Face Time

It was early in the afternoon, three days after the group picked Kaiko Mikuniyama to draw the manga version of All About My Little Sister, and Itsuki Hashima and Kenjiro Toki had just reached a café where they were slated to meet with their new artist. They didn’t have to wait long before a couple, a man and woman, were seated across the table from them.

Itsuki was familiar with one of them, a pudgy man in his mid-thirties. His name was Kohei Tokuyama, and he did manga editing for Comic Gifted magazine. The other one had to be Kaiko. She looked close in age to Itsuki, a gentle sort of stereotypically Japanese beauty with striking long black hair. Her face was tensed up a bit—she must have been nervous—making her look a bit like a timid forest creature. Her clothing was loose, comfortable, and mostly white in color, and while that made it hard to tell, she had a fairly ample chest. On her head was an Alice-style hairband with a large ribbon on it, lending a bit of a childish look to this girl of nearly twenty, but it worked well with the “rich girl” look she otherwise exuded.

“Nice seeing you again, Mr. Hashima,” Tokuyama began. “Thank you for taking time out of your schedule to see us… Ms. Mikuniyama, let me introduce you guys. This is Itsuki Hashima, the original creator.”

Original creator. That struck home with Itsuki. No longer would he just be a novelist; now he was a “creator,” the mastermind behind what would soon become a world depicted in multiple forms of media.

“Um, nice to meet you,” Kaiko said, her voice ringing like a pristine bell as she presented a business card to him. It was white with lots of ribbons drawn all over it, “KAIKO MIKUNIYAMA – Manga artist” written in rather small print alongside her e-mail address.

“Th-the pleasure’s all mine,” Itsuki said, a bit nervous as he provided his own card. His was done up with a yellow font over a plain black background, with “ITSUKI HASHIMA – Novelist” right in the middle and his e-mail, phone number, and address below that. The other side had a list of his previously published work.

“So,” Tokuyama continued once they exchanged cards, “as you know, we’ve decided to launch a manga version of All About My Little Sister, so you’ll probably be seeing quite a bit of us going forward, Mr. Hashima.”

“Oh yeah. I’m looking forward to it.”

Itsuki nodded at him and Kaiko as they both gave him a polite bow of the head.

“So today, I just wanted the original creator to get acquainted with Ms. Mikuniyama and, you know, throw around any questions and advice you might have for each other.”

Itsuki and Kaiko turned to look at each other. When their eyes met, Kaiko averted hers, blushing a little. There was something sweet about it—nothing at all like Nayuta or Miyako or Ashley or the other women in his life—and it shook his composure a little. He began to doubt himself. Was this mature, sensible-looking, beautiful woman really capable of adapting the world of All About into manga, his world full of ridiculous situations and a never-ending stream of adult-oriented humor? The samples she gave him were flawless, but…

“Umm, Mr. Hashima?” she said first, peering up at him. “What did you think about my manga? I’d appreciate it if you could give me your honest feedback.”

“Well, um…honestly, I thought it was perfect. Nothing wrong with it at all.”

“R-really?” Kaiko asked, her lack of self-confidence readily apparent.

Itsuki gave her a reassuring nod. “Really.”

“…This is from a guy who’s never afraid to voice his opinion, no matter how rude it is. So I think you can trust in that,” interjected Toki.

“I’m not rude,” Itsuki shot back with a glare. “…But, yeah, the character designs were perfect, and I couldn’t ask for better quality as a manga. I loved how cute Ichika and Yukiko were in particular.”

The encouragement made Kaiko’s face blossom with a smile like a spring flower. “It’s an honor to hear that. I put a lot of work into those two, so I could be sure they’d express as much of the deep love you have for them as possible…”

Itsuki’s eyebrows shot up. “Hoh… So you noticed the extra effort I put into depicting them, huh?”

“Oh, of course. I really admire the love you have for them…or, really, for all the little sisters in your work. The way you described Ichika’s toes as she was going up the stairs barefoot in Volume 4… I was just in awe.”

“I didn’t think you’d bring up that scene…!”

He had put a ton of effort into writing the scene Kaiko referenced, even though Toki derided it as “pointlessly long” and the online feedback was along the lines of “Yeah, Kazuma may have a sister complex, but seeing him stare at his sister’s feet for that long is creepy.” Even from the sample pages, he could tell: Everything he thought was important in his stories, she picked up on. He couldn’t wait to see what she’d do with that scene in manga form.

“Speaking of which, I heard you were a fan of the little-sister character as it’s portrayed in novels like these? As an artist?”

“Oh please, I’m hardly an artist yet! I haven’t even made my professional debut. Just Kaiko is fine.”

The modest act flustered Itsuki a bit. “Oh, um, yeah, Itsuki works for me, um…Kaiko.”

“A—all right…Mr. Hashima.”

“This isn’t an arranged marriage, guys,” an exasperated Toki butted in.

“So, Kaiko, what’s your image of little sisters?”

“Oh, right. Well… I’m an only child, but for a while now, I’ve always admired the idea of a girl who really adores her older brother like that. And as I started reading manga and novels with those characters, I guess I sort of fell in love with the concept, too.”

“I see.”

“And with your work in particular, Mr. Hashima, it’s so clear how much love you’ve poured into that idea. It just resonates with me, truly.”

