"Hey, Homura... they say a mangaka's manga is like their own child. Do you remember how long it's been since your eldest son was 'born'?"
In the middle of eating, Ayano glanced at Homura and suddenly asked him a ridiculous question.
"What?"
""Hahaha—!""
As Homura was left speechless by Ayano's question, Elf and Eriri burst out laughing.
"What the heck is this eldest son?" Homura asked speechlessly, his eyebrow twitching.
If someone only heard the second half of Ayano's words, one could imagine the kind of looks he would get.
"Calm down, just think of it as an analogy!" Ayano grinned and waved her hand dismissively.
"At the very least, it should be the eldest daughter..." Homura muttered while stroking Haru's fur.
"Of all things, that's your problem?" Ayano rolled her eyes.
"Hahaha—!" Elf was laughing out loud, and her stomach started to hurt.
She must admit that her days have been so much fun since joining Another Dimension.
"I see..." Nayuta mused. "Senpai prefers daughters over sons, huh?"
'Nayu, your focus seems a bit strange...' Homura groaned inwardly.
"Homura, do you prefer daughters?" Mashiro tilted her head, gazing at him with a curious look.
"Now's not the time to discuss this, right?" Homura helplessly shook his head.
"Oh, c'mon, don't be like that!"
Ayano leaned in, draping her arm over Homura's shoulder like a buddy.
"I'm really interested in this topic, y'know~"
Homura rolled his eyes.
Clearly, the conversation had gone off the rails from the very beginning, with Ayano naturally being the cause of it.
"Maybe we should focus on the topic you want to discuss first, or we could eat first!"
"Nope! We're more interested in the daughter topic!" Elf said with a sly smile.
Elf's overly excited expression kept Muramasa at a distance.
"Seriously, what good does knowing that do?" Homura shrugged. "Fine, I'll tell you. I do prefer daughters over sons. So what?"
"If that's the case, we can pretend to be your daughters!" Elf replied instantly.
"..."
'Meow? What's going on? Why is it suddenly so quiet?'
Realizing the silence and that the hand on her back had stopped moving, Haru thought with confusion.
She quickly looked up and saw a bizarre scene.
Everyone, except for Elf, was frozen like statues.
"Meow, meow, meow?" Haru meowed in confusion.
Upon hearing her meow, Homura's hand trembled for a moment before continuing to pet her.
"I thought Elf would suggest giving birth to daughters..." Mashiro added quietly.
"..."
Another round of bewildering silence ensued.
"Mashiro! What are you saying?! We're still just high school students?!" Nanami exclaimed in panic.
Although she was flustered, she didn't forget to glance at Homura before quickly averting her gaze, her face turning red.
"Give birth to daughters... Give birth to daughters..." Eriri muttered like a robot, her eyes vacant.
Meanwhile, Muramasa and Izumi were utterly in disbelief, staying silent.
How had the conversation taken such a bizarre turn all of a sudden?
"Okay, stop!" Homura quickly called a halt since this topic was too dangerous.
"Ara, is it over? I don't really mind, y'know... giving birth to your—"
"Kasumigaoka Utaha!"
While glancing at Homura, Utaha spoke with a charming smile but got interrupted halfway by Eriri.
Suddenly snapping back to her senses, Eriri's face was full of anger.
"You woman, I won't let you say it!"
Upon hearing this, a provocative expression appeared on Utaha's face.
"What I want to say is... I don't really mind giving birth to your—"
"AHHH—!"
As Utaha was about to continue her earlier words, Eriri roared like a beast and rushed to disrupt her by covering her mouth.
All of a sudden, the whole scene erupted into chaos, making Ayano, who watched the scene, laugh heartily.
"ARE, YOU, REALLY, LAUGHING?!"
Homura's veins bulged as he stood up and pulled Ayano's face close, emphasizing every word.
"Be-Because—Pfff! Scenes like this are just too rare! Hahaha!" Ayano said while laughing.
"Whatever! Let's eat!" Homura said, sitting back to continue eating. "If you have something to say, keep it to yourself. We can talk after we eat."
===
"Wow, Homura's cooking skills are getting more and more insane!"
Ayano, who was stuffed from eating, slouched on the couch.
"Muse will be here soon, and after that, our two-day special training will start. I won't have time for anything else after that." Homura said directly.
"Eh, really? Then I'd better say it quickly!" Ayano sat up straight and composed herself. "It's about your eldest daughter..."
Glancing at Homura's emotionless expression, she paused for a moment, then corrected herself.
"I mean, it's about your first manga, 'Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun'!"
"Homura, do you remember which week of serialization this manga is?"
"The seventh week, why?" Homura asked, sounding confused.
"Monthly Girls has three chapters every week, right? You've only done twenty-four chapters so far. Won't it be ending next week? Isn't that a big deal?" Ayano asked seriously.
"Nah." Homura calmly shook his head. "It's not a big deal. 'Teasing Master Takagi-san' is taking over immediately, right?"
"Alright, if you say so..."
Ayano nodded and fell silent for a moment before continuing.
"How about adapting it into an anime? Are you not planning on that? If not, that's fine, but you're not giving up on it, right? If you're not, it should definitely be on the schedule. It'd be best to announce the anime adaptation as soon as it's ready."
An anime adaptation of 'Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun' was indeed a big deal, especially for Homura's fans.
"Hey Ayano, did I ever tell you I'm planning to adapt 'Fate/stay night' into an anime too?" Homura asked.
"That's why I came here." Ayano shrugged. "If it was just that, we could've just talked on the phone, y'know."
"Homura, how are you going to handle this?" Eriri asked, unable to hold back. "Will you postpone one of them?"
Homura thought for a moment and then turned to Ayano.
"Ayano, how capable is the animation company under my family?"
Homura hadn't asked his father about this yet, but he was planning to do so in the next few days. Otherwise, the schedule for the animation company would become an issue.
"In terms of capability, they're excellent. Actually, their only problem is a lack of good novels and manga to work on, so their only relatively well-known work is 'Stardust Witch Meruru'." Ayano explained subtly.
"Stardust Witch Meruru? So that anime is made by my family?"
Homura found it somewhat strange since his family's most famous work, Stardust Witch Meruru, seemed to have connections with many people he knew. Not only was the protagonist, Meruru, Kirino's favorite, but the mask Sagiri usually wore was also Meruru's face.
"Eh? I've never heard of it before!" Sagiri exclaimed with surprise.
"Even though it's an anime for kids, surprisingly, a lot of adults like it too." Eriri chimed in.
"In that case, handling two works simultaneously shouldn't be a problem, right?" Homura said. "Most of the anime keyframes don't require their involvement. We'll be the ones busier with Kosaka Akane and her team."
"Are you sure it's okay to rely on Kosaka Akane like that?" Ayano asked with skepticism.
"It's alright." Homura reassured. "We've talked about it before. She won't do anything extra."
"If you say so, it shouldn't be a problem then..." Ayano nodded and then switched topics. "Do you have any other requests I should pass on to them?"
Homura thought for a moment.
Since the animation company was his family's, the people there would definitely give it their all if it was his request.
"Well, my request is... just give it your all and complete the work in the best condition possible." Homura said with a smile.
"Got it!"
Ayano nodded with a smile.