I Thought This Was a Slice of Life

I Thought This Was a Slice of Life Author: Bird of the Sky

Synopsis: At one year old, threatened by a spendthrift father to be weaned off milk, forced to debut as a voice actor (providing baby cries).

At two years old, because he was too cute, invited to shoot various infant commercials, started to become popular.

At three years old, same as above.

At four years old, same as above. Getting cuter and cuter, popularity rising all the way.

At five years old, same as above... Wait, what the hell, there are superhumans in this world?!

Meow meow meow? What happened to the slice of life genre I was promised!

Involves: The Quintessential Quintuplets, Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai, Oregairu, Oreimo, Girlish Number.

Section 1: 1 Senior Shu-chan

In a control room outside a recording studio in Tokyo, a dozen staff members and young voice actresses were watching the surreal scene before them with complex expressions.

Their dear, respected boss and director, Inoue Hikoo, was performing a negotiation method unique to the Japan Administrative District of the Earth Federation with the majestic posture of a tiger pouncing to the ground.

It is called... oh...

Dogeza.

And the kind where his head was actually slamming into the floor.

"I beg you! My son! Aside from you, there is no one in this world who can help your old man, waaaaah!"

"..."

Sitting before him with a very composed air was his son.

Inoue Shuya.

A cute five-year-old boy, a child prodigy known far and wide.

To the rookie voice actresses present, he was affectionately nicknamed Senior Shu-chan.

He had debuted when he was only six months old.

Although he only provided crying and cooing sounds, those soulful cries and adorable babbling became a hot topic for a time, allowing that anime to sell well through hype and bringing Inoue Hikoo's animation studio back from the dead.

...Although it only went from a total flop back to a mediocre flop, it at least escaped the brink of bankruptcy.

"Shu-chan, Daddy is really begging you! This is a once-in-a-lifetime major request!"

Inoue Hikoo spoke in a miserable and pathetic tone, shedding manly tears before everyone without a shred of integrity.

But Shuya's focus was a bit strange.

...Hm? Hasn't the phrase "once-in-a-lifetime request" been used before?

Ah, no, it evolved from a request into a "major request"...

Shuya recalled the lines his dad used back then; they were indeed different.

At this rate, there will be "super major requests" and "extreme major requests" in the future.

He also remembered this man before him crying and threatening his six-month-old self: "Shu-chan! Shu-sama! Please, have mercy and cry cutely! Otherwise, Daddy is going to go bankrupt! Mommy won't have food to eat, and if there's no food, there won't be milk for us to drink! Waaaaah, hero, save me!"

"Sigh."

Shuya sighed with his little milky voice; no matter how he thought about it, that statement had too many points to roast, in every sense.

It's truly hard to imagine how a tiny infant could grow up healthily without psychological trauma after facing such threats, stubbornly growing into the cuteness he was today.

If he hadn't been unable to speak fluently back then, he would have roasted him long ago.

"Senior Shu-chan... so cute."

A fifteen or sixteen-year-old girl clutched her heart, her small face turning rose-colored.

Shuya noticed this girl and helplessly brushed back his bangs, saying:

"Hmph, has another ignorant girl fallen under my toddler trousers?"

The contrast between his mature speech and his little milky voice was astonishing.

The young girls in the control room erupted into small screams:

"Ah! Senior Shu-chan!"

"So cute!"

"So cute!"

"So cute!"

Shuya: "..."

Enough! You Japanese girls shouldn't just keep saying "cute"! Are you playing a repeating meme or just padding the word count?!

After his irritation, Shuya realized something and gave them a deep look:

...No, these Japanese girls... they are just simply uncultured...

He looked at them with sympathy, his eyes filled with pity.

How miserable.

"Sigh."

Shuya sighed again, speaking to his old man:

"I am just a child."

"No! Even though Shu-chan has the body of a child, your mind is already that of an adult! You are a famous little prodigy genius!"

Inoue Hikoo retorted loudly. Seeing Shuya's tone soften slightly, his tears miraculously receded.

"Little prodigy genius..."

Shuya found this nickname, which was steeped in the traditional chuunibyou style of the Japanese administrative districts, quite repulsive.

He hated this title purely because it was tacky. If it had been a cool, chuunibyou-style name, he might have accepted it.

As for being a prodigy.

Shuya could only say... if you transmigrated and were reborn, you could be one too.

