Law of Causality

A little after three in the afternoon, when Gu Xue woke up, Gu Rou had already gotten up and left the house.

Gu Xue lay in bed and scrolled on her phone for a while. Once the grogginess from waking up had eased, she finally got up, went downstairs, took a shower, and ate.

Nearly an hour later, Gu Xue put on her shoes in the entryway and left home.

She arrived at the company.

Gu Xue immediately picked up the stack of things she had drawn the night before and went straight to find Misawa Hiroshi.

When she reached Misawa Hiroshi's office, she was surprised to find Miss Mihara there too.

And neither of them looked very happy.

No, actually, Misawa Hiroshi looked terrible, while Miss Mihara watched him with an expressionless face.

"What's going on?" Gu Xue quickened her pace a little, stopped beside Miss Mihara, and asked quietly.

Had they gotten into another argument?

They'd only just argued yesterday...

Miss Mihara hesitated for a moment, then shook her head.

Misawa Hiroshi gave a wry smile and glanced at Miss Mihara. He didn't explain what had happened, but instead asked, "Have you drawn it already? That witch-themed story you mentioned yesterday?"

"I did draw it." Gu Xue looked at Misawa Hiroshi suspiciously and handed him a thick stack of original drawings.

"..." Misawa Hiroshi took the stack and fell silent for a moment. Then he said, "Are you a demon?"

I only asked you to sketch out the story concept and some of the character designs. What the hell was with bringing in a whole stack?

He grumbled about how seriously Gu Xue had taken the task, while also marveling at how quickly she'd drawn everything.

Misawa Hiroshi flipped through the drawings in his hands.

After a while, with half the stack already reviewed, Misawa Hiroshi looked up again.

"Are you a demon?"

This time, his voice was full of amazement.

It had only been one night, and she'd already drawn the designs for a whole bunch of characters. Their names were clearly labeled, and the designs were polished enough that they could probably be used as-is.

There was also a whole collection of props: magic wands, brooms, and magic stones.

She'd even drawn most of the main locations where the story took place. Had she been using cheat codes or something?

Or was she trying to take the art director's job too?

Misawa Hiroshi sighed. Seeing Gu Xue's blank, unmoved expression, he lowered his head and continued reading.

Before long, he suddenly looked up again, holding two sheets of original drawings. They showed a collection of expressions for the protagonist, Akko...

"Are you a demon? Who needs that many facial expressions? Are you trying to work the rest of the animators to death?! The animation's only a little over twenty minutes! You drew twenty different expressions. What is this, a Sichuan opera face-changing routine?"

"Oh, you're so annoying. Just hurry up and look." Gu Xue watched Misawa Hiroshi repeatedly look up and down like some kind of gopher, and finally grew impatient.

"I just... got a little carried away and drew too many. We don't have to use all of them. I'll pick out a few representative ones later, so don't worry about it."

"..."

For a moment, Misawa Hiroshi didn't know what to say. She'd "gotten a little carried away"—if he gave her two days, would she finish making the whole animation?

And was it really okay for the protagonist to have so many expressions?

After thinking it over, Misawa Hiroshi decided not to ask. He put the question aside and figured he'd read through Gu Xue's story outline first. At the very least, he needed to understand what the story was about.

Seeing Misawa Hiroshi lower his head again, Gu Xue smiled. The OVA version of Little Witch Academia didn't actually have that many expressions; most of them came from the TV version. She really had been unable to control her right hand and had drawn too many. The OVA didn't need so many expressions because of its limited runtime.

Time passed quietly. Misawa Hiroshi kept turning pages, and Gu Xue grew a little impatient waiting, so she started chatting softly with Miss Mihara.

Before long,

Misawa Hiroshi turned to the last page and shot to his feet.

"You're not just trying to take the art director's job. You're trying to take mine too! You've even drawn the storyboards..."

Misawa Hiroshi wore an expression like he was terribly constipated.

Gu Xue hunched her shoulders, scratched her cheek, and said a little sheepishly, "It's just a story outline."

"You wrote out all the dialogue and even worked out the timing." Misawa Hiroshi looked unconvinced.

"For reference."

"I'm tempted to use it as-is. What do I need a reference for?" Misawa Hiroshi sat back down and slumped into his chair like a fish that had lost all hope.

He suddenly felt that working with a pretty girl who looked like a high schooler wasn't all that fun after all.

Not only could he admire her from afar, she also had to crush his self-esteem.

She'd drawn the storyboards in one night...

And they were especially good.

Thinking about how he himself painstakingly dragged his feet over storyboards, Misawa Hiroshi was on the verge of tears.

"I didn't mean anything by it. I just drew them while I was sorting out the plot..." Seeing him like this, Gu Xue offered an explanation. "I can tell you a little about the story. If you have ideas of your own, we can discuss them."

"You've drawn everything in such detail. There's no need." Misawa Hiroshi waved a hand, then glanced at Gu Xue. Remembering that he still needed her help with something, he pulled himself together and said, "I've got the general idea, but isn't it a little too simple?"

Gu Xue thought for a moment, then spoke softly. "You've seen a pure-love anime before, right? Childhood friends grow up together, fall in love, like each other, go through a few little bumps in the road, and finally say, 'I love you.' No love triangles, no abortions—just little things that adults would consider trivial. Is it simple? Very simple, and very clichéd. But as long as the direction is good, even the most straightforward story can be enjoyable. People can simply find it lovely for what it is. That's the part that'll test your ability the most, though I don't have any experience as a director myself..."

"..." Misawa Hiroshi was silent for a long while. Then he set down the original drawings and said, "You've convinced me, but I still need to think it over carefully."

Gu Xue nodded. Maybe he had ideas of his own, and she couldn't force the issue.

"So, have we decided on this theme? When can you officially draw the storyboards? And if we're holding a planning meeting, please make it soon."

The only thing Gu Xue cared about was the schedule. Although Anime Mirai had given them plenty of time, she truly thought it would be exhausting to train newcomers while working as the animation director. She wanted to move the project forward as quickly as possible so she could free up more time and avoid scrambling at the last minute.

"..."

Misawa Hiroshi glanced at Mihara Chisa. Ignoring her warning look, he gave a wry smile and said, "We've decided on this theme, but the planning meeting may have to be postponed. The project itself will need to be pushed back a little too. I was worried we wouldn't have enough time, but since you've already sketched out the storyboards and character designs, I don't have to worry about that anymore. Anime Mirai gives us about a month and a half for the script and character designs. Delaying things by a month and a half probably won't cause us to miss the deadline..."

"Huh?" Gu Xue suddenly had a bad feeling.

Misawa Hiroshi put on a mournful expression. "Have you heard of mecha anime?"