These days, the sisters have been getting along swimmingly. After all, real Konoha is so enamored with her ideal self that it’s almost embarrassing. So far, it doesn’t seem as though ideal Konoha has any flaws whatsoever. She’s infinitely nice and infinitely forgiving. She’d probably be infinitely powerful as well if she was allowed to awaken to her powers in this timeline. Basically, real Konoha wrote a Mary Sue character. But that’s understandable, because so far, we’ve only seen flashbacks of real Konoha as a child. I don’t expect a kid to write an interesting, nuanced character. I can’t help but wonder, then, if ideal Konoha will ever change and evolve. As we keep tracing a path through real Konoha’s fiction, will ideal Konoha reflect the former’s growth as a writer? Will ideal Konoha suddenly become more than this two-dimensional Mary Sue that we see before us? After all, the boytoys in the story are evolving in their own way — sorta.

In enters Yomi, a dark specter born from the feverish imagination of a girl in her mid-teens. After being introduced to a manga where the hot love interest is kind of a baddie, a slightly older Konoha was inspired to create Yomi, a childhood friend who is obsessed with the younger sister Iana. And since Iana was supposed to be executed early on in the story, Yomi was going to enact his revenge and kill ideal Konoha himself. Except, of course, Iana isn’t dead in this timeline. A normal person in love would be like, “Sweet! Now I can be with her!” But he doesn’t do that. Instead, despite real Konoha’s many protestations, Yomi assumes that the younger sister has been brainwashed. In his mind, the only solution is to kill ideal Konoha. So as you can see, this hot but evil bishie isn’t exactly a complex character either. Mid-teen Konoha might have leveled up a bit, but she didn’t level up that much. Compared to all the super righteous, justice-loving hunks before him, sure, Yomi is a bit more interesting than, say, Ginoford, who, by the way, has more or less disappeared from the story. Sure, you still see him around, but he’s not even a supporting character anymore. He barely has anything to say or do these days.

Still, Yomi’s presence is still somewhat interesting from a meta standpoint. He’s a crucial part of the through line we see in real Konoha’s fiction. By living through her own work, real Konoha is forced to confront and reflect on her childhood fantasies, and that also includes reflecting on her own tastes in men. Like I said, Ginoford, the boring hunk, has been relegated to the background. He has little to no role in the current story. He’s just there to be ideal Konoha’s arm candy. To be fair, real Konoha does remark to herself that he’s the “embodiment of all my preferences.” But other than that, she barely interacts with him. It’s kinda fascinating to me, in a way. The man she would choose for her ideal self isn’t the man she would choose for herself despite what she might say. Obviously, she wants a peaceful life, so she’s not going to try to steal someone else’s man, but it makes you wonder: if ideal Konoha somehow didn’t exist, would real Konoha even be interested in Ginoford?

Then of course, we have Yomi, who isn’t just a yandere. He also represents the archetype of the pushy male love interest who just won’t listen — who tries to act in his lover’s best interest but doesn’t understand them whatsoever. Rather, he’s fixated on an ideal Iana in his mind that doesn’t exist. Over and over again, real Konoha tries to tell him that she loves her sister now, but he thinks he knows better. She didn’t make him complex enough to be able to go beyond his programming (and this makes me wonder why Sol is different). He thinks she’s been brainwashed and you can’t convince him otherwise. When he sees Iana pour tea for older sister, he jumps to the ridiculous conclusion that the object of his love is being used and abused. Is this guy stupid? Pouring tea is abuse? But more importantly, this is what real Konoha is reflecting on. In Yomi, she finds another opportunity to reject yet another childish fantasies of hers. Unfortunately, her actions show that she’s not quite ready to do so.

What would I do if one of my friends shows up one day and intends to kill my sister? Obviously, I would do everything in my power to stop them. Real Konoha thinks she’s doing that, but she isn’t. There’s still some reluctance. She’s trying to persuade Yomi not to kill Konoha, which is ridiculous and insane if you think about it. Her mid-teen self created a villain! She didn’t write this multi-faceted character with a deep backstory. No, real Konoha conjured up a yandere character with an intent to kill. You don’t just reason with someone like this. You have to reject him and reject him entirely. Fiction is a space where we can explore our darker urges and fantasies. Do people actually want to be in toxic relationships? Of course not. But why do we see so many toxic relationships in fiction? Because there’s nothing wrong with indulging ourselves from a safe distance. That’s why it’s so funny when people overreact to things like 50 Shades of Grey, i.e. “OMG, this is what women really want?!” No, it’s a fucking fantasy.

But what happens when the fiction becomes real? What happens when you find yourself in that abusive relationship? You gotta reject it entirely. There’s no pussy-footing it. You can’t have your cake and eat it too. So sure, Yomi is essentially one of real Konoha’s babies because she created him, but she’s gotta let go. But instead, we get real Konoha acting really stupid, so she goes and says things like, “Oh, Sol is the real problem.” Not content to leave it there, she even confesses to Yomi that Sol will kill her if Yomi “attracts his attention.” So of course, Yomi’s priorities have shifted: he now intends to take Sol out. Why would she say those things to him? That’s so stupid. What is wrong with her? For some reason, real Konoha thinks she can convince Yomi by being honest with him. You open up to someone if you think they’re an ally. Girl, Yomi is not an ally. He’s literally here to kill your sister. You. Wrote. Him. This. Way.

If real Konoha has anything going for her, it’s her damn luck. Of all the things Sol could’ve overheard, he only hears her say to Yomi that she needs Sol. Yeah, she needs Sol to not freaking kill her. Nevertheless, real Konoha is slowly rewriting his character to love her instead of ideal Konoha. And right on cue, the assassin-cum-butler magically finds yet another opportunity to gallantly swoop in and save her from certain death. Huh. I guess if you try to split the difference between Ginoford and Yomi, you might get someone like Sol — someone who isn’t a shining beacon of justice bot not a bloodthirsty moron either. But was he always written to be this way? Or does Sol have some magical privilege to be more interesting (if only just slightly) than his male counterparts? Well, if real Konoha wants to keep him around, then she’s going to have to stop the yandere. It’s time to wake up and let go of one of your creations.