"Raize, Mashiro by my side is also a manga artist hoping to debut…"
Ayano pulled the dazed Mashiro beside her and asked Raize for help. Mashiro watched as he picked up her manuscripts, her phoenix eyes filled with childlike anticipation.
Raize listened to Ayano while quickly flipping through the manuscripts. After just a few minutes, he expressionlessly put them down.
He naturally understood Mashiro's problem. But Raize, who was extremely busy every day, simply didn't have the time. His schedule was almost completely packed.
Teaching Mashiro was something he truly had no time for. Moreover, he didn't think he was qualified. He was just a porter who brought manga over to pave the way for games.
Raize had always been very self-aware and never regarded himself as a manga master.
"Alright, Ayano-nee. I roughly understand what you want to ask of me. But I'm not a romance-genre manga artist, so…"
Under Mashiro's slightly silent gaze, Raize put down the manuscripts without commenting further, clearly expressing his refusal.
Hearing that he intended to decline, Ayano said excitedly, "Raize, your mother was once a hugely popular romance manga artist! As her son, you must have picked up some things over time, right?"
Speaking of Raize's late mother, she truly was, as Ayano said, a once-famous romance manga artist.
Raize had seen many of his mother's works in his memories, but he only had a superficial understanding, not true mastery. Asking him to help Mashiro when he lacked both confidence and time was simply unrealistic.
"Even if you say that, not being good at it means not being good at it. Miss Shiina and I aren't even in the same field. Romance manga? Asking a high school student who's never been in love to help her—do you really think that's appropriate?"
"Well…"
Hearing this, Ayano's expression became somewhat dejected.
Mashiro's manga had impeccable art and quality, but the most important part—the story—was dull like a ledger, completely uninteresting.
Raize, who had considerable skill in crafting engaging stories, could perfectly make up for Mashiro's shortcomings. That was why Ayano wanted to ask him to help her.
But she had overlooked that Raize and Mashiro worked in completely different genres: one was shoujo romance, the other was hot-blooded battle manga.
Even if battle manga had romantic elements, romance was never its core.
Having a high school student who specialized in battle manga and had never dated guide someone in drawing romance manga—what kind of thinking was that?
Raize suddenly turned his head and looked at Mashiro, who was blinking her phoenix eyes at him with a slightly disappointed expression.
"Shiina, I'll call you that for now. I roughly understand your situation. How many classic romance stories have you read?"
"Ayano let me read a little…"
Mashiro's calm eyes flashed with a trace of memory as she answered honestly.
"Did none of them leave a deep impression on you?"
"I… don't understand the feelings Ayano talks about. But after reading them, it felt strange."
Understood. This Mashiro didn't really understand those emotions and wasn't good at constructing stories. If she didn't understand them, naturally she couldn't draw them.
She was simply drawing beautiful scenes one by one. Expressing a certain emotion or meaning through a single picture wasn't hard for her, but expressing an entire story through drawings was truly difficult.
It was as if God had opened a skylight for Mashiro's artistic talent while keeping the other windows shut.
Under Mashiro's cute gaze, Raize took out paper and pen from his handbag and placed them on the table, beginning to draw at a speed still acceptable to human eyes.
As Ayano's expression gradually turned to shock and Mashiro's expression became increasingly vivid, two two-dimensional images of Mashiro appeared on the paper.
Both Mashiros wore beautiful evening dresses, with clumps of snow on their heads and shoulders, drawn from a low, upward-looking angle.
The Mashiro on the left was no different from her real-life expression—dazed and without emotional fluctuation.
But the Mashiro on the right was what truly shocked both Ayano and Mashiro.
That Mashiro was filled with vivid emotion, like a lost or abandoned little pet that had finally reunited with its dependent owner—wearing a fragile, broken smile of joy that made one's heart ache at the sight.
Especially her eyes. It was as if Raize had breathed life into them, filled with rich emotion, as though she might truly come alive.
One was Mashiro, emotionless and ethereal, like a fairy untouched by the mortal world. The other was a vivid, lifelike Mashiro who felt as though she had stepped right in front of you—full of humanity and heartbreaking emotion.
In contrast, the Mashiro whose eyes carried complex and rich emotional waves seemed truly alive.
"Th-this… this is Mashiro!?"
Ayano stared excitedly at the beautiful Mashiro on the table, who wore a forced smile. That heart-wrenching atmosphere was so powerful that it made people want to hold her and protect her.
Up until now, Ayano had never seen such emotional expression on Mashiro's face. The eyes in the drawing truly felt alive.
"So amazing…"
Mashiro spoke with intense emotional fluctuation. The manga she currently drew could never reach this level. The characters she drew were all as emotionally withdrawn as herself, and the stories flowed just as flatly.
