Visual novels, for those who enjoy reading but also enjoy seeing characters move, bishoujo or otome, eroge, stat raisers, everything goes! You, too, can play any type of visual novel with the click of a button and payment of a fee! These are the kinds of ideas racing through Susumu's mind.
Ayano asks, glaring at Susumu, "Why do you look so smug, Ishibashi-san?"
Susumu then closes his eyes and shakes his head, saying, "Nothing remarkable, I just figured something out."
"Well, my shift will be ending soon, so you better give me your response right now," Ayano says, rising from her chair. Susumu's face is suddenly flushed with surprise, he blinks twice, and his earlier presumption has been wiped off the plate.
He'd just signed a contract with the devil, but that sounds too dramatic... He'd unwittingly consented to an outrageous assignment that— oh, almost spoiled something vital; but he did agree to something.
"Just wait here, I'll just change out of my maid outfit," Ayano says as she walks away, but then pauses and turns around, "Oh right, you also have to pay the bill— don't worry, Fujikawa-san gave his money to me already."
Ayano then leaves into the staff room, leaving Susumu alone at the table, staring at his empty cup while waiting for Ayano to finish changing, which could take more than two minutes.
Ayano returns to Susumu in her school uniform after what seemed like an eternity; he had also paid the bill, so no need to concern everyone, Susumu pays for his lunch at the end of the day!
As the two steps outside the café, one of the maids dismisses them, "Take care, master— oh, you too, Ayano-chan!" Ayano smiles warmly before glancing at Susumu.
"What are you doing, Ishibashi-san?" She asks as she watches Susumu walk over to his bike and unlatches it. Ayano tilts her head in curiosity, absolutely acting like a cat.
Susumu then mounts his bike and looks at Ayano with a neutral expression, "This is my bike," he says as she approaches the bike, "We're heading to my house, we can just walk there, you know?"
Susumu then scratches his chin for a few moments before returning his gaze to Ayano with a smirk, "I know you don't want to walk all the way to your apartment, so just hop on the back of my bike and we'll be there in a flash."
Ayano puffs her cheeks before unwillingly responding, "Fine," and hopping onto the back of the bike, Susumu begins cycling toward her apartment, Ayano clutches her school bag tightly.
Susumu suddenly notices a bump ahead of them and says, "Hold on tight, there's a minor bump ahead of us," Ayano is grasping her bag with both hands, leaving her completely exposed to falling off, "W—wait..."
Susumu looks over his shoulder, "Never mind, I'll just slow down so you don't fall off," he slows his bike to a crawl and then rides over the hump in the pavement... but why is there a bump in the pavement to begin with? The individual who must have laid that down was a slacker.
Susumu begins cycling at a steady pace as the two pass over this inconvenient impediment, then pauses at a stoplight and twists his head slightly to glance at Ayano before remarking, "I forgot where your place is, Shinsato-san..." He scratches his cheek awkwardly.
"Have you already forgotten? You're supposed to turn right after this stoplight," he then concentrates his eyes on the stoplight, which is due to turn green any second now, "I—It's been a while since I went to your place, give me a break."
When the light turns green and he begins pedaling, she rests her head on her arm and says, "You make a good point, Ishibashi-san." Once they pass the stoplight, the bike turns right, she comments, "We're nearly there, just a few more meters."
Susumu stops his bike in front of her apartment building before fastening it to the railing, unmounts and stretches, and asks, "What's your room number?" Ayano gets off the bike before brushing the dust off her skirt, "It's two-one-one."
The two of them begin heading up the stairs, then onward till they reach her front door, where she takes her keys from her bag and begins fiddling with the keyhole; after a few awkward laughs and a difficulty with inserting the key, she unlocks the door and swings it wide open.
Ayano enters her flat and takes off her shoes before motioning for Susumu to enter, "Come in, Ishibashi-san."
Susumu had suddenly discovered something; why did he come here? He shakes his head as he realizes tomorrow is a weekend, "I'm in your care," he enters the apartment before slipping his shoes off, steps onto the apartment's wooden floor, and investigates her apartment.
A kitchen with white tiles and a plant on the window ledge; the floor then transitions back into wood as it enters the dining room, which has a standard dining set, four wooden chairs, and a table.
The living area is past the dining room, with a green sofa in front of a widescreen television. Susumu glances in astonishment at the massive television, "That's huge..." he thinks, his house has a normal-sized TV, neither too big nor too little;
He's not destitute or anything; it's just that his parents don't bother upgrading to a larger set. To his right is a bathroom, which is merely a room with a toilet; next to that is the laundry room; and past that is where the bathtub and shower are.
