Miyako Shirakawa

It was mid-September, a few days after Haruto told Miyako how he felt, and the fourth-floor meeting room at Gift Publishing was being used to work out the episode structure of All About My Little Sister.

A month had passed since the publisher and animation sides first met, and today marked the fourth meeting (counting that first conference and subsequent trips to the izakaya). In attendance were Itsuki Hashima, Kenjiro Toki, anime director Munenori Tarui, and screenwriter Masahiko Hirugano. Arranging a date and time was a challenge, given that everyone had other work to attend to, but they arranged this meeting over e-mail so they could come together and, once and for all, decide how to best arrange the story over twelve half-hour episodes without draining the charm of the original novels from it.

There, after several shouting matches that could only be described as heated, they finally hammered out a final plan. The anime would be based on the first three novel volumes, but they made some bold moves in rearranging the episode order, introducing a few anime-exclusive rival characters, throwing in a few episodes digging deeper into the Onizaki siblings’ relationship (something Itsuki hadn’t covered in the novels yet), and adding more sexy scenes that went beyond mere fan service and functioned as foreshadowing for future events. Some fans might complain “This is completely different from the original!”—but now, the novelist, the screenwriter, and the director were all convinced that this was the best way to bring All About My Little Sister to the screen.

“All right, Hirugano,” Tarui said as the two prepared to leave, “make a clean copy of the final proposal and share it with Oshima and Yamada.”

“Got it!”

“After that, I’m gonna want you to work on the script for episode one ASAP, but can you do that?”

“Of course! We could have the first script meeting next week.”

They were both very busy people—neither could’ve slept very much lately—but they looked and sounded energized.

“Thanks, guys. Keep up the good work,” Toki said with a bow of his head.

“Thanks,” Itsuki added.

“You too, Mr. Hashima,” replied Tarui. “I have to say, I’ve never worked so closely with the original writer before the script meetings like this.”

“Me neither,” his screenwriter added. “With all the passion and guidance you showed me, I think I’m beginning to understand the little-sister trope a little. My littlest sister is always whining about wanting to take a bath together, but maybe I should say yes next time…”

“……………Ah, how old is she?” Itsuki asked, squinting.

“I think sixteen? No, she turned seventeen last month.”

“Wha…?!”

“By the way, Mr. Hashima,” Tarui said in his soothing voice to the stupefied Itsuki, “this is actually a secret, but Hirugano here is married to the voice actress Kohime Shiratori.”

“()”

Itsuki made the “It doesn’t make any sense” face.

Kohime Shiratori. Her role as the protagonist (i.e. the little sister) of A Sister’s All You Need!, an anime from a few years ago, rocketed her into stardom. Itsuki owned all her CDs.

“………I have to call the police… This man needs to be arrested for having a monopoly over all the world’s little sisters…”

Toki hurriedly leaned over toward the muttering Itsuki and stopped him before he could bring up his phone and call emergency services.

“What’re you doing, dumbass?!”

“Gaaaaahhhh! Let go of meeeeee! Let me rub this playboy—this little-sister robber baron—out of existence!!”

“Ugh, calm down!”

Tarui smiled serenely as Toki attempted to physically pin Itsuki down. “What’s he angry about?” Hirugano audibly wondered as he left the room.

As he was about to take the elevator down from the meeting and go back home, Itsuki spotted Miyako.

“Oh, hi there, Itsuki,” she said softly as other people were waiting in the elevator hall.

“Hey. You going home, too?”

“Yeah.”

It was a little past five thirty. Between attending to meetings and being taken out to drinking parties, Miyako often found herself inside the editorial hours in the evenings, but her actual work hours generally ended at half past five.

“You look kind of spent. Hard meeting?” she said, raising an eyebrow at Itsuki’s exhausted face.

“…No, the meeting went great, and we have a wonderful episode structure, but then the screenwriter launched a terrorist little-sister bomb at me on his way out the door.”

“A terrorist what?” Miyako giggled.

“It’s not funny… I haven’t had to deal with anything so unfair in ages…,” the gaunt-looking Itsuki replied.

They both got off at the ground floor and headed for the exit.

“Chihiro’s gonna come to my place around six to make dinner. Wanna join us?”

Itsuki phrased it completely naturally. There was none of the psyching up Haruto needed to ask Miyako to the bar.

“Hmm… Well, if you don’t mind, then, all right?”

Miyako, on the other hand, looked nervous, face taut, none of the loose “Let’s do it” casualness she showed Haruto.

Five minutes later, they were both at Itsuki’s apartment. The moment they arrived, Itsuki flipped on the AC and invited her to sit at the low kotatsu table. The season being summer, it wasn’t plugged in and generating heat, but he kept the heavy futon blanket over it all year. It was never too hot as long as the AC worked, and it also protected you from the direct blast of cold air, making it useful for a little summer-afternoon snooze.

“Want something to drink?” he asked, opening the fridge.

“Mmm, do you have some tea?”

“Yep.”

He took out a plastic bottle of barley tea and brought it to the kotatsu with two beer glasses. Taking a seat opposite Miyako, he poured the tea into them both.

“Well, here’s to work.”

