Chapter Eight


'Why…? Why do I deserve this fate?'

Konata cuddled herself under her blanket and began to muse.

Her career as a manga artist had gone. Forever. Her only and most aspiring career in her life.

No competition would recognize her work now. Nor would any company want to hire her to draw manga.

Everything was gone. Poof. Vanished like a cloud of smoke over the period of one night.

All because of a malicious idea that popped up in her mind all of a sudden.

And now, she had been found of plagiarism. Leaving behind an unsightly stain eternally in her life. A record that anybody could see clearly and perhaps uses it against her.

'W… What would they think if they found out that I've committed such a crime before?'

Konata started to imagine all the possible consequences of her actions.

'Fa… Father would surely kill me, for sure…'

The image of her usually kind and gentle father flying into a rage all of a sudden came into her mind. She shivered in fear.

'I want you to remember this, Konata. As a writer myself, I also feel insulted when other people copy my work without my permission. So I hope that you'll not do something like that in the future, my daughter.'

'Sorry, sorry… Father, I've let you down…' Konata wept.

But what could she do now? The news of her award being withdrawn would definitely be everywhere on the papers tomorrow. She had less than 24 hours before her deadline.

She didn't want her father to know anything about the incident. Not even the slightest hint of it.

Her father's health had already declined a lot over these seven years. 'Should he take such a huge blow like this…' Konata didn't want to think about what would happen to him.

'Ms. Izumi, your father's heart condition…'

All due to the decision she made! A stupid decision made by her lazy self!

Konata curled into a fetal position on her bed and cried. Her blanket, the bed sheets were all soaked by her tears.

'S… Somebody, help me, please…' she begged.

'But what could I do now…?'


Ding. Dong.

Another person's at the door.

'Who will it be?' Konata's eyes widened in astonishment. 'My father won't be back until evening. So who will it be? The police? The lawyer? Has the original manga artist finally decided to sue me at last? I have no money to compensate anyway…'

'Konata!' Somebody was banging the door. A female. Somebody who's as young as her, perhaps even younger. Somebody familiar.

'Konata! Konata!' the familiar voice shouted. 'Are you in there? It's me, Patricia Martin!'

Oh, it's just her fellow otaku friend.

But the blue-haired girl did not have the mood to reply to her. 'She's going to scold me again, just like in the phone…'

'Konata!' Patricia's loud voice repeated. 'Open the door, please! There's something you need to know!'

'What's there I need to know?' she thought. 'Copying other people's work? Plagiarism? Sorry, but I've already understood that, thank you.'

'The Summer Manga Festival Committee has decided to withdraw your award…'

The words were etched deeply in her mind. The biggest mistake she had ever done in her life.

'Konata! It's me, Patricia! Why aren't you answering?' her best friend still did not give up and continued to bang on her door.

'Noise!' Konata was sick of listening to any of her friends now. 'She must be here to either scoff or laugh at me!'

'Go away!' she barked at the door.

'What?' Patricia could not hear clearly.

'I said, GO AWAY! I don't need to hear anymore from you! You're not my friend, Patricia! What do you know about me?'

The words spouted out of her mouth, quick and deafening.

At that moment, Konata did not know what she was thinking. She was just angry. Angry at everyone in the world. Angry at God. Angry at herself for choosing a fate like this.

The banging of the door had stopped. '…Fine then,' Patricia said coldly. There were the sound of footsteps and no more was heard from the friend.

Konata leaned back on her bed and laughed sadistically. 'Ha ha… God, you finally made me lose everything, huh?'

Everything in her life had disappeared all of a sudden. Her job. Her future. Her aspirations. Now, her best friend. Not to say that tomorrow, her father might also disappear from her life as well.

'What could I do now…? Tell me…!'


Her mind went all blank. The thoughts of herself landing in such despair had already overwhelmed her. Yet she could do nothing to reverse the situation. Her 'bad end' had already been fixed.

'If I could end this life earlier…'

She stepped out of her bed, passed the messy stack of games and manga books on her floor, and out of her bedroom. Slowly, she trudged to the kitchen.

'To think that I would have to resort to such means…' Konata laughed out of extreme despair. To her, it was already unnecessary to proceed with her life. She did not want to walk on the road of life like other young people did. She wanted to end her ordeal, to free herself from such torture.

She wiped away the tears in her eyes. 'Yeah, Izumi Konata, you lazy bum, you have no other choice but to end this fate.'

Failure after failure, constantly falling down after another, her life had been at a total loss thus far.

With her trembling hand, she reached for the knife in the drawer…


Author's Note: I need to clarify on this. No, plagiarism isn't that serious as Konata had thought in this chapter. Because of her lack of current affairs knowledge, her wild imagination led her to believe that her life would be ruined forever. Plus, she had very high hopes of winning the award, so when it's announced that her first prize had been withdrawn, it added more to her despair.