Tokyo: Oreimo

"stinky!"

The girl glared at her.

Ryosuke lowered his head and sniffed his shirt sleeves. There was no strange smell at all; on the contrary, they smelled quite nice, probably from the lingering entanglement earlier.

"Is there?"

“Yes!” Ling Nai looked up at him, pouting in dissatisfaction. “It’s all the stench of other women.”

Ryosuke didn't say anything.

Ling Nai stared at him for a few seconds, then looked away, walked past him, picked up the sorted trash bags from the coffee table, and headed towards the entryway.

"To take a bath."

"Now?"

"Now." Ling Nai placed the trash bag at the door, turned around, and crossed her arms. "Are you planning to make me smell it all night?"

Ryosuke didn't argue anymore and turned to walk into the bathroom.

As the hot water poured down, Ryosuke leaned against the tiled wall and closed his eyes.

Saori's lips, Saori's fingers, Saori's disordered breathing near his ear—those images still linger in his mind, impossible to erase.

He looked down at his hands, his fingertips still seeming to retain the feel of the bodysuit's fabric.

He lowered the water temperature a bit.

When Ryosuke walked out of the bathroom while drying his hair, the living room lights were off, the TV was off, and only a small nightlight was still on in the hallway.

He pushed open the door to his room.

The blanket was bulging out.

Ryosuke stood at the door, water droplets from his hair dripping onto his shoulders.

Has this guy already made it a habit?

"Ling Nai."

The person under the covers stirred, and then golden hair peeked out from under the covers. Ling Nai lay on her side and patted the pillow that had already been laid out next to her.

"I'm sleeping here tonight, any objections?"

"Doesn't your room have a bed?"

"Stop nagging." Ling Nai said, blushing as she spoke, but her tone remained unwavering. "It's not like it's the first time."

Ryosuke draped a towel over the back of the chair and sat down on the edge of the bed.

Ling Nai reached out a hand from under the covers, grabbed his wrist, and pulled him down.

Ryosuke did not resist and lay down with her pull. The blanket was lifted slightly, and a warm body with a citrus scent pressed against him.

Ling buried her head in the crook of his neck and took a deep breath.

"The smell of the shower gel," she said, her voice muffled.

"if not."

"Humph."

Her fingers gripped the front of his pajamas, her nose pressed against his collarbone, her breath brushing against his skin, inhaling repeatedly before slowly releasing her grip.

"Your hair is still wet." Ling Nai's voice was already tinged with weariness, and the sharp emotion from before quickly dissipated after confirming it. "You'll catch a cold, you idiot."

She raised her hand, pulled the dry towel off the back of the chair, and haphazardly covered Ryosuke's hair with it, then rubbed it a few times with her fingers through the towel.

"If you stay with the Giantess for too long in the future, take a shower before you come back." Her voice grew softer and softer, and her eyelids were already drooping. "Otherwise, I can smell it every time."

"...Are you a dog?"

"I'll bite you."

When she said those three words, her voice was so muffled that it was almost inaudible.

Ryosuke lay awake in the darkness, listening to the girl in his arms as her breathing gradually became even and deep. She was asleep, but her fingers were still clutching his clothes, not letting go.

……

The days that followed were more peaceful than Ryosuke had anticipated.

Ling Nai would leave home with him every morning, and then they would part ways at the crossroads on campus to go to their respective departments.

After school, she would come to the manga club activity room, sometimes helping Ayumi look at her artwork, sometimes discussing new games with Ryosuke, and sometimes just sitting next to Ryosuke flipping through her textbooks.

Saori would come upstairs for dinner every few days, and she would always bring something with her. Sometimes it was seasonal fruit from the supermarket, and sometimes it was merchandise from ANIPLEX's newest releases.

Ling Nai's attitude towards her gradually shifted from initial wariness to a delicate balance. She neither took the initiative to be friendly nor picked fights for no reason. Occasionally, the two would even have a normal discussion about a certain work at the dinner table.

Ryosuke sometimes felt that the scene was strangely harmonious.

But he didn't have the extra time to think about it, because the project at the anime research institute was already in its busiest phase.

In early July, Tokyo entered its rainy season.

Everyone was present in the manga club activity room.

Chapter 282 Budget Shortage

Tian Zhongxue moved a laptop to the table in the center of the activity room. On the screen was the performance system interface that Makoto Takeda had spent two weeks building.

The background is the living room of a Western-style mansion. Aozaki Aoko's character portrait is standing on the left side of the image, while the dialogue box is on the right.

"The demo is finished!" Tanaka's voice cracked with excitement. "Takeda's programming, Ayumi's artwork, and Takashiro's script—our first manga project is almost complete!"

Makoto Takeda adjusted his glasses and clicked the mouse to access the trial version.

