In the Prefecture, there was no shortage of light novel magazines with real influence on the market.
However, aside from a handful of nationally famous publications, the magazines most familiar to local readers still belonged to the five major light novel publishing houses.
The people who bought these magazines ranged from office workers and students to teachers and freelancers, spanning nearly every age group and profession.
No one thought it was strange or embarrassing to see someone in their twenties or thirties standing on a train platform or sitting on the subway, completely absorbed in a youth romance magazine.
That was simply the atmosphere of society.
In Japan, otaku culture had long been accepted into everyday life. There was no need to look at people who loved anime and light novels through tinted glasses.
As noon approached, more and more people gathered outside bookstores, newsstands, and magazine shops to buy the latest releases.
The five major light novel publishers were competitors, but not the kind who blindly tried to crush each other.
Their flagship magazines deliberately staggered release dates. For example, Crimson Maple Literature's main magazine, Crimson Maple, came out on Wednesdays and Sundays, while Blue Sky Press's top-selling magazine, Blue Sky, released on Tuesdays and Saturdays.
The other major publishers followed similar schedules with their own flagship titles.
If everyone released on the same day, readers would be overwhelmed with choices, sales would cannibalize each other, and everyone would lose. No publisher was foolish enough to invite that outcome.
As for Fleeting Blossoms, it was a triweekly magazine like Crimson Maple, and its release days happened to fall on the same days as Crimson Maple.
Over the years, Crimson Maple Literature had cultivated a loyal fanbase. For most of them, Crimson Maple was their first pick. Still, a significant number of readers chose to buy both Crimson Maple and Fleeting Blossoms together, since they were released on the same day.
The prices were reasonable too.
Crimson Maple sold for 500 yen per copy, while Fleeting Blossoms was priced at 400 yen.
Nina was one of those readers.
Her family lived near the center of City, and she had grown up reading magazines published by Crimson Maple Literature. Even now that she was an adult, the habit had never changed.
"Let's see," Nina muttered to herself. "There's a new serialization in Crimson Maple this issue. huh."
After returning home, she set Crimson Maple aside and turned her attention to Fleeting Blossoms instead.
That was her usual reading order.
She always started with the magazine she was slightly less invested in, saving her favorite for last. That way, every series she read built anticipation for the next, instead of leaving her bored after finishing the one she cared about most.
She tore open the plastic wrapping on Fleeting Blossoms and immediately felt something different.
There was clearly something extra inside. The magazine felt thicker than usual.
And the cover illustration was different too.
There were two unfamiliar illustrated characters on the front.
When she opened the first page, two folded posters slipped out.
Nina unfolded them on the table.
The first illustration showed a boy and a girl holding hands beneath a star-filled sky, their heads tilted upward as they gazed into the cosmos. At the top, bold letters read Yesterday's Starlight.
The second poster depicted autumn leaves swirling through the air as a boy and a girl stood facing each other, locked in a quiet, intense gaze.
Both illustrations were well done. Posters like these mainly served to give readers a rough visual impression of the main characters.
"Blue Spring Ride?" Nina murmured.
"This issue has two new series starting?"
Curious, she settled back onto the sofa and flipped through the pages.
As always, she decided to start with the new serializations.
The first one she read was Yesterday's Starlight, written by the author using the pen name "Airi."
Before she realized it, she was already drawn in.
Judging from the poster, Nina had expected Yesterday's Starlight to be a straightforward high school romance.
But less than two thousand words in, she realized how wrong she was.
The story opened with a long-standing urban legend circulating through the school, followed by the heroine, Miyu Shinomiya, rescuing an injured black cat on campus.
The male lead was… the black cat?
A fantasy romance set in a school environment?
That was surprisingly rare.
As she continued reading, Nina became more and more absorbed.
After accidentally triggering the curse tied to the school's urban legend, the black cat began appearing in Miyu's dreams. Together, they wandered through a dreamlike version of the school, searching for a way to save her fate.
Within the dream, the black cat transformed into a boy, and as the journey continued, the bond between him and Miyu slowly deepened.
The first half of the chapter focused heavily on worldbuilding and setting explanations, which made the pacing feel a little slow. But once the story shifted into its main plot in the latter half, the tense and mysterious fantasy romance swept Nina right into its world.
She finished the entire chapter in about ten minutes.
When she reached the final page of Yesterday's Starlight's first installment, a powerful urge to keep reading welled up inside her.
"It's way too short," she complained, slumping back against the sofa. "It stops right at the best part. Which one of the three Miyus in the dream is real? How does the black cat boy tell them apart? Ending it here is torture."
Her expression turned sour.
She had assumed it would be just another average new series in Fleeting Blossoms. She had not expected the story to hook her this hard.
A magazine serialized many novels at once, and most of them inevitably felt mediocre to any given reader. Everyone had different tastes, after all.
She did not know how other readers felt, but for her, Yesterday's Starlight was exactly her kind of story.
"Looks like I'm following another series now," Nina said with a stretch. "Please do not let it fall apart later."
Without lingering too long, she flipped through the table of contents and turned to the next new serialization.
Blue Spring Ride by Shiori Takahashi
"I once had a season of time that could never fade. It was the summer of middle school, after classes ended, when a sudden rainstorm fell…"
The opening lines were written from the perspective of the heroine, Futaba, capturing her inner monologue from her middle school days.
Sheltering from the rain beneath the eaves, she ran into a classmate who was also hiding from the downpour.
Two awkward teenagers.
Futaba accepting a towel from the boy to dry her hair. Stealing glances at his face through the curtain of rain. Her heart pounding so loudly she could hear it. Blurting out, "I hate all boys," out of embarrassment and fear that her feelings for him would be noticed.
And then realizing that the boy she liked, Kou, had heard her words.
It was a simple opening, yet in just a few hundred words, Nina was completely drawn in.
Seeing the story through Futaba's eyes, she felt the sting of tsundere pride ruining everything.
The careless words that hurt someone she cared about. The boy transferring schools the very next day. Futaba wanting to apologize, yet never getting the chance.
With concise, gentle prose, the story established its emotional hook and pulled Nina's curiosity tight.
She leaned forward slightly, already eager to read more.
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