Shift! The Side-Character Heroine

News of Her Death

On the day "Setsuna" died of illness, Zhao Youyue was still able to traverse the world "White Clover," and possessed "Altair's" body. On that particular day, the world was aquatic in nature. It was a world under the sea. An octopus-like creature had pioneered its civilization.

Zhao Youyue felt that she had traveled into an alien planet. This was something that she would never be able to achieve in reality. Now, she was realizing it through the "Two Dimensional Gate."

The work "White Clover" might not be able to give her any ability, as it was not very popular, and most readers disliked it. However, as the heroine of this Doujinshi novel, Zhao Youyue was having a wonderful time within its literary worlds.

It was like enjoying a one-time, free of charge, grand trip, without even needing to look out for herself, as this "Altair," with her maxed out 'Mystery' attribute was almost invincible.

However, just as she was beginning to fall in stride and enjoy herself, the oceanic world around her started collapsing in the most extravagant display of visual effects!

The literary world of "White Clover" collapsed, right after its "God" died.

Zhao Youyue could not place the scene in words. It was just too overwhelming, too awe-inspiring. She started feeling that she was no longer within the literary world, but in the real world.

Zhao Youyue did not make her exit at that point. She had not yet known that the work's author, "Setsuna" had died. She thought that it was just another insight to this creator's brilliant mind.

But then, she found herself standing in an urban, Terran world. It gave Zhao Youyue such a sense of familiarity, as if this was not one of those imaginary literary worlds, but one that was similar to the real world where her actual body was, a world that was as tangible as herself.

Before she could regain her bearings, she further realized that the 'strings' of the 'marionette' had left her altogether. Usually, when she possesses "Altair," she would feel a mysterious force guiding her actions. In those cases, she just had to walk accordingly to the plotline laid out by the writer. She only needed to 'lay down,' since the writer was the one pushing her forward. She would be "Setsuna's"'marionette.'

But now, she realized that if she did not move at all, "Altair" would not move as well…

She now had total control over the actions of this body.

Then, through that world's internet, Zhao Youyue realized that "Altair" was rather popular. But her nature would always a re-created fanmade character derived from its origin "Shirotsumekusa," which appeared within the social game "Eternal Wars Megalosphere"[1]. She first appeared within Shimazaki Setsuna's created video "World ?tude"[2].

What the hell is "Eternal Wars Megalosphere"?

Who the hell is Shimazaki Setsuna? Is she that "Setsuna"? "Setsuna" was supposed to be a Chinese!

Why the hell was this world conversing in Japanese?

Zhao Youyue jumped to the first assumption in her mind. This might not be the real world at all, but a world within a Japanese anime.

This anime might be an iconic work within another parallel world.

Zhao Youyue did not immediately exercise her newfound freedom. She only wanted to know what happened to the Doujinshi novel, "White Clover," and its writer "Setsuna," more than ever.

Fortunately, this unprecedented situation had not trapped her within this world. However, when she returned to her actual body, she noticed that the "Two Dimensional Gate" was in a cooldown state once again, and that she no longer had access to "White Clover."

Even so, a character card of the princess with military uniform appeared in the "Two Dimensional Gate." Zhao Youyue almost screamed out of excitement. Was this an actual "sleeping victory?"

Although Zhao Youyue did not know how powerful this military uniform princess "Altair" was, but when the world was destroyed, she found herself able to travel through dimensions and enter new worlds at will. If she was truly able to use such an inter-dimensional traveling ability, wouldn't this mean that she would be able to travel to thousands of worlds?

Also, she had a maxed-out 'Mystery' attribute. This attribute implied that she had endless trump cards. No one would ever figure her out. She would come up with more and more tricks that guarantee her victory, even when all else suggested that it was over for her

Zhao Youyue took a closer look, and noticed the character card "Altair" was greyed-out, and the name actually said, "Altair (incomplete)." Her excitement died out. What was going on here?

Was there no such thing as a 'sleeping victory,' after all?

Nevertheless, this character card had actually appeared on the "Two Dimensional Gate." Even though it was still greyed out, this meant that Zhao Youyue might still be able to access her, one day!

In other words, this military uniform princess was already one of Zhao Youyue's reserve harem players.

However, to obtain this military uniform princess, Zhao Youyue would have to expand her influence, or even to use her identity to get involved

Zhao Youyue might have to move heaven and earth itself, to acquire this nigh-invincible iconic character card.

Some iconic character cards could never be obtained by just experiencing one literary world. This applied even more so to Altair. She was already one-of-a-kind, to begin with —— She was a re-created fanmade character. Many other writers could pick her up and continue her story.

Zhao Youyue started communicating with the "Two Dimensional Gate." She wanted to know what had happened. After all, her exit this time was truly baffling.

Then, she received message from the "Two Dimensional Gate." The Doujinshi novel "White Clover" was incomplete!

Of course, the "Two Dimensional Gate" would not tell Zhao Youyue why this form of 'incompletion' seemed to have been set in stone. After all, the writer had died of illness. How could she possibly continue writing?

Yet, Zhao Youyue believed this to be the far more common form of incompletion. She assumed that "Setsuna" had totally given up upon this work. After realizing that the popular fanmade anime video had been unable to make her novel popular, she would naturally feel disheartened and give up on writing the novel…

Abandoning a piece of work was truly a scary thing. Zhao Youyue could never forget the apocalyptical moment the oceanic world within the literary world of "White Clover" went through. How frightening it had been!

Zhao Youyue could not help but send a message to ask about "Setsuna's" condition, but she did not receive any response.

Zhao Youyue suddenly felt like one of those girls who had been tossed away by those playboys after they had their fun. Irresponsible authors were truly hateful, and they seemed to be far more prevalent than ever this year!

Not long after, Zhao Youyue received a reply from a family member of "Setsuna's," saying that "Setsuna" had succumbed to cancer.

The new post, without clarifying if it had been written by "Setsuna's" mother or father, explained the situation of her death.

The fanmade video "Altair: Divina Commedia" was still riding upon the waves of fame. Its script's original author "Setsuna" was still a hot topic, yet she had ended up dead!

This news quickly spread throughout the internet, within the blink of an eye.

Translation Note:

[1] Eternal Wars Megalosphere - In the premise of the anime RE:Creators, the main villainess Altair is an (in-universe) fan-made derivation of a character named Shirotsumekusa, from the social game Eternal Wars Megalosphere.

[2] World ?tude - a.k.a. "World Etude", an OST of the anime "Re:Creators."