The title screen of "The Night of the Wizarding" appeared, with a deep blue night sky and a full moon in the background. The edges of the title font also had hand-drawn style brushstrokes, which were Ayumi's handwriting.

The demo lasted about forty minutes and ended the moment Aoko pushed open the door to the study on the second floor of the mansion. The screen froze on an open magic book, then went black and displayed the words "Coming Soon".

There was a two-second silence in the activity room, and then Tian Zhongxue led the applause.

"Fantastic! The level of completion is amazing!" His eyes shone like two light bulbs. "The scene transitions are smooth, and the special effects are perfect. Takeda, you're a genius!"

"The performance system is just an existing framework that's been modified, it's nothing special." Takeda said modestly, but his ears were already red.

"The visuals are beautiful too." Asakura Misaki leaned closer to the screen. "Aoko's facial expressions are so natural. Ayumi-senpai, you did a great job."

“The line art was revised by Ling Nai; I couldn’t have done it to this level if I had drawn it myself.” Ayumi looked at Ling Nai sitting by the window.

Ling crossed her arms and turned her head away haughtily, "Isn't that just common sense?"

Ryosuke chuckled at the reaction, and most of the club members around him also smiled.

After spending two months together, everyone had a general understanding of Ling Nai's personality.

"Speaking of which, Takashiro's work is more complete than Kara no Kyoukai, filling in a lot of gaps in the original FSN setting."

Yosuke Kobayashi pushed up his glasses and glanced at Ryosuke. "In terms of both plot and setting, the style is highly consistent with that of Kinoko Nasu."

"To be honest, I think this work will definitely be a success after it's released. Takashiro, maybe Aniplex will send someone to poach you."

The members of the manga club looked at each other, all agreeing that what Kobayashi said made sense.

Ling Nai, however, curled her lip in the corner and kicked Ryosuke under the table.

Tian Zhongxue laughed and patted Ryosuke on the shoulder, "Takashiro is so amazing, if he could get into Aniplex, he would definitely become a key player."

"If I become rich and powerful, I will remember you. I'd like to try my hand in that field after I graduate."

Ryosuke smiled, didn't reply, but simply nodded.

"Alright, enough chit-chat. Takeda, the official version is almost finished, isn't it?"

"Yes, it still needs testing, but it should be completed by the end of the month."

Takeda nodded.

"In that case, Xia COMI is definitely presentable!"

"Wait a minute." Yosuke Kobayashi raised his hand to interrupt him. "President, what have you forgotten?"

"what?"

“Voice actors.” Kobayashi pushed up his glasses. “This demo has no voice acting at all, and the background music is also very simple. As a visual novel, it would be much less engaging without voice actors.”

Tian Zhongxue paused for a moment, then scratched his head. "Of course we need voice actors, but the budget... After deducting the cost of burning CDs, the surplus from our last Winter COMI, plus the royalties donated by Ryosuke, might not be enough to cover the cost."

The atmosphere in the activity room cooled down considerably.

"How about we make a version without voice acting first?" Okubo suggested. "Many doujin games are without voice actors, so it's not out of the question."

“Indeed, we’ll release the un-dubbed version of Summer COMI first. If it sells well, we’ll release the dubbed version in the fall.” Tian Zhongxue gritted his teeth. “That’s the only way. Budgets aren’t something you can just conjure up out of thin air—”

"That's enough for now." Ayumi closed the notebook in front of her. "The demo is complete enough. I'll be posting about it on 'Future Dimension' in the coming days."

"I'll leave this to Ayumi," Tian Zhongxue said with a grin.

After a brief chat, the activity room became lively again.

Ayumi lowered her head and continued flipping through the drawings, while Tanaka began listing the next tasks in her notebook. Takeda and Kobayashi discussed optimization plans for the performance script.

Ling Nai turned her head from the window, glanced at Ryosuke, and said nothing.

.....

The rain finally stopped when the club activity ended.

Ryosuke and Ayano walked side by side on the Ginkgo Avenue.

Ling Nai hadn't said a word since leaving the activity room. She held the canvas bag to her chest, walking at a moderate pace, her gaze fixed on the puddles on the ground ahead that were sometimes bright and sometimes dim.

"What's wrong? Something on your mind?"

I noticed it when we were in the activity room earlier; Ling Nai seemed to want to say something.

Ling Nai paused for a moment, then continued walking forward.

"I'm thinking, it's definitely better to have voice actors."

"You've seen that demo, right? The graphics are fine, the script you wrote is even better, and the presentation system is smooth, but there's no sound throughout, so it feels like something's missing."

She paused for a moment, then said, "Back when we were making games, starting with FSN, every single one had voice acting. The voice actors' performances can bring the characters to life, and you clearly know that better than anyone else."