May 24th, Thursday.
Kenji Okamura sat in front of his TV with a bottle of cola, waiting for Clannad season two, episode twenty.
"Only a few episodes left. They've collected a bunch of Light Orbs by now. Nagisa should come back this episode, right?" he thought as he took a sip.
Ten o'clock.
Episode twenty began.
Once again, there was no girl-and-robot opening. Instead, it started with a warm slice-of-life moment between the male lead and his daughter Ushio.
"Ushio is so cute." Kenji was loving every second.
At preschool, Ushio's teacher made her appearance, and it turned out to be none other than Fujibayashi Kyou, an old friend of the male and female leads.
The male lead and Kyou sat down and chatted for a while, both feeling nostalgic. Afterward, the male lead went to work, where Yoshino Yusuke told him that Fuko wanted to visit his place. They set a date.
A quick time skip followed.
Saturday evening. Ushio lay down hugging a dango plushie and suddenly made a request. "Daddy, sing me Mommy's song."
"Again? You really do love that song, huh?"
"Yeah. It's my favorite."
"Alright, but it's late. I'll sing quietly, okay?"
The male lead began singing softly.
The Dango Family song. The female lead's favorite, the one she had sung multiple times throughout the series.
In the other world's Clannad, this song had been the season one ending theme, replaced by a different one in season two.
Selling music was part of the business. That was just how things worked.
In this world's Starfall version, Yuta had only changed the opening theme. The ending stayed the same.
Aoi had not been happy about that initially, but Yuta insisted and she relented.
When season two first started airing, some viewers had found it odd that the ending theme had not changed, but nobody thought much of it.
They had just thought of the song as warm and pleasant. Nothing more.
Until now.
The male lead sang a few lines, then the full version of the song seamlessly faded in, layered over a montage of memories between the male and female leads. It instantly destroyed half the audience.
On screen, the male lead's eyes glistened as he sang, tears visible at the corners.
In front of his TV, Kenji was crying right along with him.
"Damn that bastard! When is he going to bring Nagisa back? If he doesn't do it soon, I'm really sending razor blades!" Kenji muttered while wiping his eyes.
The anime continued.
The next day, Fuko came to visit as promised, and a lighthearted, fun sequence followed.
But just as Kenji was thinking "finally, some recovery time," the male lead suddenly thought of the female lead.
The BGM swelled, and within moments Kenji was in tears again.
Especially when Fuko asked Ushio, "What kind of person is your mom?"
Ushio answered:
"She cries a lot."
"But she tried really, really hard to bring me into the world."
"And she's the person Daddy loves the most."
Three short sentences hit like a truck.
The male lead cried. Kenji cried right with him.
Mercifully, things shifted back to cheerful daily life: Ushio's preschool was holding a sports festival.
The male lead started practicing running desperately so he would not embarrass himself in front of his daughter.
Kenji found himself actually looking forward to the sports festival.
But then came the moment that made his brain short-circuit.
The night before the sports festival, Ushio's face was flushed. She mumbled, "Potty... couldn't do it by myself."
Then her whole body went limp.
The male lead panicked and touched her forehead. It was burning hot.
A high fever.
The camera pulled up to an aerial shot of the quiet town, and episode twenty ended.
Kenji: "???"
Everything was fine a second ago. How did she suddenly spike a fever?
Was it about to get dark again?
The female lead had also been running a fever when she gave birth, and that had led to... Was it Ushio's turn now?
No way.
No way.
No way.
This was already episode twenty!
And the female lead still had not come back. Now the daughter was going down too?
Was Yuta Shido even human?
He opened his computer to check the online reactions.
Sure enough, the internet was on fire.
"Can someone please explain what happened at the end?"
"Everything was fine and then the ending just went completely wrong!"
"I have a really bad feeling about this. Did Ushio catch the same illness as Nagisa?"
"That bastard Shido! Nagisa still isn't back in episode twenty, and now you're coming for Ushio too? Are you even a person?"
"I can't take this anymore! I want to send razor blades again!"
"Everyone, Ushio just has a fever for now. If we find Shido and force him to change the script, there's still time."
"You're right. We need to grab him. Who's coming to Starfall with me tomorrow? There's no way he can escape all of us."
"Count me in."
...
Kenji had only been suspicious before.
But after reading the comments, suspicion turned to certainty. That bastard was definitely gearing up for more devastation.
"Damn it!"
"I just picked this show back up and now it's going dark again."
"Yuta Shido is a complete monster!"
He fumed for a while, then suddenly remembered the post he had made weeks ago.
Back then, tons of people had assured him it was safe to keep watching. They had said the story would not get brutal again. One person had even sworn to run three laps around their local park, naked and upside-down, if there was even a hint of suffering.
So confident back then. And now?
He quickly found that old post, took a screenshot, and made a new one.
"A bunch of people told me the story wouldn't get dark again. What do you have to say now? And the person who promised to run naked laps upside-down around a park, isn't it time to make good on that?"
The post quickly caught everyone's attention, and replies poured in.
"I feel so bad for this guy. He just came back and now he's getting wrecked again."
"Shido really has zero humanity."
"This is all his fault."
"So many prophets in that thread."
"I'm furious too, but the person who promised to run naked upside-down laps, a promise is a promise!"
"Which park are you doing it at? Let me know. I'm definitely coming to watch."
...
Plenty of people were there for the spectacle, and even more were cursing Yuta.
Of course, some of the people in the thread were the very same "prophets" from that original post.
Even the person who had made the naked upside-down running promise showed up.
"Don't worry, I always keep my word. But right now Ushio just has a fever. It hasn't actually gotten dark yet. I'm planning to go to Starfall tomorrow and find that bastard Shido and threaten him into changing the script. Wish me luck, everyone."
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