Chapter 11

Victory and Defeat is the eleventh chapter of the Time Paradox Ghostwriter manga series.

Long Summary
Itsuki and Teppei announce their rivalry, and Teppei exclaims that he will not lose to her, remembering the message the fridge gave him.

After Chapter 45 of White Knight, the last chapter created by Itsuki Aino in the 2030 timeline, Teppei's White Knight gradually begins to drop in the reader surveys. Itsuki's new manga, ANIMA, debuts two months later and quickly beats White Knight out of the top spot in one chapter. After hearing these results, Teppei fills himself with greater determination to beat ANIMA and change the future enough to prevent Itsuki's death from becoming a reality.

Later on, Teppei presents his next storyboard to Muneoka, who highly praises it and Teppei's improvement after the quality of his work dropped in Chapter 46. Muneoka declares that his new chapter might be capable of beating Itsuki's, which promots Teppei to ask about her condition after releasing ANIMA. Dejected, Muneoka reveals that Itsuki has been working on the manga completely by herself and even refuses to contact or meet with him, opting instead to focus solely on her work and sending her finished pages by mail.

Teppei listens in shock as Muneoka continues to explain that Itsuki had requested a new editor after he had called her too much out of worry and blames himself for trying to get involved. After his meeting, Teppei dials Itsuki to check up on her and considers the chance that she may overwork herself to death, but he brushes the thought aside as he is unsure how beating ANIMA with White Knight would solve the issue.

Itsuki picks up Teppei's call and they exchange greetings, with Teppei asking Itsuki if she is is alright and not overworking herself as he heard she wasn't communicating with anyone. She laughs and reassures him she is doing fine; her lack of assistants were just due to her preference to work alone as it was more efficient. After hearing Itsuki's explanation, Teppei worriedly advises her to not work herself too hard and Itsuki teases him, jokingly telling him he only said that so he could beat her in the surveys. Itsuki then bids him farewell, thanks him for checking up on her, and expresses that they should both continue doing their best. Once Itsuki hangs up, Teppei thinks about how her personality was the same as he had remembered. He decides to push away the thought of her overworking and instead focus on beating her with White Knight.

Later on, while working on another storyboard, Teppei receives a call from Muneoka. He listens to his editor and then drops his phone, immediately heading to the microwave and Mirai to confront them. Teppei cries and yells at the objects, revealing Muneoka's call was regarding Itsuki working herself to death. Devastated at how he was unable to save her, Teppei continues yelling and demands why he wasn't given the specifics about her death instead of just the instruction to beat her manga, as there were so many ways he could've prevented the event. Instead of a direct answer, the fridge door opens and reveals a portal. Teppei is sucked in, leaving only his slipper and cell phone behind.

Characters in Order of Appearance

 * Itsuki Aino
 * Teppei Sasaki
 * Muneoka