If I Wear This Again, I'm a Dog

Drawing key animation was exhausting work.

One second.

For a blink-and-you-miss-it shot, Gu Xue had spent over two hours drawing. Since it was a shot of the protagonist running, aside from the wind-up and jump, which used one drawing per four frames, everything else was on twos—twenty-four frames per second, with each drawing held for two frames. There were ten key drawings in total. Other than the parts before and after the jump that needed in-betweens, once the rest had been confirmed, they could be inked and colored directly.

This was already incredibly fast. Maybe changing bodies had made her more meticulous, but in any case, Gu Xue felt fantastic right now. It was clearly nowhere near midnight, yet she felt as though she had already reached her peak condition.

Time passed. Gu Xue kept drawing until after four in the morning before leaving the company and going home to sleep.

It was impossible to finish two cuts totaling over ten seconds in a single day. Though Gu Xue felt her condition improving the more she drew, her life was more important.

When she got home, she didn't run into Gu Rou. She sneaked upstairs, and even after lying down in bed, Gu Xue was still thinking about the key animation for those two cuts.

The next day, everything continued as usual.

She kept grinding away at work.

By eight that evening, she had finished the key animation for one cut. Even Gu Xue found it a little surprising. This was an action cut, and she had cleaned up the key animation herself. If her mind hadn't been perfectly clear, she might have suspected she'd gotten some kind of system...

She raised her head and tried calling for a system a few times.

There was no response.

Gu Xue smiled shyly, then stretched. Her movements and expression were especially alluring. A key animator heading to the restroom happened to pass by and see the scene, freezing on the spot.

"..." Gu Xue caught sight of him from the corner of her eye and immediately lowered her head again, pretending to work earnestly. Once he had left, she checked over the finalized key animation, drew timing guides and similar reference marks between the drawings that needed in-betweens, then took out the Dope Sheet and set the timing for each drawing. She sandwiched the key drawings inside it and tossed it aside.

Next was the following cut.

It was a shot where the protagonist grabbed his big toe in midair, the toe transformed into the Holy Sword, and then the protagonist dove toward the ground.

The key animation for Part A of this cut was actually quite easy to draw. Because of the camera angle, she only needed to draw the key frames of the right hand reaching to grab the big toe in the air. Parts B and C were easy as well. The character remained suspended in midair, and she only needed to draw the sword taking shape. If she wanted to save trouble, the character could keep a deadpan expression throughout. It was trashy light-novel adaptation power fantasy, anyway.

But Gu Xue didn't want to do that. Today, she felt her condition was even better than yesterday's.

After considering it for a while, Gu Xue decided to alter the composition and the established storyboards. She would add a top-down angle to show the protagonist grabbing his big toe, then draw an explosive burst at the instant the toe was seized. Ribbon-like streams of energy would surge into the sky, while the camera followed them downward to the protagonist's side. The Holy Sword would reveal its true form, then the protagonist would spin once as the camera rotated with the sword's ribbon-like energy. Then it would suddenly pull back into a long shot, and the protagonist would kick off the air wall behind him and slam toward the ground.

Anyone who had drawn key animation before should have known how troublesome and difficult such an unrestrained shot would be.

But Gu Xue had made up her mind. She would just go all out this once.

That day, she drew straight through until six in the morning.

Her condition kept getting better. Gu Xue even wondered if she had been possessed. If her phone hadn't rung, she might have kept drawing.

After leaving the company and taking the train home, Gu Xue suddenly felt a little guilty as she arrived at her front door.

The call had been from Gu Rou.

She opened the front door, changed her shoes, and entered the living room.

Sure enough, Gu Rou was sitting on the sofa in office attire, looking imposing.

If Gu Xue was overflowing with sex appeal, like a seductive schoolgirl, then Gu Rou was the kind of mature woman who looked powerful at first glance. The sisters actually resembled each other closely, and both were exceptionally beautiful, but perhaps because of their different experiences, their temperaments were completely different.

"Where did you go last night?"

Gu Rou didn't sound like some domineering mature woman at all when she spoke. Her voice was too soft, and the concern on her face completely destroyed the image she had just built up. In an instant, she became an oversized Gu Xue.

"I was working." To hide her nervousness and guilt, Gu Xue shifted slightly to the side so the other woman wouldn't see her face.

