C-C-Cold...
Sato...
This scene in your script.
I think you could have a little more shyness here.
What? You think so?
The way it is now,
I just get this feeling of a gung-ho jock type.
It doesn't relate well to the characters I created.
Hmm... Shy, huh?
I get it. I'll give it some thought.
Please.
Sato...
Yeah?
By hook or crook, we've gotten this far, haven't we?
I've got a clear view of how much we have left to do too.
Looks like we'll manage to finish in time for the winter Comic Stall.
Oh yeah? We'll finish in time?
Yeah, so long as nothing major comes up.
We... We will, huh?
All right! I'll jump into my last spurt too!
A telephone?
Hello.
Yeah...
Huh?
I understand how you feel,
but that's why I want you to come home to see your father for a short time.
I understand, I will.
Bye.
What's the matter, Yamazaki?
Something major came up.
What?
Yamazaki went home, huh?
The word is his father's in the hospital.
He said he's going to see how he's doing.
Huh...
I wonder if he'll come back?
Huh? Of course he will!
The game's not finished yet and he's got school too!
I guess so. You're right.
Well, see you tonight at the park.
Shy, huh?
Shy... shy...
Shy, huh?
Shy... shy...
Shy...
Ah, I've found a person in trouble~!
Super Suction 3000, we'll go save them just as quickly as possible~!
Yikes, Pururin! Don't treat me so recklessly!
Puru puru pururin, Pururin...
Puru puru pu...
It's so quiet.
That's why. Normally, that music is coming from Yamazaki's apartment.
Yamazaki
In a shy way...
Sato, lunch is here.
Well, see you tonight.
All right, I've got it set.
Do you want to look, Senpai?
What's the name of the star?
Umm, what was it...
Its name doesn't really matter, does it?
It's the mystique of it, the mystique.
That star's light is light from hundreds of thousands of years ago.
Hey...
Huh?
Our lives... What meaning can they possibly have?
When a human life vanishes in one ten-thousandth of the time it takes for that light to get here?
That's definitely true.
By the time the light leaving that star now gets to Earth,
nobody's gonna care about the script I wrote.
No, more likely, they probably won't remember me at all.
A person's life is no more than trash, I guess.
Let's give some thought to the meaning of being alive.
Huh?
A mound?
Things with shapes will break down at some point.
It comes down to something like this.
During the time I spend doing this, I'm lower than trash.
We're living within a span that's less than trash.
Yamazaki!
This is local stuff that my mother made me bring as gifts.
Please use it to supplement your diet.
Oh, thanks, that helps me out.
In any case, it's good that your father's sickness isn't anything serious.
It isn't good at all.
What?
Sato!
Sato, you're not much interested in other people, are you?
No, that's not true.
Then have you ever considered the reason why at this age I'm in my first year at a trade school?
I just thought I didn't want to be too nosy.
At first, since my family operates a ranch,
I entered the animal-husbandry program of a college near home.
It was the natural course for a son who'd take over the business.
That took precedence over whether I liked it or not.
I never gave any thought to having other options.
But at the end of my first year of college,
a bunch of my relatives were gathered in my house and drinking.
Among them was my aunt who sells insurance...
I'm home.
Insurance for Kaoru? Too soon for that, isn't it?
Sooner is better for this kind of thing.
You already know he's going to take over the ranch,
and I came up with an estimate, so have a look at it.
The plan for my life was written there.
Age 22, begin working on the family ranch upon graduating college.
At age 25, marry.
At age 27, first child born.
Age 29, second child born.
At age 34, first child enters elementary school.
At age 43, first child's high school entrance exams.
At age 46, first child's college entrance exams.
At age 50, first child graduates.
Retire at age 65.
Then...
Die at age 80.
In that estimate, it even listed the amount of insurance benefits my widow would receive.
A chill ran through me. I hadn't even turned twenty yet!
But they had taken the liberty of deciding someone's whole life!
Do you think you're God or something?! Do you?! Give me a break!
I shouted something like that in defiance and decided to come to Tokyo.
Of course, my parents were vehemently opposed to it.
So, for the next year I worked like a dog and saved money and then came here.
So, that's how it was.
So, do you get an allowance?
How could I possibly? Didn't you know I was working?
But that life is finished now.
They said that even if my father is discharged,
there's no way he can keep doing the ranch work, since he wasn't the robust type in the first place.
So, you're going to...
I've ended up having to follow the track that someone else laid for me.
They gave me until the winter Comic Stall.
If our game gets a good reputation there, I might be able to keep doing game design.
It's the last chance.
Right!
From now until the winter Stall, I'm putting you under my watch 24/7.
Eh?
Taking your meals, taking your naps...
I'm going to have you do everything in my apartment!
That's all right, isn't it?
What?!
Y-Yes...
