Mihara Chisa

The animation meeting was held in an office tucked away in a corner of the first floor. Timing her arrival, Gu Xue followed the others over, comparing them with her memories as she walked and reacquainting herself with everyone at the company.

That day, when she could not remember what the production assistant looked like, had served as a reminder to Gu Xue.

They all worked at the same company and had to interact from time to time. Since they would keep running into one another, it was better to remember people's faces. It would be awkward if someone stood right in front of her next time and she still did not recognize them.

As she walked, she compared everyone to her memories. Remembering them only took a glance, and aside from the few people she had never exchanged a word with, Gu Xue had basically identified them all.

Oddly enough, though, she did not see the production assistant who had awkwardly chatted with her for over ten minutes.

Weren't those poor bastards supposed to be the last to arrive and the last to leave...?

She had planned to take this chance to properly apologize for delivering the key frames herself last time.

It seemed she could only bring it up another time.

Gu Xue looked around and, after confirming she could not find him, stopped worrying about it and walked straight into the meeting room.

More than twenty people were scattered around the spacious meeting room. To be precise, there were twenty-four.

The moment Gu Xue entered, every gaze in the room turned toward her.

Her shoulders hunched up, then quickly relaxed again.

For one brief moment, the sheer number of people in the room had startled her.

There were too many.

This was only the animation meeting for the Final Episode. That meant that even excluding non-drawing staff such as the director, episode director, and production assistants, more than a dozen—nearly twenty—in-house key animators were drawing this episode. With outside staff included, there would be even more...

Animation work was not bricklaying. More people did not necessarily mean better results. Given similar skill levels, if ten people could draw the key animation for one episode, the result would definitely be better than having twenty people do it.

Still, considering there was less than a month left for animation work, Gu Xue understood. They were obviously short on time, so they had to make up for it with manpower.

She glanced around the meeting room. She had already identified most of the key animators on her way here.

Gu Xue also knew Misawa Hiroshi, the storyboard artist and episode director for the Final Episode. He was a middle-aged man with a very high hairline...

She also knew the short man seated at the head of the table. He was easy to remember—the one with an even higher hairline than Misawa Hiroshi was the director, Ore-sama...

It was not strange for the director to attend the animation meeting for the Final Episode.

Some people might think that with episode directors handling every episode, the director must have plenty of free time.

Well, the director was actually quite busy. He just did not concern himself much with the specific animation work.

As for what he did, that could wait for another opportunity.

As for the person standing beside the director...

Gu Xue looked over.

She was a girl who looked about the same age as Gu Xue. If you thought about Gu Xue's nickname, you could probably imagine just how young that girl appeared...

Not only was she young, she was beautiful.

She had shoulder-length short hair and wore a dark women's suit with a white blouse. Her arms were folded over her chest, making her "very" well-developed feminine features even more prominent. Though she was petite and cute-looking, her presence was incredibly imposing.

Gu Xue froze on the spot.

?????

Didn't they say animation was all lies...?

While Gu Xue stared at her in a daze, the girl with the beautiful shoulder-length hair noticed Gu Xue as well. She fell silent for a moment, then strode toward Gu Xue with a stern face.

Gu Xue suddenly snapped back to her senses. Watching the girl approach with such force, her shoulders shrank again. As the girl drew closer and closer, Gu Xue even had the urge to turn around and run.

The other girl really did look like she was about to chop someone up, which was rather frightening...

Just as Gu Xue was checking whether she had a knife in her hand—

The girl had already arrived in front of Gu Xue.

Slap!

She slammed a palm onto the conference table.

Gu Xue instinctively took half a step back.

Bracing herself against the table, the girl leaned her upper body forward and stepped half a pace closer.

Since Gu Xue was taller, she could clearly see the girl's slender, fair neck, as well as the delicate collarbones faintly visible beneath her collar.

Most importantly, the girl's very well-developed chest was nearly touching her...

"H-hello?"

Whether it was the girl's imposing manner or something else that had frightened her, Gu Xue leaned her upper body back slightly and stammered.

The girl ignored whatever Gu Xue said and spoke on her own. "You're Gu Xue, right?"

Gu Xue nodded frantically like a pecking chick. "Y-yes, yes, yes, yes, yes..."

"The next time you submit key frames, please go through the production assistant, or at least notify them! They need to know where the key frames are. That is the production assistant's responsibility, and it is for everyone's benefit. I hope nothing like what happened in Episode Six happens again in the Final Episode. While Katsuta, the production assistant for Episode Six, was also at fault in that matter, I hope you reflect on your own actions as well."

Perhaps because they were both girls, the other girl did not mind closing the distance at all. To make herself seem even more imposing, she stepped closer to Gu Xue again while saying that.

She was really pressed right up against her...

"Y-yes, yes, yes..." Gu Xue had forgotten everything except how to nod.

"..." Seeing how cooperative Gu Xue was, the girl fell silent for a moment, nodded, and slowly straightened up. She no longer pressed toward her, instead turning to pull out a chair at the end of the conference table.

"Please pay attention next time. Sit down."

After pulling out the chair and giving her that reminder, the girl was about to turn and leave. But just as she lifted her foot, she seemed to remember something. She stopped, faced away from Gu Xue, and stiffly said, "Hello. My name is Mihara Chisa."

After introducing herself in a stiff, awkward manner, Mihara Chisa returned to the director's side. She continued standing with her arms folded over her chest and her eyes fixed ahead, like an ancient imperial censor vested with the power of inspection.

Still utterly confused, Gu Xue sat down and gripped the chair's armrests with both hands.

She still had not recovered from the shock.

Come to think of it, who was Mihara Chisa...?

Gu Xue secretly glanced at Mihara Chisa from the corner of her eye and carefully examined her, confirming that she did not know her and had never seen her before.

She probably was not a production assistant.

Judging by how the half-bald episode director and the completely bald director had shrunk their heads in like quails, Gu Xue figured they were rather intimidated by Mihara Chisa too.

She was probably the production manager, or perhaps an even higher-ranking line producer.

But even if she was a line producer, Director, weren't you two being a little too cowardly...?

Seeing how cowardly the episode director and director were, Gu Xue felt her irritation rise.

Though I'm scared too.

But you two are different. You're at least the bosses in charge of the content side of animation production... There's no reason for you to be scared. Are you really willing to watch someone from your side get rubbed into the ground like this?

What superficial coworkers...

And in a sense, I really did get rubbed into the ground!

Damn it...