Translated: Sei, MTL-sensei-tachi
Edited: Sei, Grammarly no Danna

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Chapter 1 | Pursuing a Dream | Remake our Life!


Part 6

"Um, I'm very... sorry about that."

    First, we both got dirty with dust and stuff, so we decided to go to a hamburger shop nearby to clean up.

"I don't mind. I'm pretty sure I've done some confusing things."

    This was the first time I met Kawasegawa. She told me that she was an employee of a software development company in Tokyo, and that she was on her way home from a meeting in Shinjuku when she saw a car passing by.

    I was just passing by, and a misunderstanding and a dive occurred.

    The reason why she tried to take off her shoes in the mid way was apparently because "a pebble entered the shoe", which was too embarrassing to be true.

"Is your clothes okay? If it's torn, um."

    I was about to say, "I'll pay for it," when I stammered.

    I'm looking for a job right now, so I don't have a lot of money, and I'm borrowing money from my friend Hayakawa to pay for my daily transportation and food. I'm not an expert on the market price of women's suits, but I'm sure it's not something that can be done for 2-3 thousand yen.

    Under these circumstances, tens of thousands of yen is worth dying for. I asked her fearfully,

"It looks fine. Thanks to you for taking it underneath."

"T-That's good to hear."

    I am really glad. That's really good to hear.

"If anything happens to you later, please contact me here. I'll reimburse you."

    So I said and handed her a note with my parents' phone number. Worst case scenario, I'll just apologize to my parents and make it up...

"Yes. Well, I think it's fine, but... I'll keep it."

    As I was relieved, Kawasegawa-san was sipping a Cola through a straw.

"Hey, can I ask you something?"

    She called out.

    I wonder what she will ask me. She said she wasn't angry earlier, but what if she is asked a lot of hard questions and then goes to the police?

    Or, if this person is actually a lawyer or something and is trying to sue me for this or that. It could end up costing me everything, not to mention my job search.

"U-Um... Please don't sue me."

    I preemptively said that, and Kawasegawa-san gave me a dubious look.

"What's the sue? I just wanted to ask you why you saved me?"

    …… Thank God, it didn't seem like that kind of talk anyway.

"Because I just can't leave it like that, can I"

    Of course, I couldn't stay on the sidelines when people might be about to die.

"And because I was there, I thought that was the case..."

    I don't mean to speak of fate, but I believe that there is something mysterious power about place and timing. It's called a chance meeting.

"Hmm..."

    Kawasegawa-san seemed to be listening intently to my story.

"Then one more thing. I'd like to ask you about me earlier."

"You mean that Kawasegawa-san from earlier?"

    She nodded her head,

"Do I look like... want to die?"

"Eh……"

    I was a little confused when she told me.

    I was a little far away, and I couldn't see her face clearly. It was more like a busy street and a pedestrian bridge, a single woman, and the fact that she was about to take off her shoes made me try to stop her.

    But I had seen a little bit.

"There was a slight feeling of loneliness. Maybe that was part of the reason."

    Her eyes were very cold as she looked into the distance, and I couldn't feel any kind of enthusiasm in them.

    It wasn't because she was looking at the hustle and bustle of the city, but simply because she seemed bored or uninterested in anything.

    Putting all of these impressions together, I got the impression that she "looked lonely".

"Looked lonely... I see"

    Kawasegawa-san seemed to be convinced by my words.

"I'm sorry. I said something rude."

"Yes, that's rude. You've just met someone and immediately said she was lonely."

"I-I am sorry!"

    As I thought, isn’t this person the type of person who would bring up the subject to invent a pretext for a quarrel?

"You, how old are you?"

"It's 28"

"He~e... We're the same age. Then you don't have to speak to me in honorific."

    ......Even if you say that all of a sudden.

    When I looked at her again, I realized that she was very beautiful. She didn't give off a harsh impression, but she was also somewhat cute, which was a very desirable trait.

    It seemed that it would take a lot of time and experience to try to talk to her in a friendly manner. If we had been classmates in college or something, I could still understand.

    Kawasegawa-san seemed to be thinking about something as she continued to stare at me.

    Eventually, she nodded her head, as if convinced of something,

"Are you interested in video games?"

    I was suddenly asked a question.

"Eh, ah, yes. I play a lot."

    I didn't mention that I was on the edge of that industry for the time being.

"I work in that industry."

"Eh, i-is that so?"

    I almost shouted out loud.

    I had no idea that the people I met by chance were in the same industry. Even though we were in software development, I never thought that we would be in the same field.

    I started wondering where she was from, and what software she was involved with,

"I'm working on a project right now. Can I talk about that?"

    She began to tell me a more in-depth story.

"Are you sure you want to tell a complete stranger about that?"

"I won't mention any specific names, so don't worry. So, I've been having some trouble."

    Kawasegawa...-san finished the rest of her Cola in one gulp and chewed the ice.

"You know what wall tennis is? That's it"

"Haa...?"

"What I'm struggling with, I'm going to babble on and I want you to listen to me. It's not that I want an answer or anything. I just want you to listen."

    Oh, I see. It's true, I know that just telling people makes me feel better.

"All right. Then I'll accompany you and become the wall."

"Yeah, take care of me."

    Kawasegawa-san's complaints were like this.

    Currently, she has a project that she is working on in her company, and she is stuck in a situation where she has several tasks that need to be done at the same time.

"It's a project that requires a lot of quality checks, so if I don't handle it, it can quickly become a bottleneck*. But I don't have the time or the manpower." (*Note: Something that hinders the progress of things)

    The work that had to be done at the same time was the creation of the character illustrations. It seemed extremely difficult considering that she had to take care of the communication with the artist and even adjust the tone.