They clinked their glasses and took a swig.

“Kind of weird to say cheers over tea,” remarked Miyako.

“Well, I got beer, too. Want some?”

“Mmm, I’ll wait ’til dinner.”

“Yeah.”

Itsuki drank about half the glass, then suddenly sat up and turned to Miyako.

“Um?”

He blushed a little. She looked back, puzzled.

“Well, um… I just thought this would be a good opportunity to say thanks to you.”

“Thanks?”

“…We worked out a complete episode plan for the anime today, and in my opinion, I don’t think we could’ve nailed it any better.”

“Oh, congratulations.”

“Thanks… We couldn’t have hammered this out if Tarui, the director, Hirugano, the screenwriter, and I didn’t seriously talk things over. Throwing our takes at one another, you know. And the only reason we’re able to do that is you, Miyako. So thank you…very much.”

He silently lowered his head to the blushing Miyako.

“Oh, don’t say thaaat! I’m just a part-timer, and there I was, butting in on an important anime meeting without any permission…”

This wasn’t Miyako being modest. She really did have qualms about it. It worked out well in the end, but she regretted running her mouth off on sheer impulse in a meeting where her input wasn’t even invited.

Itsuki lifted his head back up. “Not just the anime, either. I heard what happened when Kaiko’s dad showed up at the office.”

Miyako grew redder. “Ah… That totally was all my mistake. I’m really sorry.”

“What’re you apologizing about? Thanks to you, there’s no more family drama in Kaiko’s life, so now she can fully focus on the All About manga. She, her editor, and I honestly couldn’t thank you enough.”

He lowered his head again.

“So…thanks. Thanks for working so, so hard for the sake of my story.”

…And something about that touched a nerve in Miyako.

“Nnnnnnnhhhh…”

She groaned painfully, as if expressing all the darkness in her heart.

“Nnnnnggggaaaaaahhhhhhh!!”

It then evolved into an inscrutable, near-primal scream, evoking all her frustration, her sadness, and her self-inflicted pain.

“M-Miyako…?”

Miyako stared at the confused Itsuki, eyes watering. “Itsukiii! Please, listen to me!”

“Um, yeah, sure!”

“I’m going to be perfectly honest with you. I really don’t care at all about All About My Little Sister!”

“Wh-whaaaa—?!”

Itsuki’s eyes burst wide open. That’s a little too honest!

She leaned right over the kotatsu toward him and brought her face close to his. “During that anime meeting—and when Kaiko’s dad came, too! When I let my emotions get the best of me, when I tried so hard to do something, that wasn’t for your story. That was for you!”

“Huh? Um, uh, what do you…?”

Itsuki’s mind was in chaos now. Her face bright red and her eyes welling with great big tears, Miyako shouted:

“When will you finally notice, you dumbass?! I love you!”

*     *     *

…Ahh, I finally said it.

…What am I even doing?

Despite the sobbing mess she was on the surface, inside her mind, everything was strangely clear and serene. Seeing Itsuki there—blinking helplessly, his mind more confused than it had ever been—she was now sure of it. He never did understand his own feelings. He wasn’t just pretending not to.

It also meant that, to Itsuki, Miyako was not on the list when it came to potential romantic partners. She knew it was true now—Nayuta Kani had been the only woman in his heart. But right now:

“…Oh, uh…y-yeah… Um, really…?”

Itsuki was regaining his thoughts.

“Yeah.” Miyako nodded. “Really.”

Now you’ve got me in your heart, too, Miyako thought, enjoying this odd sense of victory. There used to just be Nayuta Kani, but now, Miyako Shirakawa has a presence, too.

“I’ve really liked you for a while now.”

…What am I even doing? I haven’t replied to Haruto, but here I am confessing my feelings to another man. I’m just awful—but what’s said is said, I guess. I was never any good at thinking before taking action, and all the impulsive things I did in the office turned out great anyway.

It’ s gotta work here, too…

“I’m sorry.”

The words came flatly out of his mouth. He was apologetic, but he was straight, unbending, as he looked at her.

“I’m in love with someone else.”

All she could manage the other day was “Let me think about it…,” but Itsuki Hashima had his answer ready immediately.

This is exactly it. This. These supercool people, with their drives and their dreams, running straight ahead toward what they want…

“…Ah, um, I’m talking about a real person, too, okay? Not a 2-D one.”

I know that. You didn’t have to rub it in.

“Oh.” A faint smile came to Miyako’s lips. “Well, so be it, then.”

She pretended to be indifferent, but her voice had gone all nasal, and the tears were still flowing down her cheeks, so she knew she wasn’t fooling anyone. But still, she smiled. A parting gift, the strongest smile she could manage; her way of holding out against a world that couldn’t go her way.

Itsuki said nothing, but he still faced Miyako as if withstanding some kind of pain.

“…I think I should go home for today.” Miyako slowly stood up.

“Okay. Well…”

He was hesitating—because he didn’t know whether to say “See you later.” Miyako could tell.

“See you soon, Itsuki.”

He breathed a small sigh of relief.

With that, Miyako received her first taste of unrequited love—and the pain it brought would push the story of her life into a new, and unfamiliar, stage.

(The End)