As my dazed mind woke up, I opened my eyes in bed.
"W-what..."
My blurry vision suddenly went white, as if a bright light had been shone straight into my eyes.
For a moment I was startled by the strange phenomenon, but as I gradually adjusted to the light, I could tell where I was.
"Where am I...?"
A pure white space I had never seen before.
It was bizarre beyond belief, a place made entirely of white, with not even shadows existing there.
I thought I had gotten up from a bed, but where I had risen was some ridiculous place that was not a bed at all.
"What the hell happened?"
I had definitely been sleeping in the bed in my room.
I had no idea why I had been dropped into a place like this, or whose doing it was.
For now, all I could think was that I wanted to escape this space.
"Ughhh..."
At that moment, someone else was summoned into the room.
"Who... Itsuka-kun?"
"Uh... Hieta?"
Itsuka-kun, someone I knew well, had somehow been summoned here too.
As we stared at each other in this incomprehensible situation, yet another person suddenly appeared in midair.
"Hello, everyone!"
The thing speaking as if it were the MC had an appearance I could only describe as extremely unusual.
Its features were vague, and its body was as white as this space.
Even so, the outline of its body was sharply drawn in black, as if traced with ink, so it was obvious at a glance that this bastard was the one who had summoned us here.
"Who are you...?"
Standing in front of Itsuka-kun, I asked cautiously, trying my best to stay on guard.
Then the thing turned what I supposed was its face toward me, and our eyes met.
It clearly had no eyes, but that was the feeling I got.
It even split its mouth in a grotesque grin and laughed.
"Ahahaha! To call me 'the thing,' how rude..."
How disappointing?
"...!"
"Just now!"
Its words slammed straight into my head.
It even seemed to be reading my mind, because it knew I had been calling it a thing in my head.
"So, not a thing?"
"Who are you?"
"Ah, dear me. I forgot to introduce myself! Allow me to greet you again! I am..."
The being bowed politely toward empty air, one hand held out in front and the other clasped behind its back.
"The creator of this place."
My name is Cram.
"What the hell does that mean...?"
All right, everyone! Last chapter, I said in the afterword that I’d do a Q&A, remember?
"Last chapter...? Q&A...?"
Yes! A Q&A! Before we get to that, I’ve brought in the brightest protagonists in this world! The two of them!
"What kind of bullsh-- wait!"
"Hieta? Do you know what that means...?"
"Y-you bastard!"
Oops! Trying to attack me, are you? That’s nonsense!
"You! You’re the bastard who’s been dragging me around like a dog!"
Correct! Since your memories will vanish anyway, I’ll tell you everything! This is the world of a novel! As the protagonists of that novel, you two have the duty to do today’s Q&A!
"I-I’m the protagonist...?"
"Itsuka-kun! What are you hoping for? Most of the incidents happened because of that guy!"
"W-what...?"
Half of that is correct. Still, I’m not the original story, so I just followed the source material, okay? Besides, you, Hieta, were an impurity from the start.
"You little piece of shit..."
Whoa, whoa, calm down. The reason I brought you here today is, as I just said, for the Q&A! Answer the questions and that’s it! If you answer them all, I’ll let you out of this space.
"And if we don’t?"
Then you’ll be trapped here forever, like in endless hell.
"...Haa, fine. We’ll do it, okay?"
Okay, deal!
"How is that a deal? That’s extortion..."
"Um, what does that mean...?"
"Ah, basically, if you answer the questions that bastard asks, he’ll let us out. If not, we stay trapped here."
"......"
It’s true, so don’t despair. Now then, first question!
"Q1. When is the yandere side story coming out?"
"Yandere side story...?"
"Hey, you bastard author. What the hell did you write?"
Ah... I can’t say for sure, but it should come out within this year. As for that world, to put it simply, Hiki will get ground down so badly he won’t even be able to grind anymore!
"Hey! You crazy...!"
Next!
"Q2. I’m curious about where this is going."
That’s a bit of a spoiler, so to say it briefly, I’m planning to follow the original story to some extent. This author’s plotting ability is lacking, so if I tried to write it as pure original content, it would definitely crash and burn. Still, there will be some additions along the way!
"If you say original story, does that mean I was the original protagonist!?"
Well, Hiki ended up becoming the protagonist somehow! Next!
"Q3. OPNG"
"Do I really have to answer this?"
"This is a little..."
I can tear this apart just fine, though? I—! Mmph! Mmmph!
"I-I blocked it!"
"Next!!!"
"Q4. What are your plans for side stories?"
Hmm... I don’t really have any side stories planned. Whenever I imagine, "What if this happened?" a side story ends up coming out of it, so I can’t really give a definite answer.
"Wait, then what about the TS or darkened version I dreamed about!"
I wrote that part.
"......"
Don’t glare at me like you want to kill me. Next!
"Q5. I want to know what you like."
That’s a little vague too. If we’re talking hobbies, then reading web novels, I guess? That’s why I’m writing something like this too.
"Dark Souls."
"I... guess cooking?"
Got it. Next question!
