REINKED-This Girl May Be This Close To Giving Me A Heart Attack, But At Least Her Doujin Drawing Brother Is Pretty Chill

My pencil gently taps against my history textbook. The sounds of the teacher’s voice fades away as my mind moves to the sketched pages I have yet to see. I try my best to imagine what it'll look like. Most likely there will be differences between my crude drawings and her sketches, but I know for a fact it'll look so much better.

Ugh, why the hell am I here when I could be seeing my characters come to life?!

Whatever. I should also be paying attention in class. The last thing I need is to be failing anything because of my own inability to pay attention during a lecture-

SLAM!

"NO!" I scream.

Everyone turns their head to stare at me. The teacher, eyes wide, holds the textbook he'd just dropped on his desk.

"Everything okay Mioka?" The teacher says my last name, sending a chill down my spine.

"S-sorry sir. I...I fell asleep. Too much studying." I laugh awkwardly. No one seems amused.

"Well, alright. Be sure to get your sleep from now on." The teacher does his best to draw everyone back in while I silently panic at my seat. The sound is still playing in my mind. When I blink, I see something horrifying.

Just think of something else. Think of something else.

Rust nails. Hanging entrails. Bloody stairs. Dead eyes.

Blood. Blood. Blood. 

I take quiet, deep breaths, as the thoughts of gore and blood slowly calm me down.

The last bell eventually rings. Once it does I pack up quickly, when I hear the teacher call my name. I grit my teeth. Why why why? I do NOT wanna be here any longer than I have to be. I squeeze the straps of my bag before throwing it over my back and walking up to the front desk. The teacher rubs his finger along his lips as he watches me walk up.

"What's going on? This is the first time I've seen you cause an incident like this. Something going on?" He asks.

"No, nothing sir. I'm just, uhm, not getting enough sleep. That's all, promise." I try to lie. He doesn't seem to buy it, but he also seems to figure I'm not gonna give him the truth he's wanting to hear.

"Alright. You're free to go." He halfheartedly makes a motion of dismissal and I bow before taking my leave. With a sigh of relief, I reach the classroom door and open it, revealing Sami waiting on the other side. She smiles bright, waving with a cute wiggle of her fingers. I gulp.

“Shall we get going?” She asks, taking my hand. The softness of her grasp is just as intoxicating as yesterday. I wanna squirm.

“Yeah, sure." I say before she begins leading me down the hall. "Uhm, how did the sketch go?" I ask. She shrugs her shoulders.

"I got it done during class. Thankfully the teachers just assumed I was being a dutiful notetaker. Another benefit of pencil and paper." She chuckles to herself.

"Makes sense. I'm sure they look way better than what I gave you." I laugh with a little self deprecation mixed in.

"Aww, they don't need to look great dummy, they're storyboards. Leave the final art stuff to me. I'll leave the story to you. So no feeling bad for either of us, got it?" She holds out her pinkie and I take it with my own.

“You two goin somewhere?” I freeze when I hear a very familiar voice behind me. Turning round, I recognize the red hair, blue eyes, and ripped physique. Yep, definitely the guy who beat my behind earlier. I gulp.

“Yes.” Sami responds, her voice empty of any emotion. The coldness almost sends me into fight or flight. Where the hell did this side of her come from?

“I thought I warned you about this little man. Don’t worry Sami, I’ll handle him for you.” The man grabs my shoulder and starts to pull me towards him. In response, Sami grabs his shirt and pulls him to eye level.

“You won’t be doing anything but going home, understand?” Her cold tone mixes with a growing malice. The boy seems caught of guard, but slowly regains his composure.

“Grg…you think…I’m gonna take orders from a girl? Sorry hun, you’re pretty, but I think you need to learn who’s the boss around-GACK!” I cringe as I watch her foot slam down on his.

“You’re on the school’s volleyball team, right? You’re one of the star players even.” She pushes down on his foot harder. “Now, I hope you know, the foot is one of the easiest parts of the body to fracture. Some people have even broken theirs from falling fruit.” Her gaze seems to keep him frozen solid. I wouldn’t be surprised if she suddenly tried pulling his soul out at any second.

