"AAAAHHH!!"
"First place! You actually got first place!!"
Eriri jumped up excitedly, her face beaming with pure joy.
Beside her, Mahiru also smiled, watching Eriri bounce around like an excited rabbit.
Meanwhile, Mashiro, who had been quietly focused on her drawing, lifted her head, looking confused. She didn't understand Eriri's outburst—only that it was noisy.
Akifumi chuckled helplessly and said in a calming voice, "Alright, alright."
"It's just the preliminaries. No need to get so worked up over first place, is there?"
Eriri rolled her eyes and pouted. "You think that's why I'm excited?!"
Of course, he knew. But still...
Akifumi shrugged. "It's just the preliminary round."
"Hmph," Eriri huffed, lifting her chin proudly. "I don't care! First place means we can slap those haters in the face, and that's all that matters to me!"
Akifumi just shook his head, amused.
'She's still so naïve,' he thought.
As if winning the preliminaries would be enough to silence the haters.
Sighing, he reached out and ruffled Eriri's hair. "No point arguing over things like that."
"Now that we've seen the rankings, I'll be heading back to work."
With that, Akifumi stood up and walked towards his room.
"Work, work, work! Why is that guy so ridiculously passionate about working?!" Eriri grumbled.
Mahiru chuckled. "You've known him for a while now. Haven't you gotten used to it?"
"Getting used to it is one thing. Complaining is another!" Eriri sighed and then hesitated before mumbling, "Do you think maybe we just don't appeal to him?"
As soon as she voiced the thought, she shook her head.
"Wait, no, that doesn't make sense."
Her face flushed slightly as she recalled his focus during their intimate moment. Neither she nor Mahiru could best him.
To say they had no appeal? That was ridiculous.
Mahiru, her own cheeks tinged with pink, glanced nervously at Mashiro. Seeing that the quiet girl showed no reaction, she let out a small sigh of relief.
'Eriri really says anything that comes to her mind...'
Shaking her head, Mahiru spoke up. "If he wasn't this dedicated, Mugiho-kun wouldn't have gotten this far, would he?"
"Yeah, that's true." Eriri nodded in agreement.
Maybe he was talented, but his effort went beyond even that. Compared to most in the industry, his level of dedication was on another level entirely.
'Talent isn't scary,' she thought. "Talent combined with hard work—that's terrifying."
Letting out another sigh, she muttered, "I mean, drawing manga is my dream, too, but... to work like him?"
"Yeah, no way!"
She had no doubt about that.
Mahiru smiled reassuringly.
"Well, as long as we do our part and support him, isn't that enough?"
"...I guess you're right."
Still, Eriri mumbled under her breath, "But he could at least pay more attention to our feelings sometimes..."
Mahiru's smile deepened.
She didn't say anything, but in that moment, the two girls were perfectly in sync.
———————————————————————
At the same time, the internet was absolutely exploding with reactions to the ranking results.
———————————————————————
"First place?! FIRST PLACE!!"
"I KNEW IT! I TOTALLY CALLED IT!!"
"With the quality of CLANNAD, this first place is 100% deserved!"
"Where are the haters now?! Come out and keep talking!"
"As everyone knows, the Story Creation Tournament is always fair and just. The fact that CLANNAD won first despite not having the highest fan votes says a lot."
"Guys, don't bother. You can't wake someone who's pretending to sleep. Haters will never admit they were wrong; they'll just find something else to nitpick."
"CLANNAD isn't just good—it's that the other entries were just worse."
"Bro, you predicted exactly what the haters would say!"
"So predictable! Too funny!"
"Before the rankings: 'What a trash series.'
After the rankings: 'CLANNAD didn't win because it's the best, but because others underperformed.'"
"If first place is 'trash,' what does that make the other entries? Even worse trash?"
"I almost feel embarrassed for these haters!"
———————————————————————
After a month-long battle, the fans had finally claimed victory!
Any hater who dared to show their face that night was instantly drowned in a sea of mockery.
And that was to be expected.
In the face of CLANNAD's undisputed first-place ranking, any argument against it felt hollow.
That night, the fandom celebrated like never before.
But that wasn't all.
Following the announcement, CLANNAD's sales saw yet another explosive surge.
A manga winning first place in a novel-writing competition?
That headline alone was enough to draw massive attention.
Whether out of curiosity or genuine interest, people found themselves buying a copy at bookstores.
On top of that, many casual readers—who only cared about results—were drawn to CLANNAD simply because it was the winner.
Reading the summary piqued their interest, and they decided to purchase the first volume.
Without a doubt, thanks to the tournament hype, CLANNAD's first volume was on track to break Akifumi's personal sales record!
Even though this volume didn't have any earth-shattering moments...
Even though the deeper, emotional layers hadn't been fully revealed yet...
This was the power of mainstream appeal!
And now that the rankings had been revealed, the date for the main competition had finally been set.
———————————————————————
The first round would begin on July 20th!
———————————————————————
Fans were ecstatic. The anticipation was sky-high.
And soon enough, the much-awaited day arrived—July 20th.
"Mugiho-kun, do your best!"
"You got this!"
Mahiru and Mashiro pumped their fists with adorable determination.
Akifumi smiled. "I'll do my best."
"That said... if they give me a topic I'm not good at, there's not much I can do."
Mahiru blinked in surprise. "There's a topic you're not good at?"
"Of course."
"I'm not some kind of all-powerful genius. Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses."
Not wanting to waste any more time, Akifumi bid the two girls farewell and stepped into the car the tournament organizers had sent to pick him up.
The main event had begun.