This is the longest break I've taken yet, I sincerely apologize for taking my time.

I don't have much to say besides that fact that it had been extremely hectic the past month. I hope you'll forgive me for having my circumstances.

Anyway, you brighten the mood, I have watched the very hyped up show "Chainsaw Man" this past month. Man, the show was good, but I still don't get the people horny for Makima lol. Whatever makes them happy I guess.

"Bocchi The Rock" also came in out of nowhere and killed it for me! This show seriously inspired me to make another work, but that comes after this fic.

Anyway, that being said, which show did you guys like more? Chainsaw Man or Bocchi? I wanna see which of the two completely different masterpieces is more popular in the reviews.

Double anyway, let's get started.

"Are you ready?"

"Yes, Boss!"

"...don't call me that."

"Yes, Ma'am!"

"...don't call me that either."

"M-master…?"

"The fu- That's even worse!"

"Sensei?"

I sighed. "It'll do." I say, reluctantly accepting this new title.

At this time, I was coaching Yusuke to get out of his… strange drawing style. We were both siding side by side in front of my drawing tablet and several sheets of paper.

Drawing by no means was something anyone could do. Even someone like me was very terrible at drawing. I only felt comfortable drawing stick figures, or tracing images from the internet. Of course, I only got better through countless hours of tutorials and with the help of technology.

It was without a doubt that Yusuke had talent. Loads of it. Whenever I asked him where he managed to figure out how to replicate such precise drawings, he simply tilted his head going "I just drew what I had in mind, is that so hard?"

Along with his uselessly good looks, I couldn't help but envy him to my very core.

"Well, let's get started with the cover, shall we?"

"Yes!"

"I want you to draw a beautiful half-elf with long silver hair and purple-blue eyes. She wears a white and purple outfit along with a white flower in her hair. She appears to be in her late teens."

"Hmm…" Yusuke begins to drill his pen on his cheek. As expected, no one would be able to replicate an exact drawing of Emilia, matter how skilled anyone is.

"I guess she would look…"

I was about to describe Emilia better, but before I knew it, I noticed that Yusuke was already starting to draw. I see he had already halfway finished a skeleton drawing, or otherwise known as a rough sketch.

When it comes to making a detailed drawing, inexperienced people may think that the eraser is a tool only for mixing mistakes. However, this is not the case. I usually use both a pencil and an eraser equally, because we artists draw lines and markers to prevent us from making mistakes that may ruin the drawing. For example, when drawing a portrait, we usually draw a "+" symbol over the face to get a good idea of where the person in the drawing would be facing before we begin.

Yusuke was using that exact technique. Efficiently alternating between drawing and erasing, I could easily tell that this the work of a pro. It was impossible not to admire his technique.

"STOP!" I ordered Yusuke, aggressively grabbing his shoulder. He froze like a deer in headlights, worried that he might have done something wrong.

Yusuke finished his rough sketch, and was about to start with the finer details.

Of course, I had to stop him before he did so, knowing his "drawing habits."

"It's not like you're in trouble or anything, relax." I say, calming Yusuke. "This is the moment where we start drawing clothes on her, instead of simply drawing her naked."

"W-what?" Yusuke turned to me, panicked once more. "I don't know if I can't draw clothes!?"

"Hm. Then how would you draw certain girls that need clothes for viewers to discern what kind of girls they are?" I asked. "For example, like schoolgirls. You won't know that they are students until you give them a school uniform to wear.

"Ah, that's easy!" Yusuke replied with a smile.

"Yeah, I don't think so buddy." I voiced my doubts. Even for someone like him, that sort of thing was theoretically impossible.

Despite that, Yusuke continued to move his pen with a flaming passion in his eyes.

'He'll give up eventually.' I thought, puffing out a sigh.

I stood up and turned around, stretching. It almost felt like an eternity sitting in the same spot, right next to Yusuke.

"-!"

"What the heck happened to you!?"