“Y-you try anything and you’re dead-”

“What’s faster? My foot or your fist? Wanna find out?” The silence speaks for itself. I can see the boy clenching his fist, but the thought of him trying anything seems too brave, even for him. I can't lie, it's a little satisfying. I imagine her stamping down and the tears that would run down his face as all his dreams are torn from him...wait...what am I thinking? I shake my head.

“L-let me go.” He mumbles. She does. Once he's free, he steps back, staring her down like a lion, before shoving her to the side and stomping down the hall, leaving us alone.

“Jeez.” I whisper when I feel her hand tighten around mine.

“Pretty scary, huh?” Turning to me, I can see the sweat that has formed on her forehead.

“Y-yeah…thank you so much.” I bow deep, hoping it makes up for even a fraction of her fear.

“P-please, it was no big deal. Besides, I've decided after this morning that no one else will ever be allowed to hurt you. That's also a promise." She admits with a smile.

“Thank you. L-let’s get going then.” I say, blushing bright and turning to the school’s exit. She begins to lead us once more. As she does, new thoughts enter my brain.

What was I thinking just now? Wasn't that, like, really cruel?

Also, where did that scary coldness come from? She's a little scary isn't she?

...that's pretty hot, actually.

“H-hush you…” I whisper to myself.

…

Keisuke opens the door and lets us both inside. Sami stretches her arms before walking over to the table and sitting down, pulling out a binder. Inside, pages of my storyboard are separated by pages of her sketches, replicating the panels of the storyboard page above it.

"Just gotta add some more details to make it easier when I do the inking on the laptop." She says before getting to work, leaving me and Kei to stare aimlessly.

“No point trying to watch her work. She doesn’t like her stuff being seen before it’s done.” Keisuke comments before gently tugging my shirt. “S-so, would you mind looking at my work?”

“Hmm? Sure.” With my words bringing a smile to his face, Keisuke leads me to the table where we both sit, doing our best not to disturb Sami’s gentle drawing. Keisuke pulls up a stack of 60 or so pages and hands them to me.

“I-I hope you enjoy.” He says as I take them. The cover page is quite pretty. A picture of Time Change Infinite’s main character bloodied and holding a laser pistol adorns the page. My interest piqued, I begin to read. Inside is a retelling of some of the events of Volume 21, one of the most controversial volumes in the series. I admit, I was a big fan of it, but that’s mostly because I’m a sucker for acid trip nonsense. Instead, Keisuke rewrote probably the biggest issue scenes into a conversation and battle with the god of infinity. 

Even I have to admit, it’s a massive improvement. The ending being a perfect tie into the series going forward also makes for a good excuse for people to say “read this if you think this is bull” so honestly, I think Kei’s got all his bases covered.

“It’s really good. The convo between the two is really interesting use of callbacks and new concepts, and you have a strong grasp on raising tension. This entire conversation feels like it's seconds away from turning into a bloodbath. The whole battle after also had some great ideas. Like, using the lasers from the laser pistol to find which dimensional rifts to travel through. Honestly, my only issue is I’d like to see how you’d handle the rest of Volume 21. You could probably make a more tolerable version of the entire thing for fans.” I say, looking up from the papers.

"Yeah, I'd love to do that! But, I figured that would be a bit much with how long I had to work on it between the last convention I went to and this one coming Saturday.” Keisuke responds, rubbing his head.

"Right. How long did you have?" I ask.

"About...two weeks?" He says.

"Hmm. Well, for how good this looks, that's pretty impressive. Good work man." I say. He blushes madly, his cute face looking down.

"T-thanks Yuta." He says so sincerely.

"Erm, no problem." I respond, turning my attention to my phone. A few notifications about some new followers. How fun. "Ah, I should get to doing some writing. Don't wanna leave anyone hanging." I say.

"Yeah, don't leave me hanging." Sami insists.

"You're working on something right now, this convo ain't about you." I retort.

"Awww..." She pouts before returning her full attention to her work.

"What a handful." Kei whispers, making me chuckle.

"I'd say I'm the bigger handful."

"Erm, what's the opposite of opposites attract? Similars stimulate?" He asks.

"Ah, how lewd."I joke.

"Oh, I'm sorry." He apologizes.

"Oh no, I was...ah, whatever, it's no problem."

I turn my attention to my writing as Kei goes to grab a book. The whole room is enveloped in calmness.