Law of Causality

It was past three in the afternoon when Gu Xue woke up, and Gu Rou had already gotten up and left the house.

Gu Xue lay in bed and scrolled through her phone for a while. Only after the fatigue of waking up had subsided did she climb out of bed to head downstairs to shower and eat.

Nearly an hour later, Gu Xue finished putting on her shoes in the entryway and left the house.

She arrived at the company.

Gu Xue immediately grabbed the stack of materials she had drawn last night and went straight to find Misawa Hiroshi.

Walking into the office where Misawa Hiroshi was, Gu Xue was somewhat surprised to find Ms. Mihara there as well.

Furthermore, neither of them looked particularly happy.

No, that wasn't quite right; Misawa Hiroshi looked terrible, while Ms. Mihara was staring at him with a blank expression.

"What's wrong?" Gu Xue quickened her pace slightly, stood next to Ms. Mihara, and asked in a low voice.

They couldn't have been arguing again, could they?

They had only just fought yesterday...

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

Misawa Hiroshi offered a bitter smile, glanced at Ms. Mihara, and without explaining what had happened, asked, "Have you finished drawing it? That witch-themed project you mentioned yesterday?"

"The drawings are done." Gu Xue gave Misawa Hiroshi a suspicious look and handed him the thick stack of original art paper.

"..." Misawa Hiroshi took the stack, remained silent for a moment, and then said, "Are you a demon?"

I just told you to sketch out the story prototype and a few character designs; what the hell is this massive stack?

He complained internally about Gu Xue's diligence while simultaneously marveling at her drawing speed.

Misawa Hiroshi flipped through the original art paper in his hands.

A good while later, having gone through half of it, Misawa Hiroshi looked up again.

"Are you a demon?"

This time, his tone was filled with astonishment.

It had only been one night, yet she had drawn character designs for a whole cast, clearly labeled with names, and the level of completion was so high that it felt like they could be used directly without any issues.

There were also piles of props: magic wands, broomsticks, magic stones.

She had even drawn most of the major settings where the story took place. Did you use a cheat code or something...

Or are you trying to steal the art director's job...

Misawa Hiroshi sighed, and seeing Gu Xue standing there expressionless and unresponsive, he lowered his head again.

Before long, Misawa Hiroshi snapped his head up again, holding up two sheets of original art paper; they were expression sheets for the protagonist, Akko...

"Are you a demon? Who needs this many facial expressions! Are you trying to work the other animators to death?! The animation is only twenty minutes long! You drew twenty different expressions, what for? Are you performing Sichuan opera face-changing?"

"Oh, you're so annoying, just keep looking." Gu Xue, seeing Misawa Hiroshi bobbing his head up and down like a gopher, finally grew impatient.

"I just... couldn't help myself and drew a few extra. It's not like we have to use all of them. I'll pick out a few representative ones later, so you don't need to worry about that."

"..."

Misawa Hiroshi didn't know what to say for a moment. If she "couldn't help herself" and did this much, would she finish the entire animation if given two days?

And was it really okay? For the protagonist to have such a wide range of expressions?

After thinking about it, Misawa Hiroshi decided not to voice his doubts and pushed them aside. He planned to finish reading the story outline Gu Xue had drawn first; at the very least, he needed to understand what kind of story it was.

Seeing Misawa Hiroshi lower his head again, Gu Xue smiled. In truth, the OVA version of Little Witch Academia didn't have that many expressions—most of them were from the TV series—but she really hadn't been able to control her right hand. Because of the time constraints of the OVA, it didn't actually need that many expressions.

Time passed quietly. Misawa Hiroshi kept flipping pages, and Gu Xue, growing impatient, began chatting softly with Ms. Mihara.

Soon.

Misawa Hiroshi finished the last page and stood up abruptly.

"You're not just trying to steal the art director's job, you're trying to steal mine too, aren't you? Didn't you even draw the storyboards..."

Misawa Hiroshi had an expression like he was suffering from constipation.

Gu Xue hunched her shoulders and scratched her cheek, looking a bit embarrassed. "It's just a story outline."

"You even wrote out the dialogue and calculated the timing." Misawa Hiroshi looked at her, unconvinced.

"For reference."

"I want to use it directly, what's the point of calling it a reference." Misawa Hiroshi sat back down and slumped in his chair like a salted fish that had lost its dreams.

He suddenly felt that working with a girl who looked as pretty as a high school student wasn't all that fun.

Not only could you only look from afar, but your self-esteem also took a hit.

She drew the storyboards in one night...

And they were exceptionally good.

Thinking about how he usually dawdled when drawing storyboards, Misawa Hiroshi almost wanted to cry.

"I didn't mean anything by it, I just drew them while I was organizing the plot..." Gu Xue saw his state and offered an explanation. "Let me walk you through the story a bit. If you have any ideas of your own, we can discuss them."

"You've already drawn it in such detail, there's no need." Misawa Hiroshi waved his hand, glanced at Gu Xue, and remembering that he still needed her help, he pulled himself together and said, "I understand the general story, but isn't it a bit too simple?"

Gu Xue thought for a moment, then said softly, "You've seen pure romance anime, right? Childhood friends, growing up together, budding feelings, mutual attraction, going through some minor setbacks, and finally saying 'I love you.' No love triangles, no abortions, just trivial matters that seem like nothing to adults. Is it simple? It's very simple, and very cliché, but as long as the direction is on point, even the most straightforward story can be compelling. It's purely enjoyable, and this is also the part that tests your ability the most, though I don't have any experience as a director..."

"..." Misawa Hiroshi was silent for a long while, then put down the key animation paper in his hand and said, "You've convinced me, but I still need to think about it carefully."

Gu Xue nodded; perhaps the other party had his own ideas, and she couldn't force that.

"So, is it confirmed that we're doing this theme? When can you officially draw the storyboards? Please hurry if we're going to have a discussion meeting."

The only thing Gu Xue cared about was time. Although the Anime Mirai project provided a generous schedule, she really felt that being an animation director while teaching newcomers would be exhausting, so she wanted to push this project forward as quickly as possible to squeeze out a bit more time and avoid being flustered at the end.

"..."

Misawa Hiroshi glanced at Mihara Chisa, ignored her warning look, and gave a bitter smile. "It's confirmed that we're doing this theme, but the discussion meeting might have to be postponed, and this project will also have to be pushed back a little. I was a bit worried about not having enough time, but since you've already drawn the storyboards and character designs, I have no more worries. The Anime Mirai project allocates about a month and a half for scriptwriting and character design, so a delay of a month and a half shouldn't cause us to miss the deadline..."

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

Misawa Hiroshi said with a mournful face, "Have you ever heard of mecha anime?"