Side story 28: Misaki and manga and Mayumi-sensei.

Misaki has been wondering.

Why was she always left with Mayu-chan taking care of her.

Up until now there has been many times that she had to do house sitting.

However, she always house-sit alone.

But why?

Ryo-kun said that it’s because he’s worried about her.

But why would he be worried when I’m inside the house?

“Well, it’s because he really loves Misaki-chan you see.”

Then does that mean he doesn’t loves Misaki at first. Misaki feels dejected.

“Misaki-chan? ……Maybe she’s sleepy.”

Seeing Misaki tottering to the corner of the room before hugging her knees, Mayumi interpreted as so. After that she turned her attention back to the small desk and resumed her work. And of course, her work is the manga.

As Mayumi starts working on her manga, Misaki stares at her and thought.

Mayu-chan’s room has this nice little smell to it. It’s different from Ryo-kun’s smell that makes her feels at ease, it’s kind of a sweet smell. Although she tries looking around the room in search for that delicious stuff hidden somewhere, but she couldn’t find anything that looked like it.

Instead, what she found are a bunch of strange stuff. Everything within her eyes’ reach are all tools for drawing manga, but Misaki didn’t know.

That’s why seeing her drawing something on the paper with pencil-like object makes her really curious about it.

I wonder what’s Mayu-chan doing.

At last Misaki couldn’t endure any longer, she crawls on all four to Mayumi, before sitting on top of her lap and take a peek at what’s on the desk.

“……Manga?”

“That’s right~”

Since Misaki always sits on top of Mayumi’s lap whenever they takes a bath together, Misaki had completely take a liking to this place now. On the other hand although Mayumi got her work interrupted, but her heart feels warm and cozy from this so she has no complaints.

From Mayumi’s position she could only see the top of Misaki’s head, but it’s not such a bad feeling to see a child looking at her own drawings with great interest.

“Misaki-chan do you want to try drawing too?”

“Un.”

“Fuhihi, great reply.”

Even though Mayumi had the nickname of great daemon doujin god, but after the summer comiket she had a slight change of heart and decided to write a wholesome shoujo manga instead. Right now, Mayumi is a manga artist that is completely safe for kids to approach. 1

~Ahe! Kohinata Mayumi’s drawing class~

After Mayumi cleared her desk, she prepared two sets of B5 paper and pencil.

“Misaki-chan, what do you want to draw?”

“Ryo-kun”

“Fuhihi, Misaki-chan really loves Tendou-san aren’t you.”

With impressed feelings, Mayumi skillfully starts drawing. Meanwhile Misaki is making a face as if saying “I sure do love Ryo-kun, but told so straight to me makes me embarrassed”

“Hohoi, try imitating my drawing.”

Mayumi who finished drawing in just mere ten seconds, speaks to Misaki who’s sitting on her lap. Misaki who was thinking about a completely different thing, blinks repeatedly before moving her eyes to the papers on the desk. After that, she stares at the drawing.

“……Ryo-kun?”

“Yes, it’s Tendou-san.”

“……Small.”

“Fuhihi, this is SD Tendou-san you see.”

“SD?” 2

Misaki asks as she tilts her head backward.

Mayumi with teacher-like feelings in her heart held up her index finger of her right hand swiftly.

“It’s from Small Deform. It is a technique that embraces the idea of cuteness is justice.”

“……Un?”

“Fuhihi, that’s rightー. Ummm, it’s a method to make drawings cute.”

“……Cute?”

“Yes. And, if you’re used to this method then you can draw within just ten seconds, it is very much recommended when you want to draw a quick four-panel manga.”

Although Misaki can’t quite grasp the meanings of her words, but for the time being she decided to just try it herself.

While looking at the picture Mayumi had drawn, she tries to draw the same thing next to it. Meanwhile Mayumi kept cheering her with “Do your bestー” all the while cringing at her clumsy hand movements.

After about five minutes, Misaki finished her first ever drawing.

“Ohー, you’re doing great.”

While listening to Mayumi honestly praising her, Misaki compared the two pictures and frowned. When compared Misaki’s drawing to Mayumi’s drawing, hers is kind of crude and rugged. It’s not cute at all.

“Hmm, you want to draw one more? Okie dokieー, draw as many as you wantー”

Misaki wants to draw a cute Ryo-kun.

With that in mind, the fire in her heart lit up.

“It’s better if you relaxed your hand a bit more you knowー”

Her eyebrows knotted even tighter upon listening to Mayumi’s advice, and she kept drawing while frowned.

Misaki kept adding her drawings in circle around her first drawing. And as her drawing is steadily getting better, Mayumi’s excitement level got higher and higher too.

“Misaki-chan, it’s better if you draw the long line in one go.”

“Un.”

“Your rhythm around this spiky hair part is pretty good!”

“Hm, hm, hmmm♪”

“Fuhihi, Tendou-san’s eyes were pretty scary at first, but recently it seems like it’s always glistening isn’t it.”

“……Un?”

And so SD Tendou-san continues to be drawn, and as she finished her seventeenth drawing, Misaki finally put down her pencil.”

“This is amazing Misaki-chan! This is your first time and yet you can draw so well, you have a promising future ahead of you, yeah.”

Mayumi applause wholeheartedly.

However, after Misaki compared the two drawings again, she is not convinced.

Although the drawing Misaki had drawn is something that you wouldn’t think a five years old could draw, but when compared with Mayumi’s, it is clearly of poorer quality.

Misaki made a straight mouth, dispritied.

“I think if you give this to Tendou-san he’ll be happy surely.”

Mayumi giggles while Misaki is looking at the last drawing she had drawn.

After hearing her words, Misaki――

“……Un.”

“Oh, what’s this…… Woah!? This is me isn’t it!”

“……”

“Misaki you drew this!?”

“……Un.”

“Woooooow this is incredible Misaki! This is the coolest thing I’ve ever seen!”

“……Hihi.”

“――But, it feels somewhat…… Nah, it’s nothing.”

――Shake shake, Misaki shakes her head.

“……More.”

“Hmm? You still want to draw? Okie dokieー”

Shake shake.

“Am I wrong?”

“……Un.”

She actually wants to be better.

But before Mayumi could figure that out, Ryuusei knocked on the door of her room.

Shoujo manga is a manga type mainly for young girl audiences. They’re mostly romantic manga. 1

This is called “Chibi” in English. 2