"Why do I feel like you're implying something?" Eriri eyed Mio suspiciously.
"Whatever do you mean? I'm just making a suggestion~"
Honestly, as someone who'd transmigrated, Mio felt genuinely bad for Eriri. In the original story, she'd contributed some of the most iconic scenes—and yet her dedicated IF-route manga had been axed early because Megumi Kato's appearance made it impossible for her to win.
For some reason, Eriri had the nagging sense that Mio was thinking something incredibly rude about her.
But given that Mio was always like this, she decided to let it go.
Eriri scooted closer to Mio's side and peered at the sketches in her hands. "So, do you have any ideas?"
"Already do. Depends on what kind of story you want."
"Huh?!"
Eriri stared at Mio in disbelief. Mio had only been flipping through them casually a moment ago—and she already had a concept?
Noticing Eriri's expression, Mio smiled smugly. Before transmigrating, she'd been someone who'd read an absurd number of doujinshi. No matter how fragmentary Eriri's notes were, she could find ways to fill in the gaps.
More importantly, she could see the picture Eriri was trying to paint through all those scattered fragments.
"Let's start with the character designs. For the heroine, we'll go with the one Sawamura-san designed—the girl who looks innocent but is actually a total bitch. Only shows her true colors around the person she likes. As for the male lead—a blonde tsundere with twin-ta... ahem, I mean, a blonde tsundere from a wealthy family. A pretty boy."
Just as Eriri was about to nod along reflexively, she suddenly caught the flaw.
Her head snapped up. She fixed Mio with a dangerously pleasant expression. "Where exactly am I tsundere?!"
Mio gazed back at the bristling Eriri with perfect innocence. "I wasn't talking about you, Sawamura-san. I was describing a character. Please don't go inserting yourself into it."
Eriri realized she'd overreacted. She cleared her throat twice and said, "Still—no matter how I look at it, these two characters have no natural connection."
"That's where you give them a shared hobby, or a shared secret. Something that links two seemingly unrelated people together. For example..."
Mio made a show of thinking it over, then leaned close to Eriri's ear and whispered, "What if they both secretly draw doujinshi?"
"That's basically—"
"Exactly. More or less what happened between us. Sawamura-san did say it herself: inspiration comes from life. And if you connect your sketches together, you can see the traces of us all over them."
"Honestly, if you swapped the pretty-boy for a pretty-girl, it'd be a guaranteed hit."
Eriri had vaguely sensed this herself—she just hadn't wanted to think about it too deeply. But with Mio spelling it out, the realization hit her: if she actually turned these ideas into a doujinshi, she'd essentially be drawing her own love story with Mio.
At that thought, a blush crept visibly across Eriri's pale cheeks.
"I... I suddenly feel like this doujinshi doesn't need to be rushed," Eriri said, stiffly gathering up her inspiration sketches.
"Is Sawamura-san embarrassed?"
"Wh-who's embarrassed?!"
Red-faced Eriri was not exactly convincing.
Just as Mio was about to press her advantage, the System's voice piped up in her ear: "Dear Host, I have some good news and some bad news. Which would you like to hear first?"
"Just spit it out."
"Then let's start with the good news. The good news is: you need to find a way, before leaving Eriri's house, to have your heart race at least three times because of Eriri. Success may yield Eriri-series card packs or item rewards. Failure means drawing from the punishment deck."
"How is this good news?"
"Of course it's good news," the System said without hesitation.
"Then explain to me—what part of this is good?"
"Isn't it good news for the System when the Host triggers a task?"
"???"
"While the good news isn't yours, Host, don't be sad—at least the bad news is yours!"
"I'm begging you to be a real person for once!" Mio's mouth twitched.
"The Host must find a way, before leaving Eriri's house, to make Eriri's heart race at least three times because of the Host. Success may yield Eriri-series card packs or item rewards. Failure means drawing from the punishment deck."
"Triggering two tasks at once should qualify as bad news for the Host, right? But on the bright side, this level of difficulty should be pretty manageable for you~"
"Oh, piss off!"
Mio pulled up the System panel and checked. Bearer of Misfortune was still there. Today's Schrödinger's Card hadn't rolled into a luck-boosting card either. So why had she triggered two tasks at once?
It felt like pulling a gold on a single pull—except she couldn't feel any of the excitement that was supposed to come with it. Only an overwhelming sense of resignation.
Why did it come to this?!
Eriri, meanwhile, suddenly noticed Mio collapse lifelessly onto the bed. She asked nervously, "Shirai, what's wrong?"
"Nothing. I just remembered I haven't done my homework."
Looking at the adorable Eriri, there was no question about it—this girl was straight. Making a straight girl's heart race because of her? Was this difficulty rating really as easy as the System claimed?
The task of making her own heart race three times over Eriri, on the other hand, wasn't that hard. She just needed to use her pre-transmigration acting technique—getting "into character"—and she could pull it off fairly easily.
Hearing Mio's complaint, Eriri suddenly remembered that she hadn't done her own homework either. And exams were coming up fast—she hadn't reviewed at all.
She might play the pampered rich girl, but her grades didn't need to be excellent—they just couldn't be terrible.
The thought drained the life from her expression too, and she flopped onto the bed right next to Mio.
She turned her head toward Mio and said, "Shirai, how are your grades?"
"Decent enough. Why the sudden interest?"
"Well... I've kind of been so absorbed in gaming lately that I forgot to study. Could you maybe help me study?" Eriri asked sheepishly.
...