takumi watched through the phone screen. Strangely, seeing a beauty strip didn't spark much excitement. Just… emptiness. 'Even the toughest girls break when something like that happens, huh? Damn.'
[Detected that the Host's acquaintance has a habit of keeping written records. Would you like to read her text logs?]
"Text logs? What's that?"
[Her diary. Phone diary. You can view her activities through it.]
Takumi closed the camera feed and tapped the file-transfer icon. In seconds, Maya's entire phone diary downloaded back to him in reverse.
"2003, Month X, Day X. Starting today I'm officially a high-schooler! The best part? Mom thinks I'm grown up enough for a phone! It's just her old hand-me-down, but I'm so happy. From now on I can email friends. Decided to keep a phone diary to record all my fun high-school life!"
"2003, Month X, Day X. Made a new friend at school today—Akagi Manami. She's totally different from me. She has something I don't… probably what Mom calls 'womanly charm.' Gentle, shy like a little rabbit. Meanwhile those stupid boys call me a leopard. Screw them."
"2003, Month X, Day X. PE class today—Manami fainted. Not just heatstroke; it was bad. I carried her to the nurse's office and found out she has a congenital heart condition. Can't do any intense exercise. Kuso… I thought I was her best friend and didn't even know. How careless can I be?"
"2004, Month X, Day X. Second year now. Still in the same class as Manami-chan. So happy!"
"2004, Month X, Day X. Manami fainted again. The older she gets, the heavier the strain on her heart. Seeing her unconscious and in pain… it hurts me too."
"2004, Month X, Day X. I got into a fight today. Punched a guy from the sports club. Even though Dad drilled into me 'never use karate on classmates,' I still wrecked him easily. The idiot was going on about how 'beautiful' Manami looks when she's in pain—like some ancient Chinese 'Xi Shi clutching her heart' beauty crap. Treating her suffering like a beauty pageant? Die, asshole."
"2005, Month X, Day X. Manami's been acting weird lately. Looks terrified around boys. I mean, sure, lots of guys are useless… but there are real men like Dad. I don't hate or fear them. Some idiots even call me a yuri 'cause I'm so close to Manami. Screw that. I like guys. If someone can beat me in a fight, I'd happily be his girlfriend."
"2005, Month X, Day X. Finally figured out why Manami's scared of boys. She was assaulted! At the station bathroom she saw a train molester rape a high-school girl. She escaped, but dropped her student ID. The creep tracked her down through it and kidnapped her later. Raped her. Kuso… kuso… KUSO!!"
"2005, Month X, Day X. I have to avenge Manami. All these years training in martial arts—it was for protecting my friends."
"2005, Month X, Day X. I'll never forget today. The day my world collapsed. Finally tracked down the molester… but I got careless and he grabbed me. Right when I thought I was done for, that man appeared. He beat the molester down. I thought I'd met a hero. I was wrong. He was a demon too. He…"
"2005, Month X, Day X. Something I can't even think about happened. It's worse than losing my virginity. After we caught the molester and interrogated him, he named some victims… but not Manami. I thought he was lying—almost beat him right there in the room, but Dad's friend Officer Tanaka stopped me. Tanaka said he wasn't lying. Impossible! When I got home, broken, Manami was waiting. To clear my head I asked her—risking our friendship—to identify the guy. Her face was so strange. She told me… she'd never said anything like that happened to her."
"After two days of checking, everyone's memories are different from mine. Manami never had any trauma with boys. Was it all my hallucination? Nightmare? But the lingering pain down there… the faint smell of that man still on my skin… tells me it wasn't a dream. Am I going crazy?"
Takumi finished reading. Maya's image in his mind filled out—became real. Even in this 2D world, her life, her everyday struggles, her girlish heart… it was no different from real girls. Flesh and blood, not just some flat plot device from 'Interact Play VR'. That final entry's confusion was his too. He turned to the engraving.
"So what the hell is this? Some memory rewrite like in 'Angel Beats' with the little devil stuff?"
[No. Your interference shifted the world line of Interact Play VR from the α-line to the β-line. Only she retains memories of the original game plot. In the β-line, because the timeline changed, the molester assaulting the five heroines became a 'non-existent fact.']
"I get it. Classic Steins;Gate world-line theory."
It shared some DNA with 'Fate/stay night''s parallel worlds and 'Clannad''s After Story universe shifts, but not quite the same. Takumi had been obsessed with that series once, so he knew it inside out. And honestly? This twist made him grin.
Crossing into 2D wasn't just visiting—it was rewriting their doomed fates. Turning the creator's scripted α-lines—blackening, death, corruption, inescapable tragedy—into his loving, harem-filled β-lines.
Takumi closed the phone. Dawn was breaking. He pulled back the curtains, letting morning sun pour over him, and murmured with a dark, satisfied smile:
"My 2D beast life? It's about smashing the world lines those creators wrote… and dragging everyone into the happy, harmonious route I make."
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