Please Keep It Up

She still didn't get to eat her ice cream.

It had all melted.

Mihara Chisa, held in Gu Xue's arms, was in a good mood and waited patiently for a long time. Only when she realized Gu Xue seemed to have fallen asleep did she push her away.

"Please finish your work first."

"..." Gu Xue jolted awake and sat back down, rubbing her face hard.

This was bad... Mihara Chisa was so soft, warm, and comfortable to hold, like a bed on a winter's day. Gu Xue had actually dozed off for a moment. Now she'd been abruptly woken and was stuck in that miserable state of not having slept enough, but having to get up anyway. She held her pencil, but all she could think about was sleep.

"How about we sleep for an hour first?" Gu Xue turned her head, bleary-eyed.

Her reason was falling apart.

"Please don't joke around."

"So heartless." Gu Xue pursed her lips and drew for a while, then turned her head again. "Half an hour?"

"...No. Just half an hour would only make you sleepier. Please hang in there for now. I'll make it up to you later."

Gu Xue gave a disappointed "oh" and turned back around, but she still looked in terrible shape. Sometimes, as she drew, her head would droop, then dip so low that she'd suddenly jolt awake again. Mm... she was fishing.

The remaining few cuts weren't easy, but they weren't difficult either. They were long shots, with the characters shown from the waist up and a background pasted behind them. Unless they were asking for particularly nuanced acting, all that needed to move was the mouth, which had its own layer.

There was no way Gu Xue could draw them with any passion.

So she kept nodding off. When she was awake, she drew quickly, but all those naps had still slowed her down.

Mihara Chisa hesitated for a moment, then, while Gu Xue was dozing, picked up the melted ice cream container from the bag on the worktable.

Mihara Chisa had plenty of experience dealing with people nodding off.

The best way was to startle them. A less effective way was to splash water on their face. If you wanted a permanent solution, they needed to sleep.

Mihara Chisa couldn't do the last one. She also didn't think she could persuade Gu Xue to splash water on her face, so she went with the first option.

Holding the ice cream container, she quietly brought it close to Gu Xue's cheek.

"Eek!!!" The instant the container touched Gu Xue's cheek, she snapped awake and shot to her feet, like someone had stepped on her fox's tail.

"Believe me, I'll fight you..." Gu Xue was wide awake now. Once she figured out what had happened, she glared at Mihara Chisa.

Ignoring Gu Xue's murderous look, Mihara Chisa asked softly, "Would you like something to eat?"

"No!" Gu Xue sat down heavily and picked up her pencil again. "I'll go eat lunch once I'm done!"

She sounded so bold and confident.

Grr...

Then Gu Xue's stomach growled.

"You heard wrong!" Gu Xue's face flushed red, even her fair neck turning scarlet. She shouted at Mihara Chisa, then quickly turned back around.

Standing behind her, Mihara Chisa watched as even the tips of Gu Xue's ears slowly turned red. The corners of her mouth curved upward, revealing two shallow dimples.

Like a spring breeze, melting winter snow.

Although Gu Xue had said she'd finish drawing by noon and then go eat, she made much slower progress than expected. It wasn't until after two in the afternoon that she finished the second original-animation pass and completed the key animation for six cuts.

There was no way she could have lunch now. In fact, Gu Xue had eaten three hours earlier. Mihara Chisa had carefully picked out rice balls for her, and they'd been especially awful...

After organizing the completed key animation and filling out the Dope Sheet, Gu Xue stretched, leaned back in her chair, and stared up at the ceiling, completely limp.

She'd been awake for nearly twenty-four hours. Her dark circles were awful. If she hadn't been naturally pretty, she probably wouldn't have dared go outside.

Mihara Chisa, on the other hand, had fallen asleep.

Gu Xue had made her. Well, not exactly. Every time Mihara Chisa couldn't fight off her sleepiness and tried to go wash her face, Gu Xue would deliberately stop her and start rambling about this and that. Miss Mihara was already exhausted, and she'd end up falling asleep.

Her complexion wasn't great, and cold sweat beaded on her forehead, but at least she'd gotten some sleep. That was better than standing behind Gu Xue watching her draw and stubbornly refusing to go home.

Gu Xue slumped in her chair for a while and recovered a little. Just as she was about to wake Mihara Chisa and head home, someone hurried over.

It was the animation director, Misawa Hiroshi.

He seemed to be in a real hurry. Sweat covered even his thinning scalp. As soon as he saw Gu Xue, he asked loudly, "What went wrong..."

Then he saw Mihara Chisa and immediately lowered his voice.

"...?"

A moment ago, he'd been booming. Now he was so quiet he could barely be heard.

Gu Xue was still a little angry about how everyone had ignored Mihara Chisa the night before. Of course, she was also instinctively unhappy with Misawa Hiroshi. She picked up the key animation for the six cuts from the worktable and shoved it against his chest. "Natural and man-made disasters. Already taken care of, Director."

"..." Misawa Hiroshi accepted the key animation. He could tell Gu Xue seemed unhappy, so he apologized. "I heard a little about what happened last night. Someone called me too, but I was sleeping so deeply I didn't wake up. I only got up just now..."

His apology made Gu Xue feel a little embarrassed. It really wasn't Misawa Hiroshi's fault. Her reaction was basically just lashing out in frustration.

"Forget it." Gu Xue was exhausted and sleepy; she couldn't be bothered to dwell on who was right or wrong. "Take these. There was a problem when Miss Mihara collected the key animation last night, so I redrew it. Miss Mihara will be taking three days off, so tell the production manager and the director to keep track of the schedule and have the company send someone to fill in for now. Also, let me give you a word of advice. You should know perfectly well that a production manager can raise the quality of the finished work, but can also ruin the efforts of a lot of people. Don't push them too hard. If you're always thinking, 'I'm going to make a big splash,' then you need enough time and budget to match. You also need to consider how the staff feel. Even that famous Director Narita Kei has bitten off more than he could chew before. Are you really not worried you'll overreach too?"

"Miss Mihara's taking time off!?" Misawa Hiroshi was focused on entirely the wrong thing.

"Yes! She has a high fever!" Gu Xue snapped. "And pass what I just said along to Abe Shinichi. He should hear it too."

"Right..." Misawa Hiroshi suddenly lost some of his nerve when he heard that Mihara Chisa had a high fever.

"No need." Mihara Chisa had woken up at some point.

"Next time, I'm never helping you again. Now I have to tear up those six cuts I just drew. You haven't even paid me yet. I'm doing this entirely for free."

"I still think you should take three days off..."

Misawa Hiroshi: "..."

"Let's go." Gu Xue didn't have the energy to do anything else. All she wanted was to go home and sleep.

Mihara Chisa picked up the bag with her clothes in it, silently stood up, and followed Gu Xue. As she passed Misawa Hiroshi, she hesitated, then gave him a slight bow.

Misawa Hiroshi looked apologetic and returned the bow, then began looking over the key animation in his hands.

Just as Gu Xue was about to leave the office, Misawa Hiroshi let out a wail. "Wait! Miss Gu Xue, why didn't you follow the storyboard? What are we supposed to do with this shot? And what's with those instructions!? How are we supposed to handle the background with a drawing like this? And the timing..."

"Please keep it up!" Gu Xue ignored Misawa Hiroshi and waved over her shoulder. It looked like she was cheering him on, but with the way she was biting her lip to hold back a laugh, she seemed to be enjoying his misery.

Thanks to Wawumao for the 1,000 reward, searan for the 500 reward, and Yongyuan Xianhong for the 500 reward. Thank you so much.