Game Developer in the World of Anime

After the midterm exams ended, Ichin and Utaha's lives returned to their usual rhythm. Aside from attending classes at school, they were busy with their own respective work.

Although the final exams were still ahead, the teachers at school already knew that the two admission spots for University of Tokyo were pretty much guaranteed to go to them.

Of course, neither Ichin nor Utaha let that make them complacent. They maintained their diligent study habits as always.

Balancing both studies and work without missing a beat, they secured first and second place in the year-end exams, and then everyone welcomed the start of summer vacation.

Because The Metronome in Love's TV anime was scheduled to air in August, Utaha would be frequently meeting with the publishing house and Kyoto Animation for coordination.

Today was no different. After a day spent working in the recording studio, Ichin picked up Eriri—who had also gone to the studio with him—and drove over to the publishing office to pick up Utaha.

The moment Utaha opened the back door and got in, she noticed Eriri looking dazed and absentminded.

"What happened to her?"

She asked, then turned her gaze to Ichin in the driver's seat. "Did you devour her whole, Ichin?"

"What kind of way is that to put it?" Ichin shot her a glare through the rearview mirror and explained, "While we were at the recording studio, Eriri suddenly got the urge to draw for some of the voice actors who were recording. But after she finished, they recognized her identity as Sawamura Spencer Eriri—aka the artist Eri Kashiwagi—from her art style."

"She got recognized?"

Utaha looked at Eriri in surprise and, seeing her slowly turn her head to stare out the window, realized it was true.

"Who was sharp enough to figure it out?"

"The team leader."

"Oh, well, he's an old gentleman. It makes sense."

Utaha nodded, understanding the situation.

Tomokazu Sugita, a veteran voice actor, had an impressively vast knowledge of the ACG (anime, comics, games) world. It would be impossible for him not to know about Eri Kashiwagi, a wildly famous artist in the doujin circle.

And to be fair, the blame did lie with Eriri for being careless and not bothering to disguise her art style at all.

Listening to their conversation, Eriri muttered lifelessly, "I can't show my face anymore… the looks of shock on those voice actors' faces—I still can't get them out of my head."

"Well, it's not a big deal. It's not like they'll go around telling everyone."

Ichin remained calm. "Some voice actors used to work on ero-games too. Everyone's aware of that kind of stuff. As long as no one says it out loud, it's fine."

Although everyone had been surprised at first when Eriri's identity was revealed, none of them had shown any negativity toward her. They were simply stunned by her artistic skill.

After all, Eriri was only 17 now, which meant she must've been even younger when she first started making waves in the doujin world as Eri Kashiwagi. That level of talent is a one-in-a-thousand—or even one-in-ten-thousand—kind of gift.

Plus, once the voice actors got their hands on her artwork, they were all quite delighted.

In the end, the only one stuck in a daze over the incident was Eriri herself.

"No, you don't understand," Eriri shook her head with a sigh. "I had practically forgotten about the name Eri Kashiwagi, and then my hands just had to get itchy again. I was even planning to ask for signatures and take photos with the other voice actors the day after tomorrow—but now? No way. I'm not going."

A single social death was enough for a lifetime. Eriri was terrified that if she went back to the studio and had to introduce herself to the other voice actors, she might accidentally blurt out her alias, "Eri Kashiwagi."

That's not entirely impossible.

After observing Eriri carefully for a moment, Utaha finally spoke. "Alright, anyway, you won't have time to hang around the recording studio anymore. We're heading off on our trip in three days—don't tell me you've forgotten that."

"I haven't forgotten," Eriri replied with a nod. "We got our visas sorted before the finals, right? We're going for a week, aren't we?"

"Yeah, one week."

Turning the steering wheel for a right turn, Ichin said, "The tour guide's been arranged, and the hotel's booked too. We'll fly directly from Tokyo to Chengdu. Let's have a great time for a few days—and maybe it'll help Eriri forget what happened today."

"Sichuan, huh…"

At the mention of that place, Eriri finally perked up a bit and even swallowed involuntarily. "Sichuan cuisine is amazing—whether it's spicy or not. By the way, once we get to the studio later, should we look up what good food and restaurants there are over there?"

Since it was going to be a proper trip, they obviously had to hunt down the best and most authentic local food.

So, the two girls each took out their phones and started searching together.

Glancing at them, Ichin commented, "Most of the places are actually pretty decent, but it's definitely a good idea to look some up. It's been years since I last went to Sichuan. I was too young to appreciate it back then. This time, I have to try the spicy rabbit head."

Hearing this, Eriri looked up at him in disbelief. "Rabbit head? That rabbit head?"

"Yep, the head of that adorable little bunny."

Pupil quake.

"Rabbits are so cute—how could anyone eat a rabbit?! And rabbit heads, no less!"

Utaha nodded in agreement from the side. "Exactly. I get that you people eat all kinds of things, and rabbit meat dishes are pretty famous too—but is it really necessary to go as far as eating the rabbit's head?"

( T/N: Exactly Guys, Just Stop it will YOU! :faceplm: )

...

Three Days Later.

In a restaurant in Chengdu, both Utaha and Eriri were each holding a spicy rabbit head in hand, completely disregarding their usual poise as they gnawed away with greasy mouths.

Next to them, Ichin casually picked up a piece of rabbit meat and popped it into his mouth. The table in front of him was already piled high with cleaned rabbit skull bones.

After taking a sip of cola, he looked across the table at Hazuki. "See? I told you. Once they start eating, it won't be anything like how they were acting before."

Rabbit heads, despite having more bone than meat, are turned into culinary delights by the skilled chefs of China. Whether marinated in aromatic spices or smothered in fiery sauce, rabbit heads could be turned into true delicacies.

After sucking all the meat clean off a bone, Eriri, mouth burning, let out two quick breaths and grabbed a glass of chilled milk to drink.

"I really didn't want to eat it at first," she said. "But since we're already here and it was served to the table, it'd be a shame not to at least try it. Aoba, you really won't try a bite?"

Holding a skewer in her hand, Aoba shuddered and quickly shook her head. "N-no, I really can't handle it."

But the moment she said that, Utaha took a jaw piece with meat still on it, broke it off, and stuffed it right into Aoba's mouth.

"MmMMM!!"

Aoba's eyes went wide. She couldn't spit it out, so she stiffly bit down twice.

Wait… it's actually kind of good? Even if it's a bit spicy.

Watching Aoba go from full rejection to tentative acceptance, Momiji, who had already finished one rabbit head and was now munching on a rabbit leg, turned to Narumi beside her.

This delicious… why isn't Tsubame eating any?

...