With the story reaching this point, Shuya's identity was self-evident.

He was clearly a transmigrator.

The strange thing was that his parents looked exactly the same as they did before he transmigrated, and their personalities were similar too, making him highly suspicious that they were the same people from an alternate timeline.

Furthermore, his current appearance was identical to how he looked as a child before he transmigrated.

He was just as handsome, moving, and adorable (though it was actually an optimized version, he would never admit that his past life wasn't as cute as his current one).

Regardless, with this reason in mind, he felt no psychological burden calling them Mom and Dad.

Back to the main topic.

Shuya stared fixedly at his old man with his large eyes, crossing his arms seriously: "After saying so much, you need to give me what you promised yesterday before I discuss your request."

"...Hmm?"

Inoue Hikoo let out a confused hum through his nose.

Shuya raised an eyebrow, his handsome little face tinged with suspicion.

He probed tentatively: "You... you didn't forget, did you?"

"I! Did! Not! I would never forget my promise to Shu-chan!"

Inoue Hikoo straightened his face and lectured sternly: "Shu-chan, how could you so easily doubt others! Honestly, who on earth taught you to be like this!"

"You did."

Shuya pointed a finger at him, his face expressionless.

"Nonsense! You're going to be the death of me!" Inoue Hikoo said angrily.

"So don't change the subject. You clearly forgot what you promised me yesterday and are now trying to fake anger to brush it off."

Shuya pointed this out very calmly, as he was already used to it.

His old man had been pulling this routine since his previous life, so it was honestly very hard to shake Shuya.

"I didn't forget, I just couldn't recall it for a moment!"

Inoue Hikoo acted shamelessly with righteous indignation: "Son, to be honest, this time you have to help whether you want to or not! I'm only asking you to give you some face!"

"Oh ho, so tough!" Shuya was startled, though his temper was good enough that he wasn't angry.

He simply realized: "No wonder you brought me to the company without even asking."

Inoue Hikoo's tone softened: "Daddy is forced into a corner too... I won't hide it from you, the company is about to go bankrupt again."

"That word 'again' is very telling. Just how fragile is this broken company of yours... Fine, I agree to let you use the money I made from filming commercials to hire famous voice actors for the dubbing. Will that do?"

Shuya found it troublesome and decided to solve everything with money.

"..."

Inoue Hikoo suddenly fell silent, twisting his sturdy body bashfully.

Everyone around them showed expressions of disgust.

Shuya's little brow furrowed; he realized things were not that simple.

He spoke with difficulty: "...O-old man? You, you didn't... did you?"

He vaguely sensed the reason and looked up inquisitively at his 1.8-meter-tall father.

"Used... it."

Inoue Hikoo muttered softly.

"What did you say?"

"I already used it."

The protagonist's father blushed, coughing as he said: "Where do you think the investment for this animation came from?"

"Oh..."

Inoue Shuya scanned the crowd around him and sighed, "So... you all are using my baby formula money to pay for labor?"

"Cough, cough, cough!"

"Pfft!"

"Cough, cough!"

The staff and voice actors were incredibly embarrassed.

The baby formula money Shuya mentioned didn't mean he was still drinking formula now.

It referred to the formula commercials he filmed after his center-stage debut as an infant.

Back then, he had provided voice work for that animation for just a few short minutes, successfully charming the masses with his voice. Coupled with his adorable, rosy, and tender appearance, all sorts of baby commercials flooded in, and his parents chose quite a few of the highest-paying ones to film.

Even today, across the Earth Federation, his formula commercials were still airing, and one could occasionally still see the ad where he was wearing a diaper and crawling on the floor with his chubby little legs.

Shuya didn't have the idiotic, low-profile mindset of other transmigrators that would lead him to refuse cooperation.

For the sake of his own quality of life, he was extremely cooperative; if they asked him to cry, he could cry in a way that made people's hearts ache to death, and if they asked him to smile, he could smile in a way that melted hearts.

It wasn't that his acting skills were superb; it was purely because he was too good-looking.

The world always treats good-looking people with excessive kindness.

In short, all the commercials he filmed were of explosive quality, and he had been an incredibly famous child star since that time.

In the neighboring Great Hua Administrative District, he even earned the nickname of the Nation's Son.

Of course, deep down, Shuya was unwilling to have so many extra parents.

In his heart, there were only ever two parents...