No, that's wrong! Not like this!
This kind of thing isn't shy at all!
Saying that doesn't get me anywhere!
Try imagining what you'd say if you were actually asking a girl out!
It'd be more shy!
I don't know!
Nothing better than this is coming to me, so what am I supposed to do?!
Let's do a little moodchanger.
Thank you for you patronage!
Wow! A grand feast, huh?
It's good food and good sake for the sake of a good creation.
Here! Drink it down!
All right! Down the hatch!
I'm tellin' ya, the mos' important thing is the shy! The shyness!
I get it, I get it!
I get it, so I'm gonn' take a leak.
Naw, you donn' get nothin', Sato!
The proof of that is...
Sato, thass the front door!
Wha...
Yamazaki! It's snow! It's snowing!
What?
Ooh, it's true!
We can't stay in here, Sato!
What?
Snow means...
Drinking while snow-watching!
Oh, I get it!
This is elegant, isn't it?
It is elegant.
I'm getting a little cold though. Maybe my buzz is wearing off.
You say you're cold?
I've got it! Just wait a sec please!
What?
See, that's warm, huh?
Yamazaki, are these...
Yup, they're my school textbooks.
I don't need them anymore, you know.
So, textbooks do burn well after all. Just like trash!
Oh, yeah! Sato, I'll show you something even more interesting.
Something interesting?
I'm going to invite Nanako to my room full of gal-game stuff!
Whoa!
You're a brave man, Yamazaki!
I'm positive that when she sees the sickening state of that room,
her reaction will be entertaining!
Hey, it's me...
I have something important to talk about. Could you come over right away?
Yeah, to my place, the address is...
Oh, you know it?
That's right, Mita House.
Well, I'll be waiting for you.
Heh...
I called her out.
Bravo!
Huh?
But just now, you weren't the least bit shy.
Huh?
Well then, that means that script is okay!
All right!
Mita House...
Are you all set, Sato?
Be sure you get her reaction on film. We may be able to use it for the game.
Right!
She's here. Hide!
I've been waiting for you, Nanako.
Well, come on in.
Right, come on over here.
Huh?
Uh, Kaoru, is your father's illness okay?
How did you know about that?
I didn't see you at school for two or three days and I was worried,
so I asked people who knew you and teachers.
You did that?
No, my father is fine. No need to worry.
Really! That's good, huh?
On the phone, you said you had something important to talk about,
so I figured that...
Putting that aside, I have something even more important to talk about.
Huh?
More important?
That's right.
Nanako, you've probably at least heard rumors about this.
The truth is, I...
Gal games! Figures! Doujinshi!
I can't live without getting every bishoujo-related thing!
The guy they call Yamazaki is a "super otaku"!
Oh! He really said it, that dog!
That's not all, Nanako.
I'm currently in the middle of making this kind of obscene game
with a character modeled after you!
You're gonna give that much away, Yamazaki?!
So, how on Earth is she going to react?
Dummy...
Huh?
Well you know, I honestly do think those sex games and stuff are icky.
But the fact that you're going after it so seriously is, how to put it...
I think it's manly, or somehow...
In the end, that's the kind of thing I like about you, Yamazaki.
The way this is going, I wonder if...
Yamazaki, do what you want.
...it'll turn into adult entertainment?!
Nanako...
Yamazaki...
Is your head okay?
Huh?
Or are you actually secretly obsessed with gal games or something?
No, I know!
You secretly desire to have your entire body felt up by a monster's tentacles like in this picture, right?
I hope you die, you icky otaku jerk!
You guys just disappear from the face of the Earth!
Hey! Are you okay, Yamazaki?
I'm okay.
More importantly, did you get good footage of that?
It was amazing entertainment, huh?
It's not often you get to see a scene where a young girl sends a guy flying with a fist.
Are you all right with that? That girl seriously...
And what if she does?
A month from now, I'll be working on the family ranch.
At this late date, what can I do?
If I'm gonna split with her anyway, then sooner is better, isn't it?
But even so, the way you broke up with her was...
It was the best way ever to break up with someone, wasn't it?
It was an incomparably dramatic way to break something off, huh?
I forgot one thing though.
When you get hit in the wintertime, the wound sure does sting.
I'll get you some medicine for that.
I was wondering what we're going to do about tonight's counseling?
I forgot to ask during the daytime.
Why not go ahead and get your counseling?
If I don't straighten up this room a bit, we can't work anyway.
Don't have any reservations about going.
I understand.
Sato!
Our game... Let's absolutely finish it, okay?
Of course.
Episode 20
Welcome to Winter Days!
Goodbye, Nanako.
What are you saying? These are keepers!
A New Year's shrine visit.
Do you think there's a God?
Next episode, "Welcome to Reset!"
Next Episode
Welcome to Reset!