    But at the same time, it is a lot of work just to contact them to make a request. In recent years, many companies have been prosecuted for mishandling communication, so you can never leave it to an assistant.

    Therefore, the situation where everything was on her was hard, she said.

"Yes, I'm done hitting the wall. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bother you with my nonsense."

    Kawasegawa-san said and sighed.

    As I expected... Or rather, it was almost completely the same as the work I was doing. The only difference was the scale of the project, which was large or small, and the concerns were the same.

    I folded my arms and began to think as I listened to her.

"What's wrong? Is there a story that caught you?"

"Ah, no... that"

    I was about to open my mouth, but paused for a moment.

    I wondered if it would really help her if I said what I thought now. There's nothing like unnecessary advice to get in the way. In addition, this time, she was talking to me on the premise of "wall hitting".

    But it was clear that something was bugging me. If only this would give her a hint of what to expect by taking a step forward.

    (We originally met through a series of coincidences... right)

    Yeah, if I am going to talk about discretion, the incident on the pedestrian bridge should have been an unnecessary one in the first place.

"Um, if the wall talks, is... is it a bit excessive?"

"Eh?"

"About that talk, maybe... I thought I might be able to help you."

    I took a sip of the oolong tea in my hand and took a breath.

"Can I take the racket and hit it back...?"

    I was sure she would look at me suspiciously. That's what I was thinking, but,

"... Okay, let me hear it."

    Surprisingly, she faced my proposal with a serious expression.

"Thank you, then."

    I took out a notebook and pen from my bag, tore out a page, and braced myself.

"I have a few questions. Can you answer me?"

    She nodded silently.

"Are the illustrations you want modern? Or is it fantasy-type?"

"Etto... it's a fantasy type"

"Next. Is it real or deformation?"

"Deformation, I guess "

"The body proportions? Who is in charge of the main character design? Do they have a chemo component?"

    Although Kawasegawa-san showed some confusion, but she answered my questions accurately. I wrote down her answers on a piece of paper.

    One or two things reminded me of my old job. Due to the uselessness of the president, I had been able to contact a lot of people in various fields, and as a result, I had been able to make a lot of contacts.

    I look at the contacts on my phone, look at the activity on Twitter, and combine this person with this and that person with that.

    Once all of that is outlined,

"...It can"

"It can, what?"

    I spread the paper and showed it to Kawasegawa-san.

"With that number of characters, the quality required, the deadline, and the fee, you should be able to handle a certain amount of work with this combination."

    On paper, I had a complete list of potential illustrators for the 50 characters I was told that she would need.

"I've narrowed down the list by genre, by animal specialty, by weaponry, and by gender. All of the people listed here are trustworthy, including their personalities. Please refer to them if you wish."

    Kawasegawa-san began to look at the table, her eyes changing color.

"What do you mean...? I couldn't have found such a well-balanced candidate if I had asked an agency."

"If you ask a contractor to do it, they are going to be biased, because they are going to focus only on the ease of management, and the quality will be poor, and vice versa."

    The fact that I learned so much about illustrator was the result of all the antennas I had to use while doing help work and asking for guest illustrations.

"And this is the most important thing."

    Show a part on the table and draw a circle with my finger.

"The person listed at the top of each group can also manage the other illustrators."

"Can they do that too...?"

"Yes. Of course, there will be a cost for that, but it allows you to take much more careful care than an intermediary."

    Of course, if you want to be completely systematic, it would be better to partner with an established system like a vendor.

    However, we are dealing with human beings, and there are cases where systems and rules alone are not enough to convince people. In such cases, a group that is made up of individuals in solidarity is very helpful. I was also very grateful for the support I received at my last job.

    In addition to that, I talked about what to do if the whole group were to lose contact with each other, who to get to know and who to consult.

    It was starting to sound a bit like a personnel agency, but I gave her an explanation for the time being.

"That's all. I'm sorry about that. I don't know if this will help you."

    I said, and bowed my head.

    Kawasegawa-san looked at the list on the paper again, and then at my face.

"... You're in the same business."

"No way. I'm nothing compared to the scale of what you're doing."

    I spoke briefly about my previous employment and the fact that I was now looking for a new job.

"But why? How did you manage to keep going when the environment was so harsh?"

    Yes, that's the question that usually comes up. It doesn't pay well, and it doesn't lead to any achievements. So why did I continue?

"Because...  I like it. I've always liked games and entertainment."

    That was the one word that came to mind. If I hadn't, I would have quit a long time ago. I wanted to make things, I wanted to create things, so I put my head down and did my best to devise things.

"...Because you like it, huh?"

    Kawasegawa-san seemed to be thinking about something as she repeated my words.

    I thought she would laugh at me, because a person like her, who seems to be good at her job, would not understand someone like me, who is driven by personal feelings.

    But she seemed to take it seriously.

    With nothing in particular to add after that, she eventually picked up the piece of paper I'd just given her.

"I never thought I'd get a clue from this kind of place."

    With that, Kawasegawa-san stood up.

"I didn't think I'd be able to help you either."

    I left my seat and walked out of the restaurant, leaving my tray behind. It was getting late and the surrounding restaurants were starting to close.

    I was just about to turn away when I called out, "Well, then",

"Thank you, Hashiba... Kyouya-san"

    She said, and bowed nicely.

"Didn't you say to stop using honorifics?"

"That's only after you stop."

    Kawasegawa-san giggled a little.