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

Support us on Ko-Fi to make this translation and the translators keep alive. Thank you

Chapter 1 | I've Been Plotting | Remake our Life!

Part 3

    As soon as I woke up, I went not to Building 9, where my classes were held, but to the building on the left as soon as I entered the campus. It was the tallest and largest building on campus, and it had a powerful presence.

    "As expected, the main department..."

    I looked for a plate that said "Department of Art" and entered through that entrance.

    Not only at Daigeidai, but also at other art and design colleges and universities, art and design departments are the most popular. In recent years, video-related products have also become more prominent, but the image that the mainstream is here is still inevitable.

    Even on campus, the Department of Art and the Department of Design have a special feeling. Even just passing through the corridors crammed with canvases and easels, there is an air of isolation, as if outsiders are being told to leave... I think.

    Honestly, in a place where I wanted to leave immediately, I had only one reason for coming. I pull a note out of my pocket.

    "Saikawa Minori... 1st-year student in the Department of Fine Arts"

    The day I "accidentally" bumped into her. The student ID card I saw for a moment said that she was in the art department.

    In the future, she loved the pictures drawn by Shinoaki and wanted to become an illustrator. She is the one who, by a twist of fate, made Shinoaki, who had once quit drawing, decide to do it again.

    I was convinced that Saikawa Minori was the one who would give Shinoaki a trigger.

Of course, I had no proof and no guarantee that it would work. But I believed that my mysterious time travel must have a meaning, and that the encounter in the future and the reunion in the past definitely indicated something.

    So I tried to meet her and talk to her anyway. However, it was quite suspicious for a senior student from another department, the Department of Visual Arts, with whom I had almost no connection, to be looking around for a freshman girl.

    So I brought an item with me as an excuse at least.

    It was a flyer from the art research club I belong to, recruiting members for 2007.

    New club members are welcome, especially students in the art department! Especially girls! No boys! and so on. The words of a certain pres, who has a biased affection for the club, burst out, and although it doesn't serve as a flyer for recruiting club members, it will serve as a reason to say, "I've come to hand this out".

    "...Well, it's better than nothing, I guess."

    If I could successfully talk to Saikawa Minori, I was going to recruit her to the circle. That way, the opportunities to interact with Shinoaki would naturally increase. I thought that would be the quickest way to get to know her without having to create an impossible situation.

    "In case of emergency, sacrifice the pres and escape."

    I'm sure I've contributed enough to him to be able to take on that level of guilt.

    I walked around the building. In the Department of Visual Arts, each floor has a different training room, with the lower floors containing editing rooms and reference rooms, and the upper floors containing CG and animation rooms. On the other hand, the art department had a number of large practice rooms where all the students were doing sketches, and it was truly a different world.

    "It's a waste of time to search in the dark from here... Oh."

    Some of the students were just coming out of the hallway, apparently having finished their practical classes. I decided to approach them and listen to their conversation.

    "Excuse me, do you have a minute?"

    "Yes?"

    She was a girl with her hair in braids and a large apron. From the vibe I got from her, I'd say she was same year or underclassman, but there are a lot of people whose age is unknown at this university, so I had to check first.

    "I'm looking for a first-year, excuse me, what year are you?"

    "Ah, yes... I'm a first-year, what can I do for you?"

    Good, she was exactly as she looked, a freshman.

    But the expression on her face clearly showed that she was wary of me. I have to tell her the reason first.

    "I'm in a circle called the Art Research Club, and I talked to her before, and she got a little interested, so I thought I'd talk to her about it. Do you know someone named Saikawa Minori?"

    I showed her the flyer I had brought (while hiding the text) and talked to her.

    "Oh, I think Saikawa-san is doing her assignment in the private room right now."

    "Private room?"

    "There's a small studio on the upper floor that can be used individually. When it's in use, there's a name tag on it so you can recognize it."

    That's good to know, that shouldn't be too hard to find.

    "Yes, thank you"

    I thanked her and headed up the stairs to the upper floor. As the girl had said, this floor was not a large classroom, but a collection of small rooms.

    "Name tag... Ah, is this?"

    There was a small whiteboard on the door with the names of the students written on it. As I walked down the hallway, I checked the names one by one.

