"Hey! Yukinoshita-san, why are you looking at me like that? Is there something wrong with me?"
Ritsu's heart skipped a beat. She quickly looked herself over, then relaxed after finding nothing unusual.
"No. But I think it's better if Ritsu-san remains unaware."
Yukinoshita Yukino looked at her with a complicated expression. At the same time, a thought suddenly crossed her mind: what kind of expressions would everyone else have made if they had seen that scene just now?
No, no, no!
That thought was far too evil.
Yukinoshita quickly shook her head internally and let out a quiet sigh.
After all, Ui had been frightened so badly that her personality seemed to change...
Her gaze unconsciously drifted toward Hirasawa Ui.
Noticing Yukinoshita's gaze, Ui immediately lowered her head in embarrassment.
Thinking back carefully, she realized she really had been scared senseless. Her behavior had been rather strange...
"Come on, tell me! What happened?"
Ritsu's eyes sparkled as she continued pestering Yukinoshita.
Hikigaya Komachi's eyes were sparkling too. But unlike the tactless Ritsu, she immediately targeted Hirasawa Ui instead.
"Ui!"
Sato watched everything unfold with a subtle expression.
Soon, the third group arrived. Seeing the situation, they also joined in.
One group followed another, and before long everyone knew exactly what had happened.
When they returned to the hot spring inn, everyone looked at Sato with strange expressions.
It was a feeling difficult to describe.
Sato felt somewhat melancholic. Looking up at the full moon in the sky, he let out a long sigh.
Looks like being overly serious isn't always a good thing.
...
The events of the test of courage didn't affect the rest of everyone's holiday.
Still, the more enjoyable a vacation was, the faster it seemed to pass. Before long, the autumn training camp came to an end.
Aoyama Apartments.
After being away for several days, Sato found himself missing the place a little.
After having Kanna take the dirty clothes to the washroom, he headed into the bedroom and began working.
"It really feels like saving all your homework for the last day."
Looking at the monitor as it powered on, Sato spoke thoughtfully.
His current state was exactly like those people who spent the entire holiday playing around and only started doing their homework on the final day. Important matters always got pushed to the end.
Fortunately, he was working as part of a team.
And he had Kosaka Akane as an excellent teammate.
At most, that made him... dead weight?
The Gensokyo website had only recently entered its rapid growth phase.
Although there were already comprehensive development plans in place, unexpected events always existed outside of any plan and could happen at any time.
After a series of operations, Sato entered the site's backend.
He carefully examined the data for the manga section when his gaze suddenly landed on a cat lightly jumping onto the desk.
Whoosh!
Before Chocola could even react, Sato grabbed the cat by the scruff of its neck.
"Meow!" (Nya~!)
Chocola turned around and meowed unhappily at him, but didn't swipe with its claws.
Whether it was too lazy or whether this had been its intention all along was hard to say.
In the end, it simply settled quietly into Sato's lap.
Sato smiled as he rubbed the cat.
"Why do I feel like you've gotten a lot fatter again?"
"Meow!"
"Still trying to resist?"
After playing with the cat for a while, Sato finished analyzing the latest data.
Leaning back in his chair, he closed his eyes slightly and sank into thought.
After a long while, he let out a quiet sigh.
"There are still too few works capable of carrying the platform."
Although they had prepared a great deal for the manga section, their foundation was still too weak.
Most of the authors were newcomers and suffered from all kinds of issues.
Even the doujin artists from Kosaka Akane's former circle were no exception. Despite having prepared story outlines, some gradually suffered art-style collapse, while others produced stories that suddenly became dull and uninteresting.
"So we still need some experienced artists and writers."
After thinking for a moment, Sato suddenly remembered that there happened to be an illustrator living upstairs.
He had seen some of those illustrations before.
As far as illustration quality went, they were undoubtedly excellent.
The only question was whether she had ever drawn manga or had any interest in doing so.
"I'll ask tomorrow."
Sato murmured.
...
The next day.
Knock knock knock.
Standing in front of the Izumi residence, Sato knocked on the door while paying attention to any sounds from inside.
Soon, accompanied by light footsteps, a soft, sweet voice came from within.
"Who is it?"
Was that Izumi Sagiri?
Sato raised an eyebrow.
It seemed Izumi Chiyo (Izumi Mama) wasn't home. The only one inside was a soft and adorable little girl.
A little girl who seemed to have some misunderstanding about him.
He recalled what had happened at the convenience store last time.
That little one seemed to have developed some inexplicable psychological shadow regarding him. She had run away the moment she saw him.
Nanami Aoyama had even apparently misunderstood and assumed he was a lolicon.
In this regard, he wished to clarify something.
Nohara Sato...
Was indeed a lolicon!
However!
He wasn't a pervert, so the police still had no reason to come after him.
Still, lolis really were wonderful.
Especially the soft and adorable kind.
What he liked most was pinching those plump, delicate cheeks.
To be honest, he didn't mind shotas either. As long as the cheeks felt nice to pinch, he liked them all.
It was probably one of his strange quirks.
After all, powerful people all had quirks.
Having one himself wasn't strange, right?
"It's me, Nohara."
There was a brief silence inside before Sagiri's somewhat cautious voice replied:
"May I ask what you need?"
Sato secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
At least she hadn't immediately told him to leave.
"I came to visit Auntie Chiyo. I wanted to ask her some questions related to illustration."
"Mom isn't home."
"I see. Then I'll come visit another time."
Sato sighed inwardly and turned to leave.
But just then, he heard the door behind him open.
Frowning slightly, he turned back in confusion and looked at the doorway.
There stood a small figure who was clearly nervous but trying hard to appear calm.
Izumi Sagiri looked at the stopped Sato, her expression somewhat stiff.
After encouraging herself internally, she raised her head and spoke as calmly as she could.
"If it's about illustration-related knowledge, then asking me is fine too."
"Huh?!"
Sato wore a thoroughly confused expression.