He looks about the apartment, attempting to find Ayano, who has suddenly vanished, and whispers quietly but loudly enough for Ayano to hear him, "Shinsato-san? Where'd you go?" A voice then comes from inside the closed room, "I'm in my room! I'll be out in a few minutes.
Susumu lets out a relieved sigh since he had assumed Ayano had abandoned him in her own home, which is quite juvenile if you ask me. He sits down on the green sofa, sinking deeper into the sofa, he feels so peaceful right now, he feels like a baby wrapped in a cloth.
Ayano then emerges out of her room, now dressed in a pink hoodie; she stares at Susumu, who has completely buried himself in the sofa; she covers her mouth as she gives out a short chuckle, followed by an audible cough, prompting Susumu to jump out of the sofa in horror.
Susumu balances himself as he is about to fall, mumbling, "That— that wasn't necessary, Shinsato-san..." He straightens himself as he places his foot back on the floor, then approaches her, "So, what are we going to do?"
"We're going to perform some voice acting, you know how most characters in a modern visual novel have a voice actor? Well, I want to try that," Ayano says as she steps inside her room, motioning for him to enter.
there is little to no junk on the floor, but instead, all of the junk gravitates to her desk, there is also a monitor on the table, "Sorry if it's such a mess," Ayano says.
Susumu walks up to her workstation, "We're going straight to voice work? I thought you were supposed to first start with the code and artwork..."
Susumu's eyes widen as he asks, "You're doing all these by yourself— did you work with anyone else before me?" Ayano responds with an audible, "Hmph?" before letting out an unpleasant laugh, "W—well, I already am working on that."
Susumu has a wide-open mouth as he stares, at first in admiration, then in anxiety, "Y—you should've asked me earlier so I could help you," Ayano shakes her head, "This is all done by myself, the artwork, the coding, the plot, and the script."
Susumu is hesitant at first, but he then sighs defeatedly, "Okay, what do you want me to do first?" Ayano gives him a loving smile, "Don't worry about me, I can handle everything, all I need you to do is the music and voice acting job."
Ayano then comes over to her desktop and opens a notepad, then gets a microphone from her table and passes it to Susumu, "Could you please voice these sentences that I placed up on screen?" she asks.
"Easy peasy, amusing fact, I used to participate in the theater club, but... you know what happened..." Susumu cheerfully snatches the microphone from her grasp.
Ayano lets out a lame attempt at a giggle. Susumu looks at the screen, a blush then forms on his face as he skims over the first few sentences.
"Y—you want me to say these lines?" Susumu asked, embarrassed. Ayano nods, he returns his gaze to the display, breathing in deeply as he thinks inwardly, "I have to do this or else I'll let down Shinsato-san..." He then braces himself for the humiliating lines he is about to deliver.
He shuts his eyes for a few moments, then slowly opens them and says, "I— I'll stick my..." He then turns to Ayano with an apprehensive expression, "Are you sure these are the correct lines?" Ayano nods as she grips her shoulders, and he returns to the monitor.
He steels himself again, and then exclaims as swiftly as he can in a single breath, "I'll stick my long, thick, blade into your petals as much as I want, and I won't stop, even if you beg me to!"
He falls to his knees and starts breathing heavily, sweat drips off his brow as the shame finally catches up with him.
Susumu grinds his teeth as he ponders,
He then stands up and shakes his head, literally shaking off his embarrassment, "I—I have to ask you, what genre is your visual novel?" Ayano comes up to her chair and sits in it, drawing herself closer to the table, "It's a bishojo."
"At first, I thought you were producing an otome visual novel because you're a girl and all that," Susumu says, resting his hand on the headrest of the chair she's sitting in.
Ayano says as she begins typing on her keyboard, "Hmm? Just because I'm a girl doesn't mean I can only just develop otome games, I'm just making games that I enjoy,"
"But I'm telling you, it's not an eroge or anything of that like," she says. Susumu raises an eyebrow before glancing at the screen and saying, "It really does sound like an eroge with such enticing sentences, you know..."
"What did you say? I didn't quite hear you," Ayano says, tilting her head.
Susumu clears his throat, "Nothing, just keep clicking away at your keyboard," Ayano returns to the screen and resumes typing, "Understood," she jokes.