"Q6. May I ask for permission regarding whether it’s okay to lock you in the rapid-update room..."
That’s far enough. I do not want to be locked in some terrifying rapid-update room! Absolutely not! Never!
"Whoa, that’s insane..."
"That might be a little scary..."
"Q7. If the protagonist gets hit by Phantom, does he die?"
"Huh? Me? Me getting hit by Phantom?"
"Phantom? The spirit who turned Kotori into a spirit?"
Right. That spirit. The question is whether Hiki dies if Phantom attacks him. In that case, it depends on what kind of attack Phantom uses. At the very least, if it’s a normal attack, Hiki absolutely won’t die. He’s immortal.
"You’re the one who made me like this..."
"Q8. Last time, a demon popped out during Origami’s part. Is there a chance that’ll happen again?"
"A demon...?"
"During Origami’s part? That monster from then!?"
Shido, what you saw was right! There is a chance demons will appear again in the future! But even if they do, whether they’ll have much importance is another matter. Honestly, even the Demon Prince who showed up last time was one-shot.
"I was just too strong."
"Just thinking about that time makes me shake..."
"Q9. What’s the serialization schedule?"
That depends on my condition. To be honest, I don’t have any stockpiled chapters or anything, so I usually just think up the rough framework and write immediately, which makes the schedule fluctuate. Still, I’ll try to post at least once a day, or take only a day or, at most, two days off.
"So that’s why time felt weirdly slow..."
"That was the reason...?"
"Q10. Do you plan to add more people to the current cast?"
This probably means Hiki’s heroines, but if I add any more, it’ll get messy, so I don’t plan to!
"If you had any conscience, you wouldn’t add more here..."
"Still, there are a lot of girls around Hieta."
"Q11. Is there a 기준 for how you divide heroines between Shido and Hai?"
"Finally, my name was called properly—!"
It’s whatever the author feels like. Honestly, I originally thought about dumping only the loli-type heroines on Hiki, but then he’d really end up becoming a lolicon, so I added other girls too.
"...Hieta, you’re kind of pitiful."
"......"
"Q12. If Hai had lived like a wooden statue, as Kyeong-sik mentioned, what would have happened?"
"A wooden statue...? I guess it wouldn’t really be all that different from now."
As Hiki said, it probably wouldn’t have been much different. The people around him would just have suffered from frustration. The moment Yoshino asked him out on a date and he blurted out something like, "No way that’s a date. With me? Nah, impossible," Shido would have been driven insane by the frustration.
"Honestly, he did have that tendency at the start..."
"What do you mean? He’s gotten better now."
"Q13. Who does Hai like in Dark Souls besides the Fire Keeper? It can be romantic or just as a friend."
That’s a question for Hiki.
"Um... if I exclude the Fire Keeper, the character I like would probably be the Painter Girl."
"...Lolicon?"
See? I told you he was a lolicon.
"I’m not!"
"Q14. If Dark Souls characters became kinder and appeared as spacequakes in Date A Live, I’m curious how the characters would react."
"...Well, if nonhuman ones showed up, they’d freak out."
"What on earth is in that world...?"
As Hiki said, if nonhuman creatures showed up, AST would freak out too. Demons, ancient dragons, things like that. No matter how kind they became, their appearance is still their appearance. I’m thinking of writing more details in a side story later!
"Q15. How strong are they ranked?"
"A strength ranking..."
"A topic no man can resist."
Hmm... if I had to rank them, it’d be like this.
Tied for 1st: the spirit who caused the first spacequake, darkened Hiki
2nd: normal Hiki
3rd: berserk Shido, Isaac in the final chapter
4th: combat-type fully manifested spirit
5th: Ellen
That’s about how I’d place them.
"Darkened Hieta is that strong...?"
"Well, he becomes a monster that tries to destroy everything he sees."
"Q16. Which character left the strongest impression on you, or still lingers in your mind the most?"
I’m not sure if you mean characters from Date A Live specifically, or all characters in general. If you mean Date A Live, then Yoshino left the strongest impression on me. A harem story with a loli-type heroine? Yes please! And she’s kind too!
"So even the author is a lolicon..."
Silence! I’m not a lolicon! And if I were to pick from another work, it would probably be Dio from JoJo, the one who got me into being a nerd in the first place. The World!
"Q17. What’s your favorite music, like game OSTs?"
I’m not really the type to focus on music while playing games, so I can’t give you a proper answer. Still, lately I’ve been listening a lot to the song "What Has Ended Means It Has Started Again" from SANABI. Ahh, Mr. Geumjun..."
"We are the owl that does not cry, the tiger without footprints."
"What kind of game gets that kind of reaction...?"
"You should try it too, Itsuka-kun. Then you’ll understand how I feel."
"Q18. How likely is it that Hieta or Shido awakens, or that Shido inherits Hieta’s powers, like in a plotline?"
"I inherit Hieta’s powers? Like that lightning or fire stuff?"
"If you inherited that, it probably wouldn’t feel very good..."
