Stepping inside Aoyama's flat, Akane followed her regular routine, lightly stroking Pochita's head first.
"Woof! Woof! Woof!"
Pochita nuzzled against Akane's palm with high enthusiasm.
Akane pressed her lips together for a moment, then casually stated: "Aoyama, since you drew Pochita into the manga..."
Aoyama scratched his head. Honestly, the manga Chainsaw Man existed before he named his dog Pochita back in this world.
But there was no point explaining that, so letting Akane ride with the misunderstanding was safer.
"Aoyama, are you drawing panels right now?" Akane asked with a smile. "Fire Punch or Chainsaw Man?"
"Neither."
Aoyama walked into the living room, picking up a gaming controller and waving it toward Akane: "I'm just playing video games."
He recently bought a modern console, and the flat was quite spacious.
Of course, gaming functioned purely as an excuse; he had been checking system rewards previously.
"By the way, Akane, did you say you were looking to eat dinner?"
Aoyama smiled playfully: "Something on your mind? A 'Fruit-cake' idea? Some 'Nuts' for thought? Or maybe just a 'Crackers' theory?"
"What in the world..." Akane blinked. "Your dish names... sound odd."
"Ah, sorry. Suddenly recalled an old friend."
Aoyama continued: "Properly now, let's go for some domestic BBQ!"
"Ah, well..."
Akane wasn't truly looking for food; she found it slightly awkward, adding with a smile: "Speaking of which, since you drawn Pochita inside Chainsaw Man, did you include other real people in the panels too...?"
Aoyama blinked. "No, none at all. Don't read deeper into it; Pochita was an exception. The remaining characters in Chainsaw Man are strictly fiction!"
"Really...?"
Akane brushed her hair behind her ear, slowly closing the distance toward Aoyama.
Aoyama looked back at the college student standing so close to him, subconsciously backing away slightly.
"Akane... you are..."
He felt a bit off-guard.
Akane bit her lip, forcing herself to be calm, and smiled softly: "Aoyama, look at my palm very closely..."
She immediately grabbed Aoyama's palm, replicating Makima's actions from the panels, adding a soft, alluring tone: "The length of my fingers..."
"And the temperature of my palm,is it cold, or is it hot?"
Aoyama registered Akane's palm, comparing it to his own. It was much smaller.
He was a bit blank about what she was doing.
Her fingers were slender, her skin thin and soft to the touch. It felt undeniably like a young girl's hand.
Moreover, her palm felt lukewarm. Like a small tile of warm quartz carrying a slight cool breeze.
And for Akane, it was the first time holding any man's hand other than her father's or grandfather's. She could feel the detailed structure of Aoyama's palm.
Aoyama's palm was elongated, with a slight abrasive touch on his fingers. These were calluses from drawing for extended periods, distinct from Akane's soft hands.
Moreover, the center of Aoyama's palm felt slightly warm...
Akane felt a sudden fire ignite inside her chest. She smiled, looking back at Aoyama: "Aoyama, has anyone ever bitten your finger before?"
She knew fully well that she had stepped directly into Makima's role. She was about to pick up Aoyama's index finger and place it in her mouth...
Suddenly!
If my voice remembers everything...
It was... Akane's smartphone ringing.
The sudden chime immediately broke Akane's heavy focus.
She looked at how close her mouth was to Aoyama's index finger, and a deep red flush spread across her cheeks.
'W-W-What was I just doing?!'
'How did I try to pull that off?!'
'And I was taking the initiative... this is extremely embarrassing!'
In her mind, Akane wanted to dig a hole in the floorboards and hide inside it.
Aoyama, slightly confused, used that index finger that was almost bitten to scratch his cheek.
Akane immediately turned around, pulling out her smartphone to answer the call.
"Hello!" She answered loudly to hide her heavy embarrassment. In reality, she was just using the call to mask her current state.
But truthfully... that call arrived at the perfect time, preventing her from biting Aoyama's finger. Otherwise, the awkwardness rating would be off the charts.
However, as she took the call, Akane's forehead wrinkled immediately: "Understood... I see. Is the situation serious? Can we recover the database?"
"Alright... Understood." She sighed, hanging up.
Aoyama looked at Akane, guessing there was a problem. He asked: "Akane... did some trouble happen today?"
Akane looked back at Aoyama. Recalling the scene from moments ago, her cheeks still carried a mild embarrassment.
But she said: "Well... inside our start-up website support team, a disaster struck. Emi accidentally disconnected our temporary server, and now the database files... might be corrupted."
"This forces us into a full data rewrite for the next phase."
Akane felt slightly annoyed. She had only recruited Emi because they were university roommates.
But after Emi joined, she hadn't been completing her assigned tasks smoothly.
This was already generating complaints from other members. Ultimately, Akane felt responsible for Emi since they were roommates, so she usually covered Emi's part.
But Aoyama often saw Akane rushing to write scripts, and he would help her.
Meaning, the work Emi was supposed to do was actually being cleared by him and Akane.
"The team has complaints about Emi." Akane drew a deep breath. "Sigh, honestly she wasn't assigned to heavy tasks. If she just attended classes normally, this wouldn't have happened..."
"To protect the team, you can't have excessive sympathy." Aoyama shook his head, stating: "Akane, if you want this team to succeed, you can't let sympathy cloud your judgment."
"Emi can be your friend, but in a partner dynamic, she isn't suitable. Moving forward, the entire team will fall apart."
Akane heard Aoyama's heavy words, biting her lip, finally locking in her decision.
"Understood, I will speak with Emi right now and let her go."
Following this incident, both silently agreed not to mention the preceding flush, continuing back to their smooth, ordinary living.
[Translated and Rewritten by Shika_Kagura]