    The smell of oil paint fills the air, and the violence of color comes at me from all directions. Like the girl earlier, there were so many students wearing big aprons and pongee. I had the impression that there were not many students who wore flamboyant clothes, probably because they would get dirty with the art materials.

    "He~e, this is what a classroom looks like."

    Come to think of it, even though I've been involved in painting for a long time, I have very little specialized knowledge about it. If I know too much, I might lose my general perspective, but I thought it would be good to learn at least the bare minimum.

    "Someday, I'll ask Shinoaki abo―― "

    I was just about to mumble when I arrived in front of a small studio with the door slightly open.

    "It's here...... "

    On the name tag, it was written Saikawa Minori. I took a deep breath, inhaled the unique air emitted by the paint solution, and peered into the door.

    There was a large window at the back of the room. It was half open, as if the air was being replaced, and hot air was flowing through it.

    In a small room of about three tatami mats, there was a large easel with a number on it... I wonder if it counts as, there was a very large canvas hanging on the wall.

    And she was sitting in front of it.

    "I found her"

    Saikawa Minori was facing the white space in front of her with a serious expression.

    Although she was sitting, she was half floating on her haunches, silently moving her hands, or rather her entire arm, firmly.

    Shu~ Shu~, the paintbrush is moving with a regular sound, and each time it moves, the thickness of the canvas increases. Red, blue, purple. Strong colors that I would never have been able to use in arts and crafts class quickly took hold, creating a world of their own.

    I knew something similar to this scene. It was the room of another person in the shared house I had been assigned to live in soon after arriving at the university.

    The sound of the tablet pen that she was using and the sound of the paintbrush that she was using in front of me had a certain solemnity in common.

    "It's amazing"

    The words slipped out of my mouth.

    "Eh?"

    She turned to me.

    It must have been a very low voice, but she seemed to have noticed it.

    Her long black hair flowed silently, catching the breeze from outside. Her eyebrows are firm, giving a sense of strength of will, and her eyes and nose are clear.

    Saikawa Minori was still as cute as she was ten years ago. However, she also seemed to have a bit of a wildness about her, with her somewhat sloppy clothes and glasses.

    The apron she was wearing was already covered with paint marks, as if she had been a brave warrior, even though she had only just enrolled in school. It seems that her love for painting has not changed at all.

    Oops, right, I should greet her.

    "Sorry to come in so suddenly, I am Hashiba, and a second-year student in the Department of Visual Arts ―― "

    I pulled out a flyer and was about to tell her about the Circle,

    "W-Wait a minute, you're the second-year film student?"

    Suddenly she asked me back.

    "Yes, that's right, but that's..."

    As I watched, her expression turned to anger.

    "... Are you a friend of that man?"

    "Eh?"

    "I told him not to come anymore! I can't believe that he is even using his friend to get close to me, t-that's cowardly!"

    She said this and started throwing stuffed animals and boxes that were nearby at me.

    "Please leave!!"

    "Uwaa, wait, stop...!"

    "I won't stop! I-I'm not going to lose...!"

    I kept getting attacked on my face and chest. I don't know where they come from, but they kept coming, and then they stopped.

    "Ha~a, Ha~a, Ha~a...!"

    Saikawa is breathing hard and staring straight at me. I don't know what happened to her, but now that it's happened, I think I'd better leave for now.

    "I'm sorry to barge in suddenly. But I didn't come here at the behest of anyone."

    "Eh.......?"

    Her expression changed slightly.

    I looked at her with a serious look on my face and kept going,

    "I really needed you for something, so I came to see you. But it looks like it was too sudden."

    I approached her and handed her a flyer inviting her to join the Art Research Club.

    "If you feel like listening to me later, you can come up here. I'm leaving for the day."

    "Eh... um, um"

    Perhaps feeling a little surprised by my reaction, Saikawa looked at me with a complicated expression.

    I said to her, "Well then," and walked away from the studio.

    (The first meeting was... terrible)
 

    It made such a bad impression on me that I couldn't help but chuckle. For the time being, I gave her a flyer and told her part of the purpose of my visit, but it was unlikely that she would contact me again.

    However.

    Since she might have some kind of influence on us in the future ―― especially Shinoaki, I have no choice but to think of some way to get involved again. Even though she seems to be on guard.

    "I'm not giving up. Just like this."

    As I walked down the stairs, I kept thinking about what my next approach should be.

***

You can read the latest chapter early on Patreon.