Her eyes were locked onto the drawn version of herself. Being able to express emotion through an image like that—that was exactly what she wanted.
She could paint a world-class masterpiece in oil, but she couldn't fully display her talent in manga, let alone produce a more vivid version of herself like the one on Raize's paper.
Imagining that she could someday draw such a vivid version of herself, Mashiro wondered if she could truly shine in manga.
With that thought, she immediately took out paper and pen from Ayano's handbag and buried her head into drawing.
Ayano and Raize did not disturb the focused girl, patiently waiting for her to finish.
Raize had quite a favorable impression of Mashiro. The scene being displayed on the screen was also the Mashiro from his past-life memories that had broken his heart the most—sitting alone in the snow, waiting for a certain male protagonist. Just looking at that scene made him want to smash his computer.
After spending dozens of minutes, Mashiro finally finished the drawing. However, she frowned slightly, biting her lower lip, clearly dissatisfied with her own work.
Raize and Ayano looked over. Mashiro had drawn a picture of herself based on the two-dimensional version Raize had drawn earlier.
But that vivid, lifelike feeling simply could not be reproduced. With the two drawings placed side by side, Mashiro felt that her own work was unqualified.
The stubborn and obsessive girl was unwilling to accept it and immediately wanted to draw another one, but Raize stopped her.
Facing the girl's disappointed yet eager gaze that wanted to keep drawing, Raize spoke calmly:
"Don't continue. Even if you keep going, you still won't be able to draw it, because you don't understand this kind of emotion at all. How could you possibly depict it?"
"Do you understand the feelings that this 'Mashiro' is expressing? Can you even make this kind of expression?"
Raize pointed at the vivid 'Mashiro' in the drawing in front of Mashiro. The girl stared silently at the version of herself in the picture.
She… didn't understand that version of herself, nor could she imagine how she should make such a complicated expression.
Not to mention the heart-wrenching smile on the 'Mashiro' in Raize's drawing.
The current pseudo-kuudere Mashiro truly could not produce such emotions.
"…Teach me."
Mashiro looked at the black-haired boy with deep sapphire eyes in front of her. Her voice carried a yearning tone, and in Raize's eyes, she looked like a cute little animal acting spoiled as it begged him.
"Aize, please teach me."
I'll agree—cough, cough!!!
Faced with Mashiro's adorable, almost coquettish request and that intimate form of address, Raize nearly went along with her words.
Knowing Mashiro's true nature, Raize coughed lightly and said, "My name is Yotsuki Raize. Don't suddenly call me so intimately."
"Is that not allowed?" Mashiro tilted her head and asked cautiously.
Was this child raised on cuteness alone!?
Facing Mashiro's unconscious attempt at being adorable, Raize fell silent. Inside, his thoughts were already in chaos. Meanwhile, Ayano, who was watching the two interact, directly laughed out loud.
"Ara~ Is 'Aize' getting shy when getting along with my Mashiro? It's quite entertaining to watch."
Faced with the teasing ridicule of the irresponsible female editor, Raize shot her a murderous glare, then looked back at Mashiro, picked up the drawing in his hand, and handed it to her.
"I'll give this drawing to you, but I—"
"'Aize' wouldn't have the heart to refuse Mashiro's sincere request, right?"
Before Raize could finish, Ayano, seeing that he still intended to refuse, immediately pressed her face against Mashiro's, grinning mischievously as she looked at him.
Hearing Ayano's words, Mashiro's phoenix eyes carried a timid yet earnest plea, extremely sincere.
The words of polite refusal that Raize wanted to say were instantly shoved back down his throat. Looking at Mashiro's expression, he admitted that he had been disarmed by her cuteness.
However, asking him to set aside time to help Mashiro… he really didn't have much free time.
After thinking it over, Raize sighed inwardly, mocking himself for how his resolve couldn't withstand a dazed, cute girl's request. He took out his phone.
"Exchange contact info with me. I only have a bit of free time on Sundays. You can have Ayano-nee bring you to my place."
Facing Raize's compromise, Ayano revealed a smile, and Mashiro's eyes also flashed with a hint of happiness.
After finishing Ayano's commission, Raize left first under the excuse that he had something to do.
After Raize left, another girl walked out of the dessert shop. She wore sunglasses and a white sunhat.
The girl took off the hat, revealing a head of beautiful, dazzling silver hair shining under the sunlight.
"Oh my~ Going out for a stroll and I ended up hearing something quite incredible," the silver-haired girl said with a smile. She was Natsukawa Masuzu, who had just come out of the dessert shop.
She happened to be holding a weekly magazine, a brand-new issue released this week.
On the cover was a young-looking Jotaro wearing white clothes and a fashionable hat, extremely eye-catching.
"This news makes me unbelievably hyped!"