“Yeah. You see a lot of authors who just kind of shoehorn a little sister as a bit player so they can pull in that audience, even if they don’t care about them at all.”

Kaiko briskly nodded. “Exactly! But even when it’s so obvious, I can’t help but love those characters anyway…just because it’s a little sister we’re talking about, you see?”

“Oh, I totally get you! Even if it’s like, ‘Man, I’ve seen this character like thirty times before,’ it’s not like it’s her fault. If anything, I start loving her out of pity or whatever!”

“That sounds so much like you, Mr. Hashima…!”

“Do you have any recent favorites along those lines, Kaiko? Outside of my work?”

“Hmm… I know this is kind of a popular answer, but maybe Sagiri from Eromanga Sensei.”

“Yessss, she’s a goddess on Earth! If you want someone who creates really cute sisters that don’t go down the same well-trodden path, nothing can beat Tsukasa Fushimi’s books.”

“Yeah. And Kirino from Oreimo, his previous work, was pretty amazing, too.”

“Definitely! She’s got this incredible balance, you know? Like, the way she’s set up, you’d think the general reading public would be turned off, but she just wins you over eventually, you know? I’d love to meet Fushimi sometime and get some advice from him.”

“Also, I really love Shizuku from Chivalry of a Failed Knight.”

“Me too! That heroic young woman, giving her entire heart over to her brother…and then her brother [remainder redacted for spoilers]!”

………………

………

Itsuki and Kaiko’s little-sister lovefest continued unabated, leaving the two editors firmly in the dust.

“Umm,” Tokuyama said with a wry smile, “we should probably wrap it up pretty soon…”

“Oh no!” Kaiko snapped out of it, her cheeks still reddened from all the excitement of the conversation. “I kind of lost hold of myself… I apologize.”

“Not at all.” Itsuki laughed. “This is the first time I’ve talked to someone who can keep up with me on sisters like this.” He looked her in the eye. “Now I know for sure: Kaiko Mikuniyama, I feel totally safe in letting you take up All About My Little Sister. I hope you’ll treat all my beloved little sisters with as much care as I did.”

Kaiko paused a moment, letting the words sink in. “Of course. I promise I won’t let you down,” she said with a fetching smile and a stern voice.

“So, yeah, Kaiko was just this incredible person. With her on my side, I’m sure All About is gonna be the best goddamn comic adaptation ever. Mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!”

“………Oh? Well, good for you.”

Later that night, Itsuki was recounting his meeting with Kaiko Mikuniyama to Nayuta, who had come over to his place for dinner. He went over every detail—her prim, proper, refined atmosphere (unlike the other women in his life), the way she understood what made Itsuki’s novels tick, and how much they had enjoyed discussing other novels in the genre.

“…I’m glad you had fun,” a clearly miffed Nayuta replied.

“What’s wrong?” Itsuki asked, suspicious. “You aren’t jealous of Kaiko, are you?”

“……”

Nayuta nodded, her chin jutting out peevishly.

“R-really?” Itsuki asked, already looking a little guilty.

“…I’m sure I love you a whole lot more than that, Itsuki.”

“H-hey!” Itsuki immediately reddened. “Don’t get the wrong idea! Kaiko loves my work, not me!”

“…But, I mean, honestly, I really can’t keep up with all your little-sister talk.”

“Just because we’ve got that in common doesn’t mean we’re immediately gonna have feelings for each other.”

“…All right, so you don’t think anything at all about that Mikuniyama girl?”

“N-no.”

Nayuta’s reaction threw Itsuki for a loop. Why was she confronting him like a wife who had just discovered her husband was cheating on her? Maybe he and Nayuta did have feelings for each other, but they weren’t dating or anything.

“Really? You truly, honestly never felt a single pang of emotion for Mikuniyama?”

“…………Well, if you’re gonna phrase it like that…” Itsuki began to sweat, his eyes averted. “I mean…she seemed kinda nice to me, yeah…but just that.”

Nayuta instantly wrinkled her nose.

“I knew it!”

“What do you want? She’s really pretty! Any man would notice!”

“Rawrrr!”

“Besides, even if I was head over heels for Kaiko at first sight, what’s that matter to you? Nothing!”

“It matters a lot! I’m gonna be your future wife, Itsuki!”

“That future’s never gonna happen!” he boldly declared.

“Mmmph… You don’t have to be that forceful about denying it…” Nayuta crossed her arms, pouting, and Itsuki could tell this actually was bumming her out a bit.

“…Okay, maybe not never…but I’m talking a ninety-nine point nine percent chance of no.”

“So there’s a zero point one percent chance of us getting married? Wow! I mean, that’s basically the same thing as one hundred percent!”

Itsuki rolled his eyes. “How does that work…?”

“If something has a zero point one percent chance of working in a manga or anime, that’s a guaranteed sign it’s gonna work.”

“…That’s a good point,” Itsuki replied, convinced. “But that’s still in the realm of fiction. If you want a future with a zero point one percent chance of taking place and make that happen one hundred percent of the time…you’d kinda have to be the hero of the story.”

“…!”

To Nayuta, who had heard Itsuki complain loud and clear earlier about wanting to “be the protagonist,” this was Itsuki essentially saying “Will you marry me?” to her.

“Nya-haaah~”

“…?”

Itsuki awkwardly stared at Nayuta as her face melted and cheeks turned pink as the ecstatic reverie washed over her.