Even without looking in a mirror, she knew just from imagining it that her dark circles must have been terrible. She might even look half-dead.

"Xiaoxue."

Noticing that her younger sister was deliberately avoiding her gaze, Gu Rou sighed. She stood up, took her hand, led her to the sofa, and gently said, "If you really like drawing, can't you draw at home? Aren't there comics, too? Why do you have to go to an animation company? You're a girl—it really isn't okay to stay out all night. Yesterday, you came home after four. Today, you didn't come back until midnight. If I hadn't called you, were you not planning to come home at all?"

"..." Gu Xue scratched her cheek, feeling a little embarrassed.

If Gu Rou hadn't called, she really might not have come home. Once she was too tired to continue, or once that feeling was gone, she definitely would have fallen asleep on her desk. She was used to it, anyway.

"Xiaoxue, come home and draw. It doesn't matter whether you make money or not." Seeing that she wasn't speaking, Gu Rou felt a headache coming on. "Didn't you watch an animation in the living room some time ago? The one with the female protagonist who never leaves the house, called... called something like Eromanga Sensei? I think it would be great if you lived like that. Your sister can support you."

Gu Xue: "..."

The suggestion was tempting.

But aren't you worried I'll turn into a useless bum...?

And what the hell is Eromanga? In certain respects, that animation is exactly like the one from Earth. Are you telling your little sister to draw those kinds of pictures...?

"How is that any different from being a salted fish?"

Gu Xue retorted. Before Gu Rou could speak—or perhaps to hide her guilt—she immediately stood up and ran upstairs, ignoring Gu Rou calling after her.

Watching the slender figure dash upstairs, Gu Rou opened her mouth. In the end, she didn't chase after her. Instead, she took out her phone, opened a search engine, and typed into the search bar: What should I do when my younger sister enters her rebellious phase?

Meanwhile, Gu Xue ran into her room and only let out a sigh of relief after closing the door.

Gu Rou's almost doting attitude toward her was a little too much for her to handle.

"Big sister..." Gu Xue murmured softly. Then she shook her head, stopped thinking about it, turned around, and threw herself onto the bed.

Afternoon.

Gu Xue rubbed her eyes as she stumbled downstairs.

Seven hours had felt like no sleep at all. She brushed her teeth in a daze, showered in a daze, then walked out of the bathroom fully awake.

Gu Xue suddenly realized that she seemed to have adapted...

After drying her hair and tying it into a ponytail, Gu Xue changed clothes, rested for a bit, and went to work.

Well... this time was a little different from before. She finally stopped wearing those sweatpants and canvas shoes that looked unbearably hot, switching instead to a skirt and white sandals that generously exposed her rounded, long legs.

The central air conditioning at the company wasn't set very low, so wearing long pants was actually rather hot.

But she regretted it the moment she stepped outside.

People stared at her all the way there...

And they stared at her after she arrived at the company, too.

I'm only wearing this once. If I wear it again, I'm a dog.

With that firm resolve, Gu Xue angrily pulled out her chair and sat down.

She should be able to finish the remaining key animation today. Gu Rou had specifically messaged her, telling her to come home early. Gu Xue didn't want to face her nagging either, so she might as well finish early and go home early. Frequently pushing herself like this really was terrible for her health.

Though she had many things on her mind, the moment she picked up her pencil, Gu Xue forgot them all and focused on her work.

Time passed.

At midnight, Gu Xue finally finished all the key animation for the cut. At the same time, she confirmed something: it wasn't that she was in good condition. She had simply become much better.

She stacked the key drawings in numerical order, secured them with the completed Dope Sheet, picked up the finished cut from the other set, and went to the other side of the office. She placed the key animation directly on the episode director's desk, ready to leave.

But before going, she remembered something. After hesitating for a moment, she still tossed the other key animator's drawings—the pile of stuff she had originally been supposed to clean up and refine—onto the episode director's desk as well.

After all, the two shots she had drawn hadn't followed the storyboards at all, nor had she discussed them with the episode director. She had worked with the mindset that if this job went badly, she could go home and let her sister support her. If the episode director thought they weren't acceptable, then so be it.

Find someone else to draw the second key animation for that pile of stuff yourselves. Even if there isn't enough time, I'm not sticking around.

Gu Xue tossed that pile over as well, intending to convey roughly that message.