Mai was on the other side of the room, completely wasted as if she had drunk alcohol. Lifeless eyes, some 'stuff' smushed on the edges of her lips, and her body leaning limp on the desk.

I quickly jogged my way over to see if she was okay, but I found myself pinching my nose.

"Ugh!" I voiced out, I was surprised that this stench didn't reach me from the other side of our room. That goes to show how big it is.

'She looks like a drunk Himeno from Chainsaw Man.' I thought, which led me to conclude that Mai had probably thrown up the insides of her stomach. Wait, yep, I could see the stuff on the floor. Damn, who is gonna clean this mess up!?

"Um. Let's get you washed up." I said lightly, putting her arm over my shoulder.

Mai only groaned like a zombie in response.

"What the heck is with you!?"

Mai had just finished cleaning her mouth and brushing her teeth using my toothbrush. I trashed that brush immediately of course. I guess I will have to buy a new one sometime later.

"Why…" Mai could only mutter. I froze, stunned. What is with her today? Did I do something wrong?

"Why… is this 'Elsa' character so… messed up in the head?!"

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

Dead silence.

'Um. What?'

Mai was probably talking about Elsa Granhiert. A character from the current story I was writing: 'Re;Zero.'

"W-what about her?" I asked.

"J-just…" Mai uttered out. "The way she talks about cutting stomachs and sadistically liking bowels!"

'A SURPRISINGLY REASONABLE ANSWER!'

"Isn't she so weird!? What kind of weirdo would like something like that!?"

"W-well… It's just a story after all. There probably are a few people like that here in Academy city too…" I was thinking about the dark side when saying that. 'Not to mention the thousands of people in my real world who would want fictional characters like her, especially Makima, to step on them…' I kept that in my head, of course.

"A-aww come on, it's just a little gore am I right? Nothing really to throw up for!" I tried to lighten the situation, but it seems like I picked the wrong choice of words.

"JUST A LITTLE GORE!? WHAT KIND OF MORE MESSED-UP STORIES TO YOU HAVE COOKING IN YOUR HEAD RIGHT NOW!?"

"Well now that I think about it, I did share a horror story with certain people… Mighta traumatized them a teensy bit…"

"A teensy bit is clearly not the right description here!"

""Achooo!""

Saten Ruiko and Uiharu Kazari sneezed at the same time, causing them to look at each other. They still got slight chills from having listened to that story called 'Happy Sugar Life.'

"C-come on back. Let's see how you edited my works. I'll have you skip all the disturbing parts of the book."

"N-no… To properly edit your books, I have to get the full experience of being a reader!"

"You sure?"

"Y-y-y-ye-yes…" She says, as her head shivered and shook horizontally.

'Yes or No, which is it!?'

"Just… take a rest for now." I said instead. I walked out the bathroom, exhausted. Overall, we were quite behind with the schedule because of several factors dragging us behind. Should I be taking a break? Do I even deserve a break?

The answer was clearly no. Not much progress has even been made, and there already several different problems my team had to deal with. Even worse, none of us seemed smart enough to solve these problems.

To start, I figured I should internally list the problems we have so far. I should probably deal with each one. One step at a time, they say.

Problem 1: Kobayashi Yusuke's weird drawing habits.

I'm currently working on that one. Though I don't know if he'll be able to fix them before we finish the book, I could say for sure that we will be able to produce so much more, when our efforts are paid off.

Problem 2: Kisaragi Mai's weakness to the dark, disturbing moments of Re:Zero.

This was completely unforeseen on my part. I was so driven by the several possibilities of Academy City's reaction to books in my real world, that I failed to account that certain genres in Light Novels don't exactly exist just yet. Although since Urban Legends exist, hopefully they won't be much different.

Problem 3: Creating an ending to the unfinished series.

One of the painful negatives of being in this world as Mikoto's sister is that I would never be able to see the endings of famous anime, manga and LNs ever. It makes me glad that I managed to finish the Manga of 'Kaguya-Sama: Love is War' and the Light Novel of 'KonoSuba' before this ever happened.

