The Novelite's Journey

Hope for the Best

In order to make Shiori understand that you are not part of her dream, you would need to tell her something she doesn't already know and could find on her own. However, as Shiori is the Archiver, finding a story she doesn’t already is incredibly difficult. Luckily, there is an entire genre of media Shiori tends to avoid. As much as she loves stories, she has a tendency to avoid romance focused stories. For her, it's fine if there is some romance in the story so long as it’s not the main focus of the story, but if it is entirely romance focused, then she avoids it. "All I have to do is get a few pure romance works and have her look it up afterward. I just hope she actually looks it up on her own. Let's hope for the best. It's time to head to the library." You make your way to the library and look through the romance genre. You look for any form of fiction that Shiori would instantly avoid. You decide that looking in the shoujo manga section would be the best option. However, in your haste, you had forgotten a very important fact. You despise 90% of shoujo manga. You want the ones the Shiori would definitely avoid, but that in turn triggered your burning hatred. "God, I forgot how much I hated these manga. So many times, the girl chooses the worst options out of all the guys. Why do they always go for the guy with obvious issues when there is a perfectly nice, loving guy right in front of her.  The final decision is usually the jerk or nice guy, and the jerk somehow wins. I do not understand it." While you were going on your rant, Three walked up to you, wondering what you were doing. "If you hate it so much, why are you sitting in the section that only has things like that. Unless you just enjoy making yourself angry." Three's presence snaps you out your endless rant. "Thanks, Three. Got lost in my anger there. I hate these stories so much. Wait, he nearly started another rant." Three laughs, "No problem. But if you hate it that much, why are you there? Are you trying to see if your tastes have changed?" You want to tell Three and the others what has been happening, but you don't want to bring their hopes up without anything concrete. "Just felt like it today. To see if my tolerance and patience have improved. As you saw, it has not, at least not when it comes to shoujo. I've spent enough time getting angry over that. I think it's time to go." You leave a confused Three behind, with some manga in your arms. You head back to your room to memorize the stories to tell Shiori later in your dream world.

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(In the Dream World)

It's become a regular thing, interacting with Shiori in this dream like world. The two of you have talked about many things. This time, you have brought the knowledge of shoujo manga to torture Shiori and give her a hint that tells her this isn't just a dream. "By the way, Shiori, are you still bad with romance stories?" Shiori thinks about her answer, "I wouldn't say bad, but I still don't like pure romance stories. Those types tend to focus on adding pointless drama that can be resolved with a simple conversation." With that answer, you know you made the right choice. "Well, I have some stories to tell you. I found some new manga you might be interested in." Shiori looks interested in these stories, unaware of what you are really about to say. You start describing parts of the shoujo manga you found. How the female lead had a one-sided break up with her immature boyfriend and started dating her childhood friend. However, when her ex came back to town, she realized she still had feelings for him for some reason, even though he hadn't changed. She eventually breaks up with childhood friend to start dating the ex, and the childhood friend just disappears. Shiori's face becomes more and more annoyed as you continue talking about this story. "STOP! PLEASE STOP! THIS IS TORTURE! This is why I don't read those stories. No one acts that way. No one is that stupid. I hope." You start telling another one where when the female lead and the male lead get in an argument, the female lead goes out with another guy saying they are just friends and they were just cheering her up. Female lead never sees a problem when she does it, but if the male lead is seen with a girl, then it's a problem. Shiori looks like she has lost all patience, "This is your only warning, stop." You were about to tell your third story when Shiori bonks you. "I warned you. You didn't listen. Prepare yourself." Shiori continues attacking you with the hammer relentlessly. Once she was done and you recovered from the beating, you got to the main topic. "Shiori, have you ever heard of these manga?" Shiori looks confused at your question, "No. Of course not. You know I don't read pure romance, and after those summaries, I never will. Wait, how do you know something I don't? Have I actually read those?" You nod no at her, "No. Those manga basically brand new. You couldn't have read them before, especially with your taste." Shiori gets more confused, "Then, how?" You finally have the opportunity to get Shiori to realize that this isn't a dream. "This is a dream Shiori. I'm actually here. I don't know how, but this is actually me." Shiori looks like she can't understand what she heard. "No, you can't be the real one. You're not the real one. This is just my dream. You are just saying things I want to hear." You try to tell otherwise, but she cut you off. "No! Stop! I lost you once. I can't handle losing you again." The world around you starts to rumble. The more upset Shiori becomes, the world you are in distorts. "Please. If this is a dream, then I can see you whenever I sleep. If you are real and we don't know why this is happening, then it can end at any point." You felt terrible. You were so focused on getting Shiori to realize you were real that you didn't think about how she would react. You saw firsthand how she reacted when you first disappeared. Shiori is usually energetic and upbeat, but she can be very emotional. She gets sad easily and values her friend dearly. She probably can't handle the thought of losing her closest friend twice. You stand and give the crying Shiori a hug. "I'm sorry, Shiori. I didn't think about how you would feel. I just didn't want to be a dream to you." Shiori hugs you back, "Are you really here? You're not just a part of my dream?" You look Shiori in the eye, "I'm real. To prove that to you, I found those terrible manga. I knew you would never touch those, and they are basically brand new. Once you wake up, look up their names, and you should find them. Then you'll see that this isn't a dream." Shiori with a worried look, "And what do we do after that? What changes?" You want to answer her questions, but you don't have any answers. "I don't know. We can think about that later, together." Shiori stops crying and finally smiles, "Ok. I don’t know where this will go, but I'll hope for the best." The world around you starts the fade, which means you are about to wake up. "I'll see you later, Shiori." Shiori nods at you, "See you later, Novelite."

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Shiori wakes up. She quickly remembers the dream, and for a second, I wonder if she should take it seriously. She's afraid to take the chance, but she remembers she said she'll hope for the best, which means believing the dream. Shiori quickly gets up and gets her laptop. She immediately looks up the manga that Novelite told her about, and just as they said, there they were. Two brand new shoujo manga. "It's really them. It's not just a dream." Shiori starts crying. She's happy that she can see the real one again, but she does not know where this leads. The not knowing scares her. How is this possible? She's never seen any of her past novelites once they faded away. What makes them different? Will the dream end at some point? What if, just what if she can bring them back? Nothing would make her happier if she could go back to the old days. Maybe she could even bring back the other novelites. As she is now, Shiori has no answer, but she has an idea as to how to get them. She is the Archiver, the keeper of all knowledge. "Time to go back to the archives. Maybe the answer is there." Shiori said she was going to hope for the best, so she was going to do whatever she could to get the best outcome.