A week has passed since the serialization incident, right as I was doing my daily set of exercises.
To be precise I was doing push-ups.
"997.."
"998.."
"999..!"
"1000…!"
After I finished the last push, I stood up sweating a bit, but not to the point that I was drenched in sweat.
A thousand rep was nothing to me now, ever since my con attribute increased to a hundred, I rarely felt tired or I never did not after breaking into that number.
Normal exercise barely does anything to my physique, it might as well be pointless but I did this to condition myself and make exercising a habit even if it doesn't benefit me as much.
I look at the mirror behind me, the youth in front of me was almost like a different person, a new hairstyle which is an undercut, a black hair since I dyed it black.
My face also matured a bit. All in all, those who aren't close to me won't recognize me at all if they meet me.
I'm like, a completely different person from inside and outside now.
Suddenly, my smartphone rang as someone called.
It was an unknown number, I frowned as I never gave anyone my personal number except for Kobayashi.
Not even my family knows about it, regardless I accepted the call and said. "Who is this?"
Then a soft feminine voice was heard on the other side. "Is this the author of Your Lie In April?"
I blinked at this and realized that this must be the artist that would draw the characters as there's no other explanation otherwise.
"That's correct."
"Great, let me introduce myself. I'm Himeno Kisara, the artist that would draw the characters of your novel."
When I heard her name, I thought nothing of it, but it does sound familiar but I didn't
show more than a passing interest in that name.
As to me, the crucial thing to do was check if this artist was up to par with the standard quality.
"Nice to meet you, I'm sure you heard my pin name from Kobayashi-san."
"I did, but don't expect me to say it out loud! I wonder what you were thinking when you made that pin name for yourself, but it's none of my business." Kisara didn't hide her distaste for my author name.
And it was quite unexpected for my novel artist to have a strong personality. It was quite obvious from this interaction that this individual is someone who isn't afraid to say her opinion even if the other person dislikes it.
Rather than be offended, I was more interested in working with this person. Normally, the relationship between the writer and the artist is strictly professional, at least most of the time.
But I wouldn't mind befriending this one, at least it wouldn't be boring being with them.
With a teasing tone I said. "You sure you don't want to say it? You can't just call me 'you' or 'hey' all the time."
"No! Never! Hmph!" Her reply came instantly.
So, she knows how to bite back, this will be interesting. To be honest I wasn't expecting much from the artist but right now I take it back, this person is amusing.
"Either way, is there a reason why you called? You didn't just call me just to introduce yourself didn't you?"
"Of course not, that's stupid. I wouldn't bother calling you if I don't have any progress to show, I just finished drawing and I'd like you to check it, I'm confident that you definitely won't complain with the quality of my art!" There's a hint of pride in her voice, it's clear that she has great confidence with her drawing.
Regardless of her confidence, as for me liking it is another thing entirely.
"Quite confident huh? Then show me the drawings you created."
"Sure, but another thing I don't know your email address, this is also one of the reasons why I called you since I have no way of sending it to you." Kisara admitted.
Kobayashi-san didn't give her my email then? Did she forget or was it deliberate on her part?
I'll never know unless I ask her personally.
After that I gave her my email address and later I received a notification from her. I went to check it and as expected it was her drawings for the novel.
The drawings weren't much, there's only 5 pages worth of it. I gave it a look and realized something. "The quality is good, the background isn't a problem either. But the characters…"
There was no problem with the faces of the characters as she faithfully drew them like I did, but with a higher quality but the problem is the body proportions.
"Why the hell does Kaori look like a hentai character instead of a proper one?" I was in disbelief, this was ridiculous it wasn't just her but also the other female characters.
The male has no problem, but the girl has. It's like they came from a hentai visual novel.
I realized that the artist was someone who worked in 'that' industry and forgot how to draw normal art without its erotic element. This was for a light novel adaptation, which meant her hentai like drawing is definitely not good.
It doesn't give off the same vibes as the slice of life I've been thinking of.
Then the call that was still ongoing, Kisara said with confidence. "How is it? Good right?"
I don't know where the hell did she get that confidence from, but this drawing was no good, not because it sucked but because the vibe doesn't much with the novel.
"Kisara…"
"H-huh.. ?! W-what gives you the right to call me by my first name?!"
I winched as I painfully realized something, this girl is the so-called 'tsundere' right? I never thought I'd met this legendary personality so soon.
I decided to be blunt. "These drawings are not good."
"WHAT!! Impossible! My drawings are of high quality! There's no way that it's unacceptable!" The shock and anger meshed together in her voice.
I shook my head and answered. "I know that, there's no problem with the quality of your art or anything like that."
"Eh? So why did you say that none of my drawings are good?!" Her confusion was visible for me to see, even if she wasn't in front of me I could imagine the look on her face despite not knowing how she looked.
"Let me ask a question, and answer it honestly. When was the last time you drew something that doesn't involve hentai and something that isn't part of that industry?"
The silence was so loud that I could hear it, but that's probably just my imagination.
And the calm before the storm, any second now Mount Kisara is going to explode at any moment.
With a loud screech that almost made me deaf.
"EEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKKKK! H-HOW DID YOU KNOW THAT I DRAW HENTAI?! A-ARE YOU PERHAPS A STALKER?! O-OR MY PREVIOUS WORK FAN?!" The girl screamed like a banshee, it was loud and frankly gave my ears some irritation.
"Stop screaming will ya?! You almost made me deaf!" I let out a hiss of annoyance.
"O-oh, sorry.. no wait! Why am I apologizing?! Also how did you know I worked in that industry..? I'm pretty sure I hid it well.." Kisara mumbled.
Hid it well? Is this woman serious? Did she not realize that there's a distinctive difference between a normal anime art style and a hentai one?
Those who are a veteran otaku, would immediately notice the difference between the two.
It's like the mythical sixth sense, almost like a super power but that's just them watching too much hentai to the point where a glance is enough to figure out whether this was hentai or not.
"I don't think you realize it, but your art has that kind of feeling to it, those who are a veteran of the industry will almost immediately recognize this art style as someone who worked for that industry, unless you change the vibes then it would be completely untraceable, so you better start practicing now before the deadline ends." I warned her and also gave her some advice.
There was silence for a moment, before she hung up the call, probably thinking of what I said.
Only she could change that, hopefully she'll realize that her art style was too hentaish.
—
After the call, there was nothing for me to do so I wrote the 4th volume of YLIA since I'm bored.
While I was in focused mode, the knocking on my door stopped my concentration and lost my drive to continue writing.
I let out a sign and stood up to open the door and said with annoyance. "What is it-?"
I paused as I realized the person outside was neither of my family nor someone who I didn't expect to visit.
From Hiroki's memories, this girl is no doubt his junior. "Ayumu?"
Despite calling her name, the girl was too stunned while she was looking at my body. I was wearing a plain white shirt, not to mention it has a very thin fabric, my muscles are basically seen through.
And only after a minute she snapped out of it, red faced and then followed by shock. "Hiroki-senpai?! Y-you look totally different!"
Unsurprisingly, this was her first reaction after seeing me for the first time after almost a month.
—
A/N: For those who don't know who Himeno Kisara is, she's basically a character from Eroge H Mo Game Mo Kaihatsu Zanmai, as you guessed a hentai series.
There's 8 chapters ahead.