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“General Gorou? General Gorou!”
“Hmm?” Gorou scratched behind his ear, preoccupied.
“Is something wrong, General?” The voice belonged to Kaida Ryouma, one of the Resistance’s officers. He was holding a stack of papers, documents that looked important to Gorou, but he couldn’t quite remember what they were for.
“No, nothing’s wrong.” Gorou shook his head, trying to shake away what was bothering him. “What are those papers for?”
“Uh, these are the forms you gave me, General.” Officer Kaida paused. “An hour ago.”
“Oh!” Gorou’s cheeks started to turn red. “I’m sorry about that. You got them filled out, right?”
“Yes, I got them all signed by the— General Gorou? General Gorou, are you sure you’re fine?”
Gorou had put his face in his hands. “Signing, the signing! What am I supposed to do?” He moaned.
“General, do you need me to get you some help or—“
Gorou took his face out of his hands and tried to regain his composure. “No, no, Officer Kaida.” He took a deep breath. “It’s just some personal matters I have to deal with. Nothing you need to be concerned about.”
“Alright…” Kaida Ryouma hesitated, but he finally left Gorou alone, thinking about what Gorou could have possibly gotten himself into.
Signing, the signing. Not even Gorou truly knew what he had gotten himself into. At the end of the Irodori Festival, Yae Miko had managed to guilt Gorou into agreeing to dress up as a light novel character and sign posters for fans at an event, but little did Gorou know who the so-called “light novel character” really was. Even so, he was terrified of what was to come.
He tidied up his work desk and left to go home and grab his bags for his trip to Narukami Island. Sangonomiya Kokomi had offered to go with him, but he gave her as firm of a refusal he could give without being disrespectful. Embarrassing himself in front of strangers was one thing, but the Divine Priestess of Narukami Island? Gorou was mortified to even think about it.
When he arrived home, he quickly got himself packed and ready to face that embarrassment — physically, not so much emotionally — and he boarded the ship to Narukami Island.
He was greeted by none other than Yae Miko herself.
“Gorou, it is so wonderful to see you and your gorgeous tail again.” Miko chuckled.
“Ahhh!” Gorou squirmed as Guuji Yae walked closer to him. “Let me put my things in my room at the hotel first, okay?”
“Alright, you can do that, but…” Miko reached out and placed a lumpy package into Gorou’s hands. “You’re going to need this. Change into it for the event.”
“It’s a woman’s outfit, isn’t it? A dress?” Gorou looked at the parcel with fear in his eyes. “How am I supposed to put that on?”
“Well, if you need any assistance getting into the outfit, I’m very happy to oblige. You will have to come to me to get your hair done, after all. I can help you with the rest as well.” The kitsune smiled as she made this offer.
“No thanks.” Gorou started backing away. “I’ll figure it out myself.”
Yae Miko sighed as Gorou dashed away to the hotel. “I didn’t even get to stroke his tail.”
She saw him stiffen for a second in the distance, knowing he had heard her. She laughed and turned away to return to the Publishing House and finish all the preparations.
“Do I look okay?” Gorou kept adjusting the neckline of his dress as he walked up to the Yae Publishing House. “The padding in the chest area is really excessive.”
“You look beautiful, my dear Ms. Hina.” Yae approached him and straightened the bow at his waist. Gorou tried his best not to flinch.
“Ms. Hina… Is that the character I’m dressing up as?” Gorou looked down at the elaborate getup he was wearing. “The signature you had me practise before coming here just said ‘Ms. H.’ so I wasn’t sure.”
“Yes, that’s her name.” Miko’s lips turned up in a smirk as she said these words.
Gorou saw this change in expression. “What! What is it! What are you not telling me?”
“What do you mean?” Yae Miko gave him a look of concern, a fake one from what Gorou could tell. “What could I possibly be hiding from you?”
“I don’t know, but it’s something!” Gorou started panicking and shaking his head. “There’s something not right here.”
“Everything is perfectly fine.” Miko reassured him. “Now, let me do your hair.”
She clipped extensions into his hair and sprayed it with something that fogged up in front of Gorou’s face and made him cough.
“Oh, look who’s here.” Miko was still touching up Gorou’s hair. “Ms. Hina, I think we have an early arrival.”
Gorou waved his hand in front of his face to disperse the mist of powder and see who was there. A tall oni man stood grinning at him, and as Gorou gave a tentative smile back, he could see the man start to blush.
“Hello, Ms. Hina!” The man’s voice was almost too loud for Gorou’s highly sensitive ears, especially considering he was shouting right in front of his face. “I’m Arataki ‘Numero Uno’ Itto, head of the Arataki Gang! You might have heard of me from all the stories about me.”
Gorou had a vague memory of meeting him in the past, but that was as himself, not Ms. Hina, so he needed to pretend this was their first time seeing each other. “Nice to meet you, Mr. Arataki.” He made sure to raise the pitch of his voice like he had practised in the weeks before the event, but still didn’t want to say too many words in case that fake voice broke down.
“Please, call me Itto.” The oni was really blushing now. He then reached out to hand Gorou all the posters he held in his hand. “These are all the posters I’d totally love for you to sign.”
“Oh, wow.” Gorou began signing each poster in the stack. “There really are a lot of them.”
“I saved up for ages to buy every poster they were selling of you, Ms. Hina,” Itto boasted. “I am not just Arataki ‘Numero Uno’ Itto but also your Numero Uno fan, if I should say so myself.”
“I’m glad to hear it.” Gorou was on the seventh poster and felt like they would never end. Who knew this Ms. Hina character had so many posters made of her? This light novel must have been popular, Gorou thought.
“You really saved my life with all the advice you gave.” Itto had an intense look on his face. “I was completely directionless before you helped me, but now I’ve found my way.”
Gorou tensed up. This “Ms. Hina” was sounding less and less like a light novel character. He knew for sure that there was something fishy going on. Still, he didn’t want to ignore Itto’s heartfelt words. “Thank you, Itto, I appreciate it.” His voice cracked a bit at the end of the sentence as he started filling with anger towards the kitsune who roped him into this.
Miko could sense Gorou’s shift in demeanour, so she chose this moment to interrupt the conversation. “Now, since Ms. Hina here has finished signing your posters, we must get on to the next guest.”
Itto gave a loud, dramatic sigh. “Alright, alright. Well, Ms. Hina, I loved meeting you, and I wish we had the time to talk more, and— Hey, wait a minute!” Itto’s attention was now on Miko. “Aren’t you the fox lady I beat in a ramen eating contest?”
Miko simply gave him a smile and gestured at the line of guests that was becoming longer by the minute.
“Oh, sorry! Well…” Itto turned his attention back to Gorou. “Goodbye, Ms. Hina. Meeting you was just as amazing as I imagined it to be.”
As he left, Gorou turned to Yae Miko. “Can you explain what’s going on?!”
She waved him off. “Not now, Ms. Hina. You still have guests to attend to.”
Gorou looked at the line of people gathered in front of the Yae Publishing House, a line that didn’t seem to end. He took a deep breath, sucking up all his fear and anger, and he gave the next guest his most radiant smile.