I'm pretty confident that I could make this problem work. I watched several fan theories relating to the story, and it would be fun to let my imagination run wild. I don't necessarily have to send new volumes at a rate I have before though.

Those were just about all of the significant problems I had to deal with. To be completely honest, writing about Subaru's deaths constantly gives me the chills. I still remembered those deaths committed by the same young man, over and over.

"Sensei! I've finished your request!" I heard Yusuke shout across the room, cutting my thoughts short. Maybe that was for the best.

"ARGHH!" The voice was immediately followed by Mai's scream of agony. It was probably because she had yet another drawing of a naked girl up in her face.

'Ahh, here we go again…'

I walked into the scene, to see Mai absolutely petrified when she was observing Yusuke's drawing. I tilted my head, confused. That wasn't the usual reaction. What would usually happen is serious violence committed towards our poor illustrator.

"Look at this, Sensei!" Yusuke turned around and showed the drawing to me…

'Eh?'

I tilted my head left, right, distanced myself, and looked closer.

Despite the girl in the drawing being naked, she somehow resembled a schoolgirl. No uniform, nothing.

'Am I tripping balls here!? There's no way in hell that's possible!"

Somehow, defying all logic, Yusuke managed to succeed in drawing a naked girl that would be clearly associated with a highschool student.

"Ahahah, you really outdid yourself didn't you…?" I managed to utter out, my fingers and hands trembling as I gave a hand up. That was my best effort at remaining calm after my pride as an illustrator has been completely annihilated.

"Thank you very much!" Yusuke said, in a humble manner. "It's almost time for me to go home, so I will see myself out!" He bowed, and quickly left without saying much else.

"H-hey…" Mai stuffers out. "Is it just me, or did that naked girl look exactly like a highschool girl, despite not wearing anything…?"

"Um. Yeah, I challenged him to draw something like that."

"Is this telepathy or something? I'm downright scaring myself…"

I heaved a large sigh. No point in thinking about it further.

After some steady progress in a few days, the first volume was completely refined and ready for release. All I had to do was send it back to Yoshikawa, and it would be ready for publication.

"Is something the matter?" Mai asked me, making me jump.

"No… I just don't have a very good feeling about this." I replied back. We managed to get by mainly because I had to sit next to Mai and edit the gruesome moments myself, and I had to edit Yusuke's drawings so they would actually make sense.

On the bright side, we still managed to get the volume done. However, without using the full potential of my editor and illustrator's skills, it is without a doubt that our novels would be sloppy.

Calling Yoshikawa anyway, I held the phone against my ear, as Mai listened in.

"Hello?"

"The first volume is done."

"Ah, great! I'll be publishing it right away!" Yoshikawa spoke cheerfully.

"It's just that we have a problem. This novel is supposed to be a little gruesome, a little like a horror story you know? My editor isn't really built for that, you know?" I said, speaking seriously.

"Ugh… I could handle horror here and there, but if it's from an author like you, I just know it will give me chills."

"I'd just like someone to read it, and check if the gruesome scenes have the same refinement as the rest of the novel." I insisted.

"Yeah, no… I think I will pass on that." Unfortunately, Yoshikawa declined my plea.

"Is that so… I apologize for asking something like that of you."

"However, I do know someone who has plenty of experience with that kind of thing!" Her voice raised up, lifting my spirits. Who could this person be? But in an instant, a face came up in my head.

"Wait, you don't possibly mean…"

"That's right! Let's have Accelerator give it a read!"

Itsuwa, who was a passenger of a plane that just landed Japan. Specifically, Academy City.

Although she was still confused as to why she was chosen as the representative to go retrieve the missing last to volumes of each series, sent by Tsuchimikado Motoharu.

"Go break his legs!" She recalled Kanzaki cheering her on.

"Make sure you bring those novels as quickly as possible!" She also recalled Sherry Cromwell's words.

"Be careful, okay?" Orsola said to her.

Itsuwa made her way to find the spy. Though she still thought that Kanzaki would have been a better pick, she was still going to give it her all.