"I don't intend to judge a work solely on whether it sells. Whether it's a piece that will remain ten years from now... that's what I'm looking at."

32 years old | Publishing Editor

Kotomi Kizami is an editor who evaluates Guest's talent more highly than anyone else.

However, he does not worship them.

Now that Guest's writing moves so many people and has gained enough influence to be called a social phenomenon, he isn't just thinking about "how to sell it."

—Is it okay to keep putting these words out into the world?

Deciding sales strategies without reading the work. Chasing only trends and measuring the value of prose by numbers alone.

He loathes that kind of work.

That is why he wants Guest to write as freely as possible. At the same time, as an editor, he cannot look away from the influence those words have on others.

Even fervent support looks dangerous at times.

He won't make the author a god. He won't treat the work as just a product.

He faces Guest as a fellow human and an author.

Because he maintains that stance, he waits for the next words Guest weaves more carefully than anyone else.

"I don't want to forget that there are people saved by this writing. But...! That doesn't mean I have no reason to doubt anything."

24 years old | Bookstore Clerk

Megu Karame is a bookstore clerk who has been saved by Guest's writing.

That is why she cherishes Guest's words more than anyone.

She rereads them over and over, thinking about what each sentence was trying to convey. Rather than accepting someone else's impressions, she trusts what she herself felt from the prose.

Criticizing the author without reading the work. Mocking words themselves and easily deciding their value.

She hates that kind of attitude.

However—when she learns that while Guest's writing saved many, it also wounded someone.

For the first time, she begins to doubt the words she believed in.

—If the words that saved me were a wound to someone else.

Even so, she cannot reject Guest. Yet, she cannot continue to believe unconditionally as she did before.

Guest as the author of the work, and Guest as a human being she doesn't yet know.

She doesn't know if she should see the two as the same thing.

That is why she tries to face Guest's writing not just with admiration, but with her own words.

"If the author wrote it with that meaning, and that alone decided the meaning of the work, then criticism wouldn't be necessary, would it?"

29 years old | Literary Critic / University Lecturer

Yoshina Karukawa is a literary critic who continues to analyze Guest's writing.

He is interested in more than just the prose itself.

Why were those words chosen? Why are so many people drawn to that writing? And—why is something born there that cannot be explained by Guest's intent alone?

The author's intent is important.

However, he does not believe that is the only answer to the work.

He dislikes deciding the value of a work based on groundless assertions or mere "this is how I felt" impressions. That is why he asks Guest directly about the work.

However, he is not seeking a definitive answer.

—It doesn't matter if Guest's answer differs from my interpretation.

In fact, he welcomes words that overturn his own thoughts.

The more he analyzes, the more Guest's writing shows him things that cannot be explained by logic alone. Something remains in the prose that even the author, Guest, cannot fully control.

What is it?

Is it meaning, emotion, or something else created by the reader?

Yoshina Karukawa does not rush to a conclusion.

While evaluating Guest as an author, he does not make Guest the sole answer to the work.

Simply to know the true identity of that writing. Today, he deciphers Guest's words once again.

"I know there are people who were saved. I get that... But don't act like the fact that I was hurt never happened because of that."

27 years old | Office Worker

Shizu Kizuba has been deeply hurt by Guest's writing.

That is why he cannot easily forgive Guest.

Platitudes directed at suffering people. Irresponsible encouragement. Words that speak of someone's pain as something beautiful.

He hates that kind of writing.

And for him, Guest's writing was exactly that.

That doesn't mean he stopped reading.

Quite the opposite.

Because he cannot accept it, he rereads it over and over. Where was he hurt? Why did these words pierce him so deeply? And did Guest really write these words without thinking at all?

He reads to find those answers.

He knows there are people saved by Guest's writing. He has no intention of denying that.

But that and his own experience are two different things.

—Just because they were words that saved someone doesn't mean my wounds disappear.

Even if Guest says "I didn't mean it that way," he has no intention of being satisfied with that alone.

Because intent and result are not the same.

Even so, he wants to confront Guest personally.

Not just to blame them. He wants to know how the author themselves takes the pain he felt.

He hates Guest.

But he cannot look away from the writing itself.

He reads because he hates it. He reads because he cannot accept it.

Carrying that contradiction, Shizu Kizuba waits for Guest's next words.