The chance of that happening is extremely low! You could say it’s about one in tens of thousands? For inheritance to happen, Hiki would at least have to die. If there ever were a case where Hiki died, then Shido would probably inherit the powers only after gathering up all the spiritual power and souls he had been sharing with Hiki.
"...I don’t even want to think about it."
"Same here."
"Q19. I’m curious about Hieta’s Date A Live-style status screen."
"My status screen?"
"W-well, Hieta is classified as a spirit, so I figured there’d be one."
Shido, correct! There’s a status screen that Ratatoskr was about to discard! I’ve secretly brought it here, so let’s all take a look.
Name: Higakieta Hai
Codename: [Knight]
Strength - 220
Durability - 52
Spiritual Power - (unmeasurable)
Agility - 100
Intelligence - 103
Spacequake Scale - D
Spirit Rank - ???
Angel Rank - ???
Total Threat Level - C
"What, it’s not that high?"
Well, that’s because there’s absurdly little known about Hiki.
For one thing, the spacequake only happened once, right when he first appeared, and he hasn’t attacked people or caused any trouble since then, so his total threat level has to be low.
His strength is about on par with Tohka’s, and his durability is low. Even ordinary AST weapons can leave wounds on his body.
"What about spiritual power?"
That’s unmeasurable. How much soul do you think your body has? It’s at least over a million.
"Fair enough..."
"Then why is the spacequake scale like that?"
Ah, that’s because the first spacequake was extremely small. Probably the smallest among all spirits in history. Since he never caused another spacequake after that, it stayed there.
And he doesn’t even have an angel to begin with, so it’s listed like that. Even if he wears armor, it’s not like it has the exceptional defense of a true spirit’s angel. Well, maybe if it were Havel.
"Agility is probably like that because I can’t fly. And angel rank is because I don’t have an angel at all?"
Correct! If you counted the spiral sword as an angel, it would probably get an easy S rank. It can melt angels, after all.
"I see."
By the way, here’s the first one! Let’s look at Hiki when he’s darkened too!
Name: Higakieta Hai
Codename: [Hollow]
Strength - 999
Durability - 52
Spiritual Power - (unmeasurable)
Agility - 999
Intelligence - 0
Spacequake Scale - D
Spirit Rank - ???
Angel Rank - ???
Total Threat Level - SSS
"This is..."
"A lot has changed."
Strength and agility have especially gone completely insane here, but that’s only natural. Hiki is still human, so under normal circumstances he’s controlling his strength to some extent. But the moment he becomes undead?
"The control comes off and he brings out his full original power..."
Correct! That’s why it was measured like that. And his durability is still low because his defense is weak, while his intelligence is 0 because once he becomes undead, there’s no such thing as intelligence anymore!
"The total threat level... well, that makes sense."
Exactly. He’ll try to destroy everything he sees. He becomes the most dangerous one of all.
"Huhhh..."
Then next question!
"Q20. If the very ancient abyssal being Pantyman from Dark Souls secretly infiltrated this world and killed Hieta, could Hieta die?"
"I-I can’t even handle them myself..."
"Pantyman?"
Famous even outside Dark Souls! If Pantyman, the one in charge of the guys who wear panties, killed Hiki... then if Hiki were in dark spirit form, he’d come back to life, and if he came in his original form like Hiki, there would be a chance he could die. That’s because they’d absorb the souls making up Hiki’s body. However, if they didn’t absorb them, Hiki would probably survive!
"Q21. Following up on the question above, if the past lords of cinder from Dark Souls invaded this world and challenged the spirits to boss fights, what would happen?"
"The spirits would probably get wrecked."
"That badly...?"
"Yes. They’re immortal beings like me, and unlike me they have something to protect, so I don’t use rolling anymore, but they do, right? They’d use the brief invincibility from rolling to dodge every attack, find openings, and land their own hits. Even if they failed, they’re immortal, so they can try again."
Hiki, correct! Like Hiki said, the spirits would probably get trashed. The only ones who could beat them would be other abyssal beings.
"Q22. Hiki’s intelligence stat is 99, so why has he never used his head?"
"Uh... come to think of it, that is weird. Weirdly, if you raise strength, your power goes up, and if you raise vitality, your overall health goes up, so why not intelligence?"
"You mean stats like in a game?"
"Yes, I was able to raise that through the Fire Keeper."
I can explain this one! The intelligence that applies to Hiki is just the damage of sorcery! Nothing more, nothing less.
"...What?"
Well, Kotori, Reine, Kannazuki, Maria, and Marina are the ones doing all the thinking anyway, so what would he even need to do? Besides, Hiki never had to use his head in Dark Souls, so it’s gotten stiff!
"That was something you sent him!"
Anyway! Hiki isn’t walking around without a brain or anything. Let’s just say he has one, but it doesn’t work properly!
"Hey!?"
Well, now that the last question is done, I’ll be going. You two worked hard too!
"Ugh!"
The moment the bastard who called himself the author finished speaking, my consciousness began to fade.
Like he said, I was probably going to be kicked out of here now.
And so, I closed